Honey Badger Doesn’t Give A Shit – Killing Bites First Impressions (NSFW)

I shit you not, that cover photo is the only SFW header image I could find for this show. Ok so as the rest of BAYOG is keen to point out, certain things equate to a “Nick Show.” Among these are fight scenes, scantly clad women, almost comical amounts of violence, and a plot of questionable quality. I want to preface that while I do enjoy this show and am a Space Wolves player, I am not a furry. That also said, this show is weird as all hell. Honestly I feel like this idea came from the concept of taking a random genre (in this case, battle anime) and combining it with the first viral YouTube video they found. The end result was likely Killing Bites, especially if the video was this:

The show starts out cranked to 11 with a van rolling up on some cute high school girl who is subsequently grabbed into the van for “less than consensual coitus.” The get away driver, Yuya Nomoto, begins complaining that this is not what he signed up for, and kinda politely asks his casual acquaintance to re-evaluate his definition of “picking-up girls.” In a brief moment where he questions his actions, he stomps on the brake and turns to demand they stop only to be faced with Hitomi Uzaki, the aforementioned high school girl. She directly informs him to drive on to a set location and strongly suggests he not look behind the curtain in the panel van. Upon reaching this location he bolts out into a strange junkyard, strange in that it is full of mutilated corpses. He understandably loses his shit and runs away finding at the top of a mound of wrecked cars, a man and a clearing. Exactly 1 exposition later, we have Yuya making a casual remark about how the man was stupid for suggesting secret fights between human-animal hybrids called Therianthropes. Leo, the undefeated Therianthrope in front of him takes offense to this. After being marked as a bet with his organs on the line to cover the 1,000,000 Yen gamble of 100 to 1 odds, Yuya stands by and watches the two combatants transform and begin to fight. Leo then roars and indicates in some hilariously cliche discussion that all animals that hear his roar are filled with primal fear and are left immobile. Unfortunately for him, Hitomi is a honey badger, and honey badger doesn’t give a shit.

After proceeding to curb stomp Leo, Hitomi wins her first Killing Bites and Yuya wins 100 million yen. Before cutting a loose end in the form of Yuya, he surprisingly doesn’t bitch out but proceeds to care for and treat Hitomi’s wounds, going so far as to take her to his home for the night. We then have Hitomi and Yuya meet Hitomi’s father/guardian/handler from the government, Reiichi Shido at a family style restaurant where he receives his earnings and is informed what this whole ordeal is about. In lieu of the Illuminati, Japan is controlled by four zaibatsus or massive corporations (think Shadowrun) and Killing Bites are their newest method of waging proxy war. Afterwards, Hitomi is then assigned as Yuya’s bodyguard and, afraid of Hitomi, he heads out at night to be accosted by a busty woman in a trench coat (and nothing else) and while he is “distracted,” she strikes using what I can only assume are porcupine spikes. Hitomi appears and we end the first episode.

Now lets get onto the show from a visual and audio standpoint. Let me first point out the  voice of Hitomi is Sora Amamiya a little known VA that did the Princess from Aldnoah Zero, Akame from Akame ga Kill, Touka from Tokyo Ghoul, and my personal favorite: AQUA FROM KONOSUBA! This clearly endears me towards Hitomi as Sora Amamiya is just amazingly talented as a VA and overall fantastic. Even Wataru Hatano is pretty good as Yuya, but barring some cheesy battle lines (mind you it could just be bad translations) the script and voices are well done and properly delivered. Musically and fight sounds wise, it’s no Berserk clang sounds, but the sounds are visceral and I could almost believe that’s the sound of a sharp knife cutting through soft meat. The battle music did it’s job and had you pumped up and ready to go for this fight. Visually well…Let’s be honest, ecchi tends to be really well done because that’s its niche. My take on this is that I’ll be watching it and looking forward to it hopefully being good but recognizing it could turn out to be a battle equivalent of Hajimete no Gal. Are you watching this show as well? Or did the insane trailer make you shy away? Let me know in a comment and subscribe and like so that I can justify all this ecchi click-bait imaging.