kill la kill 10
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I Want to Know More About You
“Stand strong, Mako Mankanshoku! Hooray! Hooray!”
I’ve read enough posts arguing over sexism, philosophy, feminism, and other liberal arts dissertations about KILL la KILL to say this: Sometimes a dream is just a dream. Sometimes an anime is just an anime. Look, no matter how you wish to interpret it, you are over-analyzing it. KILL la KILL exists to make Studio Trigger money. That’s it. There’s no cause the guys at Studio Trigger is advancing nor subverting. They are trying to make a buck. I remember when I met the majority of the staff at Fanime (and again at future Fanimes), and they basically said their number one goal with Gurren Lagann was to make a show that could sell mecha toys. They needed a way to sell mecha toys, and they came up with a script around that idea. You know how Sunrise always has the first main Gundam being totaled half-way through the show and replaced with a shiny new one? It is to sell toys. Same with why there’s so many forms of Gurren Lagann. I was reminded of this when I was browsing anime shops in Taipei, and I saw three of the Gurren Lagann forms sitting next to each other on a shelf. Okay, yes, Gurren Lagann might have themes and tropes and giant Yoko melonpan, but it’s goal is to make money via disc and toy sales. KILL la KILL is no different. It’s goal is to make money via disc and toy sales… moreso, it has to. Studio Trigger has what to fall back on? A Kickstarter for Little Witch Academia? They need this show to succeed, and they stacked the deck totally in their favor by appealing to classic anime loves: action, over-the-topness, and melonpan. It’s a simple formula that is mined over, and over, and over again.
(I mean, did Kyoto need to toss Mitsuki into a swimsuit for the recent Kyoukai no Kanata episode? Especially during a serious revelation? No, they didn’t need to. They just did it to sell Mitsuki swimsuit PVC figures in the future. Along with accompanying tanned Onii-chan figures.)
(Basically, I’m getting flashbacks to when anime bloggers where using their Psych 101 textbooks to decompose shit like Final Approach. No, please– stop. Just enjoy KILL la KILL for what it is.)
“That’s a fucking uniform?!”
Secondly, look at the staff. Kazuki Nakashima and Hiroyuki Imaishi worked creatively on Cutey Honey, Gurren Lagann, FLCL, Diebuster, and Panty and Stocking. What part of that list screams intellectual dissertation or social commentary? What do those shows have in common? Hyper-sexualized female leads. Are you telling me Ryuko and Satsuki are any different than Cutie Honey, Yoko, Haruko, or Panty/Stocking? They are the same! They are all well-endowed females with revealing costumes who use their sexuality as part of their battle cry. It’s a trope that sells well. Having a well-endowed females with revealing costumes as a lead is like starting a franchise with Andrew Wiggins or LeBron James. Plucky whiny teenaged boy is more like starting a franchise with Kwame Brown or Michael Olowokandi (i.e. picking a tall stiff because you don’t know what else to do). I don’t know what other commentary there is besides, “Studio Trigger knows what 15 year old boys like. And guess what? 15 year old boys are their target audience! What a coincidence.”
(Complaining that KILL la KILL is geared towards a specific audience… have you turned on a TV lately? All TV channels do is cater towards a specific demographic. This is why Spike TV, HGTV, Hallmark Channel, ESPN all exist. They all cater to narrow and narrowing windows of audiences. There’s no money in making mass market stuff– entertainment is all geared and designed towards demographics. If I had to pick a show with the exact opposite demographic as KILL la KILL… mmm… Call the Midwife. No one complains about the narrow demographics of Call the Midwife. A little underboob action and people lose their minds.)
“My sand is right here.”
I am continuing to love the flashback scenes. The one for Inumuta is weak, but Gamagoori’s and Sanageyama’s have been great. Jakuzure is in the middle. On one hand, she reminds me a lot of Kuroko in Railgun. On the other hand, loli kindergartener Satsuki is absolutely no different than the current Satsuki. Her “My sand is right here” line is fantastic, as is her stoic expression. She is one terrifying loli and worthy of a casting spot on Higuarashi. Anyone arguing that KILL la KILL is a coming of age story should stop because Satsuki came of age when she was still a fetus apparently. Between Jakuzure flashback to present story time, her character has not evolved or changed one iota. Maybe it’s a coming of age story for everyone but Satsuki, but she is the wall.
(Gamagoori does remark that Satsuki is showing uncommon kindness or whatever now. She has always shown that she does not discard what can be useful in the future via her flashbacks, so that is nothing new. It just means Gamagoori still has some value to her. Maybe it’s not as high of a value as he thinks he has or doesn’t have, but just that she can still make use of him. It’s not her character growing.)
The classical music selection continues to impress. William Tell is a nice choice. I expect nothing less than the 1812 Overture in the next episode. Come on, it has cannons! The classic music gives the show a classy balance for all the Looney Tunes action and the boobs flopping around.
(My main complaint: Jakuzure leads a marching band! Shouldn’t she be playing more marching band-like music? Where’s my When the Saints Go Marching In or Battle Hymn Of The Republic? Or even terrible covers of popular pop songs? That’s halftime marching band music to me.)
Then again, I wouldn’t mind some Danger Zone. The animation has fallen off considerably from the start, but it’s not as bad as episode four. It’s somewhere in between. This time in a season is where you can see how Kyoto is just plain better than everyone else. At the beginning of a season when studios focus a lot on the important first few episodes, they put in a lot of time and effort then, but not a lot of shows carry that level of production quality throughout. Kyoto just continues at a high level throughout. You can see Trigger pacing themselves now (speedlines… speedlines everywhere!), and how Shaft basically fell off a cliff in Monogatari Second Season.
(Even Sunrise is shaking their heads. Three recap episodes?!)
For some reason, this scene reminds me a lot of a scene you might find in FLCL. I’m not sure about how I feel about the battles against the Elite Four other than, “They didn’t know a better way of making the battles happen.” Having Satsuki just arrange a tournament and have them fight is about as lazy as the plot to a Tekken game.
Three MVPs…
1. Loli Satsuki.
2. Senketsu.
3. Nakkid Gamagoori.
3 Responses to “kill la kill 10”
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Satsuki’s ideas appear to have been set up early on: from child onwards, she’s been fixed on the same goal, recruiting what tools she needs on the way. Nonon is no different, no matter how much she feels their relationship is special. Ryuuko is closer as a rival or challenge than Nonon is.
Still, I’m disappointed in you: no screaming yandere face Nonon?
Funny thing how, in by pointing out that there is no deep messages to analyze in Kill La Kill, as it is after all a means to an end (for Trigger to make money), you’ve managed to dissect and expound on the themes of the show better than those other self-important armchair psychoanalyst bloggers out there. Props especially to pointing out that Satsuki’s character has not actually changed from her flashbacks. As Gargamoori himself proclaimed, “she is the exception.” Indeed.
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Whether she is indeed a paragon and goalpost, or just a hurdle for the rest of the cast remains to be seen, especially with the curveball Trigger just set up with the previews for the next episode (in their continuing efforts to screw with audience expectations).
No Nonon emo facial distortion screenshot?