Kill La Kill Volume 2 (Episodes 10-19) Blu ray

Review Date: 2015 March 23 21:38

Reviewed by: Eeeper

Released by: Anime Limited

Age Rating: 15

Region: 2 - UK

Volume 2 of 3

Length: 250 minutes

Subtitles: English

Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo
Japanese Dolby Digital Stereo

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Summary

As they enter the final stages of the great King of the Hill battle, Ryuko must face Uzu Sanageyama again after defeating the other three members of the Elite Four. But, the combat is brought to a sudden halt when a mysterious girl clad in a gothic Lolita outfit and an eye patch suddenly appears...

Her name is Nui Harime and she claims to have killed Ryuko's father, Dr. Matoi! What will Matoi do and why does Satsuki seem so unconcerned? Find out in the second part of Kill la Kill!

Review

Yes, and we are back with the girls and boys from Honnouji Academy as they live about life, love and maybe more!!! OK, that was corny but it was so good to catch up with KLK after watching it on Netflix and Wakamin all those many months ago. So with Anime Limited hitting the ground running with volume 2 of 3, has the show gotten better (as if it could after the first nine episodes) and how does the end of these episodes set up the final round? In answer to both, I present the following:

The show's initial setup of Ryuko Matoi fighting the Goku students in their super uniforms to find out the truth of her father's murder and to discover about her life fiber uniform Senketsu had Matoi fighting the low level bosses to find her answers and protect her friend Mako at the academy. But now, Student Council President, and future candidate for neck pain, Satsuki Kiryuin has set the Elite Four (Ira Gamagoori, Nonon Jakuzure, Houka Inumuta and Uzu Sanageyama) of the Council against Matoi before she can face Satsuki in combat. So gone is the quest nature of the show and an all out battle royale has been put in motion. From the fires of this fight, will Matoi fall again and again only to rise undefeated and and unbowed. Director Hiroyuki Imaishi deserves full credit for creating a big duckaroo with powerups, bosses, montages, camera swings, bloody punches, full orchestral musical attacks, bondage, nudity and people screaming curse words at each other to be the king of the hill in every sense of the word. After the defeat of Uzu and Ira, Nonon and Houka try their hand at defeating the upstart from the sticks. Fat chance since Ryoko is a heroine for the new anime generation. No shrinking violet, Matoi has the attack strength of a Bancho gang combined with a powered sailor suit and the heart of warrior princesses of old. She just wants to level the playing field and beat people up. But only on a conscious level. Something else drives her.

In her heart of hearts, she wants the answer to the mystery: why did her father die and why did he make Senketsu for her? Answering these questions is going to break her heart because once you know a terrible truth, you can never go back. During the fight with the Elite's we are introduced to Nui Harime, a high order tailor who works for the Kiryuin Group at the REVOCS Clothing company. A small, polite girl, she is revealed to be a psychopath of the highest order who makes the histrionics of the Elites or Satsuki to be mere diversions in comparison. She just smiles and cheerfully describes how she's going to kill people, has killed people or what she'd like to do to them. In either English or Japanese, there's something not quite kosher about the sweet, innocent voice that's describing doing all these things. On the other hand, if we're chilled by Nui, her boss, and Satsuki's mother Ragyo, is a overwound Queen Bee who has a Napoleon Complex about clothes and an over familiarity with her daughters body that you have to see in action to fully appreciate. From her grand, multicoloured entrance to her final screaming, cackling speech at the end of episode 19, she is the master of her destiny and we are all just along for the ride. We also get to learn the truth about Matoi's father, the origin of Senketsu and the real reason for the Kiryuin Group's vice-like grip over the world's clothing needs and Japan's academies. It's the grandest of stages, full of fireworks, crying into the camera, soul searching and hidden surprises. It continues to make me laugh at the puerile jokes while marvelling at the empowering message that anyone, girls included, can cast the mightiest of shadows while standing tall and out front against those who would tell you to look down and accept their fate.

As to where the show goes from here, it's going to get interesting from here on in. Ragyo has control of the COVERS (part of the Life Fibers she controls and has flowing through her) and the Honnouji Academy. Ryoko is in hiding after the revelations brought out by her fight with the Elites, Satsuki, Nui and Ragyo. Satsuki is on the ropes and both the Elites and Nudist Beach are fighting together to stop the COVERS from taking over. Now the battle lines have been drawn, the dye is cast and the show is going to move into high gear in its so far successful attempts to entertain us. From the way that the animators always have Mikisugi stripping down in the middle of very important dialogue to the fantastic interruptions by Mako to give important and ultimately boring safety and etiquette lessons, the show continues to impress, continues to shine when lesser shows would retreat to safety. The animation from Studio TRIGGER reaches for the very best it can, the voice actors scream, shout, whispers, punch through the heavens with mighty proclamations and the music is beyond merely stating that it's in total synchronization with the visuals.

One thing I need to bring up before we bring this lovefest to a close: the blu ray's from Anime Limted don't give any indication that there's more episodes on the disc as the arrows to see the rest of the list are not well defined. I thought I'd gotten the wrong set of discs and accidentally emailed my editor to complain before I realised my mistake. It's a minor blip on an otherwise perfect release. Video is amazing, easily beating the Netflix version for quality and audio is lovely and clear with the M&E (Music and Effects) tracks easily distinguishable from the dialogue. While I didn't have access to the booklet that goes with the releases, from what I've seen of it, it really is nice.

Kill La Kill was the breakout hit of the streaming anime scene in 2014 and it continues to be the breakout hit on the anime home video scene in 2015. I'm sad that there's not any more planned on the horizon but with one release to go, I can't wait to sample the rest.

Rating: 9/10

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