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Jan 2, 2015
Shows with a gratuitous amount of detail within the development of the story and the development of multiple characters are usually standard fare within the anime medium. However, it’s all too common that the run time for most of those shows are usually cut to a single thirteen-episode season. It’s not impossible to tell the full story at a satisfactory level with limited run time. However, most writers run out of time and take shortcuts, which leave most of the audience disappointed. Unfortunately, when there’s too much of a focus on exposition to move the plot more quickly, it’s less likely to resonate with the
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viewer. K is a show with only twelve episodes (so far anyway), too many characters to develop, and a story that should require a lot of exposition. Thankfully, the writers managed to handle all the hurdles very well, putting together a resonating and action-packed show that’s so much fun to watch.
Our protagonist, Yashiro Isana is a seemingly normal and free-spirited high school boy who usually spends his time being out of the roof of the school and sometimes leaving the school without permission. However, his “normal” life is turned upside down when a video of him murdering someone and calling himself “the colorless king” surfaces. Despite not having any recollection of the video, the Red Clan, Blue Clan, and Kuro (who’s mission is to hunt down the Colorless King and slay him if he turns out to be evil) are all after him. Yashiro, now having to find a way to prove his innocence and get to the bottom of the murder, is bound to learn much more about the Clans that are after him, why he was supposedly framed, and who he actually is.
It takes more than three episodes to really make sense of everything that’s happening and why. It get’s explained later on that there are factions in the city that Yashiro resides in; the most notable in this show are HOMRA (The Red Clan) and SCEPTER 4 (The Blue Clan). Each of these Clans have their own unique power, such as The Red Clan’s power manipulate fire. The reason why HOMRA, which operates with a street gang mentality, wants him dead is because the person that was killed was one of their members. SCEPTER 4, which operates more like a police force, are after Yashiro for justice and to protect the community from future harm. Both Clans have also been at odds with each other for generations, as there are always fights that break out between the two in broad daylight. Adding more insult to injury, a former member of the Red Clan caused more tension between the two by joining forces with the Blue Clan. There are at least three significant characters, including the kings of both Clans, that get an ample amount of development.
Nobody’s motivations feel contrived and everything is genuine, from Mikoto’s (The Red King) passion for wanting to avenge his fellow comrade to Seri’s (third in-command of SCEPTER 4) tight friendship with Izumo (second in-command of HOMRA). The only problem is that there seems to be more to explore and it’s possible that once the second season is produced, there will be more to elaborate. However, for one season, it was satisfactory enough.
Shiro’s story is harder to get into without spoiling major plot points that take up about half of the enjoyment factor. All that can be said is that the mystery of him being the “Colorless King” is a shadow that is cast upon him. All the more complicated is that Kuro, a no-nonsense samurai, is hell-bent on killing him as part of his mission. However, he decides to keep an eye on Shiro to give him a benefit of a doubt and give him the opportunity to prove his innocence.
Shiro is also followed along by a cat that can turn into a beautiful girl, named Neko. She has the power to manipulate people’s senses and [insert spoiler here]. For a reason explained later in the series, Neko has an undying love for Shiro and is always trying to protect Shiro because he is her owner (y’know…because she’s a cat…yeah). Neko may be the only character that will rub the audience the wrong way because, in the grand scheme of things, she is basically playing the part as Shiro’s submissive pet and she (who is also always naked) is supermodel pretty. The otaku’s will probably love her though.
If there’s one theme that will resonate with the viewer, more than anything, is selflessness. Again, that can’t even be elaborated enough because of spoilers. The plot builds up very nicely by the time the climax arrives. The ending pretty much set the show to new heights from a show that was fun to watch from an action-thriller standpoint to practically emulating the theme of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and everything that led up to it and afterwards. Yes, that may be a very bold statement to make but with an ending that was executed the way this was executed, there had to be theme in mind, stating that everyone should stop fighting and be more Christ-like. That’s not to say that this is for Christians, but it’s a universal lesson that everyone can and should get behind.
The animation, handled by Studio GoHands, is breathtaking. All fight scenes, in particular, are animated fluidly with a lot of stylistic emphasis on the powers that the different clans use. Rarely are corners cut, nor are the character movements stagnant. The art design for the characters seem very plain to an extent because there seems to be minimal variation on the faces. The hair and eye colors and designs are nice as well of the clothes. However, the art as a whole is pleasing to the eye with the color scheme and detail that allows the characters to blend into the lovingly rendered backgrounds. CG also mixes in so well that it’s not even that noticeable.
The music is also spot on with a bunch a hip hop tracks and heavy metal riffs used appropriately to get the audience pumped up for another fight that’s about to go down. The soundtrack has a diverse collection of hip-hop, rock, and house music to fit in with the technological setting of K, with every track used effectively without necessarily standing out. The English dub is also performed well across the board. Special praise goes out to Sam Riegal (Yashiro), Todd Haberkorn (Izumo), and Keith Silverstein (Mikoto: The Red King) for their standout performances. The script tends to stumble from time to time, especially when an actor is saying a long line or has to speak fast to match lip flaps. It’s probably not surprising when there’s so much dialogue in this show that has to be adapted. Thankfully, awkward line delivery is minimal.
K manages to fill in all the right holes in a short amount of time with perfect pacing, an engaging trill of a story, and an ending that captures the spirit of altruism. There was apparently a movie that was released back in July and there will be a second season coming sometime in 2015. All that is great to know because, despite already having a satisfying ending, K has so much more to offer and explore in the setting. This is an action thriller for the masses that should not be missed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 2, 2015
Anime, like all mediums in entertainment, is full of disposable content that usually don’t withstand the test of time and they fail to make any kind of impact outside their target audience (in the case of anime, that would be japan). However, when they do crossover, they all share a common theme of proving time and time again that cartoons can be intricate, intense, mature, thought provoking for adults, and, overall, deeply reflective. Last Spring Season, there were three shows that all had crossover potential and delivered (Gargantia On The Verderous Planet, Flowers Of Evil, and Attack On Titan, which is currently a huge hit
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on Adult Swim). Black Bullet is another one of those shows that show crossover potential within it’s great animation and engaging premise.
In the year, 2021, Mankind has been decimated by a virus called Gastrea. This virus, when infecting humans, causes them to turn into giant beasts of many different species that feed on flesh of human beings. In order for the remainder of the human race to stay safe from these mutated creatures, they must live in a wall made of varanium monoliths, a metal used to combat the Gastrea beasts. Soon children that were born with the virus, yet are able to control it and have superpowers, were discovered. (For some reason, these cursed children can only be female and seem to peak at the age of 10…more on that later..) Within the ten years after the virus hit, a team called Civil Securities have been formed to fight against the Gastrea with the Initiator (the cursed child) and the Promoter (who leads the cursed child). Now it’s up to our main protagonist, Rentaro Satomi, and his Initiator, Enju Aihara, to be put on a mission to prevent the destruction of Tokyo.
The fact that the description above was explained in the last three minutes of the first episode shows that this show is hell bent on covering a lot of detail as fast as possible. The problem is that it ever seems to slow down. If the viewer falls behind, eventually that viewer will fall completely out of the loop. Thus, the experience gets frustrating. Those that do succeed in catching up are so focused on paying attention to all the details that they’ll end up not feeling as impacted by the moments that are meant to be impacting. An example of this happens in episode four, when a character, who played a key role in the first arc, dies. Not only was there nothing building up to it (she was discovered severely injured and had her life ended coup de grace) but the plot had to move along quickly, so there was no time to dwell on that tragedy. In fact, the following episodes almost indicated that she never existed. Every episode is like that. For the most part, no time is left to reflect on the characters due to the absurdly fast pace the story is moving and the large amounts of boring info-dump scenes in between every fight scene.
The best part of the story, however are the themes of the show. As mentioned before, children that have these Gastrea powers are known as “cursed children”. While some of them work as Initiators to defend humanity from the Gastrea, others are ostracized from society due to the fear that they might go berserk and kill people with their tremendous power. So the girls usually keep their identity hidden or they have no place to go (even parents would abandon them).
The girls that are Initiators have their own problems. Some of them, like Enju, are treated like normal children when they’re not fighting giant monsters. However, some Promoters (the adults that works with the Initiators) treat their Initiators as tools, completely denying their humanity. Rentaro, who is the Promoter that looks after Enju, believes that all these girls aren’t evil by nature and should all be cared for instead of being used or neglected based on their genetic traits. Sadly, he can’t create that perfect world alone. He even goes out of his way to make small school for the cursed children, at one point, only for it to result in tragic consequences. This is the sole human element of Black Bullet that was bound to resonate with the viewer. No child, no matter what they were born with or into, should have their human rights denied.
That theme should’ve been what could bring the show over the hump from being an average show to a good show. However, the writers managed to mess even that part up. It wasn’t just the rushed and clumsy pacing that caused the emotional involvement of the viewer to be nonexistent. It was the portrayal of the cursed children. It seems like the original author of the source material (Black Bullet was adapted from a light novel) was so insecure about his writing that he felt as if the only way for the reader to feel engaged was to appeal to otaku and lolicons. What was so wrong about having little boys as cursed children as well? That wouldn’t have changed the focus at all. In fact, it probably would have made it an even bigger focus. Here’s the thing: that may not have been the focus at all. This is where the writing shows its biggest weaknesses.
Starting with Enju, she seems like a spunky, playful girl that’s poised and confident when it matters. While that can make her a very cool character, this ten year old girl also talks about wanting to fully consummate a relationship with Rentaro. She’ll flirt with him by saying naughty things to him, seduce him by trying to sleep with him or get him to take a bath with her, etc. She seems very much aware of what she’s saying while also being petite, playful, and wearing twin-tails. That just reeks of lolicon bait. A lot of girls are portrayed differently but with the same idea in mind. At the final arc of the show, four Promoters and their Initiators form a team for the final battle. That team of Initiators consists of Enju, Yuzuki (the token tsundere), Midori (a shy neko loli), and Tina Sprout (an initially lethargic girl with very little awareness that the collar of her PJs always slips off and exposes her shoulder). There are other girls in the show that are usually portrayed in similar fashion. If they don’t have personalities catering to an otaku’s specific tastes, they at least have an uninspired loli/moe based design and personality. If this was just your run-of-the-mill lolicon/otakucentric romantic comedy that wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, it could just be treated as stupid fun at best. However this show takes itself seriously and wants the audience to feel empathy for these girls. However, these aren’t realistically written characters. They’re fetishy, otakucentric stereotypes designed to cater to a specific audience for the most part. Therefor, it makes it a fantasy. Therefor, all logic gets tossed out the window. Therefor, those that are disgusted by it won’t give a damn about the characters.
There is a question I would ask to all the lolicons that did like the show. How can you care about the welfare of these prepubescent girls if you’re also having sexual fantasies about them? You can’t possibly do both. How can this show be sensitive about all the abuse and neglect these girls go through if they’re also throwing in lolita jokes and portraying them as lolicon bait. The show can’t do both. It’s the way these girls are depicted that severely undermine the story to the point that even the most serious of moments feel hollow.
The way the other characters are written aren’t any better. Rentaro always means well, striving for justice and doing the right thing. Other than his intense emotion and zeal, that’s all there is to his character. Maybe that’s why so many girls, young and old, like him so much… What seemed interesting was his witnessing his parents dying in the first scene of episode one. It would’ve been nice to know more about his back-story to help flesh out his character. The same can be said about everyone else. Kisara is essentially Rentaro’s boss and childhood friend. She certainly plays the “childhood friend” anime character very well too. She has big boobs, she’s badass, and she has a secret crush on Rentaro (because of course she would, silly readers). Other characters seem to come off as either creepy low-lives or stereotypes that don’t seem to mean much in the grand scheme of things. Therefore, they’re not worth talking about. There is one consistent villain that did seem very interesting. The villain, Kagetane, was also a Promoter with his own daughter, Kohina, as his Initiator. However, he has his own ideas about saving the world and that is too destroy and rebuild. He disappeared for several episodes and then reappeared near the end. Even he didn’t get much explained about him and there seemed to be so much more to explain about his character and his daughter. Everything about this Black Bullet screams “wasted potential” so far.
The art is uninspired, with the exception of how some of the Gastrea monsters are designed. More imagination on how these monsters look, which are basically mutated forms of different animals, seemed to have been utilized more. Character designs themselves seem to look the same as every other anime but that’s probably the point. It’s trying to be safe and appeal to otaku, after all.
The animation, on the other hand, is superb. There was a lot of passion being put into the rendering the action scenes especially and if there is any reason to watch the show, it’s the fun factor regarding said scenes. It’s not always consistent, however. The frame rate does tend to slow down significantly when characters are talking each others ear off to transparently explain the plot to the viewer.
The music also made the show entertaining to watch with electronica techno beats with chamber choirs to build up the intensity of the fight scenes. The opening theme (by FripSide) and the ending theme (by Yanagi Nagi) were all animated and performed with a lot passion, despite being made for a show with passionless content.
The voice acting was effective as well, with only one stand-out. Despite the shallow character that Rentaro was, Yuki Kaji (best known as Eren Yeager from Attack On Titan) did well to emote his voice and bring out the most of his character. He had every opportunity to sound like the standard anime hero but he did everything he could to bring out the intense emotion that made Rentaro seemingly interesting.
It would be harsh to call this show a beautifully disturbing waste of time, but that’s what it is. With the premise and the ideas it had in place, it could’ve been more than worthwhile watch with enough crossover potential to make this even a hit on Toonami. But with the lolicon/otaku pandering, the terrible writing, and the overall desire to restrict it’s audience to the safest areas possible instead of being ambitious makes this show disappointing and unable to be taken seriously or get emotionally invested in it. It’s a shame the story wasn’t pitched to a better writer. It’s sad to say that whoever wrote Black Bullet needs to start from scratch. But first, he would need to know how to write better before attempting something too ambitious again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 2, 2015
The 90s were full of ambitious and creative pieces of art all over, in terms of music and animation. Great bands were redefining what pop music was, like Nirvana, REM, Green Day, Korn, Marilyn Manson, and various other alternative acts. While in animation, there was the slew of classic Disney films that came out at the time throughout the decade. However, what was even more important was the amount of edgy, bloody, “mature” anime direct-to-video OVAs that were coming out from Japan. While many people today would identify anime with something like Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Naruto, etc, the perception of anime was different
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during the early 90s. Whether it be with OAVs like MD Geist or movies like Ninja Scroll and Akira, anime had the reputation of being dark, gritty, and more mature than the usual American cartoon. Those were the shows that would always get localized in the states. Kite is reminiscent of those times when anime was a little more gutsy with it’s presentation and how it didn’t have any qualms with doing thinks differently. It has also stood out as a cult classic among the high volume of edgy OVAs that came from the same era. The question remains, however, is can it hold up now?
Our protagonist, Sawa, is a schoolgirl orphaned after the tragic double-murder of both her parents. At a young age, she’s been taken in by a corrupt and abusive cop, Akai. As Akai took the responsibility as her guardian, he promises her that if she complies with all his wishes, including being an assassin to kill other criminals, he can help her find her parents’ killer and avenge their death. Trapped in the hellish cycle of being a victimized cold-blooded killer, the only thing that has driven Sawa is her thirst for revenge. However, once she meets another orphaned assassin in a similar situation, Oburi, things begin to change as they strike a bond. Oburi strives to put an end to the abuse and help himself and Sawa find her parents’ murderers, breaking the chains once and for all.
One thing that’s immediately noticeable, and sometimes jarring, is the artistic style of this film. It’s surely not a flawless piece of work, as there are plenty of still frames that last way too long for a 45 minute OAV. There are also plenty of scenes when the art itself isn’t consistent, with characters going completely off model in certain scenes (particularly when Sawa kills someone). However, Kite makes up for that with plenty of action scenes with full animation (physics be damned!). The highlights include a sequence of Sawa fighting bodyguards in a public restroom to falling out of a window of a tall building. That was a thrill to watch along with Oburi fighting on the train. Kite, as a whole, may be very inconsistent and could only be considered nice to look at if you take out half the scenes and reanimate them. However, the good outweighs the bad in this case, as the good parts are really good.
The narrative itself, while edgy in terms of the concept of the story, is flawed in execution. It doesn’t seem like this showing is trying to be progressive by any means. Instead, it feels like Kite needed an excuse to have a sexualized protagonist that needs sympathy from the audience and kick-ass action scenes. While it does succeed in being fun and compelling to watch, nothing about the characters stand out as memorable.
The reason for not feeling memorable is the lack of detail. Sawa was the only character whose story was explained and all it really did was have the audience feel bad for her and hope that she can finally be free from all the madness. The detail was lacking everywhere else. It would’ve been nice to explain what the deal was with Akai and the corrupt police force that he worked for. There were brief glimpses here and there about what they were actually using Sawa for but not enough to really make it interesting or a focus. Again, it all seemed like vague excuses to make Sawa a vulnerable killer. The most disappointing aspect is Oburi’s character. He’s a character that should’ve had as much detail explained about him as Sawa. There wasn’t enough and he mostly just looked like the guy that played hero, admirable as that is. What could’ve caused the lack of detail was the lack of run-time. There was a lot more that could’ve been done with a story like this to really make it impacting to the viewer and make him/her think. Instead, what’s left is simplicity in 45 minutes. It should’ve been 90 minutes.
The music, while fitting the scenes appropriately, don’t come off as memorable at all. The only things that really stood out were the sound effects than anything. Having Kite released with remastered video and audio (5.1 Surround Sound) sure has it’s benefits.
The voice-over performances are done well in English. In fact, there seemed to be more passion in the English performances than the Japanese. The English script seems to take more liberties than need be. However, it felt appropriate. There was a lot more swearing the dialogue, for instance, in order to fit with how trashy the show is. Overall, this is one of those shows where the viewer will be more engaged when watching the dub rather than the original Japanese track.
Kite is one of those short films that are one of a kind in terms of the style that it has. The story, on the other hand, has been done better before and after it’s inception. Due to it’s short run time, it can be fun to watch as a spectacle alone in some scenes and the story is engaging enough to get someone interested in what happens. There won’t be much else if one is expecting more though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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