Forum - View topicREVIEW: Kill la Kill Episodes 13-24 Streaming
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ATastySub
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 655 |
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Why is everyone so nitpicky about an animation score every time a show is reviewed? The whole fact it's the authors opinion none-with-standing maybe everyone could stand to brush up on what animation is.
Animation is not a check mark box with "did this animate everything standardly and not go off-model," and subtracting minor points each time it does. Animation quality is about how a series is animated and if the reasons and intent behind those decisions pays off. Kill la Kill is unabashedly the latter. Whether by pure choice or budget constraints they made their choice and stuck with it. The animation they use matches the scenes. A character about to go out in an unceremonious fashion? Turn him into paper cut-out and drop him looney tunes style off a cliff. Gamagoori suddenly off-model and larger than the school he was just standing in? He's actually on-model. That model just happens to be BIGGER THAN X. Whether he's representing authority, an opponent to overcome, or the measure of his determination. Trigger, whether through experimentation or old tricks, knew what they were doing. To try to point out "oh, this one scene/show/character was less animated than another," without applying any context to it is dishonest to anime as a medium. To further try to extend it to some sort of standard report card that applies to everything is insane. Are you really going to use the same metric on both Inferno Cop and Evangelion? What if you review a movie like Tokyo Godfathers or Barefoot Gen? Where would you even start to compare? Much like the entire review process animation quality is subjective to it's subject matter. Furthermore, if all you are getting out of the review is the scores at the end and are seriously upset over the difference between a B+/A-/A then you might just want to skip them. The things to discuss from the review are the letters that form the words and paragraphs. Not the five alone at the end. Edit: typo |
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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I definitely agree with those who say that the animation in Kill la Kill was not worthy of "A" status. It was very inconsistent throughout the series, and there were TONS of scenes where still images of characters simply slid across backgrounds (as someone else mentioned already). Was Kill la Kill stylish? Yes. But that "style" factor seems to be overly impacting all other areas of the show's rating.
Also, as others have noted, the villains in KlK were awful. Ragyo was basically Oberon from Sword Art Online, but with a more cognizable plan for world domination. However, she was the same type of one dimensional villain who has virtually no depth. She even had a fondness for molesting girls like Oberon did. Unfortunately, Nui was a similar one note villain who's main purpose was to be a corrupt/psychotic counterbalance to Mako. Satsuki was by far the best character. Ryuko and Ryuko's dad were also decent characters. Senketsu was a good character too. These characters and their adventures were enough to make this show good. The overarching concept was also pretty cool, although the plot/writing was often poorly executed. Kill la Kill is a mixed bag. It is easy to enjoy, but no where near a high quality narrative experience. |
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Rahxephon91
 Posts: 1859 Location: Park Forest IL. |
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Who the hell was looking for a high quality narrative experience with Kill La Kill? All this talk about the characters being one note, dosen't make much sense to me. This is'nt some nuanced show with characters who are deep. These are characters with simple personalities who follow the rule of cool.
This isn't a show about a smart story. This is a hyper active show where cool and fun things happen. There's a thin narrative to string things along( and it does and it does the crazy well) with characters who are simple enough to have a personality and be endearing. |
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tuxedocat
 Posts: 2183 |
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My take on it: Ikkitousen: art house version.
I can't really fault the art direction, which was very original and distinctive. Unfortunately, not much else was. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15511 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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From a technical standpoint I think Kill la Kill does not deserve a high animation score, this is especially early on and with the amount of still images. But I think it is not the technical points that are its purpose, the entire series was almost an experiment in showing that cheap and simple tricks can be used together create good animation.
Definition: the state of being full of life or vigour; liveliness. It was not that characters moved in incredibly realistic smooth ways, it was that the atmosphere, personality and life of characters were breathed life into through what level of animation they had. Gamagori would dramatically shift as his intimidation entered a scene, Mako would randomly shift between poses as she is being screwball, and Ryuko would be animated with increasing dramatic animation call signs as it built up with her. Personally my favourite use of animation was with Nui. How she compared to everyone else "broke the rules", it was not through size or the usual powerful animation that we knew she was terrifying, but the opposite. Her unchanging face with a disproportionate smile, that she could reach across a split screen, or suddenly be right in front or behind someone while seeming to not move at all despite what the other person is like. As Sanageyama spoiler[increases in size with perspective of power, Nui remains a flat image that shrinks in comparison, and as he strikes she simply blocks it and even as we see him struggle she remains a perfectly still image]. She dodges moves with improbably flips, even dodging by flipping over like she is a 2D image, it is that she breaks even the conventions everyone else has that she comes across as some sort of unthinkable. And only is it when she is matched and truly hurt that how monstrous she is, at those times her animation count goes to match everyone else's, but we will see things likespoiler[ her still going while her arms are gone]. The whole horrifying aspect of Nui is what I liked about her character, that how unnerving her composure, that it becomes really satisfying manages to meet her as being able to fight the monster. |
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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Apparently, all the people who said that poor development was a negative for the show. Not everyone is satisfied by "it has a coolness to it, and that's all I care about." |
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Rahxephon91
Posts: 1859 Location: Park Forest IL. |
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It's like complainig that The Raid dosent have some amazing narrative. It isn't about that and it never says it is. You watch the Raid for the action. Perhaps people who can't understand that and can't go into diffrent works with diffrent expectations, just shouldn't. |
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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Well thank you Mr. Master. We will all never watch again because you said so. |
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Rahxephon91
Posts: 1859 Location: Park Forest IL. |
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I'm sorry that you have you're head up your own ass-sorry that "Oh some of us aren't satisfied by mere cool action" really sounds like "look at me I'm super hootie toitee". Why the hell would you come to something that potions itself as so ridiculous, so stupid, and so illogical for narrative? It clearly is not about that. I don't know what you think is a "smart" anime, nor do I care, but are you trying to just compare Kill La Kill to that? Do you have one standard bar and if a show dosen't reach that, it fails? I'm sorry I don't go into something like Kill La Kill looking for something like Ghost in the Shell SAC. That would be insane. SAC is clearly about it's plotting. If a show like SAC failed to have good plotting then that would be a problem. Likewise I'm sure not going into something like Kill La Kill expecting GiTS calibur plotting. Kill La Kill's merits are not built around that. It's not about some nuanced story. If thats what you're looking for -which it sounds like with talk like "oh I need a narrative- then I'm sorry that is wrong. |
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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Like I said, you are just confirming why Kill la Kill is a good show, but not a great show. It is lowbrow entertainment. Fun lowbrow entertainment, but that's all it will ever be. |
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ZodiacBeast
Posts: 142 |
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This is how I feel as well. I didn't go in expecting some "deep" story or anything like that, just good dumb fun. Which I got in spades, mind you. I just don't feel that KlK is a great anime. It's worth watching once but I wouldn't buy it for my collection |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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I guarantee you they will not be sticking with it though.
There is actually an objective comparison we can make, even down to frame level, and that is to use the Kill La Kill DVD/BD version for comparison. Then we can determine whether the idea about "every frame (or lack of frames) you see is as intended" is right, or others' speculation, who are saying there are mistakes or short cuts made--honest, sloppy not-as-Trigger-would-like animation choices, is closer to the truth. I'm betting on the later. However we can also get hints by looking at the consistency. The latest Trigger newsletter mentioned bringing on big shot animators for the last episode. For other shounen shows, it's more obvious where given a fixed budget and time, they cut corners on less important areas and expend resources only on canonical scenes. Mind you, none of us are saying it's horrible, just that it doesn't deserve an A. Last edited by configspace on Fri Apr 04, 2014 8:13 am; edited 1 time in total |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15511 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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If all Kill la Kill wanted to be was fun and cool, than al it would have needed to do was random fights with cool transformation. But the show actually had many layers that revealed there is a lot to the anime rather than what you see in just the regular story, and looking past the layers of the bare story can reveal a lot of depth. For some reason I feel like mentioning one of the best/oldest scifi novels I have read, which can actually on the surface is a quite simple story of a man finding a barbarian and bringing him into society. But there are tiny details that reveal there is a lot going in on the story and why it has been so successful inspiration. The major story of Kill la Kill is not the story, I know that sounds like a ridiculous oxymoron, but there is actually depth if you look at it, the story is actually just a vehicle of a whole lot of things. Like a look at humanity and society/law, it might sound strange, but many things we consider right and wrong are totally rules set by society, for example lets say laws about clothing and slavery. It can be an interesting observation to look at the argument given about society vs humanity where one could say that humanity itself is shaped by society. And it is not too uncommon that we might ask what is more important. And I am a firm believer that the depth in characters is not in their character depth, but really in their other aspects: design, animation, voice, and role. I know it is a simple fact that a character with little 'depth' as being shallow, but that is only so if you let it be. Usually 'design' and 'voice' are common criteria too for a character, so I will focus on the others. It is a fact that almost every character in the show was bound by their own rules. Story wise Mako is a not too smart high school girl who lives with her family and friends with Ryuko, but that really is not a lot about her character. Her role comic relief friend, and because of that she will end up captures but saved because she really cannot get hurt. Her animation or actions allow her to jump in at times of trouble and solve things with a speech, many of which are done quite ironically. If Ryuko is Simon, than would it make Mako Kamina? Yet you might think they are completely different? Mako gives Ryuko a family, and continues to follow her as Ryuko is the one to do the final fights, yet there to cheer her on and give a reason to come back. The fact that Ryuko is the one to do all the transformations and Mako's powered up form is done kind of Kamina like is not coincidental. Mako even popped in and saved Ryuko from a dream world when it looked like the villain was able to convince Ryuko to give up. The way a character was presented could actually say quite a lot, look at my above Nui analysis for a look at what her character said. There really is depth. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I caught the obvious historical referents like the use of "Honnouji" and wondered some about how the Elite Four might be related to Nobunaga's generals. For a while Satsuki looked like the Nobunaga stand-in, but later I began to wonder if she wasn't Akechi to Ragyo's Oda. Nakashima littered Oh! Edo Rocket with a lot of historical and pop-culture references as well. That show often "breaks the fourth wall" and includes a sequence where the characters discuss whether a certain scene will make sense to foreign viewers. I'm sure there's also a lot in Kill la Kill that I do not see because I'm not Japanese. |
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Apollo-kun
 Posts: 1213 Location: City 7, Macross 7 |
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Well, I have a brain, and it's there to think. So that's a pretty bad defense of something, in my opinion. So yeah. Thanks for saying that so I didn't have to. |
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