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Kill la Kill

type	tv series
director	Hiroyuki Imaishi
writer	Kazuki Nakashima
music	Hiroyuki Sawano
studio	Trigger
network	MBS, TBS, CBC TV
first	October 4, 2013
last	March 28, 2014
episodes	24 + OVA
episode list	List of Kill la Kill episodes

Kill la Kill (キルラキル) is a Japanese anime television series created and produced by Trigger. The series follows vagrant schoolgirl Ryuko Matoi on her search for her father's killer, which brings her into violent conflict with Satsuki Kiryuin, the iron-willed student council president of Honnouji Academy, and her mother Ragyo Kiryuin's fashion empire. Ryuko, Satsuki, and others obtain martial arts superpowers from their clothes, which appear to have a will of their own.

The series is Trigger's first original anime television project, directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi and written by Kazuki Nakashima, both of whom had previously worked together on Gurren Lagann in 2007 and would go on to work on Promare in 2019. Kill la Kill was broadcast in Japan on MBS' Animeism programming block between October 2013 and March 2014. An original video animation (OVA) was released as a 25th episode in September 2014. A manga adaptation by Ryō Akizuki began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace magazine from October 2013 to March 2015. A video game adaptation, titled Kill la Kill the Game: IF, was released in July 2019, with slight deviations to the main storyline of the anime.

In North America, Aniplex of America licensed the anime for a simulcast with a home video release starting in July 2014. The series premiered in the United States on

Synopsis

Setting

Honnouji Academy (本能字学園) is a fictional high school situated in Tokyo Bay, Japan, on the island of Honnō City. The school is dominated by its fearsome student council led by their president Satsuki Kiryuin. The students wear Goku Uniforms (極制服) which give their wearers superhuman abilities because they are constructed with a special material known as Life Fibers (生命戦維). Honnouji Academy and Honnō City feature a stratified class structure, in which higher-ranked students are allowed to obtain more powerful Goku Uniforms. This in turn affects the social status of the student's family.

Plot

Ryuko Matoi, a transfer student, arrives in Honnō City to find the murderer of her father Isshin Matoi. Her search leads her to Honnouji Academy, a militaristic high school ruled by Satsuki Kiryuin and the Elite Four student council, who use school uniforms called Goku Uniforms powered by a fabric called Life Fibers.

Following a failed attempt to challenge Satsuki on her first day, Ryuko stumbles across a sentient sailor uniform beneath the ruins of her father's home, which is a pure Life Fiber clothing called a Kamui (神衣) that increases her abilities while transformed. She names the outfit "Senketsu", and becomes armed with a scissor-shaped longsword called a Scissor Blade that can cut Goku Uniforms. Satsuki responds by donning her family's Kamui Junketsu to challenge Ryuko's powers. Ryuko is joined by her hyperactive classmate Mako Mankanshoku, a no-star student who lets Ryuko move in with her impoverished family, and her homeroom teacher Aikuro Mikisugi, who is actually an undercover agent of the anti-Life Fiber paramilitary organization Nudist Beach (ヌーディスト・ビーチ).

After battling numerous council members, including the Elite Four, Ryuko meets Nui Harime, a member of the global REVOCS Corporation (REVOCSコーポレーション) run by the academy's director and Satsuki's mother, Ragyo Kiryuin. Harime reveals herself as Isshin's killer, who stole the other Scissor Blade.

Satsuki leads her school to the upcoming Tri-City Schools Raid, a blitzkrieg raid to annex the remaining independent schools in Kansai, with the secret goal of destroying Nudist Beach's base in Osaka. After the raid, Ryuko learns that her father founded Nudist Beach and created Senketsu to fight the Life Fibers, which are actually parasitic aliens that prompted humanity's evolution to later feed on them.

Ryuko and Nudist Beach storm the Honnouji Academy festival held in Ragyo's honor before she awakens the Life Fibers. Satsuki betrays her mother, revealing her true goal to destroy the Life Fibers and avenge her father and younger sister, whom Ragyo ordered killed when Satsuki was young. Satsuki's plan backfires when Ragyo, revealed to be a human/Life Fiber hybrid, captures her while ordering the Life Fibers to consume every human. Ryuko discovers that she is Satsuki's presumed-dead younger sister and Ragyo's daughter; Ragyo's ex-husband, Sōichirō Kiryuin, faked his death and saved the infant Ryuko before taking the identity of Isshin as a disguise.

As Ragyo and the Life Fibers devastate Japan, the Elite Four and Nudist Beach rescue both Satsuki and Mako. Ryuko is brainwashed and bonded to Junketsu to pursue them, but Satsuki, Mako, and Senketsu manage to free Ryuko, who then regains the other Scissor Blade from Harime. Ryuko and Satsuki proceed to intercept Ragyo before she and the Primordial Life Fiber, the source of all Life Fibers, can reach Honnouji Academy to launch a command signal to a satellite for all Life Fibers to cover the planet and destroy it. However, Harime completes Shinra-Kōketsu, the ultimate Kamui, with Ragyo's secretary Rei Hououmaru offered as a sacrifice to activate it.

The heroes destroy the transmitter and extract Rei from Shinra-Kōketsu, only for Ragyo to restore its power by absorbing Harime and the Primordial Life Fiber. Ryuko pursues her mother into space after everyone offers their Goku Uniforms to power up Senketsu. She manages to have Senketsu absorb Shinra-Kōketsu to rescind the order. Defeated, Ragyo spitefully commits suicide while promising that the Life Fibers will one day attack Earth again. Despite being victorious, Senketsu begins breaking down from absorbing Shinra-Kōketsu and sacrifices himself to ensure Ryuko safely returns to Earth.

In the follow-up OVA episode, set two weeks after the battle with Ragyo, Rei Hououmaru uses leftover Life Fibers to create doppelgängers of Satsuki and the Elite Four in Junketsu and their original Goku Uniforms to disrupt Honnouji Academy's graduation ceremony and avenge Ragyo. The clones are defeated while Satsuki convinces Rei to abandon her struggle as Ryuko uses the Scissor Blades to finish off Honnouji Academy. Honnō City and the school sink into Tokyo Bay, as well as Ryuko's Scissor Blades. With their mission over, everyone can finally live a normal life free of the Life Fibers.

Reception

Kill la Kill was met with mostly positive reviews. Eliot Gay of Japanator called the "uniquely fun, even gripping" series "a reminder of how fun and creative anime can be at its best."[58] Kat Bailey of IGN, describing the series as "magical girl anime on speed", noted that its over-the-top absurdity was part of its charm.[59] Joseph Luster of Otaku USA described the series's concept as "mostly straightforward setup for revenge and shonen-style 'stronger! STRONGER!' battle progression", but praised its execution.[60] Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku appreciated the series for "perfectly mixing comedy and action", its pacing, internal consistency and over-the-top straightforward adaptation of standard action anime tropes.[61]

The animation of fight scenes and character movements, as well as the "keen selection of music", were particularly praised by Robert Frazer of UK Anime Network,[62] The site selected it as the 2013 UK Anime Network Awards winner in the "Best streaming anime" category.[63] Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network also appreciated the inventive and funny animation and the series's "retro shonen action pushed to ... loony, hyperactive extremes".[64] Michael Logarta of GMA News Online likewise noted the "superb pacing", to-the-point storytelling and well-realized characters in the series's "whirlwind of gorgeous visuals, story, and unfettered insanity".[65]

Kill la Kill won multiple prizes during the 4th Newtype Anime Awards, including Best Character Design (Sushio), Best Script (Kazuki Nakashima), Best Sound, and Best Picture (TV Broadcast). It placed second for Best Theme Song ("Sirius"), Best Director (Hiroyuki Imaishi) and Best Studio (Trigger). In the Best Mascot category, Senketsu placed third and Guts placed ninth. In Best Character (female), Ryuko placed second, and Mako placed third.[66] The anime was part of the Jury Selections of the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival in the Animation category.[67]

In 2025, in reference to Texas Senate Bill 20, Nick Valdez of ComicBook said that the legislation could lead to censorship of the anime (and manga) within Texas, with Kill la Kill being one of the anime mentioned that could be affected.[68]