REVIEW - Kill la Kill (2013)

You know, once in a while there comes along an anime that can totally surprise you, especially when people you know bash the show to bits (this happened with Neon Genesis Evangelion too). However, I do love surprises, especially when it comes to anime. Now, while I don't think today's anime is the best thing ever (or even the best anime of Last Year: Shingeki no Kyojin takes the top spot there for me), I do think that it's one of the more refreshing anime I have seen in recent times.

Studio Trigger's Kill la Kill

Kill la Kill takes place in a sort of advanced but still modern Japan mainly in a school known as Honnouji Academy. The story centers around Ryuko Matoi and her quest to find out the murderer of her father, with the only evidence of the crime being half of a giant scissor left inside her fathers body. With this in mind, Ryuko heads off to Honnouji Academy, and finds out that it's a totalitarian school that's basically run by the Student Council President, Satsuki Kiryuin. Satsuki runs the school out of fear with her super powered uniforms, the Goku Uniforms (not sure if Dragon Ball reference or not) which give the students super powers based on their star-ratings: The more stars, the more powerful the Goku Uniform. Ryuko challenges Satsuki to a fight, but loses and is severely under-powered to be able to take on Satsuki. She heads back to the destroyed home of her deceased father, and vows to take revenge on Satsuki. Then, out of nowhere, Ryuko falls underground and discovers a black sailor uniform which she dubs "Senketsu". With Senketsu draining Ryuko's blood, Ryuko swears to get to the bottom of her fathers murder and find the culprit once and for all, whether it be Satsuki or otherwise. What I like about this story compared to every other revenge story in anime is the unpredictability of the plot twists and how batshit insane it gets sometimes. It's a fresh take on the magical girl anime and while unlike Madoka Magika which deconstructed the genre, Kill la Kill embraces it's genre and takes it on a wild acid trip which completely entertains from beginning to end. 

The characters are some the strongest and weakest points of Kill la Kill. On one end of the scale we have pretty damn good characters like Ryuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuin and on the other end we have horrible characters such as Mako Mankanshouku and Harime Nui. I like Ryuko for her resolve and strength which reminds me a lot of Eren Jaeger from Shingeki no Kyojin. She's strong and has a sight on her goal which she never lets go of now matter how convoluted her view becomes sometimes, although she's not my favourite character, by far. That honour goes to Satsuki Kiryuin, the Student Council President in Honnouji Academy. Her strength, her ability, her form are flawless. If I was one of those weebs who claimed to have an anime waifu, it would probably be Satsuki (with Rin from Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne coming second). She is second to none, with interesting character development to back her up, a strong voice provided by the amazingly talented Ryouka Yuzuki and some of my favourite quotes from a recent anime. Like I said though, this cast is not all good. Mako can be plainly annoying at times with her stupid antics and her nonsense (although she was the source of one pretty damn good GIF) and Haime Nui just pissed me off every time she was on screen and she's one of my most hated female anime characters alongside Asuna Yuuki and Kotonoha from School Days.  

Animation-wise, Kill la Kill is sometimes REALLY good, but other times it's pretty bad. The action scenes are more often than not draw droppingly beautiful and gorgeously choreographed, but other times mainly during the slice of life stuff, the animation takes a turn for the worst in quality and it looks really unpleasing to the eye. Character designs look pretty good and unique (Mako is kind of generic though) and the frame rate is solid for the most part while taking a drop every once in a while.

The soundtrack to Kill la Kill was composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who also composed the 2013 mega hit Shingeki no Kyojin, which has to be my favourite soundtrack to anything ever. While I don't think it's as memorable, Kill la Kill's OST is pretty damn good and it's two openings, Sirius and ambiguous are two of my favourite anime openings, although the two ending themes are so damn forgettable it hurts.

Overall, Kill la Kill is a fun ride with some bumps in it's proverbial road. While I don't think it's the 'savior of anime' or anything like that, I personally think it's worth watching. While some of the characters are truly horrible and the animation becomes sub-par sometimes, it's one of the better anime that were release last year.

Story: 10

Characters: 6.5

Animation: 7

Music: 8.5

Personal Enjoyment: 8

FINAL SCORE FOR KILL LA KILL: 8/10