Nope, I’ve not yet seen the notoriously popular episode #5. It’s on my hard drive but at a full two hours I’m saving it for the plane (which is twelve hours in total 0_o). The fourth movie, Garan no Dou, is the shortest of the lot so doesn’t offer as much to get excited about as I expect the fifth one to do but even so, there are some interesting developments going on that pick up where the second film left off, among other things. Until the English-langage translation of the original novels gets past the rumours stage I guess this will have to do.

I’m beginning to see why Shiki Ryougi is one of Takeuchi’s most loved creations. She isn’t a character who exudes the typical bishoujo femininity: she’s sullen and introverted, flattens her bust down with bandages and wears a leather jacket incongruously over her kimono, and is the opposite of clumsy…oh yeah, she also goes on the occasional homicidal rampage. Despite all this making her the anti-moe she has legions of loyal fans. And I’m one of them.

This movie is, more than any so far, all about Shiki. Mikiya takes a bit of a back seat (I think know what the Singing in the Rain segment was trying to do from a cinematography standpoint, but the Engrish didn’t really work for me); despite his pivotal role thematically it’s pretty much all about Shiki’s accident that gave her the Stringy Vision™ and its aftermath. The mind-bending nature of that plot point is depicted to excellent effect: the Tsukihime VN shows it like this and as for the anime adaptation…I can’t recall, sorry. The overwhelming, so-beautiful-it-hurts quality of the Mystic Eyes is lovingly rendered here though, to the point where I too felt a bit uncomfortable looking at a bunch of flowers or Shiki’s view of the supporting characters with those maddening lines all over the place.

Most of the movie is set in a hospital and with extensive personal experience of such environments (not often at night, mercifully) I can say the background artists have done their homework: I even noticed they included little details like medical instruments and the bottles of disinfectant hand gel hanging outside the wards. A hospital in the dead of night is indeed creepy and this film really conveys that: the deserted corridors and empty rooms are as unsettling as hearing Vincent Price reading you a bedtime story. Ufotable also deliver on the music…oh, the music. Heavenly (listening to the OST as I type). It’s the best end theme so far, although Kalafina keep setting the bar high every time.

What’s most interesting is the idea that Shiki loses part of herself, to paraphrase the dialogue used. I’m guessing it’s that ‘other’ personality of hers that falls away during her coma, and inevitably leaves a sense of loss behind. What results is a feeling of not wanting to live but being afraid to die – culminating in her discovery of a new sense of purpose when she hacks her hair into her trademark tomboyish but more practical bob and slices a zombie to pieces. Even the dead die when they’re killed, it would seem.

The sight of a post-op Shiki lying unconscious on the operating table, Mikiya attending the graduation ceremony without her then Shiki trying to put her own eyes out in a deserted recovery room sent shivers down my spine. In a physical sense she was examined and patched up with literally surgical precision but the fact that she’s comatose then temporarily blinded and isolated in an empty, soulless-looking room with Mikiya, arguably the one who cares about her most, waiting patiently outside for her recovery spoke volumes without words. Shiki is utterly alone and at the mercy of her supernatural demons, no matter what those around her do for her.

I’m getting the feeling that this story is more character-driven than the arcane jargon and rivetting action scenes suggest: as jaw-dropping as it was to see a newly-revived Shiki battle a zombie the underlying message seems to be on the character dynamics and the philosophies that govern them. It’s dialogue-heavy yet simultaneously reliant on imagery that conveys ideas that mere words cannot: the conversations demand your full attention to understand why the characters think and feel the way they do yet the animation and set-pieces carry the story at points without anyone saying a damn thing.

Speaking of people saying stuff, I thought Touko was portrayed really well here. That swaggering confidence of a mage she projects (think Fate/Stay Night‘s Rin, only grown up) neatly explained her capabilities and the limitations to her power and the voice-altering spell of hers was effectively conveyed by her VA. If Mikiya is the moral anchor of the story Touko is the source of advice and exposition: her role in Shiki’s (so-far temporary) salvation is as important in a practical sense as Mikiya’s is in an emotional one. How did Shiki’s other self disappear…and more importantly, why? At least some questions are left tantalisingly unanswered for now.

As a parting shot after the closing credits the film seems to be compensating for its short running-time by not only addressing an important moment in Shiki’s story, but also tying together a number of plot threads from the previous three films. A shady guy called Ayara Souren approaches each of the main characters of the first and third films (Kirie Fujyou and Fujino Asagami, respectively), which suggests that there’s an overall antagonist behind it all. The shuffled chronology works well I think in that you get this realisation hitting you in one shot: there’s a suspicious looking magus whose presence puts a lot of the story so far into perspective, and a lot of things begin to make a teeny bit of sense all at once. Neat.

Coming up: assuming the swine flu scare doesn’t derail everything, my impressions of the fifth movie, seen through the lens of in-flight alcoholic beverages and jet lag. Then I join the others in waiting for part #6…