Allegory of the Cave
In Plato’s allegory of the cave, Socrates says that the released prisoner will think the world outside the cave is superior to the world he experiences inside the cave. He tried to share this with the remaining prisoners in the cave. Regardless of trying to lead them on the journey Socrates had just been on, Socrates would be blessing himself for the change. He also took pity on the other prisoners and wanted to bring his fellow cave dwellers out of the cave and into the sunlight.
When the returning prisoner (whose eyes had grown used to the sunlight) was about to go blind, he went back into the cave—just like when he first exposed himself to sunlight. The prisoners who remained would infer from the returner’s blindness that the trip out of the cave had done him harm. They should not have made such a journey. Socrates concluded that the prisoners if they were able, would therefore kill and reach out to anyone who tried to drag them out of the cave.
When speaking of the cave allegory, we see that the unrealistic point in this allegory is to question the belief that ignorance is bliss. Is it better not to know at all or to know but still understand that the world could change for the worse?
Simon and Socrates
Seeing Socrates tells us that there is more to life than a hole, just like Kamina, so Simon and the village of Giha play like prisoners. In Gurren Lagann, they, especially Simon, take risks to have a good life. Therefore, everything is about perspective and open-mindedness. Simon understands the situation but never jumps in, instead taking small steps little by little. He listens to the opinions of others, understands the many perspectives of those affected, and examines his conscience in determining who is wrong and right.
Simon did as he was told and did well because he stayed at his “cave” daily. He understands the narrative, digs, and can eat. Vice versa, Simon also understood from Kamina that there might be a new world outside the cave. Kamina is a dreamer; he is an individual who doesn’t exist in the village of Giha. It’s out of reach for now. Although there is always a chance to get back to doing what one is good at or start something new by taking risks to be great, in the end, Simon made the right choice and started his journey to depart from the cave.
The Title’s Literal Meaning
Aside from Gurren Lagann, the literal meaning of the title is still one of the best mecha animes of all time. Along with Neon Genesis Evangelion, many people say that anime is the antithesis of Evangelion. However, Gurren Lagann, as it is commonly known, is an animated television series by Gainax. Konami, along with Aniplex, also produced the series, directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi and written by Kazuki Nakashima.
Despite becoming a worldwide sensation, the series spawned numerous follow-up media adaptations, such as a manga series, English language versions, light novel series, and video games. The series tells the story of Simon, a 14-year-old orphan from the village of Giha. In this setting, humans live underground. In short, Simon has little self-confidence and is a weak character.
Therefore, he distanced himself from everyone else in his village except for his high-blooded, rebellious brother, Kamina. Simon spends most of his time digging tunnels; the one thing he is good at is his spiral drill. Apart from always wandering what lay beyond the rock ceiling underground, one day, he was digging as usual. Then, he found a small spiral drill growing in the earth.
The Beginning
The chief mechanic, who was buried nearby, saved the drill and moved on. It introduces the uncomfortable environment and characters in which the protagonist finds himself. On the habitual days, Kamina and Simon go through a lot; suddenly, the earthquake trembles and people rush to find a place to hide from falling rocks like they always do when it happens. Simon trembled with fear, asking Kamina to hide and stop since his parents were hit by an earthquake some time ago.
However, Kamina was standing in the middle of the village. He screams at the others to dig to the surface. There were no rocks or ceilings to crush them. Still, no one was listening. At that moment, the roof exploded. A gigantic monster that looks scary has appeared and is now threatening to kill everyone in the village. As his usual self could not contain his fear, Simon thought it would be pointless to fight against that thing.
Meanwhile, Kamina taunts him to fight it. Suddenly, a mysterious girl with a sniper rifle shoots at the monster, introducing herself as Yoko from the village of Littner on the surface. Those monsters are the machines we call Gunmen, the enemies of the human race.
The Darkness
After the Gunmen shoot the three dead, they retreat and crawl down Simon’s tunnel to the chief mechanic he found earlier. There, they found a spiral-shaped keyhole in the center. Simon inserts a small drill where the engine starts up, with the arms and legs becoming robotic-like machines with Simon controlling them inside. They fly back, fighting the Gunmen, as Kamina names the robot Lagann.
It has the same power. However, Simon’s inexperience continues to make him afraid of the Gunmen; after all, help is not on the way. They are now on the brink of defeat after fighting the Gunmen. After Simon almost gave up when the Gunmen were about to destroy them, Kamina supported him. He tells Simon that he doesn’t have to believe in himself. Yet he trusts Kamina, who trusts himself.
Therefore, Simon gathered his willpower to create a massive drill from Lagann’s forehead to penetrate Gunmen’s arm. It pushed the Gunmen toward the skylight in the ceiling. Simon and his friends launch the Gunmen to the surface the first time he sees sunlight, clouds, the sky, and the surface. Previously, he lived in darkness underground. Now, he stepped into a surface world he had never seen before.
The Beast
He ventured to the surface with his friends while meeting other humans who surfaced before him. They fight off many of the Gunmen’s attacks, knowing that the Beastmen are driving all the Gunmen. Beastmen are half-human, half-animal creatures. After Kamina hijacks one of the Gunmen and calls him Gurren, he and Simon face their first challenge when they meet a Beastmen general named Viral.
He used his powerful gunmen against them. After joining forces as the new robot Gurren Lagann, they win the battle and gain the power to fight the Beastmen. As a result, they were able to free humanity from the dungeons and go on to defeat the Beastmen’s leader, the Spiral King, Lordgenome, and gain new allies along the way. As they fight countless enemies, Simon begins to have feelings for Yoko.
In preparation for attacking the enemy’s castle, he decided to express his feelings. Before Simon got to do so, he saw Yoko and Kamina kissing each other. After being heartbroken and confused in a fight to hijack an enemy fort, Simon is distracted by what he sees. The siege didn’t go as planned and led to one of the most iconic yet saddest moments in the series: Kamina’s death.
The Turn
The siege managed to defeat the enemy. Simon only lost the most important thing to him: Kamina. After Kamina’s death, Simon was devastated because he had lost his only family and mentor. Simon fell off the precipice of depression after fighting blindly without aim or direction. When he finds what appears to be a recently discarded tin box, he opens it and finds a girl inside. She introduces herself as Nia, princess of Lordgenome.
She tries to help Simon accept what happened and move on, but there is little hope from Nia that it can reach Simon. After the next battle fell on them, they fell into the Beastmen’s trap. The Beastmen General caught Nia, and the Dai-Gurren team broke up. Unknown to anyone, Simon was digging a hole with his small drill when he communicated with his spirit guide, Kamina. He realized that now he could believe in himself to make a breakthrough.
Therefore, Simon was reborn from Kamina’s shadow with the power of his radiance to penetrate anything that stood in his way. He defeated the Beastmen generals and proceeded to confront Lord Genome. After an epic battle against the Spiral King, Simon finally defeated him and gave humans the freedom to surface.
Political Drama
As Kamina and Simon had always wanted, seven years after the battle, Dai-Gurren and Simon established a world government where humans and Beastmen could live together on the surface, calling it Kamina City. Simon himself was elected supreme commander, ending the first-round phase; it ends Simon’s journey after leaving the cave. After the initiation phase, it becomes the return phase; Simon will face his fall, overcome it, and he will begin to complete his departure, perfectly timed in the second phase of the series.
Even if we only cut half of the series, Gurren Lagann can already be one of the anime that not only shines but also outperforms other anime. However, the series does not only tell the journey of the protagonist’s character. It is more about the major philosophy of how political drama and political discontent work within the narrative. In the series, Kamina is the only person in the entire village who believes there is a surface.
Other villagers saw his idea as unrealistic nonsense. We can compare this situation with the dynamics of reality, where there are many political conspiracies that many countries believe in and support.
Society Discontent
They note that many times in human history, rulers and governments have been shown to lead covert activities for different political ends. The presence of such facts in history has finally elicited a response from a society that is still defined by curiosity, obsession, or fear. To be more specific, the Spiritual King, like Kamina, serves as a political drama. The human population in the series appears to be completely oblivious to the existence of some kind of political power over the heads of their villages.
Settlements now know they have neighbors. Such a political problem seems somewhat unrealistic because the settlements have a long history of living under each other without finding each other. In the second phase of the series, a new challenge arose for the main protagonist. The series jumps seven years into the future, showing the team members as mature political leaders struggling with citizen discontent.
The problem is that people who have escaped from their underground pits have developed new demands and needs. The situation illustrates the challenging work of political leaders dealing with very diverse societies. In the second phase of the series, we see all the characters develop and grow up.
Cavemen
Simon has made a name for himself in the world. His colleagues had promoted him to the head of the world government. Each character has taken on a role in making the world work. On the other hand, Yoko tries to hide her identity and starts working as a schoolteacher. The world has undergone great changes during the past seven years, and the surface world looks like something from the future.
The scene shocked audiences by confusing the reason that humanity could develop from cavemen into such an advanced species in such a short time frame. The pace of evolutionary technology reflects the way the world has changed today. The second phase centers on the possible extinction of the human race. It switches to the apocalyptic mode we often see in other media within the genre as well.
The genre threatens to destroy all of humanity, and Nia is one of the characters that will do it. After Simon proposed to Nia, she agreed to marry him. Everything went awry when Nia “woke up.” They find out that she is a tool that an alien race called the Anti-Spirals used to destroy humanity. The climax of the series puts Simon and his friends up against the seemingly endless Anti-Spirals as the pilot crew glides across the galaxy, saving Nia and preserving humanity.
Victory
Throughout the series, the mecha genre has in many ways been a means of attaining the ultimate warrior spirit. Brutally, it is seen in the final act when Simon fails to play and sees his role in the new world order. He didn’t feel at home behind the counter, pushing papers roughly, and constantly wanted to gallantly return to his mecha. On the other hand, he had established himself as a warrior and achieved self-realization when he did battle wearing his armor.
At the end of the climax, Simon changes and grows into a brave warrior. He has also taken an aggressive role in pursuing a love affair with Nia. He traverses the universe, spanning time and space, to be able to protect and save her. In essence, Simon has asserted himself, not only living up to Kamina but surpassing himself. In one scene, Simon stands next to Kamina’s ghost in contrast.
He had grown taller, and more masculine, and his clothes were manlier than Kamina’s. The final fight depicts Simon throwing the galaxy at his enemy and channeling all of humanity’s fighting spirit as he tries to save Nia and humanity. Finally, he believed in himself, and self-actualization brought him to victory.
Bibliography
- Flores Barrios, E. (2021). The Shōnen Protagonist: A Link Between Cultures.
- Manivannan, V. (2011, April). “Later, Buddy”: The Politics of Loss and Trauma Representation in Tengen Toppa Gur-ren Lagann. In Forum for World Literature Studies (Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 3-15). Wuhan Guoyang Union Culture & Education Company.
- Plato, B. (2010). The allegory of the cave. P & L Publication.
- Trygstad, J. (2012). Living through Death in Anime.