Recap

As Satsuki and Honnouji Academy gear up for The Cultural and Sports Grand Festival and the true goal behind it is revealed, Ryuko and the remaining members of Nudist Beach steel themselves for the climactic final battle with the Kiryuin family.

Gee’s Thoughts

Week after week, I say that shit gets real in Kill la Kill. Every week, I’m also not wrong in that regard. Somehow, the show continues to keep upping the ante and introducing crazier and crazier elements and developments, leaving my jaw on the floor. But before we get there, this episode also introduced some other reveals.

With all of Japan’s schools under Satsuki’s control, the Kiryuin family initiate The Cultural and Sports Grand Festival alluded to in the previous episode. Turns out that the entire thing is actually a plot to sacrifice all of the attendees to the Life Fibers, awakening their true power. To achieve this, every student in all of Japan needed to be wearing a uniform with life fibers in them. It’s a somewhat flimsy explanation for why everything is happening the way it is, but it suffices for a show like Kill la Kill, and regardless of the explanation, the stage is set for a big battle between the Kiryuins and whats left of the good guys.

Elsewhere, Ryuko comes to terms with her fate as the chosen one to end this once and for all. With a little help from the usual silly Mako speech, she realizes that though Senketsu is forced to fight his kin, it’s also what he wants, and they’re friends, they’re supposed to be there for each other. Additionally, we find out about the mysterious “foolish woman” Tsumugu alluded to, turning out to be your standard dead little sister backstory. Overall, all of this is just more setup for the final battle, but it helps give our characters a little more meat to their motivations.

With the pieces in place, I wonder how the plot is going to develop. At 25 episodes, we still have 8 episodes left. With that many, I don’t think this is going to be the final battle, despite all the hype and setup that’s gone into it. That said, for all we know, this could be like Gurren Lagann, where the final fight ends up being more like a final arc that stretches on for the entire last third of the show. With Satsuki and her Elite Four, Ragyo, Nui, Ryuko, and the Nudist Beach leaders, there are certainly enough fighters in the ring to make it last that long. I suppose only time will tell.

However, the biggest twist of all this episode would obviously be Satsuki’s betrayal. Turns out Satsuki’s been working behind her mother’s back this entire time, preparing Honnouji Academy as the ultimate stronghold against Ragyo’s tyranny. Honestly, I expected something like this ages ago, but to see it happen so suddenly is certainly surprising. With an entire third of the series left to go, I figured Satsuki wouldn’t do the whole ‘begrudging alliance with the protagonist’ shtick til much later. Still, now that the everybody’s revealed their hand, there’s only one place left for Kill la Kill to go (I think), and I can’t wait for next week to take us there.

Zigg’s Thoughts

I think most of us saw this turn happening from quite a way off, but it’s the presentation which gives it legs and makes it really stand out as a big, dramatic moment. Everything about the way the twist is put on screen is perfect, with timing, cinematography, dialogue and music conspiring to make it a real thriller. There’s obviously a few questions to be answered (such as why Satsuki had to run a con this long and deep) but as a narrative altering point it’s pretty crazy. Also a rare highly effective use of gratuitous violence – all the blood really helps convey how serious the scene is and lends it a cool grimy aesthetic.

Elsewhere though this episode can feel like it’s treading water a little, which is what tends to happen when an entire 22 minutes is used to set up one pivotal scene. Sure, the plan to convert the entire stadium to life fibre food is fiendish but it’s basically just a small scale dress rehearsal for what we’ve already been told is a plan for global armageddon, and so it’s a little difficult to get worked up for a lesser version. I’m also disappointed that after using it as a big cliffhanger to end the previous episode, Ryuko’s moral stance on using Senketsu is basically swept straight under the rug by a cheap (albeit extremely funny) Mako sequence. I think it’s the general refusal to engage with tougher ideas like this that keeps the show one notch down from truly great. I hope we’ll get a little more depth as we move into the final leg of the story, but for now shock and awe is still working remarkably well.