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Kill la kill - Blatant fanservice or...?

derozio

derozio

[b][color=red][font=helvetica][i]door-kun best boi
    • 5,521
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    15
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    For those of you that have seen or heard about the anime, it contains a lot of scenes which can be considered fanservice-y. Otaku pandering, in other words. But is that all it is? I came across a very interesting post. Its long so feel free to just see the image enclosed in the spoiler underneath to have a gist of what the post is trying to say, ie, that it isn't just FS. It is much more.

    the whole fanservice
    angle is being used both to make
    fun of the whole concept as well as
    overtly make fun of otaku who
    objectify women in that sort of
    fashion. While I agree the
    presentation may be a bit
    problematic and uncomfortable to
    some people, I really feel like
    there's a whole different level of
    social commentary going on.
    You should have heard my rant
    about this last night on #scarlet-
    library. Just from 3 episodes alone
    I've pulled a ton of very succinct
    social commentary on this show
    and I am absolutely excited to see
    what direction Trigger takes this.
    Along with that there is a complete
    lack of gender roles of any kind
    attempted to be enforced. Ryuuko
    is a badass but she needs no man
    in her life to save her, and Satsuki
    bows to no man as well. And while
    they're both written as "strong"
    women, they're not being written
    as masculine as is the tendency.
    Satsuki has ambition and
    determination, she is totally
    dedicated to her cause, but this is
    not being conflated as masculine.
    She does not look nor act
    masculine (wearing heels and the
    way she poses), even going so far
    as to referring to her Kamui as a
    wedding dress. While Ryuuko is
    performing a traditionally male role
    in society, "avenging" (or at least,
    investigating the circumstances of)
    her father's death, she's not
    portrayed as masculine as well.
    She's clearly girly and proud of it,
    but at the same time still being a
    complete badass who doesn't take
    **** from anyone. She may not
    have agency in her situation right
    now, but this is not because she's a
    girl.
    She's embarrassed for being
    forced to "expose" herself during
    her transformation sequence, and
    when others start to expose
    themselves, but this is not being
    presented with the intent to show
    that overt showing of sexuality is
    "unladylike". Mako's mom makes
    that clear, she asks about the
    exhibitionist thing not as "omg ew
    that's weird" but more out of a
    straight up curiosity. Mako is very
    open in her sexuality and how
    attractive Ryuuko is and that she
    should flaunt it and be proud of it (I
    would not be surprised if she's
    queer in some fashion). Yet at the
    same time Ryuuko is not just a pair
    of boobs and good legs, she
    crushes people who just think she's
    just using her attractiveness as a
    weapon. So does Satsuki, she
    scorns the commoners for fawning
    over her during her transformation
    sequence, and scorns Ryuuko for
    feeling embarrassment from the
    rabble getting their kicks in. ****
    the haters, if you want to be cute
    or hot you do it for yourself, and
    don't let others' opinions sway how
    you wish to present yourself. But
    don't feel forced to act or dress
    sexily because other people are
    pigs and only see beauty and self
    worth as skin deep.
    There's also a very huge social
    commentary on the stratification of
    society and arbitrary factors not
    only determining social status, but
    potentially affecting quality of life
    entirely. The way the academy is
    structured is very stratified. Where
    you live and what accommodations
    you have, down to the food you're
    able to eat, are all based on what
    star uniform you have. Satsuki runs
    a very strict meritocracy; personal
    ability gets you your station in life,
    not flattery. She sees flattery and
    brownnosing as something
    commoners do. People with agency
    and power know they have power
    and do not subvert to other people.
    This has problems though, as it
    turns people into resources to be
    used by those with more ambition,
    and neglects their feelings and
    ultimately their humanity. Satsuki
    literally sees everyone as pawns for
    her ambition, and that her charge in
    life is to lead people from their
    worthless lives into a greater
    purpose.
    The whole commentary on the
    uniforms being not just an overt
    show of status, but of power is a
    further social commentary on
    appearances being a tool used to
    force conformity to a cause, one
    the person may not necessarily
    believe in. They made a very clear
    point to demonstrate their class
    uniforms as being based off of
    military uniforms. There's an
    extreme sense of discipline being
    instilled across all aspects of school
    life, to the point of absurdity such
    as being punished for not getting
    permission to be kidnapped. All the
    class material being read so far has
    been of totalitarian dictators such
    as Mussolini and Hitler. Fascism is
    clearly what's being presented
    here, a blind dedication to a cause
    and having belief in such reflecting
    status in society. This is what
    Ryuuko is struggling to fight against
    (whether she's aware of it or not is
    up to debate though), to give
    people their own agency in life,
    while at the same time respecting
    every human as an equal.
    Ryuuko thinks she's fighting to
    figure out who killed her dad, but
    it's being hinted at that she's being
    forced into a struggle she may not
    necessarily believe in, and that her
    dad may not have been the saint
    she had been idolizing him as.
    Ryuuko has energy and
    determination but no idea what
    she's fighting for or even who
    she's fighting against, and Satsuki
    directly scorns and attacks her for
    this. Satsuki isn't even necessarily
    the person who killed her dad, she
    just happens to be someone who
    may know, and there's an
    underlying hint at a conflict
    between her dad and Satsuki's
    family. Ryuuko is kind of just flailing
    at the first person in front of her
    and fighting blindly without any
    sense of purpose or belief. But at
    the same time she doesn't see
    Ryuuko as a peon or beneath her, in
    fact she respects her as an equal
    due to her display of will. She just
    does not respect her motivations
    as Ryuuko has not shown any
    agency in them.
    I am ecstatic to see what direction
    this goes as the show continues.
    While there hasn't been very much
    in the way of deep character
    exposition, I feel like what they've
    hinted at so far shows there's A
    LOT more here than just a simple
    PUNCH ALL THE FACES AND CRUSH
    THE POWER SYSTEM typical
    youthful rebellion story. Along with
    the deconstruction of magical girl
    and schoolage coming of life shows
    and their troupes (and overtly
    making fun of the mouthbreathing
    otaku, which I heavily endorse),
    they're hinting at a much greater
    social commentary in general on
    not only class and social standing,
    but on all social constructs (gender,
    etc) and personal identity in
    general.
    I will say I do enjoy the point you
    brought up on the whole concept
    of the Kamui being "being
    comfortable in one's skin". It's
    clear that the uniforms are being
    portrayed as alive in some fashion,
    and exerting a will of their own. The
    attempt to put on a 50% life fiber
    uniform resulted in the person
    going completely berserk, and
    when the other Kamui was
    activated Senketsu was described
    as having "goosebumps", not unlike
    a skin. And Satsuki clearly
    references her transformation as
    making her "pure". She becomes
    an object of pure willpower and
    determination, all airs and other
    social constructs are stripped away
    and the person is left completely
    exposed. All the Goku uniforms
    shown so far seem to be
    hyperexaggerations of a particular
    role each person is playing, and like
    you said, when the others are
    defeated they are "exposed" as the
    frauds they are. Contrast this to
    both Satsuki and Ryuuko; they are
    powerful in their own might without
    any "aid", the Kamui is merely
    unlocking it.
    Click to expand...
    i.imgur.com/DpG1VIk.jpg

    Sorry, umm couldn't enclose the image in spoilers. The long quote made my phone horribly lag. And since any attempt at editing the first post will be futile due to the horrible lag, I'm purposely making a double post in hopes that it gets merged. If not, then sorry dave, I couldn't do anything else. ;____;

    And I suppose I could've linked the whole post where it was posted originally, right? Except I thought of it after I had posted the thread. /facepalm

    So yeah, what do you guys think?
     
    Last edited:
    One word... Trigger ;)
    They once again made ultra over-the-top trolling action anime so if it's filled with fanservice, no one's really surprised =D
    Trigger is almost like Sunrise =D They troll at almost everything =D
     
    Have there been any giant vaginas yet? If coming of age anime have taught me one thing, it is that youth is either a giant penis or vagina.
     
    I heard you liked your Gainax so we made Trigger and put FlCl, gurren lagann and panty and stocking together...and boooom! Kill la kill! Anime of the year...definetly.

    Yeah its pretty obvious I love these "popcorn" anime. The less they make sense and replace "logic" with personified AWESOMENESS the better.

    I understand the point that fan service makes it less of an anime and interrupt the action. And sometimes I agree...fan service shouldnt interrupt the action etc.

    However Trigger clearly meant this anime to be watched with your brains turned off. And Im more than happy to do that. So yeah. Fan service doesnt ruin Kill la Kill for me and I love every minute of the action.
     
    No giant penis/vagina yet. :p And c'mon lappy, it is actually pretty good. Heard ya didn't like attack on titan. Might like this, perhaps? Give it a shot if ya haven't.

    Also, even though this thread can and should be taken as a KlK general discussion thread, my main motive behind making this thread was ask the viewers this - do you think the fanservice in klk is there just for the sake of it or are they actually trying to use it to send some message to the public? Satsuki's line in the 3rd ep makes me inclined towards the latter, tbh. And the post above and the picture are good supporters of this theory and explain why it can be the case. Sure, nothing is set in stone since we're 4 episodes in a 26 ep anime, but yeah.

    And lappy, I don't know or keep up with most anime that come out each season. This one probably has more publicity than most since it is all over youtube and message boards. What makes an anime of the season anyway? The actual content's good quality or no. of viewers?
     
    Probably viewers. Quality of the content is completely subjective and you're not likely to find a large group of people agreeing on that one. I've noticed in the last few seasons that things like Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure have been pretty huge hits, Kill la Kill is definitely following along the same path.

    And with someone like Kazuki Nakashima writing the scripts for the show, I'm sure there's more to it than just fanservice. His shows all sort of follow the same pattern, they might appear to be shallow on first glance, but looking at them closer reveals layers of depth you wouldn't peg his shows to have. Nakashima is the sort of writer who loves using the absurd and exaggerated to find some way of commenting on a certain topic, trend, or theme when he does a show.

    There's a reason the horndogs of the show who spazz over Ryuko's outfit are all the supposed lowly no-stars. Even the scenery is there to send a message - those humping cats were totally there for a reason.
     
    Last edited:
    I feel like Ryuko's outfit, despite how much focus there is on it, so much so that it's a character trait of hers to be fighting in it, is just a really minor point and focusing too much on it takes away from the anime. The fanservice itself doesn't take away anything, because like I said it plays up Ryuko's personality and character pretty well. I don't really care for it, but I don't dislike that it's there either.
     
    I think it's all there for a reason too, and not just to be fanservice. Okay, this might be kinda spoilery, but remember when Mako was like "get naked, Ryuuko!" and then Ryuuko was like, "Yeah, you have to become my skin, Senketsu." Obviously Mako meant to literally get naked, but I think the point of the outfit is that it doesn't really matter what it looks like (if that makes sense?)

    I mean, this is coming from the people that made Gurren Lagann (one of my favorites ;;), where at first it didn't really convey any deeper messages, but as the story went on it turns out the anime was actually about a lot more than we thought it was at first. (I can think of a bunch, but if you look up some quotes I'm sure you can see some too). So that's why I think they're actually trying to say something else. (I mean, it just looks kinda absurd anyway, almost if it's making fun of fanservicey things like that, in a way?)
     
    Its pretty ecchi but IM going to keep watching it since I've seen tengen toppa gurren lagann. Will it beat it? Prob not but lets the road it goes down.

    Mako is my favorite sidekick in a long time too.

    [PokeCommunity.com] Kill la kill - Blatant fanservice or...?
    The fan-art coming from the people is awesome..
     
    Show is basically fan service for old Gainax fans.
    The underlying theme is nice (even when it's vastly misinterpreted by tumblr), though of course it's all about entertainment. And show is pretty good at that.

    And before I get lynched for the fan service comment, bear in mind the term is not always synonymous with breast jiggles and bare asses.
     
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