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K: Missing Kings Review

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K: Missing Kings
Studio: Gohands
Publisher: Eleven Arts
Format: Cinema
Tickets & Showing Times: Available Here

Overview
There are many times that a movie of an anime series, especially one that aired less than two years before the film debuted, is relegated to being a simple recap that tries to tell a story in a condensed form and try to bring in new fans. Thankfully K: Missing Kings is not one of those types of movies and actually moves beyond the events that happened in K. The question is, does this movie do a decent enough job continuing from where the series ended in season one?

Story
It is worth noting that for those who have yet to see K that there will be spoilers for the first season in this review as this movie takes place after the major events that occurred at the end of the K season. That being said, K: Missing Kings picks up almost a year after the events that occurred near Ashinaka High School where the movie’s name gets its meaning as not only was the Red King slain in this battle but the Colorless King was also killed only for the Silver King to vanish.

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K: Missing Kings begins with the Blue King’s Scepter 4 clan being alerted to the fact that the Gold King’s base of operations is under attack from JUNGLE, the name of the Green King’s clansmen. With the Gold King being a man that holds insane amounts of influence in the world, the Blue King is surprised by the fact that JUNGLE is capable of infiltrating and dealing such heavy damage to the Gold King’s home.

Since the end of the first season, Kuroh and Neko have continued searching for the Silver King, Yashiro Isana, who they call Shiro. Unfortunately for them they have had little luck in tracking down their master’s whereabouts but they do see that Anna and Rikio of the disbanded HOMRA clan of the Red King are being attacked by an extremely skilled member of JUNGLE and Kuroh jumps to their rescue despite having to face off against one of his former allies with the Colorless King, Yukari Mishakuji.

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Despite their best efforts, Anna is kidnapped by the Green King’s forces as she is said to be a threat to their plans and also a tool to try and find the missing Silver King who appears to be the biggest threat to whatever the group is planning. With Anna being the only clue the two have, Kuroh and Neko must work together with what remains of HOMRA in order to infiltrate JUNGLE’s base and rescue the girl.

Thanks to the numerous questions that are left with viewers at the end of K, K: Missing Kings feels like a bit of a disappointment as very few of these questions are actually answered in any substantial form and even more questions are raised about what will be happening in the future. Some questions are answered of course, but it is pretty clear that the writers of the story are leaving most of the major revelations for what they are hoping will be another season. Especially since Nagara Hisui, the Green King, is never actually shown and how Scepter 4 and the Blue King play a very small role in the events that take place in the film.

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Instead this movie offers a ton of action packed fighting scenes with Kuroh, Neko, and Homra’s Yata battling against JUNGLE’s fighters with Anna providing some minor emotional impact alongside Yata. Of course at the same time one of the missing members of HOMRA returns from a research trip to also assist in the battle in what culminates in a step forward for the series. This all leaves off with a cliffhanger ending dropping more hints on the future and making it quite obvious that more K will be on the way if the movie turns out to be successful.

Visuals
One of the best things about K was how amazing the series looked and that same style has been replicated to great effect in K: Missing Kings. The stunning color palette from the original series is transferred perfectly into this movie and as mentioned earlier, there are a number of battles that take place between members of the old cast and the Green King’s clan and each of these battles are fluidly animated without a single noticeable drop in animation quality.

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That is nothing compared to how much detail has been put into the world of K. Everything in the background and foreground is usually moving or very detailed looking making every scene a delight for the eyes. It is worth noting that Neko again plays the fan-service role often in K: Missing Kings, though not as much as the series itself as the most viewers will see is a panty shot or two.

Audio
The Japanese voice cast from the original K anime have reprised their roles for K: Missing Kings and alongside the newly introduced characters each of the voice actors fit their roles quite nicely. There is some very nice sounding background music used throughout the film, especially during some of the more important battles. There is also a very striking piece of background music containing vocals that is used during one of the few emotional moments of the movie.

Overall
K: Missing Kings does very little to try and make itself appealing to newcomers as the story and the aspect of Kings and clansmen battling one another is a high barrier to overcome. This is a case where that is for the best however as this 73 minute movie instead tries to answer some minor questions while also taking a step forward and bring with it a number of new questions.

That being said, there is a feeling that not enough was really done to move the story forward in this film as what we are presented with feels like the writers’ hopes for making a second season while throwing a decent amount of action at viewers without revealing anything really important. As such, K: Missing Kings has a lot of what made the original series great, but is limited by the fact that it appears to be intended as a hopeful precursor to a second season.

8-0-capsules-out-of-10
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Travis Bruno
Travis Bruno
After playing games since a young age and getting into anime a bit later on its been time to write about a little bit of everything.