Despite the fact that a great majority of my day-to-day work involves anime, it’s pretty rare that I find a series that sticks with me enough to make me want to write about it or engage with it in any way outside of work. I really dig the stuff that actually makes an attempt to move beyond your typical restrictions, harkening back to the classic, anything-goes animation of the past. Ren & Stimpy‘s John K. knows all about this, questioning animation that doesn’t push boundaries, and he’s not wrong. We all should. After all, what’s the point of rigidly sticking to reality when you can literally do anything you want?
That’s one of the reasons I love the work of Hiroyuki Imaishi (Dead Leaves, Gurren Lagann), and most recently his new studio, Trigger. Imaishi’s latest effort, Kill la Kill, teams him up once again with Gurren Lagann writer Kazuki Nakashima and, well, I wrote my impressions of the first episode here, so read it if you want. Or just go watch the show on Crunchyroll or Hulu.
It’s good. Good enough to get me to do some fan art this morning.