Was he a DMPC or PC?

So, I've been rewatching tengen toppa gurren lagann and I've been wondering, if we look at it from a tabletop perspective, was Kamina a DMPC or PC? What one could defenitly say is that he wanted to introduce Simons player into tabletop games as he was technicly not doing anything skill extensive at the start that would warrent a skillcheck. We can even say that he's making Simon learn how the combining checks work for a whole episode. If we claim that he was a DMPC, he even wrote himself out as an active force once Simon got the hang of things and got invested into the story.

So, the question that I propose, was he a well done DMPC or was he a PC with the intention of giving the new player he roped in most of the spotlight? If the later, which character did kaminas player came back as? If he was a DMPC, what other shows have DMPC's done right on this scale?

>Was he a DMPC or PC?
He was a character in a show.

PC that everyone loved. Died due to some bad rolls but the GM wrote it in well and even gave him a nice cameo at the end of the campaign.

He was a PC. A combination of some poor decisions and terrible rolls did him in, and the player decided to do something completely different and rolled up a little girl princess for his new character.

PC. And his player is new to roleplaying, and isn't very different from the character.
Impulsive, headstrong, doesn't think things through, kinda skimmed the rules at best (probably didn't do even that), but cares about everyone having fun - which means he kicked himself a few times when he realized just how much he was stealing the spotlight from everyone else.
That's when he started having his character push Simon more and made up the stuff about why he was saying what he was saying. Then comes some really bad rolls (after an entire game of ridiculous rolls) and woops, he gets horribly mangled. Not dead, but if he retreated or just waited for things to finish the character could get healed up.
"But that's not what KAMINA would do, he'd keep going!" "You'll die if you do" "TOO BAD HE KEEPS GOING. AND HE MAKES AN AWESOME MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH TO SNAP THE KID OUT OF HIS FUNK!" "Oh no not again..."
He later took over Kittan.

He was a PC that always intended to be just a joke character before suddenly everyone was actually following him.

He talked to his GM to switch characters, since this wasnt what he wanted, and gives his character a heroic sendoff. He comes back next session as Nia, a more serious character that got plot relevance because the GM recycled the intro for her that he was planning on using for an NPC anyway.

I don't think he was playing as Nia, at least not after the 7 year jumpcut, considering Nia was captured for most of that part. My bet would be on him taking over Rossiu.

Pre-timeskip he took over either Rossiu or Kittan.

Post timeskip the playgroup had taken a bit of a break, and instead he came back as Viral.

Post timeskip was a sequel campaign years later, when the player couldnt make every session.

He was just a character, retard. Anime isn't tabletop gaming, imbecile.

Some people have no imagination. I feel sorry for them.

There's hardly any difference between a good DMPC and a normal PC. In either case, he died due to poor rolls.

Viral was clearly never anything but an NPC. A group favorite, sure, but he never had center spotlight for anything.

Same goes for Rossiu. Kittan miiiiight have been a player.

Yeah. Viral in the second part was the group deciding the combination rules weren't actually fun for two players in a mech, but not wanting to retcon that Gurren Lagann needed two pilots.
Though IIRC they forgot a few times during that section anyways, though that might've been part of what lead to it. "Wait, didn't we NEED two pilots for this?" "Shit that's right, but that's really boring." "Eh, we can just throw an NPC into the other cockpit from here on, it's basically just Simon's mech now anyways."

Some people ask pointless questions and revel in meaningless discussion because they like to pretend there's a semblance of activity between their ears.

Exactly. Other than that, Viral basically just delivers exposition and does other NPC things.

Nia works as a PC for a player who cant make every game, because she was clearly never combat focused anyway, so all of her scenes being interaction stuff is fine. She was clearly built as a bard style buff machine social princess.

Id say that the game only had 3 players, and everyone else was an NPC. Even Kittan.

who hurt you?

I would say it started with 3, with Kamina jumping to Kittan, and Nia being a fourth who jumped in later on. Social character in a game about giant mechs beating the snot out of each other, still worked out anyways. Any combat ability was buff-related, mostly passive stuff.
Then they completed the game, hooray, and a few years later the GM decided to do a sequel but Nia's player couldn't come due to schedule (maybe could for the first few but then shit happens). Becomes a plot device instead.

>implying kittan wasn't kamina's second character.
user plz.

Nia was his second character. She shows up the session after Kamina dies. Do the math.

Kittan was introduced when Kamina was still alive. What kind of scrub player takes over an NPC instead of making a new character?

There are a number of player who'd rather take over existing characters the group likes with various amounts of success.

"That Kittan dude was cool, can I play him? Besides, I want to play another mech pilot and it wouldn't make sense to have ANOTHER just pop out at random after all the dudes just showed up, so it makes more sense to play one that's already here, and he's the coolest of them all."

He was the mentor for the hero, and nothing more or less.

Go read your basic Hero's Journey texts, user, and edumacate yurselph.