Kill la Kill
I finished the Kill la Kill anime on Thursday so I thought that I should do an entry about it.
"Ryuuko Matoi is a vagrant school girl traveling from place to place searching for clues to the truth behind her father's death-the "woman with the scissor blade." The journey has led Ryuuko to Honnouji Academy. Honnouji Academy-where an elite group of students is granted superhuman power by their special uniforms called the "Goku uniform." With the power of the uniform, the student body president, Satsuki Kiryuin rules the students with unquestioned power and fear. Satsuki holds the secret to the "scissor blade" and Ryuuko confronts Satsuki to gain information but... Was their encounter a mere coincidence or fate? The clash between the two will soon consume the whole academy!" - Myanimenews.net
I watched the first episode quite some time ago with mrunchosen. Then I got to about the sixth episode in before I forgot about it due to being distracted while trying to catch up in the One Piece anime. I picked it up again about 2 weeks ago and watched an episode or two here and there, until Thursday where I smashed out the final seven.
I have to say, at first I didn't really like it but now that I think back to it, I can clearly see that it was simply down to not being used to the animation and art style. The animation in the series is quite fast, especially in the fight scenes or during Mankanshoku, Mako's cute little, errm, I'm not sure what to call them, I guess they're "explanations." ? - if you blink, you miss details. It took me about three episodes to get used to, after that things felt pretty smooth.
The concept of this anime is quite simple. The story is simple, but, here's the thing, it acts like it's not AND it gets away with it. I don't want to discuss any spoilers, but I will say this; after about episode seventeen you get a whole lot of new information about why Ryuuko's father was murdered, and while this information isn't surprising, the animation and story telling makes it seem like it is. During watching the episodes you feel gobsmacked by plot developments, then later you look back and go "Actually, that was pretty simple. It's not complex at all" and after you realise this pattern, there are at least a few plot developments that are downright predictable. And even if you predicted it, it STILL makes you feel "surprised". Jason mentioned that he noticed this too, so I know I'm not the only one who has picked up on this. It's pretty neat actually - by hyping itself up, it creates the hype!
Another thing I love about Kill la Kill is all the comments that it makes on society. You can look at Honnouji Academy as a "fascist" regime. Hello! the anime actually opens in a classroom with the teacher, Aikurou Mikisugi, giving a lecture on the subject, even mentioning the Nazi regime. Another comment that Kill la Kill can be making is that The Goku Uniforms and the Kamui (God Clothes) can be seen as technology or more specifically "wearable technology" and, due to their nature they are a "threat" in the anime - could wearable technology be a threat to us in the real world? Could we become so immersed with technology that we don't notice that we are being controlled by it? In the anime, the company REVOCS ends up controlling 100% of the worlds clothing supply, what's to say that something of that notion could take place in the real world? In Kill la Kill it's almost as if no one even notices... could we, humanity, eventually end up that stupid?
There are some things to ponder, but then again, maybe I'm just reading into it and the whole anime is actually just a massive fan-service with an interesting narrative, unique style and awesome soundtrack featuring this song.
I give this anime 4.5/5 stars.