Kara no Kyoukai

[blkmage]

I'm surprised there isn't already a thread about this series considering how huge it is.

Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of Sinners is a novel by Nasu Kinoko, the author of the visual novels Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night, the anime adaptations of which you might be familiar with. There are some connections between the series, but nothing substantial. Kara no Kyoukai is about humans with special powers and follows Ryougi Shiki (voiced by Maaya Sakamoto), a girl with two personalities whose eyes can see the death of everything in existence and kill it by destroying its origin, as she becomes involved in a series of strange deaths.

The novel is being adapted into a series of anime movies by ufotable. Each movie corresponds to one chapter in the novel and averages at about an hour each. The movies are receiving theatrical releases, with the seventh one opening later this year. So far, the only way to watch these is to wait for subs of the DVD releases, with the fifth one just released in January.

The production values on these things are amazing. The music, animation, and art are all top-notch and I'm amazed that there's no Blu-ray release so far (I suspect that we'll see them coming out once they're all out on DVD). The story is kind of confusing, especially if you're not familiar with Nasu's writing style (which I hear is strange) or TYPE-MOON stuff in general. This isn't helped by the fact that the story begins in the middle of the story and jumps back and forth in time.

For actual impressions, I thought the first two movies were pretty cool. The first one was confusing but had a really nice action sequence, while the second one provided and introduction and exposition, but not nearly the same amount of action. It's not until the third one, which I just finished, that it really drew me in. The third movie has a nice mix of reveals about the setting and an excellent action scene.

Anyway, it's worth taking a look, even if you decide it's not for you, just for the amazing visuals and soundtrack.

[Fish and Chips]

I'm surprised there isn't already a thread about this series considering how huge it is.

Huge in Japan and various Internet circles does not necessarily mean it's big on CAA. Just tossing that out there.

Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of Sinners is a novel by Nasu Kinoko, the author of the visual novels Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night, the anime adaptations of which you might be familiar with. There are some connections between the series, but nothing substantial. Kara no Kyoukai is about humans with special powers and follows Ryougi Shiki (voiced by Maaya Sakamoto), a girl with two personalities whose eyes can see the death of everything in existence and kill it by destroying its origin, as she becomes involved in a series of strange deaths.

Actually, there's a lot of inter-connectivity in Nasu's works, considering all of them take place in the same universe. Not sure I'd call entire shared concepts ("Death Perception") and character lineages (a prominent character in Kara is related to a very important side character in Tsukihime) insubstantial, though it is mainly in the background.

Anyway, I've seen the first three films and will probably finish the rest since its fared a lot better than most Type-Moon adaptions have managed, though I can't really say what I think of it since it isn't complete. The individual story threads seem mainly confined to whatever movie they appear in, but I'd hope there is an overarching idea behind the plot that will decide how I feel about it.

[blkmage]

I know that the majority of the CAA seems to stick to domestic releases, but I assumed that among those who follow what goes on in Japan fairly closely, there'd be at least a few people who'd be interested in this.

Anyway, I just finished the fourth movie and am hoping to watch the fifth one sometime this week. The fourth one was kind of short, but now it seems that the background information is becoming pretty complete.

I've heard wonderful things about the fifth movie.

[Ingemar]

I'm kind of stuck after the second movie.

I can understand why The Powers That Be wanted an animated adaptation in movie form, but it's so clunky and cumbersome that I don't see it getting distributed in NA any time soon. Also factor in the cost for each movie coupled with many anime distributors' inability to understand the Law of Supply and Demand and we've got a non-starter.

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention the important achronological narrative, too. The first film was confusing enough for those of us (like me) briefed or spoilered on the basic plot points. I could only imagine how impenetrable the thing is to someone with no familiarity at all with it. It's like Suzumiya Haruhi without the humour.

That said the production values are top notch and the music is worth the price (*wink*) of admission.

[blkmage]

I went into KnK knowing nothing except that the plot jumped around between movies, so I guess I gave it a few movies before I'd decide to stick with it or not. Essentially, my impressions were "pretty but confusing" for the first movie, "okay, we've got some explanations and introductions now" for the second one, and "holy crap this is cool and awesome" for the third one.

It's in the fourth one where we learn more about the characters in a way that's more relevant to the story than the initial introductions. The fourth movie is also helped by the fact that, unlike the second, there's also a scene where Shiki can flip out and be awesome.

I've just finished the fifth movie last night, and it's definitely the best of the bunch. It's almost twice as long as the rest and is really confusing. The entire movie is achronological. But, like the series of movies, everything else is able to overcome the weirdness. It also has the most rockin'est ED song of the bunch so far.

Have I mentioned how much I wished that I was watching this in 1080p and how 480p does not do it justice? wru Blu-ray? ;_;