Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann/Characters/Antagonists

This page is for the Antagonists in Gurren Lagann. For the Main and secondary characters, go to the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Go to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann for the Mecha used in this series.

Thymilph the Raging Wave
"Voiced by: Kiyoyuki Yanada (JP), Paul St Peter (EN)"

The first General Team Dai-Gurren faces. Thymilph is a ferocious and none to bright ape man. While you'd expect him to be curb stomped rather easily, he ends up being the one to He's the most respectable of the generals, but also the deadliest. Oh, and he's sleeping with Adiane.


 * A Father to His Men: Was genuinely worried when Viral was sent flying.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: More powerful than grunts and Viral, he's the best at his introduction.
 * Badass: Anyone who could has got to be one.
 * Blade on a Stick: His Gunmen's weapon.
 * The Brute: Strong, big and a devil in a fight.
 * Covert Pervert: Watch carefully in Episode 7 as Thymilph looks through six cameras. The very last one has an extreme closeup of Kiyoh's breasts. That damn dirty ape!
 * Drop the Hammer: His personal side arm.
 * Fat Bastard: A glutton with a mean streak as big as his battleship.
 * Emerging From the Shadows: His formal introduction.
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Not for Kamina, it isn't.
 * Knight of Cerebus:
 * Large and In Charge: The largest physically, and implied to the leader and strongest of the Four Generals.
 * Meaningful Name: Thymilph is mix of thymine and sylph. Despite his girth he is very nimble and his Byakko can fly (though he isn't wind-themed, being the general of fire).
 * Playing with Fire: The General of Fire.
 * Shout-Out: "YOU DAMN DIRTY HUMANS!!!"
 * Wake Up Call Boss:
 * Large and In Charge: The largest physically, and implied to the leader and strongest of the Four Generals.
 * Meaningful Name: Thymilph is mix of thymine and sylph. Despite his girth he is very nimble and his Byakko can fly (though he isn't wind-themed, being the general of fire).
 * Playing with Fire: The General of Fire.
 * Shout-Out: "YOU DAMN DIRTY HUMANS!!!"
 * Wake Up Call Boss:

Adiane the Elegant
"Voiced by: Michiko Neya (JP), Megan Hollingshead (EN)"

The psychotic female member of the four generals. Adiane is a scorpion-tailed temptress who tries avenging  death.Viral has a secret crush on her, but she's such a violent monster, she doesn't return the feelings. She pilots Sayrune, a vile Gunmen that transforms into a scorpion, and uses an aquatic centipede flagship named the Dai-Gunkai. Unlike her fellow generals, she has the ability to make water appear out of thin air- and tons of it at that.


 * Armor-Piercing Slap: Viciously bitch-slaps Viral's face into a bloody pulp with her scorpion tail because she's damned angry he couldn't protect.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Beats down the entire brigade, on land!
 * And effortlessly block all of Yoko's shots in the first movie.
 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Adiane angrily declares she was sleeping with him to manipulate him.
 * Axe Crazy: Kills people for shits and giggles.
 * Beware My Stinger Tail
 * Blood Knight: Like other beastmen, she loves fighting.
 * Cat Fight: With Yoko in the first movie.
 * Evil Feels Good: She's REALLY pissed off that  and decides to throw all sympathy to the wind after learning the news.
 * Dark Action Girl
 * Dark Chick: The most unstable of the four, she prefers to run into combat by herself, leaving her ship behind.
 * Eyepatch of Power
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Adiane sounded like an evil Talho in the Japanese version. Or, like Villetta. And in the English version, she's Mai.
 * Rangiku maybe? Shizune?
 * Hot Girls Are Bitches: AND HOLY HELL HOW.
 * Hyperspace Arsenal: She can conjure up water inexplicably- in outrageous amounts to boot- whenever she wants.
 * Jerkass: Not to the extremes of Cytomander, though.
 * Lady of War
 * Making a Splash: The General of Water.
 * Meaningful Name: Adiane is adenine and undine. Any guess why she shared a bond with Thymilph?
 * Mismatched Eyes: The reason she wears an eyepatch. Her left eye is gold, while her right eye is red. She switches the patch around every now and then depending on whether she wants to look seductive or menacing.
 * Psycho for Hire
 * Scary Scorpions
 * Vagina Dentata: Her Gunmen. It looks like a woman's torso as well.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Guame the Immovable
"Voiced by: Kiyoshi Kawakubo (JP), Doug Stone (EN)"

Guame is the eldest of the four generals and the only one that can. The closest to the Spiral King, Guame doesn't worship him like the other beastmen, and in fact was willing to disobey the man. Part alligator and part armadillo.


 * Anti-Villain: He was in on Lord Genome's agenda.
 * Badass Grandpa: In a manner of speaking. He's about as old as Lordgenome, and thinks 200 years is still young.
 * The Battle Didn't Count: Manages to survive a Giga Drill Break(er) in his first direct battle with Simon.
 * Blind Idiot Translation: The subtitles refer to him as "Guame the Immobile".
 * Cool Old Guy
 * The Dragon: To Lordgenome.
 * Dishing Out Dirt: The General of Earth.
 * Dirty Old Man: A highly disturbing one at the too. His actions with Nia are especially telling. He even slobbers when he laughs.
 * Evil Counterpart: Of.
 * Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: The man smokes a rather ornate pipe, guess what? He's morally ambiguous!
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Psycho Mantis? What the hell are you doing here?
 * Not to mention Kawazu!
 * Meaningful Name: Guame is guanine and gnome.
 * Nigh Invulnerable: His battleship
 * Non-Action Guy: He doesn't have Viral's skill in a fight, Thymilph's strength, Adiane's balls-out craziness, or Cytomander's willingness to cheat. He is the smartest of the four, however.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: ...Sorta. He's more armadillo than alligator.
 * Team Pet: Was once this to Lordgenome, until evolution turned him into a snobbish and revolting codger.
 * The Strategist: Relies on his brains rather then his Gunmen.
 * Non-Action Guy: He doesn't have Viral's skill in a fight, Thymilph's strength, Adiane's balls-out craziness, or Cytomander's willingness to cheat. He is the smartest of the four, however.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: ...Sorta. He's more armadillo than alligator.
 * Team Pet: Was once this to Lordgenome, until evolution turned him into a snobbish and revolting codger.
 * The Strategist: Relies on his brains rather then his Gunmen.

Cytomander the Swift
"Voiced by: Akio Suyama (JP), Steve Staley (EN)"

The incredibly fey air general. Cytomander is a bird man with a serious ego. Guame chastises him for being too brash, and when he's on the losing side of a battle, the guy really flips his lid. His personal Gunmen is Shuzack, and his flagship is the Dai-Gunten.


 * Ax Crazy: The moment he loses his edge in battle, his sanity wears down to vapor-thin, until finally, he's Laughing Mad.
 * Bishonen: Good God, yes.
 * Blow You Away: The General of Air.
 * Curse Cut Short:
 * Break the Haughty
 * Combat Pragmatist: Captures Yoko so Viral could kill Simon. It doesn't work.
 * Chainsaw Good: Uses a buzz saw as his weapon.
 * Evil Genius: Notices Team Dai-Gurren's weakness, and capitalizes on it.
 * Jerkass: The biggest among the Four Generals, and arguably the biggest in the series.
 * Laughing Mad: When the tide of battle turns against him it drives him crazy and this happens. It's bad enough that it almost mirrors a TROLLFACE.
 * Meaningful Name: Cytomander is cytosine and salamander. Him being a flashy peacock parodying Japanese glam rock has more to do with his mecha's theme; it's named Shuzack, after Suzaku, a mythical bird in Japanese folklore.
 * Non-Action Guy: Only wins fights through cheating.
 * Sissy Villain: Gigantic boa? Rainbow colored lights? Stands on a stage wearing a body suit? CHECK TO ALL THE ABOVE!
 * Small Name, Big Ego: "Maybe it's not that they're so weak, its that I'm too powerful! .
 * Smug Snake: Spends his time insinuating that the other generals are incompetent, it doesn't work out.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": His name is pronounced "Cytomandra" in the English dub.
 * Villainous Breakdown: When his ass is getting kicked he laughs crazily.
 * also,
 * We Have Reserves: Horrifies Simon with his willingness to get his own men killed.
 * This makes even the other three generals hate him.
 * This makes even the other three generals hate him.

Lordgenome
"Voiced by: Narushi Ikeda (JP), Jamieson Price (EN)"

Lordgenome is the ominous Spiral King, who rules the planet from his capital city, Teppelin. An immortal human who lived for more than 1000 years so far, he cares little for people, treating the strange girls he surrounds himself with as dolls to be cast aside when they've outlived their interest to him.

-
 * Abusive Parent: Just from his treatment of Nia and implications that he let all of his other daughters die on a whim.
 * Ambiguously Brown: Though his outfit and facial features suggest he might be of Turkish or Middle Eastern ancestry.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: And don't you forget it! There's a reason all the militant beastmen obey him without question.
 * Awesomeness Is Volatile
 * Badass
 * Badass Arm-Fold: Never uncrosses his arms while fighting in Lazengann (unless he's doing a Limit Break).
 * Bald of Evil
 * Badass Beard of Evil
 * Big Bad:
 * Blood Knight: If making one of your servants strong enough to test your number one enemy doesn't count, then coming out of your Gunman just to beat with your fists while laughing maniacally does.
 * Carpet of Virility: A spiral shaped one!
 * Emperor Scientist: Presumably how he took over the world. He knows how to create Beastmen and their gunmen.
 * Evil Counterpart: To.
 * Expy: Of Darth Vader, in that.
 * Flaming Hair
 * Hellish Pupils And Irises: They're spiral-shaped, a trait shared by the Lagann in one instance, the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Wait a minute...Diethard Ried, Elvis, and Lu Bu?!
 * Genius Bruiser: Genetic engineer, master computer hacker, and able to beat up a mecha with his bare hands. Definitely qualifies.
 * Hot-Blooded: So much so that he ignites his own head.
 * Incendiary Exponent: Tends to catch on fire when he does awesome things,
 * Meaningful Name: Lordgenome genetically engineered the Beastmen.
 * Also,
 * Non-Standard Character Design: Unlike most of the characters, he's given a more... Let's call it traditional Anime Muscular Man look.
 * Doubles as Uncanny Valley.
 * One-Man Army:
 * Rated "M" for Manly: Just an "M" might not even cut it.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: More like 1000.
 * Social Darwinist:
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Is it Lord Genome or Lordgenome?
 * Or even Lord Lordgenome?
 * Start of Darkness: The last Parallel Works video, which is also the only canon one.
 * : We see in the last Parallel Works video that . Seriously.
 * Techno Babble: Once he was so incomprehensible that even Leeron didn't understand him.
 * Tranquil Fury: During his fight against Gurren-Lagann, he attacks quite ferociously, yet maintains a stoic face and voice, as well as his Badass Arm-Fold.
 * The Worf Effect: In Super Robot Wars Z 2: Hakai-Hen, Lordgenome is not frightened at all by the protagonist group except for one man. That man is none other than anime James Bond, Haran Banjou.
 * Use Your Head: when it comes to hacking, there's the realistic way, there's the Hollywood Hacking way, and then there's the Lordgenome way, in which one plugs in and physically beats the security system into submission with one's forehead.
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: He has nothing on under his robe to cover his uber-muscular physique.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Maybe.
 * Worf Had the Flu:
 * That being said,
 * Villain Team-Up: He meets with Gaiou before Scenario 44 on the Earth route and receives two Dino DAMON in exchange.
 * Zen Survivor: Made bitter by, he doesn't tell anyone what he's learned and warns them only in a crypic sense.
 * Social Darwinist:
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Is it Lord Genome or Lordgenome?
 * Or even Lord Lordgenome?
 * Start of Darkness: The last Parallel Works video, which is also the only canon one.
 * : We see in the last Parallel Works video that . Seriously.
 * Techno Babble: Once he was so incomprehensible that even Leeron didn't understand him.
 * Tranquil Fury: During his fight against Gurren-Lagann, he attacks quite ferociously, yet maintains a stoic face and voice, as well as his Badass Arm-Fold.
 * The Worf Effect: In Super Robot Wars Z 2: Hakai-Hen, Lordgenome is not frightened at all by the protagonist group except for one man. That man is none other than anime James Bond, Haran Banjou.
 * Use Your Head: when it comes to hacking, there's the realistic way, there's the Hollywood Hacking way, and then there's the Lordgenome way, in which one plugs in and physically beats the security system into submission with one's forehead.
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: He has nothing on under his robe to cover his uber-muscular physique.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Maybe.
 * Worf Had the Flu:
 * That being said,
 * Villain Team-Up: He meets with Gaiou before Scenario 44 on the Earth route and receives two Dino DAMON in exchange.
 * Zen Survivor: Made bitter by, he doesn't tell anyone what he's learned and warns them only in a crypic sense.
 * Zen Survivor: Made bitter by, he doesn't tell anyone what he's learned and warns them only in a crypic sense.

The Anti-Spiral


"Voiced by: Takaya Kamikawa (JP), Dave Mallow (EN)"

""You seek beauty in struggling to the bitter end- a trait instinctive to those bewitched by the power of the Spiral... Nevertheless, that is an act which has been repeated time and time again. Now, follow the same fate as those Spiral Warriors... WHO CAME BEFORE YOU!!""

- "Correct" evolution is meant to be a slow process that increases not power and size (like in the case of Invaders), but all the attributes of a living thing. The Invaders do not contribute to Spiral Nemesis because they have no souls and therefore their rapid evolution does not increase entropy as much as a Spiral's would. Anti-Spiral himself states that regardless of how much the Invaders evolve, they are mindless beasts and therefore can be easily dealt with at the moment of his choosing.
 * A Form You Are Comfortable With: Sort of. He agrees to fight the protagonists "on your own terms", meaning the Evil Knockoff  mentioned below. His reason for doing so, however, is not to relate to them, but rather to humiliate his opponents by defeating them in a Mirror Match rather than simply Reality Warping them into nonexistence. This seems to be the only way to defeat their Crazy Awesome powers, and he should know due to his experience with such things.
 * : In The Movie,.
 * Bald of Evil
 * Blank White Eyes: His default expression. They strike fear with ease!
 * Combat Tentacles
 * Creepy Monotone: Speaks with an unnerving calm, at times making him sound like a scientist who is merely conducting an experiment rather than By the final battle,
 * Dimension Lord
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: "We have no need to understand. We only need to know."
 * Evil Feels Good: Despite claiming he/they have no emotions, they seem to enjoy inflicting Absolute Despair on their enemies.
 * Evil Knockoff:
 * The Evils of Free Will: Though that's a little bit more justified when the force that is and is created by free will and makes free will possible is what is fueling entropy.
 * Fan Nickname: Fans occasionally call him the "Anti-Spiral King" to distinguish him from the Anti-Spiral race. Though they do overlap.
 * Fantastic Racism:
 * Considering spiral races include every living thing, he's more of an Absolute Xenophobe
 * Hive King
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Sounds like an evil (or very nihilistic) Angemon.
 * Hot-Blooded:
 * Humanoid Abomination:
 * Hypocrisy:
 * Knight of Cerebus: Even when Thymilph and Lordgenome darkened the show, there was still enough lighthearted and playful humor. Come the timeskip and this guy, things become even less amusing and much darker.
 * Knight Templar
 * Let's Fight Like Gentlemen:.
 * Master Race: Deconstructed:.
 * Non-Standard Character Design: He is drawn as a vaguely-human black silhouette, with very simple white eyes and mouth.
 * Not So Different: Inverted. Anti-Spiral Nia says that nobody could suppress the Spiral Instinct (read: Large Ham Hot-Blooded-ness) indefinitely, and she was right.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: Deconstructed:
 * The Omnipotent: He has complete control of his pocket universe, even able to manipulate probability. The only reason he doesn't just annihilate the heroes is due to gaps of information.
 * Reality Warper: Can alter probability: the force of nature that sets forth the laws of reality. That would make the Anti-Spirals the equivalent of first-order beings. The next step up from that is 'God himself!!!
 * Royal We: Justified, as he's speaking for his entire species.
 * Slasher Smile:
 * Stepford Smiler
 * Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Perhaps even Perfectly Advanced Alien. Ironically,
 * Shadow Archetype:
 * Techno Babble: Has a few shades of this.
 * Unmoving Plaid: Adding to his Eldritch Abomination feel.
 * Villain Team-Up: With Emperor Muge Zorbados and Emperor Zule in Saisei-Hen.
 * He also seems affiliated with the Big Bad of the whole Super Robot Wars Z saga.
 * He also cooperates with the Invaders because the Invaders use Getter Rays incorrectly. Rather than simply inundating themselves in the Getter and allowing evolution to take its course, they forcibly "evolve" themselves. To the Anti-Spirals, the Invaders are not "evolving" so much as they are simply growing bigger and more primal. After all, Stinger and Cohen are the only examples of sapient Invaders after  kicked the bucket.
 * The Omnipotent: He has complete control of his pocket universe, even able to manipulate probability. The only reason he doesn't just annihilate the heroes is due to gaps of information.
 * Reality Warper: Can alter probability: the force of nature that sets forth the laws of reality. That would make the Anti-Spirals the equivalent of first-order beings. The next step up from that is 'God himself!!!
 * Royal We: Justified, as he's speaking for his entire species.
 * Slasher Smile:
 * Stepford Smiler
 * Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Perhaps even Perfectly Advanced Alien. Ironically,
 * Shadow Archetype:
 * Techno Babble: Has a few shades of this.
 * Unmoving Plaid: Adding to his Eldritch Abomination feel.
 * Villain Team-Up: With Emperor Muge Zorbados and Emperor Zule in Saisei-Hen.
 * He also seems affiliated with the Big Bad of the whole Super Robot Wars Z saga.
 * He also cooperates with the Invaders because the Invaders use Getter Rays incorrectly. Rather than simply inundating themselves in the Getter and allowing evolution to take its course, they forcibly "evolve" themselves. To the Anti-Spirals, the Invaders are not "evolving" so much as they are simply growing bigger and more primal. After all, Stinger and Cohen are the only examples of sapient Invaders after  kicked the bucket.
 * He also cooperates with the Invaders because the Invaders use Getter Rays incorrectly. Rather than simply inundating themselves in the Getter and allowing evolution to take its course, they forcibly "evolve" themselves. To the Anti-Spirals, the Invaders are not "evolving" so much as they are simply growing bigger and more primal. After all, Stinger and Cohen are the only examples of sapient Invaders after  kicked the bucket.