KnK Series OVERVIEW (Spoiler Free):
KnK is an action, detective, psychological, horror, romance anime series produced by ufotable and based of a series of light novels written in the late 90’s. KnK differs from most anime in that
1) The core series is broken down into 7 films rather than 20+ easy-to-swallow episodes.
2) Each film has a different director
3) The story is told out of sequence, with the chronological order of the films being: 2, 4, 3, 1, 5, 6, & 7.
4) The total content of the Knk is less than what you might find in a longer anime series. The first seven core movies (i.e. excluding epilogue and OVAs) are 507 minutes combined. This is roughly 80% of a regular 25 episode series.
Story 7: Watching the KnK animated movie series is like being stuck in an elevator with two other people for a few hours. If you get along with them, then it’s fine but if they annoy you the experience will be unbearable. Likewise, the only characters that get any real attempt at development are the two mains, Shiki and Mikiya, so you’d better like them. Additionally, the non-linear flow of the movies forces the viewer to pay an above average level of attention to the two main characters’ plotlines, especially Shiki’s. You will have to ask yourself, at X point in time, what is going through Shiki’s head? Has she met “X” character yet? Is “Y” character still alive? You get the picture. To complicate matters further, the individual films are not always easy to follow. They tend to use a lot of surreal imagery, cut scenes and flashbacks, while introducing new characters abruptly. I haven’t read the light novels so I don’t know if this is just the narrative style or if the anime had to whittle down lots of backstory and transitions to make everything fit.
Characters 7:
Mikiya. I’ve seen versions of him in many other anime but this is the worst. I hate Mikiya…even more than Emiya Shirou from Fate/Stay Night. He’s the super trusting, loveable doofus whose endless wellspring of patience and persistence completely destroys the viewer’s suspension of disbelief. Mikiya, the puppy dog boyfriend who even a diehard shoujo fan-girl would want to curb stomp out of irritation. Mikiya, the ever cheerful, ever good natured jackass with a head-to-toe suit of plot armor. A character who consistently gets rewarded for choosing the retarded the path. What saves him from dragging this anime down is that by the 4th film I didn’t really think of him as a real character anymore, and instead, a plot device for Shiki.
Shiki: Like Onions and like Shrek, Shiki has layers. To be honest, figuring her out is probably the main conflict in the anime series. Her psyche is certainly very unique and captivating. Throughout the series she does get a fair amount of character development but unfortunately too much of it comes in the form of longwinded expositions. This comes dangerously close to violating the sacred story-telling maxim: “show don’t tell”. Ultimately, I like her character a lot and most of the important questions about her get answered.
Art 10: The animation is beautiful. It’s classic ufotable. The movement, faces, scenery, effects are all superbly done. It’s crystal clear and so damn fluid.
Sound 8: Some haunting tracks and a good OP.
Overall 7: In my opinion, KnK is an ambitious, one-of-a-kind series. Ufotable took a lot of risks with the style and format and I believe they largely succeeded, creating a dark and sometimes creepy anime with a compelling storyline. I do take issue with some of the character development. The 7-movie format and non-linear narrative style caused many key questions regarding Shiki and Mikiya’s relationship and Shiki’s psychological state to get glossed over or simply omitted between films. Often, the viewer is left to make inferences about key plot points in order to bridge the gaps from film to film. The end result is to make two characters who are already hard to empathize with even more difficult to understand.
Strengths:
-You will have no idea what’s going on at first but slowly the gaps will fill in.
-Their use of dates was critical. It was the trail of breadcrumbs that let us follow KnK’s bizarre path through the woods. I realize paying attention to individual months may seem tedious but it is absolutely necessary to follow what’s going on, and KnK is pretty good about keeping the viewer in touch with the timeline.
-Films 5 and 7 were the jewels of the series. The 5th film was brilliantly done with an extremely intricate plot, great action and some creepy as fuck scenes.
-Older viewers may not find KnK “scary” but KnK left little off the table when it came to its vivid depiction of human depravity. The 5th film was probably the closest thing to anime horror that I’ve seen.
-As a mystery-romance-horror series with a little bit of mindfuck, KnK fills a pretty rare niche. I’m reminded of Mirrai Nikki, Elfen Lied and maybe Gosick on crack.
Weaknesses:
-You will have no idea what’s going on at first but slowly the gaps will fill in.
-Characters (Mikiya in particular) will make hopelessly stupid decisions
-Longwinded explanations of abstract concepts.
-Lack of backstory for many characters
- Lack of chemistry (in my opinion) between the two MCs.