I will say that I am a definite supporter and fan of K. I know that there have been mixed opinions on it, and I understand everyone's point of view, but I'm here to deliver my own impression.
Story: 9/10
At first (and during the most of the series duration) we DON'T REALLY KNOW what the plot is. We jsut have a bunch of cool characters running around, trying to catch Shiro who supposedly killed a member of Homra (the Red's) and that's about it. As the story progresses, we see how the groups are connected, how they work, who are the Kings and why are they essential and we see how it deepens. I must admit though, the fact that the master plot was revealed in the last 2 or 3 episodes did make me wanna break my screen at some point. Somewhere around ep 7, you still have no idea what's going on and you start to wonder if there is an actual plot or are they just thinking on their feet. But until the end it delivers, and it delivers very nicely. It was the boom that I was expecting, but in a different way. The story itself is interesting, if you can bare with the plot-holes (it's how it usually goes with original anime projects). That's why I give it a 9 out of 10, since it could have been done better, with less confusion.
Art: 10/10
It is outstanding. As the animation progresses we can see that anime get more and more beautiful art, but K really does it at this part. Everything is so beautifully drawn, the character design is almost flawless (I still have a problem with a few anatomy things - like Seri's boobs for starters) and the colors are nice and flowing, enjoyable for the eye. Some would say that there too many flashy sequences or that there are too many blues. Although I agree with that, it was what made the anime more appealing to me, rather than something that was annoying.
Sound: 10/10
Not much to say about it, we all have ears. Actually I could write about it for ages, as much as about everything else, but I wasn't too focused on the sound. I did notice how well it fitted the scenes, the OP and ED had me hooked from the start and I still listen to them regularly. Something else I noticed, when the OST was released I heard a few character songs on yt, and I was amazed. So it's another plus for the sound department. The voice-acting (it falls into this and character I guess) was done perfectly and I actually didn't have a problem of music interfering with the voices while watching. As someone who watched the majority of episodes in raw first and then with sub, it is a big big plus. I'll leave it at that.
Character: 9/10
I give them a 9 out of 10 just because it is a short anime, so it is not possible to give enough screen time for every character to develop fully. It's not like we have a ton of episodes like Naruto and Bleach where we can see the development of even the minor characters, but it was still something missing while I was watching. When it comes to this type of anime, there should be a few main characters and then add as much as you want of the side ones. With K, you get mains, semi-mains and side characters, but they all get almost the same amount of screen time (excluding Shiro and Kuro). It was kinda hard to follow at some point, when you had so little info about how they were all connected - there was just not enough time to show us how they evolved through the series. Another part that was missing for me was the link between Misaki and Fushimi. I loved the love/hate realtionship they've got (and believe me, I'm trying not to put this in my yaoi basket in this review), but what agitated me was that we never found out how close they actually were, how they acted while they were friends and exactly how did stuff happen. We got a few flashy flashbacks, a lot of yelling by Yata and laughing by Fushimi and that was about it. We were only give the bad side of their relationship. I hope they fix that in the 2nd season.
Voice actors:
I have to put this here, because I am a crazy big fan of seiyuus and in this anime, the first two things that drew me were the art and the seiyuu cast. I have to start with Mamoru Miyano, who is just freakishly amazing - I've loved him since the first time I watched Death Note, then in Soul Eater and now here... He showed us yet again how he can transform his voice - I was literally crying while he was maniacally laughing at Misaki.
Then we have Ono Daisuke, another one of my favorites. Sebastian for starters, and looking at Kuroh's character you'd say that he always gets that kind of roles. I've watched him in a bunch of other animes and he can do it all. This is just something that he is particularly good at. And his voice always gives me chills.
The other Daisuke, Namikawa - he was quite a surprise. I didn't know his voice from other anime, or at least didn't recognize it, but his voice was rather appealing and it fitted his character well. I heard a lot of people saying that he was not cut out for this kind of role, but in the end you can see that he can manage with the boyish voice as well with the deep and commanding one.
We see a lot of other very famous voice actors, Tsuda - who was Seto in Yu-Gi-Oh and more surprisingly Nathan - Fire Emblem in Tiger&Bunny, Sawashiro Miyuki (whose voice is the only one I CAN'T stand in this anime for some reason), Horie Yuki and another favorite Fukuyama Jun. At first I thought that this type of character was not good for his voice, since he usually plays the flamboyant characters, but it was lovely to hear him like this.
The enjoyment was a 9, although I'm still somewhere between 9 and 10. I really loved it, but at some moments it annoyed me so much so I have mixed feelings about it.
So the overall is 9, although in my heart it's 10.
The anime has a perfect mixture of fantasy, magic, technology, mystery and action, with a slight turn on romance. It also has a BUNCH of hot male characters which leaves our yaoi fangirls' minds to wreak havoc. Overall, it's a good anime, with so many different positive points, it would be a shame not to watch it.
I'm sorry if I bored you to death, but if you actually read this until the end, you have a cookie from me. *gives a cookie*
