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.

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Jeez internet look at the time I am super sorry this is so late. I’ve been wasting time and money at Anime Boston all weekend, so I am embarrassingly behind on my cartoons – but that all ends RIGHT NOW. Kill la Kill’s been kind of a narrative mess in this second half, but last episode made a very intelligent choice that did a lot of work to address that – it gave Mako her awesome uniform back, meaning I don’t give a shit if KLK even has an ending at all. Last episode was the “everybody finally loves each other” fanservice-fest – this episode’s likely to be the “EVERYBODY’S A BADASS” one.

I don’t use the word “fanservice” in a necessarily pejorative sense, by the way. Normally it is a bad thing – I generally define fanservice as something added to please a certain audience demographic that either doesn’t aid or directly works against the show’s other goals. Which is why voyeuristic nudity is fanservice in a show that generally wants you to respect its characters as people, or why long shots of mechs are fanservice in a show that’s actually also trying to tell a well-paced story. Most people tend to define fanservice as sexy stuff in general, but I find that a far less useful definition – some shows actually do make great, purposeful use of sexuality (cough Monogatari cough), and I think limiting fanservice to sexual content kind of obscures the reason fanservice is considered bad storytelling in the first place.

But with Kill la Kill? The purpose is fanservice – what Kill la Kill is best at is pleasing the fans. It’s pure spectacle, and always at its best when it’s letting its visual aesthetic, sense of humor, and solid direction just go wild. I quite frankly don’t think Kill la Kill is a very good story, but I do think it’s a very distinctive spectacle, and Kill la Kill’s most impressive moments are often also its most indulgent ones.

So go nuts, Kill la Kill. Get stupid, get funny, get big. Do what you do best.

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Well here we are. Ryuuko’s latest existential tantrum has been resolved, Satsuki and Mako remain better friends than she deserves, and Ragyo is off cackling to herself somewhere. Things haven’t been going the best for Kill la Kill lately – the narrative has kind of rambled, and Ryuuko has sort of undeveloped. Fortunately, we’ve still got Satsuki to be an actually good character and Mako to be entertaining. And if we’re approaching the ending, Kill la Kill can once again lean on what it does best – pure aesthetic spectacle. Last week’s episode was heavy on iconic key frames but incredibly light on animation, so I’m guessing they’re saving up for some serious pyrotechnics to come. This show has had plentiful ups and downs, but I’m ready to see it end strong.

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