K: Return of Kings – Episode 8 [Kaput]

Onward ho! We are two-thirds of the way through the season, and now some of the nitty gritty details are starting to come out of the woodwork as our allies’ plans fall apart. In “Kaput” the main theme I took away from the episode was the colliding of two different philosophies.

The first half of the episode is where most of the action is. The Gray King, revealed to be Tenkei Iwafune (formerly known as Seigo Ootori) enters battle with Shiro, Anna and Reisi. He’s smart, and a skilled fighter; who else would be able to fend off Reisi’s sword attacks with only bullets and the butt of his gun? We also get some information about the Gray Clan, CATHEDRAL, although they are rumoured to have all died in the Katgutsu Incident. I’m guessing that might not be the case, but time will tell. Lastly, we also learn that the Gray King has been the mastermind behind the Green Clans plans from the beginning. 

So, those contrasting philosophies I mentioned earlier. While Tenkei and Reisi are fighting, Tenkei advocates for Nagare’s view, which is that if ordinary people had powers like the Kings do, they can at least fight back against death on their own and maybe they won’t die so helplessly (which is what happened during the Kagutsu Incident 14 years earlier). Reisi feels that if every person has King powers, then humans will by nature turn against each other and turn the world into a depraved one, void of rule and reason. It is an interesting conflict, one I sit on the fence about because I can agree with both points of view.

At the end of the fight Tenkei reveals that the entire attack on Misahara Tower was a ploy to get the Dresden Slates under their control. They were one step ahead of Shiro and the Red-Blue Clan Alliance the whole time. It is also unclear (at least to me) whether Nagare is actually dead, since his sword vanished from the night sky earlier and the power glowing in his chest wound appears to be gone.

After JUNGLE drops through the hole in the roof and cuts away the Dresden Slates without interference (time skips suck sometimes), things get pretty rocky for the allies. I thought the constrast between the ways the clans reacted to their defeat was really interesting. While HOMRA seems to be the clan portrayed as having more disagreements and a less unified front, in times of hardship they are also the clan that rallies around each other and continually tries their hardest. Scepter 4, however, turns in on itself as Fushimi and Reisi fight, and Fushimi defects… to JUNGLE?! What! 

My thoughts: I know I’m not supposed to be rooting for the bad guys, but I honestly like the Gray King. Up until this point, his identity was hidden and he was portrayed as this harmless housekeeper who drank a lot of beer; now I can’t get over the fact that he’s virtually the strongest character in the series. He’s also a bit of a bishie (just an older one? haha), and his seiyuu has a really cheeky way of talking. ＼(●~▽~●)

I was also grateful for the flashback to the Kagutsu Incident at the very beginning of the episode, as it provided a devastating visual to an event which had only been verbally referred to up to this point. We got to see how the Gray King discovered Nagare (or his corpse, rather), although I was left a little confused as to whether Tenkei was the reason Nagare got his King powers, or if that was something that happened on its own.

On the other hand, I was a little disappointed with the battle between the Kings. While Neko didn’t necessarily need to join in the fight, it would’ve been nice to see Kuroh in some kind of supportive role. Maybe guarding the hole in the ceiling, hmmm??

The fight from within Scepter 4 also reveals that Reisi can be a dick when he wants to be. While I don’t agree with how Fushimi was trying to pick a fight with Reisi, the latter’s comment about Fushimi resigning whenever he doesn’t like something was a little cruel. We’ve seen Fushimi be one of the go-to people in Scepter 4, especially for anything involving technology, so I thought Reisi was being a bit of an ungrateful asshole in this scene. K and Return of Kings have both portrayed Reisi as someone who is cool, level-headed, analytic and confident, and now as he is starting to come undone we are starting to see some other aspects of his personality come out to play. I wonder what this means for his character in the last four episodes.

Next week’s episode looks like it will involve a ball or formal event of some kind, which means Seri’s boobs are going to be out in full glamour… *sigh*