It's actually crazy how Kill la Kill shouts at the top of its lungs how it's ABOUT FASCISM right from the get-go and this is like the least discussed aspect of the series, because people are much more interested in arguing about all the nudity. Honnouji Academy is a microcosm of a fascist state. Those who pledge loyalty to the regime and spread its influence are given rewards and a better standard of living, and all the while a lower class is maintained so the upper classes have someone to look down on, distracting them from the system's oppression. The show is not subtle at all about its intermingling of school systems and the military, or how the students take pride in being part of a greater whole. The very first scene of the first episode literally opens on a history lesson about Hitler. It's soooo not subtle.
Exactly!
All the people in the tags saying "b-b-but the nudity!!!" "Wait aren't they minors??" Obviously missed yet another key point of the series, which is that if a general viewing audience sees any nudity at all, it doesn't matter what the characters are telling them, all they'll care about is the nudity bcuz fascism ingrains within in us this puritanical aversion to the human form in its unabashed naked reality. Because people without clothes all look identical, but you need the clothes so you can judge their worth based on how expensive/nice the clothes are and enforce the hierarchy of expensive clothes as the trappings of class. People who bounce right off the nudity barrier would probably not have been willing to engage with the deeper themes anyways, because their worldview is (pun intended) skin deep at best.
Oh fuck off. I don't give a shit about the nudity or the age of the characters except for the fact that I got tired of blatant and unnecessary sexualization of female characters in anime ages ago. You can't talk about the "general viewing audience" clutching their pearls about "any nudity at all" when that sort of fanservice is common and the target audience is men who like to ogle titties and ass while consuming anti-fascist messages.
And like, whatever, there's nothing inherently wrong with enjoying that sort of fanservice, whatever floats your boat... until someone comes along and tries to tell me that ACTUALLY, not enjoying the unrelenting sexualization of female characters by male creators means my worldview is "skin deep at best". Are you fucking kidding me.
You are aware that you can have themes of nudity and sexuality without it being aggressively exploitative, right? That there's a huge difference between "unabashed naked reality" and making sure tits are animated with maximum bounce and that the camera spends time glued to a character's crotch and ass?
Have you seen TTGL? The fanservice isn't there because it supports the plot. The fanservice is there because the creators like drawing reams of T&A and girls in scanty outfits and took the "fascism/fashion" pun and ran with it as an excuse to toss in as much as they could. The fact that it actually has decent shit to say about fascism is parallel to that at best.
So, yeah. Enjoy watching your fanservice anime. The creators are also free to enjoy their fanservice anime! I don't do more than eyeroll over Yet Another Fanservicey anime, it's not like I'm deeply judging people over it or anything. But don't you DARE fucking come at me and act as if people being tired of female characters being sexualized ALL THE FUCKING TIME, and thus disinterested in watching a show that has that in spades despite any deeper themes it might have, and act as if that's somehow indicative of their general worldview or interest in engaging deeply with subversive narratives.













