83 were impressed!
10 clawed out their own eyes in CG segments
5 found the story lacking a certain bite to it
2 find death game plots difficult to immerse themselves in
Hooooo~ boy is this a spicy meatball. There's quite a lot to unpack with Killing Bites and it's got me worried I've bitten off more than I can chew. Nonetheless I'll just go right ahead and sink my teeth into this one (okay no more puns).
Killing Bites is a death game anime based on the manga of the same name. This particular flavor of the genre is that the four corporations that rule over Japan's economy hold a recurring battle royale to redistribute power using genetically modified animal/human hybrids. Now my personal experience with these sorts of anime are currently limited to Fate:Zero, Fate:Stay/Night, and now Killing Bites and I'm beginning to find some fundamental problems that inhibit my enjoyment of the genre. That being said I had an absolute blast watching Killing Bites despite it's many flaws.
Our main character Hitomi is a Hybrid based on a Ratel, or the Honey Badger as the internet would call it. Hitomi's personality sculpted to reflect that of an animal that just could not give a shit about anything or anyone is a fun take on the full of themselves protagonist commonly found in these sorts of shows. On that note most of the Hybrids in the show having personalities and fighting techniques centered around their specific animals traits are what brought a lot of charm to the table. Unlike the Fate franchise and it's habit of breaking immersion with world-shattering plot twists pulled out of thin air; if you have watched a healthy amount of the Discovery Channel you can get a grip on how a lot of the fights in the show will play out.
As far as death game plots go I found this one handled the usual questions of "Why are the fighters okay with this? Why are these people so terrible? Wouldn't it be easier to do X instead?" being reasonably explained by the shows world building and plot particularly close to the end of the show. The show handles it's setting fairly well as billionaire government controlling entities being totally cool with pitching their experiments against each other in battles to the death for more funding for more experiments being pretty believable.
Our throwaway self insert soft bellied male protagonist, Nomoto, had me very worried his blandness would reflect poorly on the show looking back on it and it to tell the truth it did, however by the end of the season I really enjoyed what he contributed to the plot.
Sound design was... mostly bland with most of the tracks for the show feeling bare-bones enough to fit the mood with nothing standing out as really jamming or hype building. I loved the OP and the ED however so a lot of points were picked back up there.
Probably the biggest glaring issue with Killing Bites was its art direction. The show really struggled with the bigboi enemies who have complicated movements or a lot of parts (like scales) presenting a dilemma. What do you do when you have to animate a bunch of moving parts and intricate lines for multiple episode long fights? Sadly that answer is almost always cheap CG. We're talking almost Kemono Friends or Berserk 2016 levels of bad here which makes me wonder what could have been. Generally character designs were interesting, hilarious, or just generally fun with enjoyable fight scenes but the two CG heavy offenders I feel will really put a nasty taste in how people will look back on the show.
Overall, despite the absolutely insane amount of fan-service littered throughout the show if you asked me if Killing Bites is just another Fur-bait ridden garbage fire I would say no. Despite Hitomi's catchphrase making me audibly chuckle the other half of those times I felt pretty hyped up. Despite fight scenes being half horrendous CG the other half was rad animal fact fueled shenanigans. Despite only being interested enough in the plot to stay for the whole show and ready to shelve it as a one off experience Killing Bites reeled me back in so hard with it's last 5 minute reveals and plot twists that I HAVE to see how this shitstorm plays out in the manga.
I laughed, I smiled, I enjoyed myself, and that's all I can ask for right?
"It's not about who won AotS. The one with the sharpest fangs wins! That's what Killing Bites is!"
Edit Extra Note: I cannot wrap my head around why the scummiest characters in these stories always get to live. Characters like Shinji Matou and an character in Killing Bites. Other characters dies no problem, these stories don't shy away from killing off characters but for some reason the MC will take pity on these characters that had they gotten their way would have literally murder raped them. Generally the scumbag goes through some painful ordeal and that seems to be deemed by the author as enough penance for being a murder-rapist with no actual justice dealt. The character may be presented as reformed but it reeks of a toxic perception being given to individuals that should be at the minimum locked away for life. This is not a rant, but rather a legitimate criticism of some of the biggest roadblocks to enjoyment I have to overcome with many series like Killing Bites, Fate, Jojo etc...
