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I am a huge Kill la Kill fan and there is no question about that. I have rewatched the show and even have Ryuko as my thumbnail. Today, I am going to share my enjoyment of the show with you.

A short summary of the story is that Ryuko Matoi is trying to find her father’s killer. Sounds pretty unoriginal, right? But during the process of finding that answer, she uncovers more and more questions. She learns including her father’s research, the unholy things going on in the Kill la Kill verse, her mind blowing family history, and a lot more. So you can imagine ... the story just gets bigger and bigger.

The plot is really fast paced, and almost all of the episodes leaves you with a lot of suspense and unanswered questions, such as what the hell are life fibers, and what the fuck is Satsuki thinking. There are some filler episodes in the beginning of the show just to get you learn more about the characters, but almost no fillers after episode 11, when Nui appeared (and yes, you will find out why she is so special and epic). After episode 11, you will see this crescendo in the pacing of the story as well as the amount of suspense. To be honest, I binge watched the rest of the episodes (after ep11) in one sitting. What’s more enticing is that you get a huge plot twist in the middle (toward the end) of the series, and I would highly recommend Kill la Kill to you if you are into shows that are unpredictable.

I think Kill la Kill did a fantastic job on characterization. The reason is because you get to see a wide range of personalities. We have Ryuko, who is a fearless tomboy badass. She exhibits immense will power to do anything that she sets her heart on. She is also pretty witty and good at coming up with tricks during precarious battle situations. We also have Satsuki, who is a tough leader and expert strategist. She is well respected among her subordinates. Some fans claimed that she is the epitome of smart and strong female characters in anime. In addition, we have the comic relief character Mako. Just wait until you see her “Hallelujah” moments, because I don’t even know how to describe her. What’s beautiful about the characterization is how the creators combined those different personalities to create intricate relationships and kept the events entertaining.

Also, I cannot neglect talking about the nudity in the show because there is so much of it! I guess you can say that it is used for fan service, and I am certainly not denying that. However, I believe that the creators also used nudity as a tool to get their message across. For example, nudity played some important roles in characterization. Because Ryuko refused to be naked initially, it was implied that she is someone with self-conscious, which allowed her to be more relatable to the audience. I am sure many of us would not be comfortable being naked in the public. On the other hand, Satsuki did not hesitate to be naked in order to put Junketsu on so that she can achieve her goal. Moreover, Ragyo exploited nudity and used it as a way to do some unholy stuff with her daughters just for her own pleasure, which depicted how atrocious she is.

Kill la kill is classified as comedy so you can expect the mood to be pretty cheerful and exciting. As mentioned earlier, you get to see Mako’s unique Hallelujah moments for comic relief. Also, the battle scenes are exciting with the help of artwork that is beyond imagination. There are very little sad and emotional moments in the show. I’m usually into really dark and sad series, but I really appreciated this little change of mood once in a while, and I will never forget how much I laughed while watching this show. By the way, my neighbors actually knocked on my door for laughing so hard.

I actually think Kill la Kill really nailed it for the most part. The only suggestion I would give is that the creators could perhaps spend one episode or so to show Ragyo’s past. Maybe there is a reason why she became so evil, and if we get to see that, maybe we can sympathize with her a bit more.

I really don’t like writing and try to avoid it. However, Blood+ is really special in a sense that it motivated someone as indolent as me to write this review in order to share my enjoyment with you. Ok enough babbling, let’s get to the review.

In terms of plot progression, the series is full of suspense, leaving the audience dying to figure out the unanswered questions (e.g. regarding Saya’s past). The series also kept the audience excited with full of plot twists and surprises. Some surprises are really mind fuckers! Yet, the surprises did not seem awkward at all thanks to the help of ... well planned foreshadowing.

The central theme of Blood+ deals with several difficult dilemmas. For example, what does it mean to be human? Is it true that whatever is in the best interest of the humans always the right thing to do? Is it right to choose the life of your only family member in the world over saving humanity? The choice for the previous question would be painful regardless of which one you ended up choosing. Also, is it right to save someone’s life knowing that the only way to do so will turn the person into a monster? You can imagine how the choices affected the character’s lives, which leads to my next topic, which is on characterization.

What’s attractive about the characterization is that not only there is a wide range of personalities, but also that each recurring character’s personality cannot be described simply by one sentence. The personality of each recurring character is multi-faceted and undergoes an extensive development. For example, we can see that Saya grew from a soft crybaby to a strong female figure, due to the immense pressure laid on her. Also, we can see that Diva, who exhibited psychopathic traits, became more sympathetic and loving after a particular event (I don’t want to spoil the event). You also have a main antagonist that has been mistreated for her entire life and you couldn’t help but want to sympathize with her.

Furthermore, Blood+ would be a bonus for you if you are into series with a sad and tense atmosphere. Some of the most tragic and emotive moments include a peaceful and loving family got shattered, the character that you got attached to died, and the nice guy, who provided major emotional support to the important characters, met his cruel end. By the way, I don’t want to spoil anything but whatever happened to the main antagonist in the end is truly heartbreaking. However, I want to make the point that despite the tragedies in the series, the characters continue to maintain their positive energy and fight for their core values.

Now I am going to talk about aspects that I wish the series could have done differently. First, the series is kind of long. For god’s sake, it is 50 episodes! I think the series can certainly be made more compact. For instance, there are some unnecessary subplots in my opinion, such as the story of the Schiffs, which was just telling the same thing as the rest of the story and did nothing in terms of furthering the theme and the important characters. Second, the first 5 episodes are way too slow! I know most anime watchers use the first few episodes of the series to determine if it is worth watching, and if the first few episodes are shit, it will lose a lot of audience. Lastly, I was expecting way more blood and gore judging from the title. Before I watched the series, I was really excited and expected it to be around the same level of goriness as say Elfen Lied, Berserk, Claymore, Deadman Wonderland, Gantz, etc. But, its level of goriness is just around that of Shiki, Fullmetal Alchemist and Bleach. I suspect that there could be a number of audiences that came here for the blood (because of the title) but ended up being disappointed.