K Project’s new season is scheduled to be revealed this year after the success of its movie sequel, ‘K: Missing Kings’. It had a rocky start to life, many driven away from the anime due to its confusing plot. However, was everything left out of the anime a deliberate decision? Possibly.

K Project started as a stand alone anime by GoRA with plans to expand across the mediums of story telling to deliver a fully developed cast of characters and storyline. In this sense it deviates from the standard formula but makes the most of each method of storytelling it employs. If its success continues we might see more projects delivered in this form, stepping away from the main method of delivery.

Normally we are used to the standard operating procedure. Simply produce an extremely successful manga, translate it into popular anime and then knock out some films. Easy. Look at Bleach for example. Sure the anime deviates from the manga come filler time but the essential plot is usually left alone. Same goes for the films, whilst its great to sit down to a full running time set piece there is no true peril to characters given their confirmed place in canon. If Bleach characters could die, that is. You don’t need to see the films to understand or enjoy the main series.

Or you can do the reverse, produce a stunningly iconic anime, Cowboy Bebop, produce a companion manga and then bring out a movie to heal the broken hearts of the fans (we love you Spike). Again, these are companion pieces which don’t really bring anything extra to the central plot lines. They also tend to be stand alone stories that can be held up on their own merits, without need for background knowledge.

What is so different about K Project then? It too has a anime, a manga and a film. Nothing new? Well nothing radically different I’ll grant you, but a clever model I think, as I shall explain but first, for the uninitiated, let me introduce you to the plot of K Project.

Our protagonist, Yashiro Isana, quietly attends a massively, technologically sophisticated High School which occupies its own island just offshore. As you do. Now this is where the plot gets a littler trickier. The anime begins with a gang of angry teens breaking into a skyscraper looking for information. It is later revealed they are looking for the murderer of one of their own members, Tatara Totsuka. They are HOMRA. And Yashiro Isana? He looks identical to the man who killed unfortunate Totsuka. This is set in a time where individuals called Kings are granted prodigious powers, which they can share to lesser degrees with their clansmen.

Now K has received criticism. A lot of viewers found the plot revealed in such a slow and complicated manner that the motivations of the protagonists were unclear. One of the fundamental issues, I believe, is that we had no idea who Totsuka really was. We eventually see the film of his murder (although he is shot off camera) but this leaves us essentially with little motivation to care about Totsuka’s murder. Eventually, through the other main characters’ own grief and slowly revealed back story we begin to understand a bit about poor Totsuka. However, we are about half way through the small series by this point.

Who was Totsuka, what was his story leading up to his murder? Why does everyone love him so much? Why do all these characters have prematurely silver hair?

Also HOMRA is made up a several, uniquely dressed members with their own back stories. As is the Spectre 4 contingent, the group of soldiers set up to oppose HOMRA. Stories we are never told in the anime.

By the end of the series the mysterious guy pulling the strings is revealed, the confusing flashbacks come together and Isana’s connections with the murder of a random gang member suddenly make sense. However, viewers are required to have a great deal of faith to get to the end of the series without giving up. Its one of the things that makes re-watching it so satisfying.

So where do you go to get all the back story to set the series in context? Why in the companion manga series they released afterwards, of course!

‘K: Memory of Red’ gives you all the information about Totsuka and the rest of the gang in the months leading up to Totsuka’s unfortunate demise. All the members get their own kooky stories to flesh out their characters and HOMRA starts to feel more like the family the anime portrays it to be. Is it much like the anime? Not really. The anime is more like Full Metal Panic! and the manga more, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu. That is to say that the anime is action packed and plot driven, the manga is character driven, amusing, situation of the day antics.

There are also back stories for the Spectre 4 in ‘Days of Blue’ and ‘Stray Dog’ for supporting character Kuroh Yatogami.

So where is the genius to this format you ask? Well…

You’ve got an action anime, with beautiful action and set pieces. You’ve got to support two armies worth of characters. And you’ve got 13 episodes to set out a complicated murder mystery plot in the context of these warring factions. Do you want to stunt the series with jarring flashbacks, ill at ease with the tone of the anime, for dozens of characters? No. Do you want to keep up the pace so viewers don’t have time to get bored and are constantly kept guessing? Yes. Hm. What to do then? Put all the back stories in a medium that supports character driven plot lines so fans can totally immerse themselves in the world. Seems like a good idea.

Of course once you’ve read all the back story you inevitably want to watch the anime again. And its like a totally new experience as you now have gained another layer of understanding to the characters. By this total you have now watched the anime once, watched it a second time now you understand what’s going on and watched it a third time now you are so emotionally involved with HOMRA that the ending is even more heartbreaking than the first and second viewings. And your emotionally broken.

That, from the point of view of those producing the story is a success. You are now hooked.

Does it have its downsides? Well yes. As aforementioned, the main criticism of the anime is people just couldn’t get past the first few episodes due to the unsettling confusion caused by not knowing exactly what was going on. Like Pandora Hearts you’ve just got to enjoy the ride. There is certainly a good amount of feeling out of your depth. It is the same sort of problems Inception dealt with on its own release.

Also, it rather depends on fans wanting to cross mediums from anime to manga. This is full immersion story telling, not for the casual fan. However this is the tumblr generation. The era of all consuming fandoms, which relish the chance to experience their favourite shows in every format available, whether that be manga, anime, fanfiction or tumblr. It is a strategy that (if well planned) could work magnificently.

Indeed there is some precedent in manga’s American cousins. Seen a Marvel movie recently? Marvel have set out with a fundamentally similar principle, creating stand alone films with their own unique plots that will intertwine together into the Avenger Franchise. Not to mention the TV series tie-in ‘Agents of Shield’. Hail Hydra.

Why get people to see one movie when they can go and see seven, the sequels, the massive movie that brings them together AND the TV series? This is the way of the future people.

So has it worked for K? Well the sequel to the series, the film ‘K: Missing Kings’, was shown last year and will be released in April on DVD. The new series? Yep that’s got the green light for this year.

Looks like success to me, let’s see what the future holds.