10 Second Anime - Kill la Kill - Episode 24 [END]

Kill la Kill - Episode 24 [END]

"Don't cry, Ryuko. A sailor uniform is something to be outgrown." Senketsu, 2013 - 2014, RIP

I didn't want to say goodbye to this show, but the creators had a story to tell, with a beginning, middle, and end, and so it ends. And what an ending! Ragyo in her full glory was quite the monster. In turns she looked like a mashup between Cruella Deville and the Evil Queen from Disney's Snow White. And her suit combined everything she had at her disposal. From a life fiber suit feeding on her blood, plus using another human as her power source like a Cover, she was bad news.

The battle itself is outrageous, but handled in a much more serious manner than the previous one. The stakes are too high, and all the cards are on the table. However, how those cards are played offers us small victories and defeats. The main power of Shinra Kouketsu is Dominate, and it forces all the battle suits to revert and be paralyzed if the wearer has willful opposition toward Ragyo. Even Senketsu is paralyzed. Ryuko's solution: get naked! She's her own life fiber monster, so she doesn't need to wear Senketsu to fight. But on her own, she is outmatched by a fiber-clad Ragyo.

While she fights, things look grim for the regular people, but they still struggle. Harime has had enough of Mako's moments, and aims to strike her down, only to have Gamagoori take the blow. The Absolute Shield, indeed. Mako is safe, and to him it is worth his action.

But then Senketsu strikes out on his own. Satsuki was able to hear his voice! He realizes that when he was worn by Satsuki, he was the one transforming, not Satsuki forcing him to. He is just like Ryuko, neither clothing nor human. Together they can fully Synchronize. He forms his own weapon, and pops Ragyo's secretary out of the suit. Without that extra power source, Dominate fails. The tide turns back toward our heroes, with the students and Nudist Beach going after the satellite transmitter and Harime, and Satsuki and Ryuko taking Ragyo. But good news for Mako: Gamagoori isn't going to die! The Absolute Shield still had a bit of body armor plate on him from his old middle school days. And he's the one who makes the final breach into the life fiber jamming shield, letting Nudist Beach blow the transmitter. Gamagoori's breaching power looked awfully similar to the face mecha of some other show...

Victory is short-lived. Ragyo lays down her ace in the whole: Harime. Harime forms into a bundle of fibers and is absorbed by Shinra Kouketsu. The transmitter is destroyed, but the satellite is still in place. Ragyo then forms a rocket ship to turn on the ignition signal manually. What now? Only a Mako Moment can answer that!

When you come back, we'll go on a date! So don't go dying up there! You have to come back! Senketsu absorbs all the life fibers from everyone assembled, leaving them all naked, and he and Ryuko fly up to confront Ragyo. In the course of the most epic battle of the series, we learn just how different Senketsu was designed to be from Original Life Fibers. So epic, he grows back his missing eye! While Life Fibers make life forms evolve so that they can be the power sources and wear the fibers, Senketsu himself was designed to evolve. This is why he ate life fibers that Ryuko cut. When not even the fully repaired scissors can cut through Ragyo's Shinra Kouketsu, Senketsu forces her defeat by absorbing its life fibers. Taking on the Dominate power, Ryuko herself commands the activated life fibers to revert, and they all burn up as the consumed people fall safely back to earth.

Ragyo, naked, refuses to accept her defeat, and kills herself. However, victory doesn't come without sacrifice. Senketsu feels himself coming apart. Kouketsu was too powerful for his form to handle, and he needs to protect Ryuko from reentry before he disappears. He tells her not to cry. Sailor uniforms were meant to be outgrown. And then, his last shred burns up.

Ryuko is caught by the Satsuki, Mako, and the rest of the people at the stadium. Nudist Beach extinguishes their glowing genitalia. And Ryuko, Mako, and Satsuki all go on a date together, followed by Gamagoori and friends trying to ask Mako out, all wearing cute clothes. Cute enough to make Senketsu jealous. The End.

Final Thoughts: Senketsu is best girl! Mako is second best! As a subversive take on magical sailor girl anime, Kill la Kill blatantly presented their own message of what grants a sailor uniform its power. Blood and sex. Other messages turned upside down: clothes do not make the man, rather, clothes are clothes, and people are people. And for you libertarians out there: totalitarianism never works, no matter how well-intentioned you are. Mix in all the tropes of magical girl shows, with transformation scenes, short skirts, thigh-high socks, talking inanimate objects, red threads of fate, and using enemy alien powers against them, and having them backfire somewhat.

We had a main character who takes her time developing, and realistically falling down, but having her friends help pick her up. From being a delinquent raiding a school to find out who killed her father in the first episode, to saving the entire planet, while making best friends with her magical suit and a normal girl. From losing her entire family to finding it again, within her enemies' ranks and on her own with the Mankanshoukus, Ryuko had quite a ride.

But, we never did find out how Ragyo got those star pattern scars on her back and why Aikuro, and even Kinigase at the end, got their genitalia to glow. For Ragyo, we can surmise her integration of life fibers while serving the Big Ball of Yarn did not come without some setbacks. For Nudist Beach, I guess we're just supposed to laugh. They never let the female nudists glow that way. Sexists! But that may have been another subversive turn on nudity in anime.

This was a great ride. Comedic, epic, ridiculous, exhibitionist, and sometimes sexy. Also, the use of music to help the atmosphere, along with the red card titles for all the objects to evoke context, added greatly to my enjoyment. I would watch it again. I'm going to miss Senketsu and those Mako Moments.