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REVIEW: Kill la Kill Episodes 1-6 Streaming

Currently, the themes are just there to create more action, hilarity, fanservice for a fun superficial show that relies on comedy and emphasizes over-the-topness, not to provide a social commentary on power structures, status or feminism in my opinion.

At first, I was amused that this thread already hit over a hundred posts but it's the same thing from the main one; taking this silly series seriously in all the wrong points and all the wrong ways.

Seriously, it's a cartoon drawn by men for other men. It's not the objectification of women, it's the objectification of an object.

Sylpher3 wrote:

Currently, the themes are just there to create more action, hilarity, fanservice for a fun superficial show that relies on comedy and emphasizes over-the-topness, not to provide a social commentary on power structures, status or feminism in my opinion.

I do think the show has a lot more depth than it may seem to on the surface. Besides all the pop-culture and anime references in the show, there are a few fairly significant historical references as well. For one, the name of the school in Kill la Kill is "Honnō-ji Academy" --- for history students, the Honnō-ji Incident refers to the forced suicide of Oda Nobunaga, who had been going on a quest to consolidate centralized power in Japan under his authority, not unlike the central antagonist of the series Satsuki Kiryuin. There are other references to the Honnō-ji Incident, such as the Houjou and Imagawa clans in episode 8, as well as Satsuki's name, whose kanji means "the 5th month", mentioned in a famous quote by Akechi Mitsuhide (the general who forced the suicide on Nobunaga), referring to the month that the Honnō-ji Incident occurred.

And actually, the concept of fascism related to this historical event and how it relates to the theme of Satsuki's conquest plays out in a number of ways in the series, such as the pyramid of capitalism and its parallels with the structure of Tokyo Bay (the setting of Kill la Kill), as well as Satsuki's various references to the likes of Animal Farm and 1984 ("pigs in human clothing", as well as her use of doublethink), which also help to enforce the parallels. In that respect, looking back it would seem the class lectures with professor Mikisugi discussing the Nazi rise to power and fascism were probably also made as references to the over-arching thematics of the show. The parallel with clothing is also somewhat appropriate in that respect, with the discussions of the historical military significance of the sailor and army uniforms that Japanese students traditionally wear, as well as the Japanese punnery of fashion (ファッション) and fascism (ファッショ) being the same word minus a character.

There's a lot more depth to the show than all the action and zany humor may suggest on the surface, which I assume will continue to be the case as the series presses onward.

As I said earlier, I think the show is fun to a certain degree, but there are serious flaws and it just doesn't live up to the amount of hype some people are giving it.

ChibiKangaroo wrote:

As I said earlier, I think the show is fun to a certain degree, but there are serious flaws and it just doesn't live up to the amount of hype some people are giving it.

I already know that the animation isn't the best, and of course about the fanservice, objectifying or not. What are the other flaws that you have seen in the show so far?

DuskyPredator wrote:

Could it be that KlK seems so far out that we are more willing to accept it having things we don't really like.

I think Kill la Kill has been getting a MAJOR pass by many people, possibly because the first episode was so over-the-top exciting and in your face with it's fanservice, action and art, that people invested themselves in the show to an extent where they cannot pull back at this point. Kill la Kill has been touted as the "BIG THING" this season more than once by some, and so I think it is getting very gentle treatment now that some of the flaws are becoming quite obvious. The hype of this show was reaching Attack on Titan levels, but it is no where near as good as Attack on Titan. But like I said, people are probably afraid to pull back a bit and seriously look at this show in a critical manner after pumping it up so high.

As I said earlier, I think the show is fun to a certain degree, but there are serious flaws and it just doesn't live up to the amount of hype some people are giving it.

Weak plot execution

Boss/monster of the week type pacing

The vast majority of the other characters at the school are faceless and, like Mako's family, soulless. They only exist to be used here or there as a vehicle to maintain the monster truck rally type brawling environment of the school, but they have no purpose or value other than that

The big bad semi-villain Goku hunter guy who showed up, took out a bunch of people, and then rode off into the sunset was a total waste. He had virtually no depth to him. Was just a temporary threat meant to force us to worry about Ryuko and Senketsu

The big bad semi-villain Goku hunter guy who showed up, took out a bunch of people, and then rode off into the sunset was a total waste. He had virtually no depth to him. Was just a temporary threat meant to force us to worry about Ryuko and Senketsu

I find it hard to like anime heroines now days because I fell like they are used for fan service shows like this and fairy tail have reduced anime females into fan service and leave the over the top battles to the guys. I think it is outrageous and rather watch stuff like Sailor Moon or Utena.

What I do find really skeevy though is the show's obsession with embarrassment. Especially early on, the show absolutely wallows in Ryuuko's humiliation at being forced to wear the uniform (and rape jokes/allusions. Don't forget those). That's just creepy to me. I mean, guys like watching Ryuuko's boobs bounce around in her skimpy outfit? Nothing unreasonable about that. But guys who like seeing a strong female character embarrassed and humiliated... Yeah, we've definitely wandered into creepy misogynist territory here. And at the very least, even if one doesn't believe the embarrassment to be fetishized, it still really puts me off. I just don't like watching a strong female character noticeably humiliated because she's forced to wear a revealing fanservice getup. At that point it just makes me feel really bad for her.

I do think the show has a lot more depth than it may seem to on the surface. Besides all the pop-culture and anime references in the show, there are a few fairly significant historical references as well. For one, the name of the school in Kill la Kill is "Honnō-ji Academy" --- for history students, the Honnō-ji Incident refers to the forced suicide of Oda Nobunaga, who had been going on a quest to consolidate centralized power in Japan under his authority, not unlike the central antagonist of the series Satsuki Kiryuin. There are other references to the Honnō-ji Incident, such as the Houjou and Imagawa clans in episode 8, as well as Satsuki's name, whose kanji means "the 5th month", mentioned in a famous quote by Akechi Mitsuhide (the general who forced the suicide on Nobunaga), referring to the month that the Honnō-ji Incident occurred.

And actually, the concept of fascism related to this historical event and how it relates to the theme of Satsuki's conquest plays out in a number of ways in the series, such as the pyramid of capitalism and its parallels with the structure of Tokyo Bay (the setting of Kill la Kill), as well as Satsuki's various references to the likes of Animal Farm and 1984 ("pigs in human clothing", as well as her use of doublethink), which also help to enforce the parallels. In that respect, looking back it would seem the class lectures with professor Mikisugi discussing the Nazi rise to power and fascism were probably also made as references to the over-arching thematics of the show. The parallel with clothing is also somewhat appropriate in that respect, with the discussions of the historical military significance of the sailor and army uniforms that Japanese students traditionally wear being mentioned in the show; known as gaku seifuku (traditional Japanese school uniforms), it's paralleled with the goku seifuku uniforms in KlK, both sets of words using the word "seifuku", which happens to be a homonym for "conquest" in Japanese --- there's also the Japanese punnery of fashion (ファッション) and fascism (ファッショ) being the same word minus a character as another parallel in the show's use of clothes and themes of conquest (I think these points were mentioned in an interview with Kazuki Nakashima, the series composition and script writer).

There's a lot more depth to the show than all the action and zany humor may suggest on the surface, which I assume will continue to be the case as the series presses onward.

ChibiKangaroo wrote:

The big bad semi-villain Goku hunter guy who showed up, took out a bunch of people, and then rode off into the sunset was a total waste. He had virtually no depth to him. Was just a temporary threat meant to force us to worry about Ryuko and Senketsu

Uhh...I mean, I hate to sound rude (yes yes, I know) but...did you even actually pay attention to the episode?

That episode was perhaps the most crucial thus far to expanding the actual overarching plot of the series.

The only one that comes close is probably episode 3.