Yeah, you know what’s coming. In fact, Cuchlann beat me to the punch with this moment. Perhaps needless to say, if you haven’t seen Gurren-Lagann, and you want to, you should not read on.

But if you have seen it, let’s revisit that part again.

I was not prepared for Kamina’s death. I watched the scene with staunch disbelief. I wouldn’t believe it; I couldn’t believe it.

While the dominant reaction seems to hover somewhere between sadness and outrage, and while I was certainly upset, I felt more shock than anything. As Cuchlann said, “we as audience members can understand why a group can build so readily around him — we want to be there too, being pushed by the force of his personality.” Thus far, the show had used Kamina to propel itself forward. His initiative was responsible for practically every ounce of progress the good guys had made up until the eighth episode. What the hell was the Gurren Brigade supposed to do without him — no, what the hell were we supposed to do without him?

I was wholly prepared to accept that Kamina would survive his grievous wounds.

But then he went ahead and died anyway.

I wasn’t any more pleased at this outcome than Simon. But I’ll be honest: after a bit of thought, it seemed quite sensible, in the context of the story.

For all his charisma, Kamina always irked me. He did his best to support Simon, certainly, but that did nothing to change his being a constant factor in the way of Simon’s progress. Kamina was the unbearably awesome older brother to whom Simon was forced to live up, and, when faced with this situation, Simon seemed to take the route of accepting his subordinate position. He wouldn’t try to match Kamina; how could he? It becomes obvious that he can as the show progresses, but would he have ever felt the need to as long as Kamina was alive? In order for Simon to grow in a way that would put him at the forefront of everything post-time skip, I figure that Kamina more or less had to die. He was a necessary victim of the plot.

It’s really quite tragic, I think — especially for me. I know what it’s like for the progress of a younger brother to possibly require my getting out of the way. Take it from Otouto.

Otouto-kun: I wouldn’t call you a roadblock. You’re more of a waypoint for me. Anyway, I hate to say I wanted Kamina to die, but he really had to. Alright, maybe it doesn’t pain me too much to say it, but the point is simple: he was a roadblock for Simon.

Pontifus: But did you really want him to die? From the beginning?

Otouto-kun: Nah, I didn’t want him to die, I simply understood the importance of his death. In a way, his death wasn’t only a way for Simon to grow up, but for himself as well. You could say that while he was dying he realized it wasn’t a game. He accepted his death and sort of passed the torch on to Simon. Although I could just be insane, since I’ve started looking at everything like a growing up story lately.

Pontifus: Which isn’t unreasonable, since so much anime deals with young people. But what makes me a waypoint and Kamina a roadblock? What’s the key difference there?

Otouto-kun: Well, Kamina was a leader. He took the spotlight and pretty much inspired everyone to follow him. This pushed Simon back and forced him to try to keep up. You’re more of a teacher; you have actually sat me down and taught me things. You aren’t really standing in my way. From what I’ve gathered you are perfectly fine with standing aside and letting me go when the time is right. I’m not too good at explaining things, but are you seeing what I’m saying?

Pontifus: I’m not much of a figurehead, I can tell you that much. When you go back and watch the early episodes of G-L, though, you see that Kamina was supportive of Simon all along; he always had a sense of Simon’s strengths, and seemed to rely on them. I’d agree that, in order for Simon to end up as the adult he became in the end, Kamina had to go, but I don’t think Kamina ever intended to get in the way. He genuinely seemed to want to be a good older brother figure.

Otouto-kun: You definitly speak the truth. I never saw Kamina as a bad person. The way everything played out put Simon in more of a background position though. Because of this, he was forced to try to keep up. I can understand how Simon must have felt in this situation. I think that, yes, Kamina was usually supportive of Simon, but I feel like it might have been hard for Simon to pick up on this. He probably felt kind of left out when matched up with someone like Kamina. At times I have felt, and sometimes still feel, this way about you, Aniki.

Pontifus: Simon definitely found himself in Kamina’s shadow — I think it’s safe to say that someone like Kamina casts a longer shadow than I do — but the reason this was a problem, the reason Kamina had to go, was because Simon had accepted his subordinate position. He didn’t really aspire to be anything else. And I think that Kamina even realized that Simon’s attitude wasn’t good for him, hence the “believe in you who believes in yourself” scene. Which was, incidentally, the last thing Kamina did before he died, with the exception of the Giga Drill Breaker.

The point is, we older brothers may not want to be these monolithic figures, but we really have no choice sometimes. It’s hard in a different way than being a younger sibling is hard. I have to sympathize with Kamina — I mean, it’s sad that death was literally his only option for the plot to work.

Otouto-kun: Let me just say, when you’ve lost your parents, literally or figuratively, you are going to look for the first thing that even slightly inspires you, and you’re going to follow it. When you are young, that is. Trust me. I must also say that, as a younger brother, I probably can’t truly understand the hardships of an older brother, but I feel like it’s hard for the older brother to truly understand how much his younger brother truly treasures their relationship.

It is sad that Kamina had to die, but it was because of his personality that it had to happen. If he had been more of a teacher than a role model, things may have been different.

Pontifus: The line between teacher and role model seems blurry to me. And besides, had Kamina not been Kamina, the Gurren Brigade never would’ve happened. There’s no question in my mind that Kamina had to die because of his role, but he couldn’t have been any other kind of character, either. He was doomed from the beginning, unfortunately, even if I didn’t see his death coming — I mean, I didn’t expect the show to have as much depth as it did.

You mention, though, that the older brother has a hard time understanding how the younger brother views the sibling relationship, and I think that’s probably true, but do you think Kamina’s lack of understanding was part of his “problem?”

Otouto-kun: I hate to say I’m truly sure about anything, but I feel that it was a contributing factor. I think that Kamina didn’t understand the effect his actions were having on Simon.

Pontifus: It’s the conundrum of being an older brother, I suppose. But the thing that elevates G-L beyond gar fanservice for me is that it lets people like us see the big picture. We can sit here and talk about Kamina and Simon in a way we’d never be able to manage with ourselves — we’re too close to our own situation. If I had to say Gurren-Lagann was “for” someone, I’d say it’s for us.

Otouto-kun: Well said, Aniki.

Tags: kamina, otouto dialogues, tengen toppa gurren lagann

Thus spake Pontifus on Sunday, 21 December 2008 at 3:53 pm, and Anime expanded tenfold. Become privy to further discussion on the matter via RSS 2.0. You might grace us with a brilliant comment, or trackback from a distant podium.