Holding onto hype by only thread: Kill la Kill

As the final episode of kill la kill begins to peak its head over the hill, i've decided Im going to write a small wrap up of the series and the ups and downs The HypeTrain faced.

On Feburary 7, 2013 an issue of NewType magazine posted an image of a blacked out character with red accents, and a title that Read "Director Hiroyuki Imaishi(Gurren lagann, and Panty and Stocking with Gaterbelt) to come out with a new series thats been 3 years in the making"

With this tidbit of news the powder keg that would be the internet was set in place. Then on May 8th, 2013 Kill la kill was officially announced with writer Kazuki Nakashima(gurren lagann) and Character designs by Sushio(Redline, gurren lagann, PaSwG, One piece, Evangelion, Kill bill(O-ren ishi segment), and Cyborg 009). This was all going to be done under a new studio, Studio Trigger, a studio founded by former Studio Gainax(later on why this is a big deal) employees.

With all this Fans of Studio Gainaxs previous works became prophets and began to proclaim, the skies opened and a powerful voice rang out "anime is saved". Thus began the slow chugging of the HypeTrains engine. What exactly was anime being "saved" from? To start, anime didn't need saving, it was just reaching the end of a genre cycle. That genre being, the Moe(pronounced Mo-eH) blob genre, which consisted of Kawaii(cute) girls doing cute things being cute, the genres flagship being an anime called K-on. Moe's goal was to make people say either "aww how cute" or activate the "i need to protect that" emotion. After 2 1/2 years of this being the predominant Genre people wanted a change.

On October 3rd, 2013 Kill la kill Episode 1, If Only I Had Thorns Like a Thistle, Aired. Introducing us to the Dirty, Cartoony, Wacky art stlye that went against the grain of most series out at the time. It also set it self up to be a show of massive and evergrowing scale.

Episode 1 intoduced us to the world of kill la kill, specificaly Honnouji Academy, a highschool with a dictatorship under the student council president Satsuki Kiryuin, whose mother is the head of the board of directors for the school. The school hands out uniforms called Goku(ultima depending on your translation) uniforms, enhanced with a material called life Fibers, that gives them and thier wearers special abilities. It also introduces us to our main character and female heroine, Ryuko Matoi, The lemon eating, punk vagrant looking for her fathers killer.

Aside from a edgy artstyle, fun character design, and showing us what time of scale we were loooking at, Episode 1 also introduced us to our first controversy, the issue being fanservice and it was going to be alot of fanservice due to the fact that the characters power is derived from a uniform thats barely there.

 This being a main plot point of the show it was bound to happen alot, and fans and haters alike rose to ask "why is this needed" and trigger responded with "cuz", and proceded to pour the fanservice down our throats with no answer...That is until episode 3, when in the midst of a fight a line is sputtered "The fact that you are embarassed by the values of the masses only proves how small you are!" It is at this point we begin to see a subplot of meaning behind all this scantily clad warfare.

From this point on Trigger begins to desensitize you to the fanservice and gets you to start looking at the show for the plot(not being sarcastic), the animation, the music, and the characters.

As far as plots go, the basic skeleton for this revenge scheme has been used hundreds of times before, but its in the execution of this shallow plot that makes it different, weather it be the god like powers granted by the clothing, the setting of a totalitarian school aiming to rule over all the schools in japan, or the scale given by the size of the enviorment. At the end of episode 3, we are given a plot device by Lady satsuki,

"Defeat The club presidents and The Elite Four (or The Four Devas) of my student council, and i will face you again". From that point on the show take on a Monster of the week feel as Different Clubs(The Gardening club, Acrobatics club, Light Music Club, ect.) attack Ryuko, all while adding little bits and pieces to the whole story. Around now it seems the HypeTrain is fighting a up hill battle and the supposed savior of anime was going to fail.

Enter episode 9, A Once In A Lifetime Chance, where we begin the Naturals Election sudden death polling. Ryuko must defeat the Elite Four (to be the very best) in one on one combat, in order to finaly reach the student council president, Satsuki Kyuruin. Up till now Ryuko has defeated several dozen of the Schools club presidents, all a two star level, but now Ryuko must face off against Four, Three star members back to back. 

First round is Ira Gamagori, Lady satsuki's impenetrable sheild, Disciplinary Committee Chairman, Wearer of the Shackle/Scourge Regelia. official height: bigger than you!

Round Two and Three Are quick bouts with Hoka Inumuta, the Finance and Inteligence Committee Chairman Wearing the Probe regalia and Nonon Jakuzure, the Non-Athletic Committee Chairman wearing the Symphony: Grave/presto/Da Capo Regalia.

The final round is against Uzu Sanageyama, Athletic Committee Chairmen wearer of the Blade regalia

This fight is cut short though as The deadliest enemy yet is met, Nui Harime, The Grand Couturier Of The Revocs company (the plot thickens.) Nui Revealing herself as the true killer of Ryuko's father, plans to enrage ryuko to see how far she can push the kamui(god robe(100% life fiber uniform)).

After enraging Ryuko, Nui is forced to leave the academy by Satsuki. Ryuko recovers but she is afraid to wear Senketsu(her uniform) for fear she will go out of control again. After being convinced by another student to don Senketsu again ryuko goes out to help, only to realize its a trap set by Nui. Nui quickly destroys Senketsu chopping him into several pieces, a unconscious Ryuko is found by Satsuki and the pieces of Senkestsu are stolen and given to various student to increase the power of thier uniforms.

At this point a look at the internet shows the HypeTrains engines are back online, the promise of a world domination plot by a company intending to cover the world in life fibers and the invasion of the last three remaining school not under Satsukis control commences.

Satsuki and her classmates begin thier assualt of the other schools and it is obvious, with edition of Senketsu to the uniforms that Satsuki's forces will win. near the end of each battle at the different locations a plain Ryuko shows up steal back the pieces of her uniform.

Ryuko has managed to retrieve all the pieces she needs but one, that piece is attached to none other than satsuki kiryuin. As their battle comes to a draw, the real purpose of the Tri-School raid trip is realized, to flush out a anit Life fiber group known as Nudist Beach! With  majority of nudist beach destroyed, satsuki withdraws for the time being, out of sight from her comrades she collapses from the stress of wearing her kamui, junketsu. Satsuki receives a message from her mother and heads home.

The HypeTrain has lift-off

Pt1 of the hype recap done.