Gurren Lagann color theory

Mecha stylized design

Disclaimer

Hello reader, For copyright reasons I won’t be able to use original images or references during my article. To overcome this problem, I prepared some posts on Reddit that I will link during the different paragraphs so you can click and read the specifics.

What’s Gurren Lagann?

For all the readers that maybe didn’t watch this show, here’s a little summary of the main plot. This masterpiece is a mecha anime that follows the story of humanity and their battle for freedom. The story focuses on hope and determination, and we’re here to analyze the hidden meaning of his colors.

BIG DISCLAIMER: there will be spoilers ahead, so if you didn’t watch/read the show, be aware.

Simple and useful character design

The creator of the anime Gurren Lagann needed characters to be easy to animate. This decision deeply affected the design of the protagonists. For this reason the design had to be not very complex but easy to recognize. The result of this necessity created three of the most iconic characters tha can jump on mind: Simon, Kamina, and Yoko. Each one of them has a special cloth or gadget that makes it easy to determine the character, even when drawn little or distant. Take for example Kamina, his long katana (which became famous for memes), the red cape, and the iconic glasses. Each piece of clothing is then used to represent a specific characteristic of the character personalities. Here is a more precise analysis:

Kamina a free spirit

Kamina is one of the most iconic characters in the series. He became a symbol of hope and inspiration for a lot of people around the world. The famous quote “Believe in me that I believe in you” was one of the most inspirational quotes that suited Kamina’s personality perfectly.

A long katana and red cape create the image of a powerful character, ready to fight with honor and strength. The cape represents the connection with the father and the legacy of Kamina’s dream. Even the iconic glasses support the idea of a character with ideas out of the box. The importance of these glasses then continues the legacy with the mecha that uses them to create attacks.

Although these objects are used to make his silhouette recognizable with ease, the colors are important too. The blue hair often represents a deep mind, but in this case I will personally say that it connects Kamina with the blue of the sky and stars that he aims for. Then we have the red cape, even though it carries the symbol of the Tengen Toppa. The color red can be interpreted with a lot of different meanings. The first one, the fire, is a symbol of the Tengen Toppa. The second one can represent the blood of the ancestor who fought to create a path to the star. As usual, the color can just be a hypothesis because each one of us feels color in a different way.

Simon: continuous growth

Simon is a difficult character to analyze because it continues to change its design during the series. We start from a little digger, Simon, who is the opposite representation of Kamina. It is little and skinny. His only goals are connected to digging underground as deep as possible; for this reason, in the first episode, he is represented covered in dust. The colors of his design are fused with the brown rock and earth.

When he wants to disappear and reconnect with drilling, he puts his glasses on. This little detail changes the way we see Simon, leading the audience to understand the mood in which Simon is at the moment.

After the first episode we encounter the first epiphany of Simon’s outfit. The colors became brighter because he discovered the surface, and the influence of Kamina is deeply reflected on his clothes. The main colors are red and blue, a clear connection with Kamina, mixed with a more childish style.

In the future arc, the outfit outgrows Kamina’s influence, becoming a more adult and complex composition, a sign that Simon has grown and become an adult himself. In the end we reach the top during the final battle, where Simon reconnects with Kamina’s style by adding glasses, but at the same time the connection with space is deeper; for this reason the glasses take a star shape. To conclude, the design of Simon became a natural evolution of Kamina’s outfit to represent how Simon has matured and outgrown Kamina’s figure.

Yoko: a fighting spirit with a golden heart

Yoko is the perfect example of the functionality behind the design of the cast. Her design is based on the use of simple clothes to represent the character. The fire bikini, red hair, and a big sniper rifle. This simple design was created to easily detect Yoko even if put in the background.

The creator put attention into the clothing, as it is used to represent the mood of Yoko. The red hair mixed with the fiery clothing is used to represent her determination. At the same time, the rifle helps to understand that Yoko is a fighter and precise. At the same time, when Yoko is shy, she hides her face in the scarf, making each piece of cloth useful.

As the story progresses, the design is transformed on two occasions. The first time is the teacher outfit; the pink jump represents a calmer spirit, even though the pink resembles the old red fiery spirit. The new design hides the body and transforms the tenacious fighter into a chill and lovely teacher. With this drastic change, it is represented how Yoko has stopped fighting. For this reason, the first thing she does when fighting a monster is change her clothes for easier movements.

In the galaxy arc she changes her clothes a last time. In this last outfit we can see a new transformation. As Simon, the outfit resembles Kamina with star decoration, as if she and Simon are transporting Kamina’s spirit in to the star.

Duality in color of Gurren Lagann

Often throughout the series we encounter duality in the color used. A great example is the dominant color of the main character. Kamina is mainly red with Yoko, while Simon wears mainly blue. The colors, as we already said, are not casual, because red symbolizes the fire of the spirit. At the same time, the calmer mood of blue. The high contrast is used to more easily balance and recognize the trio.

Another example of duality of color is the final battle. During the final battle the Anti-spiral mecha is the exact opposite color of the ultimate Gurren Lagann. The flames of humanity are green; instead, the enemy has purple fire. Another layer of hidden meaning is the purple, often used to represent royalty. In the philosophical view, the anti-spirals are royals. An elite who want to stop the creation of others. Here is the link where I show references on Reddit for copyright reasons.

References in Gurren Lagann

The creator of Gurren Lagann planted different references during the series, and this style is not a coincidence. All the story follows the stereotype of the hero’s travels. The mecha (Enki) is a reference to the Gilgamesh story. All the references are not a coincidence and increase the storytelling. Here’s the link to some references that, for copyright reasons, I can show you here:

A great philosophy

To deeply understand the story, we need to mention the philosophy behind the show:

Belive in me that I belive in you

This is maybe one of the most important quotes from the series. This simple quote becomes the mantra during the series. At first we all think that Kamina is trying to encourage Simon. In reality we’ll learn that one time Kamina and Simon got stuck underground; only Simon had the strength to help them escape. In the end we can see that Kamina inspires Simon, who inspires Kamina. This deep connection is then underlined during Kamina’s death, where Simon needs to change. In this arc we can see how Simon develops and matures, becoming a new version of himself and Kamina. We can see that especially during the end of the story, where Simon’s style resembles Kamina’s as we said before.

Human capability

One of the main symbols of the story is the drill. A symbol that connects the entire story and represents how the spirit of a human can surpass any limits. The drill resembles the double helix of DNA, representing the deep connection with the power of evolution: the spiral energy.

Spiral energy colors

We now need to delve into the spiral energy. First of all, this is the power that moves humanity and all the species through evolution. In the series, it is often represented as the invisible force that led to the evolution of life. The fandom wiki speculates that colors of the spiral energy are not casual. We can see during the final battles that spiral energy is represented with a full spectrum of colors. The idea then suggests that colors access different emotion, of status depending on the color. The base color is green, often associated with willpower and hope of living beings. The we have read that is possible to represent despair, fear or even to represent dominance.The last color is purple probably used from more royal or powerful species like antispiral.

In the end there are a lot more aspects I can talk about, but the article is becoming too long to be contained, so I’ll leave some more articles and videos in the sources to continue if tyou’re interested.

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