Forum - View topicREVIEW: Kill la Kill [Limited Edition] BD+DVD 1
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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Thanks for the info! I know the number of puns in the show is astronomical, and the title in particular was a multi-layered one, but my grasp of Japanese is super-duper basic so there's no way I'm gonna catch most of these things. Thanks! 
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SteveUzumaki
 Posts: 45 Location: United States |
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I'm going to play the devil's advocate here. I love Aniplex and their products. Compared to what Funimation or Sentai releases, they deliver a higher quality product that's extremely similar to the original Japanese releases and that is just awesome. However, the only thing that stops me from buying their stuff most of the time is the prices.
Kill la Kill is a great series that I want to buy, because I like getting my favorites on DVD/Blu-Ray, whichever I can get first. However, $60 for this is just ludicrous, even taking the extras into account. Given four episodes, that's about $15 per episode. And then there's the fact that as these sets become scarce, the price only goes higher and higher. I love everything I have from Aniplex, I really do. And I understand that Aniplex can do whatever they want with their stuff, it's just that the prices are a little much. I've seen some of their stuff go for more than a next gen gaming console, and that's just flat out wrong. |
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Dr. Cakey
 Posts: 13 |
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I'm not going to buy the KLK DVDs because they're out of my price range. Shower me with accolades for my heroic battle against corporate tyranny.
I assume other people have observed this, but I've noted an extraordinary tendency for hyperbolic opinions in regards to Mako? Like, she is either the greatest, most hilarious character in anything ever or the worst, most awful and grating character of all time. Of course, I say "everyone falls into one of these two camps", and then I just thought she was pretty okay. My favorite character was Harime Nui.
Wow, that's really interesting. Do you know if that's available to see on Youtube or something, or who did the panel? |
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1528 Location: Sunny California |
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I agree. It answered a lot of my questions about the release. |
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Doodleboy
Posts: 296 |
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Yep, you can see it here. Hiroyuki Imaishi's style is shown in the 4th video. http://www.crunchyroll.ca/anime-news/2014/01/02/video-an-introduction-to-sakuga-the-animation-of-anime Although this is from a fan's perspective. I remember some forum somewhere where Peter Chung (of Aeon Flux's fame) criticized aspects of this video, I forget what specifically. But it's fun, also really nerdy. Also shows Mitsuo Iso's animation, who worked on Evangelion and directed Denno Coil, who's animation is pretty much the complete opposite of Imaishi's. It's interesting. Last edited by Doodleboy on Mon Jul 21, 2014 2:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Thatguy3331
 Posts: 1790 |
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I'll just be the guy who skips all the AoA crap since A.) I'm broke anyway and B.) even if I had the money I wouldn't have gotten it anyway, not because of the quality of the show, but because there's not a chance in hell I'd pay nearly 50 bucks for just 4 episodes.
That said, Kill la Kill was a pretty odd experience for me, I really wasn't that fond of it in the beginning, thinking that it didn't have a single properly working brain cell in it's entire body but what kept me watching week to week was not only the style (which makes me feel similar to reading a one piece chapter where it's a breath of fresh air to see something that looks different from the otherwise same-y designs I see week in and out) but also because the split this show created really had me curious and I found it was an interesting talking point. A few blogs I used to follow back when it was airing pretty much all thought Kill la Kill was the jersey shore of anime and was inferior to gurren lagann on every level, but there were also a good amount of people making reasonable arguments of the show's worth (you know aside from the action junkies and the "KILL LA KILL IS REALLY ABOUT FEMINISM GUYZ" groups). At the end of it all though while the show did grow on me (after I finally just told myself to drop all expectations around episode 8 or something) I still have some hang ups with it, Ryuko to me is still the least entertaining character in the entire show even if I like her overall character arc, some of the short cuts were in fact just lame and as an action show...it honestly didn't impress me that much which again kind of falls back on the way the show was animated. All that said what did grow on me were the supporting cast Mako especially, it's really surprising how the most overly hyper character in the show somehow has the most of her shit together (mentally speaking...kind of). They all really became entertaining to me as the show went on, and in a way it seemed like they either saved their best humor material for later or just looked at their previous material for the earlier episodes and realized they had to improve. If I had to be perfectly honest though I think what I like about Kill la Kill doesn't really have to do with what I think of it as a story (which is admirable but otherwise just a tad off in the execution department) but as a piece of art created by a bunch of people who knew their first work as a studio HAD to be a hit. I listened to the ANN cast for the show and if there's anything I agree with it's Zac's mention of how infectious the creators passion for the show is and stuff like that is something I always love seeing. Really if the series were better priced I probably would have bought it for myself just as to have an on hand reminder of that (and of course I would be hunting down any available artbooks). Something I also found funny which will never come up again should I plan to re watch it was how I actually knew a bunch of people in real life who were watching the show. I was in my freshman year of college at the time and in the latter half of the show watching the series was more like a weekly event we did every friday/thursday in which we basically took over the art room that had large projector screen, and caused me and my roommate who was fairly new to anime having arguments about the show each week. It got to a point where the final episode was released because no one would wait for crunchyroll (I had a free membership at the time) A friend of mine found a raw episode of it and as the episode went on tried to translated it as best as he could with a half or something of a semester's worth of Japanese under his belt. I forgot how accurate he was but it actually attracted the attention of a bunch of other students, who weren't even into anime and by the time the episode was over there were over ten people in the room. So really I guess one of themes of Kill la Kill being about working with a bunch of crazy people kinda personified itself to me. 
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Rederoin
 Posts: 1427 Location: Europa |
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I'm pretty sure AoA prices it so high to avoid it being reverse imported by the Japanese fanbase. Its still far cheaper than the JP release though..
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Hellwarden
Posts: 321 |
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For what of the show I went through, I honestly hoped in just about every episode that spoiler[Mako would be killed off. Hopefully in a painful manner. ] |
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Pipoko
Posts: 165 |
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Good review! Personally I didn't really like Kill la Kill as much as many others seemed to. At times it could be hilarious, heartwarming and fun, but other times really jarring in tone, annoying and ugly.
There's characters I really do like, like Satsuki and Gamagoori, but there's others that I'm not too sure about - I found Mako funny at points, but really annoying at other times. I appriciate that they are creative when it comes to animation shortcuts and I understand they're a new studio, too, but there are other times where it is just plain ugly to look at. The fast pace also could be really jarring to me, transitions from serious scenes to funny seemed really off at points especially. I'm not too happy how they ended up handling the fanservice either, it went too far at points and I'm still not sure how to take some of that stuff. |
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danilo07
 Posts: 1580 |
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Ryuko as a character starts to really suck in second half.She is a shapeless creature, who changes her personality whenever narrative requires her to. I like Kill la Kill, I really do but the more I think about it seems to me like it's just an inferior version of Gurren Lagann. I know people like to think of it as dumb fun action shot, but Gurren Lagann quite brilliantly developed it's theme of evolution through story,characters and visuals. But I can't say the same thing for Kill a Kill , the whole theme of clothing theme really went nowhere and it was rather pointless.
Dude, please no. Imaishi likes his Kameda syle animation, but that style is almost entirely missing in Kill la Kill. Last edited by danilo07 on Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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nightjuan
 Posts: 1473 |
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Kill la Kill was certainly one of the most entertaining shows of its year, that's for sure, and seeing all the talented animators from Trigger at work with a fairly ambitious project was quite an experience. I hope they will continue to produce even better and more challenging series from here on out.
That said, I wasn't all that impressed by the comedy. Multiple scenes made me smile a little bit, but anime as a whole rarely makes me laugh out loud and this wasn't an exception to that state of affairs. Comparatively speaking, Space Dandy has made me chuckle more than Kill la Kill ever did, without necessarily being all that mature in its use of humor either. I liked the characters, overall, although at times I did sincerely wish the show had been willing to go in a different direction with some of them. Namely, I was more satisfied with Satsuki's development than with Ryuko's, despite appreciating both. You can't always have everything and I seem to understand what they were getting at, regardless, but certain situations still bugged me. Which is one of the reasons why I'd also beg to differ concerning how effectively the show handled its more serious or dramatic moments. Some of them absolutely worked for me, yes, but a few attempts at drama towards the end of the show fell a little flat, despite the interesting thematic implications and the obviously contagious artistic energy at work. Of course, not much of that applies to the introductory volume, which was still firmly in the relatively non-serious camp, so I won't elaborate on the specifics at this time. Last edited by nightjuan on Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:10 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Pipoko
Posts: 165 |
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There was a consistent theme in it, though. Just compare what Ryuuko says in the first episode to Senketsu's words in the last episode. It's all about freedom from oppression, very similar to Gurren Lagann in that sense. I wasn't as enthusaistic about the series either, but I appreciated that it had a theme and some of the character development. Ryuuko's mindset changed - she went from selfishly chasing after her father's murderer to focusing on the more selfless goal of saving the world. Yes, she "lost her way" many times, but she always came back stronger. I still prefer Gurren Lagann, though. I felt it was more polished and I cared about the characters more, while it still carried the same themes of freedom and importance of individuality. |
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Doodleboy
Posts: 296 |
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Gurren Lagann just stretched it's metaphors to the breaking point. Drills create a hole to move forward, they also have spiral to represent DNA, which is spiral energy, which represents evolution, because you can't have evolution without DNA, which represents the gyroscopic arc that's needed to escape earth's gravity.... Therefore Simon's drill is the drill that pierces the heavens... Buh.... It felt like a parody of symbolism and themes to me. |
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Pipoko
Posts: 165 |
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Gurren Lagann is really simple. Evolution and being individual human beings is awesome! The anti-spirals are the oppression to that, being a stagnant hivemind. Last edited by Pipoko on Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4074 |
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I have Gurren Lagann because I have the Bandai version (26 dollars or 30 minutes of Kill la Kill, not counting opening and ending), I don't have Dead Leaves because I kept forgetting about it and have never seen Panty and Stocking. But I'm not here to talk about them, I'm here to talk about Kill la Kill.
The first four episodes of Kill la Kill. You know, what I really love about Gurren Lagann is how the concept size competes with ambition... Yeah, even the review comes out and admits "This is not the show"
Yeah, that is not the show either. Ok, first four episodes: the Student Council are fascist villains, the teacher regularly brings up Nazism during his lectures and the first offense in the school or if its student council just feels like it gets you executed, the second offense is... I don't remember what the second one was. Expulsion, I think it was expulsion. Or was it the other way around? Anyway, the school is built on the concept of "survival of the fittest" which is the definition of "harsh", not gleeful lighthearted comedy. The comedy is Mako, stems from Mako, seeps from Mako, oozes from... you get the idea. But she can only do that because she is unfazed, unfazable and unfazablest. She a few cards short of recognizing the situation she's in or she's lost her marbles trying to figure out why she should care. Kill la Kill: It gets better, it get great then it gets bad {Just one word? "Osaka"} then it becomes a load of "not sh*t", smells, sounds and, yes, tastes like the real thing, just doesn't look it. And, yes, it is required. "AoA bad, friend, not!" {storms off to terrorize some peasants by throwing a flower girl into a river ... then making it into a movie to release in an overpriced set making the TV series seem like a good deal ... my life is complex} |
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