Forum - View topicREVIEW: K BD+DVD
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Divineking
 Posts: 1293 |
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Pretty good review. I think you hit most of the show's strengths and weakenesses pretty well.
I remember back when the show first aired it got bashed a lot for the storyline supposedly making no sense but I actually found it to be pretty straightforward and most of the mystery elements not only work, but were foreshadowed pretty well in advance. Kind of annoyed the Kagutsu Crater thing was never really explained that well though. The characters are definently one of the bigger problems though. It's not that they aren't interesting but there are way too many of them for a 13 episode series and it wouldn't hurt as much if the show didn't try so hard to make you care about most of them. Perhaps with another cour that aspect might have worked out better. I do disagree about the music though. I thought the show had a pretty great soundtrack. |
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SnaphappyFMA
Posts: 216 Location: California |
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K in its first few episodes does feel like style over substance, but the mystery regarding Shiro's true identity and whether he committed the murder or not, as the reviewer notes, actually turns out to be executed quite well in the series. I can add that if you rewatch the series there are a lot of clues and hints (sometimes even just visual hints) seeded throughout the early episodes that make rewatching K a delight.
As far as fan service goes, I thought K did a great job in catering to everyone. As a fujoshi I loved the homoerotic tension between the Red King and Blue King, and between Yata and Fushimi, and didn't mind the fan service going the other way with Neko and Seri. Neko was sweet and funny and Seri was a woman in a position of authority you could respect. I also liked the small hints that she was attracted to her boss the Blue King, though she seemed to quietly and sadly accept that he would never be into her. My biggest gripe with K is that spoiler[it seemed to be more like a second season of a two-season series, rather than a one-cour series on its own. With the death of the Red King and with so much backstory left unexplained - how the Kings became Kings, and how did Homra and Scepter 4 form, and what was the relationship between the Red and Blue Kings before the story began, etc. - it felt like K's producers were beginning with the end of the story rather than starting with the beginning of the story. Obviously I'm sure they thought they might be greenlit for future seasons and would reveal more of the universe and backstory then, but... why start with the ending??] That said, I loved K and bought the regular DVD box set from Right Stuf, which arrived last week. (The regular DVD box set btw only comes with the decal stickers and the extras like the con footage that come on the disks themselves, and nothing else beyond that.) The story is strong, the character designs and production design are gorgeous, it is definitely very cool, and there's the promise of more to come (i.e., the movie now coming out in Japan which apparently continues the storyline of the series, and hopefully more series/OVAs to come after that). So bottom line, K is a flawed but still very worthwhile and entertaining series and I'm happy to have bought the DVDs. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5529 |
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Season 2 was actually announced at the end of the final episode. |
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Lumicite
 Posts: 30 |
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I could not agree more with SnappyHappy, nor can I say it as well. K I will say that the emphasis on style is what hooked me in the first place and I stayed for the characters and the plot.
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SouthPacific
Posts: 689 |
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They certainly put A LOT of focus on the visual aspect of the series, which I thought was pretty cool, although some... depth wouldn't have been too bad. But yeah, the art style, animation, music & character designs were all extremely appealing, and left me wanting more. I also think K did a great job of appealing both to female and male audiences.
Having my own copy of the release I decided to check out the dub because it seems like Viz Media is quite enthusiastic about the whole "LE/Premium" venture that's being pushed, and I thought what the hell why not. The Red king's voice actor was good. Like, really, really good. Mind you, I actually haven't said this about an american anime voice actor before. Yata's VA was also pretty damn good, I tend to pick on little things and put emphasis on certain types of scenes, and I still think his VA did a great job through the dubbed episodes that I watched. Other than that I didn't find anything especially good about the other performances, I thought Izumo's VA tried a bit too hard with the way he spoke & Saruhiko's(monkey) VA just absolutely killed it for me. The way he tried to mimic the creepy, shivering voice and speech that Mamoru Miyano conjured made me cringe  . Most, maybe even the vast majority of the minor characters had the same cringe-worthy performances, and sadly one or two great ones cannot make up for the rest. I don't have much of an opinion of Shiro, as i've never liked his seiyuu too much, and in the dub that did not change for the better...
All in all I think the Japanese cast is, as per usual, far superior as a whole. The dub had two performances that i'd rate as very good/great & in the end i'd give this dub a B-, as oppossed to my average dub rating of an F-. And i'd say that's a generous score considering many of the... immersion-breaking subpar performances... Had this been a rating for the JP dub i would've given it a C-, as I expect the Japanese to perform better, so keep that in mind  .
I'm pretty sure that announcement was "a sequel" and that turned out to be the movie that's opening in a few months. I could be wrong though  .
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18200 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Yeah, I'm also pretty sure that the sequel reference was referring to the upcoming movie.
The bolded line is why I usually do not give your opinion on English dubs an ounce of credibility, although I do at least slightly respect that you recognized and admit two of the stand-out performances this time. |
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3453 Location: Finland |
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In light of the recent review on Nura, also a Viz release, I have to ask, is this censored as well?
As a tidbit on the Nura censorship, apparently the Japanese licensors only provided them with the broadcast version, and that it was not a mistake; (RightStufSpecialsMinion, rightstuf forums)
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SouthPacific
Posts: 689 |
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And that's absolutely fine. Just like i'll have my opinion(s) you're allowed to have yours  . And while I probably didn't mention it clearly enough in my first post, I always compare the dub to the original, hence my low average rating. Despite that I gave this dub a B-. I was genuinely (and gladly so) surprised at the aformentioned performances.
I should also add that this certain dub didn't suffer nearly as much from the painful theatre-like performances that far too many US dubs do. And I was very pleased to see(hear?) that as theatre performances do not do well in anime dubbing .
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Rahxephon91
 Posts: 1859 Location: Park Forest IL. |
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That C+ in story sure is being generous. K is possibly one of the most shallow yet convulated anime I've seen in recent times. The very definition of style over substance and yet that substance becomes so diluted that it can't possibly be cool. It tries to hit you over the head so much with how cool it is that it hurts and you start to hate it.
The plot in this show seems so haphazardly put together that it feels like it just throws things in for the sake of being cool and checking off a list. A random catgirl that is so annoying as she adds so little beyond being eye candy, stupid eye candy. This entire mystery and king battle that the show seems to refuse to want to explain in a timely matter, because it's more concerned with it's character's making cool poses. of course they talk about all this lore, but they don't want the viewer to really be involved. But god the characters are so boring. They are so one note, made to fill the anime character checklist and little more. This show feels like one creation made to appease everyone, but it actually has nothing interesting going on itself beyond showing pretty ideas that people like. God what a terrible show. |
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Knoepfchen
 Posts: 698 |
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I basically remember three things from this show. 1.) A very pleasing soundtrack, 2) a lot of great actors assembled in one place, and 3) walls being constructed so fragile that they had to be supported by the characters leaning against them for support in every single frame.
Of all those characters who seemed physically unable to stand on their own two legs for longer than a second, the only ones I developed an interest in were Yata and Fushimi, as they were the only ones with a reasonably developed backstory. The two people I started watching this with gave up half way through, as they never even began to care for any of the characters. The style was enough to keep me coming back, but I wish they'd taken 5% away from the style part in order to develop at least one or two more characters to a point where I could have cared about them. They were so pleasant to look at, and yet so utterly unengaging. Except for the cat girl. She did get an emotional reaction out of me. Not a good one, though. What an annoying character. I don't think of this as a terrible show, I would not have finished it if that was the case. It's just a brightly shining example of style over substance. |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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Thanks to RightStuf's penny-pinching ("ship as items become available" all but died) this is the first time in a long time that something that I preordered from RightStuf has been reviewed on ANN before my copy got to my mailbox.
I didn't buy this show for the show itself (I know nothing about it), but I was hoping that it would not be terribad, a hope the review was ripping to shreds, and I was starting to debate whether or not I should tell Kleckner 'n Co "Thanks, but no thanks", but then I got to this:
I'm trusting you with the dub. Studiopolis has not been the "seal of quality" for dubs so I'm setting my expectations low but I wouldn't mind if the dub were to leap over them still. The dub, or more specifically Carrie Savage, is one of the reasons that I pulled the trigger on this show about which I knew nothing in the first place (others being combopack, artstyle and extras). On a side note, this show employed a rather successful & novel anti-piracy scheme 
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shamisen the great
 Posts: 658 Location: Oregon, USA |
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I've been on the fence on buying this show. The obtuseness (is that a word?) that you mention Key discourages me a bit. I know it is the nature of the industry but I do get a little tired of so much anime being dependant on knowledge of the source material.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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^
There is no source material for K; it is an anime original work. However, as Theron mentioned, the show is dependent on side material to explain some things that really should have been in the show itself. |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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On a scale of, say, Fate/Zero to, oh, Trinity Blood (F/Z being the least dependent), how dependent is it upon side material? ...this won't end up with me screaming something similar to the "Where the hell did colonizing Mars enter into the equation?" in response to a "completely out of left field if the viewer hasn't read the supplemental material" revelation, as Trinity Blood did, will it? |
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shamisen the great
Posts: 658 Location: Oregon, USA |
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