Quick, name a GAR character. Did you say Kamina? Why not Guts, Kenshiro, or Golgo 13? Why is it Kamina’s name that’s synonymous with GAR? I asked the OH! Team to enlighten me.
Baka-Raptor: I don’t get it. Why does everyone keep saying Kamina is GAR?
Lbrevis: Kamina’s dramatic speeches, fearlessness and hotheaded battles with the beastmen inspired Simon and every other human who met him.
Baka-Raptor: You know who else is fearless, hotheaded, gives dramatic speeches, and inspires everyone who meets him? Naruto.
Lbrevis: Men wanted to be him and women wanted to be with him.
Baka-Raptor: Nobody wants to be Kamina. He died at 17, and in all likelihood, a virgin. Women don’t want to be with him; little 14-year-old girls do, and a girl that age would fall in love with a trash can if it looked at her the right way.
Lbrevis: Kamina had the most badass attacks and he invented the grandaddy of them all: the giga drill breaker.
Baka-Raptor: Then he invented getting his ass kicked. He even secured a patent on it.
Lbrevis: In the Gurren Lagann universe Kamina basically invented the Manly Death.
Baka-Raptor: Yeah, by default, because none of the other “good guys” died in the first arc. That means Kamina also invented the wussiest death, the lamest death, the gayest death.
Lbrevis: Kamina’s sunglasses alone were one of the most manly things in the entire show. Had he not worn them I’d be willing to bet that anyone who looked directly into his eyes during a fight would’ve simply burned to a crisp from the strength of his blazing soul staring out.
Baka-Raptor: That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
Lbrevis: Even just the memory of Kamina was enough to rescue the entire Gurren Lagann team from ending up stuck in an alternate universe forever.
Baka-Raptor: Let’s give everyone credit for what they do in other people’s dreams. Last night I had a dream in which ****************
riceisnice: Kamina is GAR because he can inspire little boys to use their drills to pierce the heavens, reach where those penetrators haven’t been before.
Baka-Raptor: Kamina had to repeat the same damn phrase over and over again for Simon to get the message. Krauser succeeded without even trying.
riceisnice: Women fall for him, even though he comes off as a brash and brute-like big-mouth; he is a pimp in short.
Baka-Raptor: Women don’t fall for him; little girls do. He’s not a pimp in short; he’s short of a pimp. But you’re right that he has a big mouth. Maybe he’d still be alive if he could shut up and focus on not getting raped.
riceisnice: In his private moments, Kamina is able to break down and reveal his true emotions. What a true “man.”
Baka-Raptor: Awwwwwwwwwwwww
riceisnice: Kamina can think up “combine” moves that join together two hulking pieces of steel/something. This man is a blacksmith, a GARsmith.
Baka-Raptor: Gar Smith is an environmental journalist. Sounds like a wuss to me.
riceisnice: We can’t forget the manly death that comes from trying to save his loves ones.
Baka-Raptor: Actually, he died because he screwed up royally…
riceisnice: Of course, this death could have been prevented through a little preparation, but real men, GARmen, don’t think. They act!
Baka-Raptor: Oh, so he was just acting dead…
beanbrew: Baka-Raptor said that the post would be biased in his favour. He is on the “Not GAR” side. I want to be on the winning side.
Baka-Raptor: I don’t recall saying that.
beanbrew: Real men don’t like breasts. Real men like flat-chested little girls.
Baka-Raptor: Agreed. Real men don’t like breasts; they love breasts. They also know that 14-year-old girls don’t have any.
beanbrew: Real men wear pink. Kamina does not wear pink.
Baka-Raptor: Kamina is clearly uncomfortable with his sexuality. In any case, real men are colorblind. I bet Kamina could tell the difference between Sunflower and Canary.
beanbrew: Real men would give me more talking points about how they aren’t GAR.
Baka-Raptor: See above
beanbrew: Real men go back in time to try to kill themselves.
Baka-Raptor: And Kamina never tried that. Not even once. Thank you for agreeing with me.
This was originally posted two years ago at a website that no longer exists. Here’s the timestamp to prove it:
Special thanks to otou-san for taking less than three years to get a backup of the post to me.
Kamina wasn’t GAR. He was just a weird kid rife with complexes (brother complex, inferiority complex, etc). He was really a pussy.. didn’t he even admit that in the end? His flashy over-compensation was essentially the good guy equivalent of Brilliant Dynamites Neon.. how very GAR. His most GAR trait is his penchant for heroic self-sacrifice, though the fact that he leads others to do the same makes it un-GAR.
I think of Kamina as a tragically questionable role model. A younger, slower Straight Cougar with no real powers (except being Genre Savvy enough to realize his universe was powered by the Rule of Cool). The kind of guy you’d expect to start acting angsty and emo at any second, but redeeming himself by instead channelling that energy into the leadership role no one else really wanted or was qualified for.
But he was arguably the most fun and interesting character in the show, so he ended up being the perfect character to kill off.
Brilliant Dynamites Neon and Straight Cougar? Excuse me while I send this comment via time machine to my self in 2001 when I’d better grasp the comparisons. Or whenever it was the shows re-ran on Cartoon Network.
Up to the point of his death and probably the entire first half, I’d have to agree with you, there was no more interesting character. Simon stepped it up in the second half, though I suppose you could credit that on his not being weak enough to die against a mini-boss.
Kamina admitted he was weak, but the fans forget that for some reason. My grudge here is really against the fans who all put him on a pedestal, not Kamina himself, though his yapping doesn’t help his cause.
The Naruto line made me laugh, as did the response about 14 year old breasts.
Gar is overrated anyways.
Indeed, that term nobody knows how to use is more popular than it should be.
Who cares if he was Gar or not? He was a fantastic and hugely entertaining character. idk why people care so much about arguing whether he was gar or not and using that as evidence that he’s not a good character or not. Guts is Gar, but he’s also an incredibly simple character with not a whole lot to him. I care about Kamina a hell of a lot more than I do about Guts, gar or otherwise
Everyone cares whether he was GAR or not. Weren’t you around three years ago? Every blog post about TTGL said Kamina was GAR, photoshopped him into GAR scenarios, wrote Chuck Norris style GAR jokes about him, and made shitty GAR puns like, “When Kamina died, he went to GARhalla!” I don’t recall reading anyone’s opinion to the contrary back then. If you consider him a good character, fine, as long as you realize he’s not what the fandom painted him to be.
Is it okay to say Lancer from Unlimited Blade Works?
Absolutely. He was the GARest character there.
SHIT. I was going to say that I had said this exact same thing before here
http://glothelegend.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/spring-season-mid-terms-well-theyre-kinda-late-but/
But it was still behind. Kamina isn’t GAR. There’s plenty of characters who aren’t considered GAR but are very similar to him. I can’t remember any of them, but that’s okay because I know I’m right. After all, I have an ISSS.
I’ve also changed my mind about Berserk. I now say it deserves 5^^.
You also said the same thing here, right after I said it.
Berserk wasn’t a 5^^? For shame!
Ah…I’ve since rethought my rating and decided to give berserk a 5^^…..I would love to explain, but I’m barely sober enough to function. If That………………Go Sox.
drrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnk
I never understand all the wuss about Kamina too; if I had to praise someone from Gurren Lagann, it would be Simon after the time skip. Who claimed back his wife from the hands of an advanced alien race, kicking their ass and securing humanity’s future in the process ? Surely not Kamina.
Not to mentions Kamina’s fights are worthless in front of the galactic sized epic fight simon fought (I really think the word “epic” here is appropriate). Heck, in the ending of the movie, he freaking create a drill out of his own BLOOD !
I guess you could call it epic, but there’s a lot of inflation going on. It’s like how in a video game an item might cost 5 coins early in the game and 50000 coins near the end.
Future Simon is the GARest on the show by far. Attitude is a large part of that. His past self was strong but didn’t have the attitude. Kamina had the attitude but couldn’t back it up.
Archer is GAR.
Erm. Well. I don’t know about that. He’s something. Something special.
The word GAR was originally derived when speaking about Archer but I think in your case it is a bit difficult to go GAR for Archer. Not without extensive plastic surgery.
You could say it’s close enough in spirit to be a lesbian and go GAR for a guy, or to be bisexual and go half-GAR.
I consider Archer most GAR in the Fate arc. In UBW, Lancer was GAR, and I’d also give Shiro the nod over Archer. In Heaven’s Feel, Archer was ok, but Shiro outdid him once again.
Nice debate baka raptor ! did u debated with any EVANGELION – fanboy like this ? ( NGE and TGL both are gainax production though !!! )
And the comment -“Kamina’s sunglasses alone were one of the most manly things in the entire show. Had he not worn them I’d be willing to bet that anyone who looked directly into his eyes during a fight would’ve simply burned to a crisp from the strength of his blazing soul staring out. ” -> XDDD , i laughed so hard !
My glasses are manlier.
where did the word GAR came from ? from GARfield ? or from GaoGaiGAR ?
I’d debate on Evangelion too, but I haven’t seen the movies yet. I want to check those out before forming a final opinion.
Gar, according to wikipedia, is a North American freshwater fish of the family Lepisosteidae.
I can safely say that Kamina was not a Gar.
Well played.
I’d put him as far as the phylum Chordata, but that’s it.
Fair enough, we have a lot of bad-ass motivational speakers, some who can actually back their words up(Diebuster,S. basara)
Sengoku Basara is a minefield of GAR. Never seen any of the -busters. The first few Google image search results have me concerned.
I honestly don’t even know what exactly GAR is. Haha.
But if GAR is simply defined as “manly”, well, people have different opinions on what makes a guy manly.
I like Kamina, GAR or not.
However, I don’t agree if there’s such a statement “he’s the most GAR character in all anime” =_= No way.
*realized her last line seemed confusing.*
Rephrase: “However, for my perspective of what’s manly, I can’t agree on the statement of Kamina being the most GAR character n all anime ^^;”
i don’t know why anyone cares if kamina is gar or not. i don’t even understand what is gar fully. i probably should invent a cool word too. kamina is just a passionate character for me. he believed what he was fighting for (whatever that was) and thats all that matters. oh, and he acted and looked cool. it doesn’t matter how he died. i don’t need any stupid arguements about 14yo girls. thats too complex. if you dedicate a post to kamina’s garness then you probably have deep issues with the matter at hand. although i too am envious that i don’t have any GAR in me at all. but not so much that i would tell anyone in such a twisted way.
and yes. i think you should write an eva post. for lulz. …oh wait, what other reason would you have?
Capital letters are GAR.
If Kamina is passionate, call him passionate, I agree with that. If Kamina looked and acted cool, say he looked and acted cool, I agree with that. As long as nobody’s calling him badass, strong, GAR, manly, etc., I’m fine with that.
Kamina was a likable guy. He didn’t care whether or not he’s GAR. That was just other people opinions about him.
Yes, and those people are wrong and annoying.
ARCHER
Don’t you meant GARCHER LOL!!!!!!!!!!
Finally someone who hates Kamina almost like I hate him. M
Made the whole first part of the anime hateful :E
I’ll be sincere, I was happy when he died. :O
Loudmouth characters in general annoy me. He played a valuable role in the show, but I certainly didn’t miss him when he died.
The Naruto line was priceless. But that’s all I can say since I haven’t actually watched this series yet and am only vaguely aware of Kamina’s existence.
Spoiler: Kamina dies.
Holy shit, I just typed in “naruto gar” and one of the top 10 search results was about Kamina.
Quick, name a GAR character
SHIZUO. (If you’d said person/ dino I’d say BAKA-RAPTOR).
That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
I don’t believe you.
I bet Kamina could tell the difference between Sunflower and Canary.
I spent far too long looking at that, and even longer trying to stop laughing enough so that I could type this… trying being the operative word… *sigh*
Haven’t seen Durarara, but it’s on my MAL “Plan to Watch” list, and a GAR person/dino would rather die than break a promise.
That was two years ago. I’ve heard impressively stupid things since.
To be fair, the Sunflower/Canary thing was based off an obscure Simpsons reference, and Maddox did something similar back in 2007, not that you should stop fawning over me or anything.
Old school post. I went back to Oi Hayaku! recently and it appears to have been taken over by the Jews. They are trying to sell me home intercom systems.
Also, GAR originated when a member of /a/ mistakenly said GAR instead of Gay. So fundamentally one of the requirements for a character be GAR is you must have a man-crush on him. As in “I would go gay for ________.” So in that case I’m not sure Golgo counts. He’s too cold of a lover as we’ve seen. He wouldn’t treat you right. I wouldn’t be able to quantify Guts or Kenshiro because I haven’t seen Berserk/FotNS. Kamina might count but then I guess you would be a pedophile in some states.
My personal GAR character? Cobra. He looks like he’d show you a good time. It’d be like going gay for James Bond with a beam rifle for an arm.
Zionism has gone too far.
Even if Golgo 13 ditches me, he’d pay me off first. I like that.
I’m starting Cobra as soon as I’m done with Golgo 13 (just found a new bunch of subs a few days ago).
He is what he is.
Kamina is slice of life.
Hmmmmm…Lucky Star and TTGL did come out during the same season. Coincidence?
I am GAR.
Your comment on the original post was:
You were so cute back then. When did you become so self-absorbed?
(I also promised you something in my response to your comment. I hope you don’t remember what it is; that way I’ll never have to follow through.)
Don’t you mean when did I get so confident of my complete and total fucking awesomeness? Ever since they started letting me train on machine guns.
What’s a GAR?
Can I eat it?
I did even want to Promote Golgo 13 as the manliest Character ever.
Hahahah!
You can!
I’m finishing up Golgo 13 as we speak. There will almost surely be a post about it.
I was introduced to the term GAR when I was reading episodic blog posts about Shangri-la on some blog I can’t remember the name of. The character being described as GAR was the main character Kuniko, who was a 14 year old girl with no breasts. Wait..make that a 16/17 year old girl with no breasts (not sure if it makes much of a difference…). Can girls be GAR too? Kuniko could destroy tanks with a boomerang, that’s pretty hardcore to me. But whether it’s GAR…I don’t know.
Kamina died too early for me to like him. Though I suppose he was pretty hilarious as a result of him being utterly ridiculous =D
“Can girls be GAR too?”
And how! Teresa and Clare from Claymore are GAR and GAR-ier.
Kamina may not be GAR, but he’s got his own alternate-universe buddy cop series: http://captainosaka.deviantart.com/art/DOUBLE-K-001-82688715
Appropriate link #1
Appropriate link #2
Anybody under 18 does not have breasts. If you think otherwise, you’re a pedophile.
The ridiculousness was a large part of the show’s charm, thought sometimes it was pretty stupid.
Personally I’m somewhat annoyed by terms like GAR.
But the real reason why Kamina is GAR is because Gai Daigoji was the original super GAR guy, and then since Kamina was very much like him but in a newer anime, he took that mantle.
It’s not a term I ever use unless taking down a character who’s called it (or if I’m being ironic).
Never heard of GD, but I do recognize his face for some reason. I think otou-san was using him as an avatar at some point.
You sir need to watch Nadesico… you won’t regret it.
Anyone who’s able to get the audience fired up is labeled GAR and thats what Kamina did, sorta like inspiring moral to the troops kinda fired up.
Good thing DADT was repealed.
Norio Wakamoto is gar ! End of discussion.
True, even if recently it does get punched by Touma…:P
He did voice Mechazawa. Anyone who voiced a Cromartie character has to be GAR.
This is the most intelligent argument ever in the internet
That’s my website: strength meets intelligence.
On the whole I prefer Gunbuster/Diebuster over Gurren Lagann.
That’s the second -buster mention so far. Eight more and I’ll have to consider watching it. Plus you get a free sub.
Kamina had the decency to Dai before he could ruin the series.
How thoughtful. Remind me to send him an e-card.
I remember reading this before Filler-Raptor or should i say Flashback-Raptor ?
btw, there’re things that deserves to be reminded…others…well, let’s keep this short. 😉
Two years is a good period for recycling material. Only a couple of commenters here also commented on the old post. This bodes well for future flashback filler posts…
Shit, today I’d fall in love with a trash barrel if it looked at me the right way, and I’m not even fourteen years old. Except, replace ‘fall in love with’ with ‘fuck’.
…
Shit, so I’m a fourteen year old boy. Lovely.
The only thing that I remember about Kamina is the ‘now I have two heads’ scene. X)
Nice to meet you btw, and your blog is awesome. 🙂
Bringing up memories of OH!…
Shit, a tear just came to my eye. A flash in the pan but a goddamn brilliant flash in the plan.
All I can say is that Kamina had the cahonas to actually step up and do what he had to – lead a faction of rebels to defeat the king/suppressor. That’s what he had to do and dammit did he do a good job, until he got killed. On that note: it wasn’t Kamina’s fault he died. I don’t see how we can blame Kamina for his death. If it’s anyone’s fault, it would be Simon’s because he thought he had a chance with a girl who wanted everything to do his older brother and not him most of the time. It was Simon’s backbone, or lack there of, that got Kamina killed. Kamina might have had a chance to recover had he gone and laid down in his Gurren instead of hitting Simon with a metal fist, but instead he decided to pick his balls up anyway and kill himself to give a future for many others to come (Which is exactly what he said he wanted pre-battle for dai-gunzan). However that doesn’t make him the most baller shit ever. Simon gets that title. Although he ends up getting saved by the memory of Kamina in the end, it was his indomitable spirit that conjured up such a vision and kept him going.
Hell, even Nia, might be stronger than Kamina in the sense of the spiral. She survived way longer (a week) than Kamina did (a few minutes), granted he did preform a giga drill breaker while dead, it still takes a lot of power to keep a human body alive in our time, so even if he produced enough for a GDB, it still pales in comparison to even Nia.
Bottom line: Kamina’s personality did infact save the day on more than one occasion, however, Simon, inheriting that attitude and personality, used his own spiral power (which surpased Kamina’s 1,000,000,000,000,000 fold) to create the most super awesome spiral being in the universe. Being stupid enough to believe you can do anything and then miraculously having the ability to do anything, that’s about a 9 out of 10 on the God scale (With God being 11 and to those who don’t believe, don’t hate, I’m using terms to simplify things.)
For those that this did not mnake sense to. Your drill will pierce the heavens and earth and even tomorrow!
I feel pretty Unwelcome here, I guess ill take my leave…