キルラキル Ep. 01 SPOILER Review

Synopsis:

Honnouji Academy is ruled with an iron fist by its student council, lead by the fearsome KIRYUUIN Satsuki-sama. Transfer student MATOI Ryuuko arrives in this strange city, a transfer student to Honnouji Academy. After meeting MANKANSHOKU Mako, who has to punish her brother and friends for trying to shake down Ryuuko, Ryuuko arrives at school and is assigned a seat next to Mako. There, she learns about Satsuki and the student council, so she challenges Satsuki in order to find the owner of the other, giant scissor blade of the one she has, as Ryuuko believes this will provide a clue to her father’s death. However, Ryuuko is intercepted and defeated by SANAGEYAMA Uzu, the head of the Sports Club, thanks to the Goku Uniform he (and the other student council members) wear, which give them superhuman abilities based on star ranking.

Ryuuko is forced to retreat and Uzu is in the doghouse for allowing this to happen after Satsuki ordered him to take the scissor half. Ryuuko returns to her ruined home, lamenting her lack of strength, when unbeknownst to her, MIKISUGI Aikurou-sensei causes a trap door under her, where she encounters Senketsu, a living uniform that forces itself on her, but gives her great powers. Uzu gets on a bull horn and threatens to execute Mako, so Ryuuko returns in her scanty outfit, where she soon schools Uzu that his 2-star uniform isn’t enough as she strips him of it, sending him hurling up to where Satsuki is watching. Ryuuko absorbs power from the Goku Uniform and despite the council’s efforts, a splatter of blood lands on Satsuki. Ryuuko then demands information from Satsuki.

Thoughts/Review:

I hadn’t planned on watching anything this anime season. After all, I have a HUGE backlog of anime, including titles I’d intended to episode blog last year.  But, a number of people said I should check this out, so I did.

Trigger, the production company for KILL la KILL, is following in the steps of Gainax, known for exactly this kind of anime production — whacky, full of fanservice, not traditionally drawn or animated, plenty of action, and a story that has, on some level, at least a measure of interest.

On the whacky side of things, Trigger goes all out, starting by having the student council show up in an overboard fashion, making GAMAGOURI Ima, the head of the Discipline Committee (aka: Public Morals), squeeze into a classroom and appearing almost as if a giant at times. Trigger does a lot of super deformed stuff in this episode to accentuate the whacky feel of things.

Adding to this is the whacky comedy elements, which while most didn’t make me laugh, I did smile a lot. For example, the whole worship of “Satsuki-sama” by the student council members and everyone’s fear of her is whacky and made me smile.

On the fanservice front, Trigger takes another page right out of Gainax’s books of tricks.  Not only did we get the cliched, blonde, bikini-clad, card-babe in the so-called boxing match between Uzu and Ryuuko, but the living uniform Senketsu was about as revealing as you can get, but it too added to the whacky feel of things. Also, having Mako hung upside down allowed for her to be serviced as well.

Since the artwork speaks for itself, I’ll move to the action.  There’s a ton of action in this piece, done in an overboard fashion to further aide the whacky element of this anime.

As to the plot, the premise isn’t anything new.  Ryuuko being on a quest to find who killed her father by finding the one who holds the other half of her giant scissor (“And why a giant scissor, I asks meself, when this is Japan?”).  I swear, once Ryuuko finds this person, I expect her to say something like, “My name is MATOI Ryuuko. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Granted, the folks at Trigger may not be aware of the most excellent Princess Bride movie from the 80’s, but I hope they are.

I do think that Trigger is being influenced by Marvel Comics though. Seriously, this city that Honnouji Academy is in smacks heavily of Madripoor in many ways, such as the thuggery at the lower elevations, and apparently more elite stuff at the higher elevations.

I figure I’ll watch this now. I have to keep my summaries down to save time. If I can do that, I can get some other stuff done as well.