Before This Review is Dry

You know, it's amazing what a tiny little studio can do with all the time in the world, a (relatively) decent budget, and a fiery passion to make something as crazy action packed as possible while still telling a gripping story. It's not going to blow you away by its appropriately paced 24 episodes, its unexpected underlying themes of how a woman learns to not let the fashion she wears rule or embarrass her, or the twists of that the ultimate villain is the contemporary nature of fashion itself...but rather how ALL OF THESE ELEMENTS COMBINE and within an action scene that is always in your face. 

~ I watch it for the plot. No seriously. ~

I have been wanting to talk about this anime for awhile but because I'm not usually one to do "Episode 1" impressions here or anywhere else I wanted to wait for the series to finish. I caught wind of the series through an episode of the Super Best FriendCast and was able to find it on Hulu when the first episode was released: eager to continue watching it on a weekly basis. Late episode releases, constant explosions of reactions on Tumblr, and nearly a year later I'm ready to divulge my thoughts on my first nominee of Anime of the Year 2014: Kill la Kill.

Behold, the side character who will be the best friend of the main character and have
an annoying shtick that wears thin by the 3rd (of 24) episodes.

Kill la Kill (actually meaning more closely "Cut the Cloth" in Japanese than anything to do with murder) is initially a revenge story where Ryuko Matoi is searching for the murderer of her father who gives her a strange looking weapon (the one he was killed with) which is half of a "scissor blade". Basically it's a giant half of a pair of scissors only you can wield it as a sword. Strange, I know, but it later becomes its own icon of sorts as the show progresses. Ryuko ends up attending Honnouji Academy (a high school no less) while following a possible lead that someone who knows who killed her father attends said school. She bumps into the Elite Four: 4 students on the Student Council in the school that are presidents of their own clubs and 'work' under the Student Council President, Satsuki Kiryuin. Let's just say Ryuko's initial gut reaction, to go up and challenge her right away, is met with immense failure. But that's ok because in her moment of frustration where it looks like she has no idea what to do next, she (literally) falls onto a secret weapon her father had created: a talking sailor uniform with a personality of its own and ability to absorb blood, thus granting the wearer ridiculous super powers and enhanced strength. 

Needless to say this talking uniform forces himself upon Ryuko once he tastes some of her blood she was bleeding from the fall to said basement where he was stashed away into, and transforms into a much different uniform.

Ryuko goes back to challenge one of the students that stifled her progress in her investigation before, a Boxing Club President wielding his own Goku Uniform (Goku Uniforms are uniforms made with 'life fibers': fibers that grant the wearer super powers based on the number of stars/fibers woven into it. 1 star = 10% enhancement, 2 star = 20%, and the 3 star = 30%) as she EFFORTLESSLY takes him down. Turns out that this uniform, named Senketsu (Which means 'blood drinker') is an outfit made out of 100% life fibers. It's literally the difference between a Super Saiyan fighting a Super Saiyan 4. Of course, upon everybody in the school seeing Ryuko's return they call into question the one crazy aspect of it: her uniform.

The full transformed state of Senketsu that first appears in Episode 3. Prior to this, thanks to Ryuko's
embarrassment, Senketsu had a much smaller appearance where her shoulders are and Ryuko's
"ears" were much tinier as well.

What was originally a normal black sailor uniform with an 'eyepatch' and eye design near the collar has now become a much different looking thing altogether, sporting a much sexier and revealing look and what appears to be exhaust vents on the back (which act as propulsion jets in combat). Initially, like everybody, Ryuko is embarrassed to even wear it but insists she has to wear it to get the job done and OF COURSE whips everybody's ass while wearing it. That is, except for Satsuki Kiryuin: the President of the Student Council who is as strong, if not stronger than she is at this point in time. But after a few encounters with some other club presidents who want to mess with the new student of the school grounds, Ryuko gets her wish and has a fight with Satsuki who THEN is sporting her own crazy uniform: Junketsu (Named "Purity"). The battle results are...not the best. 

Senketsu tells her through a link that only him and her share that she's unable to use all of his strength and is 'not even being worn' even though he physically is ON her. Ryuko has a realization on what to do to beat Satsuki after a speech is given about how you shouldn't give a shit about what other people say about how you dress: If you're dressing a certain way for a certain purpose then what exactly does it matter that smaller people with small minds say about you? You are pure in your own ambitions, so SCREW what other people say. After this point gets reiterated by our female inclusion of Mako "Jar Jar Binks" Mankoshoku (the side character I spoke briefly of earlier), Ryuko is then able to fully transform into the full form of Senketsu and fights Satsuki head-on in what amounts to be the series' first amazing fight...and it's only the first episode!

Our story continues onto the main point that Satsuki agrees to tell Ryuko about her father's death IF she can rise to a simple challenge: defeating the club presidents of all the clubs in the school. Ryuko accepts, and we the viewer have our story for at least 15 episodes.

~ Metal Gear May Cryonetta la Kill: Rising ~

Getting the main story for the initial premise out of the way, Kill la Kill is packed to the teeth with weapon-based combat, so you should expect a lot of fluid action in the series. From fights that have Ryuko dealing with a gun-toting mohawk man that shoots clothing pins instead of bullets and uses thimbles as explosives to outright transforming Senketsu into a flying Arwing from StarFox, the constant twist and flavor change of Kill la Kill is how no single battle ends up resolving the same way as before; the exponential stakes and their constant rising is the biggest attraction. What Ryuko struggles to do in Episode 9 becomes second nature further down the road as she "Mega Man"s her way through each opponent.

Senketsu isn't just named 'blood sucker' for decoration, nor is he just a crazy (and well written) uniform attached to a hot blooded main protagonist. Wearing him and defeating opponents grants Ryuko a secret ability that no one else in the entire series has: absorbing the power of the uniform of the last opponent she defeats. This allows her to get stronger and stronger from every fight and thus why I made the Mega Man reference earlier. That, on top of the way how she is constantly fighting JUST to stay in top shape, is what makes her a likable protagonist. 

But because she is the main protagonist she has to be written like one and I think it's here where the fanbase divides but let me go into detail why that may be: Ryuko is very fallable and prone to error. She CONSTANTLY gets her ass kicked just so she can see what happened and come back a better person, CONSTANTLY is dealing with multiple sides of the true story behind her father's death, and when you think she's done growing as a person, BAM the story throws in something even harder for her to swallow and thus has to learn to get past whatever made her fail previously. There's even a point where the writing is saying "you might hate this character now but trust us, she's going to come out better in the end" but that's towards the second to last arc and the result is a Ryuko Matoi that feels very mature.

When fights start out causing craters to appear from the MERE IMPACT OF BLADES you think "it can't get any crazier than this", but then you see a later fight where Ryuko is taking death blows and shrugging them off like nothing and go "holy shit okay NOW it can't get any crazier than this".

Inazuma (left), Gamagoori (tallest man), Nonon (tiny girl), and Sanageyman (right) walking like
there's nothing that can bother them as the entire school is put straight up into anarchy thanks to
a free-for-all tournament Satsuki enacts within the first 10 episodes.

But if it's not Ryuko you're focusing on it's the Elite Four...and that's where an awful lot of the focus for the anime also goes to and to be frank I think they half steal the show. You have Gamagoori of the Disciplinary Committee, Nonon of the Orchestra, Sanageyman from the Athletics Club, and Inazuma of the Information and Strategy Committee. Each of these characters has a decent backstory that is dove into a few times but of what you see (and their actions throughout present day events in the series) they REALLY grow on you...perhaps if too much. I say this as a person that feels the story is half "Ryuko and the Elite Four" and half "Ryuko and Satsuki w/Elite Four".

Speaking of Satsuki, as painfully obvious from the first episode she is very...'grand standing'. From the second you see this long haired, thick eyebrowed girl show up until the end Satsuki is very tactful and reacts to most situations as if she's above it. Always thinking ahead. Always strong. Always able to predict what's going to happen, and IF NOT for the writing and twists that occur that hinder her progress on the few times that do...she would literally be this series' Mary Sue, and that is NO exaggeration. She has her good points though: she too, is fallable (but by a far less margin than Ryuko), was able to paint a brighter future for four friends who are now called the Elite Four by helping them all realize their potential growing up, and is a good leader persona for the series. Whereas Ryuko is perfectly fine being the 'soldier' character, Satsuki is the one making the hard decisions as a 'general'...

....but if I'm going to be perfectly honest I don't think that highly of Satsuki. Once the series was done I grew to like her mostly for her contributions to the whole series and for serving as an antagonist for MUCH of the series (until SPOILER SPOILER events happen). As I said before Satsuki is very "grand standing" and I think I need to go into detail why I say that. Literally every time she has something big and important to say she is supplied with spotlights behind her JUST to show how important she is. Her background paints a better story as to why she is always so confident but we don't get a whole lot: she's just somehow ALWAYS been mindful of the 'bigger picture', and goes throughout the entire series with people literally grovelling at her feet. Every time some big turnabout happens at points in the series, it's because "Oh look at this plan Satsuki hatched that will make everything better" and I just start rubbing my temples at it because no one character should ever feel like they are so perfect they are unrelatable.

After a talk to her fellow kindergartner friend Nonon about why she can't play with her
sand castle, little Satsuki here goes on a huge spiel about men before her having made
better sandcastles: the type we call skyscrapers. I'm sorry but WHAT FIVE YEAR OLD
CHILD SPEAKS LIKE THIS? 

The very second Satsuki has a flashback talking to her best friend Nonon about the accomplishments of mankind compared to her having some boys make a sandcastle was the very second I felt there was no human connection I could possibly even have with this character. Now for spoiler reasons I'm going to hold back on the details as of WHY she grew up like this but even still I find it a little hard to swallow.

Then there's Mako Mankoshouku who I spoke of earlier. But I'll be brief on what she is and why I'm not a fan of her: Mako is very hyperactive, very scatterbrained but always positive on everything...even if she's not entirely correct as to gathering what the situation is entailing and her role in it all is. She has a shtick in ALMOST every episode where everybody stops what they're doing and Mako goes on a rant of nonsense about how she'll get Ryuko out of her situation/stick in the mud mood/etc and it's usually followed by rapid flashing of random poses, pop culture references or other things that don't make sense at the moment. Her literal persona is that of some hyperactive girl that has NO IDEA what's going on but "it's okay because she's friendly enough and close to the main character so what she's saying somehow makes sense"...and ok...on a few rare occasions it does. But by the 3rd episode the shtick she gets wears out its welcome and I constantly wish I had fast forwarded past those parts where she has those 'moments' if not for being worried I would skip something important in the story. By the series is done you won't want to hear "Hallellujah" in anything for awhile.

Then if that wasn't enough, there's Mako's family who I think was created merely for the point for Ryuko to not be homeless and have something equal out her developmental process. I spent so much time growing tired of Mako's moments that it was either equalled by something interesting in the story going on, or another dumb moment by the family that had NO EFFECT on anything. The family of Mankoshouku is literally the embodiment of 'big lipped aligator' moments: once they're done nobody talks about it no matter how crazy or dumb it ended up being.

Any time where Ryuko is uncomfortable around Mikisugi is comedy gold...and
just more reason for Rule 34 of these two to exist.

Fear not though, not all of the side characters are insufferable! There's the hilarious Aikurou Mikisugi, a man who poses as Ryuko's teacher by day but is, by night, a man burning with sexual energy who leads his own group of anti-life-fiber armies named NUDIST BEACH. While initially he doesn't appear to have that much of a role he quickly becomes the very reason Ryuko evolves several times in the series into the role model she ends up being by the end of the whole shindig. There's also Nui, whom I like to refer to as 'female Majin Buu taking on a gothic lolita appearance' whose personality is scary because she fights everyone with a sadistic/innocent looking smile while spouting how she's going to kill them.

I had no idea Trigger (the studio behind KLK) was a fan of NiGHTS, did you?

...then there's Ragyo Kiryuin. I won't spoil much on the reason for her as the series villain but let's say she's a few leaves short of a full salad. The bitch is crazy and has a goal for humanity that NOBODY is going to want to be happy with except her most loyal subjects. It's just a shame she has a shitty death scene.

We also can't talk about how good of other characters are without mentioning the actual uniform himself: Senketsu. What starts out as a weird talking uniform who only seems to spout factual information on how much longer Ryuko has until she passes out or what to do to end the fight, ends up becoming Ryuko's best friend outside of Mako. He is the one thing on this twisted, screwed up premise of a series that starts to love Ryuko like a best friend and cares for her: even weeps for her openly even though nobody else can hear him. But you can see in his emotions and actions how third dimensional he is and how the connection between Ryuko and him is more than 'clothing and the wearer' but moreso like 'brother and sister'. 

There are TUMBLR POSTS EVERYWHERE right now just detailing from fans about how much they love Senketsu as a character and wished he was real merely by how he's written. Think about that: a fandom that weeped about a talking sailor fuku. That's something.

Kill la Kill has everything going for it that I personally want in an anime though: it has a decent colorful cast of characters, NO recap episodes, an awesome array of battle music, humor that is self aware of how ridiculous the anime can be, fanservice for all types of people (especially since you start caring less and less about the skin being shown onscreen since you're exposed to it often and in nonsexual pretenses), and fucking awesome action sequences. Its only cons I take away are the fact I didn't care for the supposed 'favorite' Mako Mankoshouku at all nor her many many 'moments', and by the time the series resolved itself the final battle was....underwhelming. It was literally "so much build up for very little" and it borders on being as dumb as how Soul Eater's finale was handled in the anime...except not AS dumb. Ragyo was a villain that started out with a lot of promise and was always able to handle herself when the time was right...but because the series literally insists on cockblocking my enjoyment for the sake of having a twist I kept becoming frustrated the better a scene got. In other words, the more a scene got close to having a "OH SHIT YES AWESOME, GO ALL THE WAY!", the animators pulled the rug underneath me and said "Nope, we gotta cut off this cool moment before it goes any further" just so another episode could be done. I was literally robbed of my enjoyment of seeing ONE particular character die a gruesome death and I'll never let it down how pissed off I was about it..............

...but in the end the whole product ended up being far more exciting than I thought it would be. So much in fact it is one of my new favorite series. I own the soundtrack on my phone, constantly make parallels between this and Metal Gear Rising (which was my Game of the Year 2013) and really, that's more than enough for me to give Kill la Kill my highest award possible I can do so at the moment.