Kill la Kill – 24 (Fin)

Last week we said we were sad that Kill la Kill was ending, but that didn’t mean we thought it shouldn’t end. Far from experiencing pangs of withdrawal in the aftermath, we feel perfectly satisfied and a little relieved; almost as if we’ve been through a mutual breakup. A weight is gone, but there are no regrets. The show came to its natural conclusion…which is to say it went completely nuts; one last hurrah before purging itself form our systems.

Victory ultimately goes to Ryuko, Satsuki, and all mankind, but it isn’t easily achieved. Sanageyama’s initial raid on Honnouji results in a scene suffused with fairly overt reproductive symbolism: he’s leading a charge of thousands of his underlings—lets call it a school of sperm—but Ragyo’s transmitter is protected by what amounts to a giant condom, which is ultimately busted open by…err…Gamagoori’s face cannon thing.

That would only be the…er…tip of the complication-berg, as Ragyo throws anything and everything at Ryuko & Co., including ordering Nui to cast her body into the revived original life fiber, creating an even more ultimate garment that Ragyo dons, allowing her to rocket into orbit to transmit the message for all the world’s Covers to start feeding. Ryuko in turn borrows the fibers from everyone elses’ uniforms to create her own ultimate rocket suit, thus leaving the entire cast buck naked.

The orbital battle between Ryuko and Ragyo becomes just as much one of words than of blows exchanged (Ryuko is slashed to pieces multiple times, but quickly regenerates). In effect, Ryuko yells a lot about how she and Senketsu are neither clothing nor human, and yet both clothing and human, Ragyo calls out their lofty, highly abstract BS, but it doesn’t matter, because they use that BS to absorb her power and render her Covers around the globe inert.

Rather than return to earth and reconcile, she tears out her own heart. With his role as a check against Ragyo’s plans completed, Senketsu burns up in the atmosphere, shielding Ryuko during re-entry. Ryuko is distraught, but once she comes down to earth, and her landing cushioned by the bosom of her sister (and virtually everyone else, all of them still naked), she immediately feels a lot better. As Senketsu eloquently puts it in his parting words, a sailor fuku such as himself is meant to be grown out of, not worn forever like a second skin.

Now the threat has passed (at least until the next Life Fiber arrives on Earth), and she is free to wear what she wants, live life with her real and adoptive sisters (Satsuki and Mako, respectively). Kill la Kill took the guilty pleasure to dizzying new heights, ones we won’t likely return to for quite a while. But like the placid epilogue we see during the credits, coming back down to earth and to a state of relative normalcy isn’t so bad either.

Rating: 9 (Superior)
Average Rating: 9.417 (episodes 13-24), 8.958 (total)
MyAnimeList Score: 8.51

Kill la Kill – 23

It certainly looked like Kill la Kill pulled out all the stops for its penultimate episode, but there’s a very good chance it’s saving a crapload of stops for the finale. And while we hate sounding like a broken record, this outing continued to maintain the quality andmomentum of the previous three, so despite actively seeking notable demerits throughout our watch, we found no reason to lower our rating…so we won’t.

Lord knows there’s a lot to get through, but Kill la Kill dives into it all with gusto, snatching up some previously thrown balls while throwing up new ones and shooting (or bisecting) others. The good guys’ neat two-pronged plan goes pear-shaped fast as Ragyo, not a villain to be trifled with, figures out the plan and intercepts the Naked Sol with her gourd-shaped original life fiber. But the mission hasn’t changed for her daughters: take it, her, or both out.

That proves difficult, as Ragyo is armed with life fiber blades and her wounds heal immediately. The girls slash at her mercilessly to no avail. There’s even another gut-wrenching moment like the moment we thought Ryuko killed Mako, when Ryuko’s triumphant theme abruptly stops and she’s cut the fuck in half. Thankfully (and unbeknownst to Ragyo), some of Satsuki’s long-game strategery rubbed off on Ryuko, as they use their mothers’ low opinion of them against her. Their strategy pays off, and the original life fiber is incapacitated.

While all this is happening, the supporting cast is doing their part. Back in her Goku uniform (and it feels so good!) Mako quickly frees humans from their Covers by the barrel-full as she gets recharged with her mom’s croquettes. When a boss-type Cover appears, the Elite Four take over sporting their ridiculous new regalia, an interesting merging of the Nudist Beach and Goku styles.

While the sisters, who are really getting along now and don’t snipe at each other at all this week, are doing the heavy lifting, it’s made clear from the get-go that they’d be in trouble without the help, support, and love of their friends. From Satsuki’s Elite Four showing up to shield her from Ragyo, to Mako, along with all of the club captains Ryuko had defeated, providing the human power needed to launch the Naked Sol (transformed into a giant naked dagger) into the heart of the Original Life Fiber, providing her the boost needed to pierce it.

The episode also makes clear that while the good guys made lemonade out of the ruins of their original plan, they’ve only won a battle, with the war still on the horizon. While they were winning their battle, Nui (who has gone quite insane) was completing Shinra-Koketsu, an uber-kamui for Ragyo (with Hououmaru as her sacrificial human power source). The episode unsettlingly interrupts its own cutesy end credits to announce this.

While one could dismiss Ragyo and Nui as lame one-dimensional evildoers, to do so would overlook the fact that Nui has lived a cursed life, while Ragyo is essentially a slave to the Life Fibers, carrying out their will, which is more natural biological process than evil plot. We can’t wait to see how Ryuko, Satsuki, and everyone else takes back their school—and their world—from that process. But we’re also sad that this journey is coming to an end.

Rating: 10