As a child, Kamina's father managed to reach the surface. He wanted to take Kamina with him, but Kamina was too scared of the strange world awaiting him, so his dad left him, promising to meet up again later on. Years later, Kamina decided he was old enough and began to aim for the surface.

As his first act of notoriety, Kamina forms "Team Gurren" and convinces his "soul-brother," Simon, to help him with his plan to drill through the roof of the village and get to the world above. However, the plan fails. Kamina willingly takes the blame for disrupting the peace and is jailed by the village chief. At night, Simon breaks him out to show him an extraordinary artifact he unearthed, only to be interrupted by a large Gunmen that crashes through the village's ceiling. A young girl sharpshooter named "Yoko" descends from the surface and ends up joining Kamina and Simon as they pilot the newly unearthed Gunmen Kamina names "Lagann". Together, they defeat the invading Gunmen and reach the surface in the process.

After the trio breaks through, they meet many enemies and friends as they continue forward. The once two-member "Team Gurren" expands to the size of an entire resistance force aiming to overthrow the Beastman Empire. Kamina leads this force and names it "Team Dai-Gurren". Kamina's largest battle involves the capture of one of the enemyâs moving fortresses belonging to one of the Four Divine Generals, Thymilph. The mission is a success, but not without cost. Heavily wounded (Thymilph not only stabbed him through the chest, almost tearing him in two, he also shoots a beam through him, causing severe blood loss), Kamina combines with Simon to form Gurren Lagann and defeats the Beastman General with his signature move: "Giga Drill Breaker." Kamina dies in the cockpit, leaving Simon with this: "Don't believe in the you who believes in me. Don't believe in the me who believes in you. Believe in the you who believes in yourself." These words are long remembered after his death, giving Simon the confidence to uphold his destiny as the "one whose drill will pierce the heavens." Kamina is buried in the battlefield where he died, his nodachi stabbed into the ground and his cloak tied to its sheath.