Zombies Ruin Everything

If you’d of asked me what I would be doing on this date just a few years ago, I would not have given you the answer of “typing a character from an anime show about giant robots and publishing it on the internet.”

Yet here I am.

I usually keep my anime shows to a minimum. There’s a few that I really love but outside of that, I’m not too familiar with it. And on top of that, giant robots, cool though they may be, never really interested me that much.

Yet when I started watching Gurren Lagann, for all it’s anime goofiness and over-the-top craziness, I couldn’t stop. Where I would normally have written a show off with it’s casually written inconsistencies and/or lack of regard for physics, Gurren Lagann had me saying “Sure” (I mean, they have robot appendages growing out of a smaller robot that didn’t have space to store it, for cryin’ out loud!).

Most of that was because of Kamina, even though he’s only in a few episodes. But like the real life pinball-of-a-personality, the ENFP, he has a lasting effect on you, good or bad.

Kamina’s first function of Ne is what causes him to be so raucous and argumentative. EVERYWHERE HE GOES, HE’S GOT TO YELL ABOUT IT!” He often speaks in third person not because of Ne, but because of his confidence which only adds to his character. He talks about the surface world like Dorothy talks about being over the rainbow. His Ne is what makes him see the possibilities of what could be rather than what is.

“These sunglasses while living underground COULD make me COOL!”

If you know any type that seems to always bring up another side to an argument, you’ve got a strong Ne user on your hands and Kamina is no exception. His little brother Simon is fine with digging tunnels underground and listening to the higher-ups, just hoping that they’ll survive another day while Kamina is out of control with hope and possibility, two words to sum up the ENFP.

Kamina is not only the character to set the series in motion, he’s always the one that motivates every other character to do what they to do throughout the series even after he’s gone. His death is not only a sacrifice that wins the current battle for his brother and surrogate family, but the example he led by for the first few episodes is what inspires Simon and the rest of the team to keep pulling through until the long, violent, epic battle is ultimately won. Spoilers, by the way.

Of course it’s not solely Ne that makes all of this possible, it’s just what drives Kamina to do what he does. It’s not him entirely. Ne backed by Ti would make him an ENTP, what I thought at first despite Kamina’s many quotes on ignoring logic.

“YEAH! LOGIC! WHAT IS THAT?!”

People tend to think if a character or person says something to the effect of doing what you want or following your instincts, they must be a feeler.

Inversely, I’ve heard many feelers talk about how they have no emotion or are heartless. The reason it may have been brought up in the first place though, is that at one point the thinker or feeler may have struggled with the advice they’re giving you now and currently tend to want to see things from that view; something you might have known for years, they’re now seeing it in that light- the thinker has struggled to go with the flow while the feeler may have been an emotional wreck and no longer wants to be seen that way.

I digress.

Kamina though, is back by Fi which what keeps him so fueled- doing what he feels is right. He got no ultimate motivation past the point of hating where he is originally. He has a distant childhood memory and hangs onto that like a mantra.

He wants to know what else there is to life because it’s certainly not living out his life in the same underground city. He’s got big ideas, and a reach that extends his grasp. His advice is given loudly (like everything else he does), full of life, and while walking the line of sensible and crazy, it’s pretty inspiring in a weird sort of way.

“Don’t believe in yourself! Believe in me! Believe in the Kamina that believes in you!”

“A true man never dies, even when he’s killed!”

The ENFP in their natural habitat- in front of everyone else.

As I was watching it, I was at once uncomfortable with the corniness yet drawn in by the overwhelming positivity that permeates the show, much of it channeled through Kamina himself. Purposefully done, the show’s symbolism through the drills that the characters use are meant to represent the determination to “overcome all obstacles as something which gradually advances with every revolution”.

The more the show goes on, the bigger the battles get; from beneath the ground, fighting for a small corner of a dirt city all the way to fighting for humanity’s existence in a different dimension in a robot that spans galaxies, it’s all because of an ENFP.

While the ENTP may be great at persuading people, the ENFP’s main focus is people. They might just convince you of their ways because of their own belief that the human spirit overcomes. Their Ne shows them possibilities while their Fi pushes their mind to believe in what a person can accomplish.

Definitely an Idealist show, with constant talks of “doing the impossible.”

And at the very least, if words fail the ENFP, there’s always this-

This entry was posted on 08/19/2013 at 2:58 am and is filed under MBTI Idealists, MBTI Stuff with tags enfp, gurren lagann, kamina, mbti in fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.