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Well, I was hoping Kill La Kill wasn't going to be shit because I like the director and all, but hated Gurren Lagann for the most part. Well it's was fine I guess up until the uniform part, overall just a big boring tying together of anime tropes. But I guess you can't leave out the trope of gratuitous fan service coming from the magical girl roots. I don't know what this show wants to be but the main character having her tits out and her uniform becoming tight on her already revealed body doesn't really help it to be taken any more seriously than the typical of sleaze of other high school fight shows.

 

May be done with Imaishi soon, even though I love Dead Leaves and Panty and Stocking. Guess I can make a lot of money reselling these art books if so... See what the next episode brings I suppose.

 

EDIT: I just read on some blog comments somewhere that the uniform is possibly going to be less revealing as the series goes on as it absorbs the threads of the uniforms of the opponents, but if this is true, it's not endorsed by any kind of clothing appearing on the first thread absorbed. If it did go against the trope and make the main character more powerful the more clothes she has on, I could get on board with that, but it also depends how it's handled. I can just see Cutey Honey moments happening all over for 26 episodes if done poorly.

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if we take it as a given that Kill la Kill is playing with the Tropes associated with magical uniforms, taking apart the idea that in order to become a heroine a female character has to put on a revealing costume seems a logical route for it to take.

However unlike many of those heroines Ryuko does acknowledge her situation. She's embarrassed by what's she's wearing, but doesn't make a fuss and just gets on with kicking some ass rather than getting flustered.

But ultimately as syntheticgerbil say's we will have to wait and see if it subverts and surpasses its tropes or not.

 

Also: The odds are high that at some point there will be a Silken Goku (uniform)

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if we take it as a given that Kill la Kill is playing with the Tropes associated with magical uniforms, taking apart the idea that in order to become a heroine a female character has to put on a revealing costume seems a logical route for it to take.

However unlike many of those heroines Ryuko does acknowledge her situation. She's embarrassed by what's she's wearing, but doesn't make a fuss and just gets on with kicking some ass rather than getting flustered.

But ultimately as syntheticgerbil say's we will have to wait and see if it subverts and surpasses its tropes or not.

 

Also: The odds are high that at some point there will be a Silken Goku (uniform)

 

Yeah, having just gotten around to watching the first episode, I think I also have to reserve judgment, to my regret. At first glance, the uniform's just cheesecake, but I want to believe it's in service of something more, mostly because Trigger seems like such a great, fresh studio and I'd love to see them capture the old GAINAX spirit.

 

 

Question: The Internet keeps talking about the Revolutionary Girl Utena vibes that Kill la Kill is giving off. Now, I love Utena like nothing else, but I'm not feeling it here. Is anyone else?

 

I'm getting more of the vintage GAINAX feel myself. The teacher? Totally the coach from Gunbuster.

 

ota01.gif

 

Aww, yeah.

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I'm over a month late, but Digimon The Movie is rad, I had the sound track for it and everything.

 

Hey now.

 

You're an all star.

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Welp. The opening song of Kill la Kill (which was not present in the first episode) pretty much confirms that that's her battle uniform at least for a long time. I still think there might be something to the threads collected making it bigger later on, but it might be way later on.

 

But then her teacher is doing some crazy shit right now that I love.

 

Blehhhh.

 

But it's so STUPID outside of that uniform thing in the exact way I love DANG DANG. Sucks.

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I'm pretty much agree with you on all those points twig. As far as second episodes go I felt that one squandered a lot of the good things from episode one, then proceeded to make the bad things worse. Even the action sequence was a disapointment.

 

However with Raybands teach it seems to be under the impression that a man deciding to take off his clothes is somehow equal to a woman being forced to. Add to that the continuing skimpiness of the battle uniform, the horrible inference that when a woman bleeds too much she becomes weak, and one particularly gratuitous shot of her upside down and I'm a lot more troubled by this episode than the first.

 

I'm also a little worried about where the meta-plot may be going.

Yes there is a possibility it could do something interesting with the idea of two children who’s parents views of femininity are reflected in what they wear very differently (Ruyko's father's design being over sexualised & Satsuki choosing to wear what is seen as a boys uniform), but with satsuki set out as the villain atm it's seems very small step to the mannish slur that gets thrown at some feminists.

 

I tend to read to much into stuff in general, and so my radar over whether what this subverts being greater than how much it just plays into tropes about how women are viewed is just all over the place

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I tend to read to much into stuff in general, and so my radar over whether what this subverts being greater than how much it just plays into tropes about how women are viewed is just all over the place

 

I haven't watched it yet, but GAINAX has never been great about women or women's issues. The last time I feel like they were really alive to the whole thing was back when Anno was directing. GunbusterEvangelion, and His & Her Circumstances all have interesting female characters who don't just exist for cheesecake and exploitation. But the people who worked on those aren't the people who went on to form Trigger, so I'm ever more skeptical that there's a big picture to be had with Kill la Kill.

 

Of course, I haven't seen Melody of Oblivion or Panty & Stocking, so I'm willing to be told I'm full of shit on this.

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I haven't watched it yet, but GAINAX has never been great about women or women's issues. The last time I feel like they were really alive to the whole thing was back when Anno was directing. GunbusterEvangelion, and His & Her Circumstances all have interesting female characters who don't just exist for cheesecake and exploitation. But the people who worked on those aren't the people who went on to form Trigger, so I'm ever more skeptical that there's a big picture to be had with Kill la Kill.

 

Of course, I haven't seen Melody of Oblivion or Panty & Stocking, so I'm willing to be told I'm full of shit on this.

 

*Sigh* Your probably right, I guess I want it to be striving for something more than it is because I find the lead likeable.

As i put it before i dig her whole "no fuss" attitude. A sort of "ok this is where life has taken me, but that doesn't change what i want to achieve" outlook, which was both refreshing in a media where navel  gazing can sometimes be endemic, and something I admire in people in general. 

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Yeah I actually really like her as a character - I mean, as much as I like any character in an anime like this! - which is probably why it hurts so much to see her like that. (Hah, out of context, that last bit sounds weird.) Possibly the worst part is that whenever she GETS SERIOUS, it does a close-up of the uniform tightening up on her naughty bits.

 

Also, I hate to admit it, but I'll probably keep watching despite all this. Stuff like this is the number one reason I often list anime as a guilty pleasure. U:

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*Sigh* Your probably right, I guess I want it to be striving for something more than it is because I find the lead likeable.

As i put it before i dig her whole "no fuss" attitude. A sort of "ok this is where life has taken me, but that doesn't change what i want to achieve" outlook, which was both refreshing in a media where navel  gazing can sometimes be endemic, and something I admire in people in general. 

Yeah I actually really like her as a character - I mean, as much as I like any character in an anime like this! - which is probably why it hurts so much to see her like that. (Hah, out of context, that last bit sounds weird.) Possibly the worst part is that whenever she GETS SERIOUS, it does a close-up of the uniform tightening up on her naughty bits.

 

Yeah, I like Ryuuko's character a lot, I just don't like the director/writer/designer putting her in the goofy fetish outfit (and that they seem to find this the most interesting part about her, which is patently false).

 

That's an especially good point about her pragmatism, Codicier. Most revenge-based shounen-type anime are incredibly concerned with making sure you understand the protagonist's reasons for seeking revenge and how they feeeeel about the whole thing. I just finished watching the whole run of Rurouni Kenshin and oh god, this is pretty much all the show is: long-winded speeches about pain and desserts. With Ryuuko, it definitely feels like she made the decision to seek revenge a long time ago and has internalized the relevant feelings, so there's not much need to talk about it, especially not to her enemies.

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 With Ryuuko, it definitely feels like she made the decision to seek revenge a long time ago and has internalized the relevant feelings, so there's not much need to talk about it, especially not to her enemies.

 

In some ways you could also use that as a good description of what the Kenshin OVA's do right. The introspection is still  there but its internalised by both Kenshin and his antagonists, rather than shouted in long bits of exposition

 

Also, I hate to admit it, but I'll probably keep watching despite all this. Stuff like this is the number one reason I often list anime as a guilty pleasure. U:

 

I'll probably do the same >_<, god damn we are suckers 

 

I wonder if some of this comes from the way most people are introduced to anime, we come in with pretty low expectations and then something comes along and blows our minds and then we find ourselves forever chasing that initial high. Then we end up disappointed so many times we rationalise our disappointment with "it's a guilty pleasure" while still secretly hoping for more.

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Heh. I think my first anime was Cowboy Bebop, and obviously a lot of people love it. Including me! It occurs to me, suddenly, that Faye is similarly dressed. Not QUITE as revealing, but definitely not modest in any way. It's... never bothered me with her, though. Maybe because her character is so well-written as someone who just doesn't give a fuck - or at least puts on a front - about what other people think of her. And also maybe because I watched it long before I became consciously aware that it was even a real problem.

 

HMMM.

 

But well Cowboy Bebop is also a completely different kind of experience from what Kill la Kill is going for.

 

There are plenty of examples of females in anime that aren't clearly designed to be sexually attractive at all times, but it seems so rare. Seirei no Moribito springs to mind, as does Kemono no Souja Erin - both from the same company, if I recall correctly!. (I usually hate using the Japanese names, but I forget the English names. Something of the Spirit... Guardian, maybe?, and Erin the Beastmaster? Bleh, whatever.) ANYWAY. Japan get your shit together. Thanks.

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You guys watched TTGL, right?

Did you feel similarly about Yoko?

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Uh, no, but also back then, I didn't really find myself thinking about it as often.

 

A better answer is: yes, Yoko bothers me now, too.

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You guys watched TTGL, right?

Did you feel similarly about Yoko?

 

For me, Yoko was bad at first (because cheesecake), then good (because she's independent and capable), then bad again (because Kamina's death wrecks her as a person and defines the rest of her life). So I don't know. I guess it's a net loss, but not show-ruining, in part because she is at least two slots away from being the main character.

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I'm pretty late on this one since I've just been catching up on a bunch of stuff, but I finally watched Madoka Magica and it totally blew away my expectations. Did anyone else watch it and sense the potential for a great game using some of the ideas laid out later on in the show? I can't go into it without spoiling stuff (for the 3 people who still haven't seen it), so

 

Basically, I think the way soul gems and grief seeds work opens up some pretty interesting possibilities for online games. Imagine a game where dying or expending too much of your energy would result in the creation of a hostile monster equivalent in power to your character at their moment of death, which would then roam the world and prey on other player characters until it was defeated. It could also take on some of your characteristics to shape the way it looked and behaved, in the same way witches were a perverted form of the personalities of the person they spawned from. This would also mean the most successful players would have a horrifying apparition of their former selves to commemorate how powerful they'd become, which would remain in the game until someone surpassed them in power, essentially functioning as a sort of living high score table.

 

I also find the idea of having an uncertain relationship with other players really appealing (see: Day Z). Like, cooperation would be fruitful, but since you're all competing for resources to extend your lifespan there'd always be an adversarial edge to it. This would probably work better with an obfuscated multiplayer system like Dark Souls, to keep real world collaboration to a minimum. It would also make it all the more meaningful when you came across someone who actually wanted to help you.

 

Anyway I'm not actually a Game Person I just thought this was interesting. *cough*

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I think Gurren Lagann sucked for the most part and Yoko truly sucked. One dimensional character that had clothes that made no fucking sense. She existed purely for fan service. The fact that she wasn't as important as Nia was at least somewhat of a save. But the show ranged from boring, sometimes ugly, to ensemble cast with hard to keep track of story nonsense and Dragon Ball Z grade fight scenes of charging up. Show really didn't have much to engage the viewer beyond the first few episodes. My opinion at least.

 

Kill la Kill Episode 2 is just worse. Fuck this shit. Way to completely squander potential.

 

I think hardly any anime director understands how to keep a show somewhat classy and not turn it in to something a 13 year old boy watches when his parents are asleep. No one would have taken Akira very seriously in the late 80s if it had the girls constantly tripping and zooming in on a pantyshot or boobs flopping around during action scenes. Idlethumbs is probably the only forum on the internet concerning anime that would actually agree with me though, so I suppose that's what the fans want. But I'm not really a fan of anime and instead a fan of animation in general, and more mature stuff at that (unless it's just dumb fun) if available, and really don't care for 95% of the stuff that comes out of Japan, but still constantly looking for new and different looking shows/movies. And "mature" meaning subject matter, not school girls fighting to the death on an island or shows about boys constantly running from 12 year old girls who really want to have sex with him. Sigh.

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Love your post, syn. 
 

Idlethumbs is probably the only forum on the internet concerning anime that would actually agree with me though, so I suppose that's what the fans want.

 
I consume an ungodly amount of anime, maybe a hundred shows a year, but there's a reason I only talk about anime i) on this forum and ii) with my friend who's doing grad work on media/cultural studies. It's because the two times I've joined fan communities (Anime Planet way back when, then AnimeBytes last year) I've immediately been hounded as a snob who hates fun. There's a level of on-demand infantilization among the anime-consuming public that's pretty much a cultural force at this point, which I hate in every way except for how it puts the game-consuming public into perspective. Also,
 

...shows about boys constantly running from 12 girls who really want to have sex with him.

 

What is it about harem anime? How can there exist hundreds of shows about spineless guys being assaulted by sex offers until they finally settle for the first girl they met, every time. I want/need/gotta know why.

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I consume an ungodly amount of anime, maybe a hundred shows a year, but there's a reason I only talk about anime i) on this forum and ii) with my friend who's doing grad work on media/cultural studies. It's because the two times I've joined fan communities (Anime Planet way back when, then AnimeBytes last year) I've immediately been hounded as a snob who hates fun. There's a level of on-demand infantilization among the anime-consuming public that's pretty much a cultural force at this point, which I hate in every way except for how it puts the game-consuming public into perspective.

Yes, I have noticed that as well. I mean the 80s and 90s still had the ecchi shows all around, but besides the tentacle rape stuff, most things didn't seem to come across as sleazy or infantile. Someone brought up Golden Boy earlier, and while it's wasn't my thing, I could see much more craftsmanship and a "coy" attitude put in to that show. Maybe that's nostalgia speaking, but I can't think of anything today much akin to Rintaro's Metropolis getting a good review by Roger Ebert (if he were still alive). Also I like having stuff I can watch with my fiance. She really got hooked when I watched Samurai Champloo for the second time, and that was a lot of fun. Kill la Kill is instead one of those things where you wait until she's asleep, unfortunately.

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I think there's still plenty of anime to watch with other people. Undeniably, there's also just a larger VOLUME of anime, and because stuff that's popular (tits and panty shots) is popular, it is the most common.

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From last season, I strongly recommend Uchouten Kazoku; it might take an episode or 2 to get used to the background art, but I think it does interesting stuff in terms of tone, characterization and theme treatment. Nothing revolutionary or gimmicky, but it's has an off-beat that I felt very unique and sidesteps itself quite often.
Also takes place in Kyoto with some interesting revisiting of folklore figures and actual places.

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So KILL la KILL is really just about battle-stripper schoolgirls with the superpower of shamelessness? I... I wish I wasn't watching this show. There are so many other better shows it could have been.

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Hey the complete Ergo Proxy DVD set was on sale at Fry's the other week when I was picking up an ethernet cable. Well, it wasn't on sale but it beat the usual online price for used on Amazon by $5 under.

 

I really like this show so far. I don't fully understand everything and the animation is kind of bad or nonexistent in many areas, but it's very pretty otherwise and I feel very intrigued and want to know what happens next. The character designs and robot designs (super freaky) are all very well developed and distinct and I really enjoy when that kind of care was put in to it. I realize the lead writer for the series was by Dai Sato who I have experienced from Eternal Family and his episodes of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, but was not aware of much of his other work. I saw him speak at AnimeFest in Dallas last year with a few other great animators and he had the best smiley expressions and seemed incredibly good natured. I bought the series because Sayo Yamamoto directed four episodes and so far I've seen one of hers (ep. 5) and it was really sad even though it was well done. They really don't care about who they kill on this show I guess

(death of a fucking baby in ep. 3, are they nuts?!)

, but it's not like any of it is done in a gratuitous manner.

 

I will probably have more say when I finish the show. 6 episodes in so far and the only thing really bugging me is Vincent's squinty eyes. In some parts I thought he was possibly blind and I had missed something, then in others I was wondering why he would open his eyes and if the impact was supposed to symbolize anything. Then it just seemed random on whether or not he was wanted to open his eyes.

 

I don't know much about philosophers or classic literature so I have to wiki some of the references. Nice it's there, but I am afraid I'm too stupid to follow along outside of easier ones like Daedalus. Either way, it's not hindering my enjoyment of the show. The automated council represented by Michelangelo statues named after famous philosophers who are try to reach a judgment from multiple sides is a nice touch.

 

A lot of the background music is very engaging. I can't figure out what the song is for the special features menu in disc 4 yet. I hope I figure it out by the end of the series, because clicking around on Youtube uploads of the OST didn't help much.

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