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REVIEW: Kill la Kill Episodes 1-6 Streaming

insanely over-the-top.

Quote:

insanely over-the-top.

That is a bad thing now?

ShatteredWorld wrote:

Yes, every episode is different from the last. That argument can, easily, be made for any show (anime, American, etc). But the fact is that there's not much of a difference between Kill la Kill's episodes. Like the reviewer commented, it's very episodic.

Uhh...no?

I mean yes, its episodic, but almost every episode has been drastically different from the one before. Frequently right down to the animation style. Episodic is not synonymous with repetitious.

I also am not too far off from the overall grade. I would give it a B rather than a B+.

Maybe that will change, but at this point I can't even give Kill la Kill as much kudos as I would give to FLCL, a show which I am generally highly critical of.

A B is a pretty good score.

I'm confused, it's worse than FLCL, yes? But you don't like FLCL apparently.

So, it's worthy of a B, but not as good as show you think isn't good...

When I recently talked about this show in the series discussion thread, I described it as having a feeling similar to watching trucks smashing against each other repeatedly at a monster truck rally. That's what I get from Kill la Kill right now, and that is about it. Is that exciting? Hell yea it is. Are the trucks outfitted with all kind of super flashy, over the top gear and paintjobs that make them seem like giant monstrosities from another world? Yes. This show can get your adrenaline pumping. And I am sure the fact that the female protagonist is constantly transforming (via nakedness and jiggling boobs) into a a barely clothed, smoking hot warrior chick is probably making otaku all over the land nosebleed like there's no tomorrow. However, beyond that Kill la Kill feels almost completely shallow.

Mako's family are all soulless tools who pop in and out of the story to briefly serve a particular purpose, then disappear. Mako is an imbecile who is purely there for comic relief, and only temporarily shines in episode 7, but for episode 1-6 she is a hapless sidekick who's only purpose is to be beat up, rescued, and act ditsy for our (the audience's) entertainment.

The wandering warrior guy who showed up in one episode to threaten Ryuko was completely devoid of personality or meaningful rationale, other than being a "cool dude" who has a grudge and speaks in cool one-liners. He shows up on a motorcycle, takes everyone out, then rides off into the sunset. He is supposed to be mysterious, but I was just glad when he was gone.

Satsuki and Ryuko's homeroom teacher are interesting characters, but they have not really been the center of attention thus far.

The center of attention, which the review hints at, has been the repeated smashing together of the monster trucks... I mean, Ryuko and various school club presidents. It is entertaining, but intellectually this show is pretty subpar.

Maybe that will change, but at this point I can't even give Kill la Kill as much kudos as I would give to FLCL, a show which I am generally highly critical of.

I also noticed the animation is rated A. That's higher than Kyoukai no Kanata's animation rating from the same reviewer. The visual direction is fantastic, but the animation is not very high quality at all outside of a few specific shots (Gamagoori looming over the classroom in episode 1, Satsuki looming over Ryuuko in episode 2 and the transformation sequences that are mostly on ones, for example) and the CG sequences in episode 3 are kind of painful. As with the rest of the show, it's the execution that lifts the visuals from vaguely palatable to engaging. There's also a lot of variation, which is good, but hardly a lot of unique frames compared to KnK.

A B is a score I would give to a show that entertained me and kept me watching for the entire series, but was subpar in many other areas. I don't consider it as a particularly "good" score. I consider it as a passing score. Anything below B- I consider an undesirable score. To me, a B+ is a score for something that was very good but just missed in a few small areas and therefore didn't make the "A" range. A- is almost perfection. A is perfection. A+ is beyond perfection. Simple enough?

I didn't say I don't like FLCL, I said I am highly critical of it. It is another show that entertained me, but another show that I thought had a lot of flaws. That is why I am comparing the two. I think at this point FLCL is better, but it should also be obvious that I am indicating that "worse than FLCL" is not a great score for me.

Huh, I didn't realize he gave it a higher animation score than KnK... I don't see how thats really possible. I'm not even that big of a fan of KnK, but its got high quality fluid animation without the use of CG, while KLK has constant still frames everywhere and tons of low budget animation techniques. Its fine if the reviewer likes the art style more, but shouldn't that be the art score and not the animation score? Theres no legit reason to put the animation score this high.

I was just talking about this in one of the other topics. A B on ANN is a 4/5. It's got issues, but it's still very good. I think your interpretation of the scoring is harsher than they intend.

Yeah, that's why I have a hard time understanding "Better than a B is still not good".

I know "you missed the point" is a typical fanboy excuse, but I'm genuinely willing to believe that you didn't really fully grasp what either FLCL or KLK were doing.

Both shows revolve around a certain theme, puberty and clothing respectively, and are absolutely full of clever ideas revolving around said theme. I won't go into FLCL but KLK is pretty in-your-face about it too.

-the entire concept of goku uniforms mirroring real-world power structures

-the OP and ED with their obvious threads symbolism (people coming together to create red threads which then create a cage-like structure)

-pretty much everything to do with Senketsu is insanely clever. first we have the fact that the true fusion only happened when Ryuuko stopped feeling shame - because actions give meaning to outward appearances, as new meaning can be given to an 'outfit'.

Then we have the fact that the Ryuuko-Senketsu fusion is not even considered an 'outfit' in the show - people say it's 'tacky and ugly clothing' but the entire point is that it is not clothing, but two living beings fusing together. Senketsu 'becomes Ryuuko's skin', his threads/'veins' being filled up with Ryuuko's blood. Ryuuko is practically naked and referred to as such, and with this comes the clever idea of using nakedness as a weapon against the clothing.