Episodes 5-9 of Kill la Kill remind us that for all its free-wheeling artistry and visual innovation, there's a very familiar story driving the action of this artsy combination of action and comedy. First, there's an introductory battle that alerts Ryuko to the caliber of opponent she'll have to conquer before she has a prayer against Satsuki, concluding with a draw and a "next time you won't be so lucky!" After that, there's a comical filler episode focusing on side characters that serves to transition into that "next time." Finally, there's the inception of a battle royale that pits our heroine against every member of Satsuki's Elite Four in a single day, with every side character watching and commentating from the arena sidelines. For such a supposedly unique breakthrough of an anime series, this is an awfully familiar sequence of events.

To be fair, the show isn't purely to formula. Right before all those episodes (6-9) is episode 5: an action-packed vignette that tackles Nudist Beach's divided stance on how to deal with Ryuko. Still, that's a clear outlier. To all appearances, these episodes are the drawn-out "setup events" for a tournament battle arc in a run-of-the-mill shonen series, beat-for-beat, line-for-line, and pace-(im)perfect. It doesn't matter, though. These episodes not only blow the first four out of the water in entertainment value, but also in that vaunted artistic innovation that first turned so many heads toward the material. Drawn-out shonen battle setup has never been this much fun!

Once again, Kill la Kill looses insane bursts of creativity right out of the gate in each new episode. Nudist Beach guerilla and potential frenemy Tsumugu Kinagase is immediately captivating, from his motorcycle to his mohawk to his peculiar catchphrase yanked straight out of director Imaishi's prior hit Gurren Lagann. Uzu Sanageyama, the first of the elite four to fight Ryuko, has a surprisingly layered personality for the "hothead jock" stereotype, and everything from his battle uniform to the way his showdown plays out is several sharp swerves left of expectations. On the note of sharp swerves, there's also the show's creative introduction to Ira Gamagoori, Ryuko's first "official" opponent in the Elite Four tournament. This mountain of mouth and muscle has mostly been played for laughs up to this point, but he's given an unexpected depth of character before his showdown with Ryuko, as an authoritarian tyrant whose mercilessness is borne entirely out of mercy, and a passionate sympathy for the weak. If the blindly impulsive Sanageyama is Satsuki's sword, Gamagoori is her shield. Both men are allowed sympathy in very different ways, even as they threaten to crush both Ryuko's body and soul. At no point do these new elements of complexity interfere with the show's screwy tone, thankfully. There are laughs at the expense of kendo captain Sanageyama's unusually small (pork) sword, and Gamagoori expresses his fascistic fixation through literal "bondage" warfare. Still, there's an unforeseen level of depth peeking through this over-the-top comedy, and the result feels unbelievably fresh and compelling.

Action comedy is still Kill la Kill's primary mode (with an emphasis on the ACTION this time,) but thanks to these new tiny pepperings of drama, there's a darker shade of Kill la Kill's story making its presence known for the first time. The first four episodes were pure comedy, with even their spare moments of "dramatic intensity" painted in big broad silliness. There's some undeniable seriousness and foreboding in episodes 5-9, from Ryuko's frozen terror when confronted by Tsumugu to the gruesome imagery evoked by Sanageyama's "transformation" to the grief Gamagoori feels in the face of injustice. Of course, it's a swift leap from there straight back into butt jokes, reinforcing Kill la Kill's position as an acquired taste for audiences open to its specific brand of madness.

Its outrageous content is still a potential turnoff, but for those in tune with Kill la Kill's carousel of lunacy, Volume 2 cover character Mako Mankanshoku is the strongest emblem of what makes Kill la Kill so special with her unique combination of sincerity, silliness, and most importantly: no shame. Episode seven revolves around the Mankanshoku family, and it's a perfect example of Kill la Kill's engaging balancing act between irreverence and honesty, oozing equal parts silliness and soul. Mako's folks are odd. They're the sort of family many people would be embarrassed by, and their greed and stupidity are played for laughs throughout the episode, to the extent that the audience is almost inclined to agree with Satsuki about the peons beneath her being "pigs in human clothing." Ultimately though, true love triumphs between Mako, her family, and her best friend, and this triumph is played up with such earnest passion that it easily counters out and even enhances the show's tongue-in-cheek crassness. Love her or hate her, Mako is truly Kill la Kill's spirit animal: the postergirl for the show's superb understanding of what it wants to be.

With such a short gap between episodes, the production values here are the same as they've ever been. There's not much of a leap from what we saw in four episodes to what we see in the next five. However, the one-hour making-of documentary included on this set, (its only notable on-disc extra,) sheds welcome light on the limited animation techniques that frequently buffer the more fluid fight scenes in Kill la Kill. Imaishi is shown rejecting early cuts for the show's "Mako Theater" segments, stamping a post-it note with "sorry" on the unacceptable takes. When asked why he rejected the takes, he said it was because they animated Mako too fluidly. "You don't want it to look too good?" asks the interviewer. Imaishi clarifies: "If the motion is simpler and more abrupt, like a series of still frames, it is funnier. It can't just be beautiful, it has to be funny. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes you have to reject a staggeringly brilliant bit of artwork in order to preserve the tone and rhythm of the story." This is a philosophy revisited in a later interview that discusses the show's use of "still frames processed to look like paintings" as an homage to older anime that originally did this to save money. Imaishi once again defends the choice with, "In the old days, they were doing it out of desperation. We are doing it because we like the way it looks, and we want to. In this way, you don't lose the best parts of the old days, you can just show those ideas in the way they were meant to be seen. Other people may see this choice as kind of lame, but if it was engrossing back then, even if it was for different reasons, there should be no difference if you translate it differently today, and I think that's important." Clearly, animation isn't always about constantly fluid movement, and Studio Trigger is proud of the limited techniques that define Kill la Kill alongside its eye-popping sequences.

The musical score and Japanese performances continue to be excellent (and we hear the first occurrence of the outstanding insert song Blumenkranz,) but the English dub is another story. It has gone from merely great in the first four episodes to an easy contender for the Best Anime Dub of the Year now that all the early growing pains have been shaken out. It has absolutely none of the stiff slavishness to lip flaps that limit so many other dubs. Actors are all clearly having a blast playing around with pitch and volume in their cartoony roles. The dub delivers strong comic timing through every role, in congress with a script that perfectly balances faithfulness and adaptability to carry that comedy safely across the language barrier. Comedy is arguably the hardest thing to deliver in a foreign-language dub, and Bang Zoom's effort nails it. Everyone involved deserves a huge pat on the back, and it would be nice if a job this well-crafted could get aired on TV so it can reach a wider audience than those able to shell out for the Aniplex release.

Extras on this Volume 2 LE include postcards, a trading card, and a double-sided mini-poster with a truly bizarre display of "manservice" on the weirder of the two sides. (There's a chocolate cake involved.) There's no soundtrack this time, just a DVD with the aforementioned making-of special. Frankly, the standout extra most worth the price point here is that english dub.

It's a darker shade of Kill la Kill than we've seen yet, (these episodes also introduce the frightful Ragyo for a few seconds,) and the action now stands shoulder to shoulder with the comedy as the stakes around Ryuko skyrocket, but this is still the gleeful art explosion it was from episode one. Memorable characters like Gamagoori and Mako get a bump in screentime, Ryuko continues to bond further with Senketsu, and it's all building up to a real showstopper in the Naturals Election tournament to come.