It’s a follow-up to the main villain’s delayed, but powerful introduction and it’s one of the first scenes that reveal Satsuki’s own powerlessness. This scene is important for a number of reasons. Why does this system work? How are Satsuki and her mother able to create such arbitrary social structures without challenge? Ragyo provides a basic analysis in Kill la Kill’s infamous bath scene. The audience is meant to see through this and so does Ryuko, obviously, but as far as the rest of the students at Hounnouji Academy go, they likely see it as just. In the end, the same people are still in power, but they keep it under the guise of a fair competition. They are Satsuki’s hand-picked inner circle, people whom she chose to give the most powerful goku uniforms besides the Kamui. None of them are truly in danger of losing their positions. The Elite Four go off on vacation while all the other students fight. Whoever is fit to be privileged will gain privilege, but it becomes clear that the whole struggle is just an illusion. Aptly dubbed “Naturals Election,” it promises a change of social standing at the cost of selfishness and destroying each other. Those students who fight their way to the top can earn a coveted spot on the student council. In episode 8, she holds an election to “restructure” her system. Like her mother, Satsuki needs to create illusions to maintain her power. She is Lady Satsuki and she gets a free pass. This is why her own rules don’t apply to her–why things that should shame her and make her powerless (nudity) actually don’t. However, Satsuki creates and maintains this system not for the sake of the system itself, but to destroy another system (her mother’s). She makes it clear in almost every episode that she has no regard for anyone who’s weak. While the latter may be the truest, her pride in her Hounnouji Academy/Town system isn’t something to brush off. In a more sympathetic light, she’s a victim of the system made into an oppressor. Still, Satsuki plays the role of oppressor for the first half of the series. “But I am the one who uses it! I absorb all their power and make it my own!” When she makes this declaration (in middle school), she sees no other way to escape her mother’s abuse than to use those same methods. “The power of my parents, of others, I will exploit everything to my ends!” she says. Of course, Hounnouji Academy needs to play up these extremes even more because of Satsuki’s true objective to rebel against her mother. Keeping people desiring clothing and fighting for better clothing makes it easier for Ragyo to achieve her objectives in the shadows. It takes our discomfort with nudity and complex relationship with clothes and amplifies it into the foundation of the world’s social structure. In true Kill la Kill fashion, there are 1,000 checkpoints to get through before the no-stars “pass.” The one-stars are even given orders to “prevent them from reaching school with extreme prejudice.”īy making this system so over-the-top, Kill la Kill presents some otherwise subtle issues in very obvious ways. Not only do these barriers only apply to the no-star students, but the rules of the game keep changing as they go along. As for everyone above the no-star level, they get a nice, cozy, armored bus ride up to the academy. There are literal barriers to education in the form of deadly spikes, traps, ramps, bombs, and other ridiculous things barring the students’ entry into Hounnouji Academy. Said test determines their standing in society and where they can live. “No-Late Day” puts the entire well-being of the lowest sector of society (the no-star students) on the line by threatening them with expulsion if they do not complete a test with the deadliest, most ridiculous obstacles imaginable. If you want a really simple, yet over-the-top systematic oppression 101 lesson, you can find it in this episode. Episode 4, “No-Late Day” especially highlights just how arbitrary the system is and how much it burdens those who aren’t among its privileged. Though we learn later on in the series that she’s trying to build herself an army to stand against her mother, she still perpetuates systematic oppression in order to do so. This is the kind of system that Satsuki runs. The higher the level, the more resources their entire family gets. A student’s performance at school earns them a certain uniform level. This is particularly exaggerated at Hounnouji Academy and the surrounding town. Nudity represents total shame and disgrace while clothing affords socioecomonic standing and respect from others. At its core is a dichotomy between nudity and clothing. Kill la Kill presents a very overt metaphor for systematic privilege and disenfranchising. Today’s theme: how KLK’s oppressive systems work and how they’re dismantled.
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