King of Bandit Jing Review

story 8/10

Jing is 100% episodic. There, I said it. If you are reading this and are suddenly not interested, stop reading now and go pick up Juuni Kokki. Else, let's continue...

Jing is the world's best thief and is known for his desire to capture the most beautiful and unique treasures in the world. His pal, Kir, is a talking bird who loves the women, and follows him wherever he goes. King of Bandit Jing follows Jing and Kir as they travel to various towns and places, as they try to steal a different one-of-a-kind treasure. As mentioned, this is an episodic series. There is no central plot, and really, nothing that ties the episodes together, except for the mention of Jing's mysterious crystal that he carries everywhere he goes. There are some episodes that are mini-arcs, one being two episodes in length, and one being three episodes. Besides this, it's sort of like watching Kino no Tabi -- you see a different story each time, but it still ends up being wildly entertaining.

Really, that's what it all comes down to: the humor. Jing succeeds because of how utterly hilarious it is on just about every aspect. While other series are full of random comedy, Jing excels at being the most relaxed and laid back random comedy I've seen. The randomness is fairly extreme, but there's a coolness and calmness about it that make it even more amusing. Hell, the first two minutes let you know what kind of a show it will be (I won't spoil, but it's hilarious). I knew after those few minutes that I'd love the show. The characters and animation style contribute to the humor as well, making the story lighthearted and comical all at the same time. I marked down two points because it definitely would have been nice to see more about Jing's crystal or other things about himself, though some of these things are explained in the Jing OVA. The ending was very open, yet fitting given the style of the TV series. All in all, I really enjoyed the "plot" of Jing, even though there wasn't actually a plot at all!

animation 9/10

I loved the animation style of Jing, and haven't seen many things like it. It's completely cel shaded, and not a lot of thick black lines used anywhere. The colors are extremely vibrant and interesting, and in general the animation has a very fun and crazy style to it. The character designs and townsfolk/monsters are very humorous looking and have their own quirks. Things like the city designs really impressed me. For example, there's a two arc story about a town full of clocks (check out the Jing theme here on the site to see it), and it really reminded me of something Tim Burton would have made. Also a heavy favorite are the cute little bomb-animals (also in the theme) who really are ridiculously cute for a reason. The only aspect of the animation I didn't enjoy was Jing and Kir's transformation sequence. It was fine the first few times, but like with shoujo magical girl shows (THIS ISN'T ONE, don't worry), the transformation is identical every single time, which gets annoying.

sound 9/10

The audio for Jing is extremely fitting, more so than most series out there. I can best describe it as electronic and synthy beats, but very quirky and random at the same time. Sometimes sounding totally off key or even wrong, the music helps give you that feeling of pure randomness and confusion, which helps a great deal. Also used frequently was a particular rock song (the title track). It was played during most fight scenes or badass scenes in general, and was a favorite during the transformation type scenes.

characters 9/10

Jing and Kir are really the only characters we are introduced to, and they aren't developed at all. Regardless, they have a very solid personality, and that's what nets this such a high score. Kir is a completely womanizing bird who literally wants nothing more than to woo the ladies. Jing is cool, calm and collected, and knows he's the man as far as thievery and treasure hunting. It sort of reminds me of Grisham from the original CSI series. He's damn good at what he does, but he doesn't act high and mighty. He's kickass in a very disarming manner, which makes his character great. Same with Jing.

In addition to these two, there are tons of very amusing characters throughout the entire series in each location. Villians are always comical looking in some way, and are wacky and quirky. Even the most minor of characters usually has a funny line to say or something to contribute to the ambience. I remember at one point, Jing is standing next to a HUGE HUGE man and is able to make some sort of wisecrack about him. The man was only in the series for about 15 seconds, but still contributed in a hilarious way.

overall 8.8/10

Jing is one of my favorite series, and sits happily on my shelf in its shiny box set. It's random comedy at its finest, has great animation and a super fitting soundtrack, so you can't really go wrong with this one. Bear in mind that a lot of people don't like Jing specifically because of the episodic nature, but the answer to this should be obvious: DON'T WATCH IT IF YOU DISLIKE EPISODIC THINGS! For everyone else, Jing is a fun and entertaining ride...