As we all know, this is the first anime directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi since Panty and Stocking, and before that Gurren Lagann, both of which were animated by the legendary studio Gainax. Things have changed since then, and Gainax's loss has been newcomer Studio Trigger's gain. With former Gainax standouts like Imaishi, Masahiko Ohtsuka, and Yoh Yoshinari, the studio has already made a little bit of a name for itself with the outstanding short film Little Witch Academia, conceived and directed by Yoshinari. They also produced the silly(and absurdly cheap) Inferno Cop shorts. Kill la Kill, however, represents their first real attempt at a full-length TV series, and as an original work they're taking a fair bit of risk here; that being true, it's no surprise they'd rely on the tried and proven Imaishi.
Kill la Kill is, no doubt, an Imaishi work through-and-through, and that's obvious from the very first minute. All of his trademarks- extremely stylized and cartoony animation, loud and unsubtle characters, slapstick comedy, action scenes that approach abstraction- are here, and in abundance.
First, let me talk about what I felt worked. The art direction is extremely well-realized, with great layouts, distinct and visually appealing characters(important in a series with such a large cast), and solid animation. The storyboarding and direction was pretty effective, with lots of camera movement(combined with good-enough CGI) helping to make scenes more dynamic, as well as quickly communicating the general layout of the city and the school at its top. In terms of visual production, everything is solid except for that dreadful uniform.
That being true, I need to explain why I was left cold by this opening episode.
I think the biggest issue for me, one that relates to a wide number of my other complaints, is tone. I had no idea what I was supposed to be feeling during the vast majority of the episode. The presentation of setting, established in the first scene, borders on parody, with the schoolteacher lecturing on Hitler before being interrupted by the Gestapo-like Disciplinary Squad. In fact, I was unsure during the entire episode if this was supposed to be a parody of all similar stories or not. It feels like it wants to have its cake and eat it too, in terms of the setting being an absurd caricature of high school battle anime, as well as generic revenge stories; yet at the same time the weirdly dark, violent murders and the presentation of Ryuuko's motivation seem to point to this being a "serious" story.
These competing impressions left me unable to identify with any of the characters. It's especially hard in a series with such an over-the-top setting, where you really need a grounded and identifiable character to relate to, but Ryuuko is a total cipher outside of her one-dimensional motivation at this point in the narrative. Either that or she's just bland. Satsuki is easily the most interesting character, but she's even more of a mystery than Ryuuko. Every other character is just a walking trope, without anything interesting to say about them.
I should also mention that the comedy fell utterly flat for me. I feel like Imaishi is a comedic tryhard, with lots of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Maho in particular is an unfunny, one-dimensional gag character. And I definitely feel like the pacing hurt it in this regard, with wacky slapstick gag following after wacky slapstick gag, without and breathing room whatsoever. It's as if the thinking process is that comedy is the sum of many lesser jokes and you just need to spam them fast enough to achieve laughter.
I also must say that I felt the dialogue was atrocious, like, some of the worst I've seen in anime. Gurren Lagann, at least, even had memorable lines like "Believe in me who believes in you" from the very first episode. The dialogue in this is split between utter nonsense and pointless, rapid-fire exposition. Did we really need a scene explaining that three-star uniforms are more powerful than two-star, which are more powerful than one-star, etc. I think everyone already grasped the video-game like ranking system by that point.
Regarding the music, I didn't even notice it. It just had no impact on me, maybe because I had characters screaming nonsense in my ears the entire episode.
What does that even mean?
