Original anime project by GoHands
Simulcast by ViZ Media (USA) and Animax Asia

Premise: In the near future, in the not-so-near city of somewhere in Japan, seven esper Kings, each backed by a colour-coded gang, fight for absolute turf control… or something. Yashiro “Shiro” Inaba, a local high school student, heads into the city to run an errand, but ends up being chased by the gang of the Red King, as well as a mysterious third party. Meanwhile, the enigmatic “colourless King” starts raising hell…

Aqua’s verdict: A Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

K, oh, K. Where the hell do we start with you?

I know. Let’s begin with the one thing everyone agrees on. You are gorgeous. Watching a show meant for television get away with such beautiful visuals is like running headfirst into a pop idol on the streets. You are quite obviously a product of many, many years of fundraising and animating complete crap in order to reel in as much money as possible. Occasionally, you look so garishly crisp, I feel guilty and out of place for watching you. I ain’t sayin’ you’re a gold digger, but you sure ain’t messing with no broke… people.

But then, where do we go when this curtain of gorgeous visuals rises? What the hell are you, K? You are so full of yourself it becomes ridiculous, rockets off to the moon and crashes right back in a blazing inferno. You are so cheesy in a completely uncampy way, juggle the trashiest of 90’s aesthetics with a completely straight face and burn what seems to be thousands of yens on vomiting out some of the most insane angles a camera can pull off. You bait both raving fujoshi with your immense cast of pretty boys who may or may not be attracted towards each other, and healthy young men with some of the most revealing lingering full body shots of naked girls this side of Nisemonogatari. If your big brother Durarara!! was the animated equivalent of a tightly woven web of intrigues, you, K, are the animated equivalent of a circus, army of clowns included.

“Indeed… I didn’t know it was possible, but it appears he shoved his head up his own bottom all by himself…”

Your directing is all over the place, your artistic design looks like an LSD rave gone horribly wrong, your characters recall some of the most terrifying fashion trends of the past decade and you ooze decadence from every pore in your proverbial body. To be quite honest, K, you are a complete disaster.

Yet I love you.

K is like a Kanye West album brought to life. It is a pretentious, megalomanic urban opera in danger of oversaturation, a braggadocio-filled orgy of camp twenty foot up its own backside, and a swaggerfest born from the collective explosion of five carnival fairs. Heck, it even has random naked girls popping up at inappropriate moments. It is stupid, confusing, embarrassing and senseless. Yet it still manages to achieve universal praise because it is so insanely good at what it does, no matter how utterly moronic the thing it tries to do may be.

If you expect K to deliver worthwhile plot, give up. The Durarara!! comparisons are hard to ignore, but this will not be an intense character-driven epic like that all-time classic.  K is doomed to drown in its own attempts to be the most badass anime in human history, but for some reason I am totally okay with being dragged along. With kung-fu skateboarders, complaining cleaning robots, skycraper-sizes swords, laughably horrible Engrish, random feline streakers and emotion-mimicking kittens all in just one episode, anything less than a complete trainwreck would actually be a disappointment.

His sword is too awesome to be animated.

Iro’s Verdict: Keen

Gang wars with magic flame, color-coded “Kings”, and modern-day samurai, all twenty minutes into the future? Sounds ridiculous (and it is), but judging from the first episode, K is going to be fairly fun. Also, it’s scratching my urban fantasy itch, and I’m all for that. At any rate, it has enough style and action to keep me watching for at least a few more episodes.

Jel’s Verdict: K is for Kool

K is just oozing with style. The slick visuals and smooth soundtrack certainly are a treat for the senses, but whether or not the show also ends up a treat for your brain and/or heart remains to be seen. Not a lot of info is presented in this first episode, with most of the characters jumping right into the scene with zero introduction or explanation. We are left with enough of a twist in the end to make you want to learn more though, and at the very least who doesn’t want to see more cool superpower battles and naked cat girls? Definitely a lot of potential and worth keeping an eye on.

Let’s just hope this Shiro is a bit more competent that that other Shiro who is the main character in a mess of an anime in which 7 people fight for ultimate power. (Iro’s note: Fuck you)

Lifesong’s Verdict: The Color Blue Has Never Been So Kool

Wow, well I love the sense of style here; the directing is clearly a top notch effort. This first episode wasted no time in showing off all it’s assets. We are introduced to a ton of a characters in a fashion reminiscent of Baccano! or Durarara!!, which, while messy, is something I like. Tons of personality established in the blink of an eye? I’m totally on board with that approach. The vocal cast really helps here as just about everyone is a big name fit into a very typical role for the vocals; some may call this cliché, but as for me I see this as a wonderful way to get things moving with a large cast, and love the way K gives all these voice talents room to shine in their native environments.

This is one of the most exciting anime this season in my book. There is something special about an anime original that adaptations just can’t pull off, and I am looking forward to seeing if K can capitalize on that advantage, or if we are looking at a show that is all style and no substance… So far I say we are off to a good start.

Marlin’s Verdict: Keeping me interested.

This is another show I genuinely enjoyed. The somewhat bland main character is a bit of a warning flag, but I’m assuming this end-of-episode development is going to grow into something that allows us to see his character more clearly. I really like this whole supernatural gang war feel that’s going on, and having pseudo-Shizuo around is never a bad thing. There’s usually two ways to introduce a show, develop character backgrounds or develop the setting. While there were a lot of characters shown, K really banks on the latter route in introducing us to this familiar yet slightly distant world.

Never let sleeping cats lie.

Dragonzigg’s Verdict: Out of Kontrol

I’m going to have to play the Scrooge here and declare myself a bit more of a sceptic. That’s not to say there’s isn’t a lot worthy of interest here. The bold, action packed opening was great fun and a really neat way to pique the interest. There seems to be a very intriguing underlying dynamic going on here, and the smooth, detailed animation screams of the money that was spent.

But aesthetically and artistically this show is a mess, and unlike Aqua I don’t find that endearing but rather irritating. Instead I see sloppy, ill focused directing, throwing in every possible angle, shot and cut in a maddening mishmash of styles that utterly fails to establish a coherent look for the show.  The constantly blown out lighting in either pale blues of sickly yellows, as if someone had just found the HDR control in their video editor, gives the entire thing a cheap, plain looking, draining the world of any richness.  And while that opening gives off a fascinating, urban fantasy vibe, it’s quickly revealed our protagonist will be yet another sucking void of personality in high school. Oh and don’t forget random naked-for-no-reason girl!

I’m being harsh because the show shows so much potential, potential which I’d desperately like to be fulfilled. I’ll keep watching for sure, but I can only judge what I’ve seen, and what I’ve seen so far gives me pause as to whether K can channel it’s obvious assets towards anything productive.