Opinions (A-):

There’s never a dull moment with this show, that’s for sure. The second episode of Kill la Kill continues the high octane levels of crazyness that we saw in the premier, albeit with a few brief seconds of respite every now and then.

I think I’ve complained a lot about how fast the pacing has been in a few shows this season, but I think Kill la Kill is one show that is able to match its fast pace with the general tone and fluidity of the rest of itself.

There’s a decent amount that’s crammed into this episode, and it all happens pretty fast. For one thing, the nudity and fanservice go up a notch. In some ways, the amount of crassness that the show exhibited this week reminded me a lot more of Panty and Stocking (a series that I personally wasn’t a fan of).

The episode featured the most bizarre collection of fanservice and just general odd stuff, that I couldn’t help but chuckle and be swept up in the pace of the show itself. Again, Kill la Kill is riding a very thin line here, and some parts do indeed border on extremely crass.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the whole “Mako’s dad and brother are a bunch of sick perverts except not really” jokes. The whole “Oooh look! There’s an unconcious half naked lady” thing and even more creepy, the whole huffing and puffing from Alley Doc Barazo Mankanshoku while he was “treating” Ryuuko was a bit too much on the creepy side. And what exactly was this “doctor” doing treating a patient in his underpants?

The whole introduction of Mako’s weird family was a little bit of a breather moment, except even breather moments in this series are filled with characters spewing dialogue like a machine gun XD

The real moment of quite introspection came in the way of a flashback, where we had Ryuuko remember the meeting of hers with her “power suit/Kamui” Senketsu from last episode. I admit, the name Senketsu is pretty darn badass, even more so since it means Fresh Blood.

An interesting little tidbit is of course, that Senketsu was created by none other than Ryuuko’s own dad, who himself seems to be some distant relative of both Gandalf or Albus Dumbledore XD

Of course, things really got weird when we returned to Honou Academy later in the episode. After not being able to activate Senketsu, Ryuuko pretty much got her ass handed to her and ended up going through the campus sewers XD

I kind of like how Ryuuko is different from your traditional protagonist. At times, she’ll act much more like a villain almost. Always running away and making a very villain esque retreat when she’s about to faint.

Turning a cliche on its head its something that this show gets some serious respect points for, but I digress. The weirdo meter went berserk right after said event. Ryuuko is saved by the mysterious homeroom teacher who led her to Senketsu in the first place. Now this dude… He’s definitely on Ryouko’s side, that’s for sure. He even gives her a glove and teaches her how to properly use her Kamui, but why… the… hell… does he randomly start stripping?

This bit of fanservice is absolutely out there. There’s no point to it, and its really just… weird. As weird as it is though, I couldn’t help but find the whole situation extremely friggin hilarious. Its in scenes like this, where Kill la Kill transcends the realm of stupidy and becomes absurd to the point of hilarity.

We have a near naked Ryuuko, and an ever stripping Male, with a perfectly shaped body, that is just stishly acting all cool and wise and badass. If I had seen this entire scene in real life, or hell, if I even begin to think about it, I can’t help but laugh.

Kill la Kill definitely wins in this regard. Whats so darn interesting is that its in absurd moments like this, that the series throws in the exposition or logic that governs the story and the world. Doing World building while making crazy hilarious Male stripping scenes like this? Its so out there, and so original, in a really twisted way XD

And hey, After this scene, the argument about Kill la Kill being sexist loses at least some weight to it.

The final half of the episode though, closed off with another insane high school battle. The theme this time was tennis, and wow, there was action:

There was fanservice:

And of course, There was Ryuuko failing miserably until she found some way to use her scissors as a wracket to play tennis with. Then she defeats the villain of the week of course, the captain of the tennis club Omiko Hakodate.

I’m sure someone will ask the question: “Why were they ….?” or “Why was that…?”, but I think if you’re trying to find logic in this show at this point, you’re kind of missing the point.

Also… dang! Can Mako take some serious punishment. Does she have a healing factor or something? Man, the abuse that poor girl takes in this episode, without batting an eye, is intense. And she’s got her own stupid lines to spew too.

“If you get friendship, you win at life!” And that, is why Mako is awesome XD

The episode closed off with an actual face off between Kyuuko and Satsuki. At the moment, Satsuki is clearly the superior, with Kyouko just barely able to hold her off. Again, I won’t say I didn’t find the whole “I will be back to finish you off!” villan like exit from Kyuuko to be pretty funny.

Satsuki is very much the stereotypical villain character so far, but I suspect that since she keeps giving Kyouko a fighting chance again and again, she might not be the actual villain of the series. I guess time will tell if Satsuki is just another badass anime villain, or if there’s more to her character than meets the eye.

All in all, I’d say that Kill la Kill still is going forward, full steam. Its been pretty good so far, and despite the jumps into some rather crude territory at times, its hard to really have the time to be angry at the show for long. Kill la Kill goes at its own crazy pace, and takes you along for the ride.

OP 01 [ Sirius (シリウス) ] by Eir Aoi:

One of the things that both Tegen Toppa Gurren Lagann and even Panty & Stocking had going for them was a rather impressive OP and ED. The Openning theme for Kill la Kill is pretty decent, with some great animation. That said, I will say that the OP didn’t really blow me away, though it does fit well with the tone of the series. Nothing to write home about, but it does its job.

ED 01 [ Gomen ne, Iiko ja Irarenai. (ごめんね、いいコじゃいられない。) ] by Miku Sawai:

I liked the ED a bit more. Much more interesting song, and the montage of Ryuuko in a bunch of normal settings wasn’t bad. Nice!

Preview:

Wow, they are going straight for the whole Satsuki thing this early? And this is a 24 episode series. I’ll definitely say I didn’t expect that… Also more Stripping action eh? XD