"Gurren Lagann" on Hulu & YouTube Talkback (Spoilers)

In which case he's nothing but a pretentious little prig, in which case my assesment of him still stanRAB and I'd still like to beat his brains in.

I like those characters when they are something that must be endured by the protagonist, not when they ARE the protagonist, unless they happen to have something about them that is undefinably awesome. Clearly, for a lot of people, Kamina has that, but for me, I just want him dead and that's not a good thing in a protagonist.

even when you get your wish
 
He is in the first 8 episodes.

See, the main thing is, if Simon's the Protagonist, why not start after the time skip and tell about Kamina's story as way to explain how Simon effectively grew a pair. That way I don't have to be subjected to this giant jackass and any over-the-topness about him can be entirely chalked up to people's memories of him. Done like that, I'd probably like him, but it's not and I don't.
 
For the record, Jacob and anyone else watching the series for the first time, go ahead and skip the version of the sixth episode that they've got on Hulu. It's censored into a barely-coherent shell of its former self (and half of it is turned into a flasrabroadack episode to fill up the running time that got cut, to boot).

It's just the hot springs / comic relief episode, so you can skip it without missing anything in the way of plot. If you wind up liking the show, you can always check out the real version on DVD later if you're interested.
 
Not really. If you consider Roy Focker, Quattro Vagina, or any other "sempai/big brother" archetype that Kamina is, then I guess so.

But he's not the main character of the show by far. It's always about Simon and what happens around him.
 
Well then his non-entity status in the first few episodes was so pronounced that I didn't notice. He starts as a main character in the same way that Claus does. You very quickly care an awful lot more about everyone else than you do him (I say you, I mean me) so while he may be the focal point of the story, he's really just a lens through which you see other things and I didn't much care for his surroundings.
 
I loved the first episode too. I mean, the show does get better, but if you didn't really like anything about the first episode I'm kind of skeptical one would be that into the rest of the series. Even the massive tonal change after the time skip can't be appreciated without watching what came before it, and I don't think it's that worth watching 15 episodes you don't enjoy to get to 11 episodes you might enjoy
 
Indeed. There's like, one important thing that happens in it, and said one important thing is showed in the recap at the start of episode 7 anyway.
 
Anything that gets the good word out is a good thing. I'm just glad more people will get to see it.

Kinda stinks they're using the hacked up Episode 6 though.
 
Thats what I love so much about GL, among other things. Simon is the main character but Kamina is so over the top that he basically steals the show; thats what makes his death so jarring and poignant. The whole point of the show is to chronicle Simon going from whiney little boy into the badass his older "brother" wanted him to be.
 
Yes, see you might have skipped over the parts where I explained that I hated Kamina so his Death was, if anything, Wellcomed by me, or it would have been if I had been watching up until then, which I hadn't because I hate Kamina.

I'm also not a fan of Badassery for it's own sake. I don't find it the least bit intresting when the machinery of a show seems to react simpathetically with how loud the characters can yell and magically grow drills to destroy all the little mooks. There's no rhyme or reason for this and there's no upper limit to what you can do with said power, which basically translates into 'Crap will happen as the plot demanRAB' Instead of 'The plot must follow the course that the crap within it allows for.'

Badassery at it's best is when the character can exploit the limitations of thier surroundings to achieve maximum ass kicking. Kenshin is a master of this. I'm not the biggest Kenshin fan, but that is one badass man slayer. But in Gurren Lagaan, the world actually changes it's own rules to allow the asskicking to happen. That's lazy, derivative, pandering and dull.

To me that is, clearly I'm in a minority here.

(edit)

Also, Alex and Kamina couldn't be more disimilar character types. The one is Cold and Taciturn to the extreem, the other is loud, obnoxious, stupid and dangerously iraballanced. There is more badassery in Alex's cold, dead stare than in a 5 minute Kamina speach. Having Crispin Freeman voice him certainly helps Alex of course.
 
How about you guys just let him watch the show? Besides isn't that the episode where

[Spoilerish?]
Kittan and his sisters are introduced?
 
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