Good day to you. I am Mira and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Today I will be doing a solo review of a movie and that movie is K: Missing Kings. As you all know I’m a big fan of the K series and after the completion of the first season fans were on the edge of their seats wondering what was going to happen to next. Was Shiro really dead? What’s going to happen to Homura and what about the other clans out there, what are they up to? Well, after 2 years of waiting GoHands finally announced that they were going to make a sequel to the series in 2015 and to help tie us over they created the movie Missing Kings in 2014 which serves as a prequel to the second season which we’ll get into at a later date but for now we’re looking at the Missing Kings which continues the story of K and shows us what happened after the events of the first season. Enough stalling, let’s take a look at Missing Kings.
So the movie starts off with a shot of the city at night (what a lovely view *takes a picture*). But the moment gets ruined by the Green clan aka Jungle attacking the Gold clan the clan that pretty much keeps order in Japan and guards the Slates which is the source of the king’s powers. We get a good contrast of fighting styles here. The Gold clan is more ninja-like and into the mystic arts while Jungle is more into modern technology and try to overwhelm their opponents with it (in a way it’s like Yin-Yang and me fighting each other. Yin-Yang relies on her martial arts and ninja techniques to win while I rely on my advanced technology and perfect strategies to out think her. It’s a clashing of the old ways vs the new ways). Scepter 4 gets called in by Risei to help the Gold clan and they manage to force Jungle to retreat (you win this time old ways. But the new ways shall control the world). The next day we find out a year has passed since the events of the first season (wow one year? Usually it’s a month), Kuroh and Neko left the city and split up in the hopes of finding Shiro and have just reunited in the city with each other where they both had no luck in finding him (how can he be so hard to find?). While talking to Kikuo, Neko spots Anna and a member of Homura being chased by a cyber ninja (it’s like a regular ninja only cooler and more high tech). Kuroh chases the ninja away where they find out they want to use Anna’s powers to find Shiro since he’s a threat to Jungle’s operation. We also find out that Homura has pretty much disbanded after Mikoto’s death (well that proves how close they were). Kuroh and Neko decide to bring Anna back to their school dorm for safety but along the way they get approached by Yukari a high ranking member of Jungle and Kuroh’s senpai who despite being a man is rather feminine. The two fight where Yukari beats him and Anna gets captured by the cyber ninja. The Homura member rushes to Yata and tells him what happened where Yata swallows his pride and asks Fushimi for help on where to find Anna. Fushimi also tells Risei about the powers of Jungle such as manipulation of physics meaning they can pass through walls and they have enhanced strength (wow, this clan sounds perfect for me. Just call it the Purple clan and we’re good to go). Also, Risei seems to like ninjas (scene here: //youtu.be/_YAaiIDs0uU, I guess it’s true. All boys love ninjas).
We see that Anna is being held captive in Mashira Tower now under Jungle rule (see, I told you the news would control the world. All hail the Purple clan, Starlight. Our light shall shine throughout this dark world and lead them down the right path. Join now and receive your own custom-made glasses. Our operators are standing by). Neko wants to go charging in but Kuroh says only a fool goes charging into enemy territory without knowing his enemy. Yata comes charging in (ask and you shall receive) and breaks into the building alone (careful, it’s a jungle in there. Haha, you’ve got to appreciate what I did there) with Kuroh and Neko right behind him. Kuroh and Yata fight their way to the top where Kuroh has a rematch with Yukari and Yata takes on the cyber ninja. As everyone is fighting Kusanagi comes in where we find out he’s been in Germany for the last few months researching the slates (you could have left a message for the gang). He whispers something into Anna’s ear which sends her into a dream realm where she meets Mikoto and Tatara who tell her it’s time to accept her new role as the new Red King (scene here: //youtu.be/ZFmCTYAJLLw, woah major upgrade character wise. Seriously, she went from a side character only having 2 or 3 scenes and only 2 lines of dialog to main character just like that). So Anna becomes the Red King and escapes her cage reawakening the power within the rest of Homura’s members (scene here: //youtu.be/QK4SvtuBVQk). Yata takes down the cyber ninja who turns out to be a woman (did not see that coming) and Kuroh still loses to Yukari but he’s no longer afraid to fight him anymore. Yukari is told to retreat by the Green king who welcomes Anna by firing a lightning cannon at her and everyone else in the tower (okay I didn’t know Jungle had access to a mini-Death Star. God, this clan was practically made for me. But not to worry my little stars for our death star shall be the size of Jupiter and use the planet’s core as its power to crush all those who oppose us *evil laugh*). Anna tries to repel the attack but she’s still not used to her new powers and still weak (they’re all going to die). Luckily, Risei comes in to save them and repels the attack saving everyone (scene here: //youtu.be/mUotxOVaToU). As they exit the building Scepter 4 gives a respectful salute to the new Red king (bow before the red loli) and Anna finally comes to terms with Risei where even though she thanks him for saving Mikoto she doesn’t forgive him for killing him (me neither). The slates are put into the hands of Scepter 4 and we finally get to see Shiro who is in fact alive (thank God). He’s with the Gold king his friend for years who helped Shiro discover the slates in the past and has been watching over the slates for years. But now his time has come and he is slowly passing away. Shiro was told to stay hidden because Jungle was after him but now that they hacked into the database and the Gold king is dead staying hidden will no longer work and he decides it’s time to return to end the movie.
Final Thoughts
Well this movie was really good. The movie does a good job bringing closure to the end of the first season as well as setting things in motion for the next season. The characters that we all loved in the first season make a return along with the new antagonists to the show Jungle who are amazingly well done in this movie. I like how diverse the groups are. The Homura is a street gang, Sceptor 4 is a police force, and Jungle is basically a hacker group surrounded in mystery. I like how they’re more into the new age stuff and fight using technology rather than conventional weapons as the other clans. It’ll lead to some great fights in the future and ones that I look forward to seeing. Speaking of fight scenes the fight scenes in this movie are great to watch. They’ve really gotten better with them over these last few years. The animation has also gotten better as it has a fresh new layer of paint that makes it visually stunning that you swear it was real and the soundtrack is out of this world beautiful. The only downsides I see with this movie is the ending. It just sort of ends and leaves us on a suspenseful cliffhanger. I know they were preparing for the next season but still at the time we didn’t know it was getting a second season. The ending could have been done a little better in my opinion but other than that everything else was good. The other downside is they don’t explain exactly what happened to Shiro after he died in the first season. How did he get there, what has he been doing all this time, and why hasn’t he contacted the others? Just a lot of questions left unanswered about him and what happened to him.
This brings us to our main topic, Anna becoming the new Red King. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well in my opinion I think it’s a good thing. Anna does show traits of Mikoto. Homura is volatile group who aren’t afraid to fight yet despite this Mikoto wasn’t one of those guys who goes around picking fights left and right. He was pretty tamed and just wanted to give people a place to belong. With Anna as the leader I think they’ll be cautious with their fighting because she’s young and inspire them to take it slow and think before they fight recklessly. In the end I think this is a good development for Anna’s character and I look forward to seeing where this leads.
Final Score
The final score for Missing Kings is an 8/10. It’s a very enjoyable movie and worth checking out if you’re a fan of the K series that brings closure to the first season and prepares you for the second season. This movie was the prolog of things to come and next month we’ll be checking out the second season to see how this series ends. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to start recruiting members for Starlight. Until then, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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