Mako Mankanshoku

"I'm Mako Mankanshoku! I may be an underachiever, but I do have a name!"

- Mako asserting herself to Nonon

Mako Mankanshoku is the best friend of Ryūko Matoi and tritagonist of Kill la Kill. She is a goofy, energetic girl who attends Honnōji Academy.

Appearance
Mako is a young teenage girl with brown eyes and brown hair that is styled in a bowl cut. She is often seen wearing the standard Honnōji Academy No-Star uniform; a white short-sleeve shirt with a blue neckerchief, a blue mini skirt, and a pair of white socks and light brown loafers. At the end of the series, she is shown wearing purple shorts, and a pink top with a white undershirt and a purple purse on her date with Ryūko.

Personality
Mako is a hyperactive, carefree and loving girl who seems to cling to anyone she befriends, emphasized by how she becomes inseparable from Ryūko very quickly. She is also quite lazy, as shown in how she goes to sleep as soon as class begins, humorously clashing with her hyperactivity.

Mako is quite fearless and has scarcely shown to be intimidated in potentially threatening situations. She also has respect for the authority figures of the school but will voice her opinion about topics such as how Ira Gamagōri should wear pajamas in bed instead of sleeping nude.

If Mako is properly motivated, she is capable of working hard and productively. During her time as president of the Fight Club, she showed a high level of competence and professionalism, as well as the ability to do complex papers and work.

Having been poor for her whole life, Mako and her family tend to obsess about wealth. This trait was, at one point, even pushed so far that it caused her to turn against Ryūko temporarily, the latter trying to stop her greed. Like the rest of her family, Mako has an obsessive love for food.

History
Mako lives with her family in the slums of Honnō City. She spends her days as a no-star student at Honnōji Academy. She befriended the transfer student, Ryūko Matoi, when she first arrived in the classroom. After Ryūko tried to assault the head of the student council, Satsuki Kiryūin, and fled the scene, Mako was captured because she was seen socializing with her. The Disciplinary group took Mako as a hostage but she was saved by Ryūko before she was deep-fried in a tub of scorching oil.

After the battle between Ryūko and the Boxing Club Captain, Takaharu Fukuroda, Mako met up with Ryūko when her family took her in. The next day, she invited Ryūko to stay with her and her family as they walked to school. She was unfazed despite being relentlessly bombarded with a barrage of tennis balls to the face. Mako was apprehended by the tennis club captain, Omiko Hakodate, for missing practice the day before, despite the fact that she was being held hostage at the time. Ryūko saved her as she was being tied up to a post and pelted on all sides by tennis balls. Mako made arguments against Uzu Sanageyama when he tried to fault Ryūko, which resulted in a tennis match between Ryūko and Omiko. Once the match was won, Mako fled with Ryūko under the cover of improvised steam.

When Ryūko was fighting a losing battle against Satsuki, Mako intervened between them and made a speech about how Ryūko should have no reason to be ashamed of showing her body, as well as commented that she and her family was talking about Ryūko’s body the night before. The speech motivated Ryūko to embrace wearing Senketsu and was finally able to maximize her potential.

During the event known as the “No-Late day”, Mako argued back to Gamagōri when he was questioning Ryūko's choice of current attire, and the argument later ended with how he should be wearing pajamas; instead of sleeping in the nude unless he wishes to get sick. As Mako and Ryūko attempted to get to class, they met up with the supposedly injured Maiko Ōgure and allowed her to join them out of kindness; however, she later betrayed them and stole Senketsu as it was being delivered by Mako's dog, Guts. After Ryūko beat up Maiko and reclaimed Senketsu, they both learned that they were tricked once again by Maiko's “fake school” trap. They were only able to make it into the school in time by crashing into the classroom after commandeering a cable cart.

She was made President of the Fight Club after Ryūko was intimidated by all the paperwork involved. Mako proved quite capable and competent in handling the day-to-day runnings of the Club and with Ryūko's many victories she was able to wrestle a 2-star ranking and with it, better living conditions for her family, quite easily. She was willing to fight Ryūko to keep that ranking and very nearly defeated her, although Ryūko did refuse to fight back against her friend. She stopped after seeing how all the luxury and standing had affected herself and her family. Mako disbanded the Fight Club and demoted herself back to No-Star so that they could all go back to enjoying their old life.

Powers and Abilities

 * Two-Star Goku Uniform - In Episode 7, Mako was given a Two-Star Goku Uniform by Satsuki. As her club was the "Fighting Club", the Goku Uniform is designed after a Bancho and consisted of a black overcoat hung over her shoulders. It had two red four-pointed stars to symbolize its rank on her belt. The coat was studded with gold metals around the collar and had red spikes from the shoulders. She also wore a black cap with a golden crescent moon on it. She had red spiked cuffs on her wrists and golden brass knuckles engraved with the word "MAKO". Inside the coat are several golden weapons such as a morning-star and a wrench. She also had a green reed in her mouth. Also, a pair of Geta, traditional Japanese footwear, replaces her socks and loafers.


 * In battle, she uses her Geta shoes to deliver powerful kicks and is able to send her impromptu weapons in a barrage against her opponent. She can use a chain to bind her opponent and slam the opponent around. As a close combat weapon, she uses a golden bat wrapped with bandages with nails stabbed into it. She can fire a high power missile out of that bat, at the cost of the bat shattering. She also uses her bronze knuckles to deliver punches. When punching with her full power, she is capable of making a giant crater in the ground and creates a shock-wave that blew One-Star students and even the 3-Star Elite Four away.


 * At the end of Episode 7, Mako gives her uniform to Ryūko, who cuts the uniform into pieces and absorbs the Life Fibers from the uniform into Senketsu.


 * The uniform was rebuilt and powered up following the events of Episode 22 from the remains of destroyed COVERS, and given to Mako to use.


 * Life Fibers adaptability - Mako is heavily implied to have an abnormal Life Fiber affinity. Out of all the students that wore Two-Star Goku Uniforms through the series, Mako showed the greatest growth in power when wearing one. Additionally, when she was absorbed by a COVERS in Episode 19, the COVER immediately grew into a far larger and more powerful-looking form than its brethren.

Matarō Mankanshoku
Mako has a younger sibling, Matarō Mankanshoku, and parents. She seems to be annoyed with Matarō, and wants to stop his troublemaking.

Ryūko Matoi
She is friends with Ryūko and seems to enjoy talking with her, though she thinks Ryūko is lonely due to her talking with Senketsu (who Mako can not hear). Mako later asks Ryūko on a date before her final battle, and Ryūko uses it as motivation to continue fighting. They are later seen going on said date, with Satsuki tagging along later as company, as the credits roll.

Ira Gamagōri
Mako is also shown to have a friendship of sorts with Gamagōri, as Gamagōri is constantly shown caring for her a great deal, even to go as far as to almost sacrifice himself for her safety.

Memorable quotes
"And everyone on the planet knows that if you win with friendship, you win at life!"

- To Omiko Hakodate and Sanageyama

"From now on, please wear pajamas like everyone else!"

- Reprimanding Gamagōri's habit of sleeping in the nude

"That's right! Because the traffic lights of my life always flash yellow!"

- In response to Gamagōri's statement about her energetic personality

"Ryūko, Senketsu isn't your only friend! Remember, you also have me!"

- Expressing her friendship

Trivia

 * Mako was originally going to have black or blonde hair along with pigtails or a ponytail.
 * According to Creative Director Shigeto Koyama, he initially was going to give Mako's Two-Star Uniform a design that he described as a "giant Hulk-like Mako" which would have been dubbed, "The Invincible Mako". The design was going to be based on the World War Hulk comic book mini-series. While this concept was scrapped, the WWH sticker on the side of Mako's boogie board in the second closing was inserted as a nod to the design.
 * Mako's Two-Star uniform is based on common visual tropes regarding Japanese high school delinquent stereotypes.