Gurren Lagann is one of the wildest anime ever produced. It is over the top to the extreme. The mech action in it is out of control. The battles far outrank any other mech anime out there, including Neon Genesis Evangelion. That anime was more about getting weird and philosophical though.
It's worth bringing up though, because Gurren Lagann‘s studio, Gainax, also worked on Neon Genesis Evangelion. So, the animators knew what they were doing when they wanted to outdo that anime. It may not be as bloody, but Gurren Lagann is indeed zanier. These are just some of the coolest mechs in the anime alongside some of the best fights they are in.
8 Einzer
Einzer belongs to one of the secondary characters, Iraak Coega, who doesn’t get a lot of lines in the anime. He is one of the few pilots that dies toward the end as well. Though cool, his mech isn’t going to compete with the big boys.
However, the design is fun-sized, giving it more ways to approach enemies. For example, the Einzer has a gunner position on top which Yoko frequently uses to snipe enemies. It’s the type of mech that could exist in real life. Maybe one day.
7 The Bathhouse Gunman
This Gunman does not have a name. It is revealed in episode six of Gurren Lagann. It’s one of the funnier episodes in the batch which sees Team Gurren staying at a spa in the mountains.
Everyone is having the time of their lives until it turns out the spa is being run by Beastmen. The entire facility is one big Gunman too. While it’s not that strong, the idea of a walking spa is very cool. It sounds refreshing on a cold winter night: Beastmen or no Beastmen.
6 Dai-Gurren
Dai-Gurren looks weird. It is a battleship with arms, a giant sword-like hull for a body, and tiny legs underneath. However, the protruding sword deck is the most awkward thing about the mech’s design.
It’s not going to win any speed contests, but it is great that Team Gurren’s base of operations is also mobile. It’s like the bathhouse mech but a hundred times more deadly. It goes through several transformations throughout the anime, including one where Leeron outfits it to float on water.
5 King Kittan
King Kittan is Kittan’s mech which he named after himself once he captured it. It’s another oddly-designed mech in Gurren Lagann. It’s star-shaped, but a bit more chunky. It doesn’t hold a candle to any of Kamina’s or Simon’s mechs, but Kittan is not that far behind either.
The mech gets stronger once his sisters join the fight. One of their mechs turns into a lance and a shield for King Kittan. They’re pink in color, which clashes a little against the bright yellow of King Kittan, but color doesn’t matter in war.
4 Sayrune
Sayrune belongs to one of the major villains in the anime, Adiane. She is one of the four generals that lead under Lordgenome’s rule. She’s a scorpion woman, so her mech, in turn, is also a scorpion.
Sayrune can transform between a typical humanoid-looking mech and a scorpion on the fly. It’s one of the more versatile mechs in Gurren Lagann. Adiane is also the most tenacious general of the group, reappearing several times over, along with Viral, to stop Team Gurren once and for all. She ultimately fails in the end though.
3 Lazengann
Lazengann’s is Lordgenome’s mech. It looks a lot like Gurren Lagann, except it's black and a bit sleeker. It also has a lot of the same powers. For example, Lordgenome can harness the power of Spiral Energy as well, allowing him to summon forth drills from Lazengann‘s body at will.
Lordgenome puts up a good fight against Gurren Lagann, but, in the end, Simon can defeat him with just his key drill outside of their mechs. A key that powerful belongs in Kingdom Hearts. Sora would assuredly love to meet Simon in this universe.
2 Gurren Lagann
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Gurren Lagann is one of the best mechs in the Gurren Lagann anime. There are too many forms to go over and it’s impossible to choose just one. The first combination is classic, but so too is the giant form toward the end of the anime. Gurren Lagann becomes a Russian doll in space with one mech piloting another inside another and so on.
This anime begins at a hundred in terms of the bizarre scale but reaches critical levels by the time episode 27 wraps up. One might even say that Gurren Lagann is over 9,000 to borrow a popular meme from another great over-the-top anime, Dragon Ball Z.
1 Lagann
It may seem like a copout to list Lagann separately from Gurren Lagann, but it is what it is. Like the Einzer, Lagann is small in stature and is more realistic. The combining power probably couldn't be done in the real world, but the size and simple functionality certainly could.
Lagann can’t take down mechs by itself until it unites with Gurren to become Gurren Lagann. However, Lagann is the key to everything, literally. Simon uses Lagann to take over mechs as if he were hacking them. Never underestimate the size of one’s opponent. That’s what Lagann taught anime fans.