Fukan Fuukei (Overlooking Scenery) is the first Kara no Kyoukai movie and it’s made a strong impression on me. As the spiritual prototype of Type-Moon’s Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai feels vaguely nostalgic with a few concepts that carry over to Tsukihime. Like its successor that focuses on vampires and the supernatural, Kara no Kyoukai’s story delves heavily into the occult horror side of things.

Summary:
The movie begins with a string of gruesome suicides at the dilapidated Fujo building. Four suicides have already been reported when Shiki Ryogi’s friend and love interest, Mikiya Kokuto, looks deeper into the case but suddenly his soul is taken by the spirit of the Fujo building and he falls into a coma. Shiki takes it upon herself to pick up the investigation. Walking by the Fujo building, she happens upon the fifth suicide and looks up at the night sky to see eight ghosts accompanying the spirit over the Fujo building.

She reports back to Tohko Aozaki the next day before proceeding to explore the interior of the run-down building. Shiki encounters the malevolent spirit behind the suicides, but falls prey to the spirit’s power and loses her prosthetic arm in a struggle to stay alive. Tohko creates a new, stronger arm for Shiki who returns to the Fujo building to fight the spirit.

With a new arm and the resolve to save Mikiya, Shiki makes short work of the evil spirit with her “Eyes of Death Perception”. With the spirit defeated, a hospital bedridden woman named Kirie Fujo suddenly awakens and is greeted by Tohko. Kirie explains her motive for the suicides and taking Mikiya while the two have a philosophical conversation. Afterwards Kirie leaves the hospital and jumps off the roof of the Fujo building, thus becoming the fated eighth suicide victim. With Kirie’s death, Mikiya suddenly awakens and is warmly greeted by Tohko in her office. With Mikiya back to normal, Shiki reluctantly shows her affection as she is glad to have him back.

Review and thoughts:
This movie feels like it’s strictly for the Type-Moon loyals, as the audience is promptly thrown into the story without any proper introductions. There’s no explanation about Shiki and her “Eyes of Death Perception”; Likewise Tohko Aohzaki and her sorcery powers don’t get properly explained. You just have to roll with the punches and piece the story together on your own.

The story is intentionally vague so that the background stuff can be saved for the later movies. A very basic knowledge of Type-Moon’s works, particularly Kara no Kyoukai, would be helpful to fully enjoy the movie. Philosophy is also shoved down your throat through the character interactions. While the philosophy is sound enough, it wouldn’t hurt to be more subtle about it.

As expected, the visuals are gorgeous. There is a lot of fluff, which some people would argue to be still ambience to create an atmosphere fitting of a dark, occult movie. The music is also superb with hauntingly beautiful melodies that fit perfectly with their scenes. The seiyuu deliver as promised; Maaya Sakamoto in particular is brilliant as Shiki Ryogi and gives one of the best performances of her career.

Kara no Kyoukai is a more than just eyecandy fanservice for the T-M fanboys/girls. It’s an excellent adaptation that far surpasses the abominable Tsukihime and mediocre Fate/Stay Night adaptations. My only minor complaint is that the movie is too short. T-M has left me wanting more, and I eagerly await the next installment.

Kara no Kyoukai: Fukan Fuukei gets a solid 9/10.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Anime, Kara no Kyoukai, Reviews.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.