Kara no Kyoukai 6: Retrospective and Reflection

Before I begin this post, I will not be analyzing anything about this film as I found nothing worthwhile about it to analyze. I will just be going over my thoughts and feelings on the film.

This might seem a bit odd to say for someone who has so far praised this series immensely, but I quite honestly do not care for Boukyaku Rokuon. It maintains many of the things I have so far praised about Kara no Kyoukai such as its soundtrack, visuals, and tone-setting, but it has all of that without the narrative or character-driven substance present in the rest of the series.

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Kara no Kyoukai 5 Analysis and Retrospective

Kara no Kyoukai’s fifth installment, Mujun Rasen, or Paradox Spiral is where the confusing intentional mixup of the series’ chronology up to this point come together to form the climax of this spiraling narrative. This film is by far the most experimental of the series, and I love it for that. It is completely insane, in a good way. Like the collective narrative up to this point, this single story is told achronolologically in a way that exemplifies the subtle mystery and drama of the series in a way that I have never seen from any other piece of media (save Boogiepop and Others). It winds a twisting and complex story into a small length and feels extremely fulfilling and satisfying upon completion. This film’s use of inventive scene transitions and shot composition exemplify the experimental and trippy nature of its storytelling.

Kara no Kyoukai 4 Analysis and Retrospective

I feel the purpose of Garan no Dou is to finalize Shiki’s initial character-building before the climax of the series which is yet to come, and to let her come to terms with herself. This movie dives far deeper into Shiki’s psyche than any of the others, and is in my opinion the most enjoyable out of movies the set of what I have coined to myself the “building blocks” of Kara no Kyoukai, which are movies 2,3, and 4. This movie literally picks apart Shiki’s psyche, by having her face different parts of her past and present self within her own imagination in the hospital bed. It helps the audience to finalize their understanding of her character, in preparation for the crazy events to come. This movie is second in the chronological timeline, so it helps to clear up any confusion the viewer may have about the story in the events that actually happen after it, but are shown before.

Kara no Kyoukai 3 Analysis and Retrospective

Kara no Kyoukai 3: Tsuukaku Zanryuu is difficult for me to describe. I feel that this movie exists as a sort of worldbuilder, to help flesh out the kinds of people and environments that exist in the world of Kara no Kyoukai. We learn that there are multiple people outside Shiki and Fujyou Kirie who have some sort of supernatural power. We also learn that although these people are few and far between, they are all fairly dangerous, to an extent. This connects to the very broad and vague magic system in the Nasuverse, where stories like Fate, Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai, and a few others are rooted. Although it is not mandatory, having experienced some of these other works does help to clarify the boundaries and nature of the magic and supernatural stuff in this series.

Kara no Kyoukai 2 Analysis and Retrospective

The purpose of the second Kara no Kyoukai movie is to flesh out Shiki and Mikiya’s personalities, showing the initial relationship between them, and introducing us to Shiki’s multiple personalities. We learn that both Shiki and Mikiya aren’t exactly normal people. Shiki is obsessed with death itself. While it is never shown whether she has been the one murdering people. We can interpret the things she says that she is able to think like a killer would, and actively tries to find the murder victims due to this interest. While this isn’t exactly what would be considered a normal interest, Mikiya seems to believe that Shiki understands the pain of actually being killed and thus would never kill anyone else. He believes her fascination with death comes from her misunderstanding with the raw nature of it, and existence in general. As someone who doesn’t understand her own existence, Shiki would naturally have a hard time defining and understanding the nature of death, where one becomes nonexistent. Mikiya has a fascination with the unknown and obscure parts of people’s personalities and the world around him. He has a complete infatuation with Shiki as a person and actually stalks her, desperately trying to prove her own innocence to himself to justify what other people see as him being in love with a psycho. Mikiya’s friend tells him that he’s reached the point of not finding Shiki scary, then he’s as crazy as she is. This seems to be Mikiya’s overarching motivations during this movie, trying to prove to the world that Shiki isn’t a crazy person, because that proves he isn’t a crazy person.

Kara no Kyoukai 1 Analysis and Retrospective

The first Kara no Kyoukai movie is one of my favorites of the 7, and is one that touches me on a much more personal level than the others. As such, I have a lot more personal praise and connection to it than the others. A lot of the appeal for me comes from the beautiful aesthetic and tone which is built throughout this movie and the rest of the series. This is achieved through imagery of a broken and abandoned cityscape awash with the warm, bright hues shone by the old lights of the old city over its massive, towering apartment blocks crumbling away into the night. This incredible tone and feeling is something that immediately grabbed me when I first watched the movie, and it has stuck with me ever since. Yuki Kajiura’s creepy, gripping, surreal, wispy, urban soundtrack is also absolutely essential to this tone I am discussing, and the movie would not be complete without it. It is this tone that fully captured me upon my first viewing of the movie, and remains something that deeply draws me to these movies, and keeps me thinking about them, even now over a year after I first watched them.

Kara no Kyoukai Analysis Prologue

What is is that defines a person? Their personality, their features, their inner conflicts, their relationships, their interaction with the world. Where is the boundary between normal and abnormal? Life and death? Conscious and subconscious? The end and the beginning? These are some of the many dilemmas that Kara no Kyoukai tries to delve into.

Studio Ufotable’s 7 Kara no Kyoukai films, an adaptation of the novels of the same name by Kinoko Nasu are collectively one of the greatest pieces of art I have ever experienced, and the reasoning for this is not exactly easy for me to just write. It is difficult to simply explain the appeal of these movies to anyone who may be reading this because the specific appeal of this series of films is so deeply personal to my interests and experiences that it may be hard for anyone reading this to relate to the things I’m saying. Despite this, I will try to put my feelings into words with this post.