Fume Knight
HP: 10100
Skills: Sword Combo*, Fire Swing, Flaming Orbs*, Greatsword Combo*, Sprinting Thrust*
Souls: 84000


Difficulty: 5/5
Deaths: 20+



Now we move onto the best DLC in the game and probably the hardest boss in the game as well. The Iron King DLC is notorious for its infuriatingly tough bosses, and on top of the food chain (as well as the first boss of the DLC) is the Fume Knight. Let me just say, Raime is one tough son of a bitch, and he is EASILY the boss I died to the most in "Dark Souls II". That says ALOT. If you want to beat Fume Knight, you need to collect those smelter wedges and destroy the ashen idols that surround the Colosseum, otherwise he keeps healing. Hell even without them he's tough enough to give the likes of Artorias and Allant a run for their money.



Shit shit shit shit


The Fume Knight is INTIMIDATING. One look at him and you'll probably shit your pants as he lifts his massive ultra greatsword. This guy is no joke, he hits hard as hell and his attacks come in massive combo strings, one wrong move will probably lose you the fight if you aren't over leveled. He doesn't have a lot of attacks, but the problem with the Fume Knight is how relentless he is, and how hard it is to find openings to punish him. Combine that with his massive health pool and you get one hell of a boss that's ridiculously frustrating to fight against.


Sword Combo* - His only attack during the first phase. He swings multiple times with his regular sword and ends his combo with a greatsword swing. Note that the greatsword attack marks the end of his combo, so stepping in before he swings with that bad boy is bad news. Be careful as he can vary up his strikes to make his combo more confusing to predict.

Fire Swing - His 2nd phase attack. He lights his sword up and swings it ever so slowly in a 270 degrees arc. You can very easily roll through this, or just outrun his sword. However, this does a TON of damage if you are hit.

Flaming Orbs* - The biggest pain in the ass to deal with for this fight. He puts his sword into the ground and causes a swirling vortex of exploding orbs to orbit outwards. Roll backwards like crazy and keep an eye out for the orbs.

Greatsword Combo* - He swings a couple of times with his greatsword and ends with a slam. If you are caught in the entire combo even once you are probably dead, otherwise, be EXTREMELY careful in how you punish him, because he recovers FAST.

Sprinting Thrust* - Similar to Smelter Demon, he runs up and stabs you hard. Hurts like hell and is extremely fast, though he doesn't usually followup with any combos. Very potent in punishing you for healing.



The Fume Knight is a test of your skills and patience. There's really nothing I can write about here strategy wise, because this is a straight melee to the death, where the odds are HEAVILY stacked against your favor. Magic and other ranged methods work poorly against him due to his massive resistances, so melee is the best way to slug it out with him. There's really no easy way out to the Fume Knight other than to "Git Gud", because he's simply all about his melee combos and nothing else.




You chugging away in his face?


The first phase of the battle is simply ALL about looking out for his greatsword swing. His simple sword strikes are fast, but they can be blocked without too much effort with a good shield. He always ends his combo with his greatsword swings, which you should always dodge, followed by punishing him. Rinse and repeat until he is at 60% HP, in which he combines both weapons into a massive, flaming cleaver of death. When the Fume Knight initiates phase 2 of the battle, this is where things get a little rough. He starts becoming ALOT more aggressive, and he gets a slew of new attacks.


Other than regular greatsword combos, he does one of 2 things. Either he baths his sword in more fire and does a slow motion left to right swing, OR engulfs himself in flames to send out a bunch of rotating, exploding orbs. Of the 2, the latter is a lot more dangerous, and you should always look out for that attack, as it is RIDICULOUSLY hard to avoid and does an insane amount of damage. When you see the Fume Knight put his sword into the ground, it means he;s about to use this attack, so the first thing you need to do is roll the hell away as much as you can. As the orbs start to orbit outwards, look for gaps in the orb formation and slip through them. The orbs move FAST, so you'll need to be on your toes as well. The Fume Knight likes to attack immediately after this, so DO NOT look to punish and get ready to avoid his next move.



The swing of his life.


The other signature attack is his Fire Swing, a slow, greatsword swipe that engulfs a massive area in front of him as he swings from left to right. Its a very powerful attack, but its easy to avoid. As he draws his sword and prepares to swing from his left, back away, when he starts the swing, run to him and get a few free hits in. Alternatively if you are ballsy enough, you can roll through the sword or simply outrun the swing and get behind him, either way, this attack is easily punished and should be your go-to attack for a breather (healing during this move is also smart).


Other than these 2 attacks, he resorts to his greatsword combos, which are a lot more deadly than you think. If he swings more than twice and you get hit by all of his attacks, consider yourself dead, instantly. These are incredibly powerful and fast blows, blocking isn't a good idea as your stamina won't last long. He is HIGHLY unpredictable when performing his combos, so when looking to punish, I suggest a fast weapon that can let you roll quickly after you attack. Also, if you want to heal, WAIT for him to use Fire Swing, because preemptive healing will simply get you gutted by his Sprinting Thrust, which is simply a re-skin of Smelter Demon's attack.


The Fume Knight is a complete nightmare of a boss. He rewards you 84000 souls upon death, as well as giving you the DLC crown. However, the DLC is not done, there are even more bosses to test your mantle.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------







Sir Alonne
HP: 10140
Skills: Dash Strike, Katana Combo*, Backstep Thrust, Kick, Bewitching Stab*, Dark Slash*, Dark Explosion, Parry*
Souls: 80000


Difficulty: 4/5
Deaths: About 10



Alonne is only accessible after beating the Fume Knight, what can be worse after beating the toughest boss in the game? Well, not much. Still, the walk to Alonne is a brutalizing one, albeit it IS quite short, thank the heavens for that. When you finally do reach Alonne at the end of the "Memory Of The Old Iron King", you are greeted with one of the most badass fights in Souls history. Alonne might just be the coolest samurai in the franchise, and he's here to teach you a few tricks.



Here we go, mano to mano!


Sir Alonne is pretty much one manly sword fight between 2 swordsmen. He comes at you with all he's got with juking slashes and his own combos. While they are nothing to be sneezed at, he's much easier than the Fume Knight. His attacks are easily be blocked, though its much more recommended for you to learn his patterns and dodge, because blocking his attacks can be quite a burden on your stamina, which he can punish, as he is quite relentless. He's got quite a few tricks up his sleeve, but if you're fully dedicated to keeping it a melee battle, its manageable after some memorization. 


Dash Strike - He dashes towards you and swings upwards, leaving himself open to a few attacks. This is your attack to punish.

Katana Combo* - A series of simple slashes which can be dodged or blocked, though his last hit always has him jumping back for either a Dash Strike or a Backstep Thrust.

Backstep Thrust - He quickly does a back-step and thrusts forward with his katana. Can be easily sidestepped and punished, though he can catch you off guard with this.

Kick - Just a simple kick, mostly used to knock your shield off balance if you are stubborn enough to bring one to the fight.

Bewitching Stab* - His sword glows for a few seconds, then he stabs you quickly. If you are hit, he is buffed in the damage department. The stab itself is unblockable, and it comes out incredibly quickly, so its best to just back the hell away with multiple rolls when you see him start-up the attack.

Dark Slash* - A straightforward slash projectile that he uses from a distance. While it doesn't do THAT much damage, its a pain in the ass if he uses it randomly and catches you off guard.

Dark Explosion - He jumps into the air, then lands on your location, creating a mini explosion. 

Parry* - As simple as it sounds, he readies his blade for a parry. Just...don't hit him as he's doing this.



Quite a lot of attacks to go through, but in all seriousness, you won't see most of them if you are fully committed to staying close to him. Like Fume Knight, most of his kill moves come from the Katana Combo, which he wholeheartedly spans in close range. His strikes are quick, but easy to dodge, and you can easily get behind him for the punish. Do note that the end of his combos always has him do some sort of juking move, either the Dash Strike or Backstep Thrust, so quickly punish him and move away.



Raime vs Alonne? The dream fight.

After some atacks, Alonne likes to reposition himself far away for Dash Strikes. If he does this, its actually good for you, as its his easiest move to punish. After a Dash Strike and he's in melee range, he most likely will try to hit you with his combo, otherwise, its one of his few other moves. He can do a Backstep Thrust normally without it being in a combo, and he can try to hit you with Bewitching Stab, which is unblockable and hard to predict. If he hits you with that, he'll get a damage buff, which is never fun, so avoid this at all costs by moving the hell away. He'll try kicking you as well, though this is barely any trouble to you if you aren't using a shield.


Finally, he has a few ranged attacks which he might use when he's near death. These include Dark Slash, a fast moving, unpredicatable projectile, or Dark Explosion, which is basically another version of Smelter Demon's jumping explosion move. Keep punishing his Dash Strikes and you should be gold. Do note that Alonne CAN parry if you see him keep his sword low to the ground, pelt him with ranged attacks when you see that.


Alonne goes down like a champ, and even commits sepuku if you took no damage. Either way, 80000 souls for your victory. The DLC isn't quite over yet though, as you will be greeted with one final, shitty boss fight with an old friend...


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------







Smelter Demon (Blue)
Skills: Sword Swing Combo*, Quick Sword Thrust*, Sword Slam*, Flame Body, Flame Sword*, Sword Plunge
Souls: 75000

Difficulty: ?(4)/5
Deaths: 0



Words cannot describe how HARD I rolled my bloody eyes when I saw this thing appear before me. I hated the original Smelter Demon to the core as I fell victim to its attacks a COUNTLESS amount of times. To see a re-skin after going through one of the best DLCs in the game was rather anti-climatic, and rather silly. Either way, its the exact same boss as before with VERY minor changes, so you pretty much know what to expect from this flaming, greatsword wielding toddler.


There's really not much to say about this dude. He uses the same attacks as his red cousin, though this time, his attacks do magic damage instead of fire damage. I actually thought they were going to do a Yellow and Dark Smelter Demon boss battle, featuring lightning and dark damage.....Still, the Blue Smelter Demon's difficulty high varies on how much you've memorized fighting the first Smelter Demon, because I beat this asshole on my first try, since fighting the original Smelter was already something that was hammered deep into my skull.



Sword Swing Combo* - A combination of horizontal and/or vertical slashes. Each and every swing he takes comes at a different speed, making this attack quite tough to avoid at times. The longer the battle drags, the more swings he takes, and he can swing up to 3 times. Can be blocked to a certain extent when he hasn't used Magic Sword.

Quick Sword Thrust* - When you are far away from him, he lunges towards you with great speed and thrusts his sword at you for some good damage. Can be dodged by rolling to the side, but this will almost always catch you off guard if you heal at the wrong time.


Sword Slam* - He slowly slams his sword down with an overhead stance. Easily dealt with normally, but when he has used Magic Sword, this causes a massive, Magic shock wave to emit from his sword.


Magic Body - He lights his body with magical flames for the rest of the fight, dealing minor damage over time to you if you stand near him. He also explodes, dealing AOE damage


Magic Sword* - He buffs his sword, engulfing it in magical flames, empowering all his attacks, making them do magic damage...as well as giving some of his attacks new properties. This magic effect chips through most shields for considerable damage.


Sword Plunge - He jumps into the air and plunges his sword down, hard. Easily dodged. After using Magic Sword, he can do an AOE magic burst after landing, so make sure you keep your distance.





Not again.


What did I say? Well, other than him exploding after using his Magic Body buff, there's really nothing new to talk about. His delay patterns are slightly different from the original Smelter Demon, but only by so much, I didn't even feel much of a difference, dodging him similarly to the old Smelter Demon will work just fine here. If you dodge and go ham on the bastard, there's really not much this fella can do if you've already seen through his techniques.


If by some miracle you DO have problems with this guy (how did you even get pass Vanilla Smelter?), do the same cheesy technique that I mentioned against Vanilla Smelter. Go grind for a magic block shield and just block everything this guy throws at you, then punish him with one attack. Rinse and repeat until he dies.


With the Blue Smelter dead, you get 75000 souls, and it also marks the end of the Iron King DLC. 2 great bosses and one that's not so great, its kind of a better deal than the Sunken king DLC. Next time, we tackle the final piece of the DLC, so stay tuned!




Opening Songs
OP 1 - Embrace Blade (Afilia Saga)

Ending Songs
ED 1 - Calling My Twilight (Kanako Itou)

Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

Episodes: 12



Another day, another action/fantasy harem, what's new? Everyone loves their daily dose of super powered teens in their super powered high school settings, "Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon" is not much different from most shows in the genre. I'll be nicknaming it "35th Test Platoon" for short because of its obnoxiously long full title, and for simplicity's sake. When we go through "Test Platoon", there's many things we'll need to compare to most other harems with similar genres, and there's one thing that "Test Platoon" manages to accomplish that other harems don't. Its slow, and its boring. Outside of the final few episodes, this is probably one of the most uninteresting combat high school harems. There's little to lift "Test Platoon" above its competitors, and because of that, it obviously falls quite flat. Here's why.



The only character and reason why this show isn't a complete slop.

For an anime I don't quite like, this show actually has very decent theme songs. "Embrace Blade" by Afilia saga is the opening theme, and its honestly quite thrilling to listen to. It may not be straight out rocking or insanely epic, but its catchy. It almost doesn't sound like an opening theme to an action anime, but it works here. The ending theme "Calling my Twilight" by Kanako Itou, who is a very talented anisong artist. Anyway, "Calling My Twilight" is a slower approach by her, and while its not as good as many of her other songs, its still quite powerful here thanks to her vocals.



Rating: 6.5/10



I can think of many other shows that I'd rather introduce to someone who likes their fair share of action/high school/harem shows. "Test Platoon" is just not interesting enough to carry through, and while some of its episodes are clearly better than others, the overall ratio of good episodes vs bad episodes isn't so good. The main character cast is generally cliche, with the exception of a very small few likable ones. Other than Ikaruga, I can't seem to grow attached or like any other of the other main heroines, which is quite a shame. Also, for an "Action" themed anime, the show is pretty criminal for taking making the action scenes so bland. There's not much action here, and even the supposed action segments are seriously so lazily done. The plot for most arcs are uninteresting, and honestly only the final arc with Kusanagi's sister is decent. 


Typical of 2 heroines trying to impress the MC.

Kusanagi Takeru is a typical underdog hero in a modern age setting. In a world where magic weapons, sci-fi guns and overpowered summons are used to combat the forces of evil, he's a puny swordsman wielding nothing but a family heirloom sword. He's one of the very few people left in the world still using one, though he is fairly well trained through his family teachings, he's considered a washout by most of his school mates. Speaking of which, he is enrolled into the Anti-Magic Academy, a school training students to do combat against evil magic users that try to threaten peace and society. He belongs to the 35th platoon, which is considered a failure of a platoon, wielding the lowest grades and scores among the school. Within it are girls that can never work together, Usagi and Ikaruga. Though they are individually quite decent, their teamwork is all over the place. One day, they are joined by Oka Otori, a genius gun user, and things start to take a turn for the weird...


"Test Platoon" just isn't good enough to stand in this overpopulated and over saturated genre of action/magic/high school animes. I mean, it isn't good enough to be remembered as a good one, it'll just be one of those shows that you'll watch and throw aside, not remembering it again. There are better shows out there, even for fans of the genre, this isn't one for you.

Gamespot Score: 8.0 (Great)

My Score: 8.0


(+) Pros: - Excellent blend of EO into a "Persona" game, - Decent story filled with fun-loving characters from "Persona" 3 & 4, - Regular "Persona" styled combat is a lot more strategic this time, - Fusing personas is still a blast, - Brings forth a ton of content and replay-ability with quests, post game bosses and even 2 possible play-throughs with 2 protagonists.

(-) Cons: - Its not quite there as an EO game, and its not really there as a "Persona" game either, - Starts losing momentum about halfway through the game, though the final stretch is really good.


Gameplay Time: 50 Hours+





As a huge fan of both the "Persona" and "Etrian Odyssey" franchises, "Persona Q" was simply a love letter that would be answered in a matter of time. When the game was first announced, I had a boner so large that even my largest pair of pants couldn't contain the raging erection within. Still, I held off playing "Persona Q" for a long time, and when I finally did, I felt the fun of it full force. It was EXACTLY as I imagined how a crossover between the 2 franchises would be. However, the fears of the game not being able to achieve the best of the 2 franchises that spawned it also came through, which is main reason why it took me so long to finish this game. Still, its a great entry point for "Persona" fans into EO, as well as it is the other way round, for EO fans to get into "Persona". On its own though, its simply a great JRPG dungeon crawler with a lot of character, and sometimes that good enough.



The velvet siblings having a typical 300 course lunch prepared by Theodore.

The game can be played with 2 different protagonists and can feature 2 different perspectives. Since its a crossover game, it obviously centers on the 2 protagonists from "Persona 3" and "Persona 4". The story takes place somewhere in the middle of both games, and since its in an alternate world, fabrics of time crossed, so all characters' ages are as they should be in their respective games. Anyhow, both protagonists were minding their business as usual, until a certain trip to the velvet room ended up with Igor being missing. Suddenly, their entire parties got transported to their respective velvet rooms, and both "Persona 3 & 4" parties were brought into an alternate world. This world was an alternate Yasogami high, and they encounter a pair of mysterious students, Zen and Rei. To make things even more mysterious, this world is inhabited by massive labyrinths and shadows. Both investigation teams gear up for a journey unlike any other, as they attempt to solve the mystery of this strange world.



Nothing like pulverizing low grade shadows with
the most badass team around.

The game is what is looks like, its a blend of a "Persona" and "Etrian Odyssey" game. Honestly, its more EO than "Persona", but in another's eyes, it can be the other way around. Think of playing through an "Etrian Odyssey" game with "Persona" characters and cutscenes. As for the combat....its really a mix of both, leaning SLIGHTLY more to "Persona". The game navigation is all EO though, so don't worry about that. Anyway, its almost like the 2 games were meant for one another, since "Persona" games always had sub-par to decent dungeon crawling at most, adding EO's dungeon crawling mechanics was a welcome addition. Its really a nice way to introduce a "Persona" fan into EO's style, as its not difficult to fall in love with the ease of navigation and excellent map drawing, adding a sense of discovery which no "Persona" game can offer (at least to this date).


As we all know, until the introduction of the "Untold" games to the "Etrian Odyssey" games...EO games haven't really been too big on their story. To fix that, "Persona" comes into play again, because the storytelling here is ALL on the "Persona" franchise. It adds its colorful cast of characters from both the P3 and P4 games to bring forth this massive orgy of fun and love. If you've played and loved both games, this game is a gigantic ball of fan service. Character interactions that you would never thought be possible can happen here, and the dialogue between most characters are so fun to listen into. The P3 cast's slightly more serious characters are a well match for the lighthearted mood of the P4 cast. The new characters Zen and Rei are pretty alright, and the entire story itself is decent at best, but the inclusion of so many amazing, nostalgic characters make the story a blast to play through.



Well, she kind of IS one....


Now let's get into the meat of the game. As I mentioned before, the navigation of the game is similar to "Etrian Odyssey". You go into labyrinths from the main "town screen", which is basically the school, then you explore these labyrinths as if they were stratums from EO. Before that, you gear up and select your team, composed of the all-stars from both P3 and P4. You really get the best of both worlds here, as you can compose your 5 man team with a combination of characters from both P3 and P4, whatever sick ass combination you can think of, you can do it here. You gear them up and arm them with personas, then you choose your navigator (between Fuuka and Rise, and NO they are NOT just for cosmetic purposes, they actually bring different effects into battle) before plunging into these dungeons. When you're finally in the dungeons running about, its all EO. You have a map on the bottom screen which you can map out (or let the game auto map it for you like a scrub), complete with EO standards like shortcuts, FOEs, treasure chests and the like.


When you're into combat against shadows, the game truly mixes both "Persona" and "Etrian Odyssey" together. The 5 man-styled party with front and back-line formations is exactly like EO, and the characters are even classified into archetypes. Characters like Yukari and Naoto are labeled as casters and are recommended into the back line, while hard hitters like Kanji, Chie or Shinji are relegated up front as fighters. Who takes the hit actually matters here, and it even includes new abilities reminiscent to EO skills that let you defend team mates or follow up link attacks. Otherwise, the rest is like "Persona", hitting a shadow with a weak element will knock it down, knock all shadows down and your characters can perform an all out attack. Sound familiar? This applies to bosses and FOEs as well, that's assuming these bastards even HAVE weaknesses.



The epic team-up. Its a no-brainer and every Persona fan's dream to
have both protagonists in the same team.

There's more to "Persona Q"'s combat than that though. This time, hitting an enemy's weakness will "boost" up the character who struck at the weak point. A boosted character will always move first next turn, and their ability will have no cost. This is great for sustaining through long dungeons, considering how quickly most characters run out of juice, and its also great for setting up specific strategies.  Also, now that all characters can hold multiple personas, it adds a whole level of depth to combat. Yes you heard that right, now everyone can hold 2 personas in battle, meaning that you can try a whole lot of different strategies and alternatives that you could never do in "Persona 3" or "Persona 4". Combined with the fact that plenty of new abilities have been added into the game, there are a whole lot of team combinations that can be tried out. 


Now that multiple personas can be used by everyone, its an even more dire need that you go hunting for personas, much more so than before. You can get them through doing well in normal battles, then you can get more by performing the ever so addicting persona fusion. As usual, by combining 2 or more different personas, you can get a completely new one that inherits the abilities and traits of the previous 2. Like before, there's a formula to persona fusion, and its always a joy to create the perfect persona for your party members, inheriting the best possible abilities to create the ultimate killing machine. Instead of one unstoppable psychopathic shadow slayer in your protagonist in previous "Persona" games, you now get a whole team of them if you bother to invest the time. 



Neither Aigis, he's a dumbass. A really fluffy one.

Now, with both "Persona" and "Etrian Odyssey" games being long as heck with a shitload of content in them, its only natural that "Persona Q" is ALSO boat-loaded with content. In each of the floors in the respective labyrinths, having a 100% map completion will net the player a chest that contains a really good item, meaning that there's actually an INCENTIVE to fully map out these areas, unlike the EO games where you do it for the sake of future convenience. There are also plenty of quests, which come in as regularly as they do in EO, whenever you finish a floor. Elizabeth is a complete waifu when she's issuing and briefing you on these quests, making them quite fun to listen through her instructions. While some of these are just material hunting quests, shadow hunting quests or simple labyrinth navigating quests, there are the occasional quests which involve you just hanging out with your team mates, which are fun and full of funky character interactions.


Following those quests we even have post-game content, including secret bosses and you guessed it, much more optional quests. Unfortunately, we don't have a secret 6th stratum here, but there ARE plenty more ways to eek out the most of your game. Like playing through the game a second time with the other protagonist. While a good portion of the game is the same, there are a ton of different dialogue between different characters and cut scenes that make it worth your time. The game even rewards you if you play the game twice with 2 characters, giving you a super secret optional boss that is SO HARD that it rivals that of other SMT super bosses.



Elizabeth takes charge in fusing as the
oldest of the Velvet sibling trio.

As for the cons of the game, there really is only one major flaw. It hits neither of the "Persona" or "EO"'s STRONGEST points. While it has a colorful cast of characters, there aren't any socializing options that let you get really invested into your team mates, the game simply relies on you already knowing these folks well enough to let you enjoy these cut scenes. A newcomer seeing these cut scenes won't feel as invested enough, seeing as they don't know these characters too well. Part of what makes "Persona" so fun is living an everyday life, this is absent as well. The combat, while an improvement over "Persona" games, cannot be compared to the highly in depth nature of the EO games. There's just not enough variety of skills or character types for us to truly be invested into making how each fight counts. There is just that huge lack of character customization in here that's present in EO games. This just makes the mid-game drag out, as you're not really feeling a significant change in your character's strengths and weaknesses, though late game, this does get significantly better with end game personas and power spikes.



Overall, "Persona Q" is a fun game that brings out some high points of the games that it was inspired from. However, its not as deep as it wishes to be, and that hurts it quite a fair bit. Its still an amazing experience though, and that doesn't stop the fact that game is one gigantic ball of fan service anyway. Its really hard not to enjoy it as long as you're a fan of either "Persona" or "EO", and the game is twice more fun if you're a fan of both. It might be the end of the "Persona 3" and "Persona 4" saga, but it sure ended with a bang with "Persona Q".






Happy Gaming!



Opening Songs
OP 1 - Asymmetry (Yui Horie)

Ending Songs
ED 1 - Solution (CustomiZ)

Genre: Action, Magic, Drama, Science Fiction

Episodes: 13



I didn't really enjoy "K" after the first season or so. The movie, while decent to some extent on its own, didn't recapture the interest that was already lost after its long absence since the end for the first season. So naturally, I just about burned out from the franchise itself, so I was kind of reluctant going into season 2. However, since its not in my blood to abandon shows that I've already invested time into (just like how I'll find one day to rush every single DRRR season after the first), I ended up fully committing to "K: Return Of Kings", despite not enjoying the first few episodes. To be kind of frank, I feel like its a girl's show. Back then I said that this was suitable for both guys and girls, but the more I watched it, the more I felt that its more leaned towards its fan service in its bountiful of pretty boys. Still, there is serviceable story here, and the animation is pretty damned good. While I didn't enjoy it as much, it surely DOES hold its standards high.




Let's get our pretty boys on in here.

While I do like Angela I feel like I've grown a bit tired of their style of songs, so having the opening theme of "Return Of Kings" sang by Yui Horie was a welcome change. Horie is the seiyuu of Anna, so its quite fitting to have her sing the opening theme here. Its an alright song, it feels edgy enough to portray the show being at its climax, and it has its strong moments. The ending theme is "Solution" by Customiz, and its actually not a bad song. Its a very classic, old school, early 2000s rock song that'll easily pass off as something you'd want to listen to after the first few seconds, instead of skipping it.



Rating: 7.0/10



Remember that this is my own personal rating. "K" had long lost its appeal during the time I watched "Return Of Kings", so it didn't really speak to me that much. What's more, the lack of returning protagonist Shiro for a good early portion of the series had me lost a lot of interest, as I didn't really give a flying f**k about Kuroh or any of the other kings (even though he wasn't that much interesting, I was just used to him being the main dude). Following the story of the movie, the plot for "Return Of Kings" was quite predictable and honestly, quite stale. There weren't many twists and the overall ending lacked impact. The 2 good things the show had were its top notch animation (which had segments that they re-used, mind you) and its music. Other than that, I felt myself dragging through the final few episodes of the show, which says something.



At least we have pretty boys going ham against one another.

Following the story of the movie, the green clan was about to wreck the balance between the other clans and cause some havoc, all because the all-powerful golden clan was finally out of wack since its geezer of a king died. With Anna awakening as the king of the red clan, and with Munakata's reign as the blue clan's king ending, they had to make a truce with one another to stop the green clan and its all powerful king. While all this was going on, Kuroh and Neko were still desperately trying to find their king, Shiro, the leader of the silver clan. They were running out of time though, as the green clan's headhunter Yukari had already set his eyes on Kuroh. With the green clan's rise in power and an all out war between the clans that was bound to happen coming up, Shiro watches from above on the blimp that started it all, preparing himself to join the fray....to end everything once and for all.



"K:Return Of Kings" is an alright sequel. For fans of the series, its more of the same with very little that's changed, and that might be a good thing for some. If you're expecting any sort of improvement outside of the animation, there's nothing much going for it, so keep that in mind going in.