If you’ve never been moved by speeches about clothing being different from humans, I have just the episode for you.
What They Say:
The final confrontation is at hand! Will Ragyo and Nui bring on the end of the world, or will Ryuko and the others be able to stop them?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Our almost complete reunion of Gurren Lagann staffers has really been going all out lately, and is clearly trying to make some last efforts to reach as closely to that glorious level of 6.5 years ago. Unfortunately, Kill la Kill has had far too much in the way of lulls or at least stagnation to really be the second Gurren Lagann we might’ve held out some hope for in the earliest moments, even if it by no means was ever bad. But that shouldn’t stop the team from doing its best in the time it has left, and thanks to the fact that it certainly doesn’t, we get one hell of a finale.
Sorry for the constant Gurren Lagann parallels (oh, and if you haven’t seen Gurren Lagann yet… what are you doing with your life?), but it’s pretty clear that the team is returning to very familiar territory for the final battle: space, the final frontier, with our combatants tossing each other around with no regard for any laws of physics. It’s a glorious sight that always succeeds in putting the battle on a scale that really can’t be matched by anything else. Granted, our fighters are limited to the main two for the final bout, and they’re of a relatively reasonable size compared to the millions-to-billions of light years tall some robots may have been, but if there’s one thing that Nakashima knows complements Imaishi’s style perfectly, it’s going bigger than before in every way and for that, last-minute power-ups on both sides that transcend anything we’ve seen before (to say nothing of those silly laws of physics we’ve long since thrown out) are a bare (no pun intended) minimum. These aren’t just any power-ups, of course; the theme of teamwork that runs through Nakashima’s writing is integral not only to Ryuko’s determination but also to the structure of her final weapon itself, and Ragyo’s tyranny and sadomasochistic relationship with her other “daughter” run counter to that notion for her own godly weapon.
As usual, by no means should Ryuko have any chance at beating Ragyo, but this show is all about kicking logic to the curb and making the impossible possible, right? That’s right, as long as you work hard enough, believe hard enough, and for the love of whatever gods may exist in this bizarre universe yell hard enough, anything can be accomplished, and you’d be hard-pressed to buy it if it wasn’t so utterly compelling to every fiber of your body (seriously, no pun…). I’d say an epic speech is easily more important than any actual attack, and fortunately Ryuko has the kind of monologue that even puts Ragyo to shame; not a conceited, self-righteous string of words but a long, passionate series of brilliant nonsense she yells at the top of her lungs, to the point where I’d fully believe you’d be able to hear it in the void of space. People are people and clothing is clothing. Does it need to be said? It doesn’t seem like it should. Does it mean anything outside of the context of this ridiculous story? Not a whole lot. But I was still hanging on every word, of course helped a great deal by Trigger’s most impressive animation providing the wonderful climax to the fight we’ve all been waiting for and a wealth of insert songs, including both openings and everyone’s favorite “Before My Body is Dry” (the “don’t lose your way” song, if you will), all leading up to the first ending playing in the final moments of peace.
I’m sure there will be people asking for a sequel as they always do, but there’s absolutely no reason for one. There’s a lot to love about this kind of story structure, and the very conclusive nature of it is definitely something I appreciate in it. Even if I had my issues with some of the pacing in the middle, this story was clearly planned out from beginning to end, and it ends up being a very successful endeavor. The epilogue is brief but that’s not a problem, because while it may be nice to get more, this maximizes the hot-blooded action that will keep you up all night with lingering excitement, and since this story has never been all that much about the… well, story, that’s really the best thing it could do.
In Summary:
I’ve had my complaints throughout this series, and those still stand in at least some capacity. And there’s no doubt that this was never going to match up to Gurren Lagann once it began. But for all that, what these guys have come up with in these last few episodes, especially this finale, is extremely impressive on a level I honestly wasn’t entirely expecting, and it makes the series as a whole a lot more valuable than I was prepared to write it off for. For all the interesting things that Panty & Stocking did, having Nakashima here to keep the story well-structured and having the whole team take it a bit more seriously (within its entirely silly constraints), especially in regards to animation, definitely puts it far above that.
It’s epic, spectacular, and exhilarating. If you’re looking for something new to get your adrenaline pumping, I can heartily recommend this.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Toshiba Satellite L655-S5191 PSK2CU-1C301U Notebook PC.
I don’t know about anyone else, but if they’d stretched it out for just a couple more episodes then this series would have been perfect. As it stands, the final episode had about two hours worth of content forced into 20 minutes. Maybe I’m just sad because it’s over, but that’s how I feel.
Another fucking B….
O wait, an A
Sweet.
Glad that you enjoyed it in the end. 🙂
Are you still complaining? Were the B+’s too unacceptable as well? I’ll be sure to keep in mind that only that one letter out of the entirety of every review means anything.
Is it true that this series will not be Dub!? If that so, then that suck!
While I do understand how you feel (I feel the same), I’m glad they didn’t do it. This was 2hrs of content. In normal anime (in Dragonball or something similar that one episode would’ve easily been 20-25 eps). But this was not a normal anime. It was crazy, constant (almost) action-overload. The truth is if it was a 2hrs finale, you’d still feel the same way – wanting more, but on some level it might’ve not been that satysfying. Just my 2 cents.