Review: Kill La Kill Volume 2


Title	Kill La Kill (Volume 2)
Author	Kazuki Nakashima, TRIGGER
Artist	Ryo Akizuki
Publisher	UDON
Release Date	April 19, 2016
Pages	164

Today I’m here to talk about the second volume of the manga adaptation of Kill La Kill. Volume 2 picks up the story right where the first one ended – that is the fight against Omiko Hakodate the captain of the women’s tennis team. Ryuko defeats her as her clothes come flying off. Satsuki intrigued steps down to go face Ryuko however Ryuko had to retreat because she was losing too much blood. Eventually, she encounters Satsuki again however Satsuki reveals her own kamui known as Junketsu. This one appears to be even more powerful than Senketsu and Ryuko appears to not stand a chance. Ryuko swears to Satsuki that she will do whatever it takes to find out who killed her father even if it means fighting all of the club members and leaders in the school. Satsuki accepts her challenge and warns her that starting from the next day, every club will be after her. Ryuko now has a long series of fights ahead of her…

Like Volume 1, Kill La Kill volume 2 continues the wackiness in the series however it is going through it really really quickly. Then again we are talking about adapting a 24 episode anime into 3 volumes so a lot of the amusing stuff in the anime is being cut out, for example, we still have not even seen much of Nudist beach yet! While this means that next volume will be action-packed, it also means that many fights will likely get either cut out or cut short. Remember the fights with Uzu and how he sewed his eyes shut after losing? I wonder if we will even see this happen in the manga. I will be disappointed because that fight was part of his character development and missing that means we miss out on getting to know some of these characters better. At least the art style is still as good as ever. There is one two page spread of Gamagouri yellink at Ryuko and Mako that is so great and made me laugh quite a bit because of how over exaggerated his facial expression was.

Overall Kill La Kill Volume 2 is still a fun read however it is disappointing that so much of the anime is being skipped. Part of what made watching the anime so amusing was seeing all the different characters and their distinct personalities, motivations, and fighting styles. A lot of that is lost here and people who are just reading the manga are really missing out. You do get one of Mako’s infamous speeches but it doesn’t compare to this. What is here is alright, but only if you have already seen the anime.