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Gurren Lagann pit-stop ~ 8 eps of Kamina

8 eps into Gurren Lagann, I finally realised why I found Kamina so oddly familar - He was how I played my AD&D Fighter more than 10 years ago. I trash-talked a lot to my enemies only instead of a burning soul I spewed a lot about justice/righteousness. I carried a HUGE sword and flung my cape around a lot. However, instead of being an inspiration, my party members rolled their eyes a great deal and my dungeon master always palm-faced. Welcome to a 14 yr old's idea of GAR.

Now don't get me wrong. I enjoyed Kamina's role in GL and know he's the central figure in driving the plot and an inspiration to the desolated humans of the TTGL universe. But his brutish recklessness on the battlefield did not impress. It's not GAR, it's irresponsible as Simon and later Yoko pointed out. My AD&D party was like Gurren Dan. We bulldozed our way through the traps, enemies, dungeons, citadels and the underworld. We tsked tsked every encounter causing great bereavement to our beloved DM as we massacred his minions. Until we met with our first defeat against his pet, the Balrog. 5 epic adventurers against the bane of Gandalf and we lost half the party in 5 combat rounds. We fled but not in shame, finally grasping the full meaning of "Discretion is the better part of valor". Kamina would have died OVER 9000 times in that battle.

GAR, for this tanuki, is not about the hotness of the heart or the hardness of the head. Instead it is the mind that is the truest component of GAR. A mindless charge into enemies ranks is not GAR even at the expense of one's life (especially when little is achieved). That is sheer stupidity. A GAR character must also always be a thinking person. He weights carefully the choices but chooses a painful path that reaps the GREATEST good and walks it resolutely in spite of the torment. Note that the GAR-est characters I admire are not those that can endure personal or bodily pain but the pain bore by their love ones for them as they steer the world towards greater good.

Kamina wouldn't have lasted 10 days in the RL (in the army he would have been blanket-partied and relegated to clerical roles for endangering missions) but interestingly he was inspirational in TTGL. I suppose their world needed a audacious dreamer to fuel their meagre hope. Nevertheless, at the end of ep 8, Kamina was more than a man he ever was though still not GAR by tanuki standards. Simon, on the other hand, has a mind capable of GAR and shows plenty of promise to become a REAL man. I look forward to that transformation.

PS: The GAR-est character so far in TTGL has to be Boota. Just try slicing a good chunk of your left butt-cheek to save your comrades and you'd realise how darn GAR he is.

Related posts:

1. Gurren Lagann – Closing thoughts
2. Gurren Lagann – Opening Salvo
3. Ten Chara Talkabout Gurren-Lagann