Sailor Moon meets Marvel’s Venom in this sci-fi anime

An essential part of a superhero’s identity is their costume. The color scheme and silhouette of the heroes’ clothing tells you a lot about them. Batman’s black costume fades into shadow as a Dark Knight should, while Superman’s bright blue and red costume speaks of “truth, justice, and the American way.”

Which comic (antagonist) hero has the closest association with his costume? Venom, of course, for his suit (Spider-Man’s Dark Mirror) is a living organism. The “Venom” film trilogy relied on this, becoming a romantic comedy Between Eddie Brock and the alien symbiote (both played by Tom Hardy). However, Venom isn’t the only one wearing a living alien costume. This concept also rears its head in Studio Trigger’s 2013 animated comedy “Kill la Kill.”

Trigger is considered one of the largest production houses in the modern anime world; Their latest adaptation of Ryoko Kui’s manga “Delicious in Dungeon” topped the list. /List of films for the best anime of 2024. Founded in 2011 by Hiroyuki Imaishi and Masahiko Otsuka, Trigger’s works tend to be colorful action shows filled with physics-defying action, fast pacing and pacing. Animated transitionsand sharp twists in the plot.

The archetype of Trigger is The anime “Gurren Lagann” from 2007, It was directed by Imaishi and produced at his and Ōtsuka’s former employer, Studio Gainax. “Gurren Lagann” is Studio Trigger’s spiritual debut (in the same way Hayao Miyazaki’s “Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind” paved the way for the rise of Studio Ghibli), but “Kill la Kill” was the first anime series produced by the studio.

“Kill la Kill” was also directed by Imaishi (and written by “Gurren Lagann” head writer Kazuki Nakashima). The film revolves around Ryoko Matoi, a dissolute 17-year-old girl trying to discover the truth about her father’s unsolved murder. Her main partner in this endeavor is her schoolgirl uniform: a talking, living “Kamui” that she calls Senketsu.

“Gurren Lagann” was a proudly masculine show, one that showed how real men lift others up instead of crushing them. “Kill la Kill” is about femininity and how what we wear enhances how we feel and act.

“Kill la Kill” is science fiction. Incredibly soft sci-fi, but the villains are aliens and the cool powers in the show are derived from technology. So strictly speaking, Ryoko is not a “magical girl”. She is also much less sensitive than this character usually is, with a stubborn attitude and trash talk.

However, you can’t help but think about watching it in action The “magical girl” genre.. Whenever she goes into battle, Senketsu transforms around her in a power-up sequence inspired by Japanese action girl classics like “Cutie Honey” and “Sailor Moon.” Ryoko’s transformation makes her more powerful, but also more vulnerable; Her skirt shrinks and Senketsu goes from revealing only her waist to almost her entire torso. Ryoko is embarrassed at first, but her friend Mako encourages her to wear her power outfit with pride.

I’m at a loss as to whether to call “Kill la Kill” a feminist series, but it’s a positive one — and these two seemingly intertwined themes actually contain the essence of contradiction. The framing of the series is limited to the male gaze in the original sense of the word (Defined by Laura Mulvey): Ryuko’s transformation is framed primarily in close-ups of her body, and the sound design highlights cloth hitting flesh. The lacy bras and stockings in Ryuko’s costume evoke bondage—and yet, the series’ titillation intersects with the girls’ narrative empowerment. They become more powerful the less they wear, because in “Kill la Kill” clothes are the root of oppression.

The title of the series gives these themes away. “Kill la Kill” sounds like nonsense in English, but that’s because it contains a pun that can’t be translated. The translated title is “Kiru ra Kiru”, and this word can mean both “dressing up” and “killing” in Japanese. Another pun that reveals the show’s meaning: In Japanese, the words “fashhon” (“fashion”) and “fassho” (“fascism”) are pronounced almost the same way.

The primary setting for “Kill la Kill” is Honnouji Academy, a school ruled by the student council president (and apparently Ryuko’s main rival) Satsuki Kiryuin. Imagine if she was the queen bee in high school and her group of mean girls were as well literally Tyrants. Satsuki often stands in a low-profile, backlit frame holding a sword, declaring “Fear is freedom! Submission is liberation! Contradiction is truth!” And so on. She runs the academy with a strict class system, giving each student a “Goku Costume”, made from the same alien “life fibers” as Senketsu. The lowest students in the school hierarchy receive a weak “no star” Goku costume, while the elite Satsuki Four use a powerful three-star costume.

As in the real world, this uniform is a self-reinforcing tool of hierarchy and division. The first opening sequence of “Kill la Kill” shows row after row of miserable-looking Honnouji students, all of them wearing uniforms, except for Ryuko. She refuses to be confined to her role in the academy, and only aims for the top so she can snatch Satsuki away from her.

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Ryuko’s main weapon in doing this is a scissor blade, usually a tailor’s tool, not a fighter. Since her opponents get their powers from their uniforms, she literally rips off those clothes. Of course, perfectly functioning scissors require two sister blades working together; Throughout their journey, Ryoko and Satsuki learn that they could be that duo for each other. Seeing them grow together through “Kill la Kill” is a fast-paced and bumpy ride that you should definitely take.

“Kill la Kill” is streaming on Crunchyroll.