As the new series from the team that brought us the stylish, over-the-top, and immensely popular Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill was destined to be a hit with the crowds. It following right along with its predecessor, packing in loads of zany characters and dramatic action sequences within every episode, not to mention a healthy dose of jaw-dropping outrageousness. Kill la Kill is the story of a high school girl named Ryuko in an alternative modern Japan where the student council of Honnouji Academy have taken over much of the country through the use of super-powered uniforms, living in luxury while keeping a tight leash on the people under their rule. Ryuko, however, is about to shake things up. After her father was murdered, she takes her only lead and sets her sights on the steely Satsuki Kiryuin, leader of the council and someone who seems to know something about the murder. With the help of some *ahem* unusual allies and a uniform of her own, Ryuko is ready to take on the whole school to reach her goal.
Kill la Kill is an interesting sight to behold, full of wacky allies and enemies, humorously slick undercover agents, and plenty of insanely corrupt systems/people that one can’t help but want to watch what happens next. The series boasts two very strong ladies as its leads, a fun deviation from the standard action anime/manga with a shonen demographic, which typically tails a teenage boy around on his adventures. Female characters’ roles in these tales vary and, as we have seen, sometimes act as strong allies to their male comrades that the audience can take seriously, but often end up in more traditional positions as helpless but faithful lovers/friends, major fanservice caterers, and so on. This common dilemma is something I have previously pointed out in Gurenn Lagann.
Kill la Kill, on the other had, gives both the major roles (so far) to female characters, making both the spunky underdog lead (Ryuko) and the tyrannical antagonist (Satsuki) female. Both female characters have an incredible drive to reach their goals; Ryuko is literally fighting against an entire school to reach hers while Satsuki’s unshakable demeanor and strength puts her at the top of a monstrous system, plotting her moves with confidence. Thus far, Ryuko and Satsuki are also the only ones able to handle the mysterious power of uniforms that possess a soul of sorts, feeding off the blood of its wearer in exchange for tremendous strength. Granted, Ryuko still seems to be in the dark about what is truly going on in this topsy-turvy world while the male mentor-like character (if you can even call him that) obviously holds, and withholds, information from Ryuko. Satsuki, however, appears to be in the know about everything. Given that the series is only eight episodes in, things are bound to change and I’m looking forward to how these characters progress.
That being said, Kill la Kill suffers in the extreme from fanservice. I’ve complained in the past about unrealistically big breasted female characters, convenient panty and cleavage shots, and the like, but as a show that likes to take things over the top, this series use of fanservice truly puts it on a different level. Remember those fancy, power-granting uniforms that Ryuko and Satsuki utilize? Well, when in use, they turn the protagonist and antagonist alike into breast-baring, buttocks-showing, midriff-exposed wonders. At the same time, the audience gawks at their power, we also can’t help but gape at the kinkiness of their outfits. Focus is torn between sex appeal and prowess, and mixes sexualization of the female character with violence.
When an audience gathers to watch the latest battle Ryuko participates in, male characters are shown openly drooling at her as she fights, gets pummeled or wins, in such a revealing outfit. In these battle scenes, Ryuko also often moves or is moved in ways that exaggerate this further. Ryuko herself is embarrassed at first to be wearing such an outfit and, in fact, is forced to wear it in a disturbing scene that seemed to make some viewers (including myself) feel uncomfortable. As the series proceeds, she realizes she must embrace the baring of her body in order to access the full power of the uniform. Now, I’m all for the acceptance of one’s body, but the situation in the show is dependent on the acceptance of sexualization and objectification rather than the acceptance of the body itself. After all, embracing one’s sexuality or body is not the same thing as coming to terms with having your body on display as Ryuko does.
Of course, female characters are not the only ones subjected to showing skin. Male characters also are revealed when they transform for battle, although the final finished product is usually covered up. In addition, the creators of the show appear to realize the ridiculousness of Kill la Kill’s fanservice and have fun with it. As some viewers have argued, one could see the extremes of fanservice in the series as making fun of the trend. Then there is a certain previously mentioned professor/undercover agent, Aikuro, who is male and who has a knack for bathing in the limelight of partial nudity. At the same time Aikuro acts as male fanservice, his character also is obviously made fun of as the music switches to a tune that screams sexy and he then begins to try his hardest to be tempting.
However, even if the show is trying to make fun of fanservice to a degree, that does not necessarily save it from rebuke. Pulling the “we know that you know this is a joke so, it’s okay” routine still draws on sexism and it therefore becomes a fine line between truly pointing out the idiocy of something and simply further perpetuating the problem. While I’m not getting the joke so far with Ryuko’s fanservice, I clearly get it with her professor, Aikuro, a character that, in his moments of ludicrous sexiness, reminds me of all those male characters that overtly fulfill the purpose of being sexy eye candy. As I mentioned, there are cues within the show that tip the audience off that sexy Aikuro scenes are truly supposed to be seen as ridiculous, such as the heroine’s dubious and exasperated reactions. On the other hand, even if the creators’ intentions are to make fun of fanservice with Ryuko’s character as well, I’m not getting any signals that I don’t see in normal instances of fanservice. Nevertheless, the series is only eight episodes in so, I’ll be watching (and probably rewatching) Kill la Kill to see where they take this series.
With that said, what’s your take on Kill la Kill‘s fanservice and characters thus far?
I think fanservice itself is not a problem, but to make the character feel completely uneasy while she is ogled and then push the moral she just has to accept it, especially after a scene reminiscing rape, is disgusting and takes away from any value this show could otherwise have.
Well truthfully, I don’t like the uniforms because of the (somewhat) distracting service elements. Now, I do believe they could have done a pretty good joke about its skimpiness in the beginning, because it technically wasn’t Ryoko’s real uniform. It could have been a good joke for that, and then give her something more serious, but they didn’t so a good joke was skipped…
But once again, I will repeat myself from the post I made about your review on Gurren Lagann: we never came to watch it because its femnist. We came to watch it because it is overly epic that the series goes topsy turvy from it.
Because the outfits concern you (and me somewhat, though I’m male so I mind less 😉 ) I offer the following piece of information: Japan is still for the most part more sexist than the United States/Europe. Being this, these guys are trying to make a mainstream show about A FEMALE LEAD. This is huge for the shounen genre so I restate: A FEMALE LEAD.
Twenty bucks says they were probably pressed to show more skin simply for that reason, but then being what they are milk the hilarity out of it from every scene.
So from a feminist perspective, I actually consider this a step forward for the Japanese. Yes Ryoko’s outfit is skimpy as can be, but on the other hand SHE IS A FEMALE LEAD IN AN ACTION SHOW. Very rarely does this occur, so the fact that some of the greatest producers decided to do this bold move leads me to believe its a victory for femninism. And if you say I’m wrong, then I point to Ryoko’s character. Without her skimpy clothing, she’s still a badass, and so my hypothesis stands.
The fact that I ended up looking forward to Kill la Kill instead of the other shows I thought would top my season says a lot about it being interesting and enjoyable and about its intriguing characters. But yes, every time we get frames where Ryoko’s assets get exposed (and at the same time they are frames where she loses/is in a tight position, making them quite humiliating) I feel like someone screeches his/her nails on a board… The same goes for the dialogues about the ‘pervy’ outfits. Without the fanservice we could more than manage.
I just read this, which may explain a lot. He might be right, but we need more time to tell…http://i.imgur.com/DpG1VIk.jpg
Well that never gets old does it? „Yeah I use these racist/sexist cliches but it’s done sooooo over the top that it’s in fact a criticism of these stereotypes.“
Um.
No.
FeministFrequency’s „Tropes vs Women in Video Games“ (this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjImnqH_KwM) does a good job explaining how the re-use of classic sexist, racist etc. stereotypes in a „comedic“ or „retro“ way is only a really cheap excuse to feel good about your backwards and disgusting attitudes.
I just watched the video. I have to say, I’ve never thought about it that way before but what she says makes sense. I kind of realized that article was stupid in my own way of doing things, but this sheds new light on it.
tbh the fan service is everywhere and it’s annoying. like i can’t watch an anime nowadays that doesn’t have partially exposed breast, emphasized cleavage, ridiculous pov’s and the female taking on the stereotypical role of becoming some guy’s sidekick and falling in love with him.–that and she isn’t taken seriously because of so much flesh showing. why does everything have to be appealing to the male eye? can we get through one anime where a girl’s boobs aren’t blown to massive proportions and are actually dressed? this isn’t to say i’m gonna turn around and say girls can’t dress like this, but i feel like it’s just happening to ‘appease’ men. all i hear from my guy friends is “kill la kill is so hot omg watch it you see tits”. seriously?
i’m js, i think they could cool it with the fan service once in a while. if you’re really so bent on stroking your dick, go watch hentai where you can see the real thing.
Molly, I now know there is at least one sane person on the internet. Thank you. I have been reading reviews and comments on this show, and everyone seems so hell bent on defending the fanservice and passing it off as “deep and meaningful” in some way and… You know what? If you’re doing the exact same thing as every other show, and only making the fanservice more extreme, you are not being edgy, new and inventive… You are just overblowing stereotypes, and making softcore pornography. Because let’s be honest here, you are not interested in progressing positive images of female characters and their bodies, you just want to help some guys get off. Which is fine. Just call yourself by your true name though: softcore hentai. And stop trying to deceive people into thinking you’re novel somehow. Because I’ve seen this crap before. Everywhere.
Well, lately I thought a lot about this anime in general and I think to understand the part with the perverted sailor costume better you need to think about the message it gives us in every part: There are parallels to our world everywhere, such as “If you don’t do well in school, you’ll end up in the slums!” or “The ones who have power and money don’t have to follow the rules and can opress, torture and order around all they want!”.
In the episode where Ryuko discovers that shwoing more skin means having more power it’s bugging me how easy she deals with wearing almost nothing while before she hated it. And she still does, as we can see in the scenes where she’s beeing peeped on by guys outside the battle field. The lesson this is telling us: “That’s the cruel world we live in, woman have to ignore their feelings of shame and put their body on display if they want to get somewhere in life!”
So rather than beeing angry at this part we should think about how true this is, even nowadays women that wear more revealing clothes are on TV more often than those who don’t. “Man won’t look if you’re covered up, you have nothing to offer!”, that’s why they are all staring. KILL LA KILL is a feminist anime by calling out sexism and other social issues behind it’s crazy, colourful, fanservice facade.
Or Is it!? Its pretty confusing….>_>”
Ikr!! It took me a long time, too. But sometimes that’s the great part about a story that you have to put lots of thoughts into it to understand. (´◠ω◠`)
Sorry for resurrecting this topic, but I have to comment to say I completely agree. The male gaze was incredibly invasive, from the narrative level to the camera angle to the other girl comparing Ryuko’s chest to Satsuki’s whatever. Hamming that up to 11 doesn’t make it okay, it just makes it creepy. She’s not embracing her body, she’s embracing the male gaze, which is never criticized or even questioned. It was very uncomfortable. >_>
I am thinking that this show is a sort of fantasy reflection of the world we live in. the way the main character is forced to wear the sailor suit translates (correct me if I’m wrong) as a rape scene. the character continues to be made uncomfortable by the suit and its revealing nature but taking off her clothing is the only way to get what needs to be done done.
I’m not sure if they intended it as a sort of commentary but the whole show is about two women who have to be practically naked in order to have power. as in a woman’s worth depends on how much shes wearing. did they mean to comment on it or is the show a prime example of whats wrong with society today?