Kill la Kill - Episode 9

With the prospect of learning the truth about her father's death dangling in front of her, Ryuuko is face with one simple task - she only has to defeat the student council's Elite Four to be granted an audience with Satsuki.

While all of the parties concerned are ready and raring to go in this battle, it's Gamagoori who gets the first crack at defeating Matoi... but not until the specified time of the first match.  This gives our heroine time to grab some lunch, as well as some words of advice (or rather, discouragement) from her mysterious homeroom teacher Mikisugi, before embarking on this seemingly impossible battle against the Gamagoori and his three-star Goku Uniform.

However, Ryuuko has a plan - if she doesn't attack, then Ira's uniform can't soak up that power to become stronger, right?  Well, there's certainly some truth to that, but Gamagoori is the kind of man who has no qualms about "attacking" himself, and before she knows it Matoi is on the bring of defeat time and again, while we're taken back to a further demonstrate of this man's resolve at the hands of a younger Kiryuin.  Gamagoori.  Back in the present, Ira's resolve is to transform Ryuuko into a model student - a decision which proves to be his first fatal mistake as Matoi turns the table thanks to the evolving abilities of Senketsu.  One down, three to go...

It might not have been packed with humour or anything narratively to make this week's episode stand out, but in a way this is further proof of Kill la Kill's strength - even when it enters the realm of straight-up tournament battle anime it continues to be charismatic and entertaining, doing all of the right things to keep the viewer's interest and building its characters and plot even when it's effectively just a pair of individuals whaling on one another for twenty minutes.  Of course, this is helped no end by the show's unrestrained imagination, which ensures that the show stands out, and when you combine all of these qualities Kill la Kill becomes a fearsome beast indeed - one of 2013's Elite Four in TV anime terms, most probably.