Kill la Kill 13 – And Now, Back to the Show

Nui must have some killer balance if she’s able to stay steady on that thin nameplate. Wait, didn’t I already make that joke? God damn it.

Back from a brief hiatus with shit very decidedly going down. Hopefully the two-week break gives later episodes a bit more punch, though, because, jeez, even I can’t defend the animation dodging at this point. The art direction is so good that it’s not like I’m going “ew ew ew UGH OH MY GOD” when I watch Kill la Kill, but PowerPoint presentation-level fight scenes are not so much fun. At least it’s not such a huge detriment in this episode since the whole point is Nui beating the crap out of Ryuuko without breaking a sweat. Ryuuko getting pounded into the ground is not such a surprise, but the aftermath? Now, that’s something!

One thing I’ve really enjoyed Kill la Kill is its tendency to shake things up when the show seems to be getting boring. Ripping Senketsu to shreds and distributing them to various people around the campus? Consider things quite shaken! The really obvious, boring thing to do would be to make Ryuuko fight each of these thugs in turn to reform Senketsu, so I hope the show doesn’t go down that route. It doesn’t seem as if the series would have the time to do that what with Satsuki packing off the whole school and sending them to war. Perhaps it will be worth it if Ryuuko has to sneak around school bases Metal Gear Solid-style. This also makes me wonder if at some point Nui will get curious and try on Senketsu for herself. What a hoot that would be!

I would probably be a pretty crappy anime writer. Literally every episode would be “WHAT IF THIS THING HAPPENED THIS WEEK” with no connection to previous weeks. I’d be the Vince Russo of anime writers.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist using this screenshot due to the shadow. Also, the weird angle at which Ryuuko is standing. It looks like she’s going to fall over at any second!

Enough of Ryuuko for now. This episode also gives a better idea of the dynamic between Satsuki and her mother, Ragyo. Earlier episodes were sort of vague about whether Satsuki was acting of her own volition and Ragyo let her conduct herself as such because it amused her, but this episode shows that Satsuki is acting more or less at Ragyo’s discretion. She’s going ahead with her own plans, sure, but there’s the clear threat that should Satsuki act against the interests of their organization, REVOCS/COVERS, that support will disappear in a hurry. Satsuki is deadly serious about everything she’s doing, but Ragyo seems to regard Satsuki with a “Hey, kids’ll be kids!” attitude. She’s even tacitly allowing Nui to keep annoying Satsuki. Ryuuko was pretty easy to push to the point where her clothing exploded. Satsuki, though? That’s something to be curious about. They made the clothing, but do they truly know everything about it? Why not push the clothes to their limits and see what happens?

I’m very sad that my clothing isn’t important enough to be Original Sin, though. Actually, I’m pretty sure my clothes make me dumber for wearing them.

It’s pretty clear who has the most important shine going on right now.

Next episode: War never changes. Or maybe it does. Who knows how prepared these other schools are from an all-out assault led by someone backed by an organization that controls a rather large portion of the world? Doesn’t seem very fair to me. And poor Mako will be down in the trenches, in the shit, huddling in the foxhole. You can make it, Mako! You will survive! Also please make sure to hang onto your precious, expensive blood.