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*** SPOILER REVIEW ***





Kill la Kill - A Wild Ride That Doesn't Always Stick the Landing

Overall Score: 7/10

... I went into Kill la Kill knowing basically nothing except that it was supposed to be crazy, loud, and had a lot of fanservice. After finishing all 24 episodes, I'm left with really mixed feelings about it.

The Good Stuff

Animation and Style (9/10)
This is where the show absolutely shines. Even though it came out in 2013, it has this awesome retro feel - like you're watching a late 90s or early 2000s anime. The animation is incredibly energetic with crazy camera angles, intense action frames, and this raw, handcrafted chaos that most modern anime just don't do anymore.
The character designs are fantastic. Everyone has iconic silhouettes and instantly recognizable looks. You could see any of these characters from a distance and know exactly who they are. The transformation sequences are built for cosplay and merch, which makes total sense given how popular the show became.
The directing and storyboarding are genuinely impressive. Fights are kinetic and exciting to watch. Even when I was frustrated with the story, I had to admit it usually looked amazing.

Satsuki (The Best Character)
Satsuki is far and away the best part of this show and honestly the main reason it's still talked about today.
At first she seems like your typical ice-cold antagonist, but when you learn about her backstory - the abuse from her mother Ragyo, losing her father, thinking her baby sister died - everything clicks into place. Her cold demeanor suddenly makes sense as someone who's been traumatized and planning resistance her whole life.
Episode 22 gives her some real growth when she admits she should have treated Ryuko as an equal from the start. She's the only character who consistently felt like an actual person instead of just an anime trope.
My only complaint is that her big coup attempt felt underwhelming for someone who's supposed to be a strategic genius. Years of preparation and it comes down to one stabbing attempt with barely any backup plan? Still, she's easily the most compelling character in the show.

The Problems

Tone is All Over the Place
This is my biggest issue with Kill la Kill. The show can't decide what it wants to be.
For the first 17 episodes or so, it trains you not to take anything seriously. Deaths are played for laughs, violence is pure spectacle, and consequences barely exist. Then suddenly it wants you to care about heavy stuff like parental abuse, trauma, identity crises, and betrayal.
The worst part is how it keeps undercutting its own serious moments. Episode 19 is a perfect example - Ryuko wakes up from a month-long coma with a dumb joke about bad music, then immediately jumps into being angry without any real confusion or psychological processing. The show keeps doing this thing where you'll get a serious battle moment, then BOOM - Mako does something wacky and the emotional register resets to zero.
By the finale, I just couldn't invest emotionally because the show spent so much time teaching me not to care. When it suddenly demands I take things seriously, it feels unearned.

The "It's Satire!" Defense Doesn't Work
A lot of people defend the fanservice and over-the-top stuff by saying it's satire - that it's mocking other anime that do the same thing. But here's the problem: if you're doing the exact same thing as what you're supposedly mocking, using the same camera angles and the same sexualized framing, then you're not really critiquing it. You're just doing it louder.
Good satire creates distance between what's shown and what's endorsed. Kill la Kill mostly just does the thing at maximum volume.

Gender Logic is Inconsistent
The show can't decide how it views gender, and it's really frustrating.
Sometimes it acts like men and women are completely equal - guys fight girls without hesitation, everyone's treated the same in combat. Okay, fine, I can work with that.
But then outside of fights, gender suddenly matters again. There are gendered insults, the framing gets weirdly leery, and you get lines like "I would never do that to a lady" from characters who literally just beat women unconscious in sanctioned fights. So you won't tease a woman because of chivalry, but you'll fight her with full force because of equality? Pick a lane.
It feels like the show wants credit for being progressive while still using traditional gender stuff whenever it wants humiliation or fanservice.

Plot Convenience Everywhere
The longer the show goes, the more obvious it becomes that rules and character intelligence bend to whatever the plot needs.
Some examples that bugged me:

Ryuko has apparently been a Life Fiber hybrid her whole life but never noticed she could heal abnormally fast or was super durable? Really?
Satsuki is supposed to be a genius strategist but just accepts that her scientist father died to random thugs without investigating deeply?
Important rules about how Life Fibers work get explained super late in the series when it's convenient instead of being established early

The Villains Don't Make Sense

Ragyo shows up late as the "true final villain" but feels less interesting than the antagonists we spent most of the show with. Her goals keep changing - sometimes she wants to keep Satsuki alive, sometimes she wants to kill her, and there's no clear reason for the shift. Same with Ryuko - she's supposedly uniquely valuable, but Ragyo keeps trying to destroy her instead of recapture her.
In the final episodes, Ragyo is supposed to be this cosmic-level threat but keeps making dumb tactical decisions. The space fight in Episode 24 is the clearest example - all she had to do was keep her distance from the scissors, and she just... doesn't. She lectures and poses instead of actually winning.
Nui is even worse. She's invincible until the plot needs her not to be, and her personality is just "chaotic annoying" on repeat.

The Characters
Ryuko: Has a clear goal (avenge her dad) but her power is mostly borrowed from Senketsu and Life Fibers. She walks into major fights with zero preparation constantly. Her mental state changes scene to scene. She often feels like a puppet for plot beats instead of a real person making decisions.
Mako: I know a lot of people love Mako, but she's a structural problem for me. Her chaos works in small doses, but as a constant presence she destroys tension. She's basically a signal to the audience that says "don't worry, nothing serious is happening here." That Episode 24 fakeout death? Completely predictable because the show would never let Mako stay tragic for long.

What Actually Worked in the Finale
Despite everything I just complained about, Episode 24 did land one emotional moment perfectly:
Senketsu's death
When Senketsu burns up and disappears, it was genuinely touching. It's quiet, it's final, and crucially - they don't immediately undercut it with a joke. This was the most effective emotional moment in the entire series for me. If I'm being this critical and it still made me feel something, that says a lot.
The ending with everyone in normal clothes living normal lives also felt really good, especially for Satsuki. She's the character who most earned the relief of not living in constant war.

Final Thoughts
If you want to turn your brain off and enjoy top-tier animation, crazy action, and fanservice, you'll probably love Kill la Kill. The visual craft alone is worth experiencing.
But if you care about consistent character logic, earned emotional moments, and stories that don't constantly undermine themselves, you're going to be frustrated. There are flashes of real brilliance - Episode 7's wealth commentary, Satsuki's whole character arc, that final Senketsu scene - but they're buried under tonal chaos and convenience plotting.
It's a visually elite series with moments of genuine thematic depth that just can't get out of its own way. Worth watching for the spectacle and for Satsuki, but don't expect the story to hold together under scrutiny.

Story: 6/10
Art: 9/10
Sound: 7/10
Character: 7/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

Agent Aika is often celebrated as one of the greatest ecchi series ever produced. Its mastery in the art of fan service is executed with such finesse that it becomes an intrinsic part of the show's charm. Although the plot might not claim the title of the most profound, it stands out due to its unique twist, ensuring it's recognized for more than just its genre appeal.

The characters, while not particularly deep, are certainly memorable. They resonate with a charisma that's difficult to ignore, contributing significantly to the series' enduring popularity. This memorability is enhanced by some of the most iconic uniforms and costumes seen ... in ecchi anime history, which have become almost as celebrated as the show itself.

The true gem of Agent Aika lies in its art style, which is a quintessential representation of the late '90s animation quality, often regarded as the pinnacle of the era's animated offerings. The fluidity of the animation and a distinctive '90s color palette provide a visual treat that has withstood the passing of time.

Above everything else, Agent Aika remains an incredibly fun and endearing anime. It has cultivated a dedicated cult following, a community I am proud to be part of. The series does more than just exist; it continues to resonate with its fans, bringing about joy and a fond sense of nostalgia. Whether you're returning for another round or coming to it fresh, Agent Aika is an ecchi staple that promises entertainment with a knowing smile, assuring its place in the hearts of its audience.

This manga is the Mount Rushmore of internal-misogyny. It depicts women as perverts, manipulators, victims, crazies, and cold-blooded killers. Worst of all, it’s mostly toward their gender. I stopped reading after chapter 22. An event occurred, which made my jaw drop. It ruined a female-only space that seemed like a lesbian utopia.

Without spoiling too much, there’s much female-on-female crime that happens in this manga. There’s no “sisterhood” at all. The female x female crime isn’t depicted realistically either. I understand that women are catty towards each other, but they are rarely, if ever, homicidal. They fill this manga with Yuri scenes, so it wants us ... to believe that the women are in love with each other, but then chapters later, women are butchering each other. I am a Yuri fan. I love females, and I love it when females get along and love each other. This manga allured me with its Yuri-Ness. However, I was left shocked and disappointed. I would not recommend to any wholesome Yuri fan out there.

If you are a yuri fan, you love it when girls are romantic. There is no room for homicidal maniacs in yuri works, especially when women commit a crime against their fellow women. If you do not mind the crime/horror aspect, then this would be the manga.

I'm not going to get into the art/story/sound, etc., I'm just going to explain what these two episodes meant to me and why they are so special.

I'm a big yuri fan, and as a yuri fan, it's interesting to see some "non-consensual" yuri from time to time.

Most of the non-consensual yuri scenes from hentai have a lot of whipping and other forms of abuse, which I don't like.

In these two episodes, there was much gentle foreplay inflicted upon the female victim by the lesbian monks. There were scenes in both episodes that are so unique; I have not seen anything like it before. Seriously, type ... in "youshou" on rule34 or something, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

I'm not giving this series a 10 because the foreplay scenes I liked were only there to prepare the female victim for a man they worship. It just resulted in him having his way with the girls. I didn't like the female assisted rape of another female (I didn't like the man being involved). If it were up to me, it would just be females pleasuring the captured victim with no man involved at all.

Watch this if you're a yuri fan and are okay with non-consensual themes; there's much straight sex.