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Kill la Kill (TV).

I'm curious as to what other people think. Would you say Kill la Kill is an action-comedy?

Satire and political satire use ironic comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their audience from the object of humor. Satire is a type of comedy. Parody subverts popular genres and forms, using certain ironic changes to critique those forms from within (though not necessarily in a condemning way). Screwball comedy derives its humor largely from bizarre, surprising (and improbable) situations or characters. Black comedy is defined by dark humor that makes light of so-called dark or evil elements in human nature. Similarly scatological humor, sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways. A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upper class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize the behavior and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love.

Making people laugh was absolutely not the whole point of Kill la Kill. Whetting our appetites for high-octane action, over-the-top visuals, stylish "cool" stuff, and excessive fan-service with lots of hot chicks doing stuff to each other (and overt yuri pairings)?? YES. That is what Kill la Kill is for. Comedy hour? No. Like I said, I do recognize that there have been many humorous moments in the show. This is just standard in this type of shounen action however.

@ ChibiKangeroo - I don't think anybody would argue that comedy was the "whole point" of KlK, but it certainly was a major point. More so than a regular shonen show, I would say. In fact, I would say KlK was more of an affectionate parody of shonen shows than a straight-up version of one.

Again, there is no objective authority that a question like this can be put to, but of the two people who have responded so far to my question, both have agreed with my contention that comedy is one of the identifying genres of this show. That's obviously an incredibly small sampling, but I believe that would hold up in a larger sampling as well.

Whereas for me, the question of whether KlK is "closer" to your Group A or Group B is irrelevant. To me, it's a hybrid: action-comedy. And because there was (in my view) a lot of emphasis on the comedy, I don't judge the action stuff to the same degree I would for a more serious show. For example, you cite Ryoko donning the Elite 4's Goku uniforms at the end as an "ass pull" that reflects negatively on the show. Because I put more primacy on the show's humour than the mechanics of the plot, I found that incident enjoyable and thematically fitting.

It all goes back to what I said a while back in this thread: this show is broadcasting on a frequency that you are not fully receiving. You are counting as negatives things that those of us who are more in tune with the show's intentions are seeing in a completely different light.

But I'm not making that point either. My point is that there isn't much value in applying the norms of a serious action show to one that is an action-comedy hybrid. That doesn't mean "anything goes" but it also means you weight things differently, as I mentioned in my Ryouko - Elite 4 uniforms example.

It also means that, for example, there is less concern about the fact that Mako isn't a complex character with some amazing arc. She has a comedic function in KlK and fulfills it quite well. When you understand that KlK is an action-comedy, you don't go around, "geez, I really wish they'd developed Mako more" they way you might if comedy wasn't one of KlK's major genres.

What I was trying to communicate was about only seeing the events as shallowly being part of the story narrative rather than a creative narrative. For example, how can Gamagori be so large, but more alarming is the fact that his size seems to vary between scenes. A shallow look is seeing it that the writers have not even bothered to get a definite size and keep changing it because of that. While deeper means how it relates to everything else, in this you notice that how big we see him is not what defines him, it is his place that acts as either a wall to protect Satsuki, or as a presence that intimidates students and enforce his rules. It because of that that we see him seemingly defy gravity and such.

Shallowly looking at Nui's presence also sees based on her variable fighting skills and little look into motivations and some hint at origin. But it is when you actually look deeper at what part she had in conjunction to everyone else. Up to that point everyone has been rather serious, perhaps with the exception of Nonon, although Nonon place did have meaning as she was culture and she had the part of school. Nui against all of that, she was pink and frilly and seemed to do whatever she wanted with little motivation, she stood in contrast to Ryuko, you would notice Nui's eyepatch, while Senketsu's is on the right. And just thinking, we saw her introduced during the tournament and she kind of has all the traits of Elite 4; Gamagori's intimidation, Nonon somewhat cuteness, Sanageyama's swordplay, and Inumata's precision and analytical abilities. She was being displayed as the worst that she had seen to that point. And there is more that could probably said about her as she could do things like lean on her own text, like she defied the very logic of the action and serious tone.

You could even comment that those elements themselves are a type of comedy. Not the "ha ha, she is leaning on the letters", but that she is one of the main antagonists and completely defies the hot bloodness that the show is mean to be set on.