n o p e 🍥

Which brings me to Kill la Kill - my only experience with that anime is literally a couple of clips I watched when I was a teenager, and forgot about a couple of weeks later. Now I (sort of) know the gist of the overall plot by reading about it. But having read several of your essays on it, how invested you are kinda rubs off on me despite not having actually watched the show XD - like, I can feel how much you love these characters.

With that off my chest, I had a question in mind regarding the ending. Again, I don't know every little detail about the story as a whole, but I know that Honnōji Academy is destroyed at the end.

But do you think it would have been cool if the academy was reformed rather than destroyed?

I mean, Satsuki ran the place with an iron fist, and if she reformed, I don't see why the academy couldn't. Imagine Honnōji being a place that ran on cooperation and nurturing of each other's strengths rather than ruthlessness.

Think that's a good idea, or do you think it wouldn't work?

Oh my gosh?? I'm absolutely blown away that my writing can capture interest even without knowledge of the media (and am so curious about how you found me!). Thank you so much.

As to your question: hmm! That's a really good one that I've been pondering for a while (my apologies for the very belated response). One question that comes to mind in response is what a school (or any place) truly is. Is it the location? The building? The people?

If it's the people who made Honnouji Academy what it is, then Satsuki reforming is, in essence, the place reforming. The physical building isn't what made the school what it is.

But I think there's meaning in the inanimate. I'm reminded of an episode of Batman Beyond, "Shriek," where Bruce fights to keep the place where his parents died preserved. Terry wonders why—wouldn't it be best to tear it down? To forget the awful memory? But Bruce throws back at him, "Do you want to forget what happened to your father?"

In Batman Beyond, Crime Alley is left in tatters. It's abandoned, it hasn't been refurbished, and Bruce actively doesn't want it to be. There's meaning in leaving it as it is; it's a reminder of why Bruce became Batman and why the work he does is important.

Perhaps similarly, Honnouji Academy itself doesn't totally disappear. It sinks to the bottom of Tokyo Bay and becomes less immediately visible, but it still exists, and nothing is rebuilt on top of it. The memory of what Satsuki had done, and what she must never become again, lies just beneath the surface. And, because it's just beneath the surface, no one is going to try to make it into something new like the attempts with Crime Alley.

That said. I can also see worth in making a place once known for causing harm into a place that fosters love. Things can change without forgetting and disrespecting what came before.