Ancient cave paintings left by the Super Paleolithic people tell of a great disaster befalling the people of Earth, when the evil Kyokka space empire will come to destroy all that we know and love. Humanity’s only chance lies in the prehistoric schematics for a super battle robot called Gekigangar 3! But even such a weapon is futile if there is not courage, love, and friendship among the brave humans fighting for peace and freedom! At least that’s what the crew of the Nadesico cruiser expect when they go to see the Gekigangar 3 marathon at the theatre…
Mamoru is a seemingly normal 9-year-old boy in every respect: He goes to school with other kids his age, has two loving parents, and leads a peaceful life. But when the evil mechanoid alien Pasder awakens in his underground lair, things change for the worse. Sending his evil Zonderian servants to turn unsuspecting humans into giant robot monsters, mankind's salvation lies squarely on the shoulders of the Gutsy Geoid Guard defence agency. Together with the cyborg Guy and the mechanical lion Galeon, Mamoru finds himself as the key to ridding Tokyo of the alien menace!
Ayame, Renge and Sumire have enough to worry about with their idiotfather always on their backs, but when a secret government agencytries to recruit them, life is about to become much more complicated! Withbizarre machines threatening the city, it seems they have little choicebut to pilot the Z Mind robot. Yet keepingtheir little sister Satsuki out of trouble, dealing with dad's nagging, uncovering the identity of Ayame's mysterious savior and contending with the freakyaliens might prove a littletoo much for anyone to cope with!
Simon lives a boring life in the underground village of Jeeha, where his main job day in and day out is to dig tunnels. His close friend Kamina, however, longs to bust out of their oppressive existence and reach the surface world where open skies and adventure await! One day, during his usual digs, Simon discovers a robot with a big face buried amongst the rocks. No sooner has he shown Kamina his mysterious find when two beings from the surface crash land into Jeeha Village - one is a gun-toting woman calling herself Yoko and the other is a terrifying mecha piloted by a Beastman! Seeing their chance to escape village drudgery, Kamina rallies Simon and Yoko to defeat the invader using their new robot, Lagann. However, upon breaking out onto the surface world, Simon, Kamina, and Yoko encounter enemies more powerful than they could have envisioned. Their fight for adventure just turned into a war for the survival of the human race - will their lust for freedom hold out against such terrible odds?
Both series have manly male characters, action-packed (yet unrealistic) mecha battle scenes, and a bit of pathos. If you liked either of these two works for the above reasons, you will definitely like the other one. There are of course differences, mainly caused by a different format: Gekigangar 3 is a short supplement to Martian Successor Nadesico, while Gurren-Lagann is a standalone series, so the story is deeper in the latter.