KILL la KILL- 10 (How to use classical music as an "assault" weapon!)

December 8th, 2013

AstroNerdBoy

キルラキル ep. 10
KILL la KILL episode 10 SPOILER Review

Synopsis:

Just before the next battle starts, Houka recalls the event five years earlier where he hacked into a maximum security company owned by the Kiryuuin family. Although he initially succeeded in crashing the company’s stock, he’s immediately caught and given a chance by Satsuki to be something more. In the present, Houka transforms his 3-star Goku uniform to continue gathering information on Ryuuko as Ira sits with Mako in the stands for no-star students. Houka is surprised by Ryuuko’s not following predicted patterns as she gets in the first hit. However, he uses his uniforms cloaking ability to become invisible, where he attacks Ryuuko at will. Ryuuko and Senketsu come up with a way to find Houka, but before she can land the finishing blow, Houka gives up to save his precious data before joining Ira and Mako in the stands.

Nonon is up next, but she’s not happy with Uzu assuming she’ll lose. As drum major, she leads her marching band down before transforming in her 3-star Goku uniform to a flying stereo system with massive speakers. She uses “Light Cavalry Overture” as her opening attack music on Ryuuko, cranking it up for the charge portion of the song. Ryuuko is frustrated by Nonon flying outside the battle ring as Nonon thinks back to when she and “Satsuki-chan” were in kindergarten. Senketsu anchors himself to the platform’s surface as Ryuuko snares Nonon. However, Nonon starts shattering the ring’s surface with the “William Tell Overture”, causing Senketsu to lose grip. However, at Ryuuko’s request, he develops the ability to fly. This irritates Nonon and causes concern to Mikisugi-sensei, who contacts Tsumugu to say Senketsu is evolving too fast.

Thoughts/Review:

I am thinking back through my years of anime watching in order to discover if I can recall a moment where classical musical tunes were used as offensive weapons. At the moment, I cannot recall any such incident. More on that in a bit.

For Ryuuko’s second fight, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by Houka only lasting half an episode. Again, Trigger does things to try to avoid being too cliched as they parody the Yu Yu Hakusho type battle tournament setting (and whatever countless other titles have done it, including Negima!). As such, it was refreshingly surprising to see Houka give up, but with an actual, legitimate reason to give up — protecting the data he’d gathered on Senketsu.

Houka’s flashback to meeting Satsuki didn’t have the weight that Ira’s or Uzu’s had, but it does show how Satsuki constantly set out to find the best of the best for when she founded Honnouji Gakuen.

Nonon starts the third fight with what I considered an awesome entrance since I was in a marching band back in high school. ^_^ Indeed, one year, we played the “Charge of the Light Cavalry” portion of “Light Calvary Overture” as our opening march, so hearing that really brought a smile to my face. I’ve also played the “William Tell Overture” in symphonic band, so that brought an added element of awesomeness to Nonon’s entire fighting style.

Nonon’s flashback to having gone to school with Satsuki since kindergarten (explaining why she’s the only one to address Satsuki as “Satsuki-chan” rather than “Satsuki-sama”) was OK, but it didn’t explain what made Nonon an elite. Nonon was shown back then to be an ojousama type in how she got others to do her bidding for in order to please her best friend. I understand Nonon wanting to support Satsuki all the way, but I would have liked to have seen that element that makes Nonon so powerful.

Satsuki’s apparently displeasure at seeing how Ryuuko had worked with Senketsu to evolve the uniform so radically in such a short time does make me wonder if she’s just jealous of Ryuuko, because Satsuki hasn’t gotten to those kind of levels with Junketsu. With Ryuuko having dispatched two of Elites (three if you consider that she’s already defeated Uzu once, but lost once as well), I also wonder if Satsuki is becoming worried.

I still say that Satsuki and Ryuuko will end up being allies. I do think that Satsuki will acknowledge the characteristics in Ryuuko that she respects.

I can’t help but wonder if Mikisugi-sensei &Tsumugu will end up being the ultimate villains of this series. Right now, it is easy to argue that they are worried about Senketsu going out of control, but thus far, we’ve seen no reason to think it would run amok. That may come later, but I think it would be interesting if Satsuki and Ryuuko end up fighting Mikisugi-sensei’s Nudist Beach group.

Finally, I couldn’t help but get a chuckle out of Ira deciding to sit with Mako and her reaction to that, followed by Houka’s decision to join them and her reaction to that. While those scenes were done primarily for comedic purposes, it also adds to my thinking that this is a type of foreshadowing, implying that Satsuki and her Elite Four will join forces with Ryuuko and Mako.