Ragyo Kiryuin

« It would appear that I still have a bit of humanity left within me... I'll just have to rid myself of it! »
— Ragyo to Ryuko during their final battle

Ragyo Kiryuin is the main antagonist of the 2013 action anime series, Kill La Kill, by Studio TRIGGER.

She is the vile CEO of the REVOCS Company and Chairwoman of Honnoji Academy, but it is later revealed that she had merged with parasitic aliens known as Life Fibres, and has been using her company to plan the extinction of humanity, as they are all consumed by the Life Fibres as food sources. She is the abusive mother of Satsuki Kiryuin, and later revealed to be that of the series' protagonist, Ryuko Matoi.

She was voiced by Romi Park in Japanese and by Laura Post in the English dub.

What Makes Her Irredeemable?

• She had only married Soichiro to have access to his skills and someone to have children with, solely for her experiments. The moment he turns against her in disgust at her evil, Ragyo orders his assassination.
• She is incredibly uncaring of her daughters. She dismisses the seeming death of her second-born as a sign of her being weak and has been trying to control and dominate her first-born, Satsuki, physically, mentally, and even sexually, her whole life.
  • She ridiculously claims that she had only spared Satsuki after her attempted coup out of maternal love, which Satsuki calls a lie, as she was needed to power Shinra Koketsu while continuing to abuse her. She then tries to pull a similar card to Ryuko on why she is still alive in the final battle, while immediately following it up with how she shall destroy such maternal feelings anyway.
• While seemingly amicable with her minions, such as her Head of Security Kuroido, her assistant Rei Hoomaru or her top assassin Nui Harime, ultimately she treats them all as mere pawns at the end, wanting them to sacrifice their own lives to enforce her omnicidal agenda without a care in the world.
  • It is worse than that, according to the series' head writer, Nazuki Nakashima, Nui actually saw Ragyo as her mother, but Ragyo has never reciprocated such feelings and reared her to be her sadistic assassin, who would kill whoever Ragyo wants, even herself, without hesitation.
• Ultimately, she is disgusted at the thought of being human, so she willingly merged with the Life Fibres in hopes of ridding any remnant of it.
• Even when faced with the chance of a peaceful surrender by Ryuko, she would rather kill herself than ever accept that, gloating the Life Fibres are still out there and would destroy humanity in the future.

What Makes Her Heinous?

• From infancy, she had conducted dangerous Life Fibre experiments on her own daughters. When Satsuki couldn't be merged with the Life Fibres, she then tried to conduct the experiments on her second-born (revealed to be Ryuko), shrugging off when it seemingly killed her. This callousness is the primary motivator for Soichiro to fake Ryuko's death and then turn on her.
• Orders Soichiro's assassination for plotting against her. When he ended up surviving to become Dr Isshin Matoi, Ragyo sends Nui, whom she reared to be her most sadistic servant yet, for a cruel, drawn out demise.
• Throughout her life, Ragyo has abused Satsuki in various ways, from physical and emotional methods to even outright raping her for her own pleasure, which on top of the seeming deaths of her father and little sister Ragyo caused, is what shaped Satsuki to become a ruthless tyrant in hopes of taking her mother down.
• Upon creating Nui Harime, she raises her to be nothing more than a sadistic assassin, and then encourages her to follow her most sadistic whims.
• To begin the Life Fibre invasion, she has nearly all of Honno Town devoured by it, and unleashes the COVERS to devour any human they can find.
• She tears out Ryuko's heart simply to break her into an existential crisis with the reveal that both she is her daughter, and that she too is merged with the Life Fibres and is as human as Ragyo herself.
• This was all simply so that with Nui's help, she could brainwash Ryuko to be her own vicious underdog by rewriting her mind with that of a happy childhood with her, and have her kill her friends. She would even go as far as to molest her, even in this brainwashed state.
• Has every last one of her remaining minions sacrifice themselves to either power the Life Fibre and Shinra Koketsu, or to restore it, without much hesitation or grief.
• Activates absolute submission so that the Life Fibres she laced to the clothes of every last human can awaken and devour all of humanity, and then later the entire Earth and blow it up to spread the Life Fibres all across the galaxy and menace other planets as well.