K: Seven Stories Movie 1 - R:B - Blaze

Quick take: K:7S R:B gives us the origin story of the red and blue kings in a reasonably paced and well drawn anime.

If you liked the original series K, you'll like the first movie in K:7S. The story line is decent, but lacks much of the charm and mystery the original series provided. The story isn't bad by any means, but also lacks quite a bit of depth to make it any more than fair.

Art is good and on par with the original series, much like sound. Much of the great music is back, but there are also new tracks which I felt didn't live ... up to the original. Voice acting (Japanese) is good, but for the first time, I have to say I preferred the dub voice acting from the original series in my opinion.

Characters are good, but again lacks the depth the original series offers.

Overall, I enjoyed K:7S R:B, but don't think it's anything better than a good anime.

Ahhh, it is so good to finally have K back and studio GoHands to return back to it's former greatness. Hand Shakers was an absolute downgrade of everything GoHands has created.

But let's get back on topic.

Story

It has been several years since the last K anime came out and I got to admit I missed it a lot. Seeing how it all started with Suoh and Munakata really made me reminiscent. Making us the viewers understand Each of their ideologies just in one hour episode is usually hard to accomplish, however the studio and director do a good job of that. A very exciting story, ... which by the end of movie 1, makes me want even more.

Art

The art in K is TOP NOTCH, I would compare it to the quality of the Fate series and OPM from Madhouse. The atmosphere is vibrant and the character design design is really well made, the fight animations are fluid and I cannot see any flaw in this department. You can see the love of the studio for this anime.

Sound

What can I say about the sound, this anime has an incredible OST, but the first thing that made me watch it, was the Seiyuus. I mean are the best seiyuus in the industry, aside from Ootsuka Akio and Kamiya Hiroshi, you have Tsuda Kenjirou, Sawashiro Miyuki, Sugita Tomokazu, Miyano Mamoru, Jun Fukuyama and the list goes on with indrustry heavyweights. As always the music is provided by Angela.

Enjoyment and Overall

It is a definite must watch, if some people nitpick they can find a flaw in something, but for me the only downside was that it was only 1 hour. It felt like five minutes, the incredible visuals, godly voice acting, story progression and characters really hood you in the world of K.

I'm a big fan of the K series. I loved the first K anime a lot and the second season I enjoyed a lot as well. Mikoto is my favorite character so I was excited to see this movie and get to know a bit more about his backstory, but unfortunately it was quite disappointing in my opinion.

Story: 3
Where K succeeded in creating an amazing story in the first anime, R:B Blaze almost didn't have a story. HOMRA has trouble with a boy Yamata. The story around this boy seems far-fetched, as if the makers had trouble coming up with a reason for Mikoto and ... Munakata to meet. It wasn't explained very well either, in my opinion.

Art: 6
The aesthetics in this movie were just as good as in the anime. Unfortunately the character art is changed. Characters don't look the same and for some reason suddenly have ridiculously big eyes. I probably would've loved the art if I hadn't seen the anime, but in comparison it's worse. The animation is still impressive, however.

Sound: 9
The soundtrack remains amazing.

Character: 8
The characters in this movie are mostly the HOMRA members, with appearances of Scepter 4. Each of the characters have interesting personalities. It did feel like some of the relationships between characters were a bit off, like between Mikoto and Munakata, but since the movie is a prequel their relationships might have changed through time.

Enjoyment: 3
I really wish I could say otherwise, but this movie bored me. The storyline is very flat. The fighting is pretty impressive, but mostly because of the animation and not because of the story. The movie does get better towards the end, but overall it's quite boring.

Overall: 5
Unfortunately this movie is not what I wished for. The storyline is flat. It is interesting to see Munakata and Mikoto meet, but I feel like the movie could've been ten minutes long instead of fifty. The art is different than in the anime. Sound and character are amazing, but it doesn't make up for the poor story and execution of story.