UDON Announces Gurren Lagann Archives Artbook

UDON Entertainment has published artbooks before, but few as hefty as the one they’re starting to talk about: a nearly 500-page volume devoted to the beloved anime Gurren Lagann. It’s one of the largest and most extensive book of sketches and art any anime has ever received.

Premiering in 2007, Gurren Lagann was about a teenager who lived in an underground civilization and dreamed of someday seeing the surface world. That opportunity came the day he found the Core Drill, a drill-shaped key that activated Lagann, a large mecha he could fit inside. His best friend obtained a similar mech called Gurren and when the two combined, they became an unstoppable force both above and below ground. The story gets a LOT more complicated from there, eventually concerning the fate of the universe, but the short of it is Gurren Lagann was one of the best anime of the 2000s and if you haven’t seen it yet, you should.

Now it’s receiving the ultimate tribute in the form of the Gurren Lagann Archives, containing hundreds of designs for characters, vehicles, mecha, and locations from the show along with color ‘key’ artworks, advertising and marketing illustrations, and additional designs. UDON also mentions “extremely rare art pieces, behind-the-scenes storyboard illustrations, and even more surprises contained within.” Long story short, there’s a lot in here to gawk at.

UDON has provided six pages from the Gurren Lagann Archives to preview, which can be found below (fair warning: the parts with Yoko are a bit too sexy for work). The 488-page volume will come to the surface world June 6.