K: Return of Kings (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

K: Missing Kings is a 2015 original theatrical anime series directed by Shingo Suzuki with series director Hiromitsu Kanazawa, and produced by studio GoHands. Staff credits also include series composition writer GoRA, character designer Shingo Suzuki, and music composer Mikio Endo. The series first aired in Japan on October 2015, distributed by Starchild Records.

Note: This post has been updated in May 2024 to reflect the current blog layout and some minor tweaks to the original write-up.

Background:

“Following the events of K Missing Kings, the Green Clan JUNGLE has been spreading its influence, causing friction with the Red Clan HOMRA and the Blue Clan SCEPTRE 4. The war escalates when the Green King, Nagare Hisui, sends his men to attack Kuro and Neko, forcing the return of the Silver King, Yashiro Isana. Reunited with his friends, Shiro reveals his plans for dealing with the Green Clan – an alliance of the Red, Blue and Silver Clans! But the Green King carries his own wild cards!

Will the combined power of three kings be enough to stop Nagare Hisui from fulfilling his dark ambitions?“

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, October 2018.

The K Project has been around for a while and the first season was pretty decent to watch. When I heard that it was continuing I was willing to check them out, but it took quite a while for them to make it to the UK. I enjoyed the first season for its premise and cast, while the animation was pretty interesting even if GoHands does go a bit overkill with their later projects with that.

At the time there were two anime projects revealed; K: Missing Kings, a theatrical film, and K: Return of Kings, a second season that takes place after the film. There is also the continuation of the second season called K: Seven Stories which has yet to be picked up in the UK at the time of this post.

Viz Media picked up the streaming and home video rights for the K Project series and their later instalments in the United States and Canada, with each of them receiving English dubs and Blu-ray releases. Meanwhile in the UK & Ireland, the first season was released by KAZE UK (also known as Viz Media Europe) but their quality is not particularly good. Eventually the distributor slowly left the region and Anime Limited out of nowhere stepped in and secured the UK & Ireland rights for both K: Missing Kings and K: Return of Kings.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Even though the first season got a release from a different distributor Anime Limited were dedicated to offering a collector’s edition for fans of the K Project franchise, with K: Return of Kings getting released not long after the film.

This release is presented with a rigid box containing an digipack housing the Blu-ray discs, in addition to 5 art cards and a 34×41 cm fold-out poster.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content on the front and spine covers, while the back cover covers the information and specification. The collector’s edition Blu-ray was 1000 units printed for an SRP of £59.99. A standard Blu-ray was released at a later date.

The series was purchased through eBay for a discounted price.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with Digipack packaging and semi-clean artwork
• Info for specification and BBFC description on back cover
• 5 Art Cards
• 34×41 cm fold-out Poster

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 29th October 2018

The collector’s edition release for K: Return of Kings contains all 13 episodes of the series across two Blu-ray discs, with the encode & authoring done by Madman. The audio options available are Japanese with English subtitles and the Studiopolis English dub commissioned by Viz Media.

The white subtitles were unlockable during playback and the disc regions were locked to Blu-ray players set to B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	2 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 2:

• Textless Opening “Asymmetry”
• Textless Closings “Kai” & “KIZUNA”
• Madman Trailers

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

K: Return of Kings is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland. The collector’s edition Blu-ray release can be bought through Amazon UK and AllTheAnime Store.

For the standard edition, it is also available across different retailers including Amazon UK, AllTheAnime Store, and Anime-on-Line.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)