K: Return of Kings

Episode 8

This episode ostensibly features a battle between four Kings, and yet the best scene is actually a sharp-tongued dialog exchange which happens in the battle's wake. That is generally not a ringing endorsement for the battle scene, and it certainly is not intended that way in this case.

In other words, as feared, the battle once again largely turned out to be a dud, and this time all of the talking during the battle is not entirely to blame. The priestly Tenkei Iwafume, who was once the Gray King Seigo Ootori, turns out to be a gun user, and his preferred trick is to throw up a confounding defensive fog and then shoot people within it. That does not make for dynamic or exciting battle footage, no matter how the artistry tries to give it a shine with stylish loading sequences (Tenkei uses a revolver) or defensive moves that the production does not have the animation budget necessary to make look good; this is especially evident when Shiro goes on the defensive to protect Anna, and this time the flowing perspective cannot compensate. Also not helping is that the battle essentially becomes a solo duel between Tenkei and Munakata, as Anna contributes only one brief burst of power and Shiro never goes on the offensive himself. (This, of course, raises the question of whether or not he even can go on the offensive.) No character below the King level gets in on the action, either, as even Kuroh and Neko are reduced to mere Witness status. The battle wears on until Munakata starts to tire and gets his sword broken, by which point the Dresden Slates have been latched onto and carried off by a helicopter, with Tenkei toting the unconscious Nagase along with it.

That is actually when the fun begins, as the fallout from the battle is much more interesting than the battle itself. While others are depressed at the failure of their unlikely team-up effort, Fushimi's frustration boils over. Hints along this line have always been present, but this episode lays out more clearly than ever before how discontented he has been within the Clan structure. He left Homra because the “we're a family of street thugs” atmosphere didn't suit him, but neither does the logical, orderly SCEPTRE 4, and to emphasize that point he delivers a tongue-lashing against Munakata over his failure against the Gray King and reluctance to take the lead again in the face of defeat. Munakata rebukes him with a stinging (and deserved!) jab about Fushimi's lack of loyalty to anyone, and Fushimi storms off. The epilogue suggests that, without another place to go, he is considering joining the Green Clan, which would be a horrible turn of events for everyone else but not a shocker; it has been foreshadowed over the last few episodes and it makes sense given his viewpoints.

That Munakata's Sword of Damocles is looking worse than ever is another important take-away from the episode, as are some more details on the disastrous incident 14 years ago which wiped out the once-powerful Gray Clan and set the stage for the current situation. And boy, do we get an earful about Tenkei/Seigo's philosophy, which has been revamped in the wake of the losses suffered 15 years ago. The philosophical conflict between him and Munakata almost exactly (but also probably coincidentally) equates to the one between the NRA and gun control ideologies in the U.S.: Tenkei claims that more people with powers (i.e., armed) leaves them more empowered in the advent of calamity, while Munakata argues that the chaos which could result from so many people with powers walking around unregulated would be more likely and even worse. Given the general Japanese psyche, it should be no surprise that the series firmly favors the latter as the correct viewpoint, but that does leave me wondering how differently this might have been shaded if it was made in a country like the U.S. where those ideologies are more evenly-matched.

So the philosophical debate is somewhat interesting, though its timing drags down a battle scene once again. This time around the stuff with Fushimi at the end saves the episode from being craptacular, but once again the series is wasting whatever potential it had.

Rating: C

K: Return of Kings is currently streaming on Viz.com.