Kill la Kill

After the murder of her father, Ryuuko Matoi has been wandering the land in search of his killer. Following her only lead—the missing half of his invention, the Scissor Blade—she arrives at the prestigious Honnouji Academy, a high school unlike any other. The academy is ruled by the imposing and cold-hearted student council president Satsuki Kiryuuin alongside her powerful underlings, the Elite Four. In the school's brutally competitive hierarchy, Satsuki bestows upon those at the top special clothes called "Goku Uniforms," which grant the wearer unique superhuman abilities.

Thoroughly beaten in a fight against one of the students in uniform, Ryuuko retreats to her razed home where she stumbles across Senketsu, a rare and sentient "Kamui," or God Clothes. After coming into contact with Ryuuko's blood, Senketsu awakens, latching onto her and providing her with immense power. Now, armed with Senketsu and the Scissor Blade, Ryuuko makes a stand against the Elite Four, hoping to reach Satsuki and uncover the culprit behind her father's murder once and for all.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Episode 1 was previewed at a screening in Tokyo on September 28, 2013. Regular broadcasting began on October 4, 2013.

Kill La Kill’s Toshio Ishizaki won the Tokyo Anime Award for Best Character Design in 2014. The series got another Character Design Award along with a Storyboard Award, Soundtrack Award, Theme Song Award (for Sirius), Mascot Awards (for Senketsu and Guts), Female Character Awards (for Ryuuko Matoi and Mako Mankanshoku), and Series Award for TV Broadcast in the 2014 Newtype Anime Awards.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Kill la Kill
Side story:	Kill la Kill Specials
Character:	Uchuu Patrol Luluco

Park, Romi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Amemiya, Akira

Co-Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Assistant Director, Assistant Animation Director, 2nd Key Animation, Key Animation, Production Assistant

Ootsuka, Masahiko

Producer, Episode Director

Kamagata, Eiichi

Producer

Toba, Yousuke

Producer

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Opening Theme

	1: "Sirius (シリウス)" by Eir Aoi (eps 2-14)
	2: "ambiguous" by GARNiDELiA (eps 16-23)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Sirius (シリウス)" by Eir Aoi (eps 1, 15)
	2: "Gomen ne, Iiko ja Irarenai. (ごめんね、いいコじゃいられない。)" by Miku Sawai (eps 2-14, 24)
	3: "Shinsekai Koukyougaku (新世界交響楽)" by Sayonara Ponytail (さよならポニーテール) (eps 16-23)

Reviews

Apr 16, 2024

BabyBallDylan

Recommended

Kill la Kill is ridiculous, raunchy and just plain weird. Simultaneously feeling incredibly basic and tropey whilst also being very unique and carving out an identity for itself. It's hard to tell if this show has any semblance of a deeper meaning or if it's a parody of shonen anime outright. Regardless of any mixed feelings in terms of quality, I can assure that this is a greatly enjoyable show. Never endeavoring to take itself too seriously, it's refreshingly simple whilst also grounding itself at opportune times, letting emotional heights breathe, a prime example of a seemingly bland and overplayed concept executed fantastically.

Ryuko Motoi is ... a 17-year-old girl searching for the person who murdered her father, her only lead is one half of a giant scissor left behind by her father. The search leads her to transfer to Honnouji Academy, a school where the student council president, Satsuki Kiryuuin, is something of a dictator, and she instills a hierarchy among the students by implementing a system using Goku Uniforms. Goku uniforms are special outfits made by the REVOCS corporation, a company owned by the Kiryuuin conglomerate, which is owned by Satsuki's mother. These outfits bolster your physical capabilities at an ascending level depending on how many stars are attached, going up to three stars, each star signifies that the outfit was made with a coinciding level of "Life Fibers", which draw those physical capabilities out, each star is equivalent to the outfit being infused with ten percent life fibers. Satsuki gives these outfits to those who submit to her, only offering the strength of three-star uniforms to her inner circle, known as the elite four, the other strong people at the academy are gifted two-star uniforms and are dubbed club leaders, one stars are simply awarded to the common people who fall in line, she essentially creates an army of physically bolstered high-schoolers and attempts... world domination in high school form. Or something... Ryuko wants answers from Satsuki, as she believes she played a role in the killing of her father, and Satsuki boldly proclaims that if Ryuko is able to defeat all of the club leaders, elite four, and her, she will tell her the whole truth.

The plot sounds ridiculous in theory, but it's much, much worse in reality. Pitting pro-clothing and anti-clothing clans against each other, each donning equally revealing "armor", clothing was chosen as a core plot point in this show reasons majority impure, every single twist getting more unbelievably cliche than the last, it must be noted that the beats of the story are rather standard and generic, it quite literally hits all the tropes and cliches you'll expect to see in ten 100-plus episode shonen anime at breakneck speed, honestly, this anime doesn't necessarily attempt *anything* out-there in terms of where the plot goes, it essentially just endeavors to do *every* recurring theme you commonly see, sailor uniforms, the student council being insanely powerful, levels of depth in the premise that can only be matched by Pokémon, powering up every time you defeat a new foe, each getting stronger, the power of friendship, melodrama, even more melodrama, even all of the twists in this show that I won't spoil I can guarantee you've seen before, if you called this lazy and uncreative writing, I'd agree, and if this were any longer than the 24-episode runtime it would likely be unbearable, but it's short length, fast pace, and general lack of seriousness leads to it not necessarily being an issue. Think of it instead as a celebration, or rather a congregation of all things that work in other shows thrown at you at once with little breathing room. That isn't to say that this show does literally nothing, it has such a charm in all the fluff and dialogue, the in-universe powers and overtly sexual themes have a somewhat deeper story to tell, I've called it ridiculous numerous times, and it is, but it's not hollow, clothing is a major plot point not just because this is an ecchi show and revealing clothing is a must, but also to drive home a point, you just have to look for it as it's buried under a mountain of tropes and generic plot progression. To put it simply, this anime has a generic plot of "Defeat all my subordinates and I'll tell you the truth" and it goes just about exactly how you'd expect, and yet it still has a strong identity for itself, no matter how standard or by-the-book it feels at times though, it never ceases to be entertaining, it tells a fairly basic story through unorthodox means, and never fails at its mission statement, be entertaining, whether it's through how ridiculous it can be, the occasional joke that actually lands, or the fight scenes with dragged out monologues about ideals, it's refreshingly fun for the majority of the runtime.

A few additional things to note, character writing is messy, most of the characters are very basic and one dimensional, the only characters I can genuinely say are good are Ryuko, Satsuki, and Sanageyama, the latter being my personal favorite. but even among those three none of them are incredible, you shouldn't expect amazingly written characters as much as you should expect fun plot devices to go along with the three characters mentioned previous, this is the drawback to doing everything so fast, there's little depth in sometimes important places. The comedy is sort of hit or miss, the majority of the comedic value comes from how absurd the entire experience is, it also has a lot of generic anime gags which are to be expected, there are many deeply rooted jokes that are genuinely funny though, the vast majority of ecchi shows offer middling comedic value, this is an outlier in that regard, not even necessarily my preferred style of comedy, it definitely impressed me in this regard, I am not however saying this is the pinnacle of comedy in anime, a LOT doesn't land as well, that said, I was laughing quite a lot watching this one

Another matter of paramount importance, this anime presents itself in an especially sexual manner, as stated previously, clothing is an important part of this story, so is throwing it off, and character designs showcased here are... flamboyant, overtly revealing, and somewhat tacky, both men and women but predominantly women. If you are sensitive to this kind of stuff, it's not only prominent but also a core component in the story itself, as well as any deeper meaning to be found in here, at no point was it ever a personal bother, however it can get quite extreme, going into details would be entering spoiler territory but it can get gross at some points, leading you to question if any of it was ever intended to be perceived as sexy in the first place, I somewhat believe that this was implemented in this manner for a reason, but this is anime we're talking about...

Music is a celebrated strong point in this anime, and it's all justly acclaimed, the soundtrack that played during the anime is packed with vocal tracks that greatly improve the dramatic scenes, as well as the openings, the first one by Eir Aoi is a classic, and the second one is my personal favorite, GARNiDELiA is amazing. The first ending by Miku Sawai is one of my personal favorites ever, I recognized it the second I heard it upon finally watching the anime, the second one by Sayonara Ponytail had to grow on me, but it did in the end.

Visuals are impressive, it's not the highest budget or most technically impressive show out there, but it has a feeling of combining classic and modern styles, creating appealing scenery in a unique way, it occasionally looks messy and ugly as a biproduct, but it also looks great at times, never especially mind blowing though. Animation of the fight scenes is pretty good, they're quite middle of the road, it's not insane even for its time but it does a serviceable job of portraying all of our estrogen-filled violence in a satisfactory manner. No complaints here, it's memorable and that's what's important.

In conclusion, Kill la Kill encapsulates feminine puberty and turns it into a seinen anime, it doesn't necessarily stick the landing in any regard, in fact, there isn't a hint of grace in anything this show does, but not every show can be an emotional masterpiece, right? It's unique if nothing else, and that's what Kill la Kill is all about, identity, rejecting social norms, and being your true authentic self, this is portrayed in many different weird ways but ultimately the message lands eventually. Underbaked in many regards while still remaining effortlessly entertaining, if you're looking for a deeply meaningful masterpiece, perhaps you should look elsewhere, but if you're looking for a refreshing, fast paced action anime to just relax and enjoy, Kill la Kill will absolutely satisfy. 8/10

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Jan 21, 2023

IcePocket

Mixed Feelings

It's alright.

I can understand why some people like it: creative character designs, great soundtrack, ecchi stuff, all and all good joking material;
and I probably would've enjoyed it a lot more if I had watched it in middle school.

It's just that the story isn't quite interesting, and I felt like I was forcing myself to complete the series while struggling to concentrate.
It may be a comedy, but the show doesn't even feel like it takes itself seriously, and nowadays I don't find most of the stuff really funny,
maybe amusing at best.

Also, on one hand, the character designs are pretty interesting, but on the other hand, characters ...

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May 12, 2022

ialex32

Not Recommended

Funny

Kill la Kill is a self-indulgent parody that moves at a breakneck pace: the plot in each episode moves faster than most series have over their entire run. Searching for her father's killer, Ryuuko arrives at Honnouji Academy, an all-powerful student council ruled through superhuman clothing. Clothes grant their wielders unique powers, and their stripperific outfits try to parody the fan service endemic to anime while eating its cake too. Adults leer at children in revealing clothing, try to peep on them naked, and the story culminates in a nudist colony fighting fascist clothing. But for good measure, it also needs gratuitous rape as both ...

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Poll: Kill la Kill Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Oct 24, 2013	368 replies	by Nopillows25 »» Apr 22, 7:39 AM
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Kill la Kill

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Characters & Voice Actors

Matoi, Ryuuko

Kiryuuin, Satsuki

Mankanshoku, Mako

Senketsu

Jakuzure, Nonon

Harime, Nui

Gamagoori, Ira

Mikisugi, Aikurou

Sanageyama, Uzu

Kiryuuin, Ragyou

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Kill la Kill

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Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

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Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

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Reviews

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