Recap

With Satsuki’s true ambitions revealed, she and Ryuko team up to take on Ragyo and the Life Fibers. Ragyo, who’s body has been fused with Life Fibers, proves to be a difficult opponent.

Gee’s Thoughts

Holy shit.

This episode delivers on all the setup that’s been going on for the past few episodes, and boy does it deliver. With Satsuki and the Elite Four fighting against Ragyo, things get even more hectic. But things don’t go so easily for our heroes. Ragyo possesses the ability to mind control those who wear Life Fibers, turning the tables. In addition, Nui joins the fray, continuing to prove she’s one of the most powerful and infuriatingly annoying characters in the show. With Ragyo, the possessed student body of Honnouji Academy, Nui, and Hooumaru against Satsuki, her Elite Four, Ryuko, and the Nudist Beach leaders, things get pretty insane. Throw in Mako continuing to be the heart of the show, and you have a ridiculously jam packed episode that doesn’t let up for even a second.

A lot of reveals going on this episode as well. Turns out that Satsuki was born for the sole purpose of testing the human limits of life fiber integration, proving to be a poor specimen. To add to the horror of the reveal, we also find out that Satsuki had an infant sister who was directly implanted with life fibers and died as a result. The image of Ragyo dumping the lifeless body of an infant was chilling to say the least. Point is, Satsuki’s got some pretty good reasons to want to bring her mother down.

Additionally, we sort of get to see the new and improved Elite Four in action, though as expected, there’s not much they can do against Nui. Halfway through the fight, Ryuko gets possessed by Ragyo’s abilities. Thankfully, it’s nothing some good ol’ sheer willpower can’t accomplish. In fact, the scene itself barely lasts more than 3-4 minutes, which is a testament to the kind of breakneck pacing Kill la Kill is running at.

However, things start to fall apart in the end, and we’re treated to even more reveals. Firstly, Ragyo’s basically immortal, even beheading is a no-sell. I can see that posing a problem later down the line. More immediately, Satsuki is handily beaten by her mother, with Junketsu actually being Ragyo’s outfit. As if to make things worse, Ryuko is impaled, revealing her Life Fiber imbued heart. Yes, as many of you speculated, Ryuko is in fact Satsuki’s sister and Ragyo’s second daughter. Yeah, things are getting even crazier.

Overall, this episode hit us with a lot of things at once. Not only were we given at least three different fights throughout the episode, but a handful of major “twists” as well. No lie, most of what’s going on plot-wise are all things fans have predicted and speculated on, but like Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill gets by not on the unexpectedness of its plot twists, but on their sheer grandiose nature. Ryuko isn’t just revealed to be Satsuki’s sister, she has her heart ripped out by her own mother. Throw in Trigger’s great eye for composition and directing and you have an episode, that while lacking from a technical standpoint (like most episodes of Kill la Kill), still has some amazing presentation throughout. That’s the kind of show this is, and not once did Kill la Kill ever imply it was anything else. It continues to be the most exciting show I currently watch and the one that more than any other, has me excitedly anticipating next week’s. With Satsuki broken, Mako nowhere to be found, and Ryuko’s own life in peril, I look forward to seeing where our heroes go from here.

Zigg’s Thoughts

I think the thing which impressed me most about this very impressive episode was how effortlessly it transitioned from Kill la Kill‘s normal semi-jokey tone into one of intense seriousness, without ever feeling jarring or forced, Some of that’s just due to a natural reduction in the level of goofiness on display (there’s notably very little Mako in this episode for example) and some of it is from the more powerful, emotional material that’s put on screen.

Although Satsuki and Ragyo’s conversation at the start of this episode is arguably an exposition dump, it’s an important and well placed one. Most critically, it sold me on Ragyo as a big, eeeevil villain. Up until this point I’d always found her a little bit difficult to take seriously as a baddie, mostly due to her ridiculously fabulous presentation and the fact that while her ultimate objective is clearly apocalyptic, she hasn’t actually been too villainous in her moment-to-moment activities. The flashback to cruel, human-experimenting-baby-killing Ragyo made her seem like a real bitch and did the job really well, convincing me that this was a totally blackhearted woman who needed to be taken down. I also like that Satsuki’s father is sketched out a little, and that he’s clearly no angel himself, being a man who was in it for the science but just found it ran out of his control.

Mind controlled Ryuko on the other hand is a great idea that sort of fizzles out way too fast. Turning your old hero on your new hero is a ballsy great move and I was actually prepared for a whole episode or two of Kill la Kill Starring Satsuki Kiryuin. As it is, Ryuko overcomes the UNSTOPPABLE MIND CONTROL a bit too fast for it to be really satisfying. The big, episode ending plot twist is very cool though, nicely reshaping the terms of the entire conflict and throwing the Ryuko/Satsuki/Ragyo relationship into an entirely new sphere. It’s not the most unpredictable plot twist in the world, but it’s very well presented and I was fooled up until about thirty seconds before the actual revelation happens, so good on the scriptwriters for keeping your attention diverted until the big moment.

Speaking of presentation, this is an episode on which Trigger’s execution really shone, making an already dramatic segment way more radical and exciting than it already was. There’s some outstanding visual flairs, superb music, excellent voice acting from all concerned and very cool fight choreography. Though budgetary limitations still show (most notably when Satsuki is ‘running’ at Ragyo) the dynamism and confidence of the art style is more than enough to overcome such hiccups. As I did last week, I’ll credit the show for sparing but effective use of extreme violence, which makes the horrifying attacks like the ending way more striking than they’d otherwise be. With the bad guys seemingly on top, I’m eagerly awaiting the moment our heroes will strike back.