Review of K

Before I split this up into parts, I'll start with my general review. K-Project is one of a kind, and that can be a good and a bad thing. I loved it in this case, for the characters, for the emotion, the story and for the window it gave us into a fascinating world. But you need an open mind. On that note, here a fact: Yashiro is the POV character NOT the main character. The story does not revolve around him, his plot thread is but one of many that result in the big end-game. Alright: here goes. Let's start with Art. It has a unique art stylewith too much fanservice, but fan service that is purely art and has almost no impact on the narrative. The art is important here, since much of the story and emotion is expressed through art choices instead of dialogue ones.

Considering the heavy burden, I assign it a 7 as a standalone, though an argument can be made for higher marks. (just... the fanservice annoys me a little.)

Sound is ok, fit the mood but nothing special to say here.

The voice acting on the other hand... 9. (Ignoring the fact that Suoh Mikoto's voice is literal sin.)

Mikoto's VA gets accross his exhaustion, Saruhiko is brilliant and all the others fit well and work well, just don't spring out to me as much.

Character is where things get complicated. There is not much in the way of character development. That's true, but the static characters themselves are brilliant. Some, like the nominal protag don't get that much time to shine (watch the show and you'll see why), but the support cast (esp. the story driving characters - HOMRA) is brilliant in the depth of both their characterization and their interaction.

The reason why this is hard do see is because the nominal primary cast - neko, silver haired boy - both have ... well. Story related character issues?

And then we get to the story. Oh dear. Ok, in my opinion the plot was great and tied several character conflicts to the end resolution, but others complain that there barely is any and at this point I think I need to issue a slight spoiler warning.

Simply put, we don't focus on the primary impetus of the plot. We see the parts to the story, but they aren't presented as a normal plot is and as such you can think at first that the story is about a school kid. It's not.
The main protag is actually only very nominally part of the plot. They're an observer, largely, and while they have their own subplot, their main job is to view the plot from an independant third angle. I think this works well. Others strongly disagree.

One final thing is that the narrative doesn't explain anything in dialogue, beyond the bare bones. The rest is expressed visually. I like it.

In summary: not for everyone, but definitely worth a try.