Gurren Lagann III: Gunmen and Identity

Gunmen and Identity

GAINAX is an anime studio famous for their mecha anime - for those that don't know, mecha is a term used to describe "giant robots", often piloted or driven by human pilots, that are used for combat. Being true to their name, mechas are giant in form, being several times the size of the person inside. Sometimes mecha are driven by two or more people, depending on the specific robot.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann can be counted as such. The mechas in Gurren Lagann are very unique to the show. They are called Gunmen - the name in Japanese is a combination of gan and men to create ganmen, meaning "huge face", and the English version can be broken down into gun-man. They are called so because Gunmen have a giant face composing the middle of their body - like a face with arms and legs. Gunmen are used for almost all fighting and battles that take place in the anime.

Gunmen come in a variety of different forms, but as a rule all of them have some kind of anthropomorphic character to them, and every one of them bears a central face. The Gunmen forms a kind of armor or suit from within which the pilot fights - acting as an armored suit for the pilot, they are able to fight using the Gunmen. And, no matter how large the Gunmen combine, they always have a face.

The Gunmen are significant because they traditionally symbolize the role of armor in the process of combat - that is, an eternal war between forces in nature. The armor itself is symbolic of the body - the Gunmen represents the shell of the spirit inside, which is symbolized by the pilot or the individual itself. Simon, by himself, cannot fight against the Beastmen, since the Beastmen are fighting using the Gunmen; he must take on a material body, that is, a Gunmen of his own, in order to defeat the Beastmen on the material plane.

Example of a Gunmen on Earth.

The pilot is the soul of the Gunmen, and the Gunmen is the body. Without the soul, the Gunmen cannot function; likewise the spirit cannot fight the material Beastmen without using the Gunmen. It's also interesting to note that, true to the genetically and spiritually superiority of the humans, the humans power their Gunmen using Spiral Energy, while the Beastmen must use the power of the sun (material energy) to power them. That's because they're unable to use Spiral Energy, as gone over in the second part of the analysis.

More so, the Gunmen is symbolic of identity. Each character has a different Gunmen. During the Final Battle in the series, Simon's Gunmen grows to immense sizes, each one bearing a different outward form, which is symbolic of the progressive stages of his spiritual evolution. As the successive layers of the universe are broken through, the Gurren Lagann takes on forms representative of that stage, which relates back to the stages of alchemical transformation gone over in Part I. The part at the end of the ultimate battle where the Simon's breaks out of the Gurren Lagann and faces the Anti-Spiral represents the final liberation of his true, raw spiritual form from the body (the Gunmen), wince he has grown to the point of transcending the physical and the bodily.

Gunmen and Faces

All throughout ancient cultures, the face was seen as the representative of one's identity - this was also expressed through the concept of the mask, which gave visible visage to the otherwise unknown. It was common to attribute certain masks to certain gods, as physical manifestations or avatars of the divine powers as representatives on earth that could communicate with humans with the use of the mask - the messenger of the gods. This basically transfers in meaning to the messenger of the spirit - the mask or face represents the interface between the spirit and the rest of the world, as well as through the body.

The reasons for the development of Theater in human cultures goes back to this very same root. It was the representation of the divine on earth, manifested so as to have a way of communicating with the material forms of humans. People who were not yet transcendent of physicality could therefore still be imparted with the message of the gods.

Furthermore, it is the shape of the face that humans instinctually recognize above all else. Even in abstract shapes we can make out faces - it is in our instincts to recognize the human visage. That is because the face is symbolic of the front of communication between humans - the face represents the movements of the soul, with the body being a further extension of this representation. While the rest of the body can preform physical actions, the face is capable of imparting words, emotions, and eye contact, including the powers of sight.

Gunmen of the Anti-Spirals; Monstrous Archons

The face is the representation of identity. Simon begins his journey as a small boy, with seemingly no power, and this is represented through his Gunmen. Even though the Lagann is small, it is capable of imparting a mysterious and extremely powerful energy - Spiral Energy - which allows him to take control of other Gunmen (possession of multiple bodies) by combining with them. His Gunmen is the only one that can do this - signifying his role as a Messiah with the special power to combine Gunmen.

Gurren Lagann

The Gurren Lagann, which is the show's titular Gunmen, is a combination of Simon's Lagann and Kamina's Gurren. Together, they make the Gurren Lagann, the most powerful Gunmen in the TTGL universe. This is because Simon's Gunmen is representative of something superior; the complete harmonization of the body and spirit. The Lagann, which is the head of the Gurren Lagann, represents the spirit and mind, which is piloted and represented by Simon. The Body is represented by the Gurren, which is piloted first by Kamina, then Rossiu and then Viral. This is representative of the fact that even though the same spirit might exist throughout time, it will come to inhabit different bodies - take up different avatars - yet retain the same metaphysical core, which is Simon. This means that he takes on different avatars or physical bodies at different points in time, with the "hosts" or avatars being Kamina, Rossiu and Viral. It is through them (their bodies, represented by the Gurren) that he is able to fight against the Anti-Spirals.

Note that the Gurren Lagann is the only Gunmen to have an actual head, aside from the Gunmen of the main antagonists - this signifies Simon's role as a being on the same level as these universal metaphysical forces. Whoever pilots the "body" is irrelevant, only that they are chosen to be vessels, while Simon's role as the soul of the Gurren Lagann gives it its true identity.

Coming of Age

Gurren Lagann is also a Coming of Age story. This is revealed in the earthly elements of the show - the actual upbringing and maturation of Simon, which spans the entire series both in the physical sense (his "growing-up") and the metaphysical sense (his evolution in Spiral Power). His identity solidifies over time, growing from the simple Gurren Lagann to the large final forms of the Gurren Lagann, and then to his raw, mature self during the final battle with the Anti-Spiral.

Next time, we'll wrap up the analysis by going over the show itself, its production, and the possibilities implied by its holistic existence. Until then, spiral on.