Hardcore Sailor Moon

Anime Review: Kill la Kill

Hello folks, welcome to my another anime review. If you guys do pay attention to the title, I will not be explaining more on what anime I am going to talk about on this review. Looking at my previous discussion on Psycho Pass, I realize that it was a bit too long—it is a bad habit of mine, I do apologize. So, with that trivial and obvious reason, I am going to change things up a bit. I will divide it into sections; Visuals, Plot, and Characters. You get the general idea, and thus without further ado let’s start with the review. Oh, one last thing, Spoiler Alert!!

Visuals

In terms of the visual or the “anime style” of the anime, Kill la Kill looks pretty anime—so many “anime” in a sentence. Compared to Psycho Pass that looks sharp and realistic, in a way, Kill la Kill looks cartoony and anime-ish in the most obvious way. If you are new to anime…I think you will find it a bit surprising, but not in a bad way. If you have watched any cartoons you probably get it.

Gore does exist in this game but it seems to be merged quite well with the anime’s overall cartoonish visual. In general, the gore, injuries, and the slap-stick comedy looks like a merge between Tom and Jerry, Adventure Time, and The Amazing Adventure of Gumball—you now know what kind of cartoons that I watched—along with some blood and unrealistic injuries. It is not disturbing or horrifying at all. It adds the comedic value of the anime in general.

An example of the anime's signature red bold Japanese letters.

 As you see from the picture above, one of the unique characteristics that this anime has is its tendency to put and show HUGE RED Japanese letters in emphasizing certain words or topic. It goes along and well with the way the title of the anime looks on its opening session. In addition, it seems to fit the anime well as it is very comically bloody and BOLD, you know.

Speaking of bold, the letters are not the only aspect of the anime which have such boldness. The characters in this anime do have some bold costumes and design. Even though it is a part of the characters, I am going to talk about their designs in this section. In their regular uniform, it is safe to say that they look quite decent, in a way that it is that surprising for an anime character to look in such way with their uniform. Yet, when they do unleash their power from the so-called Life Fibers...it is safe to say that most of them do not have much fabric for a clothing. Ryūko and Satsuki’s transformation sequences does look similar with other anime-girl-transforming templates—with more skin exposed of course—yet their Kamui shows more skin than those of Sailor Moon. They look like a very sexy lingerie or swimsuit with weirdly awesome shoulder armors. I would be lying if I say I mind with the costume, but…when I sat them at the beginning of the series…it was a bit too much to my taste.

Moreover, same thing—even though, not entirely similar—goes to the male characters as well. Gamagōri’s three-star uniform suit, in its transformed state of course, looks like a male suit from a BDSM club. A super uniform that can “punish” you ‘till you reach your “climax” and maximum power, so much for a subtle innuendo. Nonon’s final rendition three-star uniform is no better than Ryūko and Satsuki’s Kamui as well. Yet, Sanageyama’s uniform looks cool enough for me though, as a mecha lover—minus the phallic kendo sticks that comes out from its compartments. Oh yeah, let’s not forget the Nudist Beach uniform. It is indeed witty to cover your private parts with utility equipment, but still, one of the weirdest armor-less battle suit design that I have ever seen.

Characters

Moving on from the visuals, I am going to be talking about the characterization of the characters in this section—if it is not obvious already. As I have talked about their physical and costume design in the first section, I am going to focus my wordings on their characters, traits, etc.  

Let’s start with the main protagonist, Ryūko Matoi. She is fierce, cool, ambition, and a bit hard-headed perhaps to say the least. Yet, she does have a bit of moe side to her with her innocent gesture, especially when she has to face the fact that she must wear such revealing suit in order to fight and gain the maximum potential of her kamui. She does adapt to be brave and comfortable enough in wearing the suit, but her moe does not go away that easily as we can still see her acting all quirky when some pervert mess around with her, and all. It is a nice balance between some bad ass attitude and some comedic innocence.

In terms of the antagonist in this anime, well, it’s a bit complicated. During most of the episode, Kiryūin Satsuki and her squad are the main protagonist, yet due to the plot twist they ended up helping Ryūko and her own squad in beating Ragyō Kiryūin and Nui Harime along with their plant to cover the Earth with Life Fibers.

Speaking of Satsuki, she is a decent character in term of her role as an antagonist. Her arrogance and dominance towards not only Ryūko but also the rest of the academy fits her antagonistic character well. Although the plot twist ends up becoming a place in which she shows her bit of soft side, it doesn’t really overcome her tsundere-ish coldness overall. 

Moving our attention towards Ragyō and Nui Harime, well…they are the antagonists alright. Ragyō’s character can be paralleled with your typical soap-opera step-mother in a way. I mean, she is no more terrifying than Makishima or Kamui Kirito in Psycho Pass. Talking about Nui, well…she’s just a psychotic little girl with super powers. Even though she does stand up more compared to Ragyō’s presence in the anime, yet the mood of the anime is comical enough that I don’t see her psychotic attitude as a threat or as the one who is responsible for such a thrill when I was watching her. 

One of Mako's signature "Hallelujah" scene.

Different from the cool Ryūko and the dominant Satsuki, the presence of Mako Mankanshoku serves the role as a comical relieve in the anime. Well…all of the Mankanshoku family seems to be quite the comic relieve anyway. What is being portrayed from the picture above is Mako’s signature “Hallelujah” moment in which she tries to motivate and lighten up the situation with her hilarious gestures, all of which seems to be related with Japanese wordplay of some sort—I wish I know Japanese well enough to fully understand this bit. In addition, her character in general fills the role of the comic relieve quite well with her drowsiness and comical trait in general.

The three star guardians that include Nonon, Gamagōri, Inumuta and Sanageyama do have their own cool and comical scenes throughout the anime. Even though, they seem to be portrayed as quite intimidating within the first episodes, its latter eventually show their own distinctive yet typical characters that we often find in anime. Mikisugi’s, the Nudist Beach General in command, exhibitionist attitude is funny at first but it becomes repetitive in the end, yet Tsumugu’s habit to compress his “sentences” with his one-to-three-things-to-say approach is always entertaining in its weirdest ways. Ryūko’s Kamui, Senketsu, is quite the nice addition to the cast both in terms of some drama or even just simple comedic scenes.

Plot

The whole anime is basically telling a story about two little girls who is fighting their own mother who turns out to be an alien and has a plan to destroy the earth. The choice of using super power injected uniform or costume as the main “weapon” seems to be similar to the concept used in Sailor Moon, or most tokusatsu-like show in which the protagonist only gains power when wearing some special clothing. Even though, in the end, we find out that the clothing does not seem to matter when your own body is made of super power injected “fibers”, for Ryūko’s case of course. In addition, the whole super power thing ends up determined by the will and courage of respective characters, along with some combination gimmick similar to other action and super power filled anime.

Speaking about the pace of the plot, it is rather slow in terms of how fast does the anime get me excited in watching each of its episodes. The plot twist in which we all find out that Ryūko and Satsuki are related is surprising but it doesn’t really surprise me at all. I did expect it to happen that way, yet when it does what I can say was just “Oh, okay”. I have no idea whether it was the mood and the style of the anime that decreases my expectation over the depth of story that the anime has, or is it just mere lack of engagement from the plot itself. Maybe, I’m just watching too much “heavy” anime to actually get immersed with this anime’s storyline. Not that it’s that bad or doesn’t really make sense, it’s just your typical anime. It gives me the same feeling like when I was watching Himouto Umaru-Chan—I watch it, I laughed some, I finish it, next!

Conclusion

Putting it simple, Kill la Kill is your go to casual action anime. It is a good anime to watch if you’ve just watched some more in-depth, mind-boggling, heavy anime so that you can just enjoy some decent plot with a twist, nice humor, and some sexy outfits. For a rating, I’d give the anime six point five out of ten. It’s just a decent anime to really pass your time with, have some laugh with, nothing more.   

Additional References:

http://kill-la-kill.wikia.com/wiki/Kill_la_Kill_Wiki