‘Kill La Kill’ Creator Defends Fan Service In Anime: “If We Make The Work Completely Sterile, People’s Immunity Will Be Weakened And They Will All Die”
In the opinion of Kill la Kill creator Kazuki Nakashima, while there exists a growing opposition among audiences to the concept of ‘risqué’ anime fan service, he and his fellow creators “should dare to take on the stigma” and keep including such content in their works.
Nakashima, who in addition to the Studio Trigger original series is also known for penning such fan-favorite productions as Gurren Lagann, Promare, Kamen Rider W, and Kamen Rider Fourze, offered his thoughts on the titillating topic during a May 2024 interview given alongside series director Hiroyuki Imaishi to Japanese news outlet Febri in reflection of Kill la Kill’s 10th anniversary.
At one point met with the observation from the outlet’s Shotaro Miya (as machine translated by DeepL) that the production of the over-the-top and bombastic style of the fashion-centric seinen series “was only possible because it was [made] 10 years ago”, Imashi confirmed his host’s assessment and admitted, “Nowadays, we have to think a little more about what we can’t make. For example, the exposure of skin,” to which Nakashima added, ” I think even I would have to restrain myself from doing a full-body depiction of Mako.”
“I don’t think today’s audiences would tolerate a ‘peek into a bathroom’,” he added with a laugh, “I would have to make an excuse for it more carefully. ‘This person’s life is at stake!’ Like that.”
Then pressed by a likewise jovial Miya, “Wouldn’t it be better to just cut the bath scene?”, Nakashima smiled in turn, “if you ask me if the bath peeking scene is interesting after all the logic I put into it, I would say it’s not that interesting. So I think I would cut it.”
Turning his thoughts to the general discourse surrounding fan service, the storied Japanese entertainment writer light-heartedly asserted, “After all, we are making a commercial work, and we want the audience to see it. We don’t care if people say, ‘I don’t understand,’ but we don’t want them to feel unnecessarily uncomfortable. But on the other hand, if we make the work completely sterile, people’s immunity will be weakened and they will all die. Therefore, there is a way of thinking that we should dare to take on the stigma and transmit harmful things.”
“We do it with the lofty aspiration, ‘This is what we need to do for the sake of humanity’s immunity’,” he playfully continued. “We will never be understood, but we will die with a stigma for the sake of humanity. There is a way to do it with that kind of feeling.”
Putting a final bow on their conversation with Miya, Imashi ultimately joked back to his Kill la Kill partner, “However, I don’t want to perish if I can help it”.
It should be noted that despite his exaggerated language, Nakashima doesn’t actually think fan service is vital to the survival of the human race.
Rather, the storied writer’s joking take is meant to convey the idea that, the more artists have to ‘sand off the edges’ of their creations, the more boring they will ultimately be – and if that becomes the norm, the entire medium will suffer for it.
(And you know what? As proven by the currently creatively-bankrupt state of the Western comic book, video game, film, and television industries, he’s absolutely correct).
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