Killing Bites (Season One)
Yuuya’s life had been pretty ordinary until one fateful night and a bad decision. Before he knew it he found himself in the violent world of Therianthrope death-matches run by the four Zaibatsu that controls Japan.
Killing Bites (Season One)
What did you watch?
Here’s yet another series that I covered for EcchiHunter.com. It’s probably not your standard classic ecchi series, but it probably did enough to warrant the tag. Anyhow, I had heard almost nothing about this series other than an image on Twitter from the manga. The image sat at the back of my mind for a while before surfacing and demanding some attention. So, here we are. All right, let’s get into the action, and as always, there will be spoilers.
What happened?
Yuuya had been invited by his friends to drive around picking up girls, however, he hadn’t fully understood what they meant by that. Before he could do anything, his “friends” had grabbed a girl off the streets and were busy ravaging her. Yuuya panicked and slammed on the brakes, however, when he looked back the girl told him to keep driving and that it would be best if he didn’t look back there. She directed him to a waste dump outside of town and got on her phone. That was when Yuuya realised that he was surrounded by decaying bodies and his “friends” were dead.
He panicked once more and ran for his life. After a moment of climbing over trash, he came to a clearing and a man. At last, some help. However, the man turned into a half-lion and tried to kill him only for the girl to save him at the last second. It turned out that she was to fight the lion-man in a death match. She had no collateral to enter the contest, so she put Yuuya up as her stake. If she lost, he could kill him and sell his organs. Now, all Yuuya could do was sit back and hope that the girl could beat the lion-man!
What did you think?
This series has some really dark moments, but it was also a blast. The different Therianthropes make for a lot of interesting abilities and fighting styles. On top of that, the girl, Hitomi was part honey-badger and that just made her awesome. I don’t think the series is going to win any awards or even come back for a second season, but I enjoyed it, and there were some fascinating elements to it which I will get into shortly. If you like deathmatch stories and/or half-human beasts then this will be an easy win for you. Just remember, it can get quite dark.
What was your favourite moment?
It would be easy to pick one of the many fights as my favourite moment, and several of them could have been. However, when the series switched to the Destroyal tournament which was a four-way team battle things got really interesting. As Hitomi’s backer, Yuuya got a seat at the table and was in control of Hitomi’s movements. The battleground was an island and it had been divided into grids. The backers would roll a die and move their fighters around, either running them away from danger or into a fight.
The strategy side of it made for a very interesting dynamic. It also pushed Yuuya to make decisions for himself for the first time in his life. Decisions that could result in the death of another person. On top of all of this, Yuuya sat next to Youko Mitsukado, the granddaughter of the reigning Zaibatsu. She hoped to win and prove her worth, but she was also a little unhinged and her interactions with Yuuya and the other backers were a constant source of entertainment.
What was your least favourite moment?
So, the most frustrating thing about this series is that this season is more like a prologue to a much larger story. One that plays out in the manga and seems unlikely to get more anime seasons. The ending was interesting and really shook things up, but it feels like it was all just to get you to buy the manga. I understand the idea that this is just a marketing tool for the manga, but people that watch anime and read manga aren’t always the same people.
I had a lot of fun with this series and would happily watch more. One day, I may get to the manga, but it’s not something I’m going to run out and do. Anime is a more efficient use of my time and it’s more available. Basically, I’d like the industry to stop treating anime as a means to sell more books. Make more anime to sell more anime!
Who was your favourite character?
I really want to say Youko Mitsukado for the sheer entertainment value and the number of insane facial expressions she got through, however, it has to be Hitomi. She was awesome. Her confidence and belief in her abilities were just incredible and made for a lot of fun. She had so many incredible fights and moments that you couldn’t help but cheer her on. Her final fight with Kido was absolutely bonkers but in a great way. Then, there was the ending… I’m not saying anymore.
Who was your least favourite character?
There were a whole bunch of unsavoury characters in this series, but I’m going to go with Leo – the half-lion Therianthrope. His actions at the end towards Youko Mitsukado pretty much spoiled him as a character. She may have been crazy and a pretty nasty person when it all boiled down, but I don’t think she deserved that. I can only hope that she gets some sort of redemption arc in the rest of the story and makes Leo pay.
Would you like some more?
This probably seems kind of obvious at this point, but I would love some more. It’s an easy series to sit back and enjoy. You know exactly what you’re going to get and it’s often hard to find the darker series that fully embrace that side of things. The world was interesting, especially the world that was created at the end of season one, which is another reason why it felt like this was all set up for something bigger.
What have you learnt?
I’m a big fan of the Lester Dent approach to storytelling. Basically, you should always ask yourself how can this get worse for the protagonist. I feel like Yuuya has lived that with this series from the first moment to the end of the final episode. On top of that, I thought the way they increased the intensity of the deathmatch by having the backers move them around the island like a board game was inspired. That instantly made things harder for Yuuya and several times Youko reminded him of what he was doing. It may appear harsh, but if you make things easy for the protagonist, you end up with a boring story.
Other posts in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – The One With Sharper Fangs Will Win
- Episode 2 – Shit, I Might Fall For You
- Episode 3 – I Really Have No Redeeming Quality
- Episode 4 – That’s Why I Told You To Stop, You Scum!
- Episode 5 – I’m Free to Have Sex Anyway I Want
- Episode 6 – Who Cares?
- Episode 7 – Because… That’s What I Feel Like
- Episode 8 – Shit… Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit!!
- Episode 9 – I Will Never Change My Mind About That!
- Episode 10 – Let’s Go Together
- Episode 11 – Don’t Bully Mom
- Episode 12 – Thanks for Everything
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I am just going to say, I heavily agree with you. 🙂
Thanks. All of it or anything in particular?
Mostly all, but especially how it feels like a prologue and that’s a bit annoying. And Leo needs a bit of severe comeuppance.
I very much agree with you agreeing with me. Thanks again. 😁