10 Second Anime - Kill la Kill - Episode 17

Kill la Kill - Episode 17

The life fiber harvest test begins. The first strike against Ragyo Kiryuin is not by Ryuko, but by Satsuki. Rebellion on two fronts!

Well, well, well, the twist of the kanata was always expected, but we had to see how the betrayal would be shown. Let's start with that first, even though it was the last scene in the episode. As most viewers suspected, Satsuki turns on her mother, and will actively oppose her plan to activate all the life fibers in Revocs clothing in a grand harvest for these alien beings. We've been given hints along, but some of the exposition this week actually explains what Satsuki was doing with the 3-star uniforms. The more resistant you are to life fibers, the more threads you can wear and manipulate. Ragyo thought Satsuki was trying to gather these fiber resistant students to get them dependent on the power of their uniforms, and influence them to go along with harvest plan. This makes sense from Ragyo's perspective since there would be resistant individuals anyway, so this might be a way of countering them when the full harvest began. But Satsuki was gathering them to oppose her mother. The reason for her opposition is probably tied in with her absent father. This is one of the revelations I'm looking forward to. However, I don't think Ragyo is that surprised at the betrayal, as she seems to have prepared some contingencies in different colored life fiber thread. Very interesting!

Now, back to the cliffhanger of Kinigase and Ryuko. Of course a Mako Moment saves the day. Why? Because a maiden should only get naked for the one she loves the most!

As Ryuko and Kinigase were about to go at it, Kinigase wonders what a half-naked high school girl without her sailor uniform or her scissor are going to do. Ryuko shoots back that she'd get all the way naked just to show him. Mako says, No! A maiden must be pure for her only beloved, which is Senketsu, right? The mood is broken, with even Senketsu cracking a joke about being worn just so Ryuko won't catch cold.

Aikuro explains to Ryuko a little bit more about their colleague who died during the life fiber experiments: it was his sister, which reveals the depth of Kinigase's hatred of these life fiber suits. He also reveals why Senketsu is so compatible with Ryuko, even though Ryuko is highly resistant to life fiber draining: her DNA was spliced into the artificial fibers. Senketsu was really made only to be worn by Ryuko. This bit of information makes me wonder what Satsuki's father said about Junketsu being her wedding dress. If Ryuko's compatibility blockage with Senketsu was embarrassment and becoming his friend, will there be a similar condition placed on Junketsu dealing with love in Satsuki's case?

The final preparations are being made for the Sports Festival, which is to be the first test of a large scale life fiber harvest. Mako's family crashes Gamagoori's scene to ask two very important questions about Mako and Ryuko's whereabouts: 1) Are they still alive? And 2)

Will there be food? Gamagoori can't handle these Mankanshoukus either... All the parents and guardians are invited to attend the festival as well, and are provided special formal attire. This is all to make sure everyone in the stadium will be wearing life fibers. Well, everyone except Mataro, who sold his tuxedo, and just painted his body to make it look like he has it on.

The day of the event arrives, everyone is in place, and Ragyo's speech starts rambling about how Life Fibers are the rulers of this world, and that she knows their will. That makes me wonder about the scars on her back, and how even when she gets naked to enter a bath, she doesn't take off her neck piece which starts blood flowing into a Life Fiber suit. More revelations to come about her, and what happened 20 years ago. Ragyo activates the life fibers, and everyone except Mataro is covered in red fibers. Nudist Beach and Ryuko complete their infiltration, but before they can strike, Satsuki does, literally stabbing her mother in the back. She hangs her body on a spikes above her throne, crucifying her, and open rebellion is declared on Life Fibers. Satsuki rages that Honnouji Academy was created specifically to defeat her mother. Well, big time action coming up next week.