Before I get into the review, remember
Ikki Tousen? Remember how it
tried to deliver fanservice, story, and action all at once? Remember how it
tried to look like a story based on
Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Remember how it
tried to look like it had action when all the 'action' consisted of were stills? Remember how it
tried to be sexy by having panty shots and boob flashes every half-second to the point where it became gross and disgusting?
Well, you're better off not remembering.But I bring it up because, imagine if
someone got it right. Seems impossible, right? What if you bring together of previous members of Studio Gainax and Studio 4°C? And the director and lead character designer previously worked on the legendary anime known to all of us mortals as
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann?
Yup! Together, now known as Studio Trigger; they did the impossible, broke the unbreakable! The lovechild of balls-to-the-wall action, off-the-scale Holy $#!T Quotient, and insane comedy,
Kill la Kill takes the closing months of 2013 by
hurricane! Following the footsteps of Ryuko Matoi as a newcomer of Honnouji, an academy city ruled with a
titanium fist by Satsuki Kiryuin and her
insanely powerful student council! To make matters worse, Kiryuin makes use of Goku Uniforms, clothing that enhances the strength of the wearer and are given only to her most loyal students.
None of this deters Ryuko, as she goes head-on into the arguably fascist community. With the sentient uniform known as Senketsu, a Kamui that grants incredible power; a crimson scissor blade capable of destroying these Goku Uniforms, adding to Ryuko's arsenal; and the local screwball Mako Mankanshoku; Ryuko intends to let nothing stop her as she proceeds cut down everyone who stands in her way, liberating the enslaved city in process of her ultimate goal: to discover and defeat the one who killed her father.
It's a rather simplistic plot, one that normally wouldn't interest a lot of people if it weren't for the characters that drive it along. This being done by those who've originally worked on the legendary
Gurren Lagann, the characters are where
Kill la Kill's writers put their game on, making all of them interesting, watchable, and so on in their own little ways. Our protagonist, Ryuko, gives an incredibly hot-blooded performance, enough to give the legendary Kamina himself a run for his money, as she charges headlong into every fight with such gusto that the manliest of all men would be proud of. Mako, base-breaker as she may be, is insanely random. There is no moment she can't make funny, and there is no line she is unwilling to cross. Kiryuin, herself, quite literally radiates with such charisma and honor (especially for a villain), an aspect of her that alone makes her worthy of being one the primary antagonists of the series.
Though really, these brief descriptions of them don't do any of them justice. Because it's not so much their personalities that tell us who they are as it is their actions. Right in the first episode, our first impression of Ryuko bumrushing her opponent with her scissor blade, cementing her absolute hot-bloodedness that put most shounen anime protagonists to shame. Being marked guilty from association with Ryuko, Mako is at the risk of being dunked in hot oil. However, she instead complains of how it will make her outfit transparent. And Kiryuin... well... she doesn't do much except make a speech, but that alone puts the entire school in awe of her literally shining charisma and authority. These characteristics seem sort of cheesy, even a little Sue-ish, but 1. it doesn't mean any of them are perfect as people and 2. it's so insanely overdone it's awesome!
And the kicker here is that this is just covering the two main characters and Ryuko's foil. The world of
Kill la Kill is filled to the brim with radical and crazy characters that are just impossible to hate. We have Akuro Mikisugi, a seemingly mundane homeroom teacher who's quickly revealed to be an exhibitionist (one that I can appreciate looking at); Ira Gamagoori, a colossus with an inability to speak in a conversational voice. Link, I mean, Viral, I mean, Dammit Nobuyuki, I mean, Uzu Sanageyama is arguably the most affable antonist out of the bunch, if you can look past his diehard loyal toward Titanium-Fist Kiryuin (I think I'll call her that from now on). And then ther-[Humrh360's process of getting to all the characters is taking too long, so I'll just fast-forward to where we get to the good stuff.]
And now we get to the real meat of
Kill la Kill:
THE ANIMATION. Here is where
Kill la Kill absolutely shines. Befitting of the company producing it, Studio Trigger blesses us with fluid action scenes and shots of distilled awesome; whether it's one character or another showing off their badassery, or skipping the formalities to deliver the beatdown and raise hell. And when it's not the action it's the comedy. Befitting of the guys who brought us
Gurren Lagann,
Kill la Kill ramps up the comedy to almost
South Park levels with its surreal, rather drug-induced repeat cuts, distortions, and even moments where it looks as though the scene was animated by a middle-school Flash animator. Normally, this would dock points if it wasn't for the gags that go along with, usually the gag being Mako's tangents of Chewbacca logic. And it all works out because of how well paced it all is. Rather than creating gratuitous moments of fluid animation on a scene that serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever, the seemingly lazy animation routine is used for when we're not focusing on the action or awesome. When the adrenaline, action, and music
do kick in, so does the animation. Everyone puts on their A-game to deliver what are truly the most epic fight scenes and comedy skits. This balance of total balls-to-the-wall action and surreal line-crossing comedy truly provide the entertainment and quality of
Kill la Kill. This especially stands out as throughout the season, anime have been taking the road more often traveled by adapting romantic comedy light novels (pshyeah, I'll believe ya), which in turn don't require much in terms of animation... except maybe for the occasionally boob bounce, nipple slip, cooter shot, or suggestive pose that makes it look like the characters are having intercourse; all of which bring into question how they manage to be considered literary works.
And speaking of which, we step into the dark mire of the
Kill la Kill series: the infamous fanservice. If any of you know me from the few reviews I've done, you know that I have an admittedly irrational aversion to fanservice. Digressing, though.
Kill la Kill's most notorious aspect is the design of Ryuko
Spoiler Alert! Click to show or hide
and Kiryuin
in Kamui-mode Senketsu, and the Kamui outfit in general. The design leaves very little to the imagination, to the point where in the actual story, Ryuko herself is incredibly embarrassed to wear such a thing. And who can blame her? I mean, sure it gives the power to break loose and
kick everyone's ass. But it's very much your run-of-the-mill oversexualized outfit that you could easily find in some MMO or otaku-aimed video game. All too often, such characters only exist for two reasons: to serve as some reward or something like that, or to market the franchise; both of which people view as degrading human moral values as they also often lack purpose and character. For someone who really wants the anime industry to change for the better, and stop blowing the budget on fanservice, I really oughtta cringe at this.
Except I can't. Unlike any other anime that's chockfull of this sort of slop, with
Kill la Kill there is the context of the narrative, and with it we have a chance to properly analyze it (mind outta the gutter, boys).
Like many other shounen anime series,
Kill la Kill is a coming-of-age story. However, it's focus is on
a girl, rather than a boy, facing the societal pressures put on young women. Throughout the series, clothing and physical appearance are massive recurring themes, both of which very often reflect on a character's personality. We can take the uniform thief from the very first few minutes of the series as our example. He starts off tubby, unattractive, and as weak as he looks. However, with the Goku Uniform, he instantly becomes more shapely and attractive as he gains the strength it provides (he still gets his butt handed to him). However, real focus is on our protagonist Ryuko. The first time we see her, she's in an outfit not uncommonly worn by school delinquents; she's got a red streak in her hair; and if you look closely, her pupils are
rifled. This makes it incredibly obvious that she's a loose-cannon that can't be controled by authority. However, she's incredibly embarrassed to wear Senketsu despite the massive boost to her strength it gives her due to everyone looking at her either with perversion or revulsion. Ryuko, in her initial outfit, couldn't give any less of a crap of how people viewed her. However, upon donning Senketsu, an outfit that emphasizes every part that falls victim to the male gaze, she's also forced to simultaneously confront these societal values that are asserted, not only on her, but just about every other girl. Unlike all the other characters' outfits, which change the appearances of their clothing to make them as powerful as they look, the Kamui instead removes clothing, providing little room for Ryuko to make such an impression. That's where Senketsu and the power of the Kamui come in. Because of these powers, Ryuko not only breaks past the idea that she's some weak and helpless sex icon, she becomes
even more powerful despite them.
Put in comparison to other anime; say
Maken-ki,
Vividred Operation,
Photokano, and so much more that I'm just too laZY or tired of dealing with;
Kill la Kill manages to turn fanservice into much more than just a way to pander to an audience only interested in a little tittilation. The examples listed have two things in common, and it's that they have absolutely no justification for it's own fanservice, nor do they really address it in their own show. And that's not even getting into each of their own individual problems. I mean,
Maken-ki features a cast of what're supposed to be teenagers, and yet every single girl has frikkin' G-cup sized hooters. (What.)
Vividred's girls seem far too improbably developed for middle-schoolers. And
Photokano constantly tries to play itself off as a romance, but just as frequent squeezes in fanservice shots that break that atmosphere. But the big one that they all have in common is that whenever fanservice is being played up, the girls go from being
possibly good characters to being little more than sex objects.
Sword Art Online,
Freezing,
Sekai de Ichiban,
Infinite F[WHOA WHOA WHOA LANGUAGE DOOD!]ing Stratos, you name it. In
Kill la Kill, Ryuko is being subjected to this view anyway, but
she still continues to kick ass. While she is never able to control how the crowd saw her, she didn't let that become a reason to suddenly become weak.
Now here's the real question: Am I trying to ruin your experience by applying critical analysis and theory (and maybe a bit of tumblr surfing) to find philosophy and other intellectual stuff in what is ultimately one crazy-as-hell action fest? No. In fact, I can just as easily be spout a loud of nonsensical bs just because of my interpretation of
Kill la Kill. For all I know, all those other fanservice laden anime could be dropping these kinds of anvils too, but I do know that if they are, they're being far too subtle about it. But I do hope that with this, I've convinced some people to give
Kill la Kill and the magnificent bastards of Studio Trigger a chance.
My Verdict:
Kill la Kill is nothing short of fantastic, spectacular, and of course,
awesome. Few anime of the Fall, and the Winter season so far have the fluid action as
Kill la Kill, as characters pump the adrenaline into the the fight in ways that would make
Gurren Lagann proud. And when it isn't that action that serves as the point of engagement, it's the comedy as
Kill la Kill isn't afraid to take a piss at itself and the shounen genre in general, while adding to it with it's deranged animation that add to the humor. And beneath the seemingly shameless fanservice is an anvil that needs to be dropped: that being sexualized doesn't mean being weak and helpless, and that breaking past the way people view you is the real achievement. Of course, it'd help if you get an outfit that effectively makes you go Super Seiyan. But true to it's legacy,
Kill la Kill proves to be awesome, hilarious, entertaining, and even a bit insightful.
...
......
.........
Oh, balls to all, why the hell not?
WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?!
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