Previously on Kill la Kill:

Uzu Sanageyama, one of Satsuki’s elite, challenged Ryuko to a fight in the front of the entire school. After suffering a humiliating defeat Sanageyama sews his eyes shut and challenges Ryuko to a rematch, this time beating her soundly. After Uzu’s uniform overheats, Ryuko escapes and resolves to get stronger. Spoilers Ahead!

Tired of being constantly challenged when she least expects it Ryuko starts her own school club, the “Fight Club” (insert rules of Fight Club joke here) and makes Mako the club president. As Ryuko continues to rack up wins with the other clubs, Mako gets closer to Satsuki’s inner circle, and the Mankanshoku family experiences the fruits of luxury. But Ryuko soon discovers that even when it is wielded with the best of intentions, power can still corrupt the ones you love.

The plot continues to move forward but that doesn’t really come out until the end as Kill la Kill uses this episode to focus on Ryuko’s makeshift family, the Makanshokus.

At the top of the episode Ryuko is attacked at lunch by the members of the Acrobatics club who split up to form three separate clubs. This gives Ryuko the inspiration to start her “Fight Club”, Gamagoori initially has a problem with Ryuko’s idea until Satsuki allows it but when she sees all the paperwork she has to fill out and the schedule she has to keep Ryuko tells them that Mako is the club president.

Ryuko starts to thin out the competition, Mako sits in at the early morning club meetings, and the rest of the Makanshoku family starts to move from the slums to the One Star condos. This gives a look at how the school hierarchy works as the students living situation depends on how well the students club does or the popularity they receive. Seeing her family so happy, pushes Mako to make the club do better and get her family living better, but here is where the problem lies.

Mako’s desire to not return to the slums causes her to put Ryuko in more and more fights, each one more dangerous than the last (at one point Mako sets her up to fight a gym full of students). Eventually Ryuko sees things fall apart and Ryuko resigns from the Fight Club, much to the surprise of Mako and the delight of Satsuki who gives Mako a 2-Star uniform and tells her to fight Ryuko in order to keep her wealth and status.

The fight between Mako & Ryuko is pretty one-sided and also heart-breaking. Mako proceeds to beat the snot out of Ryuko who does not fight back for obvious “we’re friends” reasons, and things get no better for her with Satsuki speechifying about the failings of man ans Mako’s family rooting against Ryuko. Mako eventually comes to her senses and her & her family reconcile with Ryuko, happily returning to the slums with Ryuko thinking she foiled Satsuki. This is not the case as Satsuki reveals to her council that she was using Ryuko to purge the school of the weaker clubs and restructure the Student Council with…

“A Loser I Can’t Hate” is a nice episode that spotlights Mako and her family, and also furthers the plot some. The scenes with the Makanshoku family indulging in their wealth are humorous (with some innuendo) but are also pretty sad when see the lengths Ryuko and Mako have to go to keep it, and Ryuko’s growing loneliness. Also Mako’s Goku uniform design is pretty legit.

4/5