King Kittan

King Kittan (キングキタン, Kingu Kitan) is the Gunman stolen, renamed, and piloted by Kittan Bachika of The Black Siblings. It was first seen when Kittan saved most of Team Gurren from enemy Gunmen whilst Simon and Kamina were preoccupied fighting Thymilph in the Dai-Gunzan.

During Beastman War Arc
During the Beastmen War, Kittan, inspired by Kamina's hijacking of Gunzar, hijacks a Gunmen of his own and customizes it, calling it the King Kittan. Kittan is rather proud of his Gunmen, and is one of the first people to steal one after the example set by Kamina. After gathering other Gunmen-hijackers, including Dayakka, Kittan sought out Kamina once more to help form Team Dai-Gurren.



Kittan pilots the King Kittan through the entire first half of the series, up until the fall of Teppelin. During battles, he and King Kittan would serve as squad commander and deputy of Team Dai-Gurren, leading most of the group against the Beastmen soldiers while Gurren Lagann went after stronger targets. Later on, Kittan works together with Kiyoh and Kiyal in the Dayakkaiser and Kiyalunga, respectively, to create the King Kittan's pseudo-combination called King Kittan Deluxe.

Before Anti-Spiral War Arc
It is scrapped along with the other original Gunmen under orders by Rossiu, making way for the adoption of the Grapearls by the human military.

During Anti-Spiral War Arc
The King Kittan, alongside the other Gunmen from Team Dai-Gurren, is reintroduced by Makken and Leyte Jokin, who equip it with a spiral cannon on its right arm to use against the invading Mugann. It is soon found out that the King Kittan, like all other spiral king-era ganmen, were designed for space combat, allowing the humans to bring the fight to the Anti-Spirals.

Space Gunmen
As the war took on a new front, the Gunmen themselves found that they were now dwarfed by their commander in the Arc Gurren Lagann. Thus, with the amazing manufacturing capabilities of the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren, Leyte managed to produce Space Gunmen the size of warships-for Team Dai-Gurren's use. Based off of the Arc Gurren, the Space King Kittan (like all other Space Gunmen) were piloted by a cascade interface, from Space Gunmen, to Gunmen, to pilot. The Space King Kittan would fulfill the roles of the former, serving as field deputy and squad commander of the original brigade (the Grapearls being lead by the younger Gimmy and Darry), and remain as one of the only two space gunmen not destroyed in the initial battle. However, it was destroyed in a failed attempt to save the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren from the Anti-Spirals' Galactic Spiral Abyss by destroying the Death Spiral Machine at its core. But, before exploding, the normal King Kittan ejected from its mouth, and through Kittan awakening his Spiral Power, it achieved its mission before getting destroyed, along with its pilot. This act, combined with the enormous amount of Spiral power surrounding the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren, allowed Simon to form the powerful Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann. As a final token to the memory of Kittan, the digger's goggles transformed into crimson sunglasses in the shape of the King Kittan's body (a star).

The Space King Kittan resembles the normal King Kittan, but with more accented features, battle-ship class armor, and being much bigger (like all other Space Gunmen). It was equipped with a lance and a shield, both of which resemble the original King Kittan in Deluxe form (combined with Kiyal's gunmen). The original King Kittan is situated in the mouth of the machine, and can be launched via eject feature. Despite the warship class armor, it is amazingly maneuverable. It's armor is relatively thinner than most other gunmen of the same class. It could also be equipped with a powerful Drill Missile and several missile pods, as when it tried to assault the Death Spiral Machine. Despite its strengths, it was destroyed when the Death Spiral Machine's energy field crushed it.

In Parallel Works and Others
One tale of the acquisition of the King Kittan is shown in "Kittan Zero" (Parallel Works 9). Similar to Gurren, it was initially a crimson Beastmen mecha, able to fly at great speeds, transform into a sphere, and fire a hail of bullets from unseen machine guns. It was deployed against Kittan and Kinon, but the former leapt to its cockpit, ripping it open and attacking the pilot. The Gunmen promptly crashed to the ground, conveniently dispelling a water orb created by Adiane to drown Kiyal and Kiyoh. After recovering from the impact, Kittan raced a lion-like Beastman to the unoccupied Gunmen, and with the help of his sisters, managed to commandeer it for himself-which spontaneously transformed it into the form of King Kittan. The mecha was then used to halt the assault of the lion Beastman (now gigantic) long enough for Kittan to exit the cockpit and finish him off.

King Kittan makes a small cameo in "Gunmen Symphony" (Parallel Works 15). Integrated into Gurren Lagann with the rest of Team Dai-Gurren's Gunmen, King Kittan forms the spiky upper body of the gestalt.

In Parallel Works 6, a King Kittan Deluxe style Gunmen appears to help fight off the Dai-Gunzan style Gunmen. However, the gold and pink accents were replaced by silver and gunmetal ones.

You Yoshinari made Tengen Toppa Gunmen designs that did not appear in The Lights In The Sky Are Stars. Each of them has two faces, one on their chest and one on their head, One of them was Tengen Toppa King Kittan.



Powers/Moves
King Kittan Giga Drill Break: Kittan used this move to destroy the Death Spiral Machine. By taking one of Gurren Lagann's drills, Kittan awakened his spiral power, and performed a Giga Drill Break of his own which was double the size of the Gurren-Lagann's.

King Kittan Stinger: Kittan's custom-made move which was only shown once. King Kittan's front and back horns merge and are forced into the mouth of another Gunman, then snap back into place, splitting the other Gunman in half

Space Sunbeam: Space King Kittan shoots a beam with its lance. This move is only shown once.