OP Sequence
OP: 「KINGS」 by angela
「knight」
Oho, it looks like I’ve found my anime fix to fill the void left behind by Kuroko no Basuke in K, an original anime from studio GoHands. To describe this premiere as a visual feast would be putting it very mildly – the sheer detail put into even the most mundane of scenes is nothing short of stunning: people milling about! Nameless students chit-chatting! Cats spinning around before settling down! One of the scenes looked vaguely CGI’d, but the blending was so well done to the point it was difficult to tell.
Now that the requisite praising of the animation is out of the way, shall we hack this apart?
First, the premise:
Show text ▼
Plot? What plot? For all its splendor and grandeur, the story of K has been rather ambiguous, and some might even call it its weakest point. The premiere didn’t give too much away, but introduced a backstory that ties all the characters together: the “evil King” who must be eliminated. It is unclear why he’s evil, other than the fact he shot somebody. But none of these characters seem like they’re black and white – that is wholly good and wholly evil – anyway, so why the distinction? Obviously there’s something more going on behind the scenes that will be fleshed out as the series proceeds, and we can only hope the finished product is immersive as it seems on the surface.
One notable aspect of the first episode plot-wise was the appearance of the “Sword of Damocles” that had been hinted at in the previews. Considering how impressive it looked, I had assumed it was some sort of grand plot device that wouldn’t come into play until much later, or would at least get a more elaborate introduction. Judging by how early they revealed this card though, it’s safe to say the swords are going to be a regular feature in battles between prominent characters, especially the Kings. Its purpose and significance are also likely to get a fair exposition as the plot gets a chance to spread its wings, so there’s something to look forward to there.
So, the final verdict: the wild card is still a wild card. There’s certainly enough to keep interests piqued and draw in the audience for a second or third viewing, but whether the mystery is just a facade for a shaky storyline or a foreshadowing for something truly decent and interactive is too early to tell.
The characters:
Show text ▼
Make no mistake – the size of this cast gives Durarara!! and Baccano! a run for their money. From Homra to Scepter 4 to Ashinaka High School to lone wolf Yatogami Kuroh (Ono Daisuke), there’s a vast set of characters that look to be promising on the entertainment front. Isana Yashiro (Namikawa Daisuke) is touted as the main character, so it’ll be interesting to see how he fares in the large, not-quite-ensemble cast. To be honest he, along with Neko (Komatsu Mikako), are looking to be the weakest of the cast so far, with Kuroh not too far after them. The three of them seem to adhere to the standard stereotypes the most – which is not necessarily a bad thing, but when you have 5+ characters vying for the viewers’ attention, it’s good to stand out.
So far the characters that comprise Homra – Yata Misaki (Fukuyama Jun), Kusanagi Izumo (Sakurai Takahiro), Kushina Anna (Horie Yui), Suoh Mikoto (Tsuda Kenjirou), etc – and Scepter 4 – Munakata Reisi (Sugita Tomokazu), Awashima Seri (Sawashiro Miyuki), and Fushimi Saruhiko (Miyano Mamoru) – are far more engaging and inspire more curiosity and attention in viewers than the supposed main character does. The duality Shiro seemingly has is interesting, and Namikawa Daisuke certainly has the chops to pull off the disparate personalities. It seems a little too typical to be a fully engaging factor for his character though, but likewise with the plot, it’s too early to be making any definite judgments. For all I know, Homra and Scepter 4 could turn out to be a completely disappointing lot and Shiro, Neko, and Kuroh could run away with the titles of the best characters in the show by the end of its run.
The designs for these characters are just as appealing as the rest of the animation; they look distinct and it’s easy to tell them apart. Even their styles seem to a part of their personality, conveying something about each person without words or other forms of direct exposition. For characters like Munakata, or Shiro, who are part of an organization and hence wear standard uniforms, it’s still easy to get a grasp on who they are by their mannerisms (speech, posture, voice, etc). This sense of individuality was especially important to establish in the premiere because not only is the cast huge, there were barely any spoken lines in the episode. The last thing a character should be is forgettable – it’s a mark of a very poorly developed/written one, and it’s a sign the writers didn’t care enough to put effort into creating a person the viewers would want to remember.
Thankfully K seems to care about what kinds of characters they’re serving to their audience, so my verdict is: I would watch this for the cast alone.
The technical aspects:
The directing:
Show text ▼
Damn. I’m not sure whether to credit Suzuki Shingo, Nomura Masanobu, or Furuta Makoto for the stylish flair this premiere was bursting at the seams with, but some of those perspective shots were downright amazing. Each frame is imbued with something unique, and the way everything moves and comes together is so fluid that it’s just impressive how they ever managed to capture something that looks so realistic in animation sequences. The tiniest details in K show a lot of experimentation with different cinematography, but most of all, they show an effort to translate “real life” into a series of moving pictures – think of it as a Pixar film (Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, Up, etc) if you will. Pixar films have a knack for seeming “real” when they’re clearly not due to the most minute things that imitate reality and contribute to the movie’s atmosphere. The result is a wholly immersive experience that firmly places the audience smack dab in the middle of the film’s world.
The directing in K achieves a similar effect – of course it’s difficult to give out real accolades with just a single episode to go off of, but the directing is definitely something else with this one. It’s different, stylistic to its core, and although some sequences bordered a little on the extravagant side, every scene did its job in thoroughly impressing the viewers.
Another thing I’ll mention is how connected some scenes were – by that I mean using the full scope of the setting to transition from one set of character to the other by grounding the events around one particular character. The perfect example would be the chase scene with Shiro and the Homra members – so many characters were present in this one portion, yet nothing feels disconnected because there’s a firm sense they’re all in the same place. It’s a difficult thing to achieve, and a recent movie that did this superbly had to be The Avengers. The climax was just directorially spectacular in how the movie managed to focus on all its characters by manipulating the transition, and Shiro’s chase scene was reminiscent of the same stylistic confidence.
Verdict? Good stuff. Now let’s see if it was just a fluke.
The animation:
God-tier. Visually orgasmic. A feast for the eyes.
Show text ▼
There’s no other way to describe it, really. But seriously, the animation for this premiere is just gorgeous stuff. The sheer amount of details in the backdrops aside, the use of color gradients is something to be noted here. There’s very little of “solid coloring” – everything has a gradiented tint to it, particularly in shots where a lot of light or reflective surfaces are involved. The color certainly adds to the visual experience, but it also gives off a three-dimensional feel by mimicking how lighting works in real life.
Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely this level of divine quality will hold up; most of the backgrounds will end up being reused and recycled animation is probably a guarantee. This type of fluid animation is just too difficult to keep up unless the budget for this show was really generous. One thing that gives me a bit of hope is some of the more impressive fight sequences shown in the trailers weren’t all pulled from this episode – a fair bit of the scenes are recognizable from the PVs aired before K began, but some of it has yet to be seen. And considering how spectacular those PVs were, perhaps studio GoHands will be able to maintain the god-tier quality for longer than expected. But recycled or not, the animation is going to look beautiful and the characters easy on the eyes.
Verdict: splendid. Traditional animation with a dash of realism. Keep it up, GoHands. Much emphasis on keep it up.
The soundtrack:
Show text ▼
Not really my territory so I can’t really offer any insightful opinions except to say the main theme is quite easy on the ears. The piano version in the trailers was lovely to listen on repeat, but the different variations in the premiere were equally as pleasant; there’s something about the main melody that compliments the show and adds an interesting dynamic to it. The other tracks do a decent job in setting the mood as well, but it’ll be a long while before anybody can make any concrete judgments on the soundtrack as a whole.
Verdict: decent.
The cast:
Show text ▼
Now, a discussion about K isn’t complete without a mention of its shiny seiyuu roster. And this roster positively glitters: Sakurai Takahiro, Ono Daisuke, Sugita Tomokazu, Nakamura Yuuichi, Fukuyama Jun, Horie Yui, Kaji Yuuki, Miyano Mamoru, Sawashiro Miyuki, and Komatsu Mikako. They’re either A-list or highly mainstream, with Komatsu Mikako being the most relatively unknown in the cast. Really, you can’t have watched anime/played video games without hearing most of these seiyuu at least five times – their voices are all quite distinct, and 99% of them have demonstrated incredible range and talent with the variety of characters they’ve played throughout their careers. Most of them don’t “phone in” their performances, so whatever role they have in K – no matter how big or small – it’s a bonafide guarantee the seiyuu will make the characters theirs and erase their previous or current roles from the viewers’ minds. This should be especially true for Ono Daisuke (Rinne no Lagrange, Kuroko no Basuke, Muv-Luv: Total Eclipse), Sakurai Takahiro (Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouta ga Iru!), Sugita Tomokazu (Hiiro no Kakera), Kaji Yuuki (Guilty Crown, Accel World, Aquarion EVOL, Chouyaku Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Koi), Sawashiro Miyuki (Kokoro Connect), Nakamura Yuuichi (Natsuyuki Rendezvous, Hyouka, Rinne no Lagrange), Namikawa Daisuke (Fate/Zero, ZETMAN), and Fukuyama Jun (Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon, Arcana Famiglia), who have all had high-exposure roles recently (spring/summer 2012), or are involved in on-going productions that include them in the main cast.
I suppose one interesting thing to note is whether or not Kaji Yuuki will finally get to shed the “terribad” label resulting from the two shows that ironically made him a household name. He’s actually not that bad in his other roles, but the reputation he built there just doesn’t compare to the massive publicity his two main shows got, so hopefully his involvement in this fancy production will help erase some of that… stain.
Verdict: shiny as a Tiffany’s jewelry store.
tl;dr:
Watch this premiere, folks. It’s shiny, it’s high-budget, and it sounds and looks good. Not everything is completely rosy of course (plot, keeping up the god-tier animation), but hey, it’s highly unlikely there will be a first episode that tops this one in terms of production values this season. The latter episodes might falter, but that’s something everyone can complain about later – after all, three-episode rule, right?
Random Corner:
- Lol. I guess Sakurai is the only one on cast that can speak Engrish or something? Not that I really mind because it’s Sakurai, but Engrish is still Engrish.
- And it seems like the studio blew all their money and didn’t have money to hire extras – heard Sakurai twice in the episode. Digimon all over again?
- Cue the “That’s what she said!” jokes
Full-length images: 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 43, ED 03, ED 04.
ED Sequence
Preview
Posted by 
I’m going for the 3eps rule with this one utile I decide what to do. I don’t want to end up watching another Guilty Crown.
Exactly my Thoughts..lets hope this one doesn’t follow on the same road XD
I hope you’re not actually indirectly saying the first episode of K was comparable to Guilty Crown.
Completely different tiers.
K’s initial start is so much better than guilty crown which in my opinion lacked premise in the beginning. The art is also like mention earlier a visual orgasm so for me its my show to watch for this season so far. It only get worse for me right now.
What the hell, Piglet?? You too??
This is the worst show EVER!! Lot of posing, a whole load of posing around, a bunch of characters trying to look cool (but since it’s Japanese-style look cool, it only cracks me up! These guys are a bunch of comedians), terrible plot if there is even one, and what else? Lemme see, gothic lolita girl (check), rainbow color hairdos (check), samurai sword (check), Kyo of KOF style fire shooter and other nonsense these folks like to keep on bringing up (check), cheesy dialog+always yelling stupid shit, aka attack names (sigh, check), shinsengumi copycat (check, these guys are totally obsessed with this, I tell ya). YEP. THE WORST SHOW EVER! I rather pour acid into my eye sockets.
Also i don’t get what’s this fuss about the animation being high quality since it looked just like everyday run of the mill generic shounen show. Every second and every frame of this show gnaw away my soul.
PLEASE pour acid into your eye sockets. That is all.
Did you even watch the show? If you weren’t too busy trying to act cool by hating on a superb premiere, you’d actually notice that they didn’t yell out an attack name at all. Fireballs? No name. The space warp? Oh hey no name as well. Fire spewing out of their arms? It’s calle- Oh wait.
Sheapy, right~~. What’s with shinsengumi copycat groupies with their silly yell-outs while drawing their silly swords then? It’s so ridiculous cheesy.
Actually Piglet, this episode did exactly what 1st chapters and 1st episodes are supposed to do. Maybe people weren’t paying attention because the graphics were all so glittery god tier. The beginning of any story in any media is supposed to do the following things:
1] Introduce the main character(s)
– We were presented with a plethora of characters!
2] Describe the main character(s)
– We saw them all interacting and operating in what appeared to be a typical day for each group.
3] Describe the setting
– Glorious back drops and views of the city and whatnot.
4] Present the main conflict(s) for the main character(s)
Show Spoiler ▼
The beginning isn’t supposed to divulge the complete contents of what it’s about or what’s going to happen. It’s an introduction to the key things you need to know right now and draw you into looking further so you can find out how it’s all going to play out. It’s meant to make you ask more questions so you’ll keep watching/reading. And now that I think about it, it’s makes total sense that the episode played out this way because almost all the writers are light novelists. This plays out like the 1st chapter of a book. If you are given all the answers or an idea of what the answers are in the 1st chapter or even the 1st couple paragraphs, you’re not going to buy that book or even continue reading it.
WELL PEOPLE, let me sum this show for y’all. ONCE FOR ALL. I am going to be objective. It all comes down to this:
Can you stomach and/or look past lots and lots of BISHIE POSING (I CAN’T stress this phrase enough) and a whole load of anime tropes
Well can you? If so, then there might be something more going on in this show for ya. Who knows. It’s been only 1 episode. Things could change. And if you actually like them, good for ya. Atta boy/girl, this is a show for ya.
BUT if you are like me and cannot look past these loads of bishie posing and tropes, well, forget it. I don’t give a damn about anything about the show. It’s a total deal-breaker and waste of time.
So death, this is the last time we’ll see you post here right? You made your judgement and deem it would waste your time watching this. Right?
So when we see you post here next episode, something must definitely be wrong with you.
Hmmm, I don’t know what it is, but I watched this show called “Code:Breaker”. And similarity of that show and this is striking, in terms of tropes: rainbow hairdos, kyo of KFO fireshooter copycat (in fact, the protagonist looked EXACTLY like Kyo in CB), and the classic shounen bravado. BUT that show totally worked for me whereas this show failed miserably. Yes CB also had a little bit of cool guy posing thing going on, FYI. The difference is that I am willing to overlook some of these tropes as it was GOOD.
So if any of you want the same shounen action show, but without this nonsense bishie posing, I suggest you check out “Code:Breaker” instead of this. Oh, by the way, the drawing/style of CB looked a bit like a classic 90s show, so some of young’uns might be turned off by that. But I like it. It’s a shame that show is not being covered since it deserves to be covered instead of this show.
You know, I never thought there would be a day where I have to say this, but… Guilt Crown is better than this monstrosity. Seriously you know how much it leaves a permanent trauma to my psych to say such thing, but if an executioner comes in and say “death or Guilt Crown”, I say “death”, but “Guilt Crown re-run” or this, I say “Guilt Crown” damn it! within a heartbeat. At least Guilty Crown looked good, visual-wise. This “K” is just utter Garbage. Just words fail to describe my feelings towards this show: let’s just say I never knew I could hate something so much that doesn’t even matter to me before this show came along. GAH~~~~!
There is a lot of truth in what you’ve spoken……..especially since there is no evident plot at the moment. except “oh your a king and lost your memories what not” (then the recovery process then the usual shounen story)
Ill probably watch this show for a little then drop it since it most likely won’t go anywhere ,but I still think its better than guilty crown because the protagonist hasn’t cried yet.
STILL NO PROTAGONIST IS WORSE THAN HARU
You have forgotten Makoto Itou.
That guy is the worst protagonist
Is this show gonna be a shoujo reverse harem like most of the shows this season coming out? WTF! Stupid gay faggitty shoujo animes! People who will love this show loves reverse harem and want to get gangraped and gangbang by guys, bishounen or not, you guys are just gay. GO WATCH ONE PIECE FOR MANLY PIRATES
Okay, OnePiece, take a chill, bro.
Now surely OnePiece’s post here deserve negs for being homophobic AND misogynistic at the same time (how the heck can one do that AND also utter that this silly One Piece kiddy manga/anime is good, is beyond me, ah ha ha!). However!! Seriously RC people. You guys have turned into cheerleader squat now. If someone insults you, you neg, I get it, it’s justified.
But this collective neg on anything negative about the show and not the watchers is really downright silly. RC apparently stands for Ruthless Cheerleaders nowadays. Boo~. Folks got to be able to trash the show (but only the show, not the watchers and maybe backing up on why it sucked so bad like I did would help as well!) freely. It’s really low, ruthless cheerleaders you.
Just watching 1 episode and saying it’s fail/garbage? Most people call that trolling!
One Piece = No.
Airas…..if you think about it nothing happened in episode one.
I echo this man’s sentiments, and I bet my third testicle that this show will not improve with time.
やめてください。
The visuals are just amazing and the plot is mysterious… there is no light novel or manga to sink my teeth to… but its definitely one to watch!
From what I know, there is actually a manga. It’s called K – Memory of Red. I’ve only read two chapters, but the story appears to be different to the anime. More or less the same characters though (but the main character in the manga seems to be a different one to the anime).
K – Memory of Red is a prequel spin-off, I believed. And both the protagonists are in the anime, but they haven’t been formally introduced/spoken yet.
Well, it’s not surprising since the director is responsible for Mardock Scramble.
And BTW, please watch the original Japanese broadcast after watching the Animax Asia version. It’s sucks that they cut off Neko’s appearance despite not having nipples…
That is one massive list of full-length images.
not sure what to think of this, i might jump on when i actually have a goddamn clue on what’s going to happen here. characters and art are cool and all, but if i come into this expecting a plot i better damn well get a freaking plot.
LOL. I went overboard again GG. But yeah… I mean, I loved what I was seeing, but as secondary plot is to me, it’s kind of important!
YESSSS! I was waiting for this review all day! *now goes to actually read the review* Lol.
Everything looks interesting, but I have no idea what’s going on. It’ll get a few more episodes before I make a decision.
Slash fanfics are guaranteed to be ubiquitous should K succeed. No blood! No bone! No ash!
It’s like watching a movie with amazing cinematography. The plot is not there yet, and I hope the next two episodes it gets to what this show is all about then. So far I’m impressed, but it still falls under the 3 episode rule for me.
Thanks for the coverage Mochi! nice post and interesting format xD
hmm… for some reason this reminds me the game “the world ends with you”… maybe because of its visual and seemingly shibuya setting? and I agree the cast is huge with all the mainstream people in there… should be interesting…
also I am guess all the episode title will start with K?
will follow it for a while xD
Dang I didn’t even notice they started with ‘k’! Blogger fail!
I end up having to spoiler most of my posts because of their length QQ Glad you enjoyed the post though!
According to Katapan on AS, the full list of episode titles is as follows:
Show Spoiler ▼
Given that this was posted a month ago and the first two titles are right, I guess the writers had fun with their English dictionaries.
Its blue…blue BLUE! Thats what I thought when I was watching.Its like i was watching through a blue marble.
Definitely lovely animation, great cast, good character design…Im not so sure about the plot yet. But Im hoping it wont end like Guilty Crown…at least that gave us a good few tracks from supercell.The OST of K kinda reminds me of samurai champloo, same feel as nujabes’s counting stars.
And that bartender looks alot like Shizuo Heiwajima 😀
Yeah – I felt like I was watching CSI because of all the blue. Guess it’s going to be their cinematography gimmick XP
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/085/444/1282786204310.jpg?1318992465
I looked the whole time like this when I watched K. This animation is just awesome.
BTW, what is up with the English only credits for the OP?
I thought that was weird too.
I, for one, am not worried about plot yet. Give it a chance guys! This episode was clearly geared for visual impact and character intro.
I am surprised no one has mentioned Show Spoiler ▼
There’s plenty of plotsy questions already!
I usually don’t mind no plot, but considering the caliber of the rest of the premiere, I admit I was a little harsher on K since the plot literally was its only weak point. It certainly wasn’t bad by any means – about on par with most premieres, but the rest of the episode was so good!
The episode idea was really interesting for me. All the characters interacting and battling for unknown reasons… until the main character appears and we have the final revelation at the end of the ep. This is unusual, and I’m tired of the “classic manga start” (like the start Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun) and… Well, I don’t mind/can ignore it when it’s well done, but the change is a welcomed fresh air in anime.
So I hope the plot discovers itself as great, only that.
Nice analysis. I actually found Shiro (and the classmate who chased him, though I expect to never even see her again) to be the most interesting character so far. Obviously he’s not letting on much of anything about his past or other sides of himself, but he genuinely interested me, while every other character I just thought was cool but don’t know anything about. Even Anna who I found quite cute could theoretically end up being resigned to spend the entire series peering at things through her marble and being a mascot character, but I can already tell Shiro has various things going for him as a character. I do expect a lot of character development over the course of the series, but for now I’m just on the same page as others, enjoying the visuals and waiting for things to happen.
I wouldn’t count her out just yet! She’s been in the promos pretty prevalently too, so while she won’t get as much screen time as naked cat girl, she’ll probably get a fair bit. As for Anna, I’m not sure what her role will be, but her significance is going to hinge on GoHand’s/GoRA’s execution of the story-telling. With such a large cast it’s difficult to flesh out every single character QQ
I’m betting on Seri to be the other requisite fanservice character though LOL
The plot’s a little difficult to figure out, but the animation is brilliant. I’m willing to stick with this for a while longer to see how the story plays out.
Is it just me or does anyone else feel like the coloring style is kind of similar to Mardock scramble’s?
Actually, GoHands did do Mardock Scramble too.
Ok so after watching this premiere, doing some light research, and reading this post… I pretty much think that this premiere is possibly the most amazing one of the season, but as a series it’s too soon to tell if it’s going to be consistently amazing throughout. However, there are two things that I think should be mentioned and could determine the success of the show. Gotta admit, I’m nervous as all heck about it too because of how awesome Guilty Crown’s concept and artwork was, but then backfired in epic proportions in execution.
GoHands — This is the first time they’re the original creators of a series/manga. They’ve always been involved with shows mostly as 2nd key animators and in-between animators. Ironically, they contributed in-between animation for Guilty Crown. This makes me excited yet also nervous as all hell. Anyone that was involved with that epic flop makes me suspicious. BUT! Guilty Crown was a gorgeous creature to behold in terms of looks only. Mute it, and it was wonderful. And if this premiere is any indication, I think it will continue to look great, but maybe not as spectacular. Like I said, this is their 1st time being creators instead of just hired secondary hands to help out with the grunt work.
GoRA project — This collective of creators could be the deciding factor on whether this thing flops. We’ve got looks and an awesome seiyuu cast. But I think the real issue everyone is nervous about is the story. We can tell that we’ve barely scraped the surface on it in the 1st episode that raises a ton of questions. The writers that I was able to dig up consist of Gou Nakanishi (Fafner, Asura Cryin’, Negima!), Yukako Kabei (Kieli) , Kouhei Azano (Black Blood Brothers), Hideyuki Furuhashi (Kuroki le Voleur: Kamen no Kaitō Shōjo), Mamizu Arisawa (Inukami!), Rei Rairaku (Kanashimi Chimera), Suzu Suzuki (Kyūketsuki no Oshigoto), and Yashichiro Takahashi (Shakugan no Shana)… Christ that’s a mouthful!! Anyways… Light novelists. I’ll leave you guys to speculate as to whether this is a good combination or a recipe for disastrous results.
Well if GoHands was only involved as in-between animators, I think they can be absolved from most of the blame LOL. The only people that need to be staked for that show is the writers because wow, the writing was pretty shit.
As for GoRA, I guess the staff list that came out a while ago that included Kinoko Nasu was a fake? Most of those works are unfamiliar to me, but maybe that’s a good thing? I can kind of see why the premiere was so heavy on the “show, not tell” mantra if the writers are all light novelists though. GIVES ME HOPE.
I typically raged fire at everyone who could’ve possibly had a hand in ruining such a promising show that broke all our hearts and souls. Hahaha, but yes I agree. Since they were only involved with the in-between animation, they need not bear the responsibility.
There was a “leak” saying that he was, but I think it was wishful thinking on someone’s part. I know that a few of those have anime adaptations and manga adaptations, all of which were pretty successful if I remember correctly. Like Negima! and Shakugan no Shana for sure. The fact that light novelists are writing for this show does make me more than a little hopeful because all by virtue of their occupation, all they do is create sensible if not amazing plots. They can’t hide behind animation like anime writers or lovely illustrations like manga authors. So… I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us.
I deem the writers being LN authors as a down side. Correct me if I’m wrong but some of these LNs are slice of life with action… which isn’t a good thing since I doubt that K would be going into slice of life road soon.
Besides, some LN authors are audience pandering. In order for an LN to be popular, it must attract attention. This is the reason why there are lots of imouto themes LN as imouto LN are on the rage today.
True, some of these are slice of life/action. But then they also have the writer for Black Blood Brothers, Asura Cryin’, and Shakugan no Shana, which are pretty heavy in the action and supernatural departments. If you take a look at how K is set up, there’s definitely potential for some slice of life episodes considering the school aspect. And with most shounen action anime, there has to be some breather episodes from the action in order to develop characters. But I understand where you’re coming from, it just reallyyyy depends on how they execute it.
As for the audience pandering… You think anime’s don’t pander to certain audiences to attract attention? Dude, there has been so many perverted, fan service loaded shows in the past three seasons that it’s lightweight annoying to me now. But that’s the point isn’t it? To pick the audience you’re writing for and well… write for them. Sometimes a show/novel can appeal to a wide range of audiences. Usually though, a writer specializes in only one or two genres. So I don’t understand how that’s an issue. Either it’s for you or it isn’t and no hard feelings if it isn’t.
I guess its only Seki Tomokazu and Suwabe Junichi is missing in this cast. Well, for me anyway
What’s with the spoiler protection? Anyone wanting to avoid spoilers wouldn’t be reading this blog at all.
I do that for all my posts for people not wanting to read the whole thing. I forgot to reformat the HTML tho – sorry about that.
I like the spoiler protection. My fav thing to do is to read the post without spoilers for a sneak peak, then come back and read the entire post after watching the episode. Thumbs up.
I swear I haven’t heard such classy, immersive music in an anime since Durarara!!
Oh, and the visuals. Pretty eyegasmic.
Dat skateboarder
I immediately thought of Stereoman when I saw that skateboarder. Those stunts were pretty awesome XD
I was thinking that the chase scene with the skateboard was fantastic… And then I questioned it: If the dude was chasing someone, couldn’t he just have left out the tricks? It probably costed him a couple of seconds.
(Forgot his name, so he’ll just be) Skateboarder: Gotta chase that guy! Gotta catch that guy! Gott- Oo, Railings! Gotta do tricks first!Gotta jump on that!
So now, I think of that scene as hilarious. BUT brilliantly animated, nonetheless.
If the dude was chasing someone, couldn’t he just have left out the tricks?
hahaha! my exact same thoughts.
it’s only ep 1 so u shouldn’t be too hard about the plot since it takes time for a plot to unravel. everything else was epic, large cast(always a goodthing), interesting main character(too early comment on other characters),and all the effort and detail they put into every little scene is remarkable, music: above average(goes along with the visuals pretty well), and last but not least the animation: now tht was off the scales(u could watch this show just for it’s visual aspects).
hopefully rest of the show will continue to be epic rather than just having a great first ep to act as bait.
I disagree with you there’s plenty of series that are able to make you care for the plot in the first episode. Also large casts tend to backfire a lot depending on the length of the history especially if you try to make everyone do something on the first episode.
see ur point, but i still think ep1 is too early to say anything abt the plot.
and yea, large casts r difficult to handle for the producers, but if done right it’s a huge plus point for the show, and i prefer shows with wide variety of characters who hav strong and different kind of personalities rather than shows which focus too much on a couple of characters making the rest of the cast look like bunch of drones.
Oh, like I said somewhere up above, I was a little harsher on K than I normally am for a new show due to the standards it set with the other aspects (characters, soundtrack, animation, etc). That, and it’s been incredibly hyped, so it’s fair grounds to see if it can back up its claim or not XP
thts fair.
As much as I enjoyed the episode thanks to the outstanding animation, I had no idea what the fuck I was watching or what on Earth was going on hahaha.
Right on, the purpose of the first episode in this case was to get our attention, lets see if they can keep it!
I don’t think the creators of Gulity Crown that’s handling this actually think they messed up that series and could be running with same formula… Please let this show not suck cause it have PROMISE!
The next episode needs to establish all the characters shown and get the plot rolling with some explanation as to why some people have powers and the others do not and what purpose do the opposing factions (Red vs Blue) factor into it.
It is CRUCIAL that they make some character progression on Main character and it seems that “kitty lady” is gonna be the “Inori fan-service mascot” type character and the MC will rely on apparently cooler characters to get by after he was unwillingly dragged into some worldwide threat…….. Wait wasn’t GC almost exactly like that? Gotta stay positive for now…
This show is really really really pretty… but so was Guilty Crown.
I like that the animation was god tier good but the history gave me no reason to keep coming for more and this was just so checklist… Guilty Crown knew who was it’s target audience. K wants to have as many viewers as possible but the problem is that what works for certain audience will not sit well with others.
This shows has lolis, big breasted woman in striperific clothes (seriously no matter how I see it those clothes doesn’t make for a good uniform), A naked (probably)invisible cat girl walking around, two ex-pies from no.6 and a bunch of cool looking guys that have powers that seem directly out from chuunibyou.
Is like all the things that sell put together and a bunch of mysteries here and there, none of which this chapter gave us any reason to care about in the slightless. They just threw everything in there and hoped that people would be impressed enough to want more.
Now I’m not going to keep watching just because it’s pretty (we all know it’s not going to keep THIS quality but will probably still be quite pretty), but if someone comes later and says “hey, it all came together in the end” I’m revisiting it, since I appreciate a well told history over a pretty, and just that, one.(I already suffered Guilty Crown to know better.)
difficult to argue abt ur points on Guilty Crown though it had it’s moments but on regard of K(wats with the name of the show??) ,innocent until proven guilty right?
Guilty Crown 2, begin!
i think this episode was full of individually amazing performances in music, art and general star power, but the scene changes were pretty poorly put together and plot was nonexistent.
this episode showed me nothing in terms of story and for me was just a half assed cut and paste of all the trailers released so far =\
i also hope that it isn’t just another guilty crown because that would be a major waste of potential…
And thus another top priority anime has aired. I was really ecstatic at first. Though something rubbed me the wrong way here. Even though I’m someone who could sit and watch a show that relies on visuals than story content, this was really hard to watch. Anyway I’ve changed my opinion of the episode from terrible to just so-so. Like someone said it’s just the first episode but this first episode really isn’t my cup of tea.
Anyway I’ve already said my piece in the IRC and else where so I don’t want to repeat everything. In any case this was a very unstructured introduction. It just failed to establish why I should care about what’s happening. Tons of characters ala DRRR but I couldn’t be bothered to try and remember them. They haven’t left any impression on me. Not to mention the basic premise of this show is still a mystery.
Technicality wise it was really good over all though I’m not a fan of the excessive filters. Those permanent color filters made me it really hard for me appreciate it. If there was anything that was really good yet out of place was the skateboarding part. I really cannot help but stress on this really pretty but awkward depiction.
I mean didn’t it have a lot of urgency when they saw the kid? Practically everyone’s rushing down to him. So why does this guy do a grind? Not to mention when he tried to smash his pretty face with a bat and failed. He chased him down and did some tricks onto a platform?
That really looked TOO leisurely and really killed the sense of urgency the scene was suggesting.
Overall this show was interesting right off the bat when it aired the PVs. After seeing this ep I’m not really looking forward to it that much.
I’ll watch it just for the superb animations and the astonishing voice actors. Although I don’t think the story will be incredibly engaging I hope that at the very least that it is decent. That is really the deciding factor when it comes to high budget shows like this.
Well, I think after this episode it’s rather obvious which show will win this season in the categories ridiculous pseudo-cool poses and supposedly deep yet incredibly shallow plot. Well, I might stick with it on account of the visuals for a bit, but only if it doesn’t devolve into some fujoshi’s wet dream. The four main guys are totally BL material.
a visual orgasm..in terms of storyline it still remains unclear since perhaps this episode focused more upon the introduction of the ensemble cast of characters…the battle at the inception of the episode between the gang and the blue police was awesome, though i hoped it would have lasted longer…and that moving shots of the skateboard…..too awesome.
all in all, a decent maiden episode, though it’s certainly not the best of this season (the title goes to Zetsuen no Tempest)but it was great enough to look forward to the second one (the cliffhanger also helped arouse my anticipation)
i’m still kinda worried, though, when it was shown that the title of the second episode is “kitten”, i hope it’s not gonna focus on her….
I’m not going to lie, the premiere of K reminded me somewhat of Guilty Crown’s, it was messy, flamboyant, loud and pretty, but beyond that, not much made an impression. It’s still too early to tell of course, the writing which prevented Guilty Crown from climbing to another level as a series is ultimately the pillar that will carry the show beyond the indelible visual moments and as you highlighted, the very impressive voice-acting cast. Fingers crossed and I’m certainly hoping for the best, mostly because you’re blogging it Mochi 😉
Was… was that Norio Wakamoto I heard voicing the cleaning bots?
Nope. That was Sakurai Takahiro I think.
Nic eye candy :3
Nice episode overall but Im quiet sceptical, GoHands always does a freakin awesome animation on the first episode, but after that their work always goes tits up.
Having great expectation from GoHands which also produced one of my favourite – Mardock Scramble.
Too many negative expectation here…
First episode in term of entertainment was great. Fluid animation, nice color palette, cool characters and somewhat interesting setting
In term of plot there was no major progress, but it was expected
Overall good premiere
And this remind me nothing about GC except maybe how amazing the animation was
I think the 1st episode is actually really aimed to show off the animation side not the plot. I hope next ep will be better in term of plot
And If you just hate it because of bisshie, etc you’re not being air
Stop being picky you guys. It’s too early to judge
Wow! Reading the comments I have never seen so much prejudice for a great first episode. The only anime that jumped in my mind was Samurai Shamploo with the hip hop soundtrack. This reminds me nothing of Guilty Crown, in fact I’m annoyed that Guilty Crown is even mentioned. “Oh! The colors palette looks the same so they’re like animes”, wtf! I think Bakamochi comparing this anime to other animes is doing “K” a real disservice. It’s a sad state of affairs when people are expecting an animes demise because it looked too good to be great or it reminded you of another anime that in your opinion tanked. Please let “K” stand and/or fall on its own merits.
Uh… I didn’t mention any other anime save for when I listed them in seiyuu credits. The only thing I compared K to is the cinematography in Pixar films and The Avengers, which are not anime the last time I checked…?
I mean personally this premiere hit all the right notes for me, but it’s part of my job to be a little objective when I’m considering the wider audience – like with any other anime of this nature, there’s a measure of popularity that comes with it, and it’s possible some viewers may or may not have liked the series as much as I did. As someone responsible for an intro post, I have to try to cover all the aspects, and that includes potential weaknesses of the show.
Your final verdict was something other than optimistic. With words like “wild card” and “facade” and “shaky storyline”, I can see you’re bracing yourself for a let down of epic proportions. Whether this anime is successful or not, your review has a very pessimistic feel and to start with such a feeling is not good.
The animation quality WILL go down. Movie level quality like this episode can not be kept up. And if it is…. for even two or three consecutive episodes then i will be impressed. How far will the quality go down is a better question to ask.
Jounouchi, if there’s one thing you should understand (and this is something Mochi also mentioned above), it’s that for series introductions, writers in general need to not only express their own impressions regarding a series, but also the potential polarizing aspects that other viewers may find questionable or dislike. Many viewers come to these kinds of introductions to decide whether or not to watch a series, but many viewers may not share the same views the writer does or even among other viewers. As such, it is important to list possible points that viewers would potentially find questionable or dislike, so not to mislead them into watching something they may end up not liking. And it is this combination of her views and the necessity to also ponder the opinions of other viewers that ultimately led to the slightly “negative” verdict you seem to disagree with.
And it’s fine to disagree with it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions after all. But what I see from your reply, it feels more like an unjustified attack on her and her writing style, rather than a pure opinion. And it’s exactly why I felt the need to reply, because you’re basically saying that her review gave you a pessimistic feeling and it’s not something that a review should give, thus not very good. Not only that, you’re insinuating that her way of phrasing is inferior to your own suggestion too.
And it’s ridiculous because as she says herself, she personally liked the series, and it shows throughout the post for the most part. Whatever “negatives” you see are her doing her job as a writer properly and taking into account the diversity of views that could come with it and voicing out concerns that are actually being discussed across a variety of media at this point. Furthermore, as like all things on this site, everything is an opinion and should be taken as such. If you’re not intentionally trolling (for a lack of a better term), then your opinion will be respected, and others will also expect the same respect from you.
And so I ask that you respect the opinions Mochi has written above.
You’re perfectly free to voice why you feel to the contrary, but you don’t do so by ridiculing her way of phrasing things and just basically ridiculing her because the end verdict was not as positive as you wanted it to be (especially when she voiced adequate reason for it). Furthermore, you don’t go mis-attributing things to people that they did not say, as she did not compare K to another anime, and her only comparison was to a movie in The Avengers, which was a positive comparison too.
If you disagree with the verdict, voice your reasons and support it with examples. With a civilized discussion and a persuasive argument, who knows, you might end up changing her verdict. Shrug*
I thought it was a pretty well done objective first post, the tldr didn’t read out to be pessimistic to me. Cautious optimistic is my approach.
Shaky storyline in episode one is no big deal, and comparisons to other shows will always happen, how else can you give recommendations and base comments on? The “show comparison” was more like seiyuu talk so it was actually somewhat irrelevant to how well the show will unfold.
I actually haven’t watched this first episode yet but the post certainly tells me to watch at least three episodes for the visuals if anything.
I figured it was going to resort to a “Your opinion, my opinion” type conversation. I enjoyed reading Bakamochi’s review and I’m not out to convince anyone to change their opinion on any perspective they may have. I am simply trying to derive a conclusion to why there are so many negative comments on this anime. And for me, watching a great first episode of “K” then reading Bakamochi’s review saying (imo) “Great first episode but get ready for this to possibly suck from this point on” was very disheartening. And to add, the barrage of comments displaying an unforetold disappointment that may not even come to pass. My comment was not a critique (though it may have felt like one) but an attempt to correlate your cautious review with the presumably future disappointment or unjustifiable comparisons of others and for that I was mistaken. Look forward to your next post!
That was a nice first episode. Bonus points for the opening being sung by angela. I just love the voice of their singer.
A few thoughts that popped up during this ep:
– The plot sounds like a mix between Durarara and G-Senjou no Maou (yeah, I’m expecting a certain plot-twist regarding the evil king. Those who played G-Senjou no Maou will know what I mean).
– The english at the beginning was surprisingly good, even if the discussion between the two bodyguards seemed a bit weird.
– The cleaning bots are awesome.
– That blush when Shiro got rescued by Kuroh. I get some BL vibes here.
K for Kitten
fanboys will be fanboys. =/
K = King
Characters seem a bit posey and wooden to me. but only time will tell. 3 eps rule
Its just the first ep and already people are hating on this show, using the words “monstrosity” and etc…whatever I guess you have to let people be spaz’s. Either ways, this MIGHT end up being another guilty crown but I’m just one of those people who didn’t have a problem with Guilty Crown, I didn’t love it and wasn’t obsessed, but I didn’t stress over the faults it had like most of the anal viewers. Though this is coming from a person who watched both seasons of Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon and BLood C…so I do have a thing for looking at really vague or complicated plots.
Awesome animation with plot that makes me to beg for more. I couldn’t ask for a better anime to start my fall celebration.
Glad you liked it! I bitched about the plot, but in reality it really wasn’t that bad. On par with most other shows, really. LOL
I’m an optimist. It’s a part of my charm. ^^;
Thought that might change if (and only if) this show turn out to be as bad as most people predicted.
Well, it actually seems to be only thing worth watching this season, still waiting on psycho pass to say if there is one more for me to follow.
No screencap when MC is blushing?
Too…shiny..
Holy crap, eyegasm!
I wish epic space operas had this much budget put into animation too… *cries*
Yes, yes, GoHands has proven that their visual prowess in Mardock Scramble was not a fluke.
I’m more concerned for the narrative, though. I mean, they didn’t just make it cryptic, they put a blindfold over our eyes and tossed us in a pitch-black room, lol.
Still, the cliffhanger and initial lore seems promising, so I’m hoping for the best
I think it is best not to watch this right after watching Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai, or else you would find it extremely difficult not to watch this seriously without cringing in laughter, and I’m not referring to the Engrish dialogue. lol
That said, it doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy watching this either. In fact, I purposely switched off my brain and allowed myself to be wooed by the awesome eyecandy and the massive cast of BL-fodder in their badass costumes and personalities. No doubt GoHands is selling the “Rule of Cool” trope here.
So far the world view seemed awfully similar to Code Geass for me, with all that talk of Kings and the fate of Japan. Though according to a tweet from one of the producers, we’ll have to wait till episode 6 before some story emerges through all the eyecandy.
is this a 2-cour show? i wouldn’t mind waiting for the actual plot to start late if there’s ample time to flesh it out.
in the meantime, they can continue with the eyecandy. =D
for it to be compared to CG it has to atleast triple the fabulous. CG had that in spades.
I don’t really see how the two are even remotely comparable aside from both having high end visuals. Though if it’s a contest between which was more intriguing K wins hands down no contest with it’s first episode. Chuuni on the other hand is nothing we haven’t seen a dozen or so times before.
I still cannot get over how beautifully animated this anime is, even the little details in it.
Looks more like a movie-level production than a regular anime.
EPIC SEIYUU CAST!!! Sugita and Mamoru BOTH voicing megane-characters? sweet~~~~
i would continue with this show even if the plot fails me. the visuals and casting has me hooked from the start! and really, that skateboard chase scene was way too cool.
Kuroh (OnoD) and (Ya)Shiro (NamikawaD) – another black & white compliment?
i squealed (internally) when Kuroh pulled Shiro into a hug. granted, that was so that he could wrap space and leap out of the being cornered by Scepter 4. the animators know how to pull in the different crowds too. *coughs*fugoshi*coughs*
About the visuals
Art and animation “may” be considered top-notch but be aware that a lot of it is computer aided, actually much more than you think.
Here it was done either for animating objects and for actually shading them (expecially the backgrounds). I’m not an expert in the CG technology used in the anime field, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I work with computer graphics for off-line rendering and also video games, so I could recognize the basic elements.
In the animation department, we have crowd animated by tools as you can see here, as well as vehicles, monorail trains, clouds moving in the sky, but also buildings, rooms and small objects, they are all 3D models not directly drawn by hand. Not that it’s a bad thing, of course, since it’s difficult to maintain the correct perspective when the point of view changes, so you would probably get a worse result by NOT employing tools for those things. Anyway, almost everything you see actually starts from rendering a 3D model. For instance, in this panning, only the students were drawn by the artists, everything else is a 3D model, eventually retouched by artists.
But non entirely painted by artists, and that leads to the other thing that is heavily computer aided here, the “shading”, i.e. applying the colors with shadows and highlights, illumination and reflections. In this show, it seems to be done to a far greater extent than in other recent shows. Just have a look at the glass covered buildings, pay attention on how the sun reflection changes on the surfaces as the camera moves, and notice how there are lot of indirect lighting in the form of colored “area lights” with some “bloom effect” (e.g. here), creating a lot of variation in the image. All that was done by using rendering tools (again, the result may have been retouched by artists, but it’s definitely rendered as I do it all the time).
I can assure you that setting up the scenes, the models and the lights, is all but easy, it’s not that you just click on some buttons: models must be created, appearence textures must be done, lights must be placed, objects must be animated… that’s a lot of work, and great skills are required to obtain a good result.
And they got a very good result indeed, but what I’m most impressed by this premiere is not the use of CG but the extent of its usage, they are surely putting a lot of effort in the technology department.
BTW, expect very big file sizes from all encodes of the episodes, as there is no way of preserving all those gradients otherwise.
Personally though, I didn’t dislike the old days’ shows with few or no CG at all, there was very good ones where I could appreciate the “art”, sometimes staring at backgrounds as they were excellent paintings, or looking at charachters expressions and actually feeling them…
visual effects alone are not enough for me to get me hooked, they are not that important as other things like the story, the dialogues, the charachters … speaking of which, are not that impressive here, they feels a little too generic, on par of generic modern shows but nothing more (and I didn’t like some “yaoi” vibes from the interaction between Yashiro and Kuroh, the two of them reminded me of this two from “No.6”, which I dropped).
I’ll give it the standard three episodes before deciding, but most probably I won’t be following this show, I’ll check on your comments to see if I should give it a chance later.
Have fun with this new season, see you around
i would still commend the director and the animation team for a job well done in putting them all together. at least, we’ve got an anime where they have decided to use all elements available and mixed it well to please the watcher’s eyes.
With or without the use of this assist, this is still more than movie quality.
Yes, indeed, I never told otherwise 🙂
I just wanted to point out how much can be done these days with current technology, mostly as info for the younger people since most of you would already know everything there is to know.
The fact that I will not be following this show is absolutely unrelated with the quality of the animation and visuals, that are top notch. Sorry if it wasn’t clear.
I really liked the effects here, it really smacked down a very special atmosphere together with the music. Particularly I liked the “grip the fabric of space and time and zoom across the land” thing. Maybe it’s silly, but I liked it!
Oh and about yaoi vibes, it’s a petty you spoil a good post with that comment. Like the smell of a forgotten stinky cheese in your closet full of shame, never to be opened in public, it put me off reading anything else.
Let’s make something clear. although this scene drops a major hint, who cares? It doesn’t even make the slightest bit of difference to anything, good or bad. One can use all the “forbidden love” plot maneuvers with hetero love as well. And even if the scene was a major hint, it clearly is and will be a pretty minor detail to the overall plot.
K = Ao no Exorcist + DRRR!!! + fujoshibait + Good Animation Quality.
Episode 1 was OK. See ya next week for weekly dose of SKATEBOARDIN’
simply BAD
why’s that so?
Great job describing your own comment XD
oh i feel like this is going N.06 “RO”mance all over again
I’m trying really hard to like this because of the stunning animation, but so far it’s like someone put Durarara!!, Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai, Guilty Crown, Asobi ni Iku yo! and Paranoia Agent through a blender, which is not a promising start.
Don’t really dig the BL undertone, but I wouldn’t mind continue watching if the animation quality remains consistent LOL.
Am I the only one that got some Persona vibe here when I watch this for a few minutes? The music, atmosphere, setting etc. are pretty similar to Persona to me. Anyway, the visuals looks pretty good, but the pacing and story-telling is no good in my opinion, it’s another example of being artistic over a functional and clear story-telling/directing, the anime creators just throw you in the middle of a conflict in the anime just like that, without being clear what it’s all about. I wouldn’t say this anime is utterly boring, but it does not make me want to watch the next episode. That’s a shame, because it really has the looks and visuals of a good anime. 3-episodes rule? Well, there are times/exceptions, like in this case, when the 3-episodes-rule just doesn’t apply.
visually stunning. you can notice that there’s alot of fisheye though
plotwise, i’m gonna wait and see.
lets hope it’s not another guilty crown
Wow DAT ANIMATION and CG skateboard sequence. Those were good. Hope they can keep up with the animation.
Plot wise. Well, its just the 1st episode so I won’t comment on it yet… But it reminds me of Durarara!! with its cast. We have our (seemingly) innocence MC Isana Yashiro who seems to be in some way related to tht crazy MF in the clip. I smell reincarnation hijinks. And WTH is tht floating naked girl lol. Is she only visible to certain ppl and/or robots?? (Lol at robot-chan reaction) And honestly, I find the band of ppl in the beginning more interesting. Especially Skateboard Guy lol. Not to mention tht Goth Loli and her red marble thingie… Btw is Kuroh related to the Blue Shirts group?? I’m not sure lol.
Why do I have a feeling tht the girl in the beginning will have the same fate as Safu??
I also find those colouring scheme interesting/intriguing. And looks at the futuristic world and its awesome holographic interfaces!!! Things like this always got my attention. And wht does those floating giant sword do??? And the BGM kinda nice to listen to.
Overall: Good premiere episode. But I’ll still be giving it a 3 episode test.
Oh, and tht one hella lot of full length screencaps. Nice job, BakaMochi!!
Btw wht the prequel manga about??
I heard it’s the background stories of the gang members we saw in the first scene of ep1 (the ones that use red fire).
For the people impressed by the visuals, it’s made by the same people who animated Mardoc Scramble into movies .. which were a visual feast to say the least.
Read the manga, K- Memory of Red. It introduces some of the characters you see in the anime, and you gain a better understanding of the inner workings of the Red King’s gang.
Is the manga going to be spoiler for the anime?
No. It’s more of a character background for the gangster side. 🙂
Some people don’t care enough about K to read the manga.
Interesting setup. But I just can’t get Doitsu, Doitsu! out of my head now!!! lol Daisuke Namikawa got clueless shonen voice down.
The first episode looks uninteresting. I probably won’t follow.
Uninteresting !!!, you have to be kidding .. or maybe there is nothing in this world that you find interesting to begin with (i mean our real world) .. your apathy must be over 9000.
Come on, if it isn’t the impressive art there is the fighting and the mystery around the main character and how he is connected to the gang and the other police-like group called Scepter .. that or the weird naked floating cat-girl (that can probably turn into a cat like Yoruichi from Bleach) .. heck or the two huge swords the appeared in the sky out of nowhere when the fighting started … there are tons of things to like/find interesting about this show.
The production team had to show some “actions” in the first episode in order to tell viewers what the story is about. That part I have no problem with. But then the cat-girl started flashing. That’s always a bad sign because it shows that the production team had no confidence in their story and action art works and was afraid of losing viewer interest. And, after seeing a bunch of gangster kids pretending to be cool for ten minutes, I understood why the lack of confidence– this series probably has very little to show for. The opening of the story was too far disconnected from the opening fight scenes. At the end of the first episode, the motivation of fighting was still not well articulated. This season has many action-scifi’s with a similar motif on magic battle and survival game. Don’t take it personal. But this anime does not stand out at all in my book.
It has one of the best art out there. Each frame has a quality of a still portrait, the depth of colours and the line works are so delicate.
If you can stomach some graphic violence and sexual stuff i highly recommend watching the two Mardoc Scramble movies that are out now .. they are animated by the same people who are animating “K” and it shows.
This kind of reminds me Fate stay night we got 7 kings like 7 magicians and every1 of the got their fighter(s) I mean it seems like Kings have their color power and they share it with their buddies and followers that use it as a base of their powers but seems alot weaker then one kings have
Also I m only one that thinks red kings big sword looks a bit damaged
Did read most of it but that s one massive post 🙂
This is visually amazing but i get the feeling that the story is going to do a “No.6” surprise on us. They may not list it as Yaoi yet but my instincts(and general evidence so far) are telling me that this is going to turn into a full on make-out bromance in the next few episodes. I just hope im wrong and the gay undertones i noticed were all in my mind but i know i can’t be the only one who noticed this right?
Also did anybody else think the 2 main characters look like sion and nezumi from No.6?(Hope its not a forewarning of whats to come.)
I didn’t watch No.6 to the end yet but i kinda get what you mean since i watched the first ep of it, it’s probably the same as “Nabari No Ou” which started just fine and as an interesting take on modern ninja, then devolved into obnoxious soap-opera b-romance that took over the whole series and all the other characters and main story became secondary to it.
I also see some hints of b-romance in K, but it can only be seen in the OP last scene with the two characters back-to-back .. and in the scene in which yatogami hugs Shiro in order to jump with him out of the alley and Shiro blushed when Yato did that .. i don’t mind subtle b-romance as long as it doesn’t take over the plot .. series like Mai-Hime and Mouretsu Space Pirates had lesbian story threads but i didn’t get annoyed by them because those stories were always secondary to the main plot.
let’s hope that even if they want to add a bit of b-romance that it doesn’t ruin the main story.
I really hope it doesn’t turn out like that with yaoi ruining the series and becoming part of the plot. I didn’t mind on what we saw so far, hell I didn’t even noticed it until I read the review and people started talking about it. I hope they keep it very subtle.
I actually have to defend No.6 here, and no I’m not a yaoi-fan. No.6 is one of those rare examples where shounen-ai elements can be made for good character development. Of course, if you are put off by the idea of homosexual couples all together, then there is no point watching. I was alright with it mainly because it didn’t feel like the show was shoving fanservices in your face, rather it was simply part of the story and part of the character dynamic, the same as it’s part of society.
No. 6 gets the most flack for its ending. By some accounts it is actually a somewhat decent show until the last episode or so.
I fully agree with that statement. It was good until the last three episodes, where things just spiraled out of control. I’m not sure if its bad choice on Bones’s part, or that they couldn’t negotiate a two cour Noitamina slot, because there is only so much you could do with 11 episodes and No.6 did not have a simple premise. But then again, if the plot was taken further, they inevitably would have to face the issue of advancing the relationship between the two, which is not a risk Bones wanted to take. People, including fans of the studio, were freaking out as it is. Like omg Bones is going yaoi. But yeah, it wasn’t smart marketing that’s for sure.
Like I said on LiA, K’s premier looks nice for the most part. I’m okay with blue tint and bloom post-processing, but some parts really missed the mark. The large sword scene, in addition to details like character reflections on shiny floors, immediately spring to mind as examples of what wasn’t animated quite as well.
What we know for sure:
– the animation quality can only go downhill from here
– chaotic, disorderly threads of plot
– a lot of tropes and bishie posing
So although it’s something of a given that the animation quality will drop, we yet have no idea whether the show will impress with its characters, plot, or setting.
There is a lot of posing, for sure. Let’s focus on an interesting case study: Mikoto Suoh, the guy first seen sauntering down a futuristic city street with his Clique of Cool and Cliche and who apparently smokes like a chimney — in the “cool” way, not the “bad-for-you” way, mind you — and soon uses his cigarette ashes for some manner of magical fire-based attack, being careful to strike and maintain a pose while so doing. He looks the part of Badass Bishie, and he acts it remarkably well — he and his group (“Homura”), of whom he appears to be in charge, are currently acting as hitmen to locate their “target,” which brings them to [demolish] an Engrish manor. Suoh (as “The Red King”) is apparently capable of unleashing a preposterously powerful magical attack in the form of a gigantic flaming sword in the sky (“Damocles”), which he casually uses to do battle with a police-like force (“SCEPTER4”) in some off-screen magical brawl the moment he realizes his target is not within the now heavily-damaged complex. He is later seen in jail, where his earlier behaviors are for whatever reason deemed “uncharacteristic” of him by rival/nemesis SCEPTER4’s commander.
Let’s analyze this a bit here. I mean, there may be more to our posing Bishie Badass Homura Hitman in his Troupe of Tropes than wreaking unnecessary havoc. Similarly, there might be more to his Goon Platoon than meets the eye — after all, Skaterboy (Yata Misaki) found ample time to perform an impressive array of skateboarding tricks and flips in his meandering pursuit of the supposed Evil King (Shiroh the shiro-haired Bubbly Boy) and his rescuer (Kuroh the kuro-haired Stoic Savior), the latter of whom had just been seen embracing Shiroh and flying off with him only to reveal that he did so to defer his demise so that he might “finish the job” himself.
You know, maybe–
The hell cares, I’m watching this for the :PLOT:
Interesting analysis, you put some effort in that.
Just two things i wanted to add
1-Even if the visuals quality drop, they would still be far above most of the animes this season .. not to mention very unique (you can’t mistake it for any other show .. probably Mardoc Scramble cause it has the same visual style).
2-The “Homura” gang don’t seem to be acting like hitmen looking for their target at least when it comes to Shiro (the MC) .. notice how when evil-Shiro’s video appeared everywhere near the end of the ep and they saw it some of them seemed genuinely pissed off .. in other words .. it’s something personal .. probably the guy with the camera who got shot by the evil-Shiro was someone they knew or important to them (just a hunch).
3-I didn’t mention the third point, oh .. well .. anyway .. it’s something you ddin’t seem to comment on … there was a naked floating cat girl there somewhere !!! and i think everyone can pretty much say she is the little white cat as well .. but i really have no idea what she could possible be XD
There are still lots of fighting scenes from the PVs, not to mention some scenes from the OP are new, so I think they could maintain the animation quality.
Question 1: Why is everyone here comparing this show to Guilty Crown? It’s still episode 1.
Question 2: Does everyone here hate it when an anime jumps into the middle of a fray?
Because that’s what K did. No explanation, they suddenly plonk us down into a beautiful city, with beautiful people. With fire-magicks, skateboards and floating swords!(awesome!)
Really, this show is just dead gorgeous. But I still want to give it the 3-episode test. Chihaya was gorgeous too, yes. But it fell out for me in three episodes(got bored really fast).
well, I haven’t been reading the above comments, but I guess people are scarred by GC…
personally, I think K has great potential, though apparently the official site has said that the plot probably won’t make a whole lot of sense till episode 6 (which is a risky business…)
It’s not just K that’s compared to G.C, Zestuen suffers from the same fate. Maybe it’s the GC syndrome, anything that remotely reminds people of the show arouses suspicion and gets put on trial. Yup, we are definitely scarred.
i think people compare it to guilty crown due to the hype. where guilty crown had the amazing score by supercell and art designs done by redjuice, K-project is a complete visual orgasm with a cast of superstar actors.
i don’t hate it when an anime starts in the middle. but there is a difference between starting in the middle and catching audience attention, and losing the viewer through distraction.
K-project lost me completely after the initial fight scene. i couldn’t care less about yashiro after the extremely awkward cut to the OP; it didn’t even show what time or context the jump left us in.
the show is gorgeous but so far that is all it has going for it. i just feel like the show is pandering to an audience impressed by the shinies instead of selling itself based on it’s overall package. though to be fair, it is in desperate need of a few episodes to develop.
but i get that is just the way anime works, so i guess to each his own.
I don’t know about anyone else, but i nearly died on the floor laughing at that engrish in the intro, seriously stellar acting there, oh japan, we love you.
i swear that bento is a photo.
That yaoi moment bothered me though. Trolololololol!
All I can really say about this was that the visuals are simply beautiful , the characters seem really interesting (There are SO MANY!!!!) and the episode left behind so many questions I’m just going to have to continue watching it to find the answers.
Late to the party here, but here’s my two cents:
Nope, this isn’t Guilty Crown number 2. This one, at least, has an interesting MC that may or may not be batshit insane. There’s something off about him, and that intrigues me enough to keep watching this for a while more.
As for the “starting with the middle” thing – I’m actually starting to get used to these types of introductions. I’ve gotten tired of the generic MC monologue or spoonfeeding on character facts. I like my anime to be show, not tell.
Also, I like first episodes that raises questions rather than answering them, because I want to spend the rest of the series speculating – What are these Kings and their Swords of Damocles? Who was the Colourless King waiting for? Does Skateboard-kun need to do tricks in order to activate his powers? Time will tell.
Right now I’m loving the rivalry between HOMRA and SCEPTER 4, because I’m a huge sucker for the Law vs Chaos kind of thing.
something rubs me wrong about the combo of swords and superpowers… I guess Jormungand is more my style? Or am I getting jaded from kicking the force users posteriors with sniper and commando in my fave MMO?
Too early to call this one another “guilty crown.”
Still I’m all for jumping in the middle of the story, there’s truly nothing wrong with that. A lot of anime have done this before and actually delivered (Kara no Kyoukai for example), so I’ll hold my breath until more episodes pour in before I decide.
Looks like I have something to watch this season after all. This show looks intriguing.
It is finally here, K !
The visuals are so wonderful it feels a bit like looking to the sea on a
hot summer’s day gazing in to the sun.
I can honestly say I never have seen such amazing art !
When I look at the whole package of this show it really excites me tremendously,
Mysterious characters : A gang with a little girl, always a interesting combination.
A foreign ( strange ) looking highschool boy who may be the evil king ?
A pack of sword swinging goodies AND MORE !
A plot wich I really like probably good versus evil but who is what ?
AND MAGIC POWERS 🙂 !
Yeah this show may be pretentious but isn’t that nice for a change something
that really tries to be good and wonderful ?
I know this will probably sound lazy, but I really couldn’t agree with your assessment more, Bakamochi.
While my knowledge of cinematography is very limited, I was nonetheless impressed by the panning shots and the diversity with angles.
I supremely hope the animation budget will somehow turn out to be spectacular so we can continue to feast with our eyes on this series.
Hoping Kuroo and Neko turn out to have some unexpected quirks and intelligent depth respectively. I sort of enjoyed what little of Yashiro’s personality we saw, as I took him as a kind of free spirit, roll-with-life’s-punches type of fellow. As for now, the members of Homra (that spelling just feels wrong to me) are my favorites in terms of personality and presence.
Only time will tell if it can turn into something truly great, but as for right now I’m cautiously optimistic and very, very hopeful.
Anyone else noticed the nissan gtr r35? its silver and comes out like 5+ times in the first episode XD
I’m enjoying this! It’s amazing with the graphics!