So I finally finished the comedy series Kill Me, Baby! , adapted from a 4 panel "gag" manga. I remember actively disliking this show when it first came out but it finally dawned on me you just have to be in the right headspace to enjoy this kind of dumb humor. It is what it is and it mostly makes you chuckle at Yasuna's idiocy and Sonya's deadly seriousness in a school setting that definitely doesn't call for such over the top hyper-vigilance.
They make for a perfect comedy duo....Yasuna (left) the goofball, Sonya (blond twintail, right) the "straight man". Yasuna is voiced by Hillary Haag in English, whose normal speaking voice is naturally very child-like. She's earnest and friendly and likes to joke around but she's more than a little dumb. Sonya is a world-weary Child Assassin who totes knives & guns and is an expert in several martial arts. Another part of the humor in the English dub is that Sonya is voiced by Luci Christian using her normal adult speaking voice in a very dry, sarcastic tone throughout the whole show. Hearing this very adult sounding voice coming out of a child's body is inherently funny. In the fiction of the story these are supposed to be "High School Girls" but as a practical matter the character designs make them look like Elementary School kids...they're the ultimate "moe blob" stereotypes.
They are sometimes joined by Agiri Goshiki (ごしき あぎり, Goshiki Agiri), voiced by Rozie Curtis in English who is reputed to be a Ninja Girl but mostly just seems to be a crafty con-artist always trying to make a fast buck.
Agiri is friendly but also a little "spacey" and kind of a easy-going airhead. Like Kenny from South Park, she also seems to die a lot and come back using "secret clone technique", etc. She exists to poke fun at Ninja anime cliches, basically. She seems to be a little older and wiser than Yasuna & Sonya, though they usually see right through her attempted scams.
In the backgrounds we sometimes catch glimpses of the redheaded and very spirited "Unused Character", voiced by Brittney Karbowski...she keeps trying to enter the story but gets foiled by rotten luck and the main characters moving on to the next scene before she can make her grand entrance...
She too is obvious meta-commentary on silly anime tropes, seemingly cool characters with wasted potential, etc. They literally don't even give her a name. It's pretty funny as a concept but the joke is very subtle.
The show is completely episodic and could potentially be watched in any order. There's no over-arcing plot progression, it's just the daily life of a Child Assassin and her dimwitted School frenemy and their daily shenanigans.
The final episode is a nice series capper and actually emotionally sweet. In an emotional outburst Yasuna pleads with Sonya to stop killing people for money and expresses her anguish at the thought of losing Sonya and never being able to see her again. Sonya is sufficiently moved to change her schedule for the day and drops down a rope to pull Yasuna out of the pit she fell into. It's one of the few glimpses we get that Sonya does actually care about Yasuna, however much Yasuna gets on her nerves sometimes (read: nearly always).
This is the kind of series you put on after a hard day at work to chuckle at cute girls doing stupid things and watching an overly serious, stressed out character (Sonya) lose her shit over and over and exact revenge on hapless Yasuna. Sonya's deadpan seriousness is completely ridiculous in the laid back School setting and is part of the humor. The opening sequence shows the girls fighting UFOs and Aliens but this never actually happens in the show.
The OP is very grating on the ears and takes some getting used to...makes my Ears want to bleed is how it feels. The ED is much more listenable with a nice steady beat and comedic images of Yasuna & Sonya doing ridiculous workout moves in their school gym clothes.
