Spider-Verse: Anime Fans Spot A Wild Gurren Lagann Lookalike (For A Second Time)
"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is certainly given plenty of opportunities to fill every scene with references, callbacks, and nods to not only "Spider-Man" stories and characters, but other pop culture properties as well, if the observations of some fans are to believed. Besides the absolute cavalcade of alternate versions of Spider-Man, some viewers of the new hit movie believe that The Antispiral from the newbie friendly anime series "Gurren Lagann" is a major influence, mainly on the character of The Spot (Jason Schwartzman).
As a refresher, The Spot is actually Dr. Jonathan Ohnn, and due to the influence of the particle collider in "Spider-Verse: Into the Spider-Verse," he's been pockmarked with inter-dimensional portals that grant him the ability to travel across the width the multiverse. Needless to say, The Spot has a rather distinct look, but one that has invoked imagery of The Antispiral from "Gurren Lagann." For those unfamiliar with the anime, The Antispiral is a major antagonist of the series, and they look almost like a living shadow with a haphazardly drawn face. The Antispiral's visage is created by the gestalt consciousness of the Anti-Spiral culture in "Gurren Lagann," and this phantasmal form is more or less its resting state.
As mentioned earlier, the similarities between The Antispiral and The Spot's empowered form weren't lost on "Gurren Lagann" fans. Over on Twitter, @Ronjantol2 posted an image of The Antispiral and wrote, "Can't believe they're making the villain in Beyond the Spider Verse the anti spiral from Gurren Lagann."
One fan thinks they spotted Simon in another Spider-Verse entry
Of course, The Spot has a long history in Marvel Comics, but his movie design does bear a particular resemblance to The Antispiral. The above comment was far from the only one to draw some similarities between "Gurren Lagann" and "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse." @Ninjeff also shared an image of The Antispiral, and said, "I'm so happy to see 3D animation really go wild with the art styles. I couldn't believe [that a] character in the new Spiderverse movie looked like the GD Anti-Spirals from Gurren Lagann." @Double_stufed_G joked that The Spot was stealing The Antispiral's entire flow, while @KOFLars012 stated that The Spot originally channeled the look of the Regenerator from the "Resident Evil" series, but then added that The Spot's upgrade definitely reminded them of The Antispiral by the end of the movie.
@MoonPaladin mentioned that they felt like The Spot was a loser at first, but they seemed to be singing a different tune when once he embodied the villain from "Gurren Lagann." @Jynx_CODM heaped praise on "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" and wrote, "Honestly I really liked across the spiderverse, and ngl Spot looks a lot like Anti spiral from the anime guren lagan."
Surprisingly, this wasn't the first time fans were reminded of a character from "Gurren Lagann" in the "Spider-Verse" franchise, as one Reddit user pointed out a character who appears to be Simon in the background of the comic "Edge of the Spider-Verse #5." Whether or not the nods to "Gurren Lagann" are intentional is still up for debate, but one thing is for certain: Fans can't help but see echoes of the anime series throughout the "Spider-Verse."