Pentavus
Hello my sweet sugarcubes!!
This week I’m going to review a popular anime by the name of Kill la Kill. This well received show is produced by Trigger and directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, who was also one of the minds behind Gurren Langann. It was released in Japan in October of 2013. Kill la Kill is currently available on Crunchyroll and Netflix, among other streaming websites; but for optimal watching experience, I’d suggest using Crunchyroll.
The Kill la Kill series stars protagonist Ryuko Matoi, a 17-year-old high school girl on a mission. Ryuko grew up as a boarding school rebel without a cause, generally estranging herself from her father. She is your typical bad girl that couldn’t care less what anyone thinks of her. Walks to the beat of her own drum, etc, you know the type. One day, out of the blue, Ryuko came home from school to find her father rapidly bleeding out in his laboratory. As he lay dying, stabbed by a half of a giant pair of scissors, her father told her to find the owner of the other half of the huge scissor pseudo-weapon if she wanted to avenge his death. Ryuko pledged to herself there and then that she would not rest until she found her fathers’ murderer. As her journey began; Ryuko realized that she knew almost nothing about her father and hadn’t the faintest clue as to why he’d been brutally snuffed out. Thusly, learning about her father’s life work and secrets became a burning need deep within her very soul.
Ryuko’s journey eventually brings her to Honnouji Academy; a high school based around battle strength and a star rating system. Being a club president or a student council chair, for instance, could earn you stars on special school clothes called Goku uniforms. The more starts you accumulated, the stronger you became. These powerful uniforms are imbued with alien string fragments called Life Fibers. The general population can only handle wearing clothing with 2 or 3 Life Fibers, max, before they simply go crazy with power or spontaneously combust. Amazingly, there are only two people on earth who seem to be able to handle wearing uniforms made completely of Life Fibers, and they are (of course) our protagonist Ryuko Matoi, and our antagonist Satsuki Kiryuin. Satsuki is the student council president of Honnouji Academy, which she rules with an iron fist and powerful lackeys.
Now to the nitty gritty. The all-consuming Life Fiber uniforms (called Kamui, which translates roughly to “God robe” in Japanese) are unsurprisingly scintillating. Very little material, over 90% of the bodies are exposed. The Kamui are the magical girl version of a stripper in a g-string and sequined pasties. Now, the animation itself is wonderful, but I know that personally, I find the near-naked heroine thing is way overplayed. It’s getting old, and is super cliche. Are Ryuko and Satsuki sexy ladies? Absolutely. Do they have impossibly Barbie-like features? Yes. Is this kind of like every other anime of basically any genre? 100%. To add to the sexually fueled tempo of Kill la Kill, there is also a creepy amount of mother-daughter incest scenes involving our antagonist and her mother. Oh, and the revolutionary rebel group opposing the evil inner workings of Honnouji are called “Nudist Beach”. The members of this group are literally naked, like all the time. And they’re about 99.9% ripped dudes. Don’t worry ladies, Kill la Kill caters to our animated sexual urges, too!
To be frank, Kill la Kill doesn’t impress me much. It’s mediocre at best; very been-there-done-that kind of show. The subs throw me off sometimes, numerous typos aside, because it often doesn’t look like the words on the screen really match what’s occurring. Would I turn it off if I had nothing else to watch on a lazy Sunday? No. Would I spend money to watch it? Also no. There is more suspense and drama in Forrest Gump.
Peachy Rating: 5/10
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