First Impressions / Kill la Kill

「銃爪(ヒキガネ)」 (Juu Tsume (Hikigane) )
“Hikigane (Trigger)”

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Tsumugu Kingase—the newest member of our fabulous cast. Armed with a needle gun and willing to go nude if necessary, he comes bearing gifts for Matoi and the rest of our fascist Academy. Accompanying him is just more chaos, and there’s no better time to tell you two important pieces of information:

  • 1) Terminator references get you nowhere everywhere.
  • 2) Screw normal friendships. Nothing tops a friendship between a shirt and his owner. Especially when they only own one.

    • Kill la Kill’s fifth episode just continues spitting on tropes and societal stereotypes—all while referencing various series and movies. This week, the satire victims include a few shounen staples (epic finishing moves and the power of friendship) and female stereotypes (worries about weight and exterior appearances), topped off with Terminator references up the wazoo. Tsumugu’s “I’ll be back… to strip you tomorrow” quip ends up particularly funny, even though the corresponding quote wasn’t quite the same. I guess I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt though, considering how he manages to defeat Matoi without wearing any kind of power-enhancing uniform—and it’s a total victory that makes it so she can’t even run away this time. An impressive accomplishment to say the least.

    But yeah, ultimately this week gives us more of the same in regards to what we’ve come to expect from Kill la Kill. It doesn’t end up giving off the same amount of fabulousness as previous weeks—maybe it’s just my tiredness talking—but it was entertaining regardless, and ends up revealing the organization opposing Honnoji Academy too. Known as “Nudist Beach”—quite the fitting name, if I do say so myself—the organization seems to be a group formed around Matoi’s late father, and it’s interesting to see how despite their obvious strength, they seem to be losing a lot of ground to Satsuki and her cohorts. I guess Tsumugu was right after all—victory is not determined by superior physical abilities—and it looks like Matoi might be getting herself involved in something much bigger than she ever anticipated. Indeed, what this episode ends up doing is gradually bringing the rest of the world (and plot) in view, and it’s definitely gotten my attention—even if I do find myself aching for more of the series’ past fabulousness. Guess we’ll see how it goes.

     

    Preview

    49 Comments

    1. It will be hard to match the manic energy of last week’s episode. Even FLCL couldn’t sustain that level of crazy for a full episode. Also the Nudist Beach should really weaponize a species of moths and turn the tide in their war on the uniforms.

      Absaroka
      Reply

    3. So this episode is a story about a girl and her monstrous, vampiric, sentient, super-power uniform as the bestest friends ever. How adorable, I’m already getting warm fuzzy feelings inside.

      I just realized that Mako serves not just the immortal companion of Ryouko. She’s a rare breed of ENTERTAINING Deus Ex Machina. She has the uncanny ability of coming out of nowhere and give speeches the our heroine needs to pull through.

      fragb85
      Reply

    5. I love how this show just sowed the seeds for an actually serious plot in the most ridiculous way possible.

      Nudist Beach? They fight against evil clothes for the sake of mankind? Give me more!

      While the idea of an all nude world is kind of appealing at first glance (for various reasons, huehuehue), I think after a while I’d get sick of seeing all the guys schlongs flopping about.

      Oh God. The images. They burn….

      Kuntzy
      Reply

    6. Kamina is baack! Well at least his VA. I can already tell he will be one of my fav characters.

      LOOOL and Nudist Beach. With a hot body like that I wouldn’t mind XD haha. Best group name EVER!

      Wooo and Mako! Awesome. She’s not a typical side-kick friend the main character has who always gets taken as a hostage and does nothing else.

      Drift
      Reply

      4. Kind of have that feeling as well. She’s been trounced and beaten in the face so many times, yet she makes a speedy recovery. She also talks back without fear. It’s either stupidity or brilliant acting. She might even be the main antagonist, who’s just trying to get both sides to destroy each other, so she can make her move.

        ion52
        Reply

    11. Nudist Beach, for some reason that made me giggle like a girl, especially when combined with our nail gun wielding Terminator stand in. Seems like the “actual” plot will start coming up now, as going by our KLK’s Terminator’s actions, Nudist Beach has no idea Satsuki possesses (let alone is wearing) the second uniform.

      And as a nitpick, Matoi wasn’t as much beaten as worn down. She simply lost the battle of attrition against the endless wave of bombs, needles, and two pieces of information.

      Pancakes
      Reply

      1. Wouldn’t Ryuko’s teacher (can’t remember his name) have informed them about it? He did witness Satsuki donning Junketsu after all, as well as her school-destroying clash with Ryuko.

        Random Comment
        Reply

      2. He may not have, or else i’m reading too much into it. After all they could be a highly decentralized resistance movement. Plus it seems strange you would want to destroy the one weapon capable of dealing with Satsuki effectively if you know she too possesses one.

        Pancakes
        Reply

    12. Nonon Jakuzure was my favorite part of this episode, despite how cool Tsumugu was.

      Her cute bandmembers, her boss-like attitude (she has a more hands on style of leadership than anyone in the school council, it looks like) and her musical/cheerleader styled band theme is just so fun to watch. I hope they save up a huge battle episode only for her later in the show. I’d be sad to see her defeated.

      Shippoyasha
      Reply

    13. LOL so funny episode. and its name – trigger. that’s the studio’s name 😛
      Tsumugu is awesome!
      yet if he is such a terrifying terminator, and he seems to be connected to the mysterious opposing organization, then why settle for small prey?he seems equal to the 4 heavenly kings (or whatever their name is).
      well at least we know there are serious folks in Ryouku’s side. so…will she join the group too?not so sure about that…

      thedarktower
      Reply

    15. I heard this was more down to Earth than the last 4 episodes, but I was surprised to find it still had a ton of action in it! I suppose the thing to take home from this ep was that Ryuko and Senketsu acknowledge that they’re now best friends as well as partners.

      starss
      Reply

    16. Two great things to note about this episode:

      First – the animation might be the best it’s been since episode one, so all those people who were afraid of the QUALITY surge after episode 4 needn’t worry now.
      Second – Ryuko managed to beat five different club leaders over the course of a single episode. This pretty much confirms that the show won’t go the “monster of the week” format as some people suspected.

      Basically, the future looks pretty bright right now.

      SingerOfW
      Reply

      1. Yeah, I happened to come by similar conclusions. This episode has no CG, and one really cool perspective action shot, ala Eureka Seven. There was alot of budget saving tricks, like how when she is moving up the stairs it only shows her head and upper torso, but as a whole this episode was a notable uptake in the ba-bling ba-bling.

        The sheer patheticness of the two star’s this episode confirmed the series as being just as aware of how dumb the prospect of her actually fighting them is. I like to think that in the time since episode 3, she’s fought other stupid clubs that kidnapped Mako like eight or nine times, so the weirdos of biology club are pretty same old same old to her by now.

        Overall a strong episode in a strong show. Am I the only one who is starting to find the Mako spotlight crazyness sections repetitive?

        My episode review here:
        http://sekijitsu.com/2013/11/01/kill-la-kill-5-gun-beats-scissors/

        Zabi
        Reply

    17. *removes shades* Let me tell you two useful pieces of information:
      One: This episode is awesome.
      Two: I’ll feel bad if you don’t like this show. If you don’t, I’ll come back and show you my butthide tomorrow.
      *puts back shades*

      tsukioniisan
      Reply

    18. Last week’s episode was damn funny, but the animation was (most likely intentionally) super limited. Happy to see with this episode the animation level was back to its normal fluidity as it really helped with those impressive action pieces. Also, when Matoi was fighting all those clubs and the band was playing their music it totally reminded me of episode three in FLCL when they played the comedian’s galop in during the fight scene.

      Cenosored
      Reply

      2. Maybe Ryuuko’s dad barely survived the attack by the scissor woman, and knowing he wouldn’t last much longer somehow used his own soul as a material to finish making Senketsu. i.e. Senketsu would actually be Ryuuko’s own father (though he doesn’t remember it).

        Hanabira.Kage
        Reply

      1. yeah and she probably also going commando down there aswell, I mean in every low angle shot of her
        there’s always something blocking the view of actually getting a panty shot which not so much the case
        for ryuko. something tells me she is also a part of the nudist beach as well or even an entirely different
        group altogether.

        and I have a feeling she’s not even human, she’s probably an artificial human, i mean her father is a
        doctor and there’s probably a hidden lab somewhere in that house or something

        lol
        Reply

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