Sometimes there are anime out there that are just meant to entertain; nothing more, nothing less. Kill la Kill, on the other hand, is a completely different beast. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen something as insanely over-the-top or as stupid as this anime before, but it’s extremely entertaining. It does make me wonder what the heck the people at Studio Trigger had to do in order to come up with this idea, because…well, let’s just say that even the most creative minds wouldn’t be able to come up with something like this anime unless they were extremely high on LSD. Then again, this is a studio that originated from Studio Gainax, who have proudly brought the anime community FLCL (WHAT THE HECK DID I JUST WATCH), Neon Genesis Evangelion (I think the anime world would like an actual explanation as to what The End of Evangelion meant), Gurren Lagann (Logic Does Not Exist), and finally Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt (Power Puff Girls Gone Wild). I don’t think anyone was surprised that Kill la Kill turned out the way that it did, considering the team behind it. Sit back, relax, and read on as I attempt to tackle the insanity that is Kill la Kill.
The Setup:
So, Kill la Kill takes place in, where else, high school; to be more specific, Honnouji Academy. The school is practically dominated by the student council president Satsuki Kiryuin, who distributes out articles of clothing called Goku (DBZ reference is blatant) Uniforms out to her students. These Goku Uniforms are made to give the students powers that they would not normally be able to obtain on their own, and the higher the star is on your uniform, the more powerful you are. Of course, this makes the school pretty much a fascist society, with Satsuki’s most loyal subjects getting the most powerful uniforms (namely The Elite Four) and those on the bottom get pretty much nothing. All of that is changed however when our main protagonist Ryuko Matoi makes her first appearance, searching for the person who killed her father out of vengeance. After Satsuki basically makes Ryuko suspicious of her, the two fight and Ryuko is defeated. She then goes back to her house and, well, “finds” a sailor uniform that gives her power beyond belief…but also isn’t the smartest thing to wear on a cold day. She names the uniform Senketsu and vows to fight until she can figure out who killed her father. Yes, you just read that, and yes, if you take this anime seriously you will not enjoy yourself at all. However, the anime does do a fair job at turning your brain off for you by getting you invested into the story through pretty good characters.
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| The story begins with Ryuko Matoi transferring to Honnoji Academy to search for her father's murderer |
The Characters:
Anime like this need to get the audience invested into some aspect of it so that the audience won’t care about the amount of stupidity being shown on screen. Normally, for me, the characters are what gets me invested into any kind of story whether it be stupid or serious, and Kill la Kill did manage to get me invested into the character’s conflicts. Sure, the characters really weren’t all that complex and were rather straightforward, but if you tried to make the characters complex in this case, then it would ruin the fun. Ryuko is kind of like the female version of Eren Jaeger from Attack On Titan, being overly emotional and filled with rage, but to be fair she’s a lot more interesting a character. She messes up and sometimes she takes her anger too far, and most of all, she’s a girl. I normally don’t care about the protagonist’s gender, but it does annoy me that the majority of female protagonists are stupid, boring, or both. It was so refreshing to see a female protagonist that’s neither of the above, which you would think would make her my favorite female protagonist. Sadly, that is not the case. Even though her personality is refreshing, Ryuko doesn't really learn from her mistakes and keeps on repeating the same mistake over and over and over again, and didn't really develop as a character. So, while I did like her character, a personality can only take her so far, and henceforth she isn't my favorite female protagonist. As for Satsuki, she’s just one of my favorite anime characters period, basically for the same reasons as Ryuko (personality-wise), but also because Satsuki seems a lot more sophisticated and mature. She's like a female version of Lelouch vi Britannia, because she’s quiet, manipulative, and you never know what her real intentions are. This makes her a very mysterious character, and by far the most interesting one. I also really like the direction that the creators decided to take her character, and it's something that I'm not going to spoil; just watch it for yourselves if you choose to. As for the other side characters, there are way too many to talk about in one review, so I’ll just go over the most important side characters: Senketsu and Mako. Senkentsu is a sailor uniform that can talk, and while this sounds incredibly stupid, he’s actually a well-developed character that acts as a voice of reason to Ryuko. He was also someone that I gradually came to care for, after getting over the fact that he’s a…sailor uniform. Finally, there’s Mako. People seem to either love this character or hate her, calling her either the queen of comedy or the anime version of Jar Jar Binks. I’m personally indifferent towards her. Yeah, she can be funny at times, but until her character development in episode 7 I thought she was ungodly annoying. And, I’m not going to lie, even afterwards I thought she was kind of irritating. Still, though, when she wasn’t trying to be comedic during a dramatic scene she was pretty hilarious. Finally, the villains. Oh my god, the villains in Kill la Kill are perfect. Ragyo is a character that makes even the silliest of outfits look intimidating, and is one of the best villain characters that I’ve seen in a verylong time. In fact, place her in the number 2 spot in my Top Ten Favorite Anime Villains, right behind Kirei. Then there’s Nui Harime. I freaking hate this character! She’s annoying, psychotic, overly innocent, has committed crimes that will make you hate her…my god, she’s just despicable! Granted, it’s for all the right reasons, so I guess I shouldn’t really be complaining all that much.
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| The Main Characters |
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| Ragyo |
The Story:
I actually made a parody video concerning the plot of Kill la Kill, so if you guys want to check it out to learn the entire plot of this anime, go ahead. Beware of spoilers:
I actually made a parody video concerning the plot of Kill la Kill, so if you guys want to check it out to learn the entire plot of this anime, go ahead. Beware of spoilers:
Now, the actual analysis:
The story of Kill la Kill was fairly well paced and had well-executed plot twists later on in the show. The first ten or so episodes are rather episodic, with Ryuko facing off against a certain club leader and the episode ending with Ryuko victorious. The story doesn’t really start to truly progress until the end of episode 11, when Nui shows up and the show suddenly moves by so quickly and becomes so addictive that you probably won’t be able to count the amount of episodes that have flown by if you’re marathoning the show. I can only imagine what it must have been like for people who were watching this while it was airing. However, the show has a few downsides. The first half can get rather boring if you don’t like episodic shows, and it did get a little repetitive to watch the same formula being used every episode. The story also likes to pull deus ex machina on us and then try to explain in great detail why something like that is possible. Some would say that this adds to the overall entertainment value, but for me it just drew my attention to how stupid the show was. The first half is the most guilty of this, but at least in the second half the show learned that it should just ignore logic and flat-out entertain. So, don’t be discouraged by the first half, as the second half is significantly better. Then there’s the ending. I wouldn’t say that the ending is bad per say, because it was an actual conclusion to the story. It’s just that there’s a death scene at the very end that was rushed and handled terribly. Not going to spoil who dies, but it’s pretty unsatisfying.
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| The first few episodes start off as episodic, then it leads into a giant plot and climax |
The Animation and Sound:
The animation is…fickle. The quality ranges from something that’s fluid, fast-paced and looks awesome to some of the laziest skimping that I’ve probably ever seen in my life. Thankfully, there are some aspects about the animation that remain consistent. The character designs are all pretty unique and eye-catching, and the colors that the show uses makes it differ from your average anime. It was something that I rather liked, so while the actual animation isn’t always the best the design is what really holds it together. Now let’s talk about the fanservice, because this is the best place to talk about it. Wow, was the fanservice prominent. The outfits that Satsuki and Ryuko had to wear are just…well, they look pretty cool but also very revealing. Though, it is something that I got used to over the course of the show, so even though it was irritating and did hamper my enjoyment of the show, it didn’t make the show unwatchable. Then there’s the music. The openings and endings weren’t all that memorable, but the OST was, but not because of the big epic battle themes that played whenever a fight was going on; it’s the character themes that really make this OST. The best song on the soundtrack, however, was Blumenkranz, Ragyo’s theme, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve listened to it too many times to count. It’s creepy, sneaks up on you, gets stuck in your head, and is compelling, which basically defines the character that it represents. As for whether or not you should watch it in Japanese or English, well you don’t really have much of a choice, as there is no English dub. The Japanese dub, on the other hand, is now one of my favorites for being well acted and fitting the over-the-top nature of the show. Best performance goes to Romi Park for Ragyo; it was the perfect voice.
Blumenkranz:
Future Edit 6/5/14: An English dub is in the works and will probably come out soon. Check out the trailer if you want:
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| Animation was inconsistent, but the OST is really good |
Final Judgment:
Overall, Kill la Kill is a mixed bag depending on your tastes and the mindset that you watch this anime with. If you love over-the-top action and flat-out entertainment, you’ll probably love it. If you’re into the more subtle shows with a complex story and characters, you’ll probably hate this show. For your average anime watcher, though, you’ll probably enjoy it for one reason or another. I give Kill la Kill a 3.5 out of 5, and a recommendation for you to watch it if you just want entertainment. Just to let you guys know, I really like Kill la Kill, and if this rating was more opinionated I would give it a 4 out of 5, but due to the singular crowd that it caters to I can’t exactly recommend it to everyone. But, like always, it should always be up to you to decide your own opinions.
ScoreCard:
If you live in America, you can watch it on Netflix too!
Watch Kill la Kill: http://www.hulu.com/kill-la-killScoreCard:
If you live in America, you can watch it on Netflix too!
Further Recommendations:
Gurren Lagann
Though I have not seen this anime, I do know what it is famous for; being a fun and entertaining anime and is rather similar to Kill la Kill in that sense. Plus, I’ve heard many great things about it, so it probably won’t disappoint.
Date A Live
This show is enjoyably stupid and is the perfect anime to just sit back and watch without thinking too much. Go ahead and try it.
The next review will be on the final sequel to Under The Never Sky. See you then!
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