Gurren Lagann volume 2 contains episodes 10-18 and covers the rest of the Spiral King arc and the first episodes after the 7 year time skip.
synopsis (containing spoilers for both vol 1 and vol 2)
Simon is in a depression after the loss of Kamina. He also cannot control Lagann anymore due to his mental state, making him useless to the Dai Gurren Dan. Kittan has pretty much replaced Kamina as the leader of the group, altough it's a role he can't really fill. Nia, who didn't know what Kamina was like, still tries to get Simon to stop wallowing in despair.
After some diversions and a trap (not the gayboy kind), Gaume, another one of the 4 generals of the Spiral King has taken control of the Dai Gurren and is holding Nia hostage. Simon finally finds determenation to fight again and recues Nia. Then, as Lagann combines with Gurren, which is now being piloted by Rossiu, Simon delivers one of the most iconic monologues in the series, the ''Brother is dead, he's not here anymore, but he lives on in my heart...'' monologue, during which he finally accepts Kamina's death, gains new determenation to continue fighting and pretty much becomes the leader of the Dai Gurren Dan. He defeats but fails to kill Gaume, who retreats.
Slightly later on, Viral learns that Kamina, who he considered his rival, had died in the battle with Tylimph. Viral asks the Spiral King to make him stronger. The Spiral King accepts his request.
During the mandatory beach episode, Adine assults the Dai Gurren on sea, but is killed by Gurren Lagann.
Skipping ahead slightly, the Dai Gurren Dan assults Teppelin, the giant flying (?) fortress city of the Spiral King, also killing Cytomander, the 4th general of the Spiral King.
Gaume generates a force feild over the city, but Simon destroys him. All generals of the Spiral King are dead.
Then, as the force feild is destroyed, it is revealed that Teppelin is actually an impossibly huge Gunaman, and that the Spiral King and his throne room are at the very top.
To get Gurren Lagann, containing Simon, Rossiu and Nia to the throne room, the Dai Gurren is totally wrecked in it's mission, altough noone important dies in it, in what might be my favorite sequence in the entire series, which also uses the insert song ''Happily Ever After'', also by Shoko Nakagawa.
And then they arrive to Lord Genome, the Spiral King, who is revealed to be human. Simon quickly defeats Viral, who is utterly shocked when his powerup has changed nothing. The Spiral King says to Viral ''I didn't make you immortal so you could beat them, I made you immortal so you could tell this story until the end of time.''
He then engages Gurren Lagann in his personal Gunman, the Lazengann, which is very similar to Gurren Lagann, and has an awesome design.
Lord Genome beats down Simon with ease, but after a long, grueling battle, Lazengann, most of Gurren Lagann, and the throne room is destroyed. This isn't really a problem for Lord Genome, since he can punch so hard it can damage Lagann. But Simon stabs Lord Genome in the chest with his Core Drill, and blows a huge gole in Lord Genome. As Genome lives his final moments, he congratulates Simon on his victory, but says that he has pretty much started the end of the human race, something he was preventing all this time by keeping humans under ground. Before he falls off of Teppelin, presumably to his doom, he says ''When one million apes appear on the surface of the earth, the moon will destroy them all'' (kind of like in Majora's Mask).
Still, this is a massive triumph for humanity, and they believe that they are in for a future of prosperity.
And then there's a recap episode, recaping the entire Spiral King arc.
And then we get to the time skip.
It's been 7 years since the fall of Teppelin and now humanity is living in prosperity. Most of the important members of the Dai Gurren Dan are now high ranking officials of the world government, and Simon is the commander of the government. However, the one who actually controls the government is Rossiu. Humanity has reached a population of over one million.
Meanwhile, Yoko has become a teacher in a seaside city.
Simon proposes to Nia, who does not accept at first, but later agrees after she has marringe explained to her. Simon gives her a ring. As she puts it on, she becomes possesed by some sort of force.
Nia now refers to herself as the Messenger Of The Anti Spirals. She now talks in a cold, montone, stern fashion altough still retaining her formality. Nia, who no longer really is Nia, then reveals to Simon, and to the entire human population, that Lord Genome was truly protecting humanity by having it live underground, otherwise the moon would destroy the entire planet, since the moon is actually a death machine made by the Anti Spirals that is programmed to destroy the earth if the Spirals, life forms with Spiral energy in them reach a certain amount of population. The beastmen that Lord Genome created do not have this evolutionary energy in them and also cannot reproduce, which is why they did not trigger the mechanism. She also says that the fact that Nia is the daughter of Lord Genome, the previous leader of the Spirals has nothing to do with the fact that she became the messenger, instead it's the ring's fault. In a sense, it's all Simon's fault that humanity is now in peril of extinction, and if Simon and Kamina hadn't escaped from the underground, none of this would have happened.
She then warps away, as Kamina City is assulted by Anti Spiral drones. Simon somehow defeats them in Gurren Lagann, but imediately after it, Rossiu has the army arrest him due to the public outcry, since everyone now blames Simon for the crisis.
Volume 2 ends here
The finale of the Spiral King arc is one of the absolute highest points in the series, but the first time skip episodes at the end of this volume and the beginning of volume 3 are kind of shitty to be honest, but this volume is still worth it just for the ending of the Spiral King arc. Still, the early time skip episodes do a good job at setting up the next story arc, altough I do have one really big complaint about the setup I'm saving for later.
Also with the time skip, the opening is changed to the second verse of the same song (Sora Iro Days by Shoko Nakagawa), which I don't think is as good and the closing is changed from UNDERGROUND by HIGH VOLTAGE (all caps) to Minna No Peace (everyone's peace) by Afromania.
The characters are mostly the same both before and after the time skip and there are no voice actor changes ether.
There's really not that much I can talk about without spoiling, plus I would like to analyze only after I talk about volume 3.
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