Kill La Kill

You're never going to look at your wardrobe the same way after this show.

You get a heavy Clothing theme going here....

Episode 4 and 5:

• Man, even getting to class is hellish in this series. And Maiko needs to learn to not reveal her evil plan out loud.

• Let me tell you two things:

1) Never in my life did I think weaponized Sewing tools could be badass;

2) I have a pretty good guess of who the woman that dude was talking about was.

I'm already aware of the connection between Satsuki and Ryuko, and also the real big bad, so that's where my assumption is coming from. It's still gonna be interesting to see though.

This series literally doesn't know how to not be crazy. I really shouldn't have taken so long to watch it.

Well, that's what you get for coming in four years later; the biggest reveal in the show is it's most known thing haha.

"This series really doesn't know when to not be crazy." Welcome to Studio TRIGGER. Formerly, the crazier artists from GAINAX.

I'm enjoying seeing you go through this journey.

Don't loooose your waaaaaaay.

My problem was the exact opposite: I took too damn long to find my way. I knew where it was, I just refused to follow it.

Let's go one line deeper, then:

Don't lose your waaaaay
in your mind

Sawano's a hell of a composer.

Fluent in English and German, even!

Kill la Kill succeeds at being weird and nonsensical yet surprisingly deep and philosophical at the same time. It is a mindless, mindful entertainment where it is bold and fearless yet it acknowledges where it limits are and exceeds them. Kill la Kill is a weird but that is what most people like about it.

Especially German:

He does have a bit of trouble finding similarly fluent singers, though.

Ironic that Hiroyuki Sawano did both scores, since Satsuki is for alll purposes a female Oda Nobunaga anyhow.

It's fascinating how she's Oda Nobunaga and yet also Akechi Mitsuhide, since she's the one who rebels at Honnoji.

6 and 7 now down.

Ryuko learns to never assume the same strategy will work twice, meanwhile Mako learns don't beat up your friend for...well for any reason really.

Also we are introduced to one of the deadliest fighters in any form of fiction: the Blind Weaponmaster.

Rock on Sanageyama. Rock on.

Double post for episodes 8 and 9:

Gamagori...man among men. Nothing much more to say than that. Some interesting insight into his character, and a great fight.

And now, glasses dude is up. After this, I'll hopefully be able to remember his name.

10 and 11 down:

Still cannot remember Glasses Dude's name. Not much to him though (Ryuko figured him out pretty quickly).

Nonon was quite the fight though. Not a shock that the cute sounding one ultimately reveals herself to be one of the most dangerous (and good Foreshadowing for Nui).

Sanagayama chose the wrong person to fuck with. That's how you do the damn worf effect. Show the other dude is a force to be reckoned with (as Sanagayama did in his rematch with Ryuko) so that when he gets taken out, it's established very well just how big a deal that is. Still, the poor guy is quite the Butt-Monkey. Being the first of the Elite 4 to lose, and then get made into a joke by Harime.

And speaking of Harime, I've known about her, and that her appearance very much belies just how dangerous she is (I was full aware she was the one who killed Ryuko's dad) but still, knowing and seeing are two different things. Even before that reveal, she makes it clear she's in her own little world, and 20 levels ahead of everyone else.

Shit gets real soon enough.

At least Sanagayama isn't Yamcha, he is a real badass and he does have GUTS. Just wait for the next episodes

I've done this before, but this music is appropriate for Ryuko vs Nui.

Well nobody is Yamcha.

It takes a certain level of just not caring about your character (though not outright hatred) to create a Yamcha.

Nui is essentially this show's equivalent to Terumi Yuuki, for obvious reasons.

One of my favorite things in KLK is the use of distinct animation styles for the cast. Nui's where it's most obvious but almost every character has the way their animation is presented done in at least a slightly different way.

I'm definitely noticing that distinct style with Nui. I suppose that just adds to the pure surrealness of her character.

12 and 13 down.

Holy shit! Ryuko went crazy! The story of how Nui killed Ryuko's dad is interesting, especially for how flat out berserk she went when he cut out her eye. Seems that you can get under her skin if you know how.

...Man. I rather liked that Nagita dude, but he was just....well, he was not who I thought he was. Guess I shouldn't be surprised after what happened with that other girl.

Senketsu...

SENKETSUUUUUU!!!!!

Shit. I can't believe they did that right when she'd gotten her groove back. That's like cutting off someone's right leg after they recover from having a broken left leg. Dick move writers.

Other examples of distinct animations styles for each character:

• Mako exists a level of surreallness that's conceptually similar to Nui, but nowhere near as unsettling. While Nui feels like she doesn't quite belong in a cartoon at all, Mako wandered in from one of those absurdist western cartoons.
• The teacher, meanwhile, obviously wandered in from a some yaoi hentai.
• Gamagoori's height is 'always at least a head taller than everyone else in the shot'. How much taller than everyone else he appears at any given moment depends on how powerful he seems at that moment. At his worst, he's barely bigger than a chibified Mako. At his best, other characters can Colossus Climb him.

And everyone has the power to grow to a large scale whenever they want to yell over somebody.