Cyberpunk Edgerunners vs Kill la Kill

Who would win in an out and out slugfest between David Martinez and Ryuko Matoi? Would the Sandivistan be enough to overcome the power of Kamui Senketsu? Would the Scissor Blade be a match for Gorilla Arms? Are Life Fibers resistant to bullets? Is Rebecca Trans!?!
I don’t care!
This video is an analysis of the ways each series approaches and engages with systems of control.
Chapters
0:00 - 1:11 Intro
1:12 - 7:01 The Body Politic
7:02 - 12:24 Machine Society
12:25 - 18:40 - Futurity
18:40-20:47 - Conclusion
@study_of_swords
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Notes:
1. Awards, www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...
2. KLK MAL.
3. For a more in-depth examination of the post human in Kill la Kill, see Vasquez, 2016.
4. Haraway, 2010. Pg. 147.
5. Wikia chip ware, cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Chi...
6. Russell, 2008. Pg. 106
7. Fukuyama, 2006. pp. 182, 194. If you have any interest in the ideological foundations which would be necessary for the kind of world represented in Edgerunners, or Cyber Punk more broadly, than Fukuyama’s text is necessary reading.
8. Tsangaris, 2018. Pg. 17.
9. Fisher, 2009, Pg. 16.
10. Tassi, 2022.
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Sources:
Cardine, Kyle. “Kill la Kill, Idolm@ster Movie Wins Top Prizes in New Type Awards”. Anime News Network. Oct 12, 2014. www.animenewsnetwork.com/news... (accessed Oct 7, 2022)
“Chipware: Cyberpunk” in Fandom.Com cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Chi... (accessed Oct 7, 2022)
Fisher, Mark. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? 2009
Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man. New York, Free Press, 2006.
Haraway, Donna. “A MANIFESTO FOR CYBORGS: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIALIST FEMINISM IN THE 1980s” in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge, New York, 2010.
“Kill la Kill.” My Anime List. myanimelist.net/anime/18679/K... (accessed Oct 7, 2022)
Russell, Keith. “The Glimpse and Fan Service: New Media, New Aesthetics”. The International Journal of The Humanities, Vol. 6, No. 5. 2008.
Tassi, Paul. “As ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ Sells 20 Million Copies, Forgive, Don’t Forget”. Forbes. September 29, 2022. www.forbes.com/sites/paultass... (accessed Oct 7, 2022)
Tsangaris, Michael. “Re-adapting radical forms of expression in the digital era -Investigating new aspects of recuperation” 1. XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology / RC57 Visual Sociology, Jul 2018, Toronto, Canada.
Vasquez, William. A Posthuman Analysis of Kill La Kill. Thesis. California State University, Long Beach, 2016.

[@celestialdancer6293]

Holy Cyberpsychosis! This was yet another incredible video! I can always rely on this channel for some of the best literary analyses around, please, NEVER stop doing this lol

[@StudyofSwords]

Thanks, really glad you liked the video! I have the advantage that this is a hobby, so I can work at my own pace and discuss what I want.

[@leavemebepls]

I'm sorry for what my brother said, he's high and doesn't like people, I'll delete the comment

[@mileshero]

you like kill la kill, don't you squidward? I found someone who like kill la kill as much as I do. Man your work is fantastic I wish you the best of luck on your journey!

[@StudyofSwords]

Glad you liked it!

[@28empoleon]

I've always wondered why I preferred Kill la Kill over edgerunners even if it's been years since I've watched kill la kill. You basically said it best at the end of the video. Edgerunners is part of the media mix of the cyberpunk IP which I'm far detached from and kill ka kill felt that there was change made to Ragyo Kiryuin's institution. It's probably due to the length of the show being 10 eps vs KLK being 25 or KLK having a lot of girls that I absolutely adored in high school (and up to now in college) or it could just be both as a personal preference thing 🐸 Great video as always

[@StudyofSwords]

That's really interesting, and it makes sense.

[@Isterbollen]

Your videos never fail to impress!

[@StudyofSwords]

Very much appreciated!

[@Miraihi]

Another banger! Thanks for keeping them coming. This is a very interesting view on the two series.

[@StudyofSwords]

Glad you enjoyed it. I wasn't going to watch Edgerunners "right away", but some of the discourse around it was compelling enough that I wanted to make a video about it, despite being in the midst of research for the video I had planned.

[@FROZENbender]

banger video. final conclusion really opened my eyes as to why I felt edgerunners ending was so "alright". There was never gonna be a shift in dynamic of the surrounding narrative. no equivalent to conquering life fibers, no beating the anti-spirals. there is no defeating arasaka. even the highest level enemies of david and co. were merely middle level execs. and they even seemingly got away with it. and that conclusion is in of itself part of the cyberpunk environment, but to me kind of the reason I'm not that interested in cyberpunk as a whole.

[@StudyofSwords]

Funnily enough, this seems to be a common feeling about the show (and Cyberpunk in general), which is really interesting, because that can speak as to why people consume the media they do, or rather, what it is they're trying to get out of it, so to speak.

[@ShyftVahtiDahl]

@@StudyofSwords As in, it plays out their frustration with the system AND their lack of imagination regarding how to abolish it/what to replace it with?

[@StudyofSwords]

@@ShyftVahtiDahl It's not necessarily a lack of imagination, moreso that alternatives are foreclosed, or have no realistic path to implementation, and so revolutionary fantasies are sublated into ones which centers the agentic individual standing against the "machine".

[@MoonAnime]

Ohhh I'm surprised there are so many parallels between the 2. Glad to have someone tell me. I think it's fun to reflect a new show to an older one. The result is understanding both of them better! Also please don't stop talking about Kill la Kill.

[@TroyBreaker]

С ходу залетаю с лайка, уверен в тебе, бро

[@maelstrom3D]

A very insightful video! Also the editing is GREAT

[@StudyofSwords]

Thanks! I really front loaded the editing because that section called for it, kind of slipped off towards the end though.

[@JosephM120]

Great video! One of those "Why doesn't this have more views?" videos. Also the thumbnail was dope 👍

[@StudyofSwords]

Alas, likely because I missed the Edgerunner hypetrain by a week or two. Thanks! I was shooting for maximum clickbait.

[@hoseja]

Guy kinda mumbles, first thing.

[@StudyofSwords]

@@hoseja admittedly, the music from the first clip is loud and the voice over is a bit too quiet.

[@gustavohernandeza.890]

Great video!

[@StudyofSwords]

Thanks!

[@bebopobama4686]

"Trigger has managed to incorporate broader cultural critique in their production so seamlessly, that many fail to notice the substance interlaced throughout the style" Once I heard that I had to subscribe. Trigger isn't even a favorite studio of mine(It's sunrise and bones) but It's annoying to see people ascribe their works as "surface level" just because that was the depth of their own engagement with it.

[@StudyofSwords]

Hey, thanks for the sub!!!

[@1001johny]

And thank you for the content

[@StudyofSwords]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Miraihi]

Hmmm. Not sure if it's the right place and time, but all of the sudden I've decided to rewatch Trigger stuff and naturally drawn to your videos again. So, my question: Do you have something to say about Promare?

[@StudyofSwords]

I enjoyed the film, but haven't got especially strong opinions on it. I think the discourse that was popular on tumblr around it being anti-Semitic was baseless Eurocentric projection, but otherwise, nothing of note.

[@Miraihi]

@@StudyofSwords I haven't noticed anything antisemitic in Promare honestly. I think the "Climate collapse" narrative is much stronger. Also it's hard to miss one particular Elon Musk-like character.

[@StudyofSwords]

@@Miraihi Like I said, it was tumblr discourse and a massive projection based on a totally Eurocentric reading of the text, ignorance is the best option in this case. But it's weird that evil CEO's keep showing up in Trigger works, surely this is coincidental.🙃

[@overgearedd]

Just to clarify, you watched edgerunner with normal colors right? Not in that weird green right? Great video thanks

[@StudyofSwords]

Ah ha ha ha. No. This is how I watched it. Didn't realise there was even an issue until someone pointed it out.

[@overgearedd]

@@StudyofSwords OMG dude, I had this feeling lmao

[@StudyofSwords]

@@overgearedd wanted to go for that genuine bootleg feeling

[@Stevem]

very coool.

[@StudyofSwords]

Thanks!

[@Anonlyso]

14:30 Heh 18:05 I'm popping in real late, but contrasting cyberpunk's nihlism via "THE CITY ALWAYS WINS" no matter how "special" you are with KlK's alternative of....human-"alien" synthesis reminds me just recently of me finishing Kaizerbeamz vid on Twilight of the Cockroachs (not broadly a parallel with it being a metaphor for Japanese > American imperialism and misguided idolatry) with it's rather...out of text ending of the future generation being built of...synthesizing the "old" traditional strength and the "new" modernization...through genetic inheritance. idk how applicable it ultimately is but I wonder if it's worth digging into how Japan sees it's futurism in Sci-Fi/Sci-Fantasy works. Possibly even deeper if you extrapolate from things like Gundam (Not only is war hell, but old men will see the next generation be truly genetic evolutions...and still ultimately pit them against each other for tragically futile ideals), or a mainstay cyborg-icon Kamen Rider (being forced human-cyberized subject by an evil shadow organization, instead he overcomes his control and fights the same organization THROUGH his cyber alterations, even if said alterations leave him alienated from other humans he's protecting). Probably far too thematically diluted in the Japanese pop consciousness to make as easy connections than within say Trigger's big hit highlights, but still...I wonder if there's just something built within Japanese cultural understanding that believes that technology WON'T save them...but presuming a new generation that assimilates into it WILL surpass it and build a new future. ...long tangent back to the conclusion, which is admittedly as cynically capitalistic as would be but I don't deny it. I do wonder then more so, with the whole mixed media tendrils, the infamous "critiques of capitalism/"the system writ large" cannot ultimately defeat the system, and in fact may only strengthen it (thanks Mark Fisher). Lest they end up like team Za/um whose major work of Disco Elysium had perhaps the most scathing political/systemic critiques out loud of any within our current video game landscape, has just recently been hollowed out of it's most vocal critical activist voices while they successfully plan their big hit's momentum for a sequel. Still tho...I question if being "an original story" truly exempts a shows from partaking in our Corporate Feudal authority, considering Trigger even when breaking off of it's parent Gainax as the believed "indie rebels" still dragged with them notably highly respective industry talent that itself was enough marketing to secure future funded projects (you don't get a big screen release like Promare without SOME sponsorship after all). yeah it's obvious the multi-media mix itself is an capitalistic amalgamation used to attach works by the hip of a shared IP identity, but I wonder if turning down the nose for these types of works for "living safely on a tight leash" belies the Western myth of a pure artistic intent free of outside corporate executive influence or "selling out". Ironically, "anti-corporate/violent rebellion" stories are perhaps THE blockbuster mainstay story in America pop culture, again with how punk, goth and other counter-cultural aesthetics were ultimately sub-sumed into branded marketing for merchandise chains...I have to again wonder if a corollary that it's not just critiques of capitalism will simply get bought out...but that any media attempts to display larger-than-life alternatives to hierarchical systems (corporate, class based merit, genetic/racial, etc...) are just imagining some future generation to "SOLVE THE PROBLEM BY FUCKING SO HARD YOU'LL GET A SUPER CHILD TO FIX IT" deal...which ultimately wound up kicking the futuristic can and problems so far down the line that now the current generation is expected to answer a question pretty much none of the elders even bothered mulling over themselves.

[@re-existentialism8151]

So basically, Revolutionary Kill la Kill vs doomer pilled Edgerunners?? Banger video!

[@StudyofSwords]

So True!

[@ShyftVahtiDahl]

I suppose it was more inference than implication, but when I saw David realize that human connection was more valuable to him than money, and his response was to sacrifice himself to hit the corpos hard, what was communicated to me was two things: the power of revolutionary suicide (the will necessary to make change) and the fact that, no matter how 'special' a hero is, a hero can't save the world; the people must do it together. In other words, one passionate David can't take down an Adam Smasher, but what about five passionate Davids? Ten? A hundred? To me, the failure suggested what it takes to succeed.

[@yungchangsta]

7:06 what song is this?

[@StudyofSwords]

Ah. That's "Machine Head" by Bush

[@yungchangsta]

@@StudyofSwords thanks man

[@genrtul]

You didn't watch all of Cyberpunk with incorrect colors, did you?

[@StudyofSwords]

Yeah, apparently I did, lol.

[@genrtul]

Condolences. Well it's a chance to rewatch it in its full glory :P

[@genrtul]

Admittedly it looks pretty cool in the green and purple, especially the ED.

[@StudyofSwords]

@@genrtul If anyone asks, it was a hue switch to circumvent content filters. 😉

[@bigbone_99]

I don't have anything clever or funny to say Bottom Text

[@StudyofSwords]

Appreciate the comment!

[@pan_jam]

I feel like its more similar to gurren lagann than kil la kill.

[@StudyofSwords]

That's interesting, would you mind elaborating? Certainly the augmentation afforded by Lagann would create something approaching a cyborg, but I guess the difference is both the scale and lack of physical connectedness. And, while Imaishi was director on both, TTGL was still a Gainax production, and I understand it's come to be a kind of Nausicaä and Ghibli situation among fans, but I wanted to focus on Trigger properties.

[@pan_jam]

@@StudyofSwords i'm not really talking about the plot or the setting. I'm talking more in terms of character development, and timeskips. In my opinion gurren lagann was a better version of edgerunners because it was more fleshed out. i was also talking about how there are similarities in how both the anime have crews. In edgerunners it was more comparable to a "dysfunctional family", and gurren lagann also had a crew which had a family like vibe to it. and also some themes are definitely comparable,

[@StudyofSwords]

@@pan_jam Ah, that makes a lot of sense, I can see what you're getting at.

[@nightlydata2181]

@@StudyofSwords now I wanna c u compare TTGL & KLK. I've only seen it done once before but as someone who jus binged all ur KLK content(& that 1 Steven Universe vid on swordplay) & loved it as a fan of the bulk of Trigger/Gainax series like edgerunners.

[@StudyofSwords]

@@nightlydata2181 wasn't something I had planned, but it might make for an interesting comparison. If only to address the KLK is just TTGL again discourse.