(L) K (Anime project)

[Kirroha]

I found a character relations chart:

Spoiler for Character Relations Chart:

Apparently Saruhiko and Yata used to be old friends turned rivals, Neko has romantic feelings for Yashiro (?), Anna possibly has a precocious crush on Mikoto because her arrow towards him is pink, and Neko and Kuroh hate each other (cat and dog much). Oh, and Seri and Kusanagi Izumo are friends or something.

[LKK]

@ Kirroha: Thank you for posting the character relationship chart in a spoiler. Mayhaps your analysis of the chart should also be in the spoiler, as well? Out of consideration for those of us who don't want to know about the relationships until they're revealed in the show.

[Julio C]

That was just great for a second episode. This is becoming one of my top shows for this season now.

[kuromitsu]

A translation of the chart with some plus info from the official site, and some speculation:

Spoiler for relationship chart:

The little crown means a King. Munakata Reishi: Blue King, Suou Mikoto: Red King, Kokujouji Daikaku: Gold King, Adolf K. Weismann: Silver King. Kurou's late master, Miwa Ichigen was the Colorless King before Shiro (or his lookalike) offed him and took his place.

Reishi and Mikoto are enemies (of course) but they also feel a kinship with each other, I suppose due to both of them being Kings and leaders of their respective organizations.

Within the Homra gang, as Kirroha said Anna may have a precocious crush on Mikoto (she's only 11). Tatara was one of the founding members of Homra (along with Mikoto and Izumo). Izumo and Mikoto go a long way back. Yata Misaki (aka girly-named Skateboard guy) and Rikio (big guy voiced by Nakamura Yuuichi) are best buddies, and Misaki respects Mikoto a lot.

Within Septer 4, Reishi has an as-of-yet unrevealed connection to the Gold King. Seri is Septer 4's Number 2 and serves Reishi as an advisor, and she finds Saruhiko difficult to deal with. In private Seri also associates with Izumo from Homra (hmmm...). Saruhiko is Number 3 in the organization, and while he doesn't hate Reishi he feels a sort of rivalry toward him since they have the same personality type. He and Misaki used to be friends and have a sort of fixation on each other. Saruhiko is pretty interesting to me - from what we know of him so far he doesn't seem very enthusiastic about being in Septer 4, apparently he's troublesome and has issues with his boss... so why is he there in the first place? (Never mind having a similar personality with Reishi - they even look alike to the point one would think them brothers!)

As for the Black&White&Cat group, Neko likes Yashiro (romantically?) and hates Kurou, and the hate is mutual (lol right, cat and dog ). The red arrow from Kurou to Yashiro is a bit weird because it actually says "suppress?" o_O) maybe I'm missing something here. Kurou also worships his late master like crazy. And as we already know Kukuri (the classmate girl) is interested in Shirou and she also has that random friend who was in ep 1.

As for Shiro, note the placement of the psycho card. It also confirms that both are voiced by Namikawa Daisuke, and actually the psycho card also has the name Isana Yashiro. A split personality is getting more and more likely...

Random thing I'm wondering about: Kurou introduced himself as the follower of the 7th King. Weissman is the 1st King, Kokujouji is the 2nd, Mikoto the 3rd and Reishi the 4th... so where's the 5th and the 6th? And does the Kings' combined power form a pretty, pretty rainbow?

Originally Posted by Triple_R

So, perhaps ironically, this show might have no actual BL at all.

That was pretty much a given from day 1... A show like this that tries to appeal to so many demographics would never include any actual BL. (That doesn't mean it can't have any service, though.) But of course you try to tell this to dozens of fanboys freaking out and feeling threatened in their manliness by the possibility of a male character finding another male character pretty. (OH MY GOD!)

[dark998]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

About the BL thing... We saw Shiro blush over naked catgirl in this episode. So, yeah, Shiro blushed over a guy holding him but Shiro also blushed over a catgirl.

So, perhaps ironically, this show might have no actual BL at all.

And Kuro also blushed over Neko, so yeah. No BL is almost confirmed. But of course some undertones will still be present to satisfy the fangirls

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

K suddenly turned into a comedy in Episode 2. But since it was actually a pretty good comedy, I guess that's Ok....

My sentiments exactly. Does what is going on make sense? Not really. But it's entertaining, for sure. They are combining serious and humorous, BL hints and naked girl, and cooking up a tasty dish. Is this something we can all enjoy, whatever our tastes and fetishes?

Originally Posted by justpassingby

I'm disappointed with the ED song. I still look forward to the full version and the PV though....

On the other hand, I loved it. High quality song and singing, for me. Komatsu Mikako doing well as both naked girl/cat and songstress. I also liked both of Angela's songs: the OP and the insert song.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

If you mean Shiro's classmate, she wasn't looking. In one second Kurou is there, the next he isn't. (Realistic? No. Rule of Cool/Funny/Etc? Yep.)

I don't even think it was played for Rule of Cool/Funny. It just seemed like a random moment that was completely out of touch with reality. Unless that girl has ridiculously narrow tunnel vision then she definitely should've noticed.

And the maid girl didn't notice Neko because apparently nobody can see her but Shiro and Kurou. The maid girl even says something along the lines of "weird, I didn't see anything." Also, Shiro is most likely an idiot and actually it seems to me he was more concerned about Neko than Kurou trying to kill them.

Well Neko being invisible was one of my thoughts at the time but I wasn't so sure. On second inspection it seems you might be right. I still don't see why Shiro would stop his pursuit of Neko to help the girl with the oranges other than to cheaply force in a scene where Kurou sees his acts of altruism, though.

At this point Kurou hasn't concluded anything (in fact he tried to attack Shiro before they all decided to get some food instead), it's just that he's tired and hungry, Neko is too strong for him to handle (or he's too dumb to figure out how to fight her), and from what he can tell Shiro is mostly harmless, so he decided to postpone the vengeance until after breakfast. And in any case, if there's anything we've learned about Kurou in this episode is that he's pretty naive and gullible, so... (Really, the more I see of him the more I'm reminded of Yukimura. He even did the same "HARENCHINA!!" freakout... XD The two of them would get along well.)

It's likely that Kurou will try to address the issue again, but I think the point here was that the three of them need to form a group somehow (if the promo videos are not lying Kurou will fight Munakata at one point, and Homra are chasing Shiro, so it's likely going to be the three of them against everyone else), and this was basically a prelude to them bonding and Kurou eventually finding out that Shiro is not evil and perhaps not even the guy he's looking for.

I don't see how you can suddenly decide to drop such an important issue the way Kurou did just because your tired and hungry without some shift in beliefs and priorities, especially when you're going from trying to kill someone to helping them cook a meal, but I guess the writers are really just trying their damn hardest to make them bond even when it just makes no sense and there's an over reliance of Rule of Funny.

I should've been more clear really. I do actually understand the Doylist reasons for such things. But it still baffles me.

[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by Haak

I don't even think it was played for Rule of Cool/Funny. It just seemed like a random moment that was completely out of touch with reality. Unless that girl has ridiculously narrow tunnel vision then she definitely should've noticed.

It's a pretty common visual gag, not only in anime. If you take it literally of course it doesn't make sense because it doesn't happen in reality, but you're not supposed to take it literally. I mean, if we're doing this we might as well be baffled over people not being baffled seeing Kurou jumping on lamp posts, and not panicking over the destruction that happened in the Kurou vs Misaki fight. (If you watch closely there's a bunch of pedestrians standing around and staring, but there's no screaming, no whipping out cellphones to film Kurou jumping around, etc.)

Originally Posted by Haak

I don't see how you can suddenly decide to drop such an important issue the way Kurou did just because your tired and hungry without some shift in beliefs and priorities

But he didn't drop the issue, he postponed it. It's just a cease-fire. Of course he could push it, but there's very obviously no point in doing so, so might as well give up for the time being and get some food and rest. (Besides, they'll need to go back to the issue sooner or later, if only to give some exposition on Shiro...). The thing about Kurou, he's just not the right person for this sort of job. His conviction wavered when Shiro claimed to be innocent. He managed to harden himself, but instead of executing Shiro right away, he got all emotional over Shiro's story about his sister, and gave him enough time to come up with an escape plan. And then when he finally tracked Shiro down, Kurou was stupid enough to get caught up in a cat-and-mouse (or rather, dog) game even though he was obviously on the losing side, wearing himself out in the process. And right now he's found himself in a very unexpected situation where he's not in control and ended up getting swept away, so to speak.

Basically, it's not horribly realistic but it's the sort of thing you don't need to think too deeply about. It's a bit like all those Looney Tunes cartoons when someone chases Bugs but Bugs takes control, presents the pursuer with some situation and they end up playing along.

***

ETA:
I was listening to the song during the preview of ep 3 to confirm if it's really Ono Daisuke singing, and uh, the lyrics... I can't hear it clearly because of the voiceover narration, but he seems to be singing about... cooking? XD;; At least I think the first part goes "naitekure tamanegi / mirai shinjite / utattekure ninjin [something something]" and toward the end before the English is "ore wa daidokoro ni tada hitori" (I'm all alone in the kitchen")... ;;

Oh my god, please please please let it be true! XD It may even top Vegeta's cooking song... (gah, Horikawa Ryou...! XD)

[Hiro Hayase]

Episode 2 definitely caught me off-guard!

LOL I believed Shiro when he said he had a dying sister. I did a facepalm when it turned out to be a lie and he escaped with style. The cat-and-dog game of tag with illusions was hilarious~

Shiro: "Don't judge a book by it's cover. It's wants inside that counts."
Me: Shiro that cunning guy

Btw how many episodes will this series have? 12?




P.S. To be honest Anna looks like she could be Shiro's sister as strange and absurd as it sounds.

[Kirroha]

I always found Shiro, Neko and Anna looking uncannily similar in the promotional materials. I'm willing to bet that either of them will turn out to be his sister, and that Shiro has some sort of familial relation with Weissman because of the white hair.

[GDiddy]

Now this episode made a little more sense...

Heh...I think I already love Yatagami(Black Dog guy)...he seems like he's going to be cool. And I think I like Neko too...

Still meh on Whitey-chan; all I keep thinking of whenever he's on is 'PAASSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'

[Kirroha]

Originally Posted by GDiddy

Now this episode made a little more sense...

Heh...I think I already love Yatagami(Black Dog guy)...he seems like he's going to be cool. And I think I like Neko too...

Still meh on Whitey-chan; all I keep thinking of whenever he's on is 'PAASSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'

He's such a manipulative bitch. I won't be surprised if it turns out he was really just the colorless king all this while, with no split personality or evil clone bullshit. And he probably wasn't so worried with Kuroh trying to kill him and all because he knew he would be able to fight back, worst comes to worst, and he just doesn't want to.

[Cyrogen]

Originally Posted by Kirroha

He's such a manipulative bitch. I won't be surprised if it turns out he was really just the colorless king all this while, with no split personality or evil clone bullshit. And he probably wasn't so worried with Kuroh trying to kill him and all because he knew he would be able to fight back, worst comes to worst, and he just doesn't want to.

Honestly, for the main character to turn around & yell "I was the Evil Overlord all along!" and then start trouncing people probably wouldn't make for a good series.

[Kirroha]

Originally Posted by Cyrogen

Honestly, for the main character to turn around & yell "I was the Evil Overlord all along!" and then start trouncing people probably wouldn't make for a good series.

Of course not. Which is why I'm hoping there's an interesting and suitable explanation for all of this. Split personality just seems too much of a cop-out - how many shows have we seen with the superpowered evil side coming out all of the time? Well, at least evil clone doesn't seem that likely.

Another possibility would be that evil!Yashiro is himself from the recent future. Who knows, maybe this series might cover time travel. And of course, there's always the possibility that Shiro was evil, and he remembers it, but he's trying to reform or something.

EDIT: Ah, nevermind. I just remember in Episode 2, Shiro himself thought that the video was strange, that it "seemed so real, as if it's actually me... that's odd", which means he probably doesn't remember it. I guess it's just going to be split personality then.

[Marcus H.]

It's possible that Neko was the killer, and she made the illusion to protect Shiro from the other clans.

[GDiddy]

Originally Posted by Cyrogen

Honestly, for the main character to turn around & yell "I was the Evil Overlord all along!" and then start trouncing people probably wouldn't make for a good series.

No, but it seems to work for other series.

Shiro: JUST AS PLANNED

Yeah, maybe Neko's the one who put that illusion up? But then again, the other Group with Skater Boi and Not Shizuo and Goth Loli want him dead too...

[for3ver]

neko doesnt seem like the type 2 be evil >> (seems 2 aloof 2 me)

also..

am i the only one that wants shiro's room? (although its rather small)

the flower decorations... would kill for them...

[Master_Yoma]

Well it seem that you can walk around as a furry and no one even bats an eye

[GDiddy]

Or in Kurou's case, a big ass sword.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Kirroha

I found a character relations chart:

Spoiler for Character Relations Chart:

Apparently Saruhiko and Yata used to be old friends turned rivals, Neko has romantic feelings for Yashiro (?), Anna possibly has a precocious crush on Mikoto because her arrow towards him is pink, and Neko and Kuroh hate each other (cat and dog much). Oh, and Seri and Kusanagi Izumo are friends or something.

Is this official?

Because Shiro is well listed as.....