@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.

Gen: Not to mention Touko’s relation. :3

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.

All I can say is, look forward to the fifth film. It blew my mind.

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.

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.

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)