Kill la Kill - Kiryuin Conglomerate / Characters

A massive multinational conglomerate owned by the Kiryuin family, with access to immense resources and power. Of the corporations that are part of the conglomerate, the REVOCS Corporation, which controls 90% of the world's apparel market at the start of the show, seems to be the most important, with Ragyo making her office at the REVOCS tower.

Warning: Walking Spoilers left and right!

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General

Badass Family: Every single Kiryuin has done impressive feats one way or another:
- The mother, Ragyo, is a genius scientist and head of the largest corporation in the world. She's also imbued with Life Fiber DNA, and is the physically strongest character in the series by far.
- The father, Soichiro, was also a genius scientist, and helped Ragyo in her experiments to create the perfect human-Life Fiber Hybrid, and he had the balls to start a revolution devoted solely to thwarting her plans. He also managed to hide from his wife for 17 years and created the Scissor Blades and Senketsu, both of which were instrumental in defeating Ragyo.
- The older biological daughter, Satsuki, is the Absurdly Powerful Student Council President of Honnouji Academy, with an Adaptive Armor and unparalled fighting skills. Her goal is to conquer Japan, as well as to kill her mother and avenge the deaths of her father and little sister.
- The younger biological daughter, Ryuko, is a Human-Life Fiber Hybrid who grew up to be a feared juvenile delinquent. Years later, she goes on a one-man stand against her older sister to avenger her father's death, not knowing that they're fighting for the same people, or that they're related. Their also the one who saves the Earth from Ragyo and the Life Fibers.
- The technical third sister, Nui, is a full-on Artificial Humanoid Abomination and one of the most powerful villains in the series, only behind Ragyo. Said character is responsible for the death of Ryuko and Satsuki's father, and said character remains undefeated for a good chunk of the show.
- Technically, Senketsu is a member of the family and the technical only son, being one of Soichiro's creations, as mentioned above.
Big, Screwed-Up Family: Every single member of the Kiryuin family has tried to kill at least one other member of the family. The mother, Ragyo, is an abusive, incestuous molester with a goal to have humanity enslaved and eradicated for the Life Fibers. The father, Soichiro, started a nudism-based terrorist organization to fight his wife, for which she killed him. The first daughter, Satsuki, is a totalitarian dictator Student Council President who plans to literally backstab her mother in revenge for her father and younger sister. The second daughter, Ryuko, was dropped down a garbage chute as an infant, lived, was found by her runaway father who raised her under a secret identity, and grew up to be a Japanese Delinquent. The third daughter, Nui Harime, is a Cute And Psycho Supporter created by the mother using the Primordial Life Fiber as an artificial womb. The only son, Senketsu, is the second human Life Fiber hybrid made by the father specifically for Ryuko to use. The cast never quite concludes that Senketsu is one of the Kiryuin family, though, because unlike Ryuko and Nui, his form is that of Living Clothes.
Corporate Conspiracy: They have near-monopoly on the clothes market not just in Japan but the entire world, and are secretly selling clothing containing Life Fibers to their customers.
Four-Temperament Ensemble: Fulfills this after Ragyo Mind Rapes Ryuko, adding a fourth member to complete the ensemble. Indeed, too much black bile (melancholy) caused the core three to go into depression:
- Ragyo is Melancholic. She's the Big Bad of the series and an all-around pompous character whenever she gets her moments. She showcases the negatives more than the positive features, had abnormally high wants when she was testing her own daughters, but when they do fulfill them, she is filled with glee.
- Nui is Choleric. Co-Dragons with Hououmaru to Ragyo, and the one who gets the most work done initially while Ragyo sits around and controls REVOCS. Showcases the downsides by being a outwardly nice, extremely crazy inside, and even more insane after normal Ryuko cuts off her arms.
- Hououmaru is Phlegmatic. The person who's able to serve at a moment's notice, and without question. However, she showcases the downsides by being an outwardly cold person. She exemplifies this part of her personality in the OVA by being a Defrosting Ice Queen when she heard of Ragyo's death, and was able to be swayed by Satsuki.
- Mind Controlled Ryuko is Sanguine. Instead of unable to express her emotions, she says them bluntly, taking them (sometimes literally) to the person she speaks to. Ryuko even kisses Nui, showcasing their love for each other. She balances out the other's negative emotions by being compassionate with them and follows after Ragyo by being WAY over-the-top in battles, but she showcases the negatives by being mind-controlled into finally finding her wants of being with an actual family and comes off as harsh to others.
Fiction 500: At the start of the series, the conglomerate basically owns 90% of the world's apparel market with their flagship company REVOCS Corporation. Their wealth is so vast that Satsuki can basically turn a beggar into a millionaire with a snap of her fingers, as long as she feels they earned it.
The Heavy: After Satsuki officially betrays them, Ragyo, along with her chief subordinates Nui and Hououmaru, step out of the background and the groups becomes the most pressing antagonistic force to the heroes, directly combating them to spread the Life Fibers across the world.
MegaCorp: They have near-monopoly on the clothes market not just in Japan but the entire world. They must have branch offices and daughter companies in pretty much every country in the world.
N.G.O. Superpower: Between their financial power stemming from near-complete control of clothes market and access to Life Fiber clothing, they are probably one of the most powerful organizations on the planet. It's quite possible that they are more powerful than most governments. Honnouji, for example, is a Privately Owned Society.
The Quisling: For unknown reasons, Ragyo and her minions are aiding the COVERS' invasion of Earth.
Sdrawkcab Name: The REVOC part of the name is "cover" spelled backwards. Ragyo openly preaches to her employees that clothing is the evidence of man's original sin by consuming the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thus learning shame of nakedness and free will. By having near-unprecedented control of the manufacture of clothing, REVOCS practically holds hostage a basic need that prevents that shame and protection from the elements.

Ragyo Kiryuin

Voiced by: Romi Park (Japanese), Laura Post (English)^{Foreign VAs}

"La vie est drôle... Life is indeed amusing."

Satsuki's mother, CEO of REVOCS, leader of the Kiryuin Conglomerate, and the head of Honnouji Academy's board of directors.

Her role is fairly minor in the first half of the series until her formal introduction in episode 12, from then more about her is revealed. She plans on enslaving the human race to Life Fibers and has been using REVOCS for this very reason.

'80s Hair: Shown with this◊ during flashbacks.
Abusive Parents: She is quite possibly one of the worst parents in anime and manga. She's quite emotionally abusive, but that's not the most horrible part about her—she has No Sense of Personal Space when it comes to her daughter, Satsuki. As in, she molests her repeatedly, probably since she was 5 years old, up to and including groping her and "purifying" her while she was naked and in a bath, and removing her Thong of Shielding (It Makes Sense in Context) by touching her crotch. She also has no qualms about using physical abuse as well, delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Satsuki that was probably the first bit of Family-Unfriendly Violence in the series. She saw her newborn daughter, Ryuko Matoi, as little more than a guinea pig, and simply dropped her down the garbage chute when the experiments seemingly failed. The girl actually survived, only to literally have her heart ripped out when they met for the first time. After that, she throws the battered Satsuki into a cage in a torture chamber and repeatedly spanks her in the worst way possible so that Satsuki can be a better Living Battery for her planned superweapon. After that, she brainwashes her other daughter with false memories, sews the superpowered uniform Satsuki wore onto her (It Makes Sense in Context) and has a threesome with her to round it off, before sending her to fight and kill Satsuki and her companions. When Ragyo realizes she's subconsciously hesitating to kill Ryuko due to still having some infinitesimal bit of humanity left within her, she immediately resolves to rid herself of it and goes for the kill.
Action Fashionista: She is the powerful CEO of a clothing conglomerate as well as a formidable fighter, and unlike Nui, she is seen wearing multiple different outfits, including the formidable Shinra-Kouketsu for the final confrontation.
Action Mom: She is a mother (if not a very good one) and she can and will kick some serious ass, probably best shown when she effortlessly fends off Satsuki and Ryuko (both of whom are Dual Wielding) at the same time without moving from the spot she was standing on.
Almighty Mom: Ragyō Kiryūin is a stellar example. No matter how powerful and charismatic her daughter, Satsuki, is, Ragyo is always a full tier above her, overstripping her in both power and authority, the former of which she displays consistently through the latter part of the series. Even when Satsuki rebelled and Ryuko was revealed to be her daughter as well, she has absolutely no problem putting everyone including both her daughters back in their place. The downside is, she's also the villain. And a horrible mother.
Ambiguously Bi: It's known that she had children with Soichiro. However, she also molests Satsuki and later Ryuko, so she has engaged in physical relationships with both sexes. What keeps it ambiguous is the fact that it is never made clear if she saw her relationship with Soichiro as anything more than a chance to create offspring to experiment on.
Authority Sounds Deep: Ragyo along with Satsuki have noticeably prominent deep voices compared to the rest of the women in the cast, especially when it comes to exercising their authority over others, although they have their share of action as well.
Ax-Crazy: Despite her icy demeanor usually catering to the contrary, she occasionally snaps and reveals herself for the deranged psychopath she is. Her beatdown of Satsuki is very indicative of this.
Bait the Dog:
- Ragyo seems to show some care for Nui, Houomaru, and those genuinely loyal to her. But ultimately Ragyo had no hesitation or remorse, even showing sadistic glee, ordering them to sacrifice themselves once it became advantageous for her or they case being useful.
- Hououmaru interprets Ragyo as being heroic for saving her life as a child. However, the only interest the latter showed towards the former in the scene was her high Life Fiber readings, while displaying complete apathy to the other villagers being slaughtered.
Barehanded Blade Block: Her bare fist is sufficient to stop and break a sword as sharp as the Bakuzan.
The Baroness: Is the Sexpot type appearance-wise, yet she plays the Rosa Klebb type to the extreme.
Batman Can Breathe in Space: In the final battle in space against Ryuko.
Batman Gambit: It is implied that she wants Nui to anger Satsuki so she can witness the full extent of Junketsu's power, so she lets her top designer do what she pleases.
Berserk Button: Ragyo treats the Primordial Life Fiber like a god and loses her cool temperament when Satsuki first sets foot on it (out of reverence, Ragyo stood on a napkin when riding the Primordial Life Fiber, never letting her feet directly touch it), prompting her to attack her elder daughter immediately.
Better to Die than Be Killed: A slightly different example from most. Ryuko, having defeated her and ordered the Life Fibers to self-destruct through the REVOCS satellite, asks her to come back to Earth as a daughter would. Ragyo, in response, tears out her own heart and crushes it in order to die and spread the remaining Life Fibers through space. Before disappearing into nothingness, Ragyo states that the Life Fibers will return to haunt Earth one day. Ryuko simply tells her to stuff it.
Big Bad: The real one, as the head of the Kiryuin Conglomerate that controls Japan, and Satsuki's mother and superior who is behind all her actions. She is the one who ordered Nui to kill Isshin/Souichirou, Ryuko's father, and Satsuki has actually been preparing Ryuko, her sister, to help her defeat Ragyo, who wants to feed humanity to the Life Fibers.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: We know which side of the family Satsuki got her eyebrows from.
Blood Knight: Whenever she gets riled up in a battle, she won't stop putting on a disturbing Slasher Smile, along with her signature Evil Laugh.
Body Horror: When she tears her own heart out and shows it to Ryuko, it's unnaturally large and very deformed.
Boomerang Bigot: Her goals to enslave humanity to a sentient race of clothes shows a complete disregard of humanity despite being human herself. Granted, her body is so stuffed with Life Fibers that even calling her "human" anymore is a stretch.
Camp: The cast's primary source of over-the-top dressing design. It also helps that she's the hammiest villain shown.
Cleavage Window: Her clown outfit from episode 17 has one. It's hard to notice on account of her clothing being the same pale white as her skin.
Cool Shades: Wore pair of these 20 years ago, while saving a young Hououmaru from getting killed. She gave her shades to Hououmaru.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: The head of REVOCS, the world's largest apparel corporation, as well as the conglomerate in general.
Creepily Long Arms: When donning Shinra Koukestu, her arms are somehow elongated to near the length of it, which is already around twice as tall as a normal human.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Every fight she has properly taken part in resulted in a bloodbath for the opposing side:
- She delivers a crushing one to Satsuki in episode 18, cementing the dominance she has over her daughter. She even does this with her bare hands, without either a Kamui or a Goku Uniform, whereas Satsuki was wearing Junketsu.
- In episode 23, she effortlessly outmatches both Ryuko and Satsuki, even when they both employ various forms against her.
- Even the final battle with Ryuko can count as this. She so absurdly powerful that none of their attacks can get through her defenses and she keeps smacking Ryuko back each time. Ryuko only manages to beat her by letting herself get stabbed then using her now enhance regeneration abilities to absorb her Kamui.
Curtains Match the Window: The inner rings of her eyes match her hair color, although latter appearances has her eyes turn red.
Dark Action Girl: She's evil, vicious, and brutal, so much so that she is more than capable of beating the crap out of Satsuki.
Defiant to the End: Even when ultimately beaten, out of power and given a chance to redeem herself by Ryuko, she steadfastly refuses and decides to kill herself in the end.
Diabolical Mastermind: She's even more powerful than her daughter since she runs the most powerful conglomerate in the world that controls Honnouji Academy.
Didn't See That Coming: Played with twice through the series:
- The first time is an inversion; she's pretty confident that Ryuko won't be able to break out of her mind control. But when she does, Ragyo's very pleasantly surprised because it makes her realize that Ryuko is actually her daughter whom she thought was dead.
- Episode 23 played it straight when Ryuko, whom Ragyo thought was killed by her cutting her in half, survives and proceeds to destroy the Primordial Life Fiber.
- During the final battle, she never expected Ryuko to intentionally allow herself to be stabbed just to get close enough to absorb Shinra Koketsu.
The Dog Bites Back: In episode 17, delivered by none other than Satsuki, as revenge for Soichiro's death.
Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Averted. None of her sexual abuse towards Satsuki is downplayed or makes her any less of a monster than she already is.
Dragon-in-Chief: The Primordial Life Fiber gets no speaking lines and doesn't even seem to do anything without Ragyo willing it to. While it must have some form of consciousness, Ragyo is, for all intents and purposes, the one with the plan.
Dual Wielding: In episode 23, she wields two giant needle-like swords made of ultra-hard Life Fibers, which served as the basis for Ryuko's Rending Scissors and Satsuki's Bakuzan.
Even Evil Can Be Loved: Both Nui and Houomaru are shown to genuinely care about her and are willing to do anything for her, the latter even tries to avenge her death.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Played with a couple times:
- Ragyo says that she didn't kill Satsuki because she has some lingering maternal feelings for her, but Satsuki says this is a lie and that Ragyo just wants to use her to power Shinra Koukestu. Of course, Ragyo doesn't deny this.
- In their final fight, Ragyo again cites this reason for why Ryuko isn't dead after taking her attacks. This prompts her to declare she'll destroy those feelings.
Everything's Better with Rainbows: Though only as a sign of her superiority; she otherwise makes everything worse.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: During her final fight with Ryuko, she can't fathom why Ryuko would try to save the Earth and live a normal life with her friends and sister rather then ruling over the world. In her own words: "How can you be so boring?!". Though from her tone, it sounds more like "Why won't you obey me?!"
Evil Counterpart:
- She is everything Satsuki is, but so much worse. Their backlights are similar, their arrogance and stubbornness are identical, their powers and abilities bear numerous parallels. In the end, however, Satsuki simply wants to save the world, and has numerous redeeming qualities. Ragyo meanwhile is a Sadist, a tyrant, and an incestuous rapist that wants to feed all humanity to an Eldritch Abomination.
- She can also be considered one to Sukuyo Mankanshoku. Both of them are mothers whose daughters are in Honnouji. While Sukuyo is a genuinely loving mother who wants what’s best for her children, Ragyo couldn’t care less about her family.
Evil Feels Good: If the way she caresses her breasts in Episode 23 while waxing about her unstoppable evil plan and attempting to murder her daughters is any indication.
Evil Gloating: She does this anytime she's near victory, constantly reminding her adversaries how worthless and incompetent they are. Unfortunately for her, Ryuko and Satsuki take advantage of this.
Evil Is Hammy: On top of being the Big Bad, she's one of the most bombastic characters in the series, to the point where she doesn't even need to be physically onscreen to outham everyone else:
- One of the earliest examples consists of her making a very grandiose speech about REVOCS' motto, without showing herself to her audience until the speech's very end.
- The second time is during episode 17, where she makes a really grand entrance in Honnouji Academy, she even states that rulers have to be brilliant as the sun, thus the need to make grandiose entrances is a necessity.
- Another is when a COVERS projection of her reduces the Elite Four into silence as Ira tries to interrupt her badmouthing on a captured Satsuki.
- Even her theme is more bombastic than anything else in the series.
Evil Laugh: Has a very creepy one during episode 18, before assuming control of ''all'' Honnouji students to use as her pawns. She has another very creepy one at the end of The Stinger in Episode 23.
Evil Matriarch: She fills this role for Satsuki and Ryuko.
Evilutionary Biologist: Episode 18 reveals that she performed brutal experiments on her daughters with a twisted goal of infusing Life Fibers within human bodies. When Ryuko supposedly dies from the experiments, she casually dumps her as a failed test subject.
Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: The only character who always wears noticeable makeup, and just happens to be the evillest.
Exotic Eye Designs: While not easily noticeable, her eyes are ringed and multi-colored.
The Faceless: Until episode 11.
Fashionable Evil: She's the owner and CEO of the largest clothing company on the planet, and the series ultimate Big Bad. She makes it a priority to never dress in anything less than is necessary to ensure all eyes gaze upon her grandiose presence in wonder and awe.
Faux Affably Evil: She almost always speak with a calm tone in her voice, even when molesting Satsuki.
Feather Motif: Her hair bares semblance to a bird's wings, and her outfit features Fluffy Fashion Feathers.
Flight: She can fly even without a Kamui.
Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Her main outfit sports these.
Foreshadowing: She has seven scars/tattoos that resemble the emblems for the Goku uniforms, which may hint at her immense power and Life Fiber DNA.
Good Old Fisticuffs: Her punches literally put Mike Tyson's to shame. Just ask Satsuki.
Gratuitous French: "La vie est drôle." ("Life is funny.")
Gratuitous German: Her Leitmotif "Blumenkranz" is entirely sung in German, and it also underlines that she's pure evil in Boldface.
Greater-Scope Villain: In the first half of the series, she has more of a background presence as she observes the conflict between Ryuko and Satsuki. She controls two of the world's most powerful organizations, is the reason why Satsuki is Honnouji Academy's Student Council President, and indirectly responsible for the death of Isshin Matoi. She does take reigns as primary Big Bad once Satsuki's true intentions are revealed.
Greed: As the head of the Kiryuin Conglomerate, which spans all across the world over, Ragyo is inclined to the social, economic, political and relatively speaking day to day livelihood of the ignorant masses the world over. All through the usage of the Primordial Life Fiber, which is all but interwoven into the attire products sold by her corporation's multinational and multi-property owning sporting and manufacturing companies; she practically ran the world. Hell, even after having undone her own daughter's rebellion, ending in the dissolution and integration of her entire student body Task Force into the creation of the Koketsu kamui project on top of having the few pockets of resistance all across the world promoted both by Satsuki as well as Nudist Beach's steadily dwindle to nothing as her COVERS absorb them into their armies. Is this enough for her? Hell, NO! She owns the world, owns the war, owns the high ground. For all intents and purposes, she runs both the landscape as well as battleground of the entire scene and series, and she still wants her other younger daughter whom she initially cast aside as a failure in her demented experiments. She even lampshades it in Episode 19:
Ragyo: And soon even your little sister will return to me.
Green and Mean: Her hair is partly green and "Mean" is putting it lightly as she's a sadistic, abusive tyrant.
Guinea Pig Family: She used her own daughters as test subjects in brutal experiments of infusing Life Fibers within human bodies, when they were just babies. She even threw away her second daughter without giving her a name when she thought she died because of said experiments.
Half-Human Hybrid: The reason for her superhuman abilities is that her body is interwoven with Life Fibers.
Half the Woman She Used to Be: Ryuko and Satsuki bisected her both horizontally and vertically making her more of a one quarter of a woman she used to be. A shame she absorbed the Primordial Life Fiber and regenerated moments later.
Hartman Hips: Drawn with very broad hips so show off her age and feminity.
Healing Factor: Her bond with the Life Fibers has some benefits. Namely, any wounds dealt to her will very quickly close and as long as a single Life Fiber connects her head to her body, she can survive decapitation.
Hijacking Cthulhu: After Nui takes over the Primordial Life Fiber, Ragyo absorbs her. This is subverted as Nui is very eager to help Ragyo.
Hoist by Her Own Petard: Twofold. One being that her youngest daughter, whom she considered a failure and threw away like trash, is the one who ultimately thwarts her and two; being all too eager to stab Ryuko in their last battle forgetting that Ryuko's healing factor as well sheer willpower will not only help her survive but it brought her close enough to absorb her kamui and take control of the Primordial Life Fiber, returning the people of Earth to normal and rendering Raygo powerless.
Holy Backlight: A rainbow-colored one.
Humanoid Abomination: While she was once a human woman, she happily threw her humanity away and is now a loyal servant of the Primordial Life Fiber, as well as its primary agent in brewing a plan to absorb all humans with the power of Life Fibers.
Hypocrite: She repeatedly tells both Satsuki and Ryuko that they should be respectful towards their mother. However, she herself is shown to have no respect for either of them, as she had put the former through horrendous abuse and callously threw the latter in the trash when she was only a few months old.
I Have No Daughter!: In a way. Episode 18 reveals she discarded her second daughter (Ryuko) like she was garbage when she was an infant.
I Have You Now, My Pretty: A female-on-female example in which she does this to her own daughter. After defeating her, she has hangs Satsuki in a cage by her arms, naked. As Ragyo taunts her defeated daughter, she runs her hands up and down Satsuki's back and between her legs, and spanks her ass repeatedly.
Impossible Hourglass Figure: Her appearance in episode 13 really accentuates it.
In the Back: Satsuki runs her through in episode 17 while she is distracted by Ryuko.
In the Blood: Satsuki apparently takes after her a lot, from having their own Holy Backlight, to their habit of delivering Evil Overlord speeches. Her younger daughter, Ryuko, also inherits the highlights in her hair.
Invincible Villain: In pure physical strength, speed and durability, she bypasses everyone else in the series and she hardly ever wears a Kamui. The only reason she loses is due to the constant amount of gloating she does which Ryuko and Satsuki use to their advantage.
Irony: With all of her speeches about how any creature that goes against its instincts is doomed to die soon in relation of humans refusing to wear clothes, her eventual defeat stems from her defiance of her own instincts as a human being (survival) and as a mother.
It's All About Me: Ragyo cares for no but herself and more then happy to trample over anyone, even her own family, if it's to gain more wealth and power. And yes while she did spare Rei as a child back in the past and is shown caring for her and Nui, it's only because they're useful pawns to her schemes and nothing more. Rei was a desperate child when Ragyo came upon her and she only took her on because of her high energy to life fibers as well as taking advantage of the girl's poor upbringing to convince her her plan to subjugate humanity was a good option. And Nui, well she was "birthed" from an artificial womb using Ragyo's life fibers, so Nui's essentially just a clone of her, only much crazier. Once the heroes start getting the advantage in the final fight, Ragyo had no problem ordering her to sacrifice her to complete her plan.
Jet Pack: Shinra Koketsu has rocket thrusters to help Ragyo launch into space.
Kinky Spanking: A sexual sadist through and through, Ragyo gives one to a bound Satsuki, to demonstrate the power she has over her daughter.
Knight of Cerebus: Unlike Nui, there's barely a scrap of comedy to be found in this character past her camp demeanor.
Lack of Empathy: In fact, she all but outright rejects such a concept.
Leitmotif: "Blumenkranz",^note a soaring, powerful song, at times eerily soft; with Ominous German Chanting and lyrics calling the world cruel, and asking why the listener would cry over the singer throwing away dead flowers. Which probably has something to do with Ragyo abandoning Ryuko as an infant. The last few episodes give her another leitmotif, "Tabun LASTBOSS", which is an oppressive mix of rock and orchestra.
Les Collaborateurs: Is ultimately a servant of COVERS, the will of the Primordial Life Fiber.
Light Is Not Good: She emits her own Holy Backlight; in fact she one-ups Satsuki with a rainbow one. She's also the Big Bad and the worst mother in anime history. This is taken even further in episode 23 when she wears the Shinra Kouketsu which gives us a Shinto goddess-like look. She also owns hundreds of all-white outfits.
Lightning Bruiser: Even without a Kamui she kicked Satsuki's ass, and outmatches both Ryuko and Satsuki at the same time using their full power.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Or rather, Ryuko, I Am Your Mother.
Manipulative Bitch: In episode 20, she taunts Ryuko to come to Honnouji Academy and fulfill her desire for revenge against her and Nui, confident she will do just that. This was so she can capture her to be brainwashed, which she succeeds.
Master of Threads: Shinra-Koketsu is a Kamui (an article of clothing made of Life Fibers that grants the wearer powers) created by Nui Harime and the brainwashed Honnoji Academy Sewing Club to be worn by the series Big Bad Ragyo Kiryuin. It grants her the power to control Life Fibers and uniforms made out of them, allowing her to immobilize anyone wearing a Goku uniform and, with the help of her own satellite system, initiate The End of the World as We Know It by activating all Life Fibers on the planet.
Mind Rape: Does this as part of her brainwashing Ryuko, with disturbing undertones of an actual rape.
Misanthrope Supreme: Ragyo threw her humanity away and is contemptuous of normal humans, seeking to exterminate them in service to the Life Fibres. This is emphasized in her Leitmotif, "Blumenkrauz", which compares the weak (i.e. all humans) to "withered flowers" that must be removed.
Monster Clown: She presents herself as this in episode 17. Either that or she's channelling Kefka or Ultimecia.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: She doesn't normally have these, but when fighting all out in the last episode, she develops a shark-like teeth arrangement during Slasher Smile displays.
Mouth of Sauron: A given, seeing as how she's the highest ranking follower of the Primordial Life Fiber and it never speaks itself.
Ms. Fanservice: Ragyo is a very shapely woman who is either seen in very revealing dresses or outright nude.
Navel-Deep Neckline: Her favorite outfits tend to show off her breasts by having plunging necklines, making her overall appearance more appealing.
Never My Fault: When Ryuko gets pissed at her due to her life being considered a lie the whole time after The Reveal that Ryuko was a Life-Fiber Human Hybrid, Ragyo says that was Soichiro's doing, despite the fact that what she did to Ryuko as a newborn was what made Soichiro never tell Ryuko the truth in the first place.
Nigh-Invulnerable: Her connection with the Primordial Life Fiber allows her to survive practically anything, from getting impaled In the Back by Satsuki to a full-on decapitation.
Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: When she shows up the first time, you know she's creepy to the core. She only gets worse.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Ragyo delivers an absolutely brutal one to Satsuki. This is especially jarring given that the latter never lost a single fight until episode 18.
No Sense of Personal Space: Ragyo isn't afraid to touch her daughter in a rather intimate manner◊ while she compliments her wearing Junketsu, or when bathing her in herbs to enhance her connection with Kamui.
Noblewoman's Laugh: Given her status as the director of this world's largest corporation, she dishes them out without fail when hamming it up.
Nonchalant Dodge: She barely tilted her head to the side to dodge a missile shot at her.
Off with Her Head!: In episode 18, Satsuki decapitates her. It's subverted however; because of the Life Fibers inside of Ragyo, her decipitated body is able to sock Satsuki in the face before picking up her head, which has a Life Fiber attached.
Older Than She Looks: Doesn't look all that much older than Satsuki (who's a teenager) in some shots, despite probably being in her forties or fifties.
Ominous Latin Chanting: "Blumenkranz", sung in German, roughly transcribed and translated:
"Diese Welt ist grausam, es ist traurig aber wahr."
"This world is cruel, it's sad but true."
Orcus On Her Throne: She doesn't meddle in her daughter's affairs regarding Ryuko and taking over Japan, essentially letting her do what she pleases and only providing her with indirect support via the materials needed to construct Goku Uniforms or military equipment. Her reason for doing so is because she believes youth should settle their own affairs. When she does go into battle, she shows that her title as the REVOCS president isn't just for show.
Parental Incest: She opens Satsuki's chakra points via molestation in a bath, and later caresses her crotch to Megaton Punch her. In episode 21, she has what looks like a threesome with Nui and Ryuko, complete with plenty of groping, although that could've been one of the false memories implanted into Ryuko's mind, when Ragyo brainwashed her into her service.
Parental Substitute: While it's unknown if Nui is in anyway related to Ragyo, the two consider each other mother and daughter. Their relationship is also all but stated to be sexual, so given Ragyo's inclinations towards her biological daughter (and later daughters) this can be further used as proof of a familial like bond.
Pedo Hunt: The first time we see Ragyo onscreen, she is shown groping and feeling up Satsuki. In Ragyo's next appearance, she is shown outright molesting the latter in the bath, establishing how villainous she truly is.
People Puppets: She can use Life Fibers to brainwash other people into becoming mindless soldiers for her, a process she calls Mental Refitting.^noteMind Stitching in the dub. Ryuko managing to shake off the Refitting is what clues Ragyo in to her identity.
Power Glows: Her radiance is so bright that her personal assistant needs sunglasses to look at her.
Power Nullifier: One of Shinra Kouketsu's Absolute Submission's functions is to shut down Life Fiber uniforms and incapacitate anyone wearing them. Though Senketsu eventually realizes that he's the only Life Fiber uniform who's not affected, nor is the Life Fiber-infused Ryuko.
Professor Guinea Pig: In addition to her daughters, she has clearly done plenty of experimentation on herself as well. Her back is Covered with Scars that are very likely the result of her infusing Life Fibers into her body, and when we see her heart, it's horrifically bloated and deformed. Even Nui's heart was not as monstrous, despite her being outright incubated in the Primordial Life Fiber.
Psycho Lesbian: Possibly a Depraved Bisexual, since whether or not she was sexually interested in her ex-husband is debated amongst fans but regardless of which actually describes her sexuality, she engages in some really creepy behavior with Satsuki and later Ryuko.
Purple Is Powerful: She's the biggest powerhouse in the series and some of her hair is purple.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: Ragyo is not only the CEO of REVOCS, she is, bar none, the most powerful character in the series, being able to fight and outmatch both her daughters at once, something which is established in episode 18, where she lays the most violent smackdown in the entire series on Satsuki, despite having been betrayed and backstabbed beforehand.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Her molestation of her daughter Satsuki was used to establish that, unlike near everything else in the comedic and over-the-top series, Ragyo's evilness is played 100% seriously.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives Satsuki one in the middle of beating her senseless:
Ragyo: Wearing Junketsu in this battle was a terrible mistake, but of course, you wouldn't even be able to stand before me if not for its power!
Redemption Rejection: Ryuko offers her a chance to start over if she comes quietly after finally beating her. Ragyo just laughs in her face and kills herself instead.
The Reveal: Episode 18 hands out a big one: she is Ryuko's birth mother, making Ryuko and Satsuki sisters.
Sadist: She's at her happiest when she physically or sexually abuses someone.
Satanic Archetype: Originally a human, Ragyo casted away her own humanity and sided with the Life Fibers, and her goal is to have humanity enslaved and eradicated in favor of the Life Fibers. Further adding to her Satanic traits are her strong connections with the light, much like Lucifer.
Scars Are Forever: She has scars on her back that look like Goku Uniform stars, despite having a Healing Factor strong enough to pull her dissected body back together.
Self-Disposing Villain: By the end of the series, she gives neither Ryuko or Nudist Beach the chance to kill her, instead ripping her own heart and crushing it, with the promise that the Life Fibers will be back to haunt Earth.
Shadow Archetype: She represents everything Satsuki could have turned into with a few cosmetic differences. She Who Fights Monsters plays a role in this, but numerous characters point out how Satsuki's various methods were nearly identical to Ragyo's, despite their diametric opposite motivations.
Sinister Shades: Wore a pair when she was younger.
Slasher Smile: Her icy façade is just that. When the action gets going, Ragyo shows how much she enjoys hurting people with a sadistic grin.
The Social Darwinist: She shares the same dog-eat-dog "pigs in clothing" ideology as Satsuki. Where they differ is that while Satsuki thinks that humans are more than just livestock and can aspire to greatness through ambition, determination and vision, Ragyo holds the idea that Life Fibers are the Ultimate Life Form and that all other life in the universe (especially humans) are mere livestock to be sacrificed to them.
The Sociopath: She shows multiple signs of sociopathy, possessing an extreme sense of self worth and ego and a total lack of concern about her offspring to the point of sexually abusing her elder daughter Satsuki and literally throwing her younger daughter Ryuko away in the trash when the latter was an infant. She also ordered the death of her husband, casually sacrifices her employees and innocent bystanders to further her goals, and outright rejects the concept of having empathy for anyone else. Her Leitmotif "Blumenkranz" outlines her thought process by comparing people to flowers, in which they will be immediately disposed of once they serve their purpose.
Statuesque Stunner: Even taller than Satsuki.
Stupid Evil: When her newborn second daughter seemingly died from Ragyo's attempts to implant Life Fibers into her body, Ragyo immediately deemed the experiment a failure before dumping her down a garbage chute. As it was, if she had waited a bit longer or tried to revive the baby herself, she would have seen that the experiment was actually a success. But since she did neither of those things, her husband turned against her and raised their daughter himself, who he named Ryuko.
Super-Strength: She is able to inflict serious damage on Satsuki, even wearing Junketsu, with nothing but her bare fists. And this is without wearing a Kamui or a Goku Uniform.
Theme Naming: The "ra" in her name means "gauze", a type of thin silk.
This Cannot Be!: After Ryuko, along with the combined effort of everyone aboard the Naked Sun, destroys the Primordial Life Fiber, she's left in utter disbelief before snarling back that their resistance is still futile. Likely just trying to save face so as not to give Ryuko satisfaction of her defeat.
Transhuman Treachery: Her family has been protecting the Primordial Life Fiber and became powerful because of it. She sold off humanity to be consumed by them, and in the final battle scolds herself for letting whatever suppressed traces of humanity she has left to cause her to hold back from killing her daughter.
Vague Age: It's impossible to tell how old Ragyo is as she's appeared the same in virtually every flashback, aside from her various hairstyles. Further complicating the issue is that her experimentation with Life Fibers has transformed her into a nigh-immortal being with insane regenerative powers which probably cancels out her aging altogether.
Villainous Incest: Even before we get to know how much of a monster this woman is, her habit of getting disturbingly touchy-feely with own daughter makes it clear she's someone to watch out for.
Virgin in a White Dress: Majorly inverted; Ragyo wears mostly white but is an older, sexually predatory woman, though she talks big about the purifying aspects of fashion conformity.
Walking Spoiler: Once she takes the center stage in the second part of the series, bombshell after bombshell after bombshell follow suit. The biggest one is that she is Ryuko's mother, thus making Ryuko and Satsuki sisters.
White Hair, Black Heart: She can sacrifice the lives of countless innocents and feel perfectly content. Ragyo ultimately serves as an adversary to both Ryuko and Satsuki, cementing her as a major antagonist. And thanks to her Life Fiber DNA, she literally has a black heart.
You Talk Too Much!: She does love to hear herself talk and a good chunk of her dialogue is always sprouting off how powerful she is or how futile the heroes efforts are. By the final battle, Ryuko is yelling at her to shut up.
Woman Behind the Woman: Her being one of the directors of the school is one of the reasons why Satsuki is able to have her Absurdly Powerful Student Council.
World's Best Warrior: Ragyo is far and away the most powerful character in the series, with and without the use of a Kamui. Her feats include beating up a fully powered Satsuki with her bare hands, tearing out Ryuko's heart with minimal effort, fighting both of them at once, winning, and finally having such a powerful psychic hold that she can immobilize an entire stadium of humans.
Would Hurt a Child: Is putting it mildly. She coolly discards her newborn daughter like a piece of trash the moment she finds out that the experiments aren't going as planned.

Nui Harime

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)^{Foreign VAs}

"I go wherever I want to go, and no one can stop me."

"Well golly gee, everyone seems to be having so much fun!"

The Grand Couturier of the REVOCS Corporation, dispatched by Ragyo to shake things up at Honnouji Academy. Initially dismissing her for her adorable appearance and childish mannerisms, Ryuko quickly discovers this mysterious girl has a much darker secret than she could have ever imagined...

Action Fashionista: She's Grand Couturier of REVOCS, and can also take on a fully powered Kamui user like Ryuko. Averted in practice, given that she is always seen in the same pink frilly dress.
Adaptational Karma: In the anime, Nui dies on her own terms, willingly sacrificing herself to power Ragyo up. She doesn't get this kind of satisfaction in IF, where Ryuko kills her and she spends her last moments having a Villainous Breakdown.
Arch-Enemy: The fact that she killed Ryuko's dad instantly makes her Ryuko's most hated nemesis. At least until Ragyo was revealed as the mastermind behind everything, including the death of Ryuko's father, which bumped Nui down to the number 2 slot on Ryuko's hit list.
An Arm and a Leg: Ryuko cuts off her arms in episode 22, after which Senketsu absorbs them for good measure. It doesn't last long, as Ragyo weaves artificial arms made of Life Fibers for her before putting on Shinra Kouketsu.
Anime Hair: Each of her drill-shaped pigtails is practically the same size as her entire body.
Artificial Family Member: Was artificially created by Ragyo, whom she sees as a mother, by using an artificial womb woven from Life Fibers. This also makes her the sister of Satsuki and Ryuko. Though, it's directed more to Ryuko who Nui considers a "soul sister" since they both have Life Fibers inside themselves.
Artificial Human: Was somehow created by Ragyo using the Primordial Life Fiber as an artificial womb.
Artificial Limbs: The aforementioned An Arm and a Leg moment is ultimately offset by Ragyo sewing arms made of Life Fibers for Nui, just in time for the finale. They're even able to transform into blades, and later on, wings.
Awesomeness by Analysis:
- It only takes her one glance to tell where a Goku Uniform's Banshi is. The kicker, it's a transformed three-star Goku Uniform. It also takes her only one pinky to rip it to shreds. She even does this with Senketsu, but fails because unlike a Goku Uniform, Senketsu (and possibly Kamui in general) was created with multiple Banshi... though losing a Banshi still causes Senketsu horrible pain.
- In episode 20, she manages to place a lot of tacking needles in specific points of Ryuko's body in the middle of their battle, while getting beaten up and tossed around by the enraged Ryuko. These tacking needles set the way for Ryuko's union with Junketsu as well as Ragyo's brainwashing.
Ax-Crazy: Nui almost never loses her childish smile, but is a remorseless murderer. Until episode 22 that is, when she goes off the deep end after losing her arms with no hope of recovery; even after Ragyo gives her Artificial Limbs, she still spends most of her remaining screen time with a Slasher Smile.
Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: As close as possible to it— fair is foul and foul is fair.
Badass Adorable: Exaggerated, since she's easily one of the strongest fighters in the series, despite dressing up like a pink Elegant Gothic Lolita. Additionally, she doesn't rely on Goku Uniforms, yet totally dumbfounds the Elite Four with her ability to crush a Three-Star uniform with just her pinky, and nonchalantly repels just about every attack thrown at her, even Ryuko's powered-up mode.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: After she defeats Sanageyama, Nui offers to fight Ryuko in his place, which Satsuki accepts.
Batman Gambit: When Ryuko falls into a Heroic BSoD and refuses to wear Senketsu again, Nui takes advantage of Ryuko's latent desire to protect the helpless by disguising herself as a foolhardy yet determined student who gets in trouble with the Student Council, renewing her will to fight just so they can resume their battle. Nui herself lampshades this:
Nui: Your reactions are so predictable that it's downright adorable!
Beat Still, My Heart: Inflicts one on herself after Ryuko stabs her in the chest, only to reveal she is also a human who's interwoven with Life Fibers since her birth. In her case, even earlier, since she is an ectogene born from a womb created by the Primordial Life Fiber.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished:
- Unlike other characters, she never seems to get any dirt or mess on her face and clothes despite things like being caught in an explosion or slammed into a wall. Averted once when she loses her eye to Isshin Matoi. This is Double Subverted and exaggerated in episode 20 when she fights Ryuko. When she gets stabbed, she coughs up Blood from the Mouth but soon after reveals herself as a Life Fiber hybrid, and not only does her wound and the tear in her dress close, but all the blood she lost gets sucked back into her body and leaves her clean as a whistle.
- Averted like all hell in episode 22, when Ryuko uses both the Scissor Blades to cut off her arms and they can't regenerate.
Berserk Button: Getting permanently hurt. She takes major pride in the fact that she's Nigh-Invulnerable, and loves taunting opponents that they can't do anything to her. But the moment she first gets hit with the Scissor Blades, which ended up costing her left eye, is the first time that cutesy facade drops and she stops toying with her victim. When Ryuko cuts off her arms later in the series with no way to regenerate it, she loses the cutesy act completely because it's the first time she's completely vulnerable, which is something she can't fathom and falls quickly into denial over her loss.
Beware the Silly Ones: She might be a goofball, but aside from Ragyo, she's easily the most dangerous villain in the series.
Big "SHUT UP!": Delivers one to Mako in episode 22, flashing a Nightmare Face so intense it actually works.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Even through she appears like a charismatic cute girl, she's completely psycho.
Blessed with Suck: The Life Fibers within her body grant her unparalleled resistance over other Life Fibers, but at the same time make her unable to wear a Kamui like Senketsu or Junketsu, as she'd destroy them if she tried to wear one; this is a notable inversion of the usual formula where it's instead the wearer that is consumed by the Life Fibers. This then gets turned on its head in episode 24 when it's revealed that the one Life Fiber she can wear is the Primordial Life Fiber, the strongest of them all, and she's still in complete control of it.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A peculiarly crasser example than most, as she doesn't remember defeating and humiliating Sanageyama when he challenges her because, according to her, "when a woman changes her underwear, she puts the past behind her."
Cain and Abel and Seth: Technically she's Ryuko and Satsuki's sister due to being a Ragyo-created Life Fiber hybrid like them. Ragyo certainly sees Nui as her daughter. Nui is the Seth; she's introduced later than the others, she has a different outlook and lifestyle, and she changes how her siblings view each other by providing a common enemy.
Can't Catch Up: Despite her ridiculous power, she eventually falls into this, mainly against Ryuko. The reason is that the Life Fibers in her body are too powerful and prevent her from boosting her power further with a Kamui, for this reason, she has one of the highest power floors out of all the characters in the series, but also a very low power ceiling. Ryuko, a Fiber hybrid herself, is able to match Nui's natural strength by herself once she gets enough Life Fibers and experience, and with Senketsu's power on top of that, she can outmatch Nui quite easily. It is eventually revealed that her true purpose is interfacing with the Primordial Life Fiber itself, but at that point, she is less an individual and more an accessory for Ragyo.
Chewing the Scenery: In the English Dub, when Ryuko cuts off her arms in Episode 22, she goes absolutely bonkers. Granted, she was just playing it up because she thought they'd just reattach, but she goes for a much more subdued version when she's proven wrong and eventually ends up into Tranquil Fury.
MY ARMS! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! OHMYGOD! MYYYYYYYYYY AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMSSSSSSSS!
Co-Dragons: To Ragyo, alongside Rei Hououmaru, having been created as her ultimate warrior and craft Life Fiber-imbued garments for her plan. She also takes up the role as the penultimate threat to be defeated before Ragyo herself can be directly faced, while Hououmaru is used to activate Absolute Submission, the other final obstacle to fight Ragyo.
Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Her half of the Scissor Blade is purple, though it turns red once it's in Ryuko's possession.
Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Hououmaru spirits her away in a chopper after Ryuko lops off her two arms, but she's clearly not happy with it, even lashing out at Ragyo's secretary until the latter reminds her she still has to complete Shinra-Kouketsu. Even after getting talked down, Nui promises she'll teach Hououmaru a lesson for talking back to her, being totally ungrateful for the rescue.
Compressed Hair: Both in her disguise as Shinjiro Nagita, and when revealing herself as the pilot of the helicopter Satsuki is on, there's no way her massive twin-tails could fit inside such small spaces in reality.
Conservation of Ninjutsu: Alone, Nui is almost unstoppable. Her clones, on the other hand, are much easier to dispatch.
Corrupted Character Copy: With her design, bubbly behavior, and even being an Artificial Human created to be a minion for and by the Big Bad, Nui is clearly based off of Nia Teppelin. However, Nia is unambiguously a heroic character until she gets turned into an Apocalypse Maiden by her series's respective Big Bad The Anti-Spiral, Nui is a villain throughout the series and is a more-than-willing minion for its respective Big Bad Ragyo Kiryuuin and even goes as far as to aid her to the bitter end. Even their deaths contrast: while both ultimately die with the Big Bad, Nia goes down with a Heroic Sacrifice, whereas Nui quite literally throws away her body into the Primordial Life Fiber to empower Ragyo before being killed by Ryuuko when the latter destroys Shinra-Kōketsu.
Creepy Doll: While Nui is human, she has a lot of doll and puppet motifs. She dresses like a little girl's fashion doll, uses puppets to attack and can turn people into them via controlling their minds, and is rendered in Limited Animation where she moves and hops around stiffly like a doll being moved around by hand. In both a symbolic and literal sense, it can be said that she is a "doll" that Ragyo made with her own hands; her body is filled with Life Fibers, and she was grown in a womb made of them. She coughs out a cotton-like substance when wounded during her fight with Isshin Matoi. Finally, when Ryuko chops her arms off, they pop out cleanly as if they were being pulled out of their sockets, like a plastic doll's arms.
Creepy High-Pitched Voice: A direct contrast to Ragyo. Her cutesy, high-pitched voice tends to be played for Dissonant Serenity and playing on Cute Is Evil. It does lower once she drops the cute mask.
Cute and Psycho: She never lets up that playful and carefree attitude, even as she proclaims she was responsible for killing Ryuko's father. She didn't even change her tune while she sunk the Rending Scissors into him in a flashback.
Cute Is Evil: She's the sole character to put an excessive emphasis on cutesy manners. And yet she is responsible for murdering Ryuko's father, on top of being ruthless The Dragon to the even crueler Ragyo.
Dark Action Girl: She is brutally sadistic beyond belief, to the point even Satsuki feels unease around her.
Dissonant Laughter: She gleefully laughs at all the carnage Ryuko causes during her berserker rage.
Dissonant Serenity: She is always cheery: while spouting venomous comments, when fighting, and even when telling Ryuko that she was the one who killed her father. This is subverted in the last episodes when she gets her arms lopped off, causing her to Freak Out and go through a permanent Villainous Breakdown.
Doppelgänger Attack: Can create entire armies of herself by scattering around smaller versions of her dress.
Dragon with an Agenda: She acts entirely on her own whims. Ragyo is aware of this, but plays along with her, with the excuse of Nui having an artist's urges; even the CEO of the most powerful company in the world cannot rein in her whims. In practice though, this attribute is downplayed, to the point it might as well not apply. While Ragyo and Nui herself insist that Nui follows her own agenda first and foremost, Nui is not shown to have an end-goal of her own in mind, let alone one that deviates significantly with Ragyo's, plus none of Nui's flights of fancy — aside from picking a fight with Ryuko that costs her arms — ever seem to do anything that actually goes against Ragyo's intentions. Considering how she's even perfectly willing to sacrifice herself to power Shinra Kouketsu on Ragyo's orders, with both being happy about the result, it's safe to say Nui is just as completely devoted to Ragyo and her cause as Rei is — she's just such an irregular being that she gets off on violent chaos as a side goal.
The Dreaded: Satsuki momentarily loses her cool and calls Sanageyama to forget about fighting Ryuko and retreat when she arrives. That alone should tell you a lot about her.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: After her Villainous Breakdown in episode 22, Nui's eyes have become dull, reflecting her cutesy-poo façade being permanently replaced with murderous rage.
Establishing Character Moment: She drops in between the crossfire of Ryuko and Sanageyama's King of the Hill match without a hint of worry on her part, with Limited Animation and somehow facing both of them at the same time. Satsuki calls Sanageyama to retreat, and when he doesn't listen, Nui blocks the full brunt of his transformed Goku Uniform's attack with just a parasol without a problem, unravels said uniform with her pinky, and nonchalantly knocks him off the edge of the stage. Let's just say, she's very unsettling.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She is shown to genuinely care for Ragyo, whom she views as her mother, and will do anything she can to help her fulfill her goals, even ending her own life.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Pretty much states as such in her last battle with Ryuko. Considering she's effectively just an offshoot of Ragyo's Life Fibers, that's not surprising.
Evil Counterpart:
- The facts are that she's completely devoted to Ragyo, more than happy to help her with her plans, and enjoys the twisted pride Ragyo takes in her; Nui is pretty much the daughter Ragyo actually wanted and paints a picture of how Satsuki and Ryuko might have turned out had they been raised by her. Just like Ryuko, she also owns a Scissor Blade. And just like Ryuko, she is also a Life Fiber hybrid, however, while Ryuko starts out weak but has lots of potential to unlock, Nui starts out monstrously strong, but Can't Catch Up to the full power Ryuko can reach since she can't wear a Kamui. Her personality is also a dark inversion of Ryuko's: a rough and tough tomboy delinquent who is ultimately heroic versus a sweet, cutesy and bubbly girly girl who is actually pure evil. Ryuko is at first obsessed with vengeance and hates Nui to the point of her own detriment, while Nui just toys with Ryuko, but almost as soon as Ryuko matures and learns that there are more important things than revenge, she begins treating Nui as just an annoyance at best and Nui flips to becoming vengeful and psychotically hateful of Ryuko. They also foil each other physically and in their appearances: Nui is a Cute and Psycho, very skinny Gothic Lolita, while Ryuko is a harsh, yet kind-hearted, leanly muscular Amazonian Beauty.
- She also can be seen as one for Mako; both are almost perpetually cheerful girls who share a fondness for Ryuko. However, their relationships to her are complete opposites. While Mako is her best friend and always encouraging in her monologues, Nui is one of her worst enemies. In contrast to Mako, her modus operandi seems to be endlessly taunting and goading Ryuko. Notably, Mako's one of the few characters who makes Nui actively hostile.
Evil Is Deathly Cold: Senketsu comments that her hand feels ice cold when she touches him.
Evil Is Hammy: Despite her high and cutesy voice, she's just as capable of hamming it up as everyone else in this world. This is best exemplified in Episode 22.
Evil Is Petty: While Nui is entirely loyal to Ragyo, the same can't be said for her ambitions. Nui is more interested with ruining people's lives than she is furthering Ragyo's plans, though the latter is more than happy to let the former do what she wants.
Evil Sounds Deep: Nui is a subversion, as her voice is very high and cute. But in Episode 22, she loses her cool big time, and her voice gets a lot deeper and rougher.
Exotic Eye Designs: One of the series' subtler ones. The cutesy whorls and sparkles in her good eye form what looks like a grinning death mask.
Exploiting the Fourth Wall: Nui frequently leans on her introductory kanji and even reaches through a dramatic split-screen in Episode 11 to play with Satsuki's hair when they're actually standing dozens of meters apart. She also hijacks the end credits so that Ragyo can show off her One-Winged Angel form in Episode 23. She also regularly abuses Offscreen Teleportation by going out of frame and appearing on the other sides, and uses the fact that she's a 2-dimensional character to instantly flip/move without moving.
Eye Scream: Isshin Matoi cut out her left eye with giant scissors on the night of his murder. High-Pressure Blood ensued.
Eyepatch of Power: It's shaped like a combination of the katakana for her name (ヌ, nu, and イ, i).
Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: She probably has the cutest face of the whole cast and matching manners of speech and dress, but she's actually a sadistic and insanely powerful assassin, who would provoke Ryuko into fighting her by admitting that she murdered Ryuko's father while continuing to wear that super-duper cute smile of hers.
The Fake Cutie: She's a bubbly blonde girl in pink with Innocent Blue Tareme Eyes, a perpetual smile, and massive twintails. She's also the murderer of Ryuko's father and later episodes show that she is completely psychotic underneath her bubbly exterior.
Fantastic Racism: Once it is made clear that she's anything but human, she makes no secret that she despises humanity.
Faux Affably Evil: She acts very sweet and playful and almost everything that comes out of her mouth is spoken with a carefree and bubbly tone. The things she says and does, on the other hand, are right out of the textbook of a villain and she puts absolutely no effort into hiding her true nature. And when she loses her cool, she doesn't even bother trying to stay chipper, as her usual friendly attitude is nothing more than a mask.
Finger Poke of Doom: She can pull apart a whole Goku Uniform with her fingernail, which has rows of tiny hooks that can snap the Life Fiber holding it together.
Foil: To Satsuki, the other prominent enforcer under Ragyo's command. Satsuki prefers to be The Stoic in most situations, but is capable of showing that she cares for those close to her. Nui on the other hand likes to play the role of a hyperactive Genki Girl, but is on the inside a remorseless killer who sees everyone as toys. Both have their own motives separate from Ragyo's, but Nui is strictly loyal to Ragyo, while Satsuki plans to kill her.
Giggling Villain: Part of her cutesy girlish façade is a rather sing-song tone of voice and cheerful manner of speaking. Her last moments are spent joyously giggling as she slices her own head off to sacrifice herself to the Primordial Life Fiber.
Girly Bruiser: She speaks in a cutesy manner, wields a pink Parasol of Pain, and has the Wicked Heart Symbol on her pink earrings, the center of her pink bow, the collar of her frilly pink Minidress of Power, and the highlights in her knee-length twintails. She can also beat down on 3-Star Goku Uniforms and giggles cheerfully while reminiscing about murdering Ryuko's father.
Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She speaks in a cutesy manner, wields a pink Parasol of Pain, and has the Wicked Heart Symbol on her pink earrings, the center of her pink bow, the collar of her frilly pink Minidress of Power, and the highlights in her knee-length twintails. In the original Japanese Dub, she also always calls herself boku, one of the masculine pronouns.
Gosh Dang It to Heck!: In the English Dub. While other characters, especially Ryuko, swear quite a bit, Nui doesn't. She drops this as of Episode 22, when she gets frustrated with Ryuko for talking about why humanity deserves to live on. Then her arms get chopped off, and she becomes incredibly foul-mouthed in the face of defeat.
Gratuitous French:
- Occasionally tosses in a "non" or some similar simple French, such as calling Ryuko "mon amie". She also borrows Ragyo's catchphrase in episode 19:
Nui: Mon mignon, prêt-à-porter!
- Before decapitating herself in order to merge with the Primordial Life Fiber, she answers "Oui, Maman!" at Ragyo's behest.
Handy Mouth: Nui is shown to sew with her mouth mighty fine, when sewing with her hands is no longer an option.
The Heavy: From Episode 11 onwards, she generally gets more screentime than Ragyo, is openly the one who killed Ryuko's father and also cuts Senketsu into lots of pieces in episode 13, causing Ryuko to get them all back in the next few episodes and continues being an antagonist unlike Satsuki.
Hero Killer: The only victims of her demonstration of power are Isshin Matoi, Sanageyama, and Senketsu, although the latter two weren't fatal and recovered in time to get back at her later in the series. She still puts everyone in danger of death everytime she appears, though, and almost always attempts to silence Mako's long-winded monologues, calling them annoying.
High-Pressure Blood: Done when Isshin Matoi cut out her left eye. Done again when Ryuko throws her Scissor Blade at Nui's back, pinning her to the S.S. Naked Sun's deck. Taken to hilarious extremes when Ryuko chops off both of her arms and she jets fountains of blood, much of which is sprayed directly into Hououmaru's face.
Hijacking Cthulhu: Merges with and takes over the Primordial Life Fiber, then promptly performs a Fusion Dance with Ragyo.
Humanoid Abomination: Her superhuman strength and resilience is attributed to being born directly from the Primordial Life Fiber's artificial womb, in contrast to Ryuko, who was born from Ragyo but infused with Life Fibers. Her inhuman nature is further attributed to her Limited Animation and coughing up what resembles cotton stuffing from her mouth when Isshin strikes her in the belly.
Impact Silhouette: Whenever she is slammed into something, she leaves a cookie-cutter hole in the shape of her body. Even her hair is outlined.
Implausible Hair Color: She has blonde hair even though she's Japanese. But that might owe to the fact that she is also a Life Fiber hybrid.
Improbable Hairstyle: Her massive twin drill-shaped sidetails always stay afloat and in perfectly groomed condition, even in the heat of battle. It might have something to do with her not being completely human.
Improbable Weapon User: Apart from her Parasol of Pain and Scissor Blade, in a flashback, she uses her serrated tape measure like a whip to attack Isshin Matoi and retrieve the Rending Scissors. A saw-edged tape measure. Also tries to stab somebody in the neck with a knitting needle later on.
In Love with Your Carnage: She loves to watch Satsuki and Ryuko fight when they wear their Kamui but what really excites her is Ryuko going on a rampage in her berserk form.
Innocent Blue Eyes: Invoked. As part of her status as The Fake Cutie, she has big purple eyes in contrast to Ryuko and Satsuki's Icy Blue Eyes.
It's Personal with the Dragon: Ragyo may have been the one who ordered her to kill Isshin Matoi, but Ryuko seeks personal vengeance against her, as the person who actually carried out his assassination and no one can set her off better than Nui. This is eventually subverted when Ragyo is revealed to be Ryuko's mother and Ryuko splits her hatred between the two.
Jerkass: She is one of the biggest in the entire series, and she always smiles when she's being evil.
Kawaiiko: You might just get diabetes from how sweet she looks, acts, and sounds, until she stabs you with a Scissor Blade.
Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: She wears a frilly Minidress of Power, with Wicked Heart Symbols on the shine in her hair, the center of her bow, her earrings, and her collar. She can run circles around Ryuko without batting an eye and even managed to put Senketsu down for a while.
Killer Rabbit: She's a walking definition of cuteness as with her attitude... who is a total death machine to Isshin Matoi, who she killed long time ago, Uzu Sanageyama, whom she defeated, and to Ryuko Matoi.
Knight of Cerebus: Played with. Her introduction marks a pretty noticeable shift in tone for the show, with The Reveal that she killed Isshin Matoi. Whenever she shows up, you know shit will go down. Yet at the same time, the character herself is so strange and wacky that all of her scenes take on a form of dark, twisted comedy.
Laughably Evil: She's utterly heartless and has no redeeming quality to speak of, but her antics are very comedic. Prior to her Villainous Breakdown at least, although even then she still has her moments.
Leeroy Jenkins: Hououmaru points out to Nui after rescuing her from the humiliating fight against Ryuko that she shouldn't have fought her in the first place, which ultimately resulted in the loss of her arms. Nui threatens to retaliate against Hououmaru for saying that to her once she completes Shinra-Koketsu.
Leitmotif: The second half of "Kiる厭KiLL", comprised of creepy chimes, eerie choral stings, and oppressive beats to underline her unsettling presence.
Light Is Not Good: Has blonde hair and wears light-colored clothing, but is also an enormous jerk, on top of being a batshit insane murderer.
Limited Animation: A constant detail underlining how she is somehow off. She almost never seems to make full-body movements, and instead stiffly hops from place to place and spends battles standing still except for her right hand attacking or parrying. The three times she's forced to quickly dodge an attack in her fight with Ryuko, she jumps into the air, spinning around like a cardboard cut-out, stiff as a board. This is later used to full effect in Episode 18, when against a revitalized Ryuko she is forced to make completely animated motions (like everyone else) and is is significantly outclassed while doing so. It gets averted in the timeframe after her arms are chopped off by Ryuko in the previous battle, the majority of her animations get stylized and heavily detailed. Even the blood splatters from her arms get better details! She actually looks more like something from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt than anything else in some scenes.
Made of Iron: Brushes off trip mines and laser cannons with a scoff.
Madness Mantra: After Ryuko cuts and absorbs both of her arms, she begins yelling "I'm pissed, I'm pissed, I'm pissed!" (or in the Dub, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!") nonstop until Hououmaru picks her up with a chopper.
Major Injury Underreaction: Attempted after getting her arms cut off, having an initial Oh, Crap! reaction before calmly expressing her intent to reattach them, only for Ryuko to absorb said arms, intensifying her Oh, Crap! even more.
Manipulative Bitch: She reveals to Ryuko that she killed her father, knowing Ryuko would lose control of Senketsu in her rage and potentially die in the process. Later, when she finds herself banned from the school and Ryuko is too doubtful of herself to seek Nui out to fight her, she poses as a male student sympathizer and persuades Ryuko to get back on her feet... just so Ryuko can either lose control again or fight Nui once more; this also had the effect of getting Mako in trouble with the Disciplinary Committee so she won't be able to help Ryuko like before.
Marionette Master: She can use Life Fibers to control life-sized puppets, and can also use them to control other people.
Master of Disguise: She is able to disguise herself and her dolls into someone else with Life Fibers, using it to great effect to lure Ryuko into a trap.
Meaningful Name: "Harime nui" translates to "stitching". Goes with her job of being an ultimate tailor.
Medium Awareness: She leans on her own intro subtitle and caresses Satsuki's hair through the split screen in her first major scene, and generally messes with stuff that nobody else acknowledges.
Minidress of Power: She wears a one-piece frilly pink dress. She's also strong enough to treat battles as if they were games.
Misanthrope Supreme: Like Ragyo, she's extremely contemptuous of humans and seeks to exterminate them.
Mommy's Little Villain: She considers herself to be Ragyo's daughter, and is utterly devoted to her cause. This culminates in the finale when she ecstatically calls Ragyo "Maman" and readily sacrifices herself to repair Shinra Kouketsu and the Primordial Life Fiber as soon as she receives the order for it, and Ragyo warmly commends her for her obedience and tells her to let her handle the rest, which is the closest to a display of normal human affection either of them ever exhibited.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Just like Ragyo, she doesn't exhibit those unless her sugary façade falls down, after which she'll start laughing like a maniac and flash these.
Morphic Resonance: Her eye is still missing when she's disguised as Shinjiro Nagita, forcing her to cover it with "his" hair.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- At first, it seems subverted as she brought Ryuko out of her tent only to crush her again. In the long run, however, she actually managed to motivate Ryuko to grow stronger and it seriously bit her in the butt later on.
- A minor one in Episode 21, as her reluctance to give Ryuko the second half of the Scissor Blades is all Satsuki needs to figure out that Ryuko's brainwashing isn't perfect.
Nigh-Invulnerability: To everything besides the Scissor Blades. Not one of the Elite Four is able to so much as scratch her with their MK II uniforms' best attacks. This is likewise the reason she's such a Smug Super because she knows she can't be harmed by conventional means. The moments where she is seriously injured, however, is her major Berserk Button.
Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: For many of the reasons listed both above and below, acknowledged by Satsuki:
Satsuki: When you consider something charming, it never ends well.
No-Sell:
- She doesn't even flinch from being hit by grenade explosions and finds them to be a mild nuisance.
- In Episode 18, the Elite Four with their upgraded uniforms attack her all at once. They literally do more damage to each other than to her.
Nonchalant Dodge: She dodges and blocks attacks with almost no effort, treating them like some sort of game. She can even dodge machine gun fire from almost point blank range.
Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: She is the Grand Couturier of REVOCS and an out of control, psychotic Dragon to the main villain. A Kawaiiko dressed in a frilly pink dress and Girlish Pigtails, she dances and giggles around the battlefield while murdering people and presenting one of the most formidable challenges to the heroes. She also murdered Ryuko's father, which she gleefully gloats about.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: When she first shows up, this cute girl in a flowery get-up just seems like another silly character in a story with a nudist teacher that poses like a model, a hyperactive schoolgirl with a crazy family, a large shouting man with a bondage fetish, and several other colorful characters. Then she establishes herself as somewhat of a threat after she defeats a 3-Star uniform with a single attack. And then she pulls out the other Scissor Blade that Ryuko has been looking for, and shit suddenly gets real.
Not Worth Killing: In Episode 22, Ryuko tells Nui to surrender after cutting off her arms rather than take the open opportunity to finish her off. Whereas before Ryuko held a blind, murderous, vengeful rage toward Nui, she now realizes that this only allowed Nui to manipulate her and she isn't worth the emotional energy anymore. As a result, Nui becomes the one filled with blind, murderous, vengeful rage.
Off with Her Head!: She inflicts this on herself, as well as her clones, during the final episode, all to answer Ragyo's call and merge with the Not Quite Dead Primordial Life Fiber, with the both of them powering up Shinra Kouketsu in lieu of Rei, who got forcibly ejected from it by Senketsu.
Oh, Crap!:
- Her sugary façade fades a good deal when she realizes that she's outmatched by a Super Mode Ryuko.
- In Episode 21, when Satsuki tells her that she knows she and Ragyo still don't trust Ryuko. Also when she is impaled by Ryuko, who is finally freed from Junketsu's control.
- In Episode 22, her facade is completely destroyed after Ryuko chops her arms off and destroys them.
Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: After her arms are amputated, Nui takes this so far above and beyond any of the other characters it stops being funny and starts getting scary. It could honestly be compared to a fire hose at full blast by this point.
Parasol of Pain: Subverting Parasol of Prettiness, she appears carrying a delicate pink umbrella as she elegantly strolls through Honnou Town, when it's shown in her first fight to be sturdy enough to block Sanageyama's giant kendo sword.
People Puppets: Like Ragyo, she can use Life Fibers to control people via Mental Refitting.
Perpetual Smiler: She always shows a rather cute smile, even while doing things like dispatching Sanageyama in two hits or nonchalantly telling Ryuko that she killed her father. Her cute smile is replaced with a Slasher Smile after her arms get lopped off in Episode 22 and she finally loses her cool.
Pink Means Feminine: She has a bow, earrings, a frilly Minidress of Power, forearm pads, boots, and a Parasol of Pain all in pink and white. She is fittingly the cutest character in the series by far (if only superficially).
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: When first introduced in episode 11, she is called the Number One Designer of REVOCS, but she is never seen designing or making anything until episode 19.
Precision F-Strike: Taking the profanity from a statement Ryuko just made, she tells her to "Kiss your bat-shit crazy friends goodbye!" in the dub.
Psycho Pink: Nui dresses and acts like a childish girly girl, but she's actually Cute and Psycho and one of the franchise's most deadly combatants.
Psycho Lesbian: She flirts heavily with both Satsuki and Ryuko in her introduction episode. And then there's episode 21's illusory threesome with Ragyo and a brainwashed Ryuko. Later during that episode, she is shown to really enjoy a kiss from Ryuko, after which she mentions that Ryuko is a better kisser than Ragyo. This is justified as the main authority figure/surrogate mother, Ragyo, liked to do things to her, so she may have gotten the psycho part from her.
Psycho Supporter: Even Ragyo knows that she can't rein Nui in, and yet Nui still helps her, just because she's nuts.
Purple Is Powerful: As opposed to Ryuko's red Scissor Blade, Nui wields a purple blade; the other half of Isshin's shears and the weapon used to kill him. Also, when she literally shows her heart to Ryuko to prove that she is also a human-Life Fiber hybrid, it glows with a purple hue.
Red Baron: Her title is "Grand Couturier". The title in real life signifies a designer that can reliably create high quality, customized clothing of signature style and pattern, whose designs will influence fashion at all levels. Since clothing has a lot of power in this show, this makes Nui an extremely powerful person. Case in point: Nui's final project is to design and create the ultimate Kamui, Shinra-Koketsu, which will be used to physically destroy the world and thus not just influence fashion, but humanity itself. Ryuko even cites Nui's title as a reason why she chops off Nui's arms in episode 22.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Oni to Hououmaru's Blue as Co-Dragons to Ragyo. Hououmaru is always calm, collected, completely loyal to Ragyo, and doesn't really fight whereas Nui is highly impulsive, prone to Villainous Breakdowns when things don't go her way, tends to ignore Ragyo's orders as much as possible and is very good at fighting.
Revenge by Proxy: Decides to torment Ryuko because her father outwitted and managed to injure her.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: She's very hard to anger, but Ryuko's actions in episode 22 shows us what happens when she actually gets mad: she goes completely and utterly batshit crazy and spends all but the last minutes of the series in a mouth-foaming, homicidal rage, even as she's putting the finishing touches on Shinra-Kouketsu with her teeth.
Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: The Romanticist to Isshin's Enlightenment. Aesthetics matter greatly to her.
Sanity Slippage: Any sanity Nui might have had all but completely evaporates in episode 22 after Ryuko dismembers and absorbs her arms. From there on out, her cutesy façade is permanently replaced with a creepy Slasher Smile and a burning desire to horribly murder Ryuko.
Self-Disposing Villain: Rather than let herself be killed by Ryuko, who has more than enough reasons to do so, she offs herself to help power the Primordial Life Fiber. When Ryuko destroyed it in the final battle, whatever remained of Nui presumably went down with it.
Self-Duplication: She can make huge hordes of identical clones pop out of her umbrella, although they're nowhere as durable as her.
Shadow Archetype: To Ryuko. Both are Life Fiber beings with similar heritage (Ryuko is Ragyo's biological daughter, Nui was created by Ragyo from the Primordial Life Fiber), but the key difference is that Ryuko was quickly discarded by Ragyo shortly after her birth, while Nui has been her top enforcer the moment she was conceived. While Ryuko became a prickly delinquent, the fact that Ragyo had little to no influence on her life allowed her to become a good person at heart, while Nui had no such freedom and was molded into a murderous psychopath as a result. Additionally, Ryuko accepts her physiology and fights for humanity, while Nui openly hates humans.
Shear Menace: She owns the other half of Ryuko's Scissor Blade until Ryuko reclaims it in episode 22.
Shut Up, Kirk!: When Nui is fighting and Mako is about to interrupt it with a rant, she pulls a nasty Nightmare Face to shut her up. Notably, she's the only character to silence any of Mako's rants before they finish.
Sinister Scythe: Her Scissor Blade's Decapitation Mode is a strange double-ended scythe.
Slasher Smile: Flashes a permanent one after Ryuko cuts off and absorbs both of her arms, which in turn triggers her definite Villainous Breakdown.
Smug Super: Her attitude towards fighting can be equated to a child playing a game, at least until somebody actually gives her a challenge.
The Sociopath: Absolutely insane, disguises herself solely to manipulate others and take away their hope, loves it when people hate her, and considers everyone her playthings, all with a big smile on her face. Her Evil Gloating about murdering Ryoku's father in cold blood to her face clearly speaks for itself.
Sore Loser: Though she'd never admit it, Satsuki believes Nui to be considerably pissed that Isshin tricked her into taking his Rending Scissors instead of the Kamui he was working on, which also cost her an eye. This is all but confirmed in episode 22. Her rage at the humiliation she receives from Ryuko and Satsuki, and then having to be bailed out by Hououmaru, is rather impressive to behold.
Spanner in the Works: Keeps throwing Satsuki's Ryuko-related plans into disarray forcing her to adjust them on the fly.
Stealth Hi/Bye: She has a penchant of appearing out of nowhere, first demonstrated in episode 13, when she suddenly appears behind Ragyo after Satsuki leaves. She also reveals herself to be Satsuki's helicopter pilot during episode 16, and hints that she's been there all along.
Stranger Behind the Mask: She's revealed to be the killer of Ryuko's father in the same episode she is introduced.
Super-Speed: Avoids every attack given by Ryuko blow for blow, even the gunfire from Tsugumu's needle guns.
Super-Strength: The fact that she can block a fully transformed Sanageyama's sword (keep in mind that a Goku Uniform enhances its wearer's physical attributes) without so much as showing any hint of effort implies that she's stronger than she looks. She even does this without wearing a Goku Uniform.
Super-Toughness: To the point where she doesn't even bother to block most attacks, as they almost never even get her hurt. She's only been injured two times, during a flashback well before the series proper began, and when Ryuko cuts off both her arms and Senketsu absorbs them.
Sweet Polly Oliver: Disguises herself as a male student, Shinjiro Nagita, in episode 13.
Sword Beam: Fires two purple crescents at Ryuko using both Scissor Blades in episode 22. Ryuko deflects them into the ocean with one hand.
Sword Plant: Plants her Scissor Blade in the ground as an improvised seat.
Symbol Motif Clothing: She has the Wicked Heart Symbol on her earrings, the center of her bow, the collar of her frilly Minidress of Power, and the highlights in her knee-length twintails.
Tareme Eyes: Invoked. As part of her status as The Fake Cutie, she has round eyes in contrast to Ryuko and Satsuki's Tsurime Eyes.
Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: Ryuko is a crude and aggressive delinquent but is deeply loyal to her friends and willing to protect innocents. Nui wears a bright pink ruffled dress, styles her hair in giant pigtails, speaks in a cutesy fashion and is a psychotic Ax-Crazy assassin whose only loyalty is to the Big Bad, Ragyo.
Theme Naming: Her given name means "to sew", and her surname means "stitch".
This Cannot Be!: Despite her cutesy facade, Nui is a being who really believes herself invincible since no ordinary weapon can harm her... save the Scissor Blades. So when Isshin actually does wound her and the damage can't be immediately fixed, it pisses her off something fierce. Later on, when Ryuko actually severs her arms after re-gaining both pieces of the Scissors and absorbs them to keep Nui from re-attaching them, the possibility that she can lose pretty much freaks her out. She even yells out "This can't be happening!" after Ryuko does the deed, and is in strong denial until Hououmaru points out that Ragyo needs to be told about what happened.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to Ryuko's Tomboy. However, they're far from being friends; at least, Ryuko thinks so...
Tranquil Fury: Only briefly. When Hououmaru questions her in the middle of her Villainous Breakdown about how she'll explain to Ragyo the reason she got crippled by Ryuko when she shouldn't have been on the battlefield, Nui immediately stops freaking out, puts on an icy blank stare and states in a quiet voice that the thought of herself having to answer for anything is absurd, then stitches her wounds shut and threatens Hououmaru with death while smiling and talking in her old jovial manner for a short time, before getting worked up again.
Troll:
- Nui's twisted worldview holds hate equivalent to love, so naturally her primary goal throughout the series seems to be completely infuriate as many people as possible. If her gleeful declaration that she killed Ryuko's father just to get a reaction out of her wasn't enough, episode 13 shows her disguising herself as a male student just to break Ryuko all over again.
- Nui's death was a final act of trolling. She decapitates herself with a cheerful smile to make way for Ragyo's final Evil Plan. She made enemies out of so many people most likely knowing full well that none of them were going to have the pleasure of finishing her off in the end. Course that is rendered moot in the finale when Ryuko takes over the Primordial Life Fibers and tells it to implode. Pretty much taking Nui's essence with it.
Tron Lines: The new combat-oriented arms Ragyo gives her are jet black with glowing rainbow lines.
Ultimate Blacksmith: In a World… where Clothes Make the Superman, being a Grand Couturier amounts to being one. She demonstrates her skill in manipulating Life Fibers several times in the series: she puts on a near perfect disguise and creating perfectly lifelike puppets all to make Ryuko wear Senketsu so she can destroy it, she designs and creates Shinra-Kouketsu for Ragyo, she's capable of Mind Stitching without special Life Fibers, and she can instantly spot a Goku Uniform's Banshi and sever it with her pinky finger to destroy it. Even after her arms are cut off, she still manages to sow together a god-like Kamui with her teeth.
Uncanny Valley Girl: Everything about her is deliberately uncanny. She can reach through a split screen and lean on her own subtitles, is always smiling, and her movements are noticeably less fluid than the other characters.
Undying Loyalty: She at first seems to be following Ragyo only due to her whims. By the finale, she proves that she is completely loyal to her, even killing herself so Ragyo can continue with her plans.
Unskilled, but Strong: She's one of the strongest characters in the series, but she relies too much on her inhuman strength, speed, and toughness to dominate her opponents. Even her use of Life Fiber clones is not for strategic purposes, but just to overwhelm the opponent with numbers. She doesn't really take it well when somebody outsmarts her^noteas in the case of Isshin Matoi or overpowers her, and once Ryuko embraces her Life Fiber powers, she snaps.
Verbal Tic: She has a tendency to make a childish, drawn-out "Oooooh", and occasionally repeats words ("Nope, nope, nope!" "Useless, useless, useless!").
Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where she keeps the other half of the Scissor Blade.
Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Downplayed. When introduced, she's an unstoppable force above everyone save Raygo and possibly Satsuki with Junketsu, capable of treating Ryuko on Unstoppable Rage like an angry kid and defeating an Elite Four member without effort. She's still in the top tiers of the scale even by the end of the series, but Ryuko by their third fight with Senketsu restored from being sliced apart by Nui's Scissor Blade could comfortably take the lead on Nui, the Elite Four with their 11th-Hour Superpower could wipe out her clones with only a mild amount of effort, and by the end Ryuko in her base and both Scissor Blades could fight evenly with her before actually using Senketsu turns the fight into a Curb-Stomp Battle in her favor. She literally can't level grind because the incredibly powerful Life Fibers inside her body won't let her synchronize with even a Kamui to boost her power further.
Villainous Breakdown: Her sugary sweet façade has been broken several times throughout the series:
- The first was in a flashback where Ryuko's father, Isshin Matoi, caught her off-guard with the aforementioned Eye Scream, causing her to scream in pain and violently finish him off in retaliation.
- The second is when she fights Ryuko in episode 18 and is shocked that her opponent has gotten strong enough to be more than a match for her.
- The third comes when she gets gagged by Ryuko's cloth and subsequently gets stabbed in episode 20. This one is subverted, however, since she only acts like she's in pain at first but then immediately smiles and says "Just kidding!".
- The fourth and final breakdown comes in Episode 22, when Ryuko not only reclaims both halves of the Scissor Blade from Nui, but also slices both of her arms off. At first, she plays it off as a fake-out like the previous one, but when Senketsu eats her arms, the villainous breakdown sticks and her cutesy-poo façade is permanently replaced with a Slasher Smile and murderous rage. Even when she does try to put the old façade back on, it's very notably forced, like a mask that doesn't fit anymore.
Villainous Crush: Seems to have developed one for Ryuko after learning that she was a human/Life Fiber-hybrid like her, and even before that she didn't seem quite sure if she would rather shank or shag Ryuko.
Villainous Incest: Ragyo is her mother figure, so this was inevitable. In fact Ragyo is her mother, so Ryuko and Satsuki are her sisters. She joins Ragyo in raping Ryuko's mind to brainwash her, and visibly enjoys the Forceful Kiss Ryuko gives her immediately afterwards.
Wake-Up Call Boss: She easily defeats Sanageyama even after his levels taken in badassery, and that is before she pulls out the other half of Ryuko's Scissor Blade. She even destroys Senketsu to let you know how above the sorting algorithm she really is.
Walking Spoiler: Of the same magnitude as Ragyo. Made even more egregious because she appears mid-season and drops a bombshell on her very first appearance, instantly making it hard to understand her character without giving away the masses of revelations that ensue.
Wants to Be Hated: She believes that hate and love are two sides of the same coin, therefore she enjoys it when people hate her, leading her to intentionally piss people off just for kicks while reveling in how infuriated they are.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: To further emphasize her inhuman nature, she's the only one to have suffered permanent scarring and loss of limb, and that no one in-universe would actually feel, let alone show, her any pity.
Wicked Heart Symbol: She has the heart symbol on her earrings, the center of her bow, the collar of her frilly Minidress of Power, and the highlights in her knee-length twintails. She's also one of Ragyo's Co-Dragons.
The Worf Effect: Twofold actually; her being completely outperformed by Ryuko who has unlocked her Super Mode serves merely as build-up to show just how ridiculously overpowered a Junketsu-wearing Ragyo is.
You Killed My Father: Nui was the one who killed Ryuko's father.

Junketsu

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bf034ef639808bb038da733a29af84e2.png

The Kamui Soichiro presented to Satsuki when she was a little girl. Satsuki retrieved it from its confinement to test it against Ryuko.

Ambiguous Gender: Assuming all Kamui have a gender, Junketsu's is unknown since it never speaks, aside from screaming when Ryuko ripped it off of her.
Ax-Crazy: Is far more violent and savage than Senketsu, even attempting to kill Satsuki when she first put it on. As it turns out, this is normal Life Fiber behavior. Senketsu is the "abnormal" one.
Black Eyes of Crazy: Its sclera turn black when it bonds to Satsuki. It's more accentuated with Ragyo and later Ryuko, though.
Bling of War: Junketsu looks less like a Sailor Fuku and more like a full-blown military uniform laced with gold silk brocade. Soichiro even called it Satsuki's "wedding dress".
Blood Magic: Like all Kamui, it feeds off its host's blood. Satsuki awakens it by slicing her hand and dripping blood onto it as an offering.
Satsuki: Take my blood, Junketsu. It is the eternal vow between you and I, the crimson thread of our covenant.
Chainmail Bikini: Leaves most of Satsuki's body exposed, but grants her inhuman durability nevertheless. Turns out to be intentional on Satsuki's part. By limiting the surface Junketsu covers, Satsuki was able to resist its attempt at controlling her.
Death Cry Echo: Lets out a faint, echoing scream once Ryuko breaks free from its control by ripping it off to shreds, although it survives and is sewed back together, along with some of Ryuko's blood and Senketsu's Life Fibers.
Evil Counterpart: To Senketsu, first being worn by Ryuko's rival, Satsuki.
Evil Weapon: Compared to Senketsu, Junketsu is untamed, and constantly trying to consume Satsuki if not for her overpowering will.
Frilly Upgrade: Inverted; similar to Senketsu Senjin, its Zenkan form is covered in blades.
Heel–Face Turn: Of a sort: its urges to devour Satsuki get suppressed after being injected with a mix of Ryuko and Satsuki's blood and Senketsu's Life Fibers.
Grappling-Hook Pistol: One of its shoulder fins can be fired to this effect.
Jet Pack: Junketsu Senpu, acquired by Junketsu after it was infused with some of Senketsu's Life Fibers.
Leotard of Power: When Ryuko wore it.
Light Is Not Good: In contrast to Senketsu. This is possibly subverted after the infusions, where it could be letting Satsuki control it better.
Lotus-Eater Machine: Junketsu had been altered by Nui to be one to brainwash Ryuko.
Meaningful Name: "Junketsu" means "purity". Since this Kamui is openly evil, the name could easily be ironic, but it is not. Life Fibers in their natural state are hostile, parasitic aliens and Junketsu is made of 100% Life Fibers. It contrasts Senketsu who, though also a 100% Life Fiber outfit, has been genetically modified with human DNA, Ryuko's to be more specific, to make him an ally of humanity rather than an enemy. This makes Senketsu "impure" in a sense, while Junketsu is "pure" alright. Pure evil.
Pinned to the Wall: After Ryuko rips it off her own skin, the eye of Junketsu is shown trying to drag itself away. Satsuki pins it to the floor with a blade.
Power at a Price: Like Senketsu, Junketsu requires blood to activate. Unlike Senketsu, it's actively trying to consume the user and is putting an enormous strain on their body.
Pretty Butterflies: Junketsu resembles a butterfly when Ragyo puts it on.
Puppeteer Parasite: Influences Ryuko while she's wearing it, making her more bloodthirsty and vicious.
Pure Is Not Good: Even its name means pure, but good it is not.
Redemption Promotion: Possibly. Getting sewn back up with some of Senketsu's Life Fibers and injected with Ryuko's blood seems to have tamed it, but definitely made it more powerful.
Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Attempts to throw itself off the ship when Ryuko breaks its influence over her and shreds it. Satsuki pins it to the deck.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Was locked away by Ragyo until Satsuki awoke it.
Shoulders of Doom: In its armored form, Junketsu sports two massive spikes as pauldrons.
Stripperiffic: Its transformed form covers even less skin than Senketsu does. Averted when bonded to Ryuko, where it covers significantly more skin.
Symbiotic Possession: Has this dynamic with Satsuki due to her dominating its bloodlust with her will.
Virgin in a White Dress: Played with. Junketsu is referred to as Satstuki's wedding dress, and its white color evokes the traditional associations of white with wedding dresses and virginity. But the way Junketsu sometimes forces itself upon its wearers has implications of rape and loss of innocence.
The Voiceless: Unlike Senketsu, Junketsu never speaks or otherwise vocalizes. Until Ryuko rips it off from herself, then you can hear a faint scream coming from it.

Rei Hououmaru

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese), Cristina Valenzuela (English)^{Foreign VAs}

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4351fe178c2519e9c013bbc5c1066331.png

"You're a scamp of the highest order, Ma'am."

Ragyo's secretary and assistant.

Avenging the Villain: In the OVA, Hououmaru tries to avenge Ragyo and to a lesser extent, Nui.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Unusually, she combines a business suit and tie with shorts.
Badass Normal: Doesn't wear a Goku Uniform, but is able to stand against the Elite Four anyway.
Big Damn Heroes: A villainous variant; she rescues a now armless Nui via helicopter when it's clear the Grand Couturier would get overwhelmed by Nudist Beach, but the latter's none too happy about it.
Black Girl Dies First: Subverted. She's black and the only villain to survive.
Clothing Combat: The sleeves of her suit can be extended to act like whips.
Co-Dragons: With Nui, though unlike the former, she follows Ragyo's will to the letter. While Nui provides a penultimate battle for the heroes before Ragyo can be faced, Hououmaru is used by Ragyo to create Absolute Submission, which must be deactivated before Ragyo can be stopped.
The Comically Serious: She's completely serious and unfazed as she speaks to Nui, whose High-Pressure Blood is spurting point-blank into her face. She's also cool with being absorbed into Shinra Kouketsu.
Cool Shades: She puts on a pair of green shades in Ragyo's presence, even if the latter only appears in a low-definition video message behind her and there should be no risk of getting blinded by her Holy Backlight. These shades were given to her by Ragyo when she was saved 20 years ago and became Ragyo's ward. In her final gambit to kill Satsuki, they wind up cracking and ultimately broken when Hououmaru is offered to come help make the world a better place. This symbolizes the last of Ragyo's will has fallen and Hououmaru can make her own choices without her.
Dark and Troubled Past: She is originally from an African village of people with high resistance to Life Fibers, but were being wiped out in a civil war. Ragyo saved her.
Devour the Dragon: Almost a literal example, as in episode 23, Ragyo has the Shinra Kouketsu absorb her to power it up.
Dragon Ascendant: Hououmaru is the Big Bad of the OVA, attacking Honnouji Academy and taking over its secret defense system, hoping to kill the heroes so she can avenge Ragyo's death.
Faux Action Girl: There are a few times when it looks like she will join the fray, being depicted as a possibly powerful fighter, but nothing really comes of it. At the end of episode 23, she is absorbed into Shinra Kouketsu, eliminating any chance of her fighting in the last episode. This is subverted in episode 25.
Heel–Face Turn: After Ryuko defeats her giant robot, Satsuki convinces Hououmaru to come work for her and help make the world a better place.
Hypocrite: Hououmaru despises abuse of the weak by the strong. As such, it's not a coincidence that her Black Constructs are built on memories of Satsuki and the Elite Four's iron-fisted rule of Honnouji Academy. However, she conveniently glances over the fact that her beloved boss, Ragyo, is and was without a doubt the most powerful person on the planet and the most horrifying abuser of human rights.
I Owe You My Life: Ragyo saved her life as a child and Hououmaru swore loyalty to the former as a result.
It's Personal with the Dragon: Inverted. Not only is she The Dragon, but Episode 25 has Satsuki as her main target when it was Ryuko who defeated Ragyo and should have been considered the bigger threat.
Jerkass Has a Point: Regardless of their goals and reasons for doing so, the whole reason Hououmaru's able to create evil clones of Satsuki and the Elite Four is due to all the suffering and fear they imposed on the no-star students which can't be erased with a simple Heel–Face Turn.
Light Is Not Good: Barring her dark skin tone, she's constantly clad in white clothes save in episode 25, and is Ragyo's direct subordinate. Fits with the series' overall color-coding of "White/light = bad, black = good".
Meaningful Name: "Hou-ou" is the Japanese name for the fenghuang, which supposedly has rainbow-colored plumage. Very fitting, since Ragyo gave her this name after she saved Hououmaru from her Doomed Hometown.
Memento MacGuffin: She received her glasses from Ragyo after being saved by the latter.
Misanthrope Supreme: Having seen humanity at its worst during her country's civil war, Hououmaru's whole motivation for serving and later avenging Ragyo has shades of an It Is Beyond Saving attitude towards humanity.
Nerves of Steel: Keeps a thoroughly straight face as Nui verbally lashes out at her, even getting sprayed in the face by a geyser of blood stemming from where Nui's arms used to be.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In her haste to save Nui, she deploys a large number of COVERS which Nudist Beach easily defeats, gaining both allies and Life Fibers necessary to produce a large number of Goku Uniforms.
No-Sell: She doesn't seem to have taken any damage from the attacks she suffered from a rebelling Satsuki, one of which sent her flying to a wall.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: While certainly more combat-capable than the average human being, she's much less a threat than Nui as evidenced by how easily the Elite Four and Junketsu-wearing Satsuki threw her around in comparison. Come episode 25, she finally gets to show off her badass credentials, creating the Black Elite Four and Satsuki out of the remaining Life Fibers and taking control of the Academy's DEFCON system.
Overshadowed by Awesome: When she finally gets to fight, even though she is capable of superhuman feats, she is constantly being thrown around by either the Elite Four or Satsuki wearing Junketsu.
Post-Climax Confrontation: She's far less of a threat than Ragyo and her taking up the mantle as the lead villainess serves as a way to tie together loose plot threads as opposed to maintaining the Sorting Algorithm of Evil.
Put Them All Out of My Misery: The OVA implies that this, along with Undying Loyalty, may be one of the factors why she went along with her boss' plan for world destruction; the world sucks, might as well blow it up. Satsuki eventually persuades her to help make the world a better place instead.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Nui's Red as Co-Dragons to Ragyo. Nui is highly impulsive, prone to Villainous Breakdowns when things don't go her way and tends to ignore Ragyo's orders as much as possible, while Hououmaru is always calm, collected and completely loyal to Ragyo.
Red Shirt: She considers herself one, stating that her life means nothing in the grand scheme of Ragyo's plans. Bonus points for Nui soaking Rei in her blood before the latter makes her statement. This is subverted in that she's the only villain who doesn't die.
Sleeves Are for Wimps: Her new attire in episode 25 noticeably lacks sleeves, appearing as some sort of military outfit. Also, this is the episode where she shows that she's a Not-So-Harmless Villain after all.
Stoic Spectacles: While she's not always wearing them, they're used to great effect as Hououmaru keeps a completely straight face even as she's sprayed by High-Pressure Blood, courtesy of Nui, whose arms had been cut off permanently by Ryuko.
Super-Speed: Manages to free Ragyo from her cross and take her in the middle of Satsuki's forces in the time it takes for Satsuki to swing her sword in order to stop her from rescuing Ragyo in the first place.
Tareme Eyes: She has round eyes, a clue that she isn't as evil as she seems.
Token Minority: Rei is the only black character amongst the cast and the only character to explicitly shown to not be from Japan by birth.
Undying Loyalty: Because Ragyo saved her life when she was a child, Hououmaru's loyalty to Ragyo knows no bounds, and she obeys her every command without question. She even sacrifices herself to power Ragyo's Absolute Submission field, with the implication that her total obedience to her boss makes it work.
Villain Has a Point: Her Avenging the Villain has her call out Satsuki and the Elite Four that there's lots of evil in the world they're unaware of and their being Good All Along doesn't absolve them of all the cruelty they inflicted during that time, which they acknowledge and resolve to make amends for.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She endured such trauma in her childhood that she ultimately decided that mankind deserved to be sacrificed to the Life Fibers.
You Shall Not Pass!: Almost word for word to the Elite Four at the end of episode 18. It helps that they were already backed into a corner by Nui's clones when she said it.

Soichiro Kiryuin

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f1fcd774affbd4b98eb1bcde403828be.png

"This will be your wedding dress."

Satsuki's father and Ragyo's husband, a scientist who married into the Kiryuin family and the one who entrusted Junketsu to Satsuki. However, after he found out about the true nature of the Life Fibers, he secretly rebelled against Ragyo.

'80s Hair: He has a 'do that makes Mike Score's haircut look dignified.
Arc Words: In Soichiro's first appearance, the first thing he said is, "This will be your wedding dress," to a five-year-old Satsuki while looking at Junketsu, words she keenly remembers. The significance is revealed when it's finished: "But when you put it on, you will become a slave to clothing." These words were the spark that forever changed Satsuki from a cheerful, innocent little girl into a hardened warrior determined to bring down COVERS and her mother, Ragyo.
Defector from Decadence: Upon realizing that Ragyo is a cold, heartless shrew who essentially used their children for experimentation and didn't give a damn when their youngest daughter (seemingly) died as a result of said experimentation, he turns against her full force and aims to take her and the Life Fibers down. To this effect, he faked his death and became Isshin Matoi.
The Faceless: We first see him in episode 3 when he showed Junketsu to Satsuki, but didn't see his full face until episode 18.
Faking the Dead: Satsuki thought he died after Kuroido targeted and destroyed his car, but he survived by covering himself with Life Fibers. Sometime after he escaped, he had surgery to drastically alter his appearance to become Isshin Matoi.
Guinea Pig Family: What kind of parent cuts open his newborn daughter, stuffs her full of Life Fibers and then performs experiments on her? Although this seemed to be mostly Ragyo's idea and Soichiro turned against her after this, feeling that they both went too far.
Non-Standard Character Design: His '80s Hair gives him a more "old-school anime" look than the other characters. This can be seen as a clue that he and another character with an old-fashioned character design, Isshin Matoi, are one and the same.
Posthumous Character: Satsuki's father died quite sometime before the series began. It's also revealed that he is actually Isshin Matoi, making Satsuki and Ryuko sisters.
Take Up My Sword: Entrusts Satsuki to continue his plan to kill Ragyo and destroy the Primordial Life Fiber. He likely attempted to do the same with Ryuko before she ran outside to find the killer, Nui.
Two Aliases, One Character: Isshin Matoi and Soichiro Kiryuin are one and the same.
Walking Spoiler: Episode 19 reveals who he really is, as well his relevance to the story's main plot.
You Monster!: Had this attitude towards Ragyo after she casually disposed of their daughter, Ryuko.

Mitsuzo Soroi

Voiced by: Akio Nojima (Japanese), Doug Stone (English)^{Foreign VAs}

"Do try not to overexert yourself, Milady."

Satsuki's loyal butler and Shirou Iori's uncle.

Black Eyes of Evil: Subverted. Even though Soroi's eyes are perpetually black, he is easily one of the kindest and nicest characters in the cast.
Charles Atlas Superpower: At one point, he carries around eight to ten people on his back with very little difficulty.
Cool Old Guy: He's a friendly man and Satsuki has absolute faith and trust in him.
Evil Wears Black: A subversion. While his outfit has black, he's anything but evil.
The Jeeves: Fits this to a T: he's always polite and unquestioning, and always ready to pour his master a spot of tea.
My Master, Right or Wrong: He's the only one of Satsuki's servants who doesn't object to her stealing and wearing Junketsu against her mother's position. He even participates in Satsuki's rebellion against her mother.
Parental Substitute: Is really more of a surrogate grandpa than butler to Satsuki, he was with her since she was five, and is the only person Satsuki seems to feel relaxed and happy around. He's far better than her only living parent, too.
The Stoic: Always calm and courteous, regardless of the situation.
Super-Strength: When he and Iori are escaping from the Kiryuin manor he's able to carry his nephew and several other wounded on his back without any difficulty.

Takiji Kuroido

Voiced by: Kousei Hirota (Japanese), John Snyder^notecredited as Ivan Buckley (English)

"Even if you are the young lady of the house, I cannot allow such willful behavior."

The steward of the Kiryuin family who heads the family's manor when Ragyo is absent.

Bound and Gagged: How Soroi and his group dispose of him during the rebellion.
Evil Wears Black: His outfit incoporates black and he's a Fat Bastard.
Fat Bastard: He's quite portly, and he attempted to kill Soichiro under Ragyo's order, muttering "He was a stupid man" before driving away.
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: A picture of him from the anime's official site has him smoking a cigar.
Killed Off for Real: In all probability, given that he was still absorbed by the Primordial Life Fiber when the heroes kill it.
Light Is Not Good: Wears some white and is a Fat Bastard.
No Badass to His Valet: He tries to exercise this authority to Satsuki, but gets promptly dismissed.
Say My Name: Utters Ragyo's name as he gets absorbed by the Primordial Life Fiber.
Sycophantic Servant: His devotion to Ragyo and COVERS is disturbing to say the least. He eagerly requests to be absorbed into the Primordial Life Fiber.

COVERS

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/8e44cd2b21a9c53e989c614e96d14c9e.png

Beings created from the Primordial Life Fiber. They resemble white business suits and eat people to power up.

And I Must Scream: Each COVERS sports a round, emaciated face where their necktie is supposed to be, upon absorbing their victim, and can be heard whimpering. Taken to the next level when the Combat-types make their appearance, possessing a very high number of those faces in the chest and forearms.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The gargantuan Combat-types, which are big enough to match the Naked Sun in size.
Elite Mooks: Ragyo's stand-ins for the Goku Uniform students.
Knight of Cerebus: Once they make their appearance to assist Ragyo against Satsuki's rebellion, things suddenly go downhill for the entire cast, and the series is subsequently marked with a darker tone after a timeskip during which the COVERS have started to enslave the human population.
Starfish Aliens: They take the form of white business suits. Or rather, clothing takes the form of them.
Walking Spoiler: They appear as soon as Satsuki thinks her plan succeeded and turn the tables around very quickly in Ragyo's favor during episode 18.
You Will Be Assimilated: They swallow people into their bodies and use them as energy sources.
Your Size May Vary: It seems their size vary depending on the people they've absorbed. The one that took in Mako was huge and almost matched Gamagoori for size. Multiple giant COVERS containing dozens of people attack the Naked Sun in the series' penultimate episodes.

Primordial Life Fiber (Spoilers)

Primordial Life Fiber

The source of all Life Fibers on Earth, this mysterious lifeform crashed onto Earth thousands of years ago and laid dormant until its discovery by the Kiryuin family, who safeguarded it in exchange for becoming its servants. Ragyo intends to take things a step further by awakening the Primordial Life Fiber and sacrificing the rest of humanity to the Life Fibers.

Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: It's large enough to potentially swallow the Naked Sun.
Eldritch Abomination: A massive space-travelling glowing orange entity made of Life Fibers, with powers that break the laws of physics. It and its spawn can mind-control and parasitize lesser beings into worshipping it, can forcibly evolve creatures, and grants people superpowers. It's seemingly killed when Ryuko and the Naked Sun rip through its core, although the Naked Sun itself loses nearly the entire flight deck and the Primordial Life Fiber simply reforms into an amorphous mass.
Generic Doomsday Villain: Justified considering that the series has Ragyo and Nui who shows much more personality than it and are the true focused villains of the story but the Primordial Life Fiber doesn't have any speaking roles nor is it intelligent. It just wants to destroy the planet.
Greater-Scope Villain: Being the source of all Life Fibers on Earth, this is a given, as Ragyo herself is shown to be more or less a servant to this creature.
I Am a Humanitarian: Absorbs Takiji Kuroido and the rest of the Kiryuin staff to awaken, and later tries to swallow the Naked Sun.
Macross Missile Massacre: Capable of launching missile-like bundles of Life Fibers that explode on contact.
Magic Meteor: The Applied Phlebotinum it produces literally made mankind the dominant species on the planet.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: It has an immense, four-jawed mouth lined with hundreds - if not thousands - of sharp teeth, complete with blood-red phlegmings.
Mother of a Thousand Young: It's the source of every Life Fiber on Earth. In a more literal sense, Nui was incubated in a womb formed directly from the Primordial Life Fiber, technically making it her mother.
Not Quite Dead: Despite having its core pierced by the combined efforts of Ryuko and the Naked Sun and left to crash offscreen, it still comes back for the finale, where Ragyo orders Nui to give herself to the Primordial Life Fiber and power up Shinra Kouketsu even further.
Physical God: Ragyo regards it as a sacred entity, and is enraged when Satsuki sets foot on its surface.
Planet Eater: Satsuki reveals that once all of the humans have been assimilated by the COVERS, the Life Fibers will use the planet as an energy source before detonating it and scattering themselves throughout the universe again.
Power Glows: It glows a bright orange.
Time Abyss: If crashing into Earth millions of years ago and accelerating humanity's growth is any indication, it's possible it lived for even longer than that.
Walking Spoiler: Is a major antagonist, being the origin of the alien lifeforms known as Life Fibers.

"This is not the end, Ryuko. The Life Fibers will keep advancing throughout the cosmos, and soon, more will come to this planet. Count on it."

Characters / Kill la Kill - Kiryuin Conglomerate

Ragyo Kiryuin

Voiced by: Romi Park (Japanese), Laura Post (English)^{Foreign VAs}

Nui Harime

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)^{Foreign VAs}

Junketsu

Rei Hououmaru

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese), Cristina Valenzuela (English)^{Foreign VAs}

Soichiro Kiryuin

Mitsuzo Soroi

Voiced by: Akio Nojima (Japanese), Doug Stone (English)^{Foreign VAs}

Takiji Kuroido

Voiced by: Kousei Hirota (Japanese), John Snyder^notecredited as Ivan Buckley (English)

COVERS

Primordial Life Fiber

Alternative Title(s): Kill La Kill Nui Harime

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Characters / Kill la Kill - Kiryuin Conglomerate

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Ragyo Kiryuin

Voiced by: Romi Park (Japanese), Laura Post (English) Foreign VAsVirginie Ledieu (French), Corinna Maria Lechler (German), Monica Bertolotti (Italian)

Nui Harime

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English) Foreign VAsMarie Nonnenmacher (French), Sonia Muratore (German), Sara Labidi (Italian)

Junketsu

Rei Hououmaru

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese), Cristina Valenzuela (English) Foreign VAsSophie Göbel (German), Jessica Bologna (Italian)

Soichiro Kiryuin

Mitsuzo Soroi

Voiced by: Akio Nojima (Japanese), Doug Stone (English) Foreign VAsJean-Pierre Leblan (French), Pierluigi Astore (Italian)

Takiji Kuroido

Voiced by: Kousei Hirota (Japanese), John Snydernote credited as Ivan Buckley (English)

COVERS

Primordial Life Fiber

Alternative Title(s): Kill La Kill Nui Harime

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Voiced by: Romi Park (Japanese), Laura Post (English)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese), Cristina Valenzuela (English)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced by: Akio Nojima (Japanese), Doug Stone (English)^{Foreign VAs}

Voiced by: Kousei Hirota (Japanese), John Snyder^notecredited as Ivan Buckley (English)