K

"Kings" are individuals who have been bestowed with incredible supernatural powers and granted the ability to recruit others into their clans. Protecting the lives and honor of their clansmen is an integral part of the Kings' duties. After a video depicting the heinous murder of a Red Clansman spreads virally, the unassuming student Yashiro Isana is accused of homicide. Now, a manhunt is underway for his head, bringing him into contact with the infamous "Black Dog" Kurou Yatogami—a skilled swordsman and martial artist determined to follow the wishes of his late master, the Seventh King.

Meanwhile, the current Red King, Mikoto Suou, faces his own imminent demise as the search for Yashiro narrows. But during Yashiro's struggle to prove his innocence, a greater conspiracy is unraveling behind the scenes; clouds begin to appear in his memory, and close friends start to question his very existence. What began as a simple murder is now leading towards a full blown war between Kings with the very fate of the world at stake.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Suou, Mikoto Main

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Isana, Yashiro Main

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Neko Main

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Yatogami, Kurou Main

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Munakata, Reishi Main

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Yata, Misaki Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Fushimi, Saruhiko Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Kushina, Anna Supporting

Horie, Yui Japanese

Totsuka, Tatara Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Kusanagi, Izumo Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Maruyama, Hiroo Producer

Nakanishi, Go Producer

Simone, Jamie Producer

Kishimoto, Reigo Producer

Reviews

Jan 1, 2013

Tatatatara

Recommended

You're probably aware of the fact this anime is gettin' pretty low scores and most of the people who review it keep complaining about same stuff. No coherent plot, weak character development, rushed storytelling, blah blah blah.

Well, well. That's all cool and stuff, but why don't we show the other side of the coin, too. By the way, I'm a guy, straight and all. K is manly stuff, k. (fakken pun)

Story: 9 Simply put, this story is great. It's not the most original story of all times, but it isn't a complete cliche either, as many would like you to believe.

See, the thing ... about K is that it sells a really TRAGIC, DARK, DEEP and SOUR story of betrayal, friendship, and sacrifice, in a shiny package so that the general audience would be satisfied with 'hot' bishies, tits and cool animation, while some people, like myself, can still enjoy it for what it really is.
I won't say anything else about the story's content, since you can clearly see it in the series description.

People complain about not knowing what is the sword of Damocles, or where the King's power come from and what not. Those same people give Evangelion a score of 10 even though it's full of randomly chosen cool sounding terms from Bible and what not. Compared to Eva's sea of dead scrolls and Lance of Longinus, K's sword of Damocles is much more relevant to the story and actually serves as a foreshadowing to the show's overly dark culmination.

Do note however, that the pacing in the beginning is rather weak, which is completely understandable considering the character cast and time frame in which the story had to be presented. Pacing improves in the next half of the show, leading to ones of the most epic scenes of this season.

Art: 10 One word, gorgeous.

Sound: 10 Outstanding, fits the mood perfectly, and overly improves the viewer's enjoyment. Not much else to say, except that this series has one of the greatest ED songs in last few years, not counting Fate/Zero's endings, of course.

Character: 100000

Look, don't trust people who'll tell you that this show has weak character development or that the characters are generic. Considering that K has only 13 episodes, and it's cast is freakin' huge, the characters are pretty much the soul of this show. Their interactions, personalities, lives and motives, ability to make you both laugh and cry, all that makes them pretty much the most memorable characters I've seen in a long time.

K's characters are not the fanart you see on Pixiv and Zerochan. They may look gorgeous, perfect, flawless and shallow, but actually, they're just flawed, tragic and ultimately human reflections of us all.

Enjoyment: 10 Obviously.

Overall: 10

Get mad all you want, but K gets a pure 10 from me. This anime is not what it looks like at the first glance. It's not what you think it looks like under it's shiny package either. It's a tragic tale of a group of people who share a bond thicker than blood, a bond that will eventually lead them into becoming more human than humanity itself.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Dec 29, 2012

thewinrar

Mixed Feelings

K can be best described as a poorly baked cake covered with an excessive amount of icing. One can look at this cake and view it to be extremely succulent and sweet on the exterior, but after tasting it, one may find dissatisfaction from cake's lack of quality. Just like this cake, K attempts to attract viewers with its beautiful visuals and flashy soundtrack like icing, but the poor quality of an inconsistent story that felt rushed can dispel the exterior beauty and leave viewers sick to the stomach.

Upon viewing K for the first time, it is hard to disagree that it looks beautiful. K ... perfectly portrays the gorgeous aesthetics of an urban city landscape with tall majestic skyscrapers, bustling pedestrians in every street, and an abundance of detail in every nook and cranny. To add to K's beauty, is the addition of a very refreshing and versatile soundtrack that perfectly captures the emotions of each scene. The music in K includes a large range; from soft melodic piano pieces, to intense electronic beats and mellow hip-hop. The music is implemented in a very sophisticated manner and never feels out of place or repetitive. This wonderful combination of visual and audio appeal reinforces the sense of beauty of K.

Although K looks beautiful, one must be cautious of its beauty. The beautiful appeal of K is only icing on the cake and the actual quality of the cake itself may be a different story. K's biggest drawback would be the attempts to implement a wide cast of characters. Since K revolves around the theme of gang rivalry and leadership, the multiple characters from the different clans carry a large focus within the story and although this can be very exciting, the attempts have gone to waste due to the short time given in the space of thirteen episodes and lack of definition. The many characters are given many scenes such as flash backs or fan-service that attempt to reinforce their personalities and shine them in a likable manner. This is possibly the strongest element about K, but this turns out messy as many characters that are given lots of screen time hold no significance in the story whatsoever, leaving the story to be rushed and full of holes to fit the span of thirteen episodes. K gives side characters a chance to shine, but these efforts leave viewers wondering why these pointless characters are given so much screen time when the time itself could have been used to improve the story.

As stated before, K is extremely comparable to a cake. Too much time and effort was spent on trying to sweeten the cake, but the limited amount of time has left it undercooked. One may think that this cake is a failure, but in absolute truth, it is not. An undercooked cake is not ruined and can still be enjoyed, this is very similar to the essence of K as it all comes down to one's sweet tooth. Although the story of K felt rushed and messy, the character interactions and personalities truly sweetened this anime and the excessive amount of icing on this cake can also add to the appeal. If you're interested in an anime that not only looks and sounds beautiful, but goes in-depth of exploring different character relationships and personalities, this anime is for you. However, if you're looking for an anime with a consistent and well written storyline, you should look elsewhere.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 27, 2012

The_Pro_At_Stuff

Not Recommended

Beautiful art and appealing soundtracks. You're probably thinking, "This will be amazing!", right? Well it isn't. There are many flaws and factors that drags K down from being a well done anime to a below average one.

Let us start with a close look at the story. Our hero, Isana Yashiro, goes on an errand one day and is suddenly attacked by a group of men on the streets. It is later revealed that he is blamed for a murder that he does not remember committing. An interesting plot with a decent bit of potential behind it.

Everything is fine until we realize the plot comes to ... a complete standstill. After many questions and events are raised, we come to the mid-way point of K. That is when it becomes apparent that the anime is not going anywhere. As this dreadful standstill is happening, more and more questions arise every episode. Plot twists are added as an attempt to make everything more bearable, but it just adds to the confusion. To remedy this situation, the creators tried to cram all of the answers in to the last few episodes. The result was a rushed ending with plot holes left floating around everywhere.

To summarize the story, i'd have to say it was a complete mess that was painful to watch. The creators wanted to make the anime more interesting and unique by continuously adding elements to their plot, but they ended up dropping the ball big time.

Characters are supposed to have vibrant characteristics and at least seem somewhat realistic. That is because to get the most enjoyment out of a story, we must be able to connect and feel with the characters. I was not able to do that with anyone in K.

As an attempt to make the characters seem as cool as possible, they were all given silent and complex personalities. We get no insight into what the characters are actually thinking, and the minimal dialog is of little help as well. They are so unnatural and impossible to figure out. Most of them are like emotionless statues that just talk occasionally for the sake of being alive. There is also a severe lack of character growth and development that destroys any chances left of connecting with the characters.The creators tried too hard and ultimately made the characters too complex and just plain uninteresting to watch.

Although the storytelling in K was horrid, the visuals and music were of the highest grade. The BGMs had a nice ring to them, and the surreal backgrounds had my eyes glued to the screen for every second of every episode. Character animations and fight scenes were extremely detailed to the point where i have nothing but praise for them.Since it would be annoying to listen to me ramble on about the art, i will just leave it at that. All you need to know is that i thought it was very good.

While my eyes and ears were indeed very entertained with K, my brain was moaning from boredom and distress for a significant portion of the time. My enjoyment was greatly derailed by the plot and characters. Good art and music was the only thing that kept me going.

In the end, i have no choice really but to condemn this anime. It was simply uninteresting and poorly done. Perhaps they focused too much on how it looked and totally forgot to write a story until the last minute. Either way, i would only recommend watching this if you are very curious about it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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