Why does Simon’s drill, the metaphor for his determination, strength, and courage, exist? Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a kid’s show, aired on Sunday mornings in Japan. Clearly Simon’s purpose is to be brave, honest, and strong without being mean, foolish, or petty, all qualities that we hope to cultivate in ourselves and in our children. Kamina’s reappearance, the Obi-Wan to Simon’s Luke, reminding us of what Simon (and hence, by proxy, the audience) admires and finds value in.

I can easily call this my favorite show on television these days, what with Battlestar Galactica and Heroes both between seasons, and not counting C-SPAN (which is hilarious). Gainax, however, has a well-deserved reputation for winding up a otherwise-excellent shows with severely disappointing endings. FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Mahoromatic are felt by many to suffer from this bad-ending affliction, and over the past couple of weeks I’ve been dreading every symptom of backslide in Simon and the Dai Gurren Dan’s story.

This week saw the airing of episode 26: Let’s Go, My Friends. With but a single episode remaining, I’m cautiously optimistic that the fine folks at Gainax are actually going to pull this one off. This week we saw that the writers and producers can refocus their attention to the core theme of the show. There’s a suitably overwhelmingly powerful antagonist, a damsel in distress, burning manly spirit, and the fate of the universe at stake, all of which will potentially add up to a suitable climax and fitting denouement. Are they done killing off protagonists? Will Simon prevail? Have the heavens been satisfactorily pierced (as promised back in episode 1)? We’ll find out next Sunday.