10 Second Anime - Kill la Kill - Episode 7

Kill la Kill - Episode 7

First rule of Fight Club is make somebody else handle the paperwork... Mako's family moves on up, but loses it all when Mako values friendship over materialism.

When everybody starts making clubs just so they can get their own 1-star Life Fiber suits to defeat Ryuko, she decides she can play that game too, and creates the Fight Club. But when Ryuko faces the much more daunting task of club duties paperwork, she hands the presidency and the one-star suit off to Mako. Here we see how the Kiruin philosophy of meritocracy plays out within the city, as the families of the life-fiber wearing students are rewarded with better living conditions. All the club presidents Ryuko defeats lose their suits and their status.

Shades of communism/fascism/nazism are the obvious references here, as the State rewards loyal party members. The Student Council questions Satsuki's intentions in allowing Ryuko and Mako to move up the ranks, and Satsuki tells them it is to see whether Ryuko will assimilate and buy into the system. But since the State is source of Mako's largesse, we see the close-knit family splinter as they wallow in materialism. The flipside of this kind of materialism is capitalism based on individual rights, where the source of success is the individual's merits, not recognition from a central command structure. Mako's family was happier when they were poor, not because they were poor, but because they made their own happiness.

Ryuko sees this happening and decides to quit the Fight Club. Without a fighter, Mako's family will lose all their received benefits, but Satsuki presents Mako with a 3-star suit, which also makes her available to join the inner circle, if she can defeat Ryuko. Banchou (gang-leader) power-up! During their battle, Ryuko turns off her power-up, but refuses to give up even while taking all of Mako's punishment. Finally, Mako can't take anymore of hurting her friend, Ryuko reveals to Senketsu that she knew Mako was pulling her punches. With that, Mako disbands the Fight Club, and Ryuko declares to Satsuki that a normal person can renounce her desires through willpower alone. This is the middle-class virtue of delaying gratification while saving for future purchases, be it children's well-being, or a new house. The Mankanshoku family moves back into their back-alley clinic from their front-alley clinic, and they're all happily eating together again.

However, while Ryuko was playing checkers in joining the club president game, Satsuki was playing chess. Ryuko did not assimilate, but her other goal was accomplished. She explains to her inner circle that she used Ryuko to purge their ranks of undesirables and the unworthy. Still an evil mastermind. Also one thing to note was the lack of fatigue Ryuko had in all of her transformations. We do not know if Satsuki is still being drained in her training with her own suit, but that is probably still the case, and should be a plot point later on in the series.