K or the ‘K Project’ was a mystery for quite awhile. In March, Starchild revealed that a K anime was in the works, and that it would come from the “GoRa Project” group. And then they would periodically release trailers that show off the characters fighting, but nothing was revealed on the story. So I assumed that it was top secret and this series was going to be top-notch. The anime began airing in October and that same day it was revealed that a slew of famous Japanese novelists, most important one being Yashichiro Takahashi (creator of Shakugan no Shana), were involved with this project.
The end result was, a catastrophe…worse than a train-wreck.
I really shouldn’t call it a Project because that would be misleading and a complete lie. Projects are supposed to be successful, this however…was not.
Best way to describe K; It has the ambition Guilty Crown did, and you throw in some DRRR!! and X into the mix. It’s as if Guilty Crown had intense ‘throws of passion’ with Durarara!! and somehow X joined in. K is part murder mystery(?) and part action (?). There’s a fan service character thrown into the mix as well. K has so many intertwining stories though and it eventually becomes bogged down under its own weight. The series has way too many characters and it tries to focus on every one of them to the point where the really important bits get swept under the rug and they’re eventually long forgotten.
I would be more forgiving if this were based on a fighting game. The viewer is just thrown violently into this world where stuff happens and NOTHING GETS EXPLAINED!!! The story starts off with a fight between the Blue and Red clans (with elements that never truly get explained) then it switches to a boy named Shiro who is a student at this high school. You find out that Shiro killed a member of the Red clan and now everyone is after him, including a member from some independent clan. The series then switches to Shiro trying to prove his innocence while, in the background, the Red and Blue clans are fighting it out because Red clan’s King was captured by the Blue clan’s King. Oh yeah, and they’re also after Shiro.w
Simple enough? After about episode 4 the series realizes “Oh shit, there’s too much stuff going on, what do we do? Let’s throw in some fights to distract the viewer from noticing the glaring plot hole(s).”
I noticed the plot holes and they were not pretty.
One of the most obvious ones were the clans themselves. K made a point to say that there were 7 clans but only 5 get explained. They explain how the King system in each clan works but when the Colorless king gets thrown into the mix so many of the rules get broken, which in turn breaks the series. Also every time you think the series is getting somewhere; every time it shows a little hint of improvement, it switches to a different character and the rhythm is thrown off completely. But that’s enough about the story, let us talk about the art and the music.
Art: If the money didn't go to plot, then it went to the animation because Project K is a beautiful series to look at. Also the opening was pretty, and so were the fighting animations from the opening. I even liked it when those animations were recycled into the actual fights.
Music: The soundtrack was also considered a saving grace. The piano bits during the fights were nice. And the techno soundtrack was ‘kickin’.
Now, I mentioned plot-holes and hopefully the ‘proposed’ second season of K can fix that.
But I really don’t care.
Pros: Pretty animation, soundtrack was good, characters were pretty to look at. Side characters who stayed away from the train wreck were memorable
Cons: Where to begin…everything was disjointed.
K gets a ‘D‘.
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