That pretty much sums it up, basically it had a lot what made Gurren Lagann fun, just in smaller quantity, and like Gurren Lagann was a homage to super robot, this is a homage to magical girls. It fails to live up to Gurren Lagann but by itself it is still a good watch.
Story - 6
There are a lot of twist and turns, but really if you focus on the plot, you are missing the point. The story makes a lot of parody of common tropes while playing other straight, the angsty teen MC, the revenge plot, "Luke I am your mother", etc. But let's be honest here, the plot is a fucking mess, in the end buried beneath the spectacle is a coming of age story for the female MC.
But the same can be said about Gurren Lagann as well, which I also don't consider to have much of a plot that doesn't boil down to a coming of age. So the question is does the spectacle of Kill la Kill measure up to the spectacle of Gurren Lagann, Let's see, Gurren Lagann had multiple meaningful side character death on the MC side, so I'm going to say no.
But in the end if you just want a spectacle plot, than Kill la Kill would satisfy your wants.
Characters - 6
Let's talk about Kijin Sei...I mean Matoi Ryuuko (damn those two look similar, Trigger must have played DDC or else drunk minds think alike). She is a rebellious teen, with angsty issue (just like Seija), whose development flips back and forth (just like Seija), and her plotline ends kind of anti-climatic (just like Seija). Fortunately for you Trigger, I like Seija a lot, so I'm willing to let Seija 2.0 slide for having a lot of personality defects that didn't get a proper rap up like Simon's did. And that's good cause there ARE a lot of problems that never rapped up, unlike Simon who is now old and passed the torch, Kill la Kill ended with a "back to normal life" where Ryuuko's development never got the old Simon rap up, so considering her back and forth development she might just flip again, and the development never come across as strong as Simon's did.
Then there is Shinmyou...I mean Mako, who serves as the comic relief, which is good, cause if Kill la Kill took itself too serious than that would be a disaster, so I think she fits the tone of the series, by injecting a decent dose of stupid into the show. And as a character she balances Ryuuko's angst well enough.
Senketsu is the mentor role, there isn't much to talk about him, he fits Kamina's role (including death).
Now onto the villain and anti-hero
Satsuki is the secondary protagonist, and her story is actually very interesting, her story-line of rebelling against her mother and relationship with the Four, paints a very solid background. In addition, her stern and more mature personality shows a great contrast to Ryuuko, making her stand-out the most in all of the characters. As a rival role, she is quite perfect, and there isn't much to say, pretty solid character as long as she isn't the MC.
Nui is evil Mako.
Ragyou is the villain, she fits the role of the anti-spiral, AKA, final boss, and that is her entire character schtick. "Blow up the world" is basically her motivation and target and basically everything defining her. There is a "logic" that she says, but it is too coo-coo to matter. Overall, she is the final boss, because we have to have a final boss.
Everyone else have personlity and quirks and some background, but I feel that these background drown out Ryuuko's story rather helping it, so instead of having one very memorable character, we have a lot of slightly memorable characters all meshed together in to a bland mesh.
Art, Music - 8,9
Like Gurren Lagann but cheaper, the music is better than Lagann, but the animation sometimes turn into PPT.
Enjoyment - 8
Enjoyable time sink, hope that no one try this style ever again, it was fun the first time, okay the second time, and the third time would probably be a horrible mesh.
Overall - 7
P.S. I swear Trigger played DDC, the similarities are uncanny.
