February 23rd, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy キルラキル ep. 19 SPOILER Review
KILL la KILL episode 19
Synopsis:
COVERS activates as Seimeisen in the form of suits start consuming humans, including Mako, whom Ira was prevented from saving. Ryuuko is horrified by the revelation that she is part Seimeisen and frees herself from Ragyou, but is otherwise unable to land a blow on her or Nui. Satsuki blows up the platform they are on, to no avail, as she is captured and placed in a cage, bound by her hands from the ceiling. Meanwhile, the Elite Four have joined Nudist Beach, where their Goku uniforms have all failed. Nonon discovers Matarou and Guts still in the city, surviving in the sewers with other kids, as he is looking for Mako to save her.
Elsewhere, Uzu rescues his former (thug) school mates at the cost of his Goku uniform. Some of his people sacrifice themselves to the Seimeisen to allow Uzu to escape with the others. Meanwhile, Nonon takes Matarou and the kids back to Osaka to the secret Nudist Beach HQ, where he’s reunited with his family, who’ve been taking care of the unconscious Ryuuko. Satsuki’s sword, Bakuzan, has been reforged into two blades — Bakuzan-Gako (Ira) and Bakuzan-Kouryu (Nonon). Iori is working on a special project to help the cause. Mikisugi and Ira pay a visit to Ryuuko, whereupon learning of Matarou’s quest, Ira vows to rescue Mako.
Ragyou pays a visit to her imprisoned daughter and sexually assaults Satsuki while gloating over Satsuki’s failures as Satsuki ponders the notion of her and Ryuuko being siblings. Ragyou explains how Souichirou actually became MATOI Ishin after fooling Ragyou’s people into thinking they’d killed Souichirou, whereupon he raised Ryuuko and founded Nudist Beach. Satsuki reveals that she knows the only reason she’s been kept alive this past month is Shinra-Kouketsu. Ragyou spanks Satsuki to get her more enraged, which Ragyou says will help the cause. Ragyou then visits Nui and the controlled Sewing Club, who are making the ultimate Kamui outfit.
The COVERS Seimeisen attack the Nudist Beach base, so Mikisugi, Tsumugu, Nonon, Uzu, and Ira go out to meet them. Iori has Ira’s new weapon (Kyukyukyumei-Kyuingu), which can extract humans from the COVERS. Seeing Guts go nuts over one of the COVERS, Ira tries out his new weapon, and sure enough, manages to extract a naked Mako, giving her his shoulder holster to wear. Mako’s family are happy to see her as the COVERS form themselves into screeching harps, and making a terrible noise. An enraged Ryuuko awakens, taking out the entire COVERS force and rescuing the humans. When Senketsu comes out to greet her, she rejects him as she is a Seimeisen monster like him. Meanwhile, Satsuki removes her big toenail, muttering that her mother made a mistake in keeping her alive.
Thoughts/Review:
It was amusing to me to see the Elite Four having joined Nudist Beach and wearing the not-X-Men holster clothing.
I really enjoyed this episode, and loved that the supporting characters got time in the sun. It is a testament to Satsuki in her choices to be the Elite Four, as well as her butler Saori and the Sewing Club president, Iori (whom I believe is related to Saori).
In such a fantastically premised show like KILL la KILL, my suspension of disbelief threshold is quite high. However, with the Matrix allusion in having the COVERS powered by humans (whom are kept alive by some means unknown and power these self-contained Seimeisen units), that was a bridge too far for me. Yeah, I’ll give it a pass, but I laughed at the sheer absurdity of it. After all, food, batteries, and other sources of power are consumed and have to be replenished from somewhere, but here, the humans power the COVERS, yet are not diminished when extracted. I know, I know, I shouldn’t sweat it and I do give it a pass, but it really did just stand out to me.
And, if that weren’t enough, there’s that laugher of, “Oh. Ishin and Souichirou were the same person. Ha!ha!ha!” For this moment, I had the Church Lady’s voice in my head going, “How convenient!” ^_~
Which leads me to the question, “How does Nui fit into the family picture? Tsugumu ” ^_~
Still, we had to have some BS way to get Mako back, and to tease the Mako x Ira romance angle. *lol* I loved how Nonon and Uzu teased him about it. I also loved how he gave up his shoulder holster, which conveniently doubled as NB clothing for Mako. ^_^
Of course there was the Ira vow to rescue Mako. ^_^
As to Satsuki, I eagerly await her next play. Regarding the Shinra-Kouketsu Kamui outfit, Fireball gleamed this information from 2CH, where Japanese fans are speculating on the exact meaning of the term since no kanji was provided.
神螺 (Shinra) = God(神) + Spiral shell(螺). 螺 could just be spiral or helix, if you shorten 螺旋. The 2ch poster suggested “神螺＝神の螺旋＝DNA”, or “Shinra = the Divine Helix = DNA”
纐纈 (Kouketsu) = a style of tie-dying from the Nara era.
The 2ch poster also noted that the word for “chromosome” is 染色体, which contains the kanji for “dyeing” and “color.” Not sure what to do with that, but it gives me horrible images of breeding a super human/life-fiber hybrid using the a tie-dye kamui ejaculating rainbows.
the most literal Shinra-kouketsu would be
神羅-高潔
神 (shin) = God
羅 (ra) = Gauze, silk
高潔 (kouketsu) = Nobilityso Shinra-Kouketsu = 神羅・高潔 = God’s Silk of Nobility
As for Ryuuko, one would think the screeching COVERS Seimeisen was done in order to not only wake Ryuuko up, but to per her into the state that Ragyou also wishes Satsuki to be in.
It will be interesting to see where Ryuuko and Senketsu go from here.
So, a fun episode where the supporting characters get to take the lead for a while. The previews being dropped from the episode means that more time is needed for the story from here on out, which I’m really looking forward to. ^_^
Posted in 
Tags: 
Actually it’s said outright that Iori is Soroi’s nephew in the start of Episode 15 (the scene in the helicopter before the GODDAMNIT Nui moment).
Well what Covers eat is the nervous impulses not the biological energy itself. It’s probably why Ragyo tells Satsuki to get enraged, the more intense her rage the more “brain power” that will go into the big ass Kamui. Then again the only one we have Seen walking around and talking was Mako and Mako is just plain hilariously abnormal so she can’t be exactly treated as Average.
What got me curious about Isshin/Soichirou is, where was Ryuuko for the first 4 years of her life? After all Soichirou rebelled when Satsuki was 5 years old.
The super serious Tsumugu vs. super ridiculous Nui? I can buy that XD If Tsumugu is the Weird Uncle then Nui is the Weird Cat loving Aunty XD
Trolling Nonon was the best, especially when Ira Realized that he is being trolled. And Sanageyama had this “Dude I can see it and I’m BLIND!”
Seeing how that new Kamui is supposed to “eat” Satsuki… I had a feeling that Kamui require a human sacrifice component to be truly created. Kamuis are Considerably more powerful than just Covers despite being essentially the same, 100% Life Fiber beings with human inside. I think that Kinue might have been sacrificed to give Senketsu the power up. Anyway this would mean that Ragyo either wants to feed Satsuki to Shinra Kouketsu as power source and then give it to her better daughter Ryuko OR wants to feed both Ryuko and Satsuki to the Kamui and then don it herself to become an Ultimate Being.
That is a very good point, it really looks like Ryuko’s rage isn’t just from The Reveal but because the Covers riled her up. The girl is under a Lot of stress right now and very easy to anger.
A thought from me. I think Ragyo made a HUGE mistake by locking Satsuki up in Honnouji. Satsuki planned beyond even fighting Ragyo, she prepared counters to being beaten and captured. And Honnouji is HER town, she probably designed and built it from scratch. She can have ANYTHING there, from Nudist Beach anti-Covers weaponry, spare Goku Uniforms up to a Nuke she could use to annihilate Ragyo if things got unpleasant enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if we would see Satsuki going Batman against Covers with entire Honnouji as her bat cave with safehouses and equipment caches everywhere.
Also worthy of note is that the Only time Satsuki broke her “Snarky Prisoner” facade when Ragyo visited her was when Ryuuko was mentioned. Satsuki was visibly shaking when she said that she and Ryuuko are sisters. She must have some pretty strong thoughts on that.
Now a bit of my fanboying
Nudist Beach Nonon is BEST NONON!
Wow, just…wow. You said it ALL, man! Thx! ^^ Only 4 of my comments to add:
1- The Mako x Ira moments were so funny! Notice his face when she says “Yes!” XDDDD But indeed, the ppl Ryuuko saved seemed normal…and I didn’t catch the Matrix reference, thx, Astro;
2- I also found the part of Isshin’s desguise rather amusing, and it connects everything…except for Nui, that odd ball lol I think, after saving Ryuuko, Isshin raised her secretely for a while. When he “becomes” Isshin, she is already a little big, and then he leaves Satsuki;
3- My gods, Raygo is getting kinker and kinker by the scene! lol
4- And…YEAH! Nudist Beach Nonon is BEST NONON indeed! Haha! That was quite a surprise, her ninja entrance! And her faces this episode were really funny too!
P.S. Looking foward to more, much, much more!^^
I watched that movie WAY too many times back in the day. ^_^;;;;
Saving one daughter and leaving the other behind is still jacked up in my opinion.
Yeah, that’s just wrong, wrong, wrong. ^_^;;;;
I liked seeing her so skilled even without her Goku uniform.
Ditto. ^_^
I remember the scene, but I remember something about it making me wonder if it were a true relationship (which it probably is), or a familiar one where they are like family but not truly family.
I hadn’t even thought about that. ^_^;;;
*lol* Yeah, I can hear Uzu saying that. ^_^
I vote on the later as Ragyou seems in this just for herself.
Well, Satsuki did say that Ragyou made a mistake in leaving her alive. Having had time to think about it, I wonder if there might be a transmitter or something in her toe.
Considering the abandonment of her baby sister to her death helped set Satsuki on her current path, Satsuki might be considering the irony of Ryuuko being said sister, more so in light of how Satsuki actually looked out for Ryuuko, but at the same time used Ryuuko much as her mother had done.
*lol* That’s Jakuzure-sama to you. ^_~
Sorry for double post but… this is an idea you might appreciate.
Satsuki fell ill and cannot fulfil her responsibilities of Student Council President, which mostly involve standing in high places and looking awesome. So Elite Four look for a temporary replacement. They look for someone strong-willed, confident, responsible and good at swordsmanship.
They find Katsura Hinagiku… she agrees to help them and swears that she will fulfil her duty.
Then they tell her what those duties entitle while pointing at the platform overlooking Honnouji Academy.
I don’t have rules against them, so it is all good. ^_^
*LOL* OK, that seriously needs to be made into an image of some sort — Hina, in Junketsu, holding one (or both) of her swords in the fashion that Satsuki did, standing atop of that platform like Satsuki. ^_^
Ah nice spiral reference.
I remember you saying you didn’t watch tenten toppa gurren lagaan but again it seems that they are referring back to gurren lagaan with this upcoming kamui.
Whole basis of gurren lagaan was focus on the concept of spiral energy and the helix like the DNA and it was spiral energy that allowed humans to evolve and by the end of the series, shimon spiral energy output was so great he became a literal god that could pierce the heavens.
With that in mind the end fight will be god level fight like dai gurren dan’s tengen toppa gurren lagaan vs anti-spiral’s tengen toppa universal scale battle
Thanks for the info. ^_^
And so a new trope was born Utility Toes! “And they say that my transformation with Senketsu looks painful…”. On that note I wonder why no one mass-produced the weapons from the same alloy as Bakuzan. It would definitely give them an edge… perhaps it’s Life Fiber Kryptonite and there is limited supply?
Indeed, if Ragyo would feel like Hannibal lecturing Satsuki a bit she could gush over how much her little Sat-chan is like her, using and abusing their own relatives.
It must be worse for Satsuki, for all her ruthlessness she still has a consience of sorts and she’d remember how she was ready to throw Ryuuko away if the girl didn’t live up to her expectations.
While she’d be shaking in her boots doing her very best NOT to look down, not even THINK about down. And when Ryuuko would come to taunt her from the ground she would Have to look down XD I bet that even though she’d keep a strong front she’d be screaming for someone to save her. Once she’d get off the tower she’d relax a bit… only for Ira to grow big and lift her up on his palm to provide “Satsuki-sama” with high ground.
You mentioned that you didn’t watch TTGL? A shame really, there are tons of refercences and making fun of characters based on their seiyuus.
While we are at Seiyuus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhBnE2EhFFU
*lol* OK, I forgot about that aspect of Hina. But it would still be a fun image to see, sans any Hina fear of course.
*LOL* Thanks for that link. The fact that Ira’s seiyuu is actually a tall, larger-framed guy just worked so well. It is always fun seeing the faces behind the voices. Thanks for the share. ^_^
Shot from the back, Hina standing proud and tall, her hands resting on her sword as she sternly watches the students below.
Shot from the front, Hina’s face is bone white and locked in a look of boundless horror while her body seems so rigid because she is scared stiff and too terrified to move a muscle.
And there is this clip for TTGL. Some of the voices are shared with KLK guys. Viral is Sanageyama and Kamina is Tsumugu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVbWL6ESlc8&NR=1&fmt=18
Thanks for the share. ^_^
Another brilliant episode, I’m looking forward to ur review on ep 20 and your reactions to some of the revelations and plot twist in this week ep (especially nui’s revelation)
Ryuko reminded me of Simon when he was going through his despair phase which was cool because they went for a different approach on ryuko which is good since there was to many gurren lagaan déjà vu
Yeah, I can’t wait to watch. And Nui is the one I figured would get some kind of reveal soon.
Nui revelation was something I totally was not expecting