Episode I: Kill La Kill Review

Kill La Kill: Review ~

            “Kill La Kill” the fast paced, high octane, and at some points straight up high anime series created by the same people who brought you “Gurren Lagann”. This series follows the story of the seventeen year transfer student at Honnōji Academy: Ryūko Matoi, as she searches for the owner of the other half of her weapon the Scissor Blade, which leads her to Honnōji Academy. At the academy she encounters powerful enemies/students in possession of special clothes called Goku Uniforms, which grant their user enhanced abilities. The leader of these students is the student council president Satsuki Kiryūin who holds complete dictator style rule over the academy along with her right hand men (plus on women) the elite four.

            Ryūko Matoi has to fight her way through these advisories in order to find the owner of the other half of the Scissor Blade and the answers to the questions associated with it, with the help of the power of something that has been hidden away. Without giving away the story and plot too much let’s move onto the review before I’m fired for too much plot summery.

Visuals and Animation: In Kill La Kill the only thing I can say about them is that…they’re stunning.  True the art style isn’t something that you would see in a show like “Attack on Titan”, but for the shows over the top action, and comedy scenes any other type of style would probably leave a bad taste in your month; so the art style fits right at home with “Kill La Kill”. The backgrounds of the show are all great to look at, every things in the background wasn’t just left as an afterthought the designers clearly wanted you to keep your eyes peeled. The character designs are all fun and diverse (minus the worthless extras) where you are never going to say characters look way to similar to each other. The animation in the show is so well done almost everything in the show flows smoothly even with the fast paced nature of the show, from the action, to the comedy, to the fan service everything is done exceptionally well. Although because this falls under visuals I do need to warn you about the fan service…there is a lot of it, so I don’t recommend you watching this with the family otherwise you may get some strange looks.

Audio and Voices: This is another department where “Kill La Kill” just nails it. The soundtrack, sound design, and voice work is all just well done. The soundtrack just fits the show so well getting every scene into the mood it’s going for. The sound design is also very well done, nothing will really make you want to turn the volume because it’s annoying you. The audio is leveled out just right so nothing drowns the other pieces of audio. Now onto the voices…okay I probably should have mentioned this earlier the show is currently at this time only in Japanese with English sub titles, but this does not detract from the shows charm. The voice work is extremely well done to the point where you can see (hear) that the voice actors put their best vocal cord forward. (You would think with all this praising I’d be getting paid off)

Characters: The colorful cast of characters will really keep you wanting to know about them…or wonder what kind of drugs they’re on. Of course not everyone’s character can be fully fleshed out so some are left feeling like you wish you knew more about them or at least get to see what they do or did away from the main character’s adventure. Now enough characters are fleshed out where you won’t feel like you don’t care enough about them during the course of the series. These characters are great to watch and see how they interact with the each and their take on what’s going on in the story. All the character tie in well with the overarching story and none of them will feel out of place. Take solace in knowing you’ll enjoy these guys and gals in the show.

 

Story/Plot/Whatever the hell is going on: The story has many different twists and turns that will catch you off guard and keep you thinking what will happen next or make you think “How in the hell did you do that?!”. The story does its job with getting from point A to Q to B and keep you wanting to watch the next episode. Now that fan service that I mentioned earlier it actually has a purpose to the plot! Now of course I won’t say all of it’s there because of a grand message, but to symbolism of the story and plot it does make sense (Not right away of course). I won’t say this story is the greatest thing since chainsaw crossbows, but it shouldn’t leave you disappoint. Everything is opinion based so all I can say is “I like it”. Now the show will take you as the viewer threw some crazy things so you need to throw that logic out the window and strap in the suspension of disbelief

Conclusion: Okay I’m not paid enough for this- Oh right the actual review. “Kill La Kill” is a fun twenty four episode ride that will show you though things you never thought of…expect for certain people when high. I personally enjoyed this show from start to finish and would do it again (If I didn’t have other things to review).

You can view “Kill La Kill” at http://www.crunchyroll.com/kill-la-kill.

Now given how subjective numerical grading is I’ll give this kind of system a try, “Kill La Kill gets a: MUST WATCH

P.S. Let’s hope I still work here after writing this.

By: Michael Sanchez (Chief Contributor Office/Columnist