Recap: Ryuko and Satsuki clash for real after the latter has donned her own Kamui uniform.

Gee’s Thoughts: This episode was hands down my favorite. It had the perfect mix of comedy and ridiculous action that I’ve loved from this show so much. The biggest issue is the glaringly bad CG, especially during the scene where Satsuki walks up the building. It’s kind of a sad reminder of Trigger’s limited budget, but goddamn these guys are so enthusiastic about their show that I totally forgive them. Here’s hoping KLK ends up being a runaway breakout success and rakes in a billion dollars and Imaishi buys himself a gold drawing table or something.

Other than that, KLK is doing an excellent job of keeping up the energy, and as usual, when I heard the familiar words of “DON’T LOSE YOUR WAY,” I got pumped up. The lesson of overcoming shame and being proud of yourself is a standard one, but Trigger’s execution of it was a great combination of weird and silly. I do have my concerns that they’ll eventually start playing the fanservice straight, but I’ll keep watching regardless.

The most interesting thing to keep in mind is that this episode is only the 3rd in the series, out of a total of 24. And yet, we’ve already see Ryuko fight Satsuki to a standstill. With the other club members showing up, it’s obvious KLK is going to become some kind of monster-of-the-week affair, but I have a feeling that will only last for a little while before Trigger decides to drop another bomb on us. Either way, I remain excited.

Lifesong’s Thoughts:The 3D stuff was a bit jaring. At first it was looking okay, but then… nope. It really is a shame that this anime feels so cheap at times. Obvious complaints aside, I like the way they brought the bondage theme full circle, though I won’t be surprised if some people were completely put off by it.

So if overcoming the shame of bondage is the first power up what is the second? I assume that Satsuki also wants to know and that is why she is letting Ryuuko fight all her generals. I hope this show will reach for the stars, so far it seems to be on track.

Also, in before someone relates this episode with women needing to be strippers to feel truly empowered. It’s going to happen… I can just feel it.

Zigg’s Thoughts: Yeah, that guy is going to be me. I’m sorry, I’ve been having a lot of fun with Kill La Kill‘s hilariously gratuitous nudity up to this point but this episode tipped the scales for me. I’m not quite sure what in particular caused it, but I definitely felt a lot of the stuff here crossed the line from tacky joke to genuinely slightly creepy ogle-fest, and that made my experience watching the show profoundly uncomfortable. The ‘get naked to get powerful’ moral actually sort of works as an entertaining meta-joke but…come on guys, really? There are far better ways to do the ‘don’t be ashamed of yourself’ moral than your characters telling us how awesome it is to have their tits out.

We’ve also got some of the ropiest animation yet seen in the show. The shot of Satsuki walking up the wall is absolutely unforgivable, and would probably have been better played for laughs than crappily integrated as it is, while CGI ugliness rears its head in other places too. There’s also a small but nagging number of moments where I feel I noticed the lack of movement, far more so than other episodes. Trigger continue to be fantastic at using art and clever cinematography to paper over those cracks, but given the action packed nature of the episode, they’re more apparent here than they were before.

Which is a shame, because in some other regards this might be the best episode yet, and certainly maintains the manic pace that we’ve already come to expect from the show. There’s some decent backstory laid out, but in a bombastic enough manner that it doesn’t get boring, I’ve got to give credit to Ryoka Yuzuki’s tremendous vocal work as Satsuki as well – this is her first real opportunity to get some heavy character work done and she delivers admirably. The fight choreography is magnificent and the artistic touches as inspired as ever – Mako’s staccato interruption is incredibly funny and proves just how much life you can bring to something even with a very limited amount of animation to work with.

In short, I’m still having a lot of fun with Kill La Kill but I do feel my enjoyment was diminished by some of the things which happened here. After the mini climax of this episode perhaps the show can retreat a little and plant its feet more firmly. Sometimes less is more, and I don’t think it would hurt for that to be the mantra for an episode or two while we get a slightly better grip on where we are.