Kill la Kill - Episode 12

As Kill la Kill reaches its half-way point, it's fair to say that the appearance of Nui Harime has struck a raw nerve with Ryuko, and not because of her interruption of the battle against the Elite Four either.

Instead, Matoi's blood is almost literally boiling as she suddenly finds herself faced with someone who claims to be the murderer of her father, and who even has the other half of the scissors which Ryuko now wields as a weapon to prove it.  This allows us to flash back to the point of this murder taking place, and just as suggested it is indeed Harime who is our culprit.

It's no surprise then that Ryuko loses her rag at this point, attacking Harime in a futile surge of blind rage - although her Kamui can't be disabled quite so easily by Harime's tricks as a standard Goku uniform, it seems that her decision to incite Matoi's rage is far from an accidental one for reasons which soon become clear.  Once her rage has boiled over, Ryuko's Kamui simply goes berserk, taking over the body of its host to create an unpredictable ball of semi-human destruction that unleashes a whirlwind of devastation wherever it goes.  This clearly isn't something that can be allowed to go unchecked, and both Nudist Beach's members and Satsuki are willing to use lethal force to stop this rampage - perhaps it's time for Mako to return the favour and save her friend in a time of need, however?

It would take a lot to top the cliffhanger at the end of last week's episode, but this instalment of Kill la Kill was certainly a fitting continuation of said cliffhanger, with no shortage of surprises to bring to the table before an unexpectedly touching end to this particular story before setting things up for the start of the show's second half.  Although this week's animation didn't always feel up to snuff, it says a lot about the series' long-term prospects that it's beginning to serve up a really engaging story alongside its energetic ideas and visuals, and from simply enjoying the show for its boisterous insanity I'm now well and truly on-board with where its narrative is heading too.  Hopefully, the second half of the series can deliver a suitably fitting effort to cement Kill la Kill's place as justifying much of its substantial hype.