Japanese Shame Culture Analysis

Shame is another issue Kill la Kill takes head on with the use of school uniforms. Japan is often called a shame culture as much of the negative emotions Japanese feel are due to shame. There are a variety of reasons Japan is a shame culture, one being that many people are afraid of making mistakes or being different from the group (Ishizuka). The promotion of Japanese shame culture within Kill la Kill can be seen spear headed by the clothing conglomerate president, Ragyo. Within the series Ragyo describes conceptions of the body and the shame people feel about it. “When we’re naked like this, anxiety overcomes us. It makes us want to hurry up and cover our bodies… That is our instinct.” Ragyo encourages these feelings of shame and anxiety to the rest of the world, and uses her clothes to cover and the shame. Ryuko also in the first three episodes displays a lot of embarrassment and shame as she starts to wear Senketsu to fight the other students at Honnouji Academy. Her shame is representative of the shame she feels of her maturing female body to be open for

“Shame is also the regulator of behavior that contributes to highly refined and universally understood hierarchical systems. It acts as the compass that directs those compelled to use the well-defined map of rules that govern the course of behavior in varying situations.” Shame is thusly used as a method of control to maintain set system and rules in a society. Shame in Kill La Kill is used to maintain conformity in a variety of aspects from individual self-expression through clothes, beliefs of what it means to be a woman and about the matured body as we discussed earlier. Kill La Kill’s characters defy shame that is created and perpetuated by adults within their society. Trigger thus illustrates another point of Japanese society that strong female characters re-address, break down, and deny.