Category: K

We’re nearly at the halfway point of this show and it’s time to bring in the background episode: the episode that shows who it was that Yashiro supposedly killed. It was a strange guy who liked to try out a lot of different things, hung around with thugs, even though he wasn’t one himself and who was also very charismatic to boot. This episode seemed to hint that at one point he split in two, with Yashiro being his other half, who afterwards just lost his memory. What the cat has to do with this… I have no idea.

Again, this episode was neat, but again I feel like the creators could have done more with this. It’s all very straight forward, and none of the characters really stands out or sets himself apart. What I liked best was Yashiro this episode as he realized that his memory was fake, but even that was a bit monotone.

Oh, and I still quite like the detail that the creators put in their environment. The backgrounds in this series are probably rendered photos, but they still look gorgeous. Plus, you can see that the creators of this show like food quite a bit, with all of the details they put into the different kinds of food that the characters eat. Whether this will be enough for this series though… I’m not sure.
Rating: 4/8 (Nice)

This was one of those annoying episodes of which you won’t know whether it was good or not until the series ends. Annoying to review, I mean, not to watch, mind you.

But yeah, in terms of plot, nothing concrete really happens: people search for someone, they don’t find him. People fight, they retreat. People prepare for something, but that is left for the next episode. A cliff-hanger promises a lot of intrigue… yet not in this episode.

No, this was all about character building. Fleshing out the cast and making the audience more familiar with them, in particular the skateboard guy and his companion, along with Saruhiko (who is not Reishi by the way, a mistake I made at first). Highlight was the gorgeously animated fight scene between these guys.

But yeah, this build-up is nice and all, but it’s pointless if you ain’t gonna use it, and shows like this tend to forget that, getting so much caught up in their build-up that they forget to deliver. this show has the luxury of being anime original, so not bound on any kind of original source material whatsoever, so in theory it can really do as it pleases. Now make use of that!
Rating: 4/8 (Nice)

This was a build-up episode. It was fun, and I get its purpose, but something tells me that the creators could have been a bit more ambitious with it. Every single subplot was dropped aside from the one between Shiro and Kuro save for two small scenes, even though the chaos of having so many subplots is part of the charms of this series.

What I liked most about this episode was how Shiro and Kuro were retracing Shiro’s steps during the night of the crime, trying to find an alibi. The abovementioned chaos. thankfully was present in that night when a lot of crazy things happened that night. They were all played for laughs, and it definitely got some nice chuckles out of me, but with such an idea I wonder whether the creators could have taken it a bit further by toying with that flashback even more. Right now they’ve got gold in their hands with that if they use it right.

Just forget what I said if this was just a build-up, and the creators used this episode to set up things for later when things really get crazy. There were a lot of hints in this episode that more happened than what was just shown in this episode. It’s tricky to do that though. And in the case of this series, I have no idea whether the creators will actually be able to pull it off. I mean, this series has shown that it has a knack for animation and character chemistry. Build-up is an entirely different matter, though.
Rating: 4/8 (Nice)

K has a lot of characters. I like that, and in fact I’m a big fan of those kinds of series. They are however, a double edged sword: try getting some good development out of all of them, especially with only 13 episodes. The trick will be balancing the development for all of them: focus on a bunch of them and flesh them out really well, and give the guys who aren’t in the foreground presence, rather than making them into characters for the sake of having more characters.

K is trying to achieve that balance, definitely. There are a few key characters here in this story: Suoh and Reishi with his powers on one side and Kurou and Yashiro on the other side. Suoh and Reishi are fleshed out by all the people around them, their subordinates et cetera, while Kurou and Yashiro are fleshed out through their own actions and their chemistry.

Beyond that we have the side characters, most of them are pretty one-dimensional at this point. Think of the cat girl who is always cheerful, or the punk who is always snarky and stuff. For these guys it’s going to be impossible to make all of them three-dimensional, so the trick will be to give all of them presence and make all of them different, and still create impact with all of them. Ideally, at the end of this series I want to have one stand-out moment for all of them. Episode 1 already had that moment for the skating punk guy with its animation. This episode instead made Shirou stand out. I quite liked the climax of this series. Instead of ending with a cliff-hanger or a tense battle, they just end with a silly joke that shows more about his character. Very nice.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

… as for the reason why I picked this series over Code Breaker… ehehehe. It was to avoid a certain… problem. Allow me to elaborate:
– Sword Art Online: 25 episodes. Will end next December.
– Kamisama Hajimemashita: 7 DVDs, so will probably have 13 episodes.
– Hunter X Hunter: with the ratings it’s getting there is no way that Madhouse will cancel it after the Yorkshin arc
– Space Brothers: everything looks like this will be 50 episodes long.
– From the New World: 25 episodes.
– Zetsuen no Tempest: episode count not yet known, but there is no way Bones will make this just one season long.
– Magi: is on the prime time slot. There’s no way that this will be 1 cour.
– Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: 8 DVDs, so longer than 1 cour.
– Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo: 8 DVDs, so longer than 1 cour.
– Psycho Pass: 22 episodes.
– Robotics;Notes: 22 episodes.
– K: 13 episodes.

Are you starting to see the problem here? I mean, it’s awesome to have all these long series and all, but I’m going to have a huge problem in about three months from now. Especially considering that Chihayafuru’s second season will debut next season. If I ended up swapping SAO with Little Busters, then without K I would be unable to blog any new show for the upcoming winter season! Especially considering how many of them are set to deliver in their second halves! And even without this: the people saying that this season is too big: prepare youselves, because unless the upcoming winter is completely terrible, it will be completely crazy with all the continuing shows!

So, K. Granted, it lacks a bit of depth to some of the other shows this season, but it is the series with the best animation of the series, and it’s just very fun to watch. Compared to the other show with amazing graphics this season, Shin Sekai Yori, the animation may be less varied, but it’s also more consistently gorgeous. Shin Sekai Yori has parts that look just simple. In this show, every scene looks great. Gohands are a studio that tend to abuse CG lighting a bit too much, but it’s great to see how much movement the creators managed to put into this series considering that it’s just a TV-series. Also, when characters move in this series, they move with their entire bodies, rather than just turning or looking up in simple ways.

This episode had much fewer characters than the first episode, but the cat and mouse game (pun half intended) between the sword guy and the white-haired guy and the cat who suddenly turned into a naked girl was a lot of fun to watch. That kind of snarkiness is by the way something that Jormungand can learn a lot from: The characters are having fun, and there are definitely a few snarkers here, but there is much more to their charcters than that and there are many characters who are completely different. The question for this show will be: will this just remain a fun show to watch, or will there be more?

Most of the details in this show go to its settings. I mostly mean with how well it’s drawn and animated. The moving backgrounds of last episode were a treat, but also the detail it puts in the houses and building. This episode also animated some delicious looking food; I especially like that scene of the spring onions being cut. That looks so hard to do right.

Also, props to the music department! This episode also showed some insert songs, which I tend to appreciate provided that they’re not used for crappy montage scenes. I mean really: Psycho Pass, From the New World, Jojo, Zetsuen no Tempest, K: all shows with awesome soundtracks this season. Talk about a treat!
Rating: 5/8 (Great)