crossing the line

One thing that I’ve always loved about Kill la Kill is that Ryuko and Senketsu have this relationship that’s supposed to be impossible, yet they prove everyone wrong. By the end, Satsuki–who had once deemed their friendship a “fairytale”–completely supports them. Even Tsumugu smiles when Ryuko and Senketsu get back together after Ryuko forcibly tears Junketsu off. In fact, just about the entire (heroic) cast is rooting for them by this point, and are overjoyed to see them working together again:

Aw.

But more importantly here, I love your mention of Aikuro, because I find him such a deeply fascinating character.

At its heart, Kill la Kill is a story absolutely driven by personal motives. Satsuki wants to stop Ragyo not only to save the world, but to avenge her “dead” younger sister and father. The Elite Four–particularly Gamagoori–are also invested in the greater good, but the root of their willingness to fight is their loyalty to Satsuki. Ryuko, too, enters the narrative not looking to be a superhero, but to learn more about her dad.

So there’s this good moment early on where Ryuko questions Aikuro’s intentions. How does he know what he knows, and why? He’s honestly one of the biggest mysteries the show has to give you initially–he clearly has information, but he’s dragging his feet on giving it out. Still, he answers Ryuko when she questions why. He’s doing what he does to save the planet from the Kiryuin’s tyranny.

I don’t doubt this is true. But I also don’t believe it’s anywhere near the full story. While he may have gotten into the whole Nudist Beach business for such a broad reason at first, his insistence and determination to keep going with it seems to point to something more deeply personal. After all, he doesn’t even seem to know Ryuko, so why is he so concerned for her plight? Why does he fuss over her and want her to succeed with Senketsu so badly, while his coworker Tsumugu wants the complete opposite?

In episode 5, we learn that Tsumugu is–as is fitting for the show–motivated by personal reasons. And as it turns out, extra materials provide some detail for Aikuro’s own motives, too. He was once some cocky, stuck-up scientist, but then he meets Kinue, Tsumugu’s sister, who must’ve been one heck of a woman. She lightens him up and he learns to have fun with life; somewhere along the way, the two become romantically involved and even get engaged. But… then she dies horrifically in one of their work experiments.

So once we get to the series proper, we have these two characters–Tsumugu and Aikuro–who both have lost someone very dear to them, but handle this loss incredibly differently. Tsumugu finds his sister a fool, and everything she believed in stupid and worthless. Aikuro, conversely, follows through with Kinue’s will. Her dying words were to keep going with the Kamui experiments, which Isshin/Soichiro does, ultimately creating Senketsu. Considering how he writes a letter to Aikuro to introduce Ryuko to Senketsu, he seemed to know he wouldn’t be able to do it himself… which puts Aikuro in an interesting place. Instead of orchestrating Ryuko and Senketsu’s meeting, Aikuro could have destroyed Senketsu on the spot. This is surely what Tsumugu would have done. But he doesn’t.

I almost think Aikuro’s role in the show gets overlooked a lot. Literally none of it would have happened if he hadn’t opened up the trap door. Ryuko was in the right place at the right time, but there’s practically no way she would have met Senketsu if someone else hadn’t planned it. I find it pretty interesting that the English dub seems to draw a bit more emphasis on this than the original script, though it’s a recurring element in both. Aikuro is incredibly dedicated to bringing Ryuko and Senketsu together, and maintaining that they stay that way.

And I do think it’s for Kinue as you say, Anon. Aikuro notes in episode 5 that Kinue believed humans and clothes could be friends, so Ryuko and Senketsu are the ultimate way to prove it. Senketsu is the final result of the experiments that Kinue died testing, and instead of believing it’s all hopeless as Tsumugu does, I say that Aikuro chooses to believe in her and her dream. To get more headcanon-y, I think there’s also a compelling thread here about Ryuko resembling Kinue in some way, which just adds to Aikuro’s desire to help her. After all, in the third Drama CD, Tsumugu notes that Aikuro “favor[s] Matoi and support[s] her too much,” and, well, I don’t know about anyone else, but my mind instantly goes to angst-land about how Ryuko looks like Aikuro’s dead fiancé…

[GET THE FULL PDF HERE]

In 2013, my friends introduced me to the new hit anime Kill la Kill.

I hated it.  

In 2016, I stuffed a bunch of the 100,000+ words I’d dedicated to writing about the show into a hefty book.

What happened?

Who knows, but you can now read the result! Just over two years of love and enthusiasm fill up these 350-some pages of 80+ essays, all split up into ten sections: Character Relationships, Comparisons to Other Media, Design Choices and Symbolism, English Dub Script, OST, OVA, Ryuko and Senketsu, Specific Moments, Tag Essays and Quick Posts, and The Discourse. As may be obvious from such a list, the heart of much of this writing is—just as the series itself—Ryuko and Senketsu, but I’d hope there’s a little something here for every Kill la Kill fan.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years. I couldn’t have put this together without all the encouragement I’ve received. Everyone who’s sent me asks and inspired me to keep yapping—you’re the reason this book exists! I’ve grown so much as a writer because of this community and through putting together this collection, and I cannot express how grateful I am for that.  

Special thanks too to h0saki, who has provided scans from various Kill la Kill books, and to mikiryuko, who has provided fans with translations of un-localized Kill la Kill material, as well as all the anonymous contributors who have provided similarly. I couldn’t have done many of the essays here without your work!

While essentially a masterpost of the posts I’ve made concerning this series, this book is also a little more than that in that it features revised and updated writing, additional commentary, and, well, it’s all put in one nice, handy, convenient place. However, it’s far from everything, and does not include all the many great conversations I’ve had, so if for some strange reason anyone’s ever thirsting for even more Kill la Kill talk, there are still always the analyses pages on my blogs.

Thank you for taking a look! I hope you enjoy.

Full content list under the cut! These all link back to the original essays (if there is an original essay), but please note that the ones in the book are cleaned up and include additional commentary.

And you’re welcome...?

I just hope that whatever translations you used as reference were accurate enough. Now that they’ve been used in published material, I feel a heavier responsiblity O_o

Just keep in mind that my translations are amateur and casual and should be taken with a grain of salt.

“It’s Mako! Mankanshoku Mako! I may be an underachiever, but I do have a name!”

Mako Mankanshoku- Kill La Kill

Decided to merge the previous post I had with this one. This is the GUI for Inter(e)action Redux, designed by Hijiri. Since Mikisugi is ready, I can finish Chapter 2. Tsumugu is in 3 and Kinue is in 4, so…it’ll be a while.

I scaled down Mikisugi’s sprite a bit since it didn’t look right but now Sanageyama looks really tall

This is whole story of Ryuko’s sweater! By animator Saito Kengo!

Cover and back cover of my upcoming Kill la Kill fanbook, you can preorder it

–>[Here]<–

76 pages | 150+ drawings | Full Color | DIN A5

Shiro made the animal costumes for the Elites after they lost a bet :D

I’m giving away 23 of my old traditional sketches to people who preorder the book, more details under the cut.

After multiple requests regarding prints, T-Shirts, merchs etc I finally opened an online store, where I’m selling art prints, and official merchs that I own twice. (Many thanks to all the people who have been sending me print requests over the past 2 weeks, and especially thanks to @kiluakilu for giving me advice about different online stores and for patiently answering all my annoying questions!)

I’m sorry I had to decline any stickers or charm requests, I haven’t found a good store that makes them yet and right now I don’t have much time to search more thoroughly. But I will definitely keep it in mind, so maybe in the future!

These are all the things that were requested so far, if you want to request anything new you can message me. (Just look through my “klk-fanart”-tag.)

All items (except for official merchs) are open for pre-order until next Sunday (13th Dec), then I will print it and ship it as soon as the prints arrive.

I apologize that the requested KlK-Fanbook isn’t ready yet, I’m still correcting and editing old pictures that I want to include there that are full of small mistakes, and I also have to draw a cover and backcover and inspiration hasn’t struck me yet. It will hopefully be ready by next week! 

All the profits from pre-orders (for everything that’s not official merch) will go to charity, I will donate it to UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), they have this nice Christmas campaign going on the German website where they will double the amount you donate which I think is awesome! (I couldn’t find an English version, sorry.)

Anyways, here is the link to the store:

h0saki.storenvy.com

NUI HARIME - KILL LA KILL

I thought I posted this already. This is a character my friend casted me as before I had even heard of the show. So I watched it, enjoyed it, and did the thing. It’s not often that I get to be the bad guy, I really enjoyed that day.

_____ Nonon Jakuzure: @vamp-elanor​ Ryuko Matoi: @mytiscosplay​ Nui Harime: @akatsukiskycosplay​ (me)