Kill la Kill – Episode 24

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Well here we are. Allies gathered, enemies looming, stage set. It’s been a long and somewhat uneven ride for Kill la Kill, but it’s pretty much always held on to its core strength – an earnest and beautifully articulated love of pure spectacle. It’s generally kept things visually interesting in spite of anything approaching fluid animation, but this is the very last episode, so I’m guessing we’re actually gonna See Some Shit this time. I don’t expect this show to suddenly become a narrative masterpiece, but I’m perfectly happy to settle for twenty-three minutes of absurd visual excess. Let’s Kill la Kill.

Episode 24

0:06 – Ending right where we began, of course

0:15 – Ohai first scene of Gurren Lagann

Kill la Kill

0:23 – For a show that’s supposedly championing individuality, Kill la Kill sure does like abusing its faceless drones

0:35 – So they can’t get at the penis-rocket because of its condom-barrier. Brilliant work, Kill la Kill

Also, very like Kill la Kill to have Mako interrupt the complicated over-explanation with “it’s a bad barrier! we gotta fight it!” Anyone who overthinks anything in this show gets ignored

0:37 – So is Nonon’s final form, like, four stickers stuck to her stomach and crotch?

1:38 – So we’re actually doing something with the stars imagery? Alright Kill la Kill, ball’s in your court

1:51 – Ah, shounen mumbo-jumbo. Of course! Well, it’s still a nice image

Kill la Kill

2:16 – I can definitely respect what they’re going for – “don’t let what you wear define you” is a fair point. That even kinda sorta works with Ryuuko being forced to accept the appearance of Senketsu – the argument could go, “you won’t always be able to control your representation, but you should still work to own your ground.” If that’s actually all intended, I do wish the show had spent a little more time focusing on and articulating it – Satsuki’s episode three speech kinda faded into just being an articulation of her character more than the show’s goals, since the show didn’t really go anywhere with it

2:46 – Sorry, forgot what I was watching for a second there

3:12 – Aaand now a little Eva

3:57 – Mako’s last stand

Kill la Kill

3:58 – And of course Nui can cut through Mako’s intermissions. That’s another element I kinda wish they’d done more with – Nui and Ragyo’s abilities to break the fourth wall could play off both the “performance” theme and the stuff about controlling your presentation in interesting ways, but they’re really only used for meta gags

4:08 – GAMAGOORI NOOO

4:19 – HE’S NEVER BEEN BIGGER

4:54 – Hurray, identity crisis over

5:08 – OH MY GOD GAMAGOORI SO NOBLE

Kill la Kill

5:17 – MAKOOO

5:18 – Ahaha yes Kill la Kill

5:29 – Nui’s trolling makes this show a lot better

5:53 – Well, yeah

6:22 – An effective but also strange color scheme. Red on white is a pretty abrasive contrast

Kill la Kill

7:17 – All the wonderful Mako faces you could ask for

7:50 – Of course Ryuuko counters with a headbutt. WHAT ELSE IS MY HEAD GOOD FOR

8:00 – Did you girls practice this pose? Well, looks like we’re finally getting all that sweet, sweet animation

8:39 – GAMAGOORI? BUT HOW?!?

8:46 – Oh my god Kill la Kill this fanservice is getting disgusting and I love it

Kill la Kill

8:51 – OF COURSE

9:17 – Gamagoori leveled up so much he actually became a gunmen

9:46 – I think I’m just gonna choose to interpret that as a champagne bottle

10:46 – Yeah, this seems about right for the final episode

11:03 – This show has some pretty crazy imagery

Kill la Kill

11:18 – All of Ragyo’s dreams have come true. She can now molest one of her daughters with her entire body at once

12:09 – Ragyo’s space-lips molest the world

12:48 – Trust Mako to try and tie a thematic bow on the series. Maaaybe if Ryuuko had actually been able to remake Senketsu in the form she chose… but still, it’s a noble attempt, Mako

13:08 – THIS MAY TAKE A WHILE

13:42 – Dang. Finally put the “chain of people making up the life fibers” imagery to work, too

Kill la Kill

13:53 – Their hopes for a better, more naked tomorrow go with her

14:20 – This episode itself is at least nicely thematically consistent. Ragyo marveling at the beauty of a homogenous cocoon world, and then mocking the patchwork quality of a dress made from all the various people supporting Ryuuko

15:39 – You know this show just finds these kinds of speeches either boring or funny

15:50 – Yeeep. I feel like Kill la Kill’s narrative structure and thematic weaknesses make a lot of sense if you imagine its creators are the type of people who fast forward through movies and only stop at the action scenes

16:49 – Still making the most of our shots

Kill la Kill

17:03 – Sure! Why not?!

17:40 – I was wondering if the show had forgotten about that

17:52 – Fantastic effect. I wish they’d used this one more

18:09 – Don’t worry Ragyo, none of this actually makes sense

18:20 – RYUUKO TAKES THE MIC

Kill la Kill

18:26 – Again, it’s doing its best to consolidate. This idea hasn’t been represented consistently enough to come off as natural, but if the show’s going to choose one theme to officially assign itself, this is a fine choice. “So what if my outfit’s ridiculous, it’s not me” is fair

19:26 – YOU SEE THIS SHIT RYUUKO?!?

20:21 – Senketsu’s the one character who dies?! The guy who put up with Ryuuko’s bullshit for the entire series, was alternately abused or mocked by the one person who could understand him, and who basically started the show as a well-adjusted person dealing with a team of idiots and assholes?

Man, being Senketsu is suffering

20:32 – Oh, now they reach that turning point. Little late there, Kill la Kill

21:31 – Adorable

Kill la Kill

21:53 – Alright, yeah, that’s pretty cute

22:05 – Wait, all the Life Fibers are going to die now? That seems a little… extreme

23:00 – Nice callback to the first ED

23:29 – Kill la Kill that is some weapons-grade adorable you’re screwing around with

23:36 – Ermahgerd

Kill la Kill

23:42 – YOU STOP THAT KILL LA KILL

And Done

That was pretty solid! It didn’t really go crazy in scale as much as I’d expected, and the actual fights weren’t so exciting, but it was still fun throughout, and the character-beat fanservice moments were all adorable. Lots of nice shots, too, and though the show’s been too scattershot for this episode’s thematic pretensions to come off as a natural conclusion, the fact that this episode had coherent thematic pretensions is still a plus in my book. Kill la Kill doesn’t really stick with me, but I’ve definitely enjoyed my time with it. Sometimes that’s all you really need.

Seriously thought that Satsuki expression Trigger you are killing me.

18 thoughts on “Kill la Kill – Episode 24”

  1. Sorry Ira but Mako made her inclination quite clear this episode.

    (I really have nothing else to say on this episode other than what has been said.)

  2. I’m in the minority from what I’ve seen elsewhere, but Senketsu’s death felt infinitely contrived.

    It’s one thing to kill him off for thematic consistency; it’s another altogether to go from Unlimited Absorption Works to suddenly “whoops, bit off a bit more than we could chew, eh?” That’s the sort of problems this show has with internal consistency that frustrate me.

    • Honestly, I thought Senketsu simply died because he burned in the atmosphere as he was trying to shield Ryuuko (hence why he got off Ryuko). Do I need to rewatch this again? Did I miss something, or is there a different translation around (I watched the CR one)? I literally have no clue why this idea of the overabsorption is everywhere, it seemed to me that the episode didn’t say anything in that direction.

      • “Shinra Koketsu’s power appears to be greater than I thought”
        Broketsu just protected Ryuko with what little time he had left. I liked it as it concluded her coming of age: “the time comes when a girl outgrows her sailor uniform”. Stop wearing the clothes you were born to wear and wear the clothes you want to wear.

      • Senketsu says something along the lines of Shinra-Koketsu (sp?) being more powerful than he had thought.

        But if he died only from burning in the atmosphere, that makes EVEN LESS SENSE. If there was no reason for her to take him off (overabsorption), then why did she?

        They made it up there just fine with while Ryuko was wearing him, so if he only died from burning up in the atmosphere, it was something that was completely unnecessary.

        • I understood it as: Senketsu got off of his own will to put himself in front of Ryuuko in order to protect her. I may have to rewatch it but I really don’t remember anything about Shinra-Kotetsu. Maybe a translation difference… I have no idea.

          • I guess, for me, even if you lose the idea of overabsorption, why didn’t Ryuko and Senketsu stay transformed and just go back in the way they came out? I don’t know much about traveling through Earth’s atmosphere, but aren’t the forces you experience going in and out the exact same?

            Ergo, why did Senketsu need to die going back in, when they got out without any problems?

          • Well, I don’t expect Kill la Kill to live to a high standard of physics really – but no, the forces aren’t the same at all. Otherwise why would the Space Shuttle catch fire when it lands but not when it takes off? Taking off can be done at different accelerations; you only have to build up speed until you achieve orbit, and it’s not especially relevant at which speed you do that. Of course you need a lift higher than your own weight to do that. When falling down, however, you usually fall down at the gravitational acceleration (unless you still have fuel to burn to slow down your fall). As a result you reach terminal velocity and burn up all your excess speed quickly through friction with the atmosphere. Which can lead to your complete destruction, if you aren’t very careful. No need to do astronautics really – try playing the demo of Kerbal Space Program and that’s more than enough to get the gist of it.

          • Yeah, sorry :P. To simplify it: it’s not the same because when you free fall you’re much faster than when you take off – it’s like swimming in a turbulent river downstream rather than upstream. That also means that while falling you experience a lot of friction with air and that tends to make you burn up and disintegrate. The only reason why spaceships don’t do that is because they have a hard-ass shield in front of them that takes the brunt of the heat on itself. And even then, if they got their landing angle a bit wrong, they’d be goners in a few seconds. So even in the very stylized world of Kill la Kill, Senketsu was basically playing the heat shield in that scene. Though yeah, you’re right he was already damaged before that.

      • (Ok, after rewatching the scene: I think it was a combination of the two things. Senketsu felt like he couldn’t withstand the power he had absorbed and thus hurried to go back to Earth, lest he left Ryuko stranded in SPAAAACE. Hence he burned up, since they basically plummeted like a meteor. So yeah… a bit contrived. The again, still LESS contrived than the mechanism of the scissors cutting Life Fibers and so on)

  3. 17:03 is a callback to Ragyo’s Episode 21 explanation of how she managed to brainwash Ryuuko.

  4. I was completely drunk with friends when I watched this, probably my favorite episode. They did a really impressive job with the loose ends and the themes. Dat Go-Nagai reference also. I must say theme wise I find the whole thing decent enough in the end and I actually really liked the Senkentsu death scene with the ”now you can chose what you wear” thing. Really make a lot of choices more sensical to me. Totally onboard with it being used for the conclusion. The only real beef against the show remain its story structure and Ryuuko being inconsistent. The thematic ideas should have remained more focused too but I don’t really mind how they also handled those with ” people are nonsensical” thing with finding your own ways and representation surrounded by people who all think differently and will also see you differently. Not a masterpiece but a really fun ride.

  5. I think after all, the message of this series was pretty clear. Well, to ilustrate some of it, we can look at this strange text taken from the weekly Trigger Magazine, from a guy named Higuchi (someone from the production I guess…)
    “When Mr.Nakashima writes his scripts, he occasionally has an episode where his characters would start a conversation against his will. Mr. Nakashima explains that from their conversation, he is able pick up the overall plot of the story. The conversation between Ryuko and Nui from episode 22 is a great example of this. Nui claims that she is sick of Ryuko ranting about “friends.” Ryuko then explains that the term “friends” come nowhere close to explaining her relationship with Senketsu and Mako, and that their relationship is something much greater and unexplainable. Mr. Nakashima explains that their conversation was what lead to the concept of KILL la KILL. Something unexplainable and ambiguous. Despite having such a creative production team, the person who held the answer to the series was Ryuko. It was at this point when I realized that Ryuko was indeed leading the series as the main character.

    Higuchi reporting out!”
    Ok, quite a lot. After a lot of intrascendental texts given, this finally hit the nail. Well, it seems the show was pursuing the meaning of being different and unexplicable, maybe even at the point where the audience itself couldn´t tell what the real message was. So I guess it was right, this show was so diffrent, ambiguous, non-sensical as all people in world is, but when we get to know them, we can understand that that is fine, that´s what makes the world so interesnting and diverse, like this show, if we couldn´t get that… maybe we are like Ragyo!! Just kidding, plus we aren´t molesting childs.
    As a gift, a few keyframes taken from the same place
    http://www.st-trigger.co.jp/2014/03/17/009.jpg hell yeah!
    http://www.st-trigger.co.jp/2014/03/26/004.jpg nice shot!
    http://www.st-trigger.co.jp/2014/03/17/006.jpg broketsu R.I.P.
    http://www.st-trigger.co.jp/2014/03/04/sozaiscan269.jpg crazy navy Ryuuko
    http://www.st-trigger.co.jp/2014/02/12/015.jpg Satsuki´s crew
    http://www.st-trigger.co.jp/2014/02/12/012md.jpg Such a great familiar moment

    I hope they can be opened, enjoy!

  6. Pingback: Kill La Kill: A Love Story | Chromatic Aberration Everywhere

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