The Anti-Spirals are a mysterious group of beings that long ago realized the danger of Spiral Nemesis and found the means to ceased their own evolution by purging themselves of spiral power, trapped in a state of suspended animation as their collective conscious took form to purge the universe of all Spiral Life.
Early History
While nothing is mentioned about how life was before they became anti-spirals, the anti-spirals were once normal spiral lifeforms. Once they realized the danger of the spiral nemesis, they halted their own evolution and purged themselves of spiral power. (It could also be assumed that those ancient Spiral's declared allegiance to the Spiral Nemesis entity after ridding themselves of their unique energy traces in order to save themselves from destruction.) They remain as white humanoid creatures with no individual identity. Their collective unconsciousness, the Anti-Spiral, continued their duty by fighting all Spiral lifeforms so that they can be limited and the spiral nemesis avoided.
The Spiral Nemesis is a theoretical event which the Anti-Spiral race are fighting to prevent. It would theoretically occur when Spiral Energy evolves beyond a certain point. As the Anti-Spiral themselves explain it, the evolution of life would lead to a loss of control of Spiral Power, which had already shown throughout the series to ignore the law of conservation of mass (IE: creating matter from nothing, from Giga Drill Breaks to the transformation of the higher levels of Gunmen), and all life forms in the universe evolving into full-sized galaxies spontaneously. The sudden imbalance of mass in the universe would lead to these mega-galaxies devouring each other, forming a black hole, and the universe returning to nothingness. This is the Spiral Nemesis, the theoretical event that the Anti-Spiral destroyed so many Spiral races to prevent from ever occurring. Of course, in The Lights in the Sky are Stars, it is shown that the Spiral Nemesis is more than theory. When Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Super Grand Zamboa's Giga Drill Breaks collide, the entire Anti-Spiral universe begins to collapse into itself. Of course, this was on an order of Spiral Power magnitude far greater than even the Anti-Spiral thought the Spiral races were capable of. The Spiral Nemesis, while possible, requires a great deal more mass and Spiral Power than the Anti-Spiral had initially surmised.
First Anti-Spiral War{C}
The Anti-Spirals found heavy resistance on Earth, since this was the home of the native Spiral warriors. The Spiral warriors held off the Anti-Spirals, driving them back into space, before pushing further into Anti-Spiral territory.
However, with the number of Anti-Spirals increasing as they pushed further in, the Spirals couldn't find the location of their enemy's base of operations, and soon both sides fought each other to a stalemate. This war of attrition continued until Lordgenome learned about the Spiral Nemesis and, as shown in Parallel Works episode 8, turned on the rest of the Spiral warriors in order to prevent more potential casualties. After the defeat of the Spiral Warriors of Earth, the Anti-Spiral set up numerous Human Extermination Systems all across the Earth (Some were in the form of human beings that were unaware of what they were capable of.), like Nia Teppelin and Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren, warning Lordgenome that if the number of humans on Earth exceeded one million, they would activate these systems and finish what they had started.
Second Anti-Spiral Arc{C}
When the population exceeded one million, a single Mugann appeared to begin the attack while Nia, the anti-spiral's messenger, was awakened. The moon (really the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren) began to collide with the Earth to destroy all spiral life on the planet. When Rossiu Adai attempted to escape with a small portion of the human population to space in the Arc-Gurren , they were met with an ambush of Mugann. Gurren Lagann merged with the Arc-Gurren and defeated the Mugann and reclaimed the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren. When Team Dai-Gurren arrived in the Anti-Spirals pocket universe, the Anti-Spirals sent Ashtanga-class battleships and mass-produced Anti-Spiral mechas to fight them. They played possum with Team Dai-Gurren, then began to defeat nearly all of the veteran Gunmen pilots. They then knocked the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren into the Death Spiral Field, causing the attempt to create the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann to fail since the Death Spiral Field drains all occupants of Spiral Energy.
When Team Dai-Gurren escaped while also absorbing all the Spiral energy the sea had absorbed over time allowing the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann to emerge, they tried to fight back with more Ashtanga and mass-produced Hastagry and Pada mechas, but were defeated quickly. The Anti-Spiral then sealed Team Dai-Gurren away in the Extradimensional Labyrinth. While they were trapped, the Anti-Spiral probed Nia for answers for her betrayal. Gurren Lagann appeared and rescued Nia. To counteract the newly-created Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the Anti-Spiral created the Granzeboma. Despite nearly winning the battle, the Anti-Spiral lose when Simon and Nia (in Lagann) were thrown at him by Viral, and they used Lagann Impact. Before dying, they tell Simon that protecting the universe from Spiral power is up to him, before exploding.
Abilities{C}
The Anti-Spiral have the ability to replicate Spiral lifeform traits (for example, Granzeboma and its drills). They also can create pocket universes in which they have influence over things such as probability. They can freely appear anywhere in the universe and can produce mechas for combat. They can freely move between dimensions (similar to powerful Spiral Warriors).
Appearance
The Anti-Spiral race themselves are white humanoid creatures without any distinguishing features because of their purge of Spiral Power. Their collective unconscious appears as a silhouette of a man with cartoonish facial expressions. The Anti-Spiral does not have a set shape, so it can extend seemly indefinitely.
Leader
The Anti-Spiral (アンチスパイラル, Anchisupairaru?) is the ultimate villain of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, and the central antagonistic presence for the final two story arcs. He first appears as a disembodied voice in Episode 24, but is formally introduced in Episode 26. His physical form is a chaos of arbitrary human concepts fluctuating on a black silhouette, with cartoonish gestures and exaggerated expressions. Anti-Spiral is both the leader and collective mental manifestation of the "Anti-Spiral race" after they seal themselves away to purge their race of Spiral energy. The highly advanced technology gives him extensive, almost supernatural powers, which manifest in the form of red energy. With these abilities he is able to manipulate physical and chemical laws (going as far as altering probability), which he does regularly both offensively and as a form of intimidation. The Anti-Spiral is the nemesis of Lordgenome, being responsible for Lordgenome's madness after explaining the nature of the Spiral Nemesis to him. Beyond what is known of the Anti-Spiral, little is known of the Anti-Spiral personally. He has the mannerisms of a scientist, suggesting he had a hand in both the creation of Anti-Spiral technology and the decision to undergo the millennia-long battle against the Milky Way's spiral beings. The Anti-Spiral is very proud and holds deep contempt for Spiral beings, specifically Simon, frustrated that across all of time, Spiral beings still resist the population limitations and continue to defy the resolution of his race and their ideology. The Anti-Spiral sealed Team Dai-Gurren away in the Extradimensional Labyrinth after they escaped the Death Spiral Field. While Team Dai-Gurren was trapped, The Anti-Spiral was probing Nia for answers for her betrayal. Gurren Lagann appeared and rescued Nia. To counteract the newly-created Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the Anti-Spiral created the Granzeboma. After the battle, the Anti-Spiral was defeated, destroying it, the Anti-Spiral homeworld and the entire Anti-Spiral race. The Anti-Spiral is "killed" in Episode 27 by Simon and Nia in Lagann, killing the entire Anti-Spiral race in the process. But though he refuses to accept that his race were incorrect in restricting Spiral energy, he dies asking Simon if Earth can take responsibility for protecting the universe. With his destruction, the Super Spiral Universe collapses and Team Dai-Gurren is returned to the physical world. His death in the movie, The Lights in the Sky are Stars, is different. Simon, instead of using Lagann Impact, fights the Anti-Spiral hand-to-hand, and is losing. Simon, however, turns the blood generated from the battle into a drill and pierces the Anti-Spiral with it, his death being the same afterwards.
Anti-Spiral Mecha
Ashtanga
The Anti-spiral battle ships, shaped like enlarged thumbs, they are surrounded by black arms, and several grey Buddha like faces sporting a green jewel in each forehead, with the exeption for the main head who has three. Each have a probability negation shield, an ability to hide in subspace and to fling planets by unfolding their multiple arms. They carry small fleets of similar ships shaped like hands and feet, who act deceptively slow in order to catch the enemy off-guard.
Mugann
As the human population on Earth reached one million, the Anti-Spiralized Nia began to mentally materialize these virtual weapons out of thin air that start destroying everything with high-tech weaponry, such as a massive laser that obliterates anything it makes contact with. After the first one appeared, these mecha were codenamed Mugann (from 無顔, meaning "faceless") by the human forces, because it does not have a face. There're three types of Mugann that appeared over the series, the soldier class, the black and green Jokyu-Mugann that acts in deploying and coordinating the attacks of multiple Mugann units, and the two Giant Cage Mugann that attack by separating into smaller pieces and reforming around the target, enveloping it and attacking from all sides or combine into a larger Mugann unit that mostly attacks using its body as projectiles before being destroyed by Arc-Gurren Lagann. All three types have almost impenetrable energy shield which can deflect bullets and other solid weaponry, however, its defenses and attacks are not enough to stand up to the Gurren-Lagann, which managed to defend against its attacks and drill through the mecha during its initial appearance with the Giga Drill Break. However, unlike normal Gunmen that simply explode or break-down when dealt a fatal blow, these mecha turn into small explosives that devastate anything nearby, causing almost as much damage as the Mugann itself can cause. This is a result of the mecha's unstable molecular structure which also enables it to easily teleport itself through long distances. A technique created by Simon to effectively defeat the Mugann without causing damage is by harnessing their lasers' power using the Gurren-Lagann and delivering it back to them all at once, destroying their body, and then shooting down every single explosive they left with the Grapearl force's handguns before they fall into the ground. However, it's also known that this measure could be troublesome against larger numbers of Mugann. Later, Leeron creates a technique where Grapearls can both penetrate the Mugann defenses and create a shield around it, meaning the Mugann can both be destroyed and have its small bombs rendered harmless. When Nia was recalled, the Mugann stopped attacking Kamina City.
Granzeboma
Granzeboma (グランゼボーマ, Guranzebōma?) is the mecha piloted by the Anti-Spiral, created to fight the newly formed Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann on even grounds, beat Team Dai-Gurren at its own game and put an end to the fight once and for all. Its styling is similar to the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, with the Anti-Spiral home world as its core on its forehead and an extra pair of arms, located on its shoulders, which it used to catch the galaxies as well as execute its Infinity Big-Bang Storm attack, crushing to two galaxies together to produce a blast equal to a Big Bang to instantly vaporize the target. Though the attack was intended to annihilate Team Dai-Gurren, the maneuver backfired when Lord Genome used the Lazengann to take the blast, converting it and himself into Spiral Energy for the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It was ultimately destroyed when Simon and Nia managed to pierce its pilot's body with the Lagann's drill, using the Lagann Impact. Notably, the Granzeboma's arms were in fact able to transform into drills, normally a symbol of Spiral Beings - however, when they are shown stationary, the drills in fact have entirely straight lines from base to tip. The second Gurren Lagann movie, Lagann-Hen introduces the Super Granzeboma, an upgraded form of Granzeboma made to counter the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. While being just as large as its foe, the Super Granzeboma was destroyed in the same manner as the anime version.
Infinity Big Bang Storm: Granzeboma grabs two galaxies with its larger, shoulder arms and mushes them together into a ball which contains the power of the Big Bang. Granzeboma then throws the condensed ball of energy of the Big Bang at the opposing mecha.
Anti-Spiral Drills: While Granzeboma is an Anti-Spiral mecha, it still can create drills. These drills do not have a double helix on them, but, instead, have somewhat straight lines along their bodies.