K

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. Kperfectly 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.

First review coming up, K?! (pun intended) Story: 9 At its core, K is a story about finding the identity of a murderer and its implications in an ongoing war between superpowered clans. Elements of sci-fi, fantasy and mystery are combined to make for a very appealing package. In my opinion, the first few episodes don't really explain much, but they leave enough questions unanswered to make you keep coming back for more. I suppose it may be to give the viewer the same feeling that the protagonist Yashiro would get from having his daily life changed so suddenly. However, the story reallypicks up in the latter half and overall was simply very exciting to watch. Art/Animation: 10 The animation for K is absolutely amazing. GoHands really impressed this time. The backgrounds are highly detailed and the setting allows for some beautiful shots of the city and the island. Reflections and lighting are done expertly, even if at times it looked a little too bright. I also really like the character designs in K - everyone looks great and the SCEPTER4 uniforms are a notable highlight. Additionally, the OP and ED sequences are highly stylised and great to watch, meshing well with the songs chosen. Sound: 9 K has fantastic music - among the best I've heard for a while. There are many great tracks and they are used well to enhance the feelings of the scenes. Some of my personal favourites are the main theme, which was also used in one of the PVs; and the ED song, performed by Neko's seiyuu. I think having the character songs play in the background for the next episode previews was a particularly nice touch. The voice acting was top notch, with plenty of big names such as Sugita Tomokazu and Ono Daisuke, to mention a few. Across the board, they really succeeded in bringing out the characters' personalities and emotions. Characters: 9 The characters in K are one of the main driving forces of the series. Much of the plot revolves around Yashiro, who at first appears to be just another happy-go-lucky high school student thrown into the midst of a gang war he knows nothing about. Kuroh is more tough and composed, and his seriousness is a nice contrast to Yashiro's carefree personality. K also presents us with an interesting dynamic between the Blue and Red Kings - they fight on opposing sides, but seem to be more than just simply enemies. The only possible flaw I found was that Neko's character didn't really get enough elaboration; it almost seemed like she was just included because her powers were needed for the story. The focus moves between the various sides so we get to see events unfold from several perspectives. The characters do develop well throughout the show, with some interesting revelations, though due to the 13-episode length, some may find that not everyone got fully fleshed out. However, the manga prequels make up for this. Enjoyment: 9 K was a very enjoyable series. There weren't as many fight scenes as I would have liked, but every time I did see some action it just looked incredibly cool. Whilst the premise may not be entirely unique, K had more than enough flair, intriguing story and compelling characters to keep me hooked until the very end. Overall: 9 For me, K was an amazing series that just got better and better with every episode I watched. If you like supernatural action with an interesting identity mystery attached - you should definitely watch K. Thanks for reading! Please give feedback if you found it helpful ;)

Art and Animation: 9 I'll start out by writing about the positive aspects of this anime, which is obviously the art and animation quality. Fantastic fluidity to motions. Very active scenes and active bodies. The color usage is bold and nothing to overlook, however, I did start to find the experimental color gradient to be a little bit of an eyesore at times. Yet, at other times it was definitely effective in setting the mood. The characters were cleanly drawn with slim, delicate figures. Smaller details such as clothing design and the cityscape are fun. Character: 6 The show is similar to Durarara! in that it incorporatesa medley of characters in a crowded city with some magical powers sprinkled in. When I saw the plethora of characters, I didn't expect to get a character driven story. And it wasn't. Unlike Durarara!, which was given 24 eps to tell its story, K-Project only got 13. The characters weren't given enough time to truly shine individually, but that is not to say that they weren't able to shine in conjunction with other characters. The relationships between Shiro and Kuroh, Mikoto and Reisi, and Misaki and Fushimi were good enough to add a little complexity to the characters and story. But the number of characters did leave me a bit overwhelmed. Sound: 7 I am not a fan of the soundtrack, OP, or ED. But I can't say the music was bad. It was average for an anime like this. Story: 4 Now we get to the part that explains why this anime failed. The story, in short, is too messy and poorly developed. Even though it's supposed to be a mystery about Shiro trying to understand his identity and amnesia, I found myself more drawn to the gang war between the red and blue teams. Yet, that part of the story was never fully developed enough and left me in the dark as to why they were fighting so much. Part of the mythology of the anime revolves around the colors and the powers that come with them. I would have liked to get a crash course on the history and involvement of these powers in their reality. When the mystery is revealed, the resolution is unsatisfying. You couldn't get a strong feel as to why the main antagonist is the way he is, because they spent so little time developing him. There are many subplots, which would have been okay, except that this is a 13 episode anime. Most of the subplots were let to ease to an end instead of approached and dealt with properly. This left me feeling a bit bereft and questioning the whole point of building this whole maze of story. Enjoyment: 5 I got bored with it halfway through but kept going because it's not bad enough for me to drop. It took me a while to complete it because I got involved with other animes. Despite the incredible visuals, the poorly written story and flat characters failed to enthuse me. The cluttered storyline and mythology kept me confused most of the time as I was trying to play keep up with all the little subplots and characters. Overall: 6 It's not a bad anime, but it is an example of an anime trying to take on too much at the same time and failing miserably. I would say that maybe if it was given 24 or more episodes, it might have been able to rescue itself. But its biggest flaw was trying to fit a 24 eps story into 13 eps.

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 toa 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.