Review of K

The plot is predictable if you have several years of reading, watching, and otherwise enjoying different kinds of media varying between books to anime and films. Don't let that stop you from watching it. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the plot is the weakest point, that is to say, it is indeed predictable. Don't expect Pratchett's level of humor or writing, or in general, ingenious. The cast is huge, following largely three Kings, one lacking in memory (Shiro), who is, of course, the protagonist, and has his own little group. After that, there are two groups of lesser characters, Red-clansmen and Blue-clansmen. Two or three people youfollow more closely than others.

This is a complete work, and although it has more after, at the moment my investment in the show has all but been completed. Which is really nice, it's not often I find anime that finish in the same season they started in. (I'm looking at you, One Piece, among others.) I strongly suggest, if you don't have anything else to watch or want to find something new, watch this, it was worth watching it to the end.

Anyways I'm rambling and tired, so I'll continue.

It's presented as a crime-mystery kind of deal. "I can't have murdered this person, but that certainly looks like me." At which point it spirals into a "who am I" in order to find what's ACTUALLY going on. It's a tragedy, which was an unpleasant, pleasant surprise. What makes this show a good anime are the characters and their interaction. Like I've said, plot vise, it's very simple and very predictable, but if you think of it as a story where the plot is an excuse to have the characters, although not entirely waterproof, a lot better.

Good points:
Good character(s) (interaction).
Not black and white, good and evil.
Good soundtracks.
Good, clean visuals.
Sometimes okayish flashbacks.
Tragedy.
Doesn't over-explain or hand feed you every little detail

Bad points:
Simple plot.
Too focused on Shiro.
Flashbacks.

I'll try to explain my opinions cohesively. This probably isn't the best idea I've had.
With such a large cast, it's impossible to get everything very exciting, or more than one dimensional. Which I think is fine. There is some, little, character growth, again I think that is fine. Not every story or every character needs to change in some way or another. Not everything is a life-changing process, and with thirteen characters, three main-casts, there really wasn't any time. This isn't GOT. And again, the anime gave a lot of attention to Shiro, which was meh, he wasn't a very interesting character, one way or the other. The clans and their interactions were way more interesting.

So, in accord with the guidelines, it's very hard to write a review without spoilers, which I always find ridiculous because I've put through so many "spoiler warnings" that I have a tendency to reject something out of hand if people insist of talking about it "without spoilers". In other words, I'm getting progressively more annoyed with myself, MAL, and writing this review for saying essentially not to put spoilers in. Ooh.

Anyway, the characters follow archetypes more than personalities. But it's their interaction with each other and the world at large that's interesting. Shiro is interesting only when he's being chased by someone else. That said he has good interaction with Kuro and Neko, his supporting cast. One which is his loyal pet and the other tried to kill him. Leading to some rather interestingly gay moments and tickled my fancy rather well without actually being sexual or gay in nature. Which is always a bonus, don't ask why it just is.

There is an antagonist, but he's such a tiny presence in the anime it's hard to even call him that, so for the intents and purposes, Blue-clan and Red-clan are the antagonists of the show. For their own purposes, they want to find Shiro. Funnily enough, neither of those clans are evil. Certainly, Red-clan supposedly causes more violence and destruction, but in their cases, it's more of shades of grey than good or evil. Pick your form of evil, essentially.

Flashbacks are mostly something I wholeheartedly reject and frequently complain about. Considering the slow but steady pace of the anime, there were instances where it was nice to see a flashback and other times where it was entirely unnecessary. Overfeeding information while providing little new information or context. Or the context provided wasn't needed. Like the origin of the Kings. Entirely unnecessary, entirely boring. So they pulled out the shitty version and the okay version.

So there are several things that the anime didn't explain, like new gimmicks, it was oh, gosh that gimmick appeared, wow, and then no explanation. I like that because if everybody knows what it is on sight, then how the hell are you going to naturally explain it to the viewer? And if it's important to know what it is, include it naturally in the story and don't have a character or "god voice" shove it down my bloody throat.

Shiro's arch is simple and one of the most predictable things in the entire anime. An overused trope, done in the way of tropes. And baptized in Trope.

Anyway. I'll end it here.
It's a good watch. It's not the best in the world, but I would recommend this to the right people. I don't know if, you who have gotten this far, are the right person. I can't tell you that. Give it a try. Like with broccoli, you won't know until you try it. And there are some really bad ways to treat broccoli.