Back to thewinrar's Profile thewinrar's Profile

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.

Sword Art Online is an adaption of the light novel series of the same name written by Reki Kawahara and follows the events that occur within the first four novels. Sword Art Online revolves around the male protagonist named Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya who enters a Virtual Massive Multiplayer Online RPG (VRMMO) called 'Sword Art Online'. Players of Sword Art Online are thrust into Aincrad, a virtual fantasy world that consists of monsters and dungeons. Sword Art Online and the world of Aincrad takes influence from many real life MMORPGs and those who play these games will be quite familiar with the references and game mechanics ... that occur within Sword Art Online.

The anime takes off to a good start and leaves an extremely strong first impression as it showcases beautiful visuals and very crisp animation. The world of Aincrad gives off a pensive atmosphere that helps viewers feel immersed towards the events that occur within. From the very first episode, we're immediately told that Sword Art Online isn't just any ordinary MMO, but a game of survival where in-game deaths will lead to death on the real world as well. The severe penalties of this game creates a sense of danger for Kirito and his allies as this helps create a really enjoyable start to the anime.

However, the enjoyment of Sword Art Online takes a decline as the story becomes an inconsistent mess. Major Plot holes develop and the story tends to take major time skips, yet we're still subject to viewing insignificant episodes where no story progression occurs. With a story that stretches over a two year period, one would expect there would be plenty of significant events that occur yet they were minor or non-existant. The largest flaw of Sword Art Online would be the weak characters. Characters that played a key part in the story become quickly forgotten and the unimaginative nature of Kirito and his love interest would turn out to be incredibly cheesy and painful to watch. Yes, Sword Art Online attempts to implement romance, but the lack of development and build up towards this romance leaves viewers in an awkward position as the story eventually revolves around this romantic relationship during the second arc.

Although Sword Art Online contains a poorly developed story and weak characters, it exceeds in its intended purpose: action. The fight scenes of Sword Art Online would serve to be the ultimate reason to continue watching the series as they are well animated, and backed with an epic soundtrack to reinforce the feeling of determination emanating from the fights. Sword Art Online is nowhere near a bad anime, the flaws and inconsistencies are easy to ignore and one can find great enjoyment from this series. However, Sword Art Online brings great disappointment as it had great potential and could have been something amazing. This anime is a fun, but bumpy ride, yet quite forgettable. If you're intrigued by MMORPGs and you're looking for an enjoyable twenty-five episodes, this is the anime for you. If you're looking for something memorable and worthy of re-playability, I advise you stay away from this series.