Kara no Kyoukai #1: Fukan Fuukei (Overlooking View)
I can’t believe this hasn’t whipped up a frenzied cult following, unless I’ve been dense enough to miss it. Anything with a connection to Type-Moon seems to be given a fair hearing in these parts so seriously, where’s the love, guys? I guess it’s down to a sparse release schedule that may prevent an international fanbase gaining momentum like TV shows do, or the fact that the full series of films is still incomplete so isn’t yet ready for Western licences. In any case it’s hidden under my radar for two long.
I’ve actually been working back through the Type-Moon stuff in reverse order: anime adaptations before VNs, and sampling the later VN before the earlier one. Taking a step back though I’m seeing an evolution of the recurring themes and character types, noticing Kinoko Nasu’s and Takashi Takeuchi’s trademark flourishes respectively. Back when I first reviewed Tsukihime I thought there was nothing really amiss with it apart from the pacing and obvious gaps in character backgrounds but what that, and everything from these guys that I’ve seen so far, had by way of compensation were atmospherics and underpinning concepts. Kara no Kyoukai floored me straight away on these two things alone.
Although it’s marketed as a feature film this feels like the opener for an OAV series much like, say, Bubblegum Crisis or Macross Plus/Zero. The story is in the style of a film noir-style murder-mystery but as far as I can tell it isn’t exactly case closed so leaves things pretty open in terms of who, or what, is ultimately causing the series of mysterious deaths. So then, I can’t really say it’s sold me on the storyline when I feel that these fifty minutes are just an appetiser for what will follow in the subsequent movies.
I hesitantly gave it a glowing 9/10 score, mindful that it didn’t whisk me on a Chandler-esque trail of clues and huge casts of characters; it was just a jaw-dropping introduction to the supernatural nasuverse that I’ve come to know and love. I’ve felt inclined to defend Akira in much the same way, not because its story makes complete sense to me (it doesn’t) but because the overall viewing experience is so rich and immersive. The screenies (whose proportions don’t look right, I know EDIT: resized to maintain the correct aspect ratio and hence look a bit better now) scarcely do it justice.
The premise is a series of apparent suicides: young women who have thrown themselves off the roof of an abandoned building for no clear reason. Shiki Ryougi (she’s a girl, by the way. I suggest you get used to the Type Moon character recycling policy) begins to investigate who is responsible but I’ll admit at this point that I didn’t actually understand the specifics so can’t even say for sure whether it was crappy storytelling or not. I merely opened a beer, turned out the lights and hit Fullscreen. And was astounded.
I don’t think it has to all make much sense at this point. The grungey background art is so textured it’s almost tangible; the claustrophobic sense of foreboding and unease was nigh-on perfect given the subject at hand. I almost felt like I could smell the polish on the floor and the paint on the walls of Shiki’s apartment, and the music was spot-on too (I pretty much knew it was Yuki Kajiura before looking it up. It reminded me a lot of Cosette). The appearance of Touko Aozaki’s dolls, lifeless shells devoid of souls, made a creepy but compelling parallel to the deserted streets and disused high-rise buildings that had lost their occupants and purpose yet continued to stand, in plain view yet somehow forgotten.
The whole movie sells itself on a combination of the haunting sense of mystery and the assumption that existing fans spot the connections with other TM works. I certainly felt a comforting sense of familiarity in Takeuchi’s character designs, which I’ve come to recognise with the same ease as those of ABe and Sadamoto. The fact that Kara no Kyoukai’s Shiki shares the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception (a.k.a.: Stringy Vision™) with the Shiki of Tsukihime can’t be a coincidence I think; incidentally the way in which the lines themselves, and their destruction, are rendered looked much more impressive on-screen than in either the Tsukihime VN or TV adaptation, but I digress.
Although I flippantly call it recycling there’s a conscious effort on the part of Nasu to purposefully revisit certain themes and ideas in both an aesthetic and thematic sense. I noticed the issues of mortality and morality immediately but even the details like the Stringy Vision and certain characters’ names are given a more solid grounding because they’ve cropped up before (or since, depending on whether you’ve experienced the works chronologically, or in a jumbled way like I have). Similarly the supernatural side of things really benefits from the fact that its background spans a number of different novels and games.
It’s easy to become hooked on the arcane jargon of the Nasuverse; it reminds me of the way in which magic is portrayed in the Earthsea novels in that a raft of specialist terms and underlying logic control the supernatural goings-on which means all the ghosts, pretty-shiny explosions and fantastical phenomena fit into a defined framework. I mean this in the sense that magic is not a means to paper over plot holes; even when people don’t die when they’re killed there’s a convincing explanation for it that fits in with the story (and related stories) as a whole. In this case though, death from falling off a skyscraper really will kill you. Obviously.
If I’m interpreting it correctly the reason for the deaths is explainable in the context of its worldview and leaves a nice opening for whatever might happen next. Part of me was only partly satisfied for the reasons given but the rest of me was content with soaking up the combination of the visuals and music. In any case the emphasis is more on the overall…sentiment? of the events and draws significance from that more than anything.
By that I mean the idiosyncracies of Nasu’s prose bleed into the script, which might not be welcome to some but to me fits with the feel of the piece. I’m a huge fan of gothic-tinged aesthetics and storytelling anyway, so maybe I’m forgiving towards things like the ‘pretentious’ dialogue and philosophical chin-scratching, so they are welcome additions rather than distractions for me.
Of course, if you are familiar with Type-Moon’s MO you’ll know how they are unafraid to hold back on blood-soaked violence, love a good gothic backdrop, cram in food references (check out the product placement!) and deal with the significance of life, death and what lies in between. Not only are these things here in abundance they are all wrapped up in a manageable package that looks and sounds like it’s had a lot of hard work put into it, so I’m happy. Very.
That proportion problem with screens I’ve been experiencing too. I use media classic player, which I found very convenient because you only need to press one button (F5) and it automatically saves the screen in a jpeg format. But sometimes with certain titles, it screws up by saving it in a wrong proportion that seems to ’squeeze’ the picture horizontally. O well…
From what I hear Kara no Kyoukai as a series (of movies) doesn’t fly that well until it comes to its 5th instalment. My main interest in this comes from the fact that the character of Shiki is very popular in Korea for some reason (IIRC, she was one of the stronger contestants in Korean Moe tournament)
I do kind of wonder if people are just less inclined to download anime movies than they are TV shows – I mean, there’s the whole “I’m just watching what Japanese can watch for free” thing with TV anime, but perhaps more importantly there’s a tendency for a lot of a lot of anime features to be pretty bad these days, and the file size and download commitments may be more than the more bandwidth-restricted fans to want to devote to downloading something of unknown quality.
That said, in the case of Kara no Kyouaki, I’m not sure if the reason you don’t hear so much about it is that it’s just kind of hard to write about – the movies are fairly slow going, yet surprisingly dense for features where not a whole lot technically happens. There’s a lot of non-linear storytelling (particularly in the later movies) and other factors that make it a difficult title to approach for those bloggers who tend to write summaries, whilst the characters aren’t really the sort many other bloggers write about. It’s a work that requires a significant amount of thought to be put into to come up with something worthwhile to say about it, and I honestly think that most people either can’t be bothered or feel they don’t have the mental dexterity required to adequately talk about the pictures (in my case, it’s very much a combination of both ^^;)
This isn’t to say that I don’t think that people aren’t watching it and enjoying it – from my own point of view, I think this is the most I’ve ever written on the subject, yet I’ve been actively collecting the Japanese LE DVDs upon their release and enjoying them hugely.
Screenies. I had the same problem so I had to manually adjust the proportions (Photoshop – Image – Image Size – uncheck Constrain Proportions – set the width and height to 16:9 proportions, in your case it should be width 450 px and height 253 px.)
Where’s the love? Evirus and Shin? Surprisingly none of the big three episodic blogs (RC, Subculture and Tenka Seiha) cover it though.
Personally I’ve immensely enjoyed all five movies thus far but it’s hard to get a good grip on the series, especially when the broadcast order shuffles the chronologically order, waiting for all seven to be out.
I’m glad you brought up morality, since I’ve seen Kara no Kyoukai as something of an analysis of morality from a very interesting perspective, ie, from the point of view of murderers and other “bad” people. It’s less about an absence of morality as it is about a twisting of morality, which is what makes it so much more fascinating. The idea becomes really prominent in the third film, so I’m impressed you spotted it in the first one. I guess you probably have more experience with Type Moon sources than I do (ie, none… all my experiences with Type Moon works come from the “questionable” anime adaptations).
All I can say is, look forward to the fifth film. It blew my mind.
I hadn’t known anything about this movie series until I looked on MAL’s top anime list and saw that the fifth movie in this series was listed at NUMBER ONE. lol
I might have to check them out one day. Type-Moon stuff hasn’t really done well with me in the past, but I’m always willing to give stuff a try.
I count myself lucky for running into KnK very early (just when the F/SN anime was airing) and waited for the movies patiently when they were announced. I never saw the F/SN anime, and dropped the Tsukihime one because it bored me. KnK, however, is godly, for something Nasu is ashamed of having written in the first place. As for the other movies, 2 is rather cute in a disturbing way, 3 is extreme, 4 is hilarious, and 5 is beautiful mindfuck. Can’t wait for the last few.
As for the reoccurring themes and setting, it’s pretty much intentional on Type-Moon’s part. Tsukihime/KnK/FSN exist in the same universe and there are instances where they reference each other. A certain “puppet master” was mention in the epilogue of the Heavens Feel route to F/SN.
I agree that all three Type-Moon anime had the ambiance and atmosphere down pat, which I love. But only Kara no Kyoukai seems to have the storytelling aspect of it down, which makes sense considering source materials (KnK coming from a novel, Tsukihime and F/SN from visual novels with different paths making it difficult to create a cohesive story incorporating aspects from all of them). I like all three works, but Kara no Kyoukai definitely wins hands down when comparing the three. :P
Gen: Not to mention Touko’s relation. :3
The fact that this thing has a ‘universe’ of associated fiction is a little off-putting, but as soon as you said the word ‘grungey’ and I saw the screenshots I was sold. I’m probably going to be more bewildered than you were, but like you say, why’s that a bad thing? Comprehension is for wimps.
@gaguri: I tried to alter the aspect ratio in Fireworks, but couldn’t get it to look right however hard I tried. It’s annoying when the visuals are so lovely! I can see why Shiki’s popular but she doesn’t look very moe to me at all! Odd.
@DiGiKerot: I’m relieved that there are plenty of people enjoying this, but I can understand how writing about what actually *happens* could be problematic (I purposefully avoided it here!) I’d still like to read what you have to say about it though. ^_^
@Zyl: cheers for the links. I’ve kept the original screenies on my HD so I’ll have a go at resizing them and edit them into the post if it works out. EDIT: it worked. Cheers!
@Sorrow-kun: morality crops up a lot in Type-Moon stuff; maybe I was expecting it here since the visual novels feature it so prominently. The anime adaptations of their stuff are alright but KnK seems to be the most respected because, as far as I can tell, it’s considered to be the most faithful. I’d love to read the novels.
@KT Kore: good to see you’re still around! I’m guessing KnK #5 is rated so highly because it’s fairly recent but the reviews I’ve seen have been overwhelmingly positive. I can’t wait! If this first episode is anything to go by I’d say it’sthe best Type Moon anime adaptation of the lot actually.
@schneider: I can’t believe Nasu is ashamed of this, although writers are often very self-critical, especially in terms of their earlier works. The recurring nature of the themes and ideas suggests to me that he’s still striving to improve though.
@Gen: I noticed the puppet reference too. Then I saw Shiki wearing that familiar yellow coat and grinned from ear to ear!
@TheBigN: definitely. My theory is also that ‘condensing’ the multi-threaded visual novel narrative is difficult but traditional novels are a more tried-and-tested source for a film, and more straightforward from a screenplay writing point of view too. Tsukihime and F/S N missed out so much! I’ll be interested to see how effective the timeline-hopping is in this one, because that sort of thing usually confuses the hell out of me!
@Hige: knowledge of the others stories is nice for spotting references but it isn’t essential to appreciate this on its own terms; much like Macross really. Don’t expect to understand it either – just enjoy the gorgeousness! I hope you enjoy it, at least – the soundtrack is gorgeous too BTW.