Kill La Kill

Kill La Kill​

Me and anime have a rocky relationship. My usual thing is computer games. In fact, computer anything is good, according to me. But I also love a little expression and picking apart media and you'd think that deciphering the code of accepted tropes and things in another culture would be interesting for me.

And, it is but...I think I'm one of these people that needs to take the effort to watch Anime. I have to sit down. I usually pick subbed Anime and so, I can't try and multi-task like with other shows I like. I would have to be paying full attention so I can read the subtitles and understand what's happening. Plus, I haven't come across a show that sounded absolutely perfect for me right from the get-go.

Anime just doesn't interest me as much as games or computers or yammering on and on about fine details in media. I just associate it with a lot of effort. There's the culture, the fact that these things are not aimed at a viewer with my sensibilities or cultural background, and so on.

So, take it as great praise that not only did Kill La Kill grab my attention, but it also get's a recommendation from me. This is an expertly crafted show with some stunning action along with some good comedy coming from a cast of fun, likable characters. The show is awesome and I couldn't be happier to have watched it.

At least know I recognise who's on all the WeiB Schwartz cards now. Ah yeah! WeiB Schwartz! That's a review for another time...

To do that review without mentioning 'Spaceballs' or do so every five sentences? Hmm...​

OK, stop me if this sounds familiar.

Ryuko Matoi is a school student that is out for revenge after her father was murdered. The only clues she ehas is a gigantic scissor blads that the killer was carrying as well as the blade left sticking out of Ryuko's father's chest. She is now using this sword as a weapon, tracking the clues down to Honnouji Academy; a school that has been turned into a dictatorship by Satsuki Kiryuin, the daughter of the owner of a huge clothing company. The school dishes out special clothing called 'Goku Uniforms' which grant superhuman powers to anyone that puts them on.

Satuki reveals that she might know things about Ryuko's father's death but will only tell if Ryuko beats her way through the rest of the super-powered student body. Initially, she's beaten badly but a strange, talking sailor suit appears and forces itself upon Ryuko. It gives her the power to fight back and maybe, just maybe, be worthy in Satsuki's eyes to hear the truth.

And in between all of that, a little goofiness.​

Now, this is a criticism I've heard that I do agree with to a certain degree: this doesn't sound like anything ground breaking or new. In fact, it's very familiar to me.

Enter Bleach, the comparison for this review. Now, I've seen enough to get how it runs, how it sees the world and where it's ever likely to go. It's an enjoyable show that, arguably, went on for far too long. Lots of action, lots of fights, lots of shouting. Fine, fine, fine. OK, good.

Kill La Kill for a large chunk of it's runtime treads those same beats for the first 12 episodes. For that time, Ryuko is learning her abilities. She's getting a feel for her limits and figuring out what she can and can't do in her new, highly revealing super suit. Fine, OK. It's an important step because we learn as she learns. We get a grounding in the rules of her abilities and exactly how she stacks up against the other characters.

That's cool. Even better, a lot of fights are won by interesting tactical decisions. One used the energy that was expelled during Ryuko's transformation into her...'battle form', I guess, to cause enough damage to an opponent that couldn't be hurt from the outside. Another had her cut a piece from her own clothing to cover the many eye-holes in a suit of armour, rendering the then opponent blind. There's some clever ways these fights are won and, I did enjoy rooting for Ryuko throughout.

Bleach? It always felt like Ichigo (the main character) was simply managing to gain strength from screaming at the top of his lungs. While the show does come up with a few interesting methods of victory, both for heroes and villains, the majority feel cheep. More on the merit that there has to be a show after this rather than intelligence or strength on full display.

It doesn't help that Ichigo is probably one of the more block-headed of protagonists that seems to tackle problems by simply butting into it with more force rather than an alternative.​

Kill La Kill makes every fight count. Even a few of the goofier ones, they're there to make an impact. Each fight is for a reason, even if it's just to show that no one at this school will mess around! They are going to beat you into the ground if they have to. They want to keep their status and they're more than happy to slap down some uppity girl in some lewd costume.

And, I enjoyed that way, waaaay more. Bleach teases things out to stretch over hundreds and hundreds of episodes. What should have taken twenty minutes takes an hour! What should have taken an hour could take an entire arc to solve! I enjoyed the characters, tone and universe perfectly well but we got such long stretches of barely anything in between the highlights!

Kill La Kill is only 25 episodes long including the OVA and it's so taut in it's storytelling. Nothing is wasted, yet you get so much out of every episode. There's not really any filler. Every episode does something for the story at large. There are slower episodes where nothing appears to be progressed, yeah. But they're here for both character development and breathing room.

Dear Celestia, does this show need it's breathing room!

The animation makes it very damn clear that every action can pack a wallop powerful enough to level a building if it wasn't hitting another equally powered up character. It's so energetic at all times when it needs to be, it's incredible. School students are going flying, explosions and rubble. I'm amazed there's a school left after some of the things these characters do in one bout. Sure, some thresholds of certain characters do get bent and altered here and there but I never felt insulted that they did it. I noticed it, like how Ryuko probably shouldn't have been able to stand up to certain attacks, for instance. Or been able to continue on at full force all of a sudden. There's a little bending here and there.

Like randomly managing to gain transformation abilities somehow. But, eh. It looks awesome!​

Although, it does put me in mind of Bleach's blatant and near constant plot armour. Yes, I get it: these are magical ghost samurai. They are composed entirely of spirit and so, damage to them in this form isn't exactly fatal as they're not only immensely powerful but they're able to increase this power through force of will. Fine. It doesn't make it as entertaining to watch.

Kill La Kill has stakes. And they are often clear and very high. And they are raised gradually over the 25 episode run as the nature of this world and the show are revealed to us. It's gradual but it means we get to enjoy the characters. We get to know them and build a rapport. We can actually care so that we can root for the good guys!

Bleach in comparison, is glacial. It's pacing becomes hideously indulgent as it languishes in it's story. It's a larger show, sure, but time is not always used all that effectively. There are entire filler arcs where the attention and momentum of the main story is suddenly cut away to something else entirely.

At one point, Ichigo and his friends could be fighting an entire group of hideous monsters, trapped deep within their desolate lands, far away from any help.

Then suddenly, the writers were bored of the tense action and we get to hear about some princess for another twenty to thirty episodes. Those episodes could be fantastic but to throw them in the middle of things when everything was getting good just kills the fun for me. It's not letting me 'cool off a little', it's murdering my built up interest stone dead.

Look! Bleach's Narrative Pacing has put a bit of a lick on! Look at it go!​

You know what? I loved Kill La Kill's character's too. Yes, they're largely nothing special and have been seen before. Ryuko is a strong willed tomboy with a good heart. There's Hōka Inumuta, who can be summed up as 'The Computer Geek'. He's only interested in data, not fighting. Ira Gamagōri is a huge, fearsomely loyal mountain of muscle that acts as the school's big disciplinary. In fact, it's even a little strange that he's somehow still in school...

But there's tweaks in the characters. Sure, Satsuki is cold and dominant across anyone she meets but the level of ineffable confidence makes her powerfully striking. Gamagōri's utter devotion to the rules of the school are hilarious in the lengths he will go just to follow them. Ryuko questions things and shows a range of emotion rather than simply abject gruff or endless mopiness despite her character set up. Heck, she's even emotionally broken down in a few places but for completely understandable reasons. She doesn't grump about nothing.

And there's two character's that stick out in my brain, mainly because they both can't help it.
One is Nui Harime. Now, here's a picture of her, then I'll tell you about her:

​

Oh wow, do I hate this character. Not because she's annoying but because she's so expertly crafted to be detestable. Nui acts generally cute and playful all the time, regardless of the situation. Whether she is killing someone or having tea, she keeps that childish smirk about her. She is psychotic in the extreme. A worrying girl that derives an unsettling fascination with inflicting pain. To cap it off, she is extremely powerful. Attempts to fight her are usually met with defeat at her hands. It's as if someone on the creative team hated Kawaii characters like her in other shows then meticulously tweaked and sculpted her character to be someone you wish would just die already.

I cheered every time it looked like she was hurt. Considering how powerful she is, it took a long while before any damage she took stuck. But it was soooo worth it...

The second character is Mako Mankanshoku. This character forces herself into the spotlight (literally) and doesn't leave you be. But boy, does she manage to win you over.

For starters, she's just so adorable in her own way. Her own interpretation of what's going on in the show made me giggle. What she comes up with is completely wrong but she doesn't have all the facts so she just manages to cobble something half-plausible out of what she can guess. My favourite is her reasoning on why Ryuko talks to the sailor uniform she get's her powers from (who gets named 'Sanketsu').

She just spends her time in her own little world.​

In her head, Ryuko has no other real friends except herself and has taken to projecting a personality on her only uniform. She talks to it because she's lonely. What makes this so adorable is just how staunchly Mako defends Ryuko's relationship with Sanketsu. Of course, girl and living uniform are actually able to communicate perfectly well through a link only they can share but Mako's frantic defence never fails to make for a funny scene.

Heck! Consider her trademark move to bust into any scene she wants just by raising her hands over her head, crossed over each other with the 'Hallelujah Chorus' playing over it for some reason. Mako gatecrashes scenes just to inject her own skewed perspective and it's almost always tones of fun.

You know what's awesome? Mako gets her own Goku Uniform and it makes her look bad ass! She kicks so much bottom in that thing, making her go from a strange, unathletic character to a completely capable fighter in a sweet flatcap and coat!

She even has spikes, something to chew on like a leather clad Tom Sawyer and an armoured popped collar. So cool.​

And...Yeah, another comparison to Bleach and it's mainly in one character from that which fills a similar role. In Kill La Kill, Mako is Ryuko's best friend and lifeline when she get's too upset or frantic. Mako is always there, willing to risk everything just to ensure that Ryuko doesn't blow her top, damaging anything around her. Not to mention herself.

A similar character would be Orihime Inoue from Bleach. She has a similar role, as a supportive team member that is able to heal her friends. She's almost always on hand to fix up her friends, especially Ichigo, whom she seems quite enamoured with.

I despise Orihime. Never have I encountered a character so useless and helplessly frail in all my years of watching shows or playing games. No one has come close to how offensively irritated she can make me feel.

Yeah...No. Whatever you think will change my opinion won't change anything. ​

And it's not because you're seen as just a medic.​

My issue is her agency within any story she's in. For some reason, Orihime has a collection of fairies (I'm not kidding here (OK, they're more likely 'spirits' but it's not how I remember them described)) that will obey her commands. They reside within her hair-clips and will do whatever she wants. She appears decently powerful in her own way.

BUT!

Orihime has a dislike of violence and fighting that really doesn't ever appear to come from anywhere other than she doesn't like it. She's more than capable of fighting if she needed to as her powers allow her to not only heal herself but also protect herself with magic shields or slash through an enemy. It's just that she will not do anything to protect herself. Or improve her combat abilities, even in a self-defence manner. She holds back, she doesn't push herself to become better and apparently I'm supposed to still like her.

Her passivity got to me the most when she was kidnapped by Arrancar (which a sort of powerful evil spirits that resemble humans). Now, I know the lives of her friends are threatened by the big, powerful meanies and she's right to be concerned.

But she turns herself in without so much as a fight. Or even a plan. She's just allowed to be whisked away because the plot says so. Even though her friends are all stupidly powerful spiritual fighters that would likely survive an onslaught by these clowns. She gives in so quickly. No notes, no cryptic clues, no left behind items, no indication of a single thing to try and signify that she was in need of dire help.

And how about the fact that she spends the rest of the arc as a nurse to the obvious villains, who treat her as little more than a pet? She just heals them, never bothering to try and get a message out or something.

They're not holding her all that securely. Couldn't she just wriggle out or something?​

She even contemplates coming up with a plan but then shoots the idea down herself in favour of letting Ichigo save her.

I dunno about later episodes but that was all I wanted to know about her.

Mako? Mako is just fantastic. She takes on monsters by herself, fuelled only by her desire to not let Ryuko down. She puts herself in the way of danger again and again and again for Ryuko. If she is getting too hotheaded, she's there. If someone is insulting Ryuko, she's there. If someone is attacking anyone she cares about, she'll do something about it. She is even offered everything she could possibly want if she defeats Ryuko and eventually refuses.

Mako has agency. Mako is a side character but she's not worthless. She does things. She's actively contributing to things. Heck! She can even do a little healing since her father is a back-alley doctor.

And Drive Bys! Don't forget them!​

There is one other thing which a few people might consider a bit uncomfortable. This was something I had no issues with but the amount of naked characters or character's showing off some skin is pretty high. If you're uncomfortable by having so much ass, man chest and tits on display, then this show will not give you an easy ride.

Don't understand it myself but OK.

But I do want to state one thing: I do not believe this is Fan Service. Oh no! Fan Service is a bonus. An extra. It's the creators giggling as they nudge you in the side going 'Eh? Ain't that worth paying for? Yeah? You like it, I know it". It's unnecessary.

Fan Service?​

Nudity is a clear and heavily central theme in Kill La Kill. So huge that trying to divorce the nudity from it would actually harm it. In this universe, clothes are power. Clothes give people power despite a somewhat corrupting influence if they cannot handle it. They are potentially dangerous and there are people that have been rebelling against them for years.

They are honestly called 'Nudist Beach'. Apart from some ammo belts and pouches, they don't wear a stitch on them, on principle. They're the reason for so much nudity as well. It would be hypocritical to wear clothes unless you had to. Furthermore, there's actual reasons for why the outfits Ryuko and Satsuki are wearing in the top most image of this review are so revealing. I can't go tooooo far into them but they do fit.

Not everyone can pull it off...​

It's nudity for the sake of theme. To have purity against power. They milk it for a comedy but none of the moments of bared flesh was sexual, really. They spend too much time explaining why it's all necessary to really focus on titillation.

So, this get's a big ol' recommendation. It's big, it's kinda daft but it's heartfelt. It sucked me in. I would totally adore a Scissor Sword now and, I totally get the appeal of this thing. It looks stupid but there's a brain in the show. It's usually looking to snark but, it's still there.

Watch it. It's relatively new so, I'm pretty certain it's on one of those Anime Streaming Sites. Definitely recommended.