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Feb 11, 2018
I've always thought that the nature of a show's reception has a lot to do with the relationship between what it tries to achieve and what it actually achieves. The worst shows are ones which try to achieve a lot by berating the viewer with gimmicks and "deep" moral themes, but never really go anywhere. Somewhere in the middle are shows which attain what they set out to achieve, but go no further. The best shows are those which never try to accomplish anything extraordinary, but do so in spite of themselves. The more a show tries to achieve, the further it has to go
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before it can be considered "good."
Ms. Kobayashi's Dragon Maid was not a show that I thought I was going to like. - it was just something I picked up to pass the time. Put simply, this anime was better than it should have been.
I can't help but praise Ms. Kobayashi's Dragon Maid for delivering on its promise. I expected dragons and, right from the first scene, I got a dragon. But as the show progressed, I found myself liking it more an more. I'm not a huge fan of comedy anime, but Ms. Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is a different type of comedy anime. Sure, the series contained its fair share of lewd jokes and ridiculous happenstance, but it never fell into the trap of being cute for the sake of cuteness. Its character development was realistic; instead of forcing its characters to change direction by pulling a full 180 while never truly explaining its motives (like many anime I have seen) Ms. Kobayashi's Dragon Maid keeps things simple, offering us a small character changes which are all the more satisfying.
All in all, a worthwhile anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 20, 2017
There is something about Kill La Kill which defies classification. One part of me wants to label the show as nothing more than a battle shone series set in high school with gratuitous amounts of fan-service. The other part wants to believe that these clichés are only superficial - and that, at its core, Kill La Kill is something more akin to an Orwellian style satire, ripe with humor, action, and well-executed subversions of common tropes. Kill La Kill may not be the best anime I have ever seen, but it has rightfully earned its place as my "worst" favorite anime.
The Good
It’s rare that we
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see an anime like Kill La Kill which criticizes societal tendencies head-on. While it’s true that some shows engage in a social critique of sorts, the majority portray the problem as the fault of an individual within thy system rather than the system itself, or else weasel out of the responsibility to deliver a decisive verdict through an ambiguous ending. Kill La Kill, especially in the early episodes, deals directly with society’s dependence on clothing as a means to determine social status and even morality, and this theme is carried throughout the later episodes to a somewhat lesser extent. Certainly the show’s antagonists play a crucial role, but it is not the antagonists which create the conflict – it is the clothes themselves.
Kill La Kill’s animation may not be up to the level of realism that we expect from modern-day anime, but it is one of the most original and enjoyable aspects of the show. Some may consider the quality lacking, but – let’s be real – Kill La Kill isn’t supposed to be taken completely seriously anyway. The animation style is loud, in your face, comical, and action-packed all at once, highlighting the she show’s better aspects and giving the show a distinctive voice. If there’s one thing that can be said for Kill La Kill, it’s that the animation style works brilliantly with the anime’s content.
One of my favorite things about Kill La Kill was its first ending, and it was this sequence that actually kept me intrigued and willing to muddle through even the overhyped shonen bits. It seems to suggest that, at the end of the day when you strip away all of the show's the heavy, plot-driven elements, Ryuko is just a lonely girl who doesn't understand the world around her. Its interesting to think about her in this way -- not as someone who's always confident and willing to face danger head-on, but as someone who's used to being self-reliant.
The Bad
For all Kill La Kill’s strengths, there are some minor drawbacks. Most notably the soundtrack, while good in and of itself, is rather repetitive. Although the comedy – the physical comedy in particular – was one of the highlights of the show, it was sometimes inappropriately paced with the more actiony shonen bits. Often, the show would be building toward an epic fight which would suddenly lose momentum because the show decided to insert a bit of slap-stick comedy precisely at the wrong time. Additionally, although I’ve always been predisposed to view Kill La Kill’s nudity as more comedic and satirical than as something gratuitous, there were a few scenes which I believe required a bit more background to be considered fully appropriate.
The Ugly
Where Kill La Kill really suffers in its unbelievable character development. Like many anime I’ve seen, it seems like Kill La Kill is far too concerned with affecting large scale changes in its characters' personalities and ideas than in providing the audience with concrete reasons why this development is taking place. Yes, the main character developed and matured throughout the series, but the reasons for her development were either weak, glossed over, or simply not there at all. It seems somewhat sad that the first ending sequence, which I mentioned above as one of my favorite parts of the show, does more to display the inner complexities of the main character than a vast majority of the anime itself.
The plot, too, suffers from a disorienting lack of cohesion and overwhelming dependence on Ex-Machina. At the beginning it appears that the main character Ryuko must fight her way through the members of a student council but, as the anime continues, this conflict is completely forgotten in the face of new information and larger battles. Because of this, the audience never receives the suspense of a mysterious or plot, nor the satisfaction that comes from seeing a main character slowly reach his or her goal by short increments. The show includes a number of surprising twists but, as a watcher, I can’t help but feel a bit cheated as there was no evidence in any of the preceding episodes to suggest what would happen next. By the end of the anime, I had the overwhelming feeling that I had simply been strung along, especially in the show’s later episodes.
So what’s the verdict? Kill La Kill is a show which does some things exceptionally well, but others quite poorly. While I do love it, I can’t say that it was a critically great show or even that I always enjoyed it. It’s a must-watch for anyone who’s a fan of shonen, but I can only somewhat recommend it to anyone else. 6/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 24, 2017
One of my favorite aspects of anime is its ability to take a totally unbelievable premise and present it in a completely serious way that would never fly in another medium. This is exactly what you get with Kakegurui.
Why do teachers allow students to form an organized gambling ring in the school? How was a student council, which promotes a blatant system of oppression, even elected in the first place? Are parents really ok with allowing their children to bet millions of dollars on an after-school game of poker?
And, perhaps the most important question of all, who cares?
Sure, there are a lot of elephants
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in the room, but these elephants are damn cool. With Kakegurui you're getting an original, thrilling anime, so who's to blame you if you simply close you're eyes and enjoy the ride. (Don't actually close your eyes. If you do, you won't be able to see your computer screen).
The anime's strongest and weakest point has to be its characters. As one might expect from a school full of gamblers, every character is a psychopath on some level, and Kakegurui does a great job of juxtaposing these various personalities. What's more, (almost) none of the characters are expendable, with even the minor characters serving as foils which offer the viewer striking comparisons. The one exception to this would be Kakegurui's protagonist who, in keeping with the time-honored tradition of Japanese animated culture, is virtually nonexistent. In an anime as wild as Kakegurui, this is almost forgivable. The protagonist offers a more normal lens through which the demented behavior of the rest of the characters, and I found myself craving his commentary about one-third of the time just to have some normalcy. The other two-thirds of the time I either wished he would get lost and make room for the more interesting characters, or else forgot he existed entirely.
Although we view the show and the self-destructive actions of its many insane characters through the eyes of a sane (and boring) protagonist, Kakegurui never feels like a public service announcement, courtesy of the Japanese, against the horrors of gambling. The show's characters tend to suffer in relation to their lack of internal stability and, generally speaking, each character's greed or arrogance eventually leads to their downfall. This isn't always the case, however, as some of the more mentally sane, goal-driven characters take massive losses as a result of their tenancy to play it safe.
Despite the show's repetitive premise, it never got boring. It was incredibly entertaining to watch the characters weasel their way in and out of trouble by making the tables turn dramatically one way or the other, and the fact that the bets were often won by cheating only added to the fun. The games in which the characters participated were a joy to watch - always with some type of original spin but never too complicated to be understood.
Unfortunately, the ending was completely anticlimactic (probably something to do with trying to cap off a 13 episode show while staying faithful to the original source material) but, considering the sheer brilliance of the anime's jazzy opening, I'm willing to give back some partial credit. All things considered, Kakegurui was a joy to watch as long as you're willing to put up with some occasional issues. 7/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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