Ryuko

Ryūko Matoi is the main protagonist of Kill la Kill. She transferred to Honnōji Academy searching for the twin of her red Scissor Blade and the person who used the weapon to murder her father, Isshin Matoi.

It is later revealed that Ryūko is the daughter of Sōichirō and Ragyō Kiryūin and the younger sister of Satsuki. Ryūko had supposedly died as a baby after Ragyō had attempted to fuse her body with Life Fibers, which was declared a failed experiment by Ragyō herself; however, Ragyō's experiment would later be revealed to be a success. Ryūko was later saved by her father, with her father faking her death and raising her under the alias of Isshin Matoi until his death at the hands of Nui Harime. Six months after Isshin's death, Ryūko transferred to Honnōji Academy.

Ryūko is a 17 year old girl of medium height. She has blue-black hair of medium length with a single left-swept red highlight on her bangs as well as blue eyes, which have peculiar gear-like pupils with eight grooves around the edges. Her outfit at the start of the series and Episode 25 is a white collared shirt with a red bow tie which is worn under a black & white varsity jacket with rolled-up sleeves, as well as a black skirt and white sneakers. During her childhood, she wore a red collared shirt with a white skirt and white shoes.

Baring her shoes, from Episode 1 until Episode 24, her clothing is later replaced by Senketsu, a living navy blue sailor uniform. Her shirt (Senketsu's upper jaw) is a dark navy sailor uniform with mid-length sleeves that bares her midriff. The collar has red stripes and is tied by a multicolored scarf that also serves as Senketsu's left eye. His right eye is covered by a black "eyepatch" with an X-shaped mark over it (perhaps emulating her father's right eyepatch). Her skirt (Senketsu's lower jaw) is held up by suspenders attached to a belt. Aikurō Mikisugi later provides her with a Seki Tekkō (赤手甲?, lit. "Red Gauntlet"), a red, fingerless, left-handed glove with a built-in syringe designed for Ryūko to conveniently draw blood and feed it to Senketsu.

Ryūko's appearance changes further when using Life Fiber Synchronize with Senketsu. Her hair becomes even more feathery and is accented with vibrant red undertones and horn-like clips. Senketsu himself also undergoes a significant change in appearance after Synchronization; his "eyes" extend into wing-shaped crests jutting out from Ryūko's shoulders and his upper and lower parts transform into a black, skimpy suit of armor with red stripes. The top section of the armor covers Ryūko's neck, lower-jaw, arms, and upper breasts, and possesses a red, triangular ventilation grill centered on Ryūko's upper back. The top armor piece is connected to her skirt by three red garter belt/suspenders (two in front, one in back), leaving everything between the underside of her breasts and her waist exposed. Her legs are covered with thigh-high boots with heels.

Ryūko has a relatively simple personality: fierce and stubborn. She fears little - she directly and disrespectfully addresses Satsuki Kiryūin, demanding that her questions be answered, and when she fights Takaharu Fukuroda even though she is clearly overpowered. Later on, she is shown to be quite embarrassed when forced to fight in Senketsu's very revealing alternate form, though she overcomes her embarrassment in Episode 3. Whilst she is not afraid of fighting to her death, she is somewhat self-conscious.

Ryūko is generally confident once she adjusts to using Senketsu. She's willing to try all sorts of unconventional and inventive methods to defeat opponents, seen in her battles with the Elite Four. Her confidence does occasionally backfire, as shown when she underestimates Uzu shortly after his eyes are sewn shut.

Even though most of the time she is seen stubborn and fierce, sometimes she can be calm, polite, content and warmly flattered. This is mostly seen when eating with the Mankanshoku family and Episode 7. She admires the way Mako's mother makes food and has kind manners. She later tells Senketsu how fun dinner was with them because of how her mother died when she was young and her dad sent her to a boarding school, never knowing how a family dinner was like. Her flattery is highlighted in Episode 1 when Mataro tried to steal Ryuko's wallet and mug her. She was cool with the intention of fighting, criticizing how street punking doesn't work for him and how goofy his gang was. After defeating them, she lets it slide by not fighting people who can't fight back. This is also seen with most opponents she faces when she often states the obvious.

She shows fierce determination in finding her father's killer. Her stubbornness was taken up to ridiculous levels when she managed to free herself from Ragyō's mind control by merely punching herself. This same episode, however, has one of few demonstrations of shock on her part, when Ragyō defeats Satsuki, rips out Ryūko's heart and reveals to be her mother.