Nia Teppelin

Nia Teppelin is one of the main characters from the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann anime.

Nia is the disowned daughter of Lordgenome. She is also an artificial being made by the Anti-Spiral and serves as the main antagonists' messenger in the third act. She is Simon’s main love interest and eventually marries him in the final episode before she fades away, yet her love for him remains and connects them.

Appearance
Nia is a delicate-looking young girl of average height with curly, light blue/pale blonde hair. Her initial appearance shows her to have extremely long hair running down her back until it is one day ruined during the gunfire of battle (caused by Yoko pretending to shoot her in the head but missing on purpose to hit the gunmen's shoulder). She later asks Yoko Littner to cut it to just above her shoulders. She has peach skin and unique blue eyes with pink crosses ("+") for pupils (designed to look like flowers). She wears a variety of outfits, mostly pink and white.

In Part Two, she looks mostly the same, but her features have matured, gaining womanly curves. Her hair has become straighter and returned to its old length. She wears a white and pink dress, along with the ring Simon gave to her when he proposed. After the Human Extermination System is activated, her skin becomes covered with red circuit lines and her eyes gain a flat, darkened tone. Her dress is eventually replaced by a skintight bodysuit covering everything up to her head; the suit itself is black with red circuit lines and asymmetrical turquoise highlights.

Upon being recalled to the Anti-Spiral home-world, Nia's eyes return to normal, but her outfit remains the same. When Team Dai-Gurren frees her, her bodysuit dissolves, but Simon catches her with his longcoat, which she wears for the rest of the battle. After her return to Earth, she is given a white wedding dress for her marriage to Simon.

From her first appearance and for most of the first arc, Nia wears a pink outfit with a skirt and a gold neck-piece with a red tie hanging from it. Its implied, due to Simon looking away when Nia was getting out of the container, that she hadn't worn undergarments before. When the team arrive at the beach, she wears a white one-piece swimsuit.

After the timeskip, she wears a long, flowing pink dress. When she changes to her Anti-Spiral persona, she wears a skintight bodysuit with Anti-Spiral markings on it. She continues to wear this until the end of the final episode. When she returns to Earth she is briefly seen in a pink outfit similar to her normal one but without sleeves. During the wedding, she wears a white wedding dress with a thin veil prepared by Old Coco.

Personality
Nia is a kind, caring, sweet and soft-spoken girl who always likes people to be happy and she is highly empathetic to others, especially Simon. She naturally tried to help Simon when he was distressed over Kamina's death, saying that he isn't helpless on his own and shouldn't be so dependent on Kamina, but ends up upsetting a heart-broken Yoko to the point where she shouted at her and stormed off. She is never intentionally mean and almost always has a smile on her face even when she was fading away in the last episode of the series.

Through her travels with Team Dai-Gurren, Nia opts for a change in her personality a little. She eventually follows Kamina's words and believes in Simon with her entire being. Also in her travels, she shows a rational thought process similar to Yoko and is very willing to stand up against the odds when need be. Likewise, she is a bit rash though and will not hesitate to throw herself into the fray to try and reason with the enemy. In season 1, she does so three times (though one of them was addressing soldiers about them sacrificing themselves.). In this regard, Nia can often be oblivious to certain words and meanings due to her sheltered life.

For most of the third arc, Nia serves as the messenger from the Anti-Spirals to the humans, during the activation of Earth's Human Extermination System. After the Anti-Spiral data awakens within her and converts her into a Anti-Spiral life form, becoming an emotionless and serious person, the exact opposite of how Nia was beforehand. As the messenger, she wears a dark skin-tight suit, covered with red line patterns resembling a circuit board, and the previously pink irises of her eyes have become black.

Abilities
Nia has never been seen piloting a Gunmen, except when she rode with Simon in the head of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. She doesn't seem to have any fighting ability, as she is easily captured by Guame and his Beastmen. Her only skill seems to be cooking, though she creates monstrosities whenever she attempts to do so. Everyone but Kamina, Simon and Boota seem to be mortally terrified of her cooking. She is, however, a skilled sports player and won a game of beach volleyball against Yoko.

After becoming the Anti-Spiral's messenger in Part 2, she gained the ability to travel between spatial dimensions, teleport between locations instantly, and intercept most methods of communication. She also has a power involving creating holograms. And in the second film, she is shown to be able to create and fire energy shots at will.

Her most impressive trait is her unbelievable "fighting spirit", which eventually allowed her to rebel against her anti-spiral programming and after the anti-spiral's defeat, held on for about a week before fading away.

In the second film, Nia is given her own personal Tengen Toppa Gunmen, the Tengen Toppa Solvernia. It is shaped like a feminine human body with an energy cascade similar in color and composition to her own hair. It's weapon is a drill spear and is the first to wound the Grand Zamboa after it tears Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann apart.

Trivia

 * Her name in Japanese could also be read as Near, referring to her relationship with Simon.
 * Nia's name by itself can also be seen as a short version of other feminine names ending with Nia such as Antonia or Stefania.
 * Nia's name could also be seen as a reference to the organic compound Niacin and/or the vitamin Niacinamide. Which would tie her name to the biology theme present within the names of her father and his four generals.
 * Her name is also present in the Swahili language, where it means purpose; referencing her role as the Anti-Spirals' messenger. It could also possibly refer to the fact that, in one way or another, she motivates Simon (and by extension, the rest of Team Dai-Gurren) to overcome impossible odds time and again.
 * Nia's name could also be considered as a Welsh variant of the Irish name Niamh, which means bright or radiant, possibly referencing her appearance and/or her personality prior to the Anti-Spiral War and during her captivity on the Anti-Spiral homeworld as well as events that follow. The name Niamh, in turn, originates from the Irish goddess Níamh Chinn Óir. (Also known as Niamh of the Golden Hair, and known by the Welsh as Nia Ben Aur.) Who, according to legend, is said to be the daughter of the Irish sea god Manannán mac Lir, the wife of Oisín, the mother of Plor na mBan and Oscar, and a queen of Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth.


 * One minor recurring theme that presents itself during the series both before and after the time-skip was that during the two times she is captured (first by Guame and then by the Anti-Spiral) she keeps a fiercely optimistic attitude (saying with a straight face that she won't die even though Guame has a gun pointed at her face, or courageously declaring Simon won't fail in saving her as the Anti-Spiral starts dissolving her structure) only to tear up the moment Simon comes to save her.
 * Nia narrates the next episode previews from episode 8 up until the final episode of season 1. Her quotes are used as the titles for those episodes, which have a font that displays her character.
 * Another recurring theme is her lack of common knowledge: She misunderstands many of the phrases Kittan used during his "interrogation" during the Beastman War arc, and it continued to years later when Simon proposes to her and turns him down, only to have Kiyoh and Kiyal explain it to her later.
 * Nia's appearance is strikingly similar to Lordgenomes when he was young before the first Anti-Spiral war. This includes his short light blue/pale blonde hair, and his pale skin.
 * Gainax has stated that 7 years is a long time, and that Simon and Nia "did what had to be done" during the timeskip.
 * Gainax stated that during the 7 years before Season 2, Nia went out and traveled the world "like a real princess".
 * Nia and Simon had exactly 1 week before the wedding and spent it on an island. Gainax made no further comments on why though.
 * Gainax also said that Nia held on to her existence with fighting spirit, but eventually her time would come to an end, and things such as her nose or hand would start to disappear and various parts of her would start to wither. This was possibly why she disappeared quickly rather than over time.
 * Despite being the Chef, no one seems to enjoy her food except Simon, who enjoys the food, not merely just because she made it, but he finds it delicious. Interestingly enough, according to the Otoko series and the Gurren Gakuen-Hen manga, Kamina also enjoys her food.
 * In episode 11, Simon gives Nia an emerald like gem he found while digging out of the Beastmen's prison. This mineral is believed to be the same one held in Nia's wedding ring.
 * In the ADV dub, Nia was originally going to be voiced by Luci Christian.
 * Nia’s death is referenced in Samurai Jack season five ending when Ashi dissappears from Jack's sight since she couldn’t exist without Aku. It should be noted, however, that Ashi's disappearance is the result of time adjusting its flow accordingly to Aku's death in the past, meaning that Ashi herself might still exist in the future albeit not as Aku's descendant.