Kill la Kill

• 1. Introduction

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  Kill la Kill is a Japanese anime series about a teenager whose clothes have minds of their own. It was created and produced by the studio Trigger. Its heroine is Ryuko Matoi, a vagrant schoolgirl searching for the person who killed her father. Beneath the ruins of his home, she finds a sailor uniform that is alive and aware. She calls it Senketsu. Wearing it makes her stronger, and it draws her straight into a fight with the most powerful student at a school ruled by force. Why would a piece of clothing want anything from the person inside it? Who made these living fabrics, and what do they want? And why does a show about school uniforms carry a title that can be read as a threat, an order and a fashion note all at once?

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• 2. Honnouji Academy

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  Honnouji Academy stands on Honnō City, an island in Tokyo Bay, and it runs on a strict ladder of rank. The school is dominated by its student council, led by president Satsuki Kiryuin. Her closest enforcers are known as the Elite Four. Every student wears a Goku Uniform, and the uniforms carry real power. They are built from a special material called Life Fibers, which gives the wearer superhuman abilities. Higher-ranked students are allowed stronger uniforms. That in turn lifts the social standing of their families, so a child's rank at school shapes the whole household.

  Ryuko arrives as a transfer student and fails in her first attempt to challenge Satsuki on her very first day. Then she finds the living sailor uniform. It is pure Life Fiber clothing, a type called a Kamui, and it boosts her abilities while she is transformed. She also gains a scissor-shaped longsword called a Scissor Blade, which can cut Goku Uniforms. Satsuki answers by putting on her own family's Kamui, named Junketsu.

  Two allies change Ryuko's life at the bottom of the ladder. Mako Mankanshoku is a hyperactive classmate and a no-star student. Her impoverished family lets Ryuko move in. Aikuro Mikisugi, Ryuko's homeroom teacher, turns out to be an undercover agent of Nudist Beach, a paramilitary group opposed to the Life Fibers.

  After Ryuko battles her way through numerous council members, a stranger from a global company called REVOCS Corporation steps into view.

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• 3. Hidden Bloodlines

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  The stranger's name is Nui Harime, and she makes a confession that turns Ryuko's search into something else. Harime says she killed Isshin Matoi, and that she took the second Scissor Blade. The company she belongs to is run by the academy's director, who is also Satsuki's mother, Ragyo Kiryuin.

  Satsuki, meanwhile, plans the Tri-City Schools Raid. It is a blitzkrieg meant to annex the remaining independent schools in Kansai. Its secret goal is to destroy the Nudist Beach base in Osaka. Once the raid is over, Ryuko learns two facts about her father. He founded Nudist Beach, and he created Senketsu to fight the Life Fibers. Those fibers are parasitic aliens. They pushed humanity to evolve so that they could later feed on it.

  The next blow lands at the Honnouji Academy festival, held in Ragyo's honor. Ryuko and Nudist Beach storm it before Ragyo can awaken the Life Fibers. There Satsuki turns on her own mother. She reveals that she has always aimed to destroy the Life Fibers. She also wants to avenge her father and her younger sister, whom Ragyo ordered killed when Satsuki was young.

  The plan backfires. Ragyo is revealed to be a hybrid of human and Life Fiber. She captures her daughter and orders the Life Fibers to consume every human.

  Then comes the twist about Ryuko herself. She is Satsuki's presumed-dead younger sister. Ragyo's ex-husband, Sōichirō Kiryuin, faked his own death and rescued the infant. He then took on the identity of Isshin as a disguise, so the father Ryuko mourned was never the man he appeared to be.

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• 4. Senketsu's Last Stand

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  As Ragyo and the Life Fibers devastate Japan, the Elite Four and Nudist Beach pull Satsuki and Mako out of danger. Ryuko is brainwashed and bonded to Junketsu, the very Kamui that Satsuki once wore, and sent to hunt them. Satsuki, Mako and Senketsu together break the hold on her. Ryuko then takes back the other Scissor Blade from Harime.

  The two sisters race to stop their mother. Ragyo is heading for Honnouji Academy with the Primordial Life Fiber, the source of every other fiber. From there she would send a command signal to a satellite, telling the fibers to cover the planet and destroy it. Harime completes the ultimate Kamui, Shinra-Kōketsu. It needs a sacrifice to wake it, and Ragyo's secretary Rei Hououmaru is offered up.

  The heroes destroy the transmitter and pull Rei free. Ragyo restores the Kamui's power by absorbing both Harime and the Primordial Life Fiber. Everyone offers up their Goku Uniforms to strengthen Senketsu, and Ryuko follows her mother into space. There she has Senketsu absorb Shinra-Kōketsu, which cancels the order.

  Defeated, Ragyo takes her own life out of spite, promising that the Life Fibers will one day attack Earth again. Victory costs Ryuko her partner. Senketsu begins breaking down from the strain of absorbing the ultimate Kamui. He sacrifices himself so that she can return to Earth safely.

  An extra episode picks up two weeks later. Rei uses leftover Life Fibers to build copies of Satsuki and the Elite Four, and they crash the academy's graduation ceremony. Satsuki talks Rei out of her struggle, and Ryuko uses the Scissor Blades to finish off the school. Honnō City sinks into Tokyo Bay, and the blades go down with it.

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• 5. Fascism and Fashion

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  The project was first teased in the March 2013 issue of Newtype magazine, which reached readers on the 7th of February 2013. Kill la Kill was officially announced on the 8th of May 2013. Hiroyuki Imaishi directed it at his own studio, Trigger, with scripts by Kazuki Nakashima and character designs by Sushio.

  Imaishi explained that much of the plot grew out of wordplay. In Japanese, the way people say "fascism" sounds almost the same as the word "fashion." The words for "school uniform" and "conquest" are pronounced identically. The title's kiru can mean "kill," "to cut," or "to wear." A militaristic school, a pair of scissors and a living outfit all grew from those coincidences of sound.

  The team was not new to working together. Imaishi and Nakashima had already collaborated on Gurren Lagann in 2007. They would reunite on Promare in 2019. For Trigger, Kill la Kill was the first original anime television project the studio took on.

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• 6. Music and Sound

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  Hiroyuki Sawano composed the music for Kill la Kill. For the first fifteen episodes, the opening theme was "Sirius" by Eir Aoi. The ending theme was Gomen ne, Iiko ja Irarenai by Miku Sawai.

  From episode 16 onward, the opening became "ambiguous" by Garnidelia, a duo made up of vocalist Maria and composer Toku. The ending became "Shin Sekai Kōkyōgaku" by Sayonara Ponytail. An extended version of the original ending returns for the last portion of episode 24. Aoi's song "Sanbika" served as an image song for climactic moments in episodes 3, 7, 11 and 23.

  The first soundtrack album came out on the 25th of December 2013, with an Aniplex USA edition on the 17th of January 2014. It holds 18 tracks, including six vocal songs performed in English and German. The titles of the background tracks are typographical variants of "Kill la Kill," which fits a series built on wordplay.

  A second album arrived on the 7th of May 2014 as part of the fifth disc set. It adds "Kara-OK" versions of the vocal tracks from the first album.

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• 7. Beyond the Broadcast

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  On the 4th of October 2013, Kill la Kill began airing in Japan on the Animeism programming block of MBS. The run ended on the 28th of March 2014. TBS, CBC and BS-TBS also carried it. The same day the broadcast began, a manga adaptation by Ryō Akizuki started in Young Ace magazine. It ended on the 4th of February 2015 after 17 chapters, collected in three volumes. Udon Entertainment licensed it for English readers.

  The discs came next. Japanese Blu-ray and DVD releases began on the 8th of January 2014, and each volume carried an extra. Soundtrack CDs shipped with the first and fifth volumes. Making-of documentary DVDs came with the third, seventh and ninth, and drama CDs with the second, fourth, sixth and eighth. The ninth volume, released on the 3rd of September 2014, also contained the extra episode.

  In North America, Aniplex of America simulcast the series on Daisuki and streamed it on Crunchyroll and Hulu. At Anime Expo 2014 in Los Angeles, Aniplex premiered the first English dub episode. Eir Aoi performed there. Adult Swim's Toonami block aired the series from the 8th of February to the 2nd of August 2015. Viceland UK premiered it on the 16th of October 2017.

  Italy followed a slower road. Dynit announced its interest at Lucca Comics in 2017. The deal was completed on the 22nd of December of that year. The series reached VVVVID on the 6th of February 2018, and the Italian dub arrived on Netflix on the 1st of September 2018.

  The franchise also reached games. Kill la Kill the Game: IF was announced at Anime Expo in July 2018. Arc System Works published it, and A+ Games developed it. That studio had also made Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time, another Trigger property. The game reached PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC in Japan on the 25th of July 2019, and in North America and Europe the next day. PQube published it in Europe, and it received an English dub. Its story unfolds during episode 3. Junketsu places Satsuki in an artificial reality that follows the anime with slight deviations.

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• 8. Critical Reception

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  Critics greeted Kill la Kill with mostly positive reviews. Eliot Gay of Japanator called it "a reminder of how fun and creative anime can be at its best." Kat Bailey of IGN described it as "magical girl anime on speed" and treated its over-the-top absurdity as part of the charm. Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku praised how it was "perfectly mixing comedy and action."

  Joseph Luster of Otaku USA was more guarded about the premise. He saw a fairly straightforward revenge setup, paired with escalating shonen-style battles. He still praised the execution.

  The craft drew particular attention. Robert Frazer of UK Anime Network admired the animation of the fights and the characters' movement, along with the "keen selection of music." That site named the series its 2013 winner for best streaming anime. Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network enjoyed the inventive animation and what he called "retro shonen action pushed to... loony, hyperactive extremes." Michael Logarta of GMA News Online praised the "superb pacing" and a "whirlwind of gorgeous visuals, story, and unfettered insanity."

  At the 4th Newtype Anime Awards, the series took Best Character Design for Sushio, Best Script for Kazuki Nakashima, Best Sound and Best Picture for a TV broadcast. It placed second for Best Theme Song with "Sirius," Best Director for Hiroyuki Imaishi, and Best Studio for Trigger. In the female character category, Ryuko finished second and Mako third. In the mascot category, Senketsu placed third and Guts ninth. The 18th Japan Media Arts Festival also included it among its Jury Selections in Animation.

  The series was still being discussed in 2025. Nick Valdez of ComicBook wrote that Texas Senate Bill 20 could lead to censorship of anime and manga in the state, and he listed Kill la Kill among the titles that might be affected.

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