What is K ? K is an anime and a Manga. Both are fairly news and I had never heard of the Manga before the Anime came out. I do not really get the title of K. Why K ? It's not as simple as understanding why Naruto is called Naruto. The letter K does come out as the first letter of each episode's title and about the various themes you can find in the anime.
The animation of this show is... beast. I'll admit it. I have nothing to say. Probably the best animation this season and year. It was very pretty. I'll also add that the soundtrack were top notch. The OP was decent and the ending... well, seeing a main character naked all the ED isn't really my thing and doesn't suit the show at all.
1. STORY :: What the Hell is going on and where is this going ?
In the universe of K, there's seven 'kings' given particular power. Soon enough we are introduced to the Blue King and the Red King but, later in the show, you will get to see more of them. The Kings give some of their Power to their clansmen and make their little 'team' and do their things with their clan. Homra (Red King) is similar to a Street Gang while Scepter 4 (Blue King) resemble more some kind of police... -ish. The Story begin with the Main Character, Shiro. While doing an errand, he is attacked by some people he doesn't know and learn (He sees a video of it) that he killed one of their clansman/friend. He doesn't remember any of this and try to find proof of his innocence... and/or fix this mess somehow.
In itself, the story isn't that bad. Some part might feel similar to Durarara!! but, it's not such a bad thing. Personally, I liked the mysteries about this murder and this is what made me watch more of it at first as the mystery regarding this event would clear up little by little. Kings giving Power to their clansmen is something I had never come across before, it's pretty interesting and it is giving the feeling that we will come across some pretty nice fighting scene between different Kings and their Clans.
However, the pacing end up being annoying very quickly. Usually, people would complain that the pacing of a show is too quick near the end. Rushed. In the case of K, it was the contrary. The First few episodes had a good pacing. Not too Fast. Not too Slow. Everything was slowing getting in place and then, it goes from 'Good' to 'FUCKING SLOW'. I watched episode where I'm pretty sure 50% of it was useless. This is mostly dude to this show trying to do so many thing at the same time but, I will get on this topic in a few. With all this slow pacing, sometimes, you really start to wonder where is this going anyway since this seems to be going no where at all. I wouldn't say the ending had no point. There was one. The Story itself was solved. The conflit started with the video of Shiro killing a member of Homra and THIS was solved at the end. Yes, it was. Linking the way it was solved or Hating it is up to you tho !
2. CHARACTERS :: Who the Hell are those guys ?
Exactly... Who are they ? This is one question that is left unanswer and this is also the reason why the story failed. What K tried to do tho, is giving up one main goal to achieve and then putting many character around it with different issues.... I'm one of those thinking something like: the 'Story' is similar to a background. It is true in this particular case where the 'Story' is a pretext and you just thrown in a lot of characters and they will build your story. I believe this is where K failed. Yes, the 'Pretext' is solved but some many little 'Stories' making the big one were left unsolved. We were left with our Hunger. I feel like there was much more to solve.
I can name a lot of characters I wished I had the chance to understand and know more. The only one we got the chance to understand a little was Shiro and it was sloppy. I think I understand and know what the fuck is Sasuke in Naruto doing more than Shiro! What the hell... ? I can tell right away this is wrong, ahah. The whole show, they gave screen time to Yata Misaki and Fushimi. They even gave screen time to flashback about them. I mean, they made me care for this duo of friend/foe but, nothing was solved after all. Yeah... Nothing. Can anyone explain to me the purpose of this last flashback in episode 13 ? Except for the Fangirls, tho. Still wondering.
I didn't feel any 'affection' for any characters in this show at all. I had interest. I did. A lot. Characters dying ? Alright! Bring it on! ...since I don't really know them anyway. Who haven't seen Clannad and cried for Nagisa ? We knew Nagisa and Tomoya very well and liked them Otherwise, no tears would have been waste on it.
3. ENJOYMENT :: Why should I care ?
This is the most subjective part of anything. Enjoyment is subjective. I might like Roller coaster and maybe you don't. We all have different tastes and our enjoyment might be influence by things we like. The 'Why should I care' is personal to everyone. This part is pretty interesting when we're talking about K tho. This is the part where everyone goes :
''K tries to be so many thing at the same time !''
Do you like Ecchi ? Do you like Mysteries ? Do you like Moe ? Do you like Shounen ? Do you like Shonen-Ai ? Do you like Panties shot ? Do you like Boobs ?... Either way, whatever you like, you'll find it in K ! Isn't that cool ?... Not really. If I want to watch boobs, I'll watch Highschool DxD or whatever. Being too many things makes you get a lot more viewer probably. That might be true a first. If you liked Shonen-Ai, you enjoyed the Shiro blushing in first episode and enjoyed the Love/Hate relationship between many Red and Blue members. If you liked Moe, you enjoyed Anna being a cute all the time. If you liked Panties shot, you liked Kukuri. If you liked Mysteries, you liked the murder incident and trying to guess who really is Shiro, like myself. If you liked Shounen, you liked the fighting scene. If you liked Boobs, you liked Seri. There's no end to this !
but if you liked Shounen, you were probably annoyed at the Love/Hate relationship. If you liked Shonen-Ai, I dunno but maybe the Panties and Boobs weren't that interesting. It works either way.
I can't say I didn't enjoy K. Everything is part of the enjoyment and there was decent thing in K but nothing will make me remember K in a few months and this will probably become another anime in my List I don't even remember what it was about.
Trying to be good at too many thing usually doesn't let you shine in one...
