(L) K (Anime project)

[Grifis]

The ep starts with a bad boy smoking leading his pack and looking all gangsta. Then there's a loli sporting gothic style. The atmosphere has this darkish tint, gothic and a somewhat digi feel. I didn't like that. It reminded me of some anime about the mafia family or something so I dropped it like a hot potato. Fastforward a few days later, I saw this tall dark hair bishie and hear talk of BL associating with this title so I rushed right back in and watched it in a flash. And my thought after the first ep is "let there be BL." The main couple, shiro and kuro reminds me of the couple from No. 6. I have the feeling that whoever makes this anime is plotting to bait and trap anti-BL fanboys, somewhat anti-shoujo, and shonen extremist and makes them wriggle in pain. *smirk*

So first of all, the show baits the fanboys with gangsta bad boys and reels them into the lair. Once inside the lair, it sneaks up the first attack of bishonen knights complete with bishonen outfits and bishonen swords. This certainly cut the fanboys' HP to half. As the fanboys were about to find their way out of the lair to treat their injuries, the show flaunts some images of naked cat girl and throws back in the gangsta pack. Seeing that, the fanboys slowly inch back wondering about the cat girl. Meanwhile, the show is preparing a more powerful attack using "hero rescue beauty" scene where long black hair tall bishie makes grand entrance and rescues silver hair main bishie, complete with intimate embrace and top it off with the blushing. This destroys the shonen extremist morale and they squirm in extreme pain. As they were about the crawl their way out of the lair, the show again baits them with naked cat girl in the next ep but it seems some already took damage beyond repair and are scarred for life.

But really, so far I like the eye candies. There are enough hot boys to ogle and if they have some kind of romance together that will be super. I can't complain.

[GDiddy]

The eye candy's nice....though I only care about Ono's character in terms of hotties.

LOL at the fanboys all mad because of the HoYay....

[Insane]

Why on earth everyone keep saying that this anime has bishie/shounen ai-vibe? C'mon, it's just one episode, and its main purpose is just to get our attention. The next episode needs to establish all the characters shown and get the plot rolling with some explanation as to why some people have powers and the others do not and what purpose do the opposing factions (Red vs Blue) factor into it, and at that time we will have opportunity to judge whether this anime is into "shounen-ai" or not.

[cracktastic]

Originally Posted by Forever

Well I am against both yoai and yuri. I prefer seeing to see relationships to be normal...

what is this homophobic bs

[Marcus H.]

I also hate how the word "fanboy" was thrown around. As if bashing the series' first episode is not enough.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

I also hate how the word "fanboy" was thrown around. As if bashing the series' first episode is not enough.

Yeah this thread is kind of getting special now. I'm not quite sure what exactly in this episode struck such a nerve that people are getting violent reactions to perceived BL, but I'm just looking forward to seeing what gets held against it next cause I honestly can't even guess.

I don't even think it's anything the show did poorly in particular so much as every season there seems to be one show that just gets either every kind of accusation and criticism from angles I would never suspect hurled against it really early and typically continually throughout it's run or it gets these generalized complaints of showcasing bad writing, plot holes, bad pacing etc. and it always seem to be the same kind of show. Something with a Shonen action vibe, big budget, equal shares of male and female fanservice (though did this really have all that much?), kind of effeminate male lead that doesn't appear to be immediately on top of his game from the get go, universe that choses to exhibit world and setting rather than character building early on, large cast...these particular elements either in whole or part just seem to be absolute poison when it comes to getting constructive criticism let alone a good reception out of the gate nowadays.

So while I can say the content of the criticisms is surprising and kind of random I can't really say I'm surprised that it's K that is attracting them.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Yeah this thread is kind of getting special now. I'm not quite sure what exactly in this episode struck such a nerve that people are getting violent reactions to perceived BL, but I'm just looking forward to seeing what gets held against it next cause I honestly can't even guess.

I don't even think it's anything the show did poorly in particular so much as every season there seems to be one show that just gets every kind of accusation and criticism from angles I would never suspect hurled against it really early and typically continually throughout it's run and it always seem to be the same kind of show. Something with a Shonen action vibe, big budget, equal shares of male and female fanservice (though did this really have all that much?), kind of effeminate male lead that doesn't appear to be immediately on top of his game from the get go, universe that choses to exhibit world and setting rather than character building early on, large cast...these particular elements either in whole or part just seem to be absolute poison when it comes to getting constructive criticism let alone a good reception out of the gate nowadays.

What shows follow this formula recently? I think not much besides this one no?

It's not the ep that is the problem.....it's the viewer...You think, even if the story by good fortune, turns out to be excellent such baseless criticism will go away? They're not even criticizing what's in the show.....Do you even see any blatant shounen-ai going on?

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

What shows follow this formula recently? I think not much besides this one no?

It's not the ep that is the problem.....it's the viewer...You think, even if the story by good fortune, turns out to be excellent such baseless criticism will go away? They're not even criticizing what's in the show.....Do you even see any blatant shounen-ai going on?

I don't think I could point to any particular scene in the opening episode and say that I saw any real overt signs of shounen-ai. As for the criticism and where it'll be a month from now, hard to say, I'd rather cross that bridge when it comes to it and focus on what the show gives me to go on. I'll leave it up to other people decide what it does for them, it just seems that early on this is a pretty common reception I'm seeing a lot more of lately and I personally wouldn't be so hasty to attribute things like shonen-ai or pandering to this or that crowd in a way that diminishes the quality of a story before I have sufficient evidence to form a basis for such an argument. That and it's just so bloody early in the shows run, that's the main thing here.

[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

I also hate how the word "fanboy" was thrown around. As if bashing the series' first episode is not enough.

The word "fujoshi" is also getting thrown around and it doesn't seem to bother anyone... :/ (You guys are aware that it's a derogatory term, right?)

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Yeah this thread is kind of getting special now. I'm not quite sure what exactly in this episode struck such a nerve that people are getting violent reactions to perceived BL, but I'm just looking forward to seeing what gets held against it next cause I honestly can't even guess.

Frankly, I think it's simply that some people feel betrayed that a show that is not being marketed as "GIRLY ANIME FEATURING PRETTY MEN, FOR GIRLS ONLY" features 1) pretty boys as ogling material for female viewers, 2) 2 seconds that can be interpreted as fanservice targeting a specific subset of (mostly) female viewers. And now they apparently feel threatened by the icky, girly, gay elements in what they expected to be macho shounen action (I have no idea where those expectations come from, though - have these people seen the promotional materials for this series? ), and have decided that the show is liek ttly BL because omg look at that!!! (Seriously, you'd think Kurou and Shiro were making out for like five minutes. And it's all the more ridiculous because you just know that if the characters were girls the same people would be celebrating instead of feeling ~disappointed!~ and ~betrayed!~)

The rest is, I think, simply the usual hype backlash. K had much hype, and now that it turns out it's not the second coming of [religious figure of choice] we see the arrival of the anti-hype squad. I've seen some absolutely ridiculous claims about it being The Worst Thing Ever!!! and Absolutely Horrible!!

[Kirarakim]

I couldn't even get through the first episode of K but I think the BL complaints are ridiculous as well.

As someone already said on this thread the anti-BL fan boys pretty much equal the fujoshi fangirls they complain about in obsessing over BL elements.

So a character blushed...the horror!


Edit: however I don't think we can say negative reaction to K was anti-hype. Was the show ever really hyped? Yes it had a nice looking trailer and a great cast but going in we really didn't know much about it. We still don't.

And I think it is kind of unfair to lump all complaints about K together as unrational. Some series work for some people and not for others.

[~Yami~]

K is truly a difficult anime.... although I don't mind about this confusing plot though...

well... this is quite interesting to watch.... I'll stick to see what Isana actually can do...

watching K makes me miss DGrayman so much... (when Yatogami appears, my reaction is "omg! Kanda Yu and Allen Walker!")

notes : why everyone talking about BL??? don't tell me this anime is ......

[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

Edit: however I don't think we can say negative reaction to K was anti-hype. Was the show ever really hyped? Yes it had a nice looking trailer and a great cast but going in we really didn't know much about it. We still don't.

And I think it is kind of unfair to lump all complaints about K together as unrational. Some series work for some people and not for others.

Of course not all criticism of/complaint about K is unrational. But I've seen numerous comments about K's horrible visuals, terrible CG (I wonder what people think is good CG if this is their idea of horrible...), unsalvageable script (what?), idiotic plot (...after 1 episode?), and how the show has no redeeming quality whatsoever. By just reading comments about the show one would think K is the worst anime ever, but at the very least somewhere on the level of Musashi Gundou...

As for the hype, I didn't really pay attention to pre-season promos but I've seen K come up pretty often, mostly because of all the secrecy about the project, and the nice trailer and great cast.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

The word "fujoshi" is also getting thrown around and it doesn't seem to bother anyone... :/ (You guys are aware that it's a derogatory term, right?)

It's become a badge of honor....just like "otaku."

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Of course not all criticism of/complaint about K is unrational. But I've seen numerous comments about K's horrible visuals, terrible CG (I wonder what people think is good CG if this is their idea of horrible...), unsalvageable script (what?), idiotic plot (...after 1 episode?), and how the show has no redeeming quality whatsoever. By just reading comments about the show one would think K is the worst anime ever, but at the very least somewhere on the level of Musashi Gundou...

As for the hype, I didn't really pay attention to pre-season promos but I've seen K come up pretty often, mostly because of all the secrecy about the project, and the nice trailer and great cast.

I thought the first episode of K was pretty bad but as I said before it was more how it was selling itself, that bothered me. Too much style over any actual substance.

It's certainly too early to write off the series. I know there are definitely series I dropped prematurely that turned out great. Not every anime has a good first episode.

For now though I probably won't continue because my fall season is already really busy. However if I hear that K did turn into something special I will pick it up again.


At the moment K most reminds me of Drrr. Now that I thought had a great first ep but it disappointed me in the end. Who knows maybe K will be the opposite.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

I couldn't even get through the first episode of K but I think the BL complaints are ridiculous as well.

As someone already said on this thread the anti-BL fan boys pretty much equal the fujoshi fangirls they complain about in obsessing over BL elements.

So a character blushed...the horror!


Edit: however I don't think we can say negative reaction to K was anti-hype. Was the show ever really hyped? Yes it had a nice looking trailer and a great cast but going in we really didn't know much about it. We still don't.

And I think it is kind of unfair to lump all complaints about K together as unrational. Some series work for some people and not for others.

K was never really hyped like say Little Busters or Psycho-Pass this season, but I do think there was some anticipation for it because of the trailer. I still don't know why people buy into hype so much though and assume it'll mean they'll like the show and it'll be to their tastes just because it's getting a lot of buzz. I mean it IS hype, most of that talk is all bluster based on what the producers want you to think about it going in with very little to base it on but a pure assumption that it will be that will astound. Usually I've found that when I like a series that has received a lot of hype it's either pure coincidence or it just so happens I'm predisposed to whatever the show presents me anyway. Usually in this case I tend to worry though as it means it's going to attract a lot of people that might not be so in tune with whatever is being presented and this will result in a huge backlash when it's not what they expected and possibly even result in some shall we say interesting conversations about the show. I think that's what we've seen here with K along with what I mentioned above, it's only a matter of how much it continues.

[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

I thought the first episode of K was pretty bad but as I said before it was more how it was selling itself, that bothered me. Too much style over any actual substance.

Which is absolutely valid criticism (hell, my very first comment in this thread was about K trying so very hard, and being style over substance), and I'm usually bothered by this sort of thing, too, except going by the first ep K actually has the budget, talent, and genuine eye and ear candy to make it work. I can see how it might turn people off - me, I just had a laugh at all the posturing and continued enjoying the episode. (I can't help but find K's utter shamelessness charming. T&A? In your face! Nudity? There you go! Catgirl and gothloli? But of course! Pretty boys? Come and get them! Pretty boys in uniforms wearing glasses? Here, have two! and so on... )

For me, this show is basically popcorn entertainment. I'm not really expecting anything deep or great from it, just pretty pretty visuals, ear candy and enjoyable characters.

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

It's become a badge of honor....just like "otaku."

It hasn't, not really. Sure it's been "reclaimed" by fujoshi themselves, but otherwise it's still used as a derogatory term (much like otaku).

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Which is absolutely valid criticism (hell, my very first comment in this thread was about K trying so very hard, and being style over substance), and I'm usually bothered by this sort of thing, too, except going by the first ep K actually has the budget, talent, and genuine eye and ear candy to make it work. I can see how it might turn people off - me, I just had a laugh at all the posturing and continued enjoying the episode. (I can't help but find K's utter shamelessness charming. T&A? In your face! Nudity? There you go! Catgirl and gothloli? But of course! Pretty boys? Come and get them! Pretty boys in uniforms wearing glasses? Here, have two! and so on... )

The thing is usually these things don't seem to bother people all that much. You get a little gothloli in there and a little fanservice and maybe you get a few chuckling comments, people post a few pics from magazines and that's usually it and then discussion turns towards the actual personalities of the characters. I think the real problem is indeed that all we got in the first episode to go off of was the visuals of these characters, that style over substance people talk about, so you get that criticism for these elements as being tropey. I would imagine once the personalties of the cast become more apparent you'll see a shift towards talk about that and people won't be as bothered by the "pandering" and what not.

The more I look at the thread the more I sort of understand why that reaction happened really, even if I still think it's hasty I now get the sentiments being expressed and the why.

[kuromitsu]

>Kaioshin Sama

Well, what you said - and the "omg he blushed, what is this yaoi shit" factor. Frankly, I think that was that ticked most people off, next to the "omg this makes no sense, where's my exposition?"

[mechalord]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

I'm quite amused at how this series is tagged as a "yaoi anime" with only one scene.
Judging from Yashiro's overall personality in episode 1, his reactions should not be expected as necessarily "normal". (Remember Yuuko Kanoe's personality?)

I read the description that this was a show about psychic people with magic power trying to kill each other.

The yaoi undertones were a little disconcerting even if they were brief... very brief. The main characters are sort of effeminate bishonen. I really hope they don't go that yaoi route. The intro has me worried.

I cringe.


At least I can go watch Psycho Pass, Code Breaker, or that other series with homicidal psychics set 1000 years in the future.


As for the animation...it's stylized, it's supposed to look like that. Sort of got the impression that they are trying to be "cool" and sort of borrow from the Persona series... just saying. Also borrowing a bit from Durarara.

[firetiger027]

Originally Posted by mechalord

The yaoi undertones were a little disconcerting even if they were brief... very brief. The main characters are sort of effeminate bishonen. I really hope they don't go that yaoi route. The intro has me worried.

I cringe.

At least I can go watch Psycho Pass, Code Breaker, or that other series with homicidal psychics set 1000 years in the future.

I really can't tell if you're being serious with this or not. Watch out, yaoi undertones are everywhere! If you're not careful they might... wait, what do you guys think will happen Seriously what do you think will happen if you watch a show with a little homolust? You'll turn gay? You'll turn in to a girl? I don't get it.

I can't believe people believe this would actually turn in to a yaoi anime. There will never be a yaoi anime with a high budget and good animation. It's never going to happen. It's like being worried that a big budget anime is suddenly going to turn in to a hentai. It's so stupid, you look like idiots.

There were lots of interesting things about this show that I didn't realize on watching it the first time. Like that Yashiro was humming Ode to Joy in his first scene like he was when he killed the Homura guy. There's some shrine called the Isana shrine. I don't know if he has a double personality or what but I think he's trying really hard to live a normal life and that he knows his life is fake. I'm really curious about whats going on so I can't wait for the next episode.