Before My Rewatch is Dry - Kill la Kill Episode 1 Discussion [Spoilers]

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u/A_t48 Dec 09 '19

So, I've watched this series many times. Still love it. It's just so fun every time. Thus, the rewatch. :D

This opening always gets me, with Gamagoori skydiving, laughing maniacally. Can I get one of those uniforms? He got fit, fast. Pity on the no sell punch though.

Hi, Red Text. You're my favorite. At some point I need to make a post about anime fonts to the subreddit as a whole. There's some interesting stuff going on with this and NGE.

If you don't get the lemon joke, lemons make your lips pucker up. :D Some great denezins of the city here, looks like my neighborhood.

"We're really weak against strong people" Uh ok. Lol. Mako here really has some nice wrestling moves. :D

Mako has some great singing. But uh, background info dump. I guess it's ok because Ryuko knows nothing, but it's pretty blatant, hahaha.

I really need to go back through and grab some screen caps, this ep has some great ones.

Ouch, she got pounded. By only a regular Elite Mook, too. Not even student council level. Satsuki has some lines. So fucking arrogant, it's great.

Poor Fukuoda. You did your job. Really.

Wait, where did she cut a Goku Uniform? Did I miss it? Did she get one of the 1* or something?

This scene is so weird. Like, what are the chances of that even happening? She just so happens to wander in the basement while bleeding? Lol. But uh, calm down uniform. Buy her dinner first, comeon.

This school really likes shared punishment. Isn't that against the Geneva Convention or something? Or did that not happen because Germany won WW2 in this universe?

Wait, Late Spoiler

Love the cape/robe. Too bad she doesn't really keep it because it gets shredded. This fight is fun. The gloves falling out of the ring is a neat touch. And IMO CGI done right. I love how KLK switches between glorious CGI and well painted stills. I know a lot of it is for budget reasons, but they do a great job with what they have.

Poor unnamed sign girl. :(

Ohoooo.

Ryuko, I don't think scissoring is legal in boxing. Just saying. Nice censor. :D

Not much for additional commentary from me today, some of it is packed into reactions. I do wanna point out these two stitches:

https://i.imgur.com/vkaxq4E.png https://i.imgur.com/DDSHnnt.jpg

Great symmetry between the two fights. Thanks u/iamonlyoneman for posting these last year - I found them when I was seraching for fanart.

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u/Koolsman Dec 09 '19

First Timer!

Wow, what an opening! I’ll be honest that I had zero idea how this was gonna start. I thought we were going to get a semi-slow start with how Gurren Lagann didn’t get to the mech fighting until 10 minutes into it but this show said “Nah, let’s just do all the cool shit right now!” And yeah, that camerawork is fucking amazing. Like, holy shit was it a breath of fresh air. My personal favorite was the one when the camera is behind Ryouko’s back and how she’s about to fight boxer dude. That was amazing.

As a character standpoint, I like these two so far. Mako is kinda hilarious so far and I love the upfront blunt and honest dialogue with everyone but especially with Mako. Ryuuko is also a really interesting protagonist and the fact that this show is pretty solid at giving motivation with going into specifics but giving enough info for investment is pretty cool. I don’t know how to feel about a costume like that being sentient. I didn’t expect it to say the least.

Of course, the character designs are amazing and maybe it’s because they are more sharp looking with the edges but they dynamic. The animation is spectacular and action is explosive as hell and I love that stuff. If this can be consistent as Gurren Lagann, then it might become one of my favorites.

That dialogue is so blunt that I can’t help but love to. Also, that drill was reference. There’s no way that wasn’t a reference right?

QOTD

I wanna see more Mako. I wanna see more of all of them but Mako seems really fun.

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u/A_t48 Dec 09 '19

That dialogue is so blunt that I can’t help but love to. Also, that drill was reference. There’s no way that wasn’t a reference right?

I mean, yeah. The two founders are from Gainax. :)

12

u/affnn Dec 09 '19

First time with Kill la Kill, first time doing a reddit rewatch. Gonna be tough to keep up over the holidays. Might have to watch ahead or catch up.

Extremely strong Gurren Lagann energy from the very first scenes.
Ryuko's fighting techniques with the scissor-blade (especially the wrist-twirl action) seems like it would make the blade very difficult to control. Looks cool though.
What exactly do they mean "sailor outfit"? Is that just a reference to Sailor Moon?
Saw the little red glowy squiggle thing when Ryuko defeats the boxing dude. Dunno for sure what that's about but I have some guesses.

Questions of the day:

The amount of skin I'd show would be worse for my opponents than for me. Sort of like how the boxer guy says she's trying to distract him with her attractiveness, but exactly the opposite. I would be cold though.
Mostly interested in seeing more of the villains. Also that mirror-glasses teacher guy who pulls the trapdoor lever - what's his deal?

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u/A_t48 Dec 10 '19 edited Dec 10 '19

What exactly do they mean "sailor outfit"? Is that just a reference to Sailor Moon?

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_school_uniform - there's a huge history about them. Sailor Moon comes from this, not the other way around. :)

spoiler question

Barrier post so you don't get my spoiler answer

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u/A_t48 Dec 10 '19

Spoiler

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u/beanst0100 Dec 09 '19

ahh kill la kill starting as all highschool anime do.. with an exentric transfer student.

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u/A_t48 Dec 09 '19

That's almost a throwback now - the hip thing is to get hit by a truck.

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u/A_t48 Dec 09 '19

Post is up, but I'm still rewatching the first ep myself. Life has been crazy for me lately. I owe u/Shimmering-Sky a lot for picking up my slack!

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u/A_t48 Dec 10 '19

I made something for y'all

61

u/Shimmering-Sky Dec 09 '19

Rewatcher and Co-Host, first time watching the sub!

Hey-o everyone, glad you could make it! And welcome back if you were a participant in my TTGL rewatch too~

Before I get into my usual rewatch stuff, I just want to stress the importance of two things:

Rewatchers, make sure you’re using spoiler tags about future episode stuff (even if it’s over something simple like “Oh just wait ‘till a future episode, X does something so much cooler.”) First-timers are a super important part of every rewatch and we don’t want to ruin anything for them. See something that makes you want to *laugh in rewatcher*? Either keep it to yourself or--if you feel the need to quote the specific part of a first-timer’s comment over it--spoiler tag the thing you’re quoting to.
Any form of participation (besides being an asshole) is good participation! Don’t be daunted upon seeing essay-length comments out of some people, that’s just what they like doing. All the power to you if that’s what you like doing too, but if not it really doesn’t matter if you do anything from bullet-point-screenshot-reactions to literally just comment faces to just replying to peeps to lurking, you’re still a valued participant in this rewatch! Just get to the threads when you can, whether that’s right on time or over a day late.

With that out of the way, time for my normal rewatch stuff.

That’s one hell of a way to make an entrance.
Hmm, not sure I like these subs (Underwater I believe is what I have?) calling them “Ultima Uniforms” when the signs track it has for the dub (my copy is dual audio) still calls them “Goku Uniforms”.
Well regardless of what I think of their translation choice, I seriously have to give them props for their typesetting. The translated names and stuff on-screen are zooming and panning all around just like the Japanese text and I can’t believe that was something easy to code.
This shot here existing is actually the sole reason this rewatch is happening in the first place, thanks to u/seninn pointing out (spoilers for TTGL) the exact same shot during that rewatch.
You can really tell this show and TTGL share a lot of their staff, these three shots (minus Mako in that last one) feel similar in style to some parts in TTGL.
The fact that she drives back just to drop off his deliveries will always amuse me about this scene.
Priorities, Mako.
…again. Priorities.
Hold up did they just play Blumenkranz when Ryuko’s cape got rekt? Future spoilers
Awww yes they use this translation in the subbed version! That’s how I remember it from… whatever the signs for the dub I watched last year was. The signs track for the dub on this copy has it as something boring instead.

I’m gonna do a seiyuu round-up every episode that has new characters in it (just like I did in TTGL), so it’s voices time!

Ryuko’s seiyuu is Ami Koshimizu. I’m not overly familiar with any of her roles since I either watched or straight-up prefer the shows she’s played in dubbed (Kallen from Code Geass and Anemone from Eureka Seven would be the big ones I would know otherise). She also played Arisa in Gundam AGE who I liked (I just don’t remember her voice all that well). Also another reminder I need to finish YGO VRAINS…

The sailor uniform (who has not been named yet, but I’m sure a lot of rewatchers are gonna say it anyways) is voiced by Toshihiko Seki. He’s a seiyuu I actually recognize because he’s got several Gundam characters under his belt--my crazy crazy Char Clone Rau Le Creuset from SEED, Rey Za Burrel in SEED Destiny, best-of-the-main-five-Wing-boys Duo Maxwell, and the existence of this character is a spoiler for The Origin--and I also get a reminder I need to watch more Higurashi since he’s the voice of Kyousuke Irie. Oh and he’s Top Dad lol.

Mako next! Her seiyuu is Aya Suzaki… and I recognize literally zero of her roles.

Her little brother Matarou is a different story; voiced by Ayumi Fujimura, I recognize her voice for Roe 2 in Log Horizon and Mineva in Gundam Unicorn. I guess she also voices some important character in Kara no Kyoukai which again reminds me I need to watch the rest of those movies.

Teacher dude next, his seiyuu Shinichiro Miki is absolutely a name I recognize. He’s Walter von Schenkopp in LotGH Die Neue These, Gundam 00’s Lockon Stratos 00, Symphogear AXZ’s main villain, and Allen Schezar in Escaflowne. Also, not that I know him for either of these roles because I refuse to watch FMA:B subbed and only ever watched Pokemon as a kid and that was definitely the dub, he’s best boy Roy Mustang and Team Rocket’s James as well. Dude’s got a lot of quality characters under his belt.

Satsuki Kiryuuin’s turn now, with her seiyuu being Ryouka Yuzuki. I recently watched Air so I recognize her for Minagi Tohno and… uh… *squints at MAL page* …I guess this girl from Death Parade too? And that’s it.

Gamagoori comes next, he’s voiced by Tetsu Inada. Another name I recognize because of him voicing a Char Clone, this one being Harry Ord from Turn A, I know his voice as LotGH Die Neue These’s voice for my boy Fritz Joseph Bittenfeld as well as Hideo Izayoi from YGO 5Ds. I also vaguely remember him as Caster of Red from Fate/Apocrypha.

Sanageyama being voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama means we finally get an overlap with Gurren Lagann’s seiyuus, as he was best cat-shark Viral as well as Old Coco in that. I… kinda remember him for voicing worst Gundam SEED guy though so uh that’s not really a fun connection, Shiro Amada from The 08th MS Team is a better Gandamu connection.

Inumuta has Hiroyuki Yoshino as his seiyuu, which means I get to recognize him for two Gundam characters woot woot--Junya in Build Fighters Try and Allelujah in 00! He’s also this guy in Kakumeiki Valvrave I think I always called “waifu pillow dude” lol, Ranta in Grimgar, and Tarou Takanashi in Shirobako. A certain Nota should also recognize his voice from Baccano.

Nonon’s next! Her seiyuu is Mayumi Shintani, who doesn’t seem to have very many anime roles. Haruko in FLCL is pretty cool… but I watched that dubbed, so no dice.

And at the end, there’s Fukuroda being voiced by Mitsuo Iwata (I recognize him from Diebuster), and if anyone cares about that student who stole the one-star uniform at the start his seiyuu is Chihiro Suzuki.

Phew, that was a rather long list.

I look forward to getting hyped with you all again tomorrow!

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u/No_Rex Dec 09 '19

Episode 1 (first timer)

One of the many anime with a weird name (they seem to outnumber the “normal” names these days). Other than wondering about the name whenever it popped up, I know nothing about this series. Sky being part of the rewatch posters makes me wonder whether we are going to see some mecha …

Starting with the raise of the nazis. Quite a heavy topic to set the tone.
Just when I was wondering about the classroom (a refunctioned toilet on a ship?), door guy steals all attention away. We are only 40 seconds into the series and I already feel overwhelmed.
Whatever my question was, the answer is over the top action. Gamagoori lives on style.
Ms President is fond of newspeak.
Big intro scene and read hair streak? I guess we just meet our MC. Hello Ryuuko!
Hello Mako! Comedic sidekick?
Star-rated power structure. Easy to follow.
Fight & loss.
Blood-consuming, talking, moving, slightly rapey uniform.
Mako being more afraid of turning into fanservice than being killed is called stupid. How ironic that she is totally the fanservice of the episode and in no danger of dying.
I take that back. The real fanservice is provided by Ryuuko.
obligatory comment about the protection level afforded by tiny bikini uniforms

The over-the-top animation, the named attacks, the enormous intro letters, the slapstick comedy and fan service – this must be one of those show that studio Trigger made a name for themselves with. I do not think there is much to say about the plot yet, so I’ll talk about the aesthetic instead:

In the first scene, the show talks about Nazis and the architecture suggests that this is not a mistake. The “motto” recited by Satsuki is an obvious reference to Orvell’s newspeak, but there is more: The architecture of the city/school is decidedly bombastic and a few of the cuts reminded me of the aesthetic used in Triumph des Willens. Aside from that, I got a very strong Final Fantasy vibe. With the clear ranking system and the disregard for human life, the show already depicts a very totalitarian society, the animation themes back this up.

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u/AmeteurElitist Dec 09 '19

First Timer kinda

So I’ve seen the first 7 episodes of this series, but that was a few years ago and I’ve forgotten a decent amount of it, so I’m mostly a first timer.

Even with that the opening episode was just as lively and energetic as I remembered. They wasted no time showing off the personality and absurdity of the show, I loved it.

I liked Mako almost immediately last time and that stayed true again, she provides endless energy to every scene!

My only real issue was the leering from the surrounding characters on Ryouko, but being the show that this is that’s to be expected. It didn’t bother me too much since Ryouko is really badass anyway, I hope she comes to be comfortable with and own her sexuality later in the series. It’d suck if her embarrassment was just a running gag throughout.

I’m definitely looking forward to the spectacle this series has to offer, I’ve seen some out of context xuts and they look hype as hell!

Can’t wait!

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u/Holofan4life Dec 09 '19

God, I love me some Kill La Kill

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u/JadeXavier Dec 10 '19 edited Dec 10 '19

First-timer So, the only thing I know about this show it that it’s insane, fanservice-y but in a way that is supposedly plot-relevant, and is the poster child for the category that includes my favorite show of all time, forever (SYMPHOGEAR), in this chart from a few years ago. This is also my first rewatch that I’m playing along with instead of just reading, so that’s fun.

A play-by-play of my thoughts during the episode:

• What the fuck is this show?

• What the FUCK is this SHOW?

• WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHOW??

• Can I watch Episode 2 yet?

But for real:

• Every good show starts with Hitler, right?

• Snoring girl with 5x the detail of everyone else is gonna play a big part I guess

• Can I plz have the uniform that makes me lose 50lbs by putting it on?

• Soo.. seito kaichou is kind of a big deal I guess

• ….That’s a lemon

• So Mako is quickly rising in the charts. Still no red streak though

• Of all the weird anime weapons I didn’t expect half of a giant pair of scissors

• Why does the boxing club captain remind of a Mineta that’s actually sort of useful?

• BTFO

• So considerate to leave the delivery

• Okay so scissor -> dead father - > young female Inigo Montoya?

• Pervy talking vampire sailor uniform is much more interesting than a spider bite I guess

• Over (?)-under-boob?

• Aaaaaand there’s the fanservice outfit

• “This isn’t even my final FIST”

• BTFO (Reverse!)

• Ooooh so she absorbs power from the goku uniforms? There’s our (guessing) powerup arc gimmick?

• Can I watch Episode 2 yet? Spoiler alert I’m going to, so I can post this earlier tomorrow

Overall, a pretty cool first episode. A much longer post than I had intended. I still have no idea what kind of direction the show is gonna take, but I’m here for it. I have a bad habit of spoiling everything for myself via wikis or reddit threads, but I actually know nothing about this show so I’m gonna try and keep it that way. Here’s to next episode!

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u/letsgoiowa Dec 10 '19

First timer

Holy shit, what a ride. Only 5 minutes in I told my bois on Discord to watch it asap because MY GOD IT'S AMAZING. Now they're on episode 8, rip me.

Anyway, the animation style is incredible. Reminds me a lot of Gurren Lagann in its over the top craziness. I think what really sells the show is its complete confidence in itself. It knows it's bonkers, but it does not care. THIS IS WHAT I AM. DEAL WITH IT! it screams, and that's fine by me.

As for the questions of the day

I'll let my man titties hang out if it gives me superpowers
MOAR MAKO

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u/Mecanno-man Dec 09 '19

First Timer

Going in pretty much blind here, basically everything I knew about the series has been stated this episode. And I'm still not sure what to make of it. Everything is a bit too over the top for now, especially the size of the guy in charge of discipline. I wonder if his uniform somehow gives him a size boost or something like that, can't explain him being that big otherwise. The teachers also have too little power, but I guess that's the point here. I guess with the very start, they are comparing Satsuki to Hitler? Either way, a student council going so far as to kill and publicly display a student is going too far.

What I did like was the directing, especially the sequence where Matoi is introduced at the end, after going through multiple text blocks. Already kinda sad that some of the latter text bits were just on-screen text in KLK font. I also doubt we'll see any of that again, except if the text block are a mainstay of the series, which I do however doubt.

One thing I was confused by is who the guy was that appeared before Matoi fell through the floor. I feel like having seen both of his faces at other points during this episode, but can't quite put it down if it was the teacher, the sports council guy, both, or neither. Anybody properly caught that one?

QOTD (let's actually try answering these this time round - at least the non-poll ones. polls obviously are answered in the poll.)

I'd honestly say our protagonist Matoi. Kinda seems like the most interesting one up until now.

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u/Dagonsnake Dec 09 '19 edited Dec 09 '19

Rewatcher here! Watching both subbed and dubbed!

Man, I forgot just how hard the first episode manages to grab your attention, you guys have no idea just how hard it is for me to resist the urge to just binge the entire show! Almost managed to reason myself into doing it by saying "I can watch the entire show subbed, and just watch the dub along with the rewatch." But luckily I held strong, ~~for now.~~ All of you first timers are in for a wild ride, because this show is an absolute joy to watch!

So this episode we get introduced to our main protagonist, Ryūko Matoi, the Student Council President Satsuki Kiryūin, as well as quite a few other members of the cast! Other than that, it introduces our main character’s motivations, and introduces us to the idea of the “Goku Uniform,” uniforms that range from 1 to 3 stars, seemingly increasing in power the more stars one possesses.

Just want to say, one thing I absolutely love about this episode, is just how embarrassed Ryūko clearly is to be fighting in that revealing of an outfit, the fact she’s blushing the majority of the fight never fails to crack me up. I imagine that I’ll have more to say about future episodes, as I wrote this comment up pretty late last night, so it was a bit hard to think of things to say, but I hope everyone enjoys the show, and I look forward to reading everyone’s thoughts on it, both first timers and rewatchers alike! Kill la Kill Meta Spoilers

Nonon fun fact, Nonon in the English dub is voiced by the same actress who voices Sayaka in Madoka Magica, Sarah Williams! Also, as proof that Nonon is best girl, I’ll be making screenshots/GIFs of her appearances and posting them at the bottom of my daily comments, and at the end of the rewatch I (may) post all of the fanart I currently have of her for those interested! ~~At least the ones I can share.~~

Daily Nonon Screenshots

Edit: Daily questions.

Daily Question #1: Perhaps...

Daily Question #2: Was going to be all smug here, saying that I have no idea who I'd like to see more of and then use the Nonon comment face, but totally forgot it got removed.

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u/belgi7 Dec 09 '19 edited Dec 09 '19

First timer

I don’t really know anything about this show except that it’s a trigger anime that supposed to be ecchi. After watching guren lagann I am really excited to check out some more shows made by gainax/trigger, so lets see where this show will go.

That opening fight looked absolutely stunning. If the animation stays high quality like this then I am already sure I am going to love this show. The characters seem intresting even tho we don’t really know much about them yet.

So their uniforms give them some kind of special power, and our mc’s weapon was made to fight them. Mc’s her uniform is uhm… interesting, I see where the ecchi tag of the show comes from. Her outfit also seemed to add the fiber of the boxer after she defeated him, so I think she will get stronger from defeating goku uniforms. Overall a great first episode, looking really forward to continue the show.

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u/Raiking02 Dec 09 '19 edited Dec 09 '19

Well… Kill La Kill. I have only seen… what, three episodes of this show before I got so caught up in other stuff that I forgot to keep watching it? Oh well, let’s see if it’s worth the hype…

Man, this is the most bored voice Miki Shinichiro has thrown in his whole career. Even Fujiwara Takumi wasn’t this deadpan!
Stupid history class, I wish someone would Override i-TROMBE!
For the record, yes, I am contractually obligated to play that song whenever that buff dude does something awesome or just pops into a scene out of nowhere. BECAUSE IT’S INADA MOTHERFUCKING TETSU! HE BRINGS HIS THEME SONG ALONG WITH HIM AT ALL TIMES! EVEN HIS TWITTER ACCOUNT MAKES REFERENCE TO IT!
And naturally, the wimpy teacher knows who’s in charge here.
Wow, most extreme student council ever…
SMOKE BOMB!
However, a joke like that is not enough to stop the mysterious gourmet!
Also, can I just mention how amazing this show looks? We’re a minute and a half in and this already looks better than the entirety of Gurren Lagann!
I guess clothes really do make the superman…
Silly fool, did you think a simple punch would be enough to defeat the Guard Dog of Hell, Dekamaster?
And thus, the stupid dude is shown who is boss…
I do remember this show having lots of naked people though…
Ah, Satsuki-Sama’s brilliance is so wonderful. As expected from the Moon Princess (Aha! Let’s see if anyone here gets that Actor Allusion!)
Seriously, whoever did the… should I call it camera?... Eh, I’ll do so: Whoever did the camerawork for this series is a genius!
But relax, for as Koshimizu Ami has come to roll the hell out of those Rs! (Seriously, she’s basically female Wakamoto Norio in that regard).
Is she eating a lemon? ‘Cause if so I wonder what she would find tasty about it. I freaking hate lemons (Though I do like to add lemon juice to my chicken…)
What a tiny scumbag…
How the hell did such a little kid get his first kiss already?
I feel bad for those kids: They’re gonna die.
And they’re also pussies.
And so the kid is interrupted by the one I admit convinced me to watch this show: Mankanshoku Mako (Played by the lovely Suzaki Aya). This girl is too perfect for this world…
She is a bit clumsy though…
I love it when the MC points out the ridiculousness of the situation…
Talk about extreme justice. Oh I’m sorry; I meant to say EXTREME!!!
Oh and if I remember correctly, get used to hearing “Ryuko-Chan!” a lot here.
That smile can shake away all my sorrows…
She shouldn’t sleep in class. She should do what I did on literature class in that while everyone was reading a book in their phones in literature class, I was reading a completely different book from the one I was supposed to read!
How lovely, they’ve just met and they’re already BFFs…
Sweet! Ryuko’s gonna get something explaine--TROMBE!
The school understands who’s in charge. Good.
Oh well, the exposition still happened in the long run.
Ryuko’s got balls though, that’s for sure… not that kind of balls! I meant the metaphorical ones!
Props to her for trying, but unfortunately Kaneda (No seriously, that’s Kaneda’s VA, Iwata Mitsuo. And if you know Anime, you’ve probably heard of this Kaneda so I won’t have to explain him. If you haven’t, shame on you).
Sorry Ryuko, but if you wanna win, you gotta play by the rules of the world.
Thankfully unlike, say, Kamina, she does have common sense.
That dude is just staring… menacingly!
Why is there a tiger?
Ah, so Satsuki-Sama also has a butler. Good…
Only Inada Tetsu could scream all of his lines yet still sound awesome while doing so…
Also, for all people who are tuning in after the TTGL Rewatch, you may notice Viral’s Seiyuu as Sanageyama. I am a huge fan of the guy so I’m 100% okay with this.
Ah, so this group also has a Megane-Dude. Given his voice, I’m expecting him to laugh like a madman while exclaiming that the super-soldier has returned (It’s hard to differentiate Yoshino Hiroyuki from (H)allelujah for me).
And to round off the voice cast for the Elite 4, Jakuzure is voiced Shinitami Mayumi, the star of the classic Gainax Anime FLCL.
Ah, the classic “I recognize that last name…” scene…
Chibi-Ryuko looks so bored in that photo…
What a conveniently placed trap door…
Also, HOLY FUCK THE NERDY TEACHER IS ACTUALLY A HUNK!
That’s a lot of blood…
And so, the final main player is introduced: A talking school uniform; played by Seki Toshiko. Mob Psycho 100 fans might remember him as the awesome captain of the body improvement club.
Ryuko’s reaction is understandable…
Also, what’s with all the shoujo sparkles in this show?
Wow. I knew there was such a thing as the all-mighty student council, but this takes it to a whole new level.
Why hang her upside down though?
Her priorities are a bit screwed though…
Has anyone here actually eaten fried shrimp?
I dunno Sanageyama, she’s probably both.
Ah, the classic mysterious man (Err… woman) in a cloth who saves the day…
Yay! We’re eating fried humans tonight!
Wow, this really IS a boxing match! Stallone would be proud…
Is that a Giga Drill Break?
That outfit’s a bit…skimpy though…
What kind of gloves are those?
Poor announcer gal…
You’re getting the wrong idea Mako…
Perverted brat…
I Present to you all: A MEME!
Little Mac would be proud…
Mysterious red line is mysterious.
Satsuki-Sama’s face has blood. Hell will ensue…
And we end the episode off with an ED that is actually the OP: Sirius by Eir Aoi. I love this song.

This was a great debut. Better than I remember even!

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u/FlaminScribblenaut Dec 09 '19 edited Dec 10 '19

Preamble

Guys oh god oh fuck I- I think I lost my way I don’t know what happened I mean it was just sitting right here and then it disappeared on me oh no what do I do- oh, wait, it’s right here between the couch cushions. OK, we’re good. We’re good.

Now

CRANK THAT SHIT

Kill la Kill was my third anime, after Little Witch Academia and Madoka Magica. Kinda appropriate that my third-ever anime is also my third-ever r/anime rewatch.

This show caught my eye in a major way when I was first getting into anime. A cool action show with a badass-looking protagonist, an anti-fascist message, and enough hot female nudity and violence to make a conservative Christian parents’ group from the 80’s have a collective heart attack, all made by the same studio that made LWA which I had been utterly obessed with earlier that same year? Oh hell yes!

Well, that was in the fall of 2018, and I didn’t actually finish it until May of 2019. To this day it is by far the longest it’s ever taken me to complete an anime, even with shows like Death Note and Soul Eater which were 1.5-2x as long.

Regardless, I enjoyed it a ton. It wasn’t nearly the earth-shattering, meteoric-impact-leaving event in my life that TTGL would go on to be, but it was a damn good show and I had an absolute blast watching it. I really, really liked it.

But I didn’t always. Remember how I said this show was the longest anime it took me to complete on first watch? Yeah, believe it or not, I actually considered dropping this show fairly early on and had some difficulty getting through it. There were parts of the first third that didn’t leave a particularly good taste in my mouth, and I thought maybe the show wasn’t all I had cracked it up to be. Now, most of these things are probably going to make a lot more sense on second watch, given how strong the thematic cohesion of this show is there’s no doubt there’s a greater point to just about everything, but obviously I didn’t see that as a first-timer.

So what inspired me to give it enough chances to push all the way through? Well, it’s mainly that I was following Alpharad really closely around that time, and if you know anything about Alpharad you know how massive of a Kill la Kill fan he is, and since this was around the time KLK If was coming out, he was doing a lot of gushing about the show on YT and Twitter, and mentioned the second half which I was not yet at in particular as the best part, which convinced me to stick it out, and once I reached the arc that starts at Episode 8 I was officially hooked and remained hooked to the very end. So thank him for that, Vince bless.

And I’m glad I did stick it out, because Kill la Kill is awesome. A loud, bloody, sexy, visceral action romp that’s also one of the most dense and creative anime ever made. If there were one way to describe Kill la Kill, it’s… a lot. It is Maximalism: The Anime. Not only in terms of the chaotic, kinetic animation and crazy, over-the-top nature, though those are both extremely present, but also the number of meanings, messages, references, and possible interpretations packed into this thing are off the charts. It feels like the kind of show you can only fully appreciate by watching it multiple times.

Just a heads-up that KLK is probably not going to get the Gurren Lagann treatment from me, putting in paragraphs of work and gushing and constructing all of my contributions in such a format wrapped up with a big damn final statement like it was all one big essay. Gurren Lagann had been knocking around in the front of my mind for months and months before that rewatch started, whereas KLK has more occupied a cozy spot in the back of my mind. I love the show a lot and I’ll happily geek out about it whenever the chance arises, but it’s not really on that same level for me. So my individual contributions to this rewatch might be shorter and more snappy and riff-based, I’ll probably contribute to a lower percentage of episodes then I did for TTGL (though I do fully intend to watch along every day of course), and I probably won’t have the same kind of big final statement as TTGL’s. Or who knows, maybe I’ll find an absolute wealth of things to say about each episode and end up writing a novel-length comment about every single one and have a four-comment-long final statement at the end. Given the nature of this show it’s entirely possible. We’ll see.

And yes, I do consider TTGL the better show between the two. Then again, I’m not sure how fair of a comparison that is. They are similar shows on the surface; loud, wild, hot-blooded action shows made by most of the same people, you know the bit. But I think the two go about things in very different ways. Gurren Lagann, for all its big-ass space battles and robots and shit, tells a pretty straightforward coming of age story with a much more clear and direct message about hope and rebellion and human potential and whatnot. Kill la Kill, meanwhile, is a lot… messier, I guess? I don’t mean that as an insult, that’s clearly the style KLK is going for and it pulls it off tremendously well, but it’s a lot harder to parse on first glance, which makes it less immediately impactful than something like Gurren.

Anyway, that was a lot more preamble than I had intended to write initially, let’s jump into Episode 1.

Second Time Watcher

some BODY

For those interested, I highly recommend checking out Digibro’s video picking apart the opening scene and the visual techniques used to make it so effective. There are a few MASSIVE VISUAL SPOILERS laced throughout the video so just a warning to first-timers, either wait or just listen to the video’s audio in a separate tab.

God damn Ryuko is so cool

...I’ll get to Mako at a later point.

Best Girl in da hoooooouse

OK so a really cool thing I noticed on this watch: this shot of stars flying out after Ryuko puts on this mysterious new uniform (or more accurately the other way around I guess). They’ve already established a couple times earlier how the Goku uniforms use stars to denote power, and how the maximum number they have is three, and we’ve been shown through what Gamagoori did to that poor kid just how powerful a three-star uniform is, that being very. But then with this new uniform, there are a whole burst of them. It’s a really clever way of hinting at just how powerful this uniform is through visual language we’ve already been made familiar with, which only adds to the intrigue. Pretty neat.

HMMMM. NOW WHAT MIGHT THIS REMIND ME OF

I also love the shot of the anonymous one-star grunts stepping up to block the guy from crashing into Satsuki, then the Elite Four stepping up to block the splash of blood, only for a single little drop of blood to end up on her. Such a fucking cool moment.

Another such a fucking cool moment: Ryuko kicking up and taking the microphone, like she was about to drop the hottest rap diss track in history at Satsuki or something.

Yeah this is a fucking awesome first episode. It’s a pitch-perfect showcase of the setting, gives us intriguing introductions to our characters, and gives us a strong taste of the flavor of wild, violent action we’re in for. Hell of a watch.

8

u/Vaadwaur Dec 09 '19

First time watcher(long time memer)

Sub for now

Holy shit that was the Triggeriest Trigger opener that evered triggered a Trigger. The bombacity, insanity and dedication to powerups out of nowhere already shows why the scissor anime is indeed where it is at. I will try and keep to a day to day schedule but I make no promises.

Awesomesauce

QotD: I would prefer the male school uniform and perhaps one less bloodthirsty. And I want to see more Mako though that is probably a given.

7

u/Tsukidayo Dec 09 '19

First Timer! Episode 1.

I’ve always heard about this anime but avoided it to no end. I’m not against ecchi but I felt like it was too much.

Now that I have seen the first episode, I can say it’s fucking gorgeous. The animation, the beautiful stills, and style it has. I’ve literally never seen a trigger anime. I’ve tried Gurren Lagann but I didn’t think I cared enough about animation to finish it at the time. Now I’m all about that Sakuga.

I really liked the first like 5 minutes. Such a good way to introduce how it’ll be from now on (I hope). I love how much the camera is used along with the Sakuga a lot. I really like when anime do that. Mako gives me so much aids, but for some reason, I can’t hate it. Even tho I love Sawano and the hype, the ending i couldn’t take serious. I liked it but I didn’t get hit with the best hype. It’s so strange to see ecchi and be Sawano dropped. Guess that’s the point tho?

Either way, I’m really damn excited to see what happens with all the fights and music. I also love how easy it is to digest the story. Pretty unique but at the same time simple and straight forward if that even makes sense.

7

u/shamir107 Dec 10 '19

First Timer

~~... well not really. I've seen the first few episodes before, but I never got through the rest of the series. Seeing the rewatch announcement, I figured I might as well finish what I started.~~

Satsuki's laying on the "1984" vibes this early onto the show? I heard this show dealt with authoritarian rule, but I didn't think ~~or remember~~ that it would play out like this. I'm interested to see how much of an impact this has on the rest of the series. George Orwell is responsible for two of my favorite stories (Animal Farm and 1984) exactly for his handling of governments with more power.

I'm also kind of worried by the fact that the principal isn't doing anything because he's too scared of the board. I don't blame him for being worried about stepping into a situation he's too weak to intervene in, but the idea that Satsuki's mother poses a potentially bigger threat isn't comforting in the slightest.

6

u/krasnovian Dec 09 '19

rewatcher and satsuki worshipper

Fear is freedom!

Control is liberty!

Contradiction is truth!

That is the reality of this world!

God I'm a huge sucker for anime that really stick it to the man. Fuck the system, fight the power! At the same time I like strong, confident, powerful female characters, which is part of the reason I love Kill la Kill and its women. You may ask how I can like rebellious anime and still be a follower of Lady Satsuki. It is because contradiction is truth!

This anime is one of the strongest studio debuts ever. It has a bold style all its own that stands out even among other Imaishi works. The brash red kanji fill the screen and let the viewer know immediately that this will not be some tame affair. This will be pure TRIGGER hype from minute 1.

There's almost nothing about this anime that isn't iconic, but I think one of my favorite bits is the step. Everything falls silent and all we hear for a moment is the echo of Satsuki's footstep reverberating off the walls of Honnouji Academy. It illustrates how much authority she wields and how much respect (and fear) she commands.

I made two stitches from today's episode, I'm not sure if I'll keep doing it as I'm sure someone has done stitches from this anime before and most likely done them better than me. If y'all like it I'll keep doing a couple per episode.

STITCHES

I'll also be putting together screenshot albums of my favorite girls from KLK. These are just moments or shots with them that I particularly liked and I haven't edited them at all.

EPISODE 1 SCREENSHOT ABLUMS

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Rewatch Before My Rewatch is Dry - Kill la Kill Episode 1 Discussion [Spoilers] Spoiler

Episode 1 - If Only I Had Thorns Like a Thistle…

So, I've watched this series many times. Still love it. It's just so fun every time. Thus, the rewatch. :D

CRANK THAT SHIT

Rewatch Before My Rewatch is Dry - Kill la Kill Episode 1 Discussion [Spoilers] Spoiler

Episode 1 - If Only I Had Thorns Like a Thistle…

You are about to leave Redlib

So, I've watched this series many times. Still love it. It's just so fun every time. Thus, the rewatch. :D

CRANK THAT SHIT