Reviews

Kill la Kill will make you feel dirtier than a pig in mud yet just about as happy. The series seems to take nothing seriously; the extraordinary plot, characters, motivations, art and dialogue creating a narrative which is every bit as stupid as it is fun. No real character development is to be seen, the cut-out anime stigmas' sole role being the creation of extravagant fight scenes. This can be seen as par of the course, however, seeing as the show doesn't aim to create a sprawling, expansive epic. Trigger's only concern is to create a fan service riddled action piece, and they succeeded splendidly. However, you probably already know what is great about Kill la Kill, not necessarily what is wrong.

The aforementioned fan service can be distracting and outright unnecessary at times, degrading the main characters to nothing more than tits and panties. This, for me at least, took away from the series and showcased just how juvenile anime can be. In all honesty, we, as an audience, don't really need a breast close-up every 5 minutes or a nose bleed every 10. Although it was used comically throughout to lessen the burden of the ridiculous plot, it could have still been dialled down for the better of series. Although I see the hypocrisy in complementing Kill la Kill for the insanity of its narrative but not the insanity of its skimpy outfits, this is all my personal opinion.

Additionally, the animation throughout the series is shoddy at best. This can be prominently seen in the constant recycling of transformation scenes, placeholder animations and lazily created backgrounds. Even though the main fights of the Kill la Kill are adrenaline inducing, gorgeous spectacles to behold; the average scenes are extremely bare bones and jarring. Due to this, the viewer is constantly scraping for the next big event, begrudgingly watching through the badly animated toss to get to it. As such, this both effects the pacing and enjoyment of the show; shifting watchers between extreme highs and daunting lows. This somewhat segments the series and greatly varies the eye candy on display.

On the topic of pacing, Kill la Kill does it poorly. Although the first few and last majority of episodes are captivating and engrossing for the viewer, this cannot be said throughout. Most notably seen in the middle segment, the plot seems to stop sprinting and instead crawl. Although the action, ridiculous characters and stupid antics are still there, they seemed to be bogged down in the direction the story took. As such, the middle section is contrasted heavily to the start and finish, lessening the excitement of the series and ceasing all momentum forward.

All in all, Kill la Kill is highly entertaining and contains most of what you would want. Bolstering stupidly good fight scenes, plot, action and a fulfilling ending, it is only let down by its pacing, animation and average music. It's characters fulfil their roll and the story it's. I enjoyed the show immensely even with the criticisms I hurled, and I believe most viewers will as well.