Review: Missing Kings

 

Movie: K: Missing Kings

Studio: GoHands

Duration: 1 hr. 13 min.

Aired: Jul 12, 2014

Genres: Action, Fantasy, Supernatural

 

Synopsis:

K:Missing Kings takes place a year after the 13 episode series K’s ending. Shiro is still missing and his clansmen are doggedly searching for him despite the lack of evidence concerning his survival.

Meanwhile, a new hostile clan has come out to play. The Greens kidnap Anna Kushina, member of the kingless Red Clan, and it falls to the orderly Blue Clan as well as the broken Silver Clan to rescue her before her powerful abilities can be misused. But that won’t be easy when the eminent Gold Clan is on the verge of falling, effectively plunging all of the active clans into a desperate struggle for power.

(Spoilers for the first season of K)

Review:

This is the first movie I’m reviewing so I’ve changed the format a little.

Missing Kings is set a year after K which ended with the apparent death of the Silver King Adolf K. Weissman a.k.a Isana Yashiro. We’ll just call him Shiro. Despite Shiro’s disappearance, his two clansmen, Neko and Kuroh, refuse to believe that he’s dead and continues to search for him. It’s not as foolish as it sounds since Shiro is known as the Immortal King and is capable of regeneration. But a year of searching has yielded no results whatsoever.

However, it’s not on the search for Shiro that the movie focuses but rather on the nearly defunct Red Clan and to a lesser extent on the Blue Clan. With their King dead and the most powerful clansmen either absent or unstable, HOMRA is in shambles. Their resident seer Anna’s abilities are fluctuating oddly and she’s then kidnapped by the Green Clan which had stayed in the shadows until that point. They also attack the territory of the ruling Gold Clan in an attempt to wrest power from them. Naturally, the Blue Clan is drawn into the conflict as they function as a preternatural police force. This chaos with five of the seven clans involved makes up the story of Missing Kings.

It’s a good story too. There’s nothing too complicated going on, just a straightforward series of events that require prior knowledge of the series to properly appreciate. Plus the conclusion is a blatant sequel hook and the second season continues from where the movie ends.

The inverse is also true since skipping this and jumping to the second season will leave you unaware of some important development underwent by a few of the existing characters and will also deprive you of the introduction of a couple of new characters. In short, Missing Kings act as a bridge connecting the events of K and Return of Kings, and does quite a good job of it as well.

As for the other aspects, the animation is even more fluid than before and the fight scenes are a feast for the eyes. The music is great as well, particularly during some of the more exciting moments.

 

Rating:

7/10