So, Trigger. You may have heard of them. Remember Gurren Lagann and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, and how they gave Gainax a reputation for crazy awesome and gratuitously good fun original series after a few years of largely unremarkable work? Remember how they followed them up with fucking nothing like that, and the quality of their output bombed and now they’re a bit of a joke? Well, those two series were helmed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, and for ~reasons~ he left and took all the talent with him to form Studio Trigger. Well, the talent that didn’t leave to form Studio Khara with Anno to make more Evangelion, that is.
Unsurprisingly, Trigger almost immediately had tons of hype and anticipation behind them. They were quiet for a while, doing a bit of outsourced work for other products, before releasing their first original work… Inferno Cop. Ok, it was short and cheap as hell and nonsensical but Christ was it fun and you could tell that Imaishi hadn’t lost his touch. They followed this up with their entry for Anime Mirai 2013, Little Witch Academia, which was fucking awesome. But this was just an OVA – we still had not seen any full-length, proper series from them yet.
And then they announced Kill la Kill. And the hype train accelerated up to hitherto unknown speeds.
So what is Kill la Kill? Well, it starts out with the delinquent schoolgirl Matoi Ryuuko joining Honnouji Academy with a sword made up of one half of a pair of giant scissors and a mission – to find her father’s murderer, a woman with the second scissor blade. Kiryuuin Satsuki, school council president who rules the place like a military dictatorship, claims to hold the information Ryuuko looks for. After an unsuccessful attempt at fighting Satsuki, Ryuuko stumbles upon a sentient school uniform in the basement under her house – a Godrobe calling itself ‘Senketsu’ – which when donned grants her great strength in fighting – enough to easily challenge Satsuki’s army of elite students who don power-augmenting ultima uniforms.
And that’s just what’s established in the first episode. Along the way, Ryuuko makes a best friend, challenges the Four Devas (or Elite Four or whatever your translation has it as) who represent Satsuki’s strongest and most loyal followers, encounters a rebel faction that reject all clothing to fight Satsuki known as Nudist Beach, meets Kiryuuin Ragyou, the owner of a massive international clothing conglomerate to whom Satsuki is the daughter and right hand of, and repeatedly has to handle Harime Nui – Ragyou’s left hand and so-called ‘Chief Couturier’.
Sounds bonkers? That’s because it is. Sounds incredible? That’s because it so fucking is.
You want to know more about it? Too bad, because discussing the plot any further is impossible without giving away major spoilers. And you will know what I mean if you watch it, because by the end everything established at the start gets turned on its head and becomes barely relevant in the light of all the MASSIVE SHIT that starts going down.
What I CAN say about it is that the plot is rad as hell. It starts out pretty straightforward, lots of revenge fighting and levelling-up and learning the joys of family and all that good stuff, and it’s all great fun and exciting and engaging with a couple of revelations but for the most part, well, pretty straightforward. But then after a certain point it starts to escalate, and escalate, and then HOLY SHIT DID THAT ACTUALLY FUCKING HAPPEN?!? And then everything you thought you knew becomes a massive dirty fucking lie and then it doesn’t. Ever. Stop.
It’s the Gurren Lagann school of plotting, where you have a premise that’s pretty crazy in and of itself and then you just let a bunch of absurd and OTT twists happen but you tie it all together into a consistent, flowing whole, and all the time you just never let up, never reduce the scale or scope of what you’re doing, and execute it with such sincerity and passion that anybody watching can’t help but get swept up in it all. But it does this with a very different approach and feel to Gurren Lagann. Whereas that was all about hope, optimism, manly spirit and humanity overcoming all obstacles that hold it down and oppress it in the name of being able to live freely and without fear, Kill la Kill has a tone with more anxiety, more fear and more hate. Understandable when you consider that Kamina was always thinking of others and trying to lead them to a better life, whereas Ryuuko’s initial motivation is pure revenge.
And that’s not to say that Kill la Kill is all grimdark srs bsns – it’s got a goofy streak a mile-wide, one far bigger than Gurren Lagann’s – but the overall feel is one of lone strugglers with their backs pushed up against the wall.
And sure, Kill la Kill’s plot is overall pretty simple, but it’s far from straightforward. There are twists and shenanigans all over the place, and it ends up in a very different an unexpected place to where it started, but it’s not complex. And it’s not particularly intelligent. But don’t mistake that for it being stupid or poorly-written. As an example, let’s take Senki Zesshou Symphogear G. On the surface, the ‘structure’ of the story is much the same as Kill la Kill – crazy shit happens and it’s unpredictable and it’s all for the sake of being fun and awesome. Its story does not make any sense, and it revels in that fact because it simply does not matter for what it’s trying to accomplish. But for Kill la Kill, the characters motivations are important, how and why they get to where they do is important, because it needs you to be invested in the characters and the story to really have the impact it’s aiming for. So plot points follow on naturally from plot points, things don’t happen for no reason, everything is meaningful and not just an excuse for cool shit to occur, and it doesn’t just make shit up as it goes along.
Of course there are some (mostly minor) plot points and key events that occur with minimal explanation given and little justification after the fact, but those a) are perfectly reasonable and logical things to occur in universe, and b) are cool as shit and the best thing for them to have done then, you massively boring nerd.
Kill la Kill aims to be an intense thrill-ride, a huge and hugely fun adrenaline rush from start to finish, and as I have eloquently detailed above I feel that from a narrative standpoint it succeeds. But that’s only one part of the entire product, and it has to succeed in the rest of them as well to pull off that intent completely. Which it does actually succeed at, which is surprising considering it evidently (and unsurprisingly, when you remember that this is Trigger’s first full-length TV series) had a fairly low budget.
Yes, the animation quality is not particularly high in Kill la Kill, which obviously limits the scope for how crazy and amazing they can make fight scenes and the like, but it breaks through those limitations with sheer bombast, bravado and ingenuity.
Everything about the presentation, direction and stylistic choices works to up the intensity, the action and the excitement in lieu of amazingly detailed fight scenes, and it works spectacularly. With the massive, red block signs that come in with amazing weight to punctuate every attack called and the introduction of every character, the extreme and dynamic shots of the characters, the sense of scale and magnitude given to the backgrounds and scene composition, the choice of colours and the framing and everything, it does absolutely everything it has in its power to leave its mark without the benefit of high quality animation.
And it doesn’t just push back against those limitations; it even embraces them to add levity and character where relevant. Nui and Mako, for example, will often be animated in very stilted, static, and flat ways, rotating and spinning as if they were cardboard cutouts in a 3D world. And it works, and it’s hilarious, and it adds so much personality to the show and yet it’s so cheap that it probably cost them negative money.
While we’re mentioning characters, let’s talk about the cast of this show and how goddamn great they are!
They’re goddamn great!
Ryuuko is goddamn great. Trigger nailed the intense, aggressive, irreverent delinquent personality they were going for with her, and the sheer force of the venom and fierce sarcasm she can spit out in her words make for a great action lead. For a character rebelling against ironclad authority while seeking revenge, she has the most fitting attitude you could ask for, but she certainly doesn’t lack self-awareness or heart. She has enough insecurities, self-doubts, compassion and joy that she’s never at risk of become monotonous and flat and boring. She gets development and growth over the course of the show even though Trigger probably could have gotten away with far less, she’s sympathetic and relatable, and she’s unpredictable and prone to letting her emotions run away with her to the point that her character arc can get pretty tense, so on the whole she’s just a really solid and entertaining lead.
Senketsu is goddamn great. He is a sentient school sailor uniform, and he transforms using Ryuuko’s blood into a battle version that then allows for crazy shit to happen. He also has a really rather pleasant personality, more mature and considered than Ryuuko’s, but more than willing to get as invested in her fights as she is and so they quickly become fast friends and have a relationship that’s almost fatherly from his side. It’s interesting, it’s somewhat unusual, and it’s remarkably engaging. He gets a lot of characterisation and is memorable in his own right and remember he is literally a school uniform. Saying he exceeds expectations isn’t saying much as a result, but he does exceed them by a wide margin.
Mako is goddamn great. And while I typically praise it when characters undergo meaningful development and growth, Mako is proof that you can have a character remain reasonably static in terms of personality and still have them be memorable and wonderful. She’s a bit stupid, a bit lacking in awareness, optimistic and friendly to the point of incomprehensibility, ruthlessly passionate, and just amazing, astonishing good fun. Words cannot adequately describe the sheer, hyperactive energy and love she has, she bestows upon the show, and the show bestows upon her through animation and presentation. And to say she gets no growth would be unfair, although it largely comes through her finding the full potential of her personality as opposed to her personality adjusting. Endearing and heartwarmingly goofy, she’s the best best friend Ryuuko could have had.
Satsuki is goddamn great. Charismatic to a fault and utterly exuding power and authority, she is fucking perfect for her role as school council president in a ruthlessly hierarchical and dominating culture which she effortlessly sits at the top of. Everything about her is refined, intelligent, absolute, confident and precise, but we get to see enough of her in her downtime to realise that while this isn’t a façade, it’s still a lot of work for her and were it not for the Four Devas who are deathly loyal she would probably not be able to keep control over everything. She has personality, she has depth to her characterisation and when we… learn more about her later, she gains entire dimensions to her being. Almost the polar opposite of Ryuuko and setup up gloriously as her antagonist.
The supporting characters are goddamn great. Each of the Four Devas are memorable, unique, charming and overflowing with their own strengths (and Nonon is fucking precious), and they all get such fantastic scenes, it’s brilliant. Ragyou is delightfully evil and sinister. Harime Nui is adorably insane. Mikisugi is fucking fabulous. The Mankanshoku family are endless fun. The entire cast is memorable and unique and they’re all presented with a flair and panache that most shows would save for their main characters, but Kill la Kill holds nothing back at any point. But if you’ve seen any of Imaishi’s other works, you’d know that doing so just isn’t his style; and it’s one of many reasons why his stuff is so entertaining.
At this juncture, I guess we have to address that one, rather large elephant in the room; the designs of Senketsu’s and some other ultima unform’s battle modes.
Good lord are they skeevy.
We’re talking the almost bare minimum that they could get away with on the torso, panties or whatever they’re meant to be riding up high, and crazy amounts of underboob, all held together with taut suspenders and completed by thigh-high stripperiffic boots. It’s crass, it’s objectifying as all hell, and it’s not even an attractive design. It’s seriously off-putting, to the point of almost turning me off the series. Why ruin an otherwise great show by throwing in this kind of fanservicey garbage?
Now what if I said that this was only how I felt in the beginning?
Seriously, by the end I no longer had any qualms about those designs, at all. There are two key reasons for this: in-universe justification, and presentation.
As Kill la Kill’s story progresses and more is understood about the so-called ‘life fibres’, more is explained about Senketsu, his origins and his purpose, and in time an explanation for the battle mode design is given and it’s more than acceptable. By the own show’s carefully constructed and built internal logic as well as the overarching themes in the narrative and plot elements, it not only makes sense but couldn’t work any other way and remain plausible. Now, I’m a harsh critic of media that purports to have a justification in the narrative for why it’s being objectifying as fuck – take the fighting game Skullgirls for example, where there’s ~magic~ that turns the female characters into adolescent masturbation fantasies. The ‘justification’ there is clearly just an excuse, as the core experience the product is trying to deliver – the fighting game mechanics, principally – does not necessitate that the art be incredibly fanservicey. But with Kill la Kill? It does. If the clothing were more tasteful, then plot, the themes and the internal logic would have to be significantly different to not create any inconsistencies or conflicts, and in the end if it tried to tell the same story it would be considerably weaker for it.
Of course, they didn’t have to tell this story and could have avoided all of this altogether, but they chose to tell this one – and it’s clear that the plot of Kill la Kill is not an excuse to just chuck in a load of fanservice.
And this ties into my second reason: the presentation.
Nudity ≠ fanservice.
Not strictly, anyway. Yes; there’s a lot of nudity or semi-nudity in Kill la Kill, but in many cases the presentation – the way the ‘camera’ is facing, the direction, and the intent behind that particular shot – is not such that it should be construed as trying to play up any eroticism to be found in the nudity. A lot of the time there’s almost a casual, blasé or even whimsical attitude to it, which on occasion was rather refreshing in a way. And besides, one of the key, overriding themes and conflicts of Kill la Kill is that of clothing vs. nudity, and it can’t explore that without nudity! And it does explore it, meaningfully so.
Of course this isn’t to say Kill la Kill doesn’t have fanservice in it. It does. Obviously it does. It’s directed by Imaishi, it has a lot of characters in various states of undress, there’s no way it wouldn’t have fanservice. But when I think back, it only really affected Ryuuko to a significant degree, and even then only egregiously so in the transformation sequences and during the first quarter. And hell, in the second half you will be fucking surprised at how many opportunities for fanservice the show had that it just doesn’t take advantage of.
Fuck, Yoko in Gurren Lagann is used for fanservice at least as much as Ryuuko, and she was far more of an excuse for fanservice than any part of Kill la Kill is. Remember, Yoko is fucking fourteen. And looks like that. Infinitely skeevier, if you ask me.
And if we’re talking about how often characters are presented in eroticized manners, Mikisugi and his glowing pink nipples take the fucking cake. But then, his portrayal was played more for comedy than fanservice, or at least so it seems to me; you’d have to ask someone who’s into men for a more informed opinion.
Basically, Kill la Kill does have some fanservice and can be rather off-putting at first because holy fuck those designs, but as time goes on it becomes less and less of an issue and more and more justified, although your mileage may well vary of course.
Kill la Kill, in short, is FUCKING AWESOME. Its sense of energy, intensity, scale, scope, and how to be as cool and exciting as fuck makes it one long adrenaline rush from start to finish. It may not be clever but it doesn’t need or necessarily want to be, but it’s not sloppily put together with no thought or consideration; it is incredibly well-crafted and executed, and so much love and enthusiasm has been poured into it.
And y’know, it’s not perfect; the finale wasn’t as mind-bogglingly amazing as Gurren Lagann’s. But what the fuck is? That’s basically my only complaint, for the record. That and wishing they had more budget to throw at it, but that can’t really be helped.
I just had such an incredibly huge amount of fun watching Kill la Kill. The painful levels of anticipation every week, the massive blasts of in-your-face excitement and intensity every episode delivered, the crazy levels of tension it brought in near the end, the jaw-dropping twists that left me alternating between speechless and screaming, the hilarious and consistently fantastic sense of humour, the characters that I all grew to love seeing on the screen at every opportunity, if not completely falling for them and becoming hugely, deeply invested in their personalities and motivations and everything, all of this and more but above all just how fucking incredible it all was. I have not enjoyed myself with an anime like this for fucking ages. And I am so goddamn happy to have seen it.
“Based Imaishi”, “Trigger saved anime”, however you want to say it, Trigger have delivered on Kill la Kill superbly and if they’re starting as they mean to go on then anime has gotten very exciting.
After all this, there are only two words that need to be said:
Fuck.
Yes.
10/10
Kill la Kill was such a thrill ride for me and I really enjoyed keeping up with it weekly. Gurren Lagann’s my favorite anime so everything was set for me to enjoy this anime and to no surprise, I had such a blast watching through it. Even though KLK isn’t quite the same type of story, the vibe is definitely reminiscent of Gurren and the energetic feel brought me entertainment in the same way Gurren did and I really liked that. KLK may not be the most complex or developed of stories, and while I’d say Gurren had more to offer as far as thematic value and development, I feel KLK definitely did what it set out to. KLK’s a tale much more about the execution than anything else (and in some ways this is true of Gurren too, though to a lesser extent) and while it may not seem like such a great series on paper, it brings a lot to the table as far as presentation and I felt it made everything work really well considering its relatively simple nature and low budget. Even if I wouldn’t call it one of the greatest series of all time personally, it was definitely a memorable experience and an anime I will definitely remember among the 2013 bunch. The adrenaline rush was great and it’s sad to think that the story’s over. I can only hope that something else along the lines of the TTGL or KLK style will come along soon so I can relive the intensity all over again.
Fun things are fun rating:10/10
Acutual quality: 5/10
*Actual
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