I went to the theatre to watch this without ever watching Gurren Lagann, and I am a fan. I have never watched the show before, but I felt like everything in the movie made sense, and it never really felt like anything was missing which is pretty impressive considering how many episodes of the show were covered. The soundtrack was really good, and the animation quality felt like it was really ahead of its time. I recommend this for people who don't have enough time to watch the entire series. I did not really care for all of the characters, but Simon and Kamina weregood.