R
Razilin
Guest
Original poster
I'm just gonna use this thread to review anime that I watch.
Be warned. I usually wait a few months before watching a series, just to see if the masses seem to think its worth my time. Therefore, my watching something will usually be delayed anywhere from 4 to 6 months of it actually airing.
Case in point, I'm waiting for Sailor Moon Crystal to load up a few more eps before digging in.
KILL LA KILL
OVERVIEW
Made by the guys who made Guren Lagann, Kill La Kill is the VERY shounen story of a young girl on a quest for revenge, sandwiched into the conceit that High School Uniforms and High School Clubs are Serious Business.
I am loving this show, mainly because it does what I like best about action cartoons - it takes away all the extemporaneous stuff and leaves the balls-to-the-wall action.
The "plots" of episodes 1-4 are literally just shorthands to get to what the audience is waiting for. Fanservice and fighting.
Shakespeare? Not really. Keeps me watching it without taking a pee break? It certainly does.
My opinion on its spiritual predecessor, Guren Lagann, is that it was a load of stupid, but in a good way - logic flies out the door in the face of doing things for fun and making an excellent homage to the pre-Neon Genesis Evangelion era of giant robot shows. The days when being a robot pilot were real fucking awesome (looking at you, Gao Gai Gar).
My opinion on Kill La Kill is similar. If Guren Lagann is an homage to early mecha shows, then Kill La Kill is an homage to early shounen shows in general.
Flimsy excuses to fight, hard-line animation, still shots, lots of shouting, power ups, quests to get stronger, and passionate revenge quest - thats Kill La Kill.
Do not go into this thinking its going to have the staying power of Dragon Ball Z or One Piece, nor the groundbreaking forays into multidemographic appeal that Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha or Rurouni Kenshin had.
This is old-school shounen for the 2010s, pure an simple.
And I love it for it.
CHARACTERS
Ryuko Matoi: I admit, I love badass girls. They come in all types. You have Fate Stay Night's elegant Saber, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's motherly and adorable Fate Testarossa, and others. Ryuko, however, isn't breaking any grounds here. She's hotheaded, passionate, driven, super strong, and attractive. In other words, she's very similar to every other generic shounen hero...only with breasts. She's serviceable, but alone she's pretty generic. However....
Senketsu: ...when you combine Ryuko and Senkestu, now you have a partnership that actually makes you want to root for these guys. I actually really enjoyed the bond of friendship that develops between Ryuko and the crazy-loyal sentient uniform. Interestingly, because of Ryuko's own relationship with Mako, Ryuko isn't solely defined by the bond with her uniform. Senkestu, on the other hand, is defined ENTIRELY by his relationship with Ryuko. No one else can speak with him or or understand him - everything he is, revolves around her. This could potentially make him a very flat character, but I found their teamwork to be a good foundation for the show overall.
Mako: I'll be honest, hyperactive sidekicks usually piss me off. And still being honest, Mako DOES piss me off. However, she is a very good barometer of what you're going to get when watching this show. In episode one alone, she goes from being lively and chatty, to eating, to sleeping, to being chatty again in the span of a few frames. That kind of hyperactivity? That's Kill La Kill in a nutshell. I'll give her props for being a good foil to the more levelheaded, reckless Ryuko - but let's face it, she's about as useless as Krillin is to Goku.
MUSIC
Kill La Kill loves to use the same power up theme for Ryuko doing awesome things. I wish they would vary it up a bit. Overall, the soundtrack is nothing fancy or groundbreaking. Its definitely no Yuki Kajiura.
On the plus side, the OP song, Sirius by Aoir Eir, is freaking catchy as all get out. I Parkour'd to that song so many times now.
ANIMATION
I swear Studio Trigger short changed on a bunch of scenes. I don't know if its just to give the show that old-school shounen feel, but there's a surprising amount of still shots, repeated frames during action scenes, a few glaring off-model moments (especially in one of the early episodes), and a couple of times where spoken dialogue is laid over non-moving lips. Given the hype surrounding this show and the fact that Studio Trigger's staff has a notable production history (Guren Lagann), I was expecting a little more from the animation department for this piece.
RECOMMENDATION
B+: Its a good throwback to the era of old-school shounen. In an era of doom and gloom heroes that make me think suspiciously of the 90s anti-heroes of western comic books, I gotta love me some good old fashioned shouting. The show does get grimmer later on, but not to the extent of Evangelion or others. This show got my attention with its high energy and hot bloodedness. I recommend at least one playthrough.
Be warned. I usually wait a few months before watching a series, just to see if the masses seem to think its worth my time. Therefore, my watching something will usually be delayed anywhere from 4 to 6 months of it actually airing.
Case in point, I'm waiting for Sailor Moon Crystal to load up a few more eps before digging in.
KILL LA KILL
OVERVIEW
Made by the guys who made Guren Lagann, Kill La Kill is the VERY shounen story of a young girl on a quest for revenge, sandwiched into the conceit that High School Uniforms and High School Clubs are Serious Business.
I am loving this show, mainly because it does what I like best about action cartoons - it takes away all the extemporaneous stuff and leaves the balls-to-the-wall action.
The "plots" of episodes 1-4 are literally just shorthands to get to what the audience is waiting for. Fanservice and fighting.
Shakespeare? Not really. Keeps me watching it without taking a pee break? It certainly does.
My opinion on its spiritual predecessor, Guren Lagann, is that it was a load of stupid, but in a good way - logic flies out the door in the face of doing things for fun and making an excellent homage to the pre-Neon Genesis Evangelion era of giant robot shows. The days when being a robot pilot were real fucking awesome (looking at you, Gao Gai Gar).
My opinion on Kill La Kill is similar. If Guren Lagann is an homage to early mecha shows, then Kill La Kill is an homage to early shounen shows in general.
Flimsy excuses to fight, hard-line animation, still shots, lots of shouting, power ups, quests to get stronger, and passionate revenge quest - thats Kill La Kill.
Do not go into this thinking its going to have the staying power of Dragon Ball Z or One Piece, nor the groundbreaking forays into multidemographic appeal that Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha or Rurouni Kenshin had.
This is old-school shounen for the 2010s, pure an simple.
And I love it for it.
CHARACTERS
Ryuko Matoi: I admit, I love badass girls. They come in all types. You have Fate Stay Night's elegant Saber, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's motherly and adorable Fate Testarossa, and others. Ryuko, however, isn't breaking any grounds here. She's hotheaded, passionate, driven, super strong, and attractive. In other words, she's very similar to every other generic shounen hero...only with breasts. She's serviceable, but alone she's pretty generic. However....
Senketsu: ...when you combine Ryuko and Senkestu, now you have a partnership that actually makes you want to root for these guys. I actually really enjoyed the bond of friendship that develops between Ryuko and the crazy-loyal sentient uniform. Interestingly, because of Ryuko's own relationship with Mako, Ryuko isn't solely defined by the bond with her uniform. Senkestu, on the other hand, is defined ENTIRELY by his relationship with Ryuko. No one else can speak with him or or understand him - everything he is, revolves around her. This could potentially make him a very flat character, but I found their teamwork to be a good foundation for the show overall.
Mako: I'll be honest, hyperactive sidekicks usually piss me off. And still being honest, Mako DOES piss me off. However, she is a very good barometer of what you're going to get when watching this show. In episode one alone, she goes from being lively and chatty, to eating, to sleeping, to being chatty again in the span of a few frames. That kind of hyperactivity? That's Kill La Kill in a nutshell. I'll give her props for being a good foil to the more levelheaded, reckless Ryuko - but let's face it, she's about as useless as Krillin is to Goku.
MUSIC
Kill La Kill loves to use the same power up theme for Ryuko doing awesome things. I wish they would vary it up a bit. Overall, the soundtrack is nothing fancy or groundbreaking. Its definitely no Yuki Kajiura.
On the plus side, the OP song, Sirius by Aoir Eir, is freaking catchy as all get out. I Parkour'd to that song so many times now.
ANIMATION
I swear Studio Trigger short changed on a bunch of scenes. I don't know if its just to give the show that old-school shounen feel, but there's a surprising amount of still shots, repeated frames during action scenes, a few glaring off-model moments (especially in one of the early episodes), and a couple of times where spoken dialogue is laid over non-moving lips. Given the hype surrounding this show and the fact that Studio Trigger's staff has a notable production history (Guren Lagann), I was expecting a little more from the animation department for this piece.
RECOMMENDATION
B+: Its a good throwback to the era of old-school shounen. In an era of doom and gloom heroes that make me think suspiciously of the 90s anti-heroes of western comic books, I gotta love me some good old fashioned shouting. The show does get grimmer later on, but not to the extent of Evangelion or others. This show got my attention with its high energy and hot bloodedness. I recommend at least one playthrough.
