Kill la Kill is an original anime, clocking in at 24 episodes plus an OVA. The anime sets the tone in its very first scene, with highly stylized, over-the-top, exaggerated fight scenes which is strangely really interesting and engrossing to watch. It introduces us to an alternate Japan where the island of Honno City is controlled by the student council president of Honnouji Academy, Kiryuin Satsuki. She is ruthless and powerful with her blade. Select members of the school wear Goku Uniforms, which give their wearers enhanced powers. We quickly learn that there is a class system within the school that reflects the students, and their families', living situation outside of school as well.
The anime follows Matoi Ryuko, who is a transfer student. She turns up to school and pulls out her iconic Scissor Blade (which is only half of the oversized scissors, but actually looks pretty cool and wicked). Ryuko is trying to find out who killed her father and this has led her to Satsuki, thus begins their rivalry. The only thing that Ryuko has to go on is that the murderer has the other half of the Scissor Blade.
Despite looking cool, Ryuko is no match for the students wearing Goku Uniform. This changes quickly when Ryuko finds the talking sailor uniform that was passed on to her from her father. This uniform is special because by taking Ryuko's blood, it transforms into armor and gives Ryuko enhanced strength that goes way beyond the Goku Uniforms. How the outfits work is explained soon after and are all interconnected.
Using both the fan service and comedy angles, Ryuko's outfit, named Senketsu, is extremely revealing (she's pretty much half naked). Ryuko is embarrassed but must endure if she wants to use her power. The male students sure are happy whenever Ryuko transforms though. While the fan service is strong, especially during fights and opponents either get their clothes torn or they are placed in awkward poses, you can't help but feel if they dialed it down, it might help to not distract you from its plot. This is because Kill la Kill doesn't have a shallow story at all, with each episode having something meaningful happening to advance the plot.
Ryuko's first and only friend is Mankanshoku Mako, a sort of ditzy and odd character. However, she is pretty funny with her outlandish dialogue, actions and personality. She loves to spout a load of rubbish, complete with miming effects and it is her air-headed trait that makes her so endearing. The fight scenes are fast paced and exciting. The music is suitably epic and it is at these moments that you realize that it possess something a lot of animes don't, and that is its unique atmosphere. It seems to channel what made some older anime so nostalgic and good but freshens it up.
While the fight scenes are good, Ryuko lacks strategies and tactics. When things don't go her way, she would fall back on just wailing against her opponents, even when that would not have been the best thing to do. She will eventually get some sort of help or another stage of transformation to bail her out. Ryuko gets cocky and arrogant pretty soon thanks to curbstomping all her opponents (who keep coming her way, naturally, since the whole school is her opponent). Therefore it's a good thing when she finally becomes too overconfident and battles against an opponent who is more than her match.
With the slapstick comedy and random dialogue from characters, it feels like something you'll see in a game as well. It manages to blend all these elements into a coherent package though. It plays around with typical anime tropes like the recap episode... where the recap is only 2 minutes long. It then continues its breakneck speed in its storytelling and letting loose the biggest revelation that the story was building up towards. The art style is also unique and frequently shifts to different proportions to best suit whatever is happening on screen. This helps with the exaggerated motions and serves to emphasize specific points in those scenes.
At around the halfway point, just when you thought you are able to see how the anime will structure itself over the next few episodes, it shakes things up and pulls out a massive revelation and twist. This shift carries itself through to the end of the series where it's revelation after revelation, completely flipping the plot around compared to what it was building up towards. By this point, you know the supporting characters so well that you care deeply for whatever happens to them. The voice acting is superb and the over the top reactions are perfect.
The last few episodes of the series are absolutely amazing as everything culminates into it. The best part is the teamwork of all the characters banding together to defeat the villain once and for all. Even with some stock footage (which is played for laughs and doesn't feel like it is trying to cost cut), the awesome and epic music makes it all blood pumping. With a few false endings and the twists that kept on coming that overturned the "conclusion", it doesn't let up until the final moment.
Despite the "last" episode being a good closure there is a 25th episode released as an OVA with the blu-ray release that wraps up the final plot thread. It is set two weeks after the previous episode and features the graduation of the students at Honnouji Academy. As is the style of the series, there's plenty of over the top action and a moral of the story in the middle of it.
Overall, Kill la Kill on the surface seems like a shallowly anime filled with fan service and nothing else. However, after one or two episodes you come to realize that it has a brilliant plot and such a speedy pace that there is nothing that can be classed as filler in its 25 episode entirety. The fight scenes, the music, the dialogue and the epic finale that kept flipping the tables on the side who was winning makes Kill la Kill one of the best anime to watch.
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