Preferred Character:

Only ever heard of Kill La Kill before doing this. I did end up enjoying it and finding it refreshing to do an anime character who only had about 20-ish episodes to work with as opposed to 40 or even 400. Although it is something you either love or hate. Ryuko, I find, is a decent character and she did remind a lot about Shadow. Speaking of which, I've been a fan of Sonic since I was 5 and find so much enjoyment from most of the characters. Shadow, however, is a character I enjoyed at first, but later on when his arc was finished and they didn't know what to do with him I couldn't really like him that much. It also didn't help that his game characterized him in a way that was trying too hard. He's just ok and doesn't break top 3 of my favorite Sonic characters. But in other material, comics and shows, and in his earlier games, I do like him whether he's an actual character beyond just a brooding edgelord or they play off of his edginess.

Many characters in fiction must live with a troubled past, but while some wish to simply learn from them and become pure hearted heroes, others aim for more personal and simply cooler aspirations. Ryuko Matoi, the Life Fiber Hybrid from Kill La Kill. And Shadow the Hedgehog, the ultimate life form and rival to Sega's speedy blue blur. And it's my job to analyze their weapons, armor, strengths, and skills to see who would win a death battle.

Ryuko

Background:

Honnouji academy is not your average high school, but rather more of a military camp. One of its finest warriors produced was a fierce and stubborn girls named Ryuko Matoi. With her mother dead of the common motherly disease "get the fuck outta this story bitch", she had only her father to raise her. But because he was so focused on his studies she did not get that much attention and became a juvenile delinquent due to a massive amount of bullying. But she was certainly surprised when she came home to discover that her father had been murdered by a scissor wielding killer and she vowed revenge. Six months later, she applied for Honnouji academy and befriended a bright and cheery student named Mako. But when she presented the scissor blade that killed her dad, the higher ups had it confiscated and beat the shit out of her. Humiliated, she returned home just to discover something her father left behind. He had created a Kamui from life fibers, parasitic extraterrestrial organisms. Kamui are basically living clothes that bond to hosts, feed off their blood, and grant them incredible power in return. Ryuko's own provided her with enough power to take back her blade and continue to thrive in this dangerous world.

Life Fiber Physiology:

Superhuman Physique

Superhuman Regeneration

Life Fiber Absorption

With her DNA combined with Life Fibers, Ryuko has a superhuman physique in her entirety with incredible strength, speed, and durability. Her physiology's main defining trait is her incredible regeneration. Ryuko can recover from most injuries that do not immediately kill her. While is is possible to kill her through means of, say, cutting her in half, if the blades do not come from both sides at once and cut through her, then her regeneration will just make up for the damage done.

Scissor Blade:

Decapitation Mode

Rending Scissors

Final Address Mode

Decomition Mode

She uses her strength to wield a powerful scissor blade that can be used for offense and defense depending on the situation. It can even be split into two different blades if necessary. Another strange power it possesses is the blade's ability to grow in size. At full power, this blade becomes the size of a city. For most, this size would be a detriment, but not for Ryuko. She can still swing that thing around no problem and cut down entire warships with one swift move.

While Ryuko is pretty impressive on her own, she does have a booster that provides her with many more benefits and versatility than one would initially imagine. Those clothes she wears are indeed alive. His name is Kamui Senketsu, and being permanently attached to Ryuko allows him to share their power with each other.

Kamui Senketsu:

Absorption

Evolution

Life Fibers Synchronize

True Life Fiber Synchronize

Senketsu Kisaragi

Apart from being able to absorb more life fibers from other beings to grow in power, Kamui can evolve himself to give Ryuko brand new abilities, like being able to extend spikes from all over, create force fields, and even the power of flight. By absorbing Ryuko's blood Kamui's power grows dramatically which he shares with his host. With all this power, Ryuko undergoes a transformation into her Life Fibers Synchronize state. This form has gained a few upgrades as well, leading up into her strongest form, Senketsu Kisaragi. All of her attacks and abilities reach their full potential.

Feats:

Created a large crater

Swung Around a Massive Robot

Lifts Her City Sized Scissors

Helped cause a massive city wide explosion

Destroyed a massive armored warship

Split hundreds of tennis balls in 5 pieces in less than a second (mach 4,528)

Survived the destruction of Honnouji point blank

Resisted mind control effects

Ryuko has enough strength to create large craters with a single punch, casually swings around her scissor blades when they're city sized, and has obliterated a massive warship the size of city blocks called the SS Naked Sun with one cut from her blades. In base form, she is strong enough to throw around a giant mech called the Regalio Presto. Comparing her size to the mech, swinging it around and throwing it as easily as she did would take about 7 kilotons of TNT, enough to destroy a town. And when she went into a beserk state, she created an explosion inside of a massive city sized stadium. Based on the size of the explosion itself, it's likely that this blast equates to around 320 kilotons of TNT. Although she did not do it herself, assuming both people present were responsible for an equal amount means Ryuko can dish out up to 160 kilotons. She's not just very strong, as Ryuko has taken some pretty powerful explosions to the face. One such blast was the destruction of the Honnouji high school itself. By comparing the school's size to that of Ryuko's large scissor blades at one point, and observing the dome's explosion size, this blast equates to around 147 megatons of force overall. Thanks to her regen, such strikes like this are just flesh wounds at worst. And when she was training via striking thousands of tennis balls in less than a second, she managed to cut every one 5 times in that time. In order to pull it off as well as she did, Ryuko would have to be able to strike as fast as mach 4,528. She's moved as fast as the triple digit mach speeds as well in terms of travel speed, and could survive in outer space. One such space battle even resulted in her taking a fall from space.

Extras:

none

Weaknesses:

Can pass out if she does not manage her power well

Healing factor is based on life fibers pulling herself together again, instant death stops it clean

But that kind of fall meant absolutely nothing to Ryuko, as she got back up just fine and carried out her life. It's pretty hard keep down the Life Fiber hybrid.

Ryuko: If you don't try to win with everything you have, it'll come back to bite you.

Shadow

Background:

On the isolated Space Colony ARK, the genius head of the science facility, Gerald Robotnik, was desperately searching for a cure to his granddaughters illness. With little time left, he struck a deal with...aliens...ok...and used their DNA to create a cure to all diseases. But to fill his part of the deal, he had to create the ultimate life form that would aid the alien leader, Black Doom, in his hunt for the source of infinite power, the Chaos Emeralds. The resulting creation was Shadow the Hedgehog. While stern in appearance, Shadow had a heart of gold and befriended Gerald's granddaughter, with the two of them hoping to see the Earth below one day. But disaster struck as, shockingly, the government feared a one man army and raided the ARK. The programs were shut down and people were arrested. The raid also took the life of Gerald's granddaughter and apprehended Shadow in no time. With everything lost, Gerald went insane and reprogrammed Shadow's memories to make him carry out a plot for revenge. In 50 years time, Gerald's grandson Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik awakened Shadow, and was manipulated by the hedgehog to fulfill Gerald's hopes of crashing the ARK into the Earth, wiping out all of humanity. But luckily, Shadow realized his real promise to Maria was to help everyone on Earth. Now on the side of good, Shadow helped the heroes prevent doomsday. And while he lost his memories from a pretty nasty fall he got them back and continued his quest to keep the world safe.

Physicality and Gear:

Super Speed

Superhuman Durability

Enhanced Strength

Light Speed Dash

Hover Shoes

Boost

Black Tornado

Spin Dash

Homing Attack

Light Speed Attack

Chaos Powers

Teleportation

Chaos Control

Chaos Spear

Chaos Blast

Shadow Heal

Inhibitor Rings

While he may not have Sonic's speed specifically, he is still capable of reaching superhuman speeds with his own feet alone. His speed is amplified by his own Hover Shoes, which also grant him a semi-flight ability. He can reach light speed with a trail of rings in front of him, or he can charge up a powerful light speed attack. But these are very unreliable under most circumstances, so Shadow just relies on his more on hand and quick abilities. Attacks such as the spin dash to tear through solid metal and deflect projectiles, reach top speeds instantly with the Boost, and home in on enemies directly with the homing attack. Due to his alien DNA, Shadow also has a strong connection to the Chaos Emeralds and can summon their power even without one in hand. He can teleport almost instantaneously, freeze all of time space around him, and fire a chargeable energy projectile with explosive results. Speaking of explosives, Chaos Blast is his strongest chaos power as it creates an explosion around him to clear rooms out instantly. His Chaos Powers are also able to heal him up over time via Shadow Heal. A master marksman and pilot, Shadow is highly adaptable and a combat genius. He has so much power on hand that he has a hard time even restricting himself and thus can tire out quickly, he was given two Inhibitor Rings to put on his wrists to restrict his power for this very reason. Upon removing them, not only does his power rise drastically, but he becomes a walking being of ultimate destruction. Anything near him with most likely be obliterated. He does have safer methods of raising his power. While not needing a Chaos Emerald for his Chaos Powers, their power does rise the more emeralds he has on hand. And when he gets all 7, he turns into Super Shadow.

Super Shadow:

Incredible Power Boost

Unlimited Chaos Powers

Heals Him Up

Unlimited Flight

Near Invincibility

50 Second Time Limit

Super Shadow can reach near light speed, has unlimited Chaos Powers, the power of flight, and is nearly invincible. But the only things that can even hurt Shadow in this form are pretty much gods. The form may not last very long, a minimum of 50 seconds, but it's all he even needs to beat down whatever planetary threat comes his way.

Feats:

Keeps up with Sonic regularly, could even scale to his durability

Took hits from Knuckles

Survived a fall from space

Wiped out a fleet of ships with one blast

Teleported the Black Comet

Outraced an explosion

Flipped over buses with one hand

Played tug of war with a giant monster

Defeated his evil clone(Eclipse the Darkling...can you get more edgy and tryhard than that name?)

Stopped the ARK from crashing into Earth

Defeated the time controller Mephiles

He's kept up with Sonic on a regular basis, who can casually move between the speeds of 6,710 MPH up to even 200,000,000 MPH in base form without pushing his limits. If we were to take the scaling to even greater lengths, it's possible he matches Sonic's own durability of around 200 kilotons from the explosion that brought down a stalactite, half of that explosion was Sonic's own doing. He's taken solid hits from Knuckles the Echidna, who can strike with just over 3 megatons of force. In another instance, Shadow survived a fall from space after having saved the world. While he did suffer amnesia because of it, he was totally fine otherwise. One would more than likely burn up upon reentry anyways. He has enough strength on his part to play tug of war with a monster so large that it used a planet 1/10 the size of our moon as its chair. With his inhibitor rings removed, Shadow could obliterate an entire fleet of Metarex warships ships with just one blast. After realizing his past, Shadow betrayed Black Doom and killed him in combat through his super form. The Black Arms were not done with him, however, as they returned under new management and alongside a clone of Shadow. Despite being his supposed superior in every way, Shadow was still victorious over this faker of a faker. Shadow teleported the Black Comet out into space, which is over 915,000,000 tons in weight. And when joining forces with Sonic and Silver in their super forms, they had enough power and skill to bring down Solaris, who was a 4th dimensional being that could eat dimensions for breakfast.

Extras:

Shadow can use the same power ups, such as color powers and shields, as Sonic does

He has two different chaos forms which grant temporary invincibility

Archie Shadow is ridiculously powerful, but the Pre-Genesis wave storyline differs heavily from the main continuity and even change some characteristics of characters. I will take into account the newer IDW comics and the Post-Genesis Wave storylines however, as while not one to one the same they are clearly closer and more based on the games themselves, the IDW comics in particular directly reference many game events as having happened in the past. But Game Shadow still takes priority and is generally better than most other versions of the character.

Weaknesses:

If he uses up too much power, Shadow can over exhaust himself and be left vulnerable

Cocky and arrogant at times

While he is a bit cocky and arrogant, when you're the ultimate life form I think you more than earn the right to be.

Shadow: If the world becomes my enemy, then I shall fight like I always have.

The Battle:

Alright the combatants are set and all possibilities have been taken into account. It's time for a death battle!

In the middle of a forest at night, Shadow walks alone as he searches for a chaos emerald. When he notices a green glow in the distance he teleports towards it and finds the final emerald.

Shadow: At last.

He goes to reach for it, but he stops just in time to react to a powerful slash attack that chops down multiple trees in the span of seconds. Shadow looks behind him to see Ryuko and prepares for further attacks.

Ryuko: Hands off furry, this thing's mine.

Shadow: You have no idea who you're dealing with nor what that even is. I'll let you go if you just allow me to take it off your hands.

Ryuko: Not gonna happen, we need this.

She dashes forward at incredible speeds and attempts to split Shadow in two. However, the hedgehog teleports away in time and reappears above her, striking her down with a kick. Ryuko bounces off the ground and is left open for a follow up strike that sends her flying away. Shadow's hands glow and out comes his energy projectiles. Ryuko manages to block the blasts with her scissor blade, just as Shadow stops time to leap behind her and fire a charged blast that covers Ryuko in smoke as time is soon restored. Shadow smirks, believing he has won, but is surprised to see she was not even phased by the blast. Ryuko gets the upper hand and keeps Shadow on the defense as he desperately dodges every strike from her sharp blade. Shadow's guard is left down enough for her Kamui to suddenly evolve and shoot out a hardened blob that lands directly into Shadow. Ryuko splits her blade in two begins chopping down whatever gets in her way. Shadow starts running away to keep his distance and loses her as he runs up a cliff, narrowly avoiding her jab. The impact of the strike, however, cracks the whole cliffside and trips Shadow enough to slow him down as he lands on the top. Ryuko blasts away the entire cliff with one strike, getting Shadow in the air. Her Kamui sprouts wings and she takes flight, dragging Shadow up into the sky. She throws him in the air and prepares to hit with a double slash. Shadow, with emerald in hand, stops time and continues to fall. Though he saves himself while keeping the pace going with a spin on a perfect ramp that launches towards the emerald. Time is restored as Ryuko is confused where the hedgehog went. She notices a yellow glow emitting from the trees and a powerful shockwave is released. Shadow has went super and teleports into the sky.

Shadow: You're finished.

Ryuko grits her teeth and rapid fires spikes from her Kamui, all of which just bounce off of Shadow upon contact.

Shadow: Tch.

The hedgehog vanishes and reappears behind her and sends the scissor blade spinning away. They start clashing fists, with shockwaves being created with every strike. Shadow launches three energy blasts at once, Ryuko retaliating with a defensive shield that successfully prevents the attack from hitting her. Shadow flies at full speed, ramming right through the shield and getting Ryuko to cough blood as he kicks her in the stomach. Shadow is about to finish the fight, until the scissor blade comes back and disrupts him long enough for Ryuko to get back up. Shadow's super form subsides as he returns to normal. Ryuko punches him into the ground hard enough to crater, and lifts her blade in the air. However, she is unable to bring the blade down faster than Chaos Control as Shadow manages to teleport away and even stop time. Ryuko looks around as suddenly she is surrounded by energy beams. Shadow snaps his fingers as they collectively bombard her. Shadow removes his inhibitor rings and is surrounded by a red glow. He charges forward and punches Ryuko through the entire forest. He suddenly appears behind her and launches a full frontal Chaos Blast in the form of a single condensed laser that disintegrates Ryuko whole. Shadow relaxes as he looks upon the damage.

K.O.

With the last emerald, Shadow continues his nightly walk as Ryuko's scissor blade rests forever.

Reasoning:

Ryuko was a very tough fighter with a fair amount of speed and power, even having the edge in raw physical strength. But she would just have a hard time killing Shadow with physical strength alone. Ryuko could just cut Shadow in two to be fair, but Shadow was way too fast for that to even be a problem. Keeping up with Sonic's higher speeds at all means Shadow should at least be in the same area on all fronts; travel, combat, and reactionary speed, all of which blew Ryuko's out of the water. She wasn't totally helpless to be fair, being able to attack at around 3,463,920 MPH, but Shadow could still stay one step ahead at all times given he stills holds a sizeable advantage. His time stopping abilities didn't help her case any more, however, and Shadow's chaos powers in of themselves were too fast and unpredictable for Ryuko to really do anything. Ryuko's healing did help her stay in the fight, as she has also taken worse blows than Shadow was capable of outputting, until he went super and or removed his inhibitor rings. Given Shadow's weight of around 35 kg, an object of this weight moving at close to light speed would range from 300-400 megatons of force.

Honnouji Explosion:147 Megatons

Super Shadow: 300-400 Megatons

Heck, with his time stop Shadow could even just obliterate her entire body with his base power alone before her Life Fibers can even pull Ryuko back together. With his unlimited flight, time stopping, and invincibility to Ryuko's attacks, there was no way she could hold up to such a powerful opponent. Shadow had the edge in the long run.

The winner is Shadow the Hedgehog.

Next Up:
Two kids who have managed to become like the very heroes they idolize, the green haired student of UA high school VS the ultimate Spider-Man.