Kill la Kill Specials

This is the final episode of Kill la Kill. It's not really a "special" or a side-story, but a rather necessary part of the series to tie up the whole story. I'm going to miss this show, it was a lot of fun. Genuine, good fun with a truly memorable cast and a over-the-top, jankily-animated style, and we probably won't see anything on-par with it for a long time. The final episode's audiovisual appeal is on-par with the best of series, with fluid action, cheap-but-hilarious animation shortcuts in between, and a bit of time with every good track from the stellar OST. Even after the final battlethere were a lot loose ends in regards to the characters, and this nails down pretty much all of them. Satsuki coming to grips with her main goal in life being resolved? Her and the Elite 4 acting evil coming back to bite them? Ragyo's other accomplice who never got any screentime in the series? The scissor blade? The characters' graduation from Honnouji? All covered, answered and more! The "this is a school battle anime" premise is neatly tied up in a bow, there's plenty of final call-backs to previous events in the story, and yeah. This is really what Kill la Kill needed, a flawless end to a semi-flawed series, and that's why I'm giving it a 10. We've all graduated, and now we can look back on our time with this show fondly.

Despite enjoying Kill la Kill, I didn't enjoy this special as much as I thought I would have. I'm not quite sure why I originally thought the special was going to be great and something worthwhile to anticipate, but somehow my eagerness and high expectations left me feeling a bit disappointed. The story behind the special is a pretty average one. There's not much going for it, given that it's essentially an episode equivalent of filler that tries to throw a lot at you in a short period of time. Actually, that's exactly what this special is. While graduating Honnouji Academy was ultimately the mainfocus of this special, I felt that there wasn't as much closure as I would have liked, or rather, it wasn't handled in a very satisfying fashion; there was basically a sentence saying "-insert character name- is going to do this now." It felt half-assed and inadequate. I enjoy seeing the characters I've grown fond of reappear on the screen as much as the next person, but sometimes it just isn't enough to say that an OVA or special is actually good material. This realistically isn't. Regardless of this, the special is still very watchable. I recommend that you do watch it at some point if you enjoyed Kill la Kill, but there should be no feeling of urgency to do so. In regards to characters, we’re able to see the same familiar faces of the series pop up once again. However, we also get a bit of development and fleshing out of Hououmaru, Rei, Kiryuuin Ragyou's secretary. In addition to that, we also are also shown a good level of maturity and growing up from the cast as a whole. The art, animation, and sound align very similarly with the original airing series. The same feeling of wacky, over-the-top craziness still holds, which is one of the pivotal qualities the series regularly maintained. The OST from the series is used once again, which isn't a bad thing whatsoever, and it has fluid visuals. Everything looks and sounds just as great as one would expect. While the special didn't meet my expectations, I did still enjoy the extra 25 minutes of material and its small bit of closure. A little extra something is certainly better than having nothing.

The Kill la Kill OVA has been something I have been waiting for since finishing the series in June. As someone who has been on different forums for the series, I built up a substantial amount of hype for this. Did it deliver? To be honest, I initially didn't like this OVA, feeling it was unnecessary. After spending a few days thinking about it, I have finally come to this conclusion: It was a good episode, but could've been better if they waited to release it a year or two later. DISCLAIMER: I'm going to expect anyone reading this review has already seen Kill la Kill,therefore I will not be going into the characters and their personalities. STORY: The story was standard Kill la Kill fare: An enemy shows up, wreaks havoc, and Ryuko and friends need to stop that enemy. The episode takes place between the ending of the series, and the credits to episode 24; to explain a certain character's appearance. Overall, the story felt rushed. It was trying to squeeze in a little too much into the standard 24 minute episode. Trying to give us a huge battle, while developing a previously undeveloped character proved to be too much for Trigger to do. It was entertaining, don't get me wrong, but it was like a haunted house at a fair, with workers ushering you through room to room so the group behind you can get in. ART: Very well done. Kill la Kill had been shown to have it's low points in art, but this was not one of them. The final battle, though not very long, was very well animated. In case you didn't know, the home video versions of KLK have corrections to the visuals, being touched up by the animators. This episode had a deadline, but it was 6 months away, so Trigger could take their time to make the animation top-notch quality. The characters are well done, and the style of the show is still there. SOUND: Pretty much the same as the show. The OVA uses one new song "Till I Die", which is on the official soundtrack, but was never used in the show up to this point. The voice actors all sound good, as usual, there is nothing really wrong here. CHARACTER: Not going too deep into this one, but there is only some character development in the villain of this OVA, nothing groundbreaking happens to the other characters. ENJOYMENT: While it was on, it was a very fun ride. It's wonderful eye-candy, it's funny, it has awesome battle sequences, it's very good. OVERALL: While it was a fun ride, this OVA would've been much better if it was released at least a year later. It reminds me of the Dragon Ball OVA "Yo! Son Goku and his Friends Return!", which encapsulates what Dragon Ball is in about 30 minutes. The whole reason why YSGFR worked was because we got to see our favorite characters again in something new for the first time in 13 years(if we're saying the last new animated DB thing is Wrath of the Dragon). We got a fun little adventure, not confirming a new series, just some fun antics and action, and that was that. I feel Kill la Kill's OVA would've been much better received with me if they had waited a little longer to release it. It's perfect material in the realm of, "Hey! Ryuko and the gang are back and doing their thing!". Was it good? Yes. If you saw Kill la Kill, should you watch it? Yes. Just don't expect it to lead into something. FINAL SCORE: 8/10

I understand why this episode was scrapped. For someone that was a huge fan of the original series, I'm actually quite shocked with how little I enjoyed what was supposed to be a conclusive ending to one the most exciting animes. Starting with the positives, it was awesome to see all of our beloved cast members for one last meeting. Ryuko, Satsuki, Mako, the Elite Four, and even Aikuro Mikisugi make their return complete with comforting and familiar dialogue. There was also a bit of action to be had, most of which somewhat engaging. The animation and music shined as they did before, with nothing particularly specialoffered in this episode. The damning part of this special lies in its plot, as the writers decided to place their focus on Rei Hououmaru, Ragyo Kiryūin's former lackey with literally no character to her whatsoever, instead of our main cast. I genuinely do not understand the purpose of bringing her back in a special, especially considering that nothing remotely genuine or intriguing even came from her "character development". Rather than be a fun episode where we actually see the gang congregate, graduate, and perhaps battle, we're instead presented with a pretty half-hearted revisit to a character nobody asked to see again. Another issue involves Satsuki's representation as a weakened, spiritless individual throughout most of the episode. While I can understand how much of her resolve can be extinguished as a result of the Honnōji Academy's end goal being met, that doesn't give merit to pointlessly weakening one of the strongest characters of the series. We ended up presented with a Satsuki as more a false mirror of the character we grew to love, respect, and even fear. The actual ending of Kill la Kill proper served as a better resolution to the story than this special. If you're a completionist, watch this OVA just to mark it complete, but don't expect to rewatch it again in the future. I personally don't consider it canon, as I'd much rather envision an ending more loyal to the original series than whatever this was supposed to be. Fill in the holes yourself; you'll be better off.

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