01.24
Ryuko asks the hard questions.
First off, I want to discuss the concept of writing a story without planning, with thinking up plot points at the last minute. With the revelation that the field trip was actually a ploy to draw Nudist Beach out, there are valid reasons for liking and disliking this. To some people, it comes off as a drastic shift, like hearing a guy making up a story about how his car got totaled. It’s a bit sketchy as far as storytelling goes, but there’s a side benefit. Doing that allows for more surprise for not only the viewers but the creators as well. And Kill la Kill was never much of a structured show anyway, so this only compliments the series in a sense.
Really, planning wouldn’t have made a fight between a giant crab and a robot samurai any better. Takarada’s a nice spanner in this conflict, with his ideology that people will sacrifice themselves when given enough money proving a nice contrast to Satsuki’s ideal for a strength-based hierarchy. If it weren’t for Ryuko’s appearance, this would have been an episode where the Honnoji group would’ve been the good guys bringing order to a land ravaged by greed. Yeah, I’m still for the idea that Satsuki’s actually the hero, but the cheeky banter between the Elite Four and all the mutual loyalty really make me wonder.
And this is once again more overanalyzing, but I notice how the Nudist Beach armor looks like the Empire’s Walkers from Star Wars. For a supposed rebel group, why would their design allude to that? If you’re the rebels, you get influenced by X-Wings and tech like that, not the chicken walkers from Return of the Jedi. It could be a coincidence, but then I notice that Nudist Beach wants to rescue Takarada. Why do they want to rescue a guy who’s probably even more corrupt than Satsuki? And along with how his crab armor isn’t too far off from the Nudist Beach armor, I’m suspecting something. I know this idea is as deluded as the “Zeon were actually the good guys!” theory Gundam fans throw around, but it’s always a great amount of fun to theorize.
Kill la Kill has been quite good when it comes to offering discussion. I mean, I’ve heard people give valid arguments for how this is actually a Gurren Lagann sequel, which isn’t hurt at all by Satsuki’s drill gambit at the climax. That’s what makes talking about this show fun, because even the outlandish ideas fans throw around have at least a bit of weight. It’s a bit of a game to see if the fans can be even crazier than the writers, and vice-versa. Every week always offers a “What happens next?” conundrum for the viewers, like a Republic serial brimming with pulp. Of course there’s the occasional moment when things can be too hokey, but they snap back in place as quickly as they appear. It’s not like Samurai Flamenco where a serious plot eventually decayed into pure chaos, because Kill la Kill began as chaos and has been riding with it ever since. And besides, if you’re at this part of the road, you should be expecting things to become hokey to the point of truly resplendent depths.