Comments on: Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu (part 2)

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:22:14 +0000

@sorrow-kun: I agree that Araya was ‘the’ villain of the piece – Lio was entertaining and his place in the story was important, but Araya is indeed the quintessential Type Moon bad guy. I was reluctant to use the term ‘murder virginity’ but it’s pretty appropriate!

@Wildcard: I love the fact that you have to rewatch and pay such close attention; the viewing experience isn’t a passive act of being merely entertained. The Mikiya/Shiki chemistry is superb though…the only time they’re in bed together is when they are fully clothed and sleeping back-to-back, and notoriously (at least in the MAL forums) there’s no kiss at the end. But their devotion still shines through as strong as any other. Marvellous!

@Son Gohan: Lio is an interesting one. He’s a puppet for Araya as all the antagonists are, yet in all cases Araya requires their consent to be used. That said, he hardly plays fair by asking them when they’re in a fit state to decide for themselves. I love the way that all the antagonisits (with the exception of Araya) are suffering from their own problems…the idea of being victim AND assailant coming up again.

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By: Son Gohan

Son Gohan — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:56:35 +0000

A good analysis. Regarding Lio, I think he is also partly a victim: another puppet of Araya, damned by his perverted “origin”. Lio is always presented as a feral predator, starting with his name (Araya himself in the fifth movie comments that he lacks a letter) and the cannibalism. I think the excessive salivation and the biting of Shiki’s jugular are a reference to a lion that enjoys his prey before consuming his meal.
Lio is what Shiki could have been, had she yielded to her murder instinct. He mimics her as in a twisted mirror.

By: Wildcard

Wildcard — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:49:33 +0000

A fair write up – not a perfect conclusion (mostly thanks to the mentioned loose ends) nor the best KnK film, but certainly a worthy ending to one of my favourite animes of the last few years. Thanks to a few nailbiting scenes and intriguing character turns I enjoyed it immensely from start to finish.

Sorrow-kun has a point about the ‘puzzle’ like nature of the series, the shuffled chronology is initially very disorientating as you say – but for me this was part of what made it so compelling. As the plot gradually drew together and the blanks were filled in it gave a sense of bizarre satisfaction, while during rewatching I’ve found seemingly throw away moments and lines to take on an entirely new significance with hindsight.

There’s so much I love about this series I could blab a lot here, but for me the defining quality would have to be the Shiki-Mikiya dynamic: both extremely well developed and interesting characters who defy typical archetypes – seemingly juxtaposed personalities who care for each other deeply inspite of everything.

Oh and glad you mentioned Yuki Kajiura’s score, exhilirating, moody and unsettling at all the right moments in all the right ways.

By: Sorrow-kun

Sorrow-kun — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:12:06 +0000

Bravo. I still think that the fifth film is better, but KnK really needs to be looked at as a whole, IMO, and this was a fitting ending. As you pointed out, there are a couple of points where the writing of the plot isn’t watertight, but the writing of the characters is superb. They’re so well fleshed out, so infused with background and depth and philosophy that their respective “possibilities” are just as important as their fates.

Although, I will disagree with you about Shirazumi being the most frightening bad-guy. Just as I think the fifth is the best movie, I thought Araya Souren was the most chilling villian. Most of the time he was so cold, so unemotive and reasoned, yet by the end of the film we’d gotten a good taste of the skewed morality that had driven him for 200 years. The impression I got from the seventh film was that Shiki killing Araya didn’t count because he was so inhuman. She had to kill someone human before losing her own humanity (or “murder virginity”), and, for whatever reason, Lio is more human than Araya… perhaps there’s another commentary here on what type of psychopath maintains their humanity and what type doesn’t.

You’re right about it being an “experience”. I also see the films as a puzzle. I don’t think I can remember an anime that so begs to be analyzed and interpreted after watching it. Everything is so well interwoven into multiple layers and the films are so jam-packed with themes and philosophy. It’s a flawed work (ie, it’s not perfect), but I still have no qualms calling it “great”.