Review of K

K is sometimes difficult to dissect. On first glance, it looks like it has the potential to be a masterpiece. At the same time, when you really get down to it, it's nothing exceptional. K is overall a decent series and it has its strong suits, but it's certainly not worth your time if you're looking for a great series to pick up and here's why. What first drew me to K was the background of the story. The series is set in a futuristic world where Japan is essentially dominated by the 7 kings of color. Each of the kings has a different power accordingto their colors. For all intents and purposes, their superiority over the rest of humanity is absolute. On top of that, they're assisted by their clansman, who essentially pledge their loyalty to the kings in exchange for superhuman powers. The balance of power is carefully maintained until story is set in motion by a murder case. A man who self-identified as the Colorless King shot one of the Red King's clansmen, and the entire thing was captured on the camera that clansman was carrying. It just so happens that the supposed Colorless King looks exactly like the main character, who's an oblivious and sociable high school student living in school. And the search is on for this killer.

So far so good. What went wrong then? Well, nothing went wrong, so to speak. It was just that the plot unfolded at a pace so slow, people were literally asking "so what exactly happened in this episode" on the discussion boards. A typical episode features at most 3-5 minutes of actual plot explanation and the rest is devoted to character interaction and the occasional battles. To their credit, the animation quality is great. I liked the art style and every action was incredibly smooth. The battles themselves were quite entertaining and you can clearly tell they weren't trying to cut corners there, but quite frankly, the plot was simply lacking. It started with some momentum in the beginning, then dropped off a cliff for at least 2/3 of the season, then picked up again in the last 2-3 episodes. That's something you'd expect from a fan service series -- not K, which clearly strives to play itself as a serious piece of work.

K is a weak series for another reason. Instead of being plot-driven, it's mainly character-driven. In place of plot, you have a number of characters with strong and some would say memorable personalities that draw the audience in. The problem is that K doesn't even try to ease the audience in with the characters. Although you find out a great deal about each major character over the course of the series, it's mostly 30-second scenes here or there that make up for scattered pieces of information. Take Fushimi, who is the third in command of Blue King's clan. Although we're shown that he was originally a subordinate of the Red King, we end up never finding out just why it is that he decided to switch sides. Perhaps the directors of K want the audience to fill in the gaps, but it feels quite insulting to the audience who has no idea what the full history is behind most of the characters. There is a line between trying to be subtle and not really explaining anything. K's crossed the line just too many times.

Personally, I dislike the analogy but K feels just like Guilty Crown. It looks great from the outside, but when you look closer, you can see that it has somewhat of a hollow core. The promise is there. It's just that potential isn't enough to make a series great. Although I personally enjoyed watching most of the cast interact and doing whatever they do, when I got to ep. 13, the ending felt bland and somewhat anticlimactic even. And the glaring plot holes here and there make it hard for me to fully recommend this series. Bottom line is, if you're not totally into plot, love flashy animations, and just want to watch cool character say and do cool things, K is something you'd enjoy a whole lot. If you demand serious plot depth on top of all that, though, kindly move on.