K Episode 13 Discussion

IZUMI64 said:
2nd worst anime of the year (after GC)

the anime maker just selling art and softcore yaoi bishounen. ( I bet the ppl who said this anime is good (75% of chances) using bishone pic as their avatar)
the story is not really orginal (same as GC case)

1/10

AuronPond said:
Reading the comments of this thread, I feel like most of the people who gave low ratings (with the exception of select few):

One, was unable to grasp on to the story properly.

Two, expected too much from minor characters.

Three, don't understand why this was called K "project" in general.

Four, spew illogical hate.

To start, the series is called K project because it's not just an anime. The manga and novel consists of CANON tie-in prequels. This includes the story of Kuroh's travel to find Shiro and the members of HOMRA. If you feel the need to argue character development of anyone in particular in the ANIME, it would be Shiro, Suoh and Munakata. However, being that Shiro and Suoh were developed accordingly, Munakata is the only one who serves for complaint (being that nothing about him is explained in neither the manga nor the anime). Otherwise, the development of certain characters is completely unnecessary and only result in wasting time on episodes. With the 13-episode set they were given, they did exceptionally well in developing an entire set of characters (Mikoto, Anna, Shiro/Weissman, Misaki, Colorless, Fushimi). Seeing as there will be a season 2, I personally find no reason to give such a heavy downgrade simply because their stories had little relation to the story of the anime.

The story works in a "Chaos Theory" format. To most, it seems like sloppy random actions. In reality, it takes a fair amount of excellent writing to execute this properly. For those unfamiliar with the Chaos Theory, events are made out to seem random and sometimes even pointless, but they end up tying to a single point in the end. They usually have a singular start, a number of events in the middle and then a solitary end.

So, with K, the start was the hunting of Shiro. Then, we've got these many different random adventures and events in the middle. In the end, all of those events in the middle tied together somehow.

If you get the story, rather, it you figure out the order of events, things make a lot more sense. As far as plotholes, I didn't spot any visible ones. You'd have to do a major amount of nitpicking.

I gave it a 9.5/10, but I round up when that's not available. So, it has a 10/10 for me.

r3dhawk said:
Does anyone know what was the name of the song, before the ending?

AuronPond said:
Reading the comments of this thread, I feel like most of the people who gave low ratings (with the exception of select few):
...
I gave it a 9.5/10, but I round up when that's not available. So, it has a 10/10 for me.

Ncrdrg said:


lol , The funny thing about the director is that he is constantly criticize for being bad at fleshing out a well thought out story.

Plus, its an experiment so let the animators fix the problems for the 2nd season.

Ncrdrg said:


I'll be harsh but you're a typical fanboy. You assume people who don't like a show simply didn't understand it. And that simply isn't the case. I've seen a lot of animes over the years, I can recognize a great show when it airs and a bad one when it airs. K was in-between. It had a lot and I mean A LOT of potential at the start. Its premise was really good and this could easily have been one of the top anime of this season. But as a project, it failed to develop its premise and thus failed as a show.

It's quite simple actually, a good story relies on characters and a story. Some shows also try to do world-building to create an atmosphere. K did that, similar to other shows like Durarara!! and Baccano did, but unlike them, it's didn't work. Those 3 major elements all failed at the end because of inconsistency. Now that I know it was done by 7 writers, I shouldn't be surprised. The story was all over the place. One episode, it tried to tell a story, the other it tries to do world building and after that, it decided it needed flashbacks because its characters lacked development. No consistency in direction. An excellent premise with horrible execution.

World building didn't work because they kept most of the story to 2 clans (Blue + Red) and although they showed 5 Kings, they only properly developed 2 of them (Silver King, Red King). Gold King barely shown at all, even though he was supposed to be quite close to the Silver King. You can't do world building and succeed with such half-assed efforts. When you commit to world building, you gotta deliver and show EVERYONE.

Story failed because it didn't progress until the final episodes. K was good initially but the story went nowhere because it was trying to do world building so it completely stalled. And I mean, almost standstill. I've rarely seen a show like K completely halt its story like that. Barely moved until the end when they realized stuff needed to happen. And only then did it get better again. Because the story was back in action and started being consistent again.

Characters failed because they didn't develop them. At first, there was basically no character development at all. Like, zero, except for Red King. At some point (near episode 8 I think), they realized they needed to develop Silver King, aka Shiro but it was too little too late. They developed Red King pretty well but everyone around him felt bland as hell. Very little development save for Skateboarder guy in the Red clan and the one who betrayed them to go to the Blue clan. And they didn't even deliver on that either!!! Why did that guy really leave? Why couldn't K show flashbacks of these characters so we could understand their motivations? Why didn't they also show more flashbacks of Kuro and his late Master? They kept showing that he really respected his words but they didn't show it! It's an animated story, you don't tell, you show it! But K didn't do it. Gold King played a part in Silver King's story IIRC but then was a complete no-show. Why? If they had such a close relationship in the past, why the hell didn't he get more exposition than that? Blue and Red King seemed to have a bit of a close relationship, why didn't they expand on that?

As you can see by what I'm writing, character development is what I consider K's greatest failure. If K wanted to succeed in 13 episodes, it needed to stop trying to do world building, develop its characters and side characters properly so we could relate to them and their motivations and cut out on the stupid hijinks of Shiro and Neko being on the run. It completely wasted at least a good 6 episodes of air time on stuff like that which meant the story was going nowhere. The characters had fights to look cool just because. No decisive winners, no nothing, it was just being flashy because it thought it needed cool animation. And K's animation was very impressive. But that's where it stopped for me because it lacked substance.

Horrible direction, completely and inconsistent messy story. Whoever directed K needs to be out of a job for good. How you can turn such an excellent premise and have it fail so spectacularly is horrifying. So to sum it up:

Plus:
Amazing animation
Great conclusive ending
Great potential and great premise
Red King

Minus:
Very inconsistent direction
Bad World Building
Very little character development = tons of bland characters (That's what a world building show looks like if you don't develop them)
Story completely stalled for half its length. To the point where it started being a running gag.

Rating: 6.0-6.5.

If you want to see what a good story that makes stuff happen and a direction that knows where it's going and knows what it's doing, you should watch Zetsuen no Tempest, Psycho-Pass or From the New World (aka Shinsekai Yori). It's really disappointing seeing a failed experiment like K get greenlight for a sequel when really many animes will never get to see one despite being excellent.

maipoxx said:


I agree with the original poster. Also, I think you're one of those people who over analyze things. It's an anime show. It's meant for entertainment. In 13 episodes of course nothing is going to be perfect. Yeah it had its problems, but how much can they squeeze into 13 episodes? I don't like when people need to criticize every little thing about a show. Everyone acts like they could do so much better. Why can't someone just enjoy a show instead of knit picking every detail? It's not right to call someone a fanboy just because they really liked the show for what it was and didn't complain about every little thing. I loved K and i gave it a 9 out of 10. Just because i really enjoyed it and i liked the characters. If i didn't like it or disagreed so much with all the details i wouldn't keep watching it. Granted, i don't watch anime very much and when i do i usually just really love the shows. I don't criticize or get stuck on small issues.

Bottom line, it's an anime show. It's meant for entertainment. Yeah the story line could use a little work. But then again we only got 13 episodes. I loved it for what it was.

maipoxx said:

I agree with the original poster. Also, I think you're one of those people who over analyze things. It's an anime show. It's meant for entertainment. In 13 episodes of course nothing is going to be perfect. Yeah it had its problems, but how much can they squeeze into 13 episodes? I don't like when people need to criticize every little thing about a show. Everyone acts like they could do so much better. Why can't someone just enjoy a show instead of knit picking every detail? It's not right to call someone a fanboy just because they really liked the show for what it was and didn't complain about every little thing. I loved K and i gave it a 9 out of 10. Just because i really enjoyed it and i liked the characters. If i didn't like it or disagreed so much with all the details i wouldn't keep watching it. Granted, i don't watch anime very much and when i do i usually just really love the shows. I don't criticize or get stuck on small issues.

Bottom line, it's an anime show. It's meant for entertainment. Yeah the story line could use a little work. But then again we only got 13 episodes. I loved it for what it was.

Yumekichi11 said:
You all are missing the point, IT DOES NOT STOP AT 13! It goes for S2 so there is no IF K WANTED TO DEVELOP IN 13 EPISODES. It's going to be 26 with a S2 so K in fact held out to develop in S2.

If I am wrong then by all means BITCH AT ME! If however due to experience I am right then S2 should be way better than S1.

Unimpressed said:
In the end K ended up in the middle of the pack from what the Fall season had to offer with its underdeveloped plot and characters. Still, the last few episodes were an improvement compared to the beginning and the sequel has a lot of unexplored topics it can focus on.