KILL la KILL- 07 ("Well we're movin' on up, to the east side, to a delux apartment in the sky!")

キルラキル ep. 07
KILL la KILL SPOILER Review

Synopsis:

Ryuuko is starting to enjoy family life at Mako's, but the constant club attacks on Ryuuko are annoying her. Mako explains that more clubs are forming because of Ryuuko as club presidents get 2-star Goku uniforms. Ryuuko decides to form the Fight Club, which Ira is not going to approve until Satsuki overrules him. When Ira reveals all of the paperwork, meetings, and the like required of a club president, Ryuuko makes Mako the president, much to Mako's chagrin. Ryuuko says that with this, her family can move up with everyone Ryuuko defeats. Indeed, as Ryuuko challenges other clubs and defeats them, Mako's family do get to move out of the slums, Mako gets a 1-star Goku uniform, and their quality of life improves. Ryuuko's success and Mako's paperwork skills soon gets the family moved into a mansion. However, the close, family atmosphere that Ryuuko had enjoyed vanishes, though Mako is determined to see it continue.

Their continued success has the elite four very concerned, which they express to Satsuki. She tells them to be patient, as it may be that Ryuuko and Mako aren't destroying the Honnouji system, but are being assimilated by it. Ryuuko doesn't like where they've headed, so on the day they are to challenge the elite, Ryuuko resigns. Mako doesn't want to go back to the slums. Satsuki sends down a 2-star robe for Mako, telling her that if she defeats Ryuuko, she'll gain a 3-star Goku uniform. Mako dons the uniform and battles Ryuuko for the sake of not being poor again. Even Mako's family cheers for Mako. Ryuuko refuses to fight and takes a beating for an entire day. Satsuki gloats over Ryuuko and the pig nature of humans that must be controlled. As Mako goes for the finishing blow, she stops herself because Ryuuko isn't fighting. She gets angry with herself and her family and unleashes the uniforms full power at them, which Ryuuko stops, destroying the arena. Ryuuko gloats back at Satsuki about this, but through Mako's family are sent back to the slums, they are happy as a family.

Thoughts/Review:

One of the things I'm liking about KILL la KILL is that though the setting is nothing that new, the series is not falling into a "monster of the week" trope, but keeps things lively and interesting with the unexpected.

Having Mako's family move up in life as Mako's status at the school improved was an interesting way of getting a glimpse into how other folks in better circumstances lived. There's a certain cliched element to the different lifestyles, but considering how the whole area around Honnouji is set up, that is to be expected.

The one element I didn't like is the reset to the status quo for Mako's family. The second it became clear that Mako's family would see their standard of living improved, I knew that it would be force-reset back down to nothing. For me, it would have been more interesting and even more sinister had Satsuki arranged it so that Mako's family didn't return to the slums. but went down to the area above that.

I guess only Ryuuko is allowed to have any growth, which is mostly coming from cliched shounen battle approaches -- fight, learn lessons, get stronger, repeat. I don't mind that Ryuuko grows in this fashion, but allowing Ryuuko to progress while Mako's family stays down just seems wrong to me (even if the lesson is supposed to be, "Be happy with your lot in life").

Satsuki still remains the most interesting character in this series as far as I'm concerned. The fact that she allowed the Fight Club to be formed and for Ryuuko to hunt down and defeat the other clubs in order to purge Honnouji Academy of the weak and undesirables is pure diabolical and genius to boot. After all, had Satsuki gone out and done a purge herself, it might have truly torn down the system she'd created. But, if she appears to be an outsider and allows someone else to do her dirty work, the system not only remains, but gets stronger while Satsuki's hands stay clean and her power reaffirmed.

In the end, a good episode with an interesting reveal. I just wish Mako's family didn't get the status quo reset.