Kara no Kyoukai’s third chapter takes the story to July 1998. As is the norm in this series, more bizarre murders are happening in the city. On his way home one rainy evening Mikiya happens upon a girl named Fujino Asagami, and being the naive guy he is, he brings her home for the night. Meanwhile, Tohko and Shiki undertake a job to find the murderer and bring her back dead or alive.

Mikiya borrows some money from a friend who in return requests that he look for an old acquaintance that has gone missing, one Keita Minato. While delivering a message to Mikiya’s sister Azaka in a restaurant, Shiki immediately suspects something strange about Fujino. Mikiya puts his superb detective skills to work and goes around the whole city looking for Keita and soon learns that Keita is hiding from a murderer.

Fujino continues to kill people related to Keita in her seach for him too. Shiki watches Fujino brutally torture and kill a man and the two prepare to fight. Suddenly something happens within Fujino and Shiki loses interest in fighting Fujino in her current state of mind. Mikiya learns that Keita is the sole surviving member of the gang that repeatedly violated Fujino and reawakened her sense of pain, and Fujino who now seeks to complete her revenge with his death.

Though Fujino had previously only murdered with a motive, she soon starts to kill indiscriminately. It is gradually revealed that she used to be able to feel pain normally, but it was taken away to seal her power to bend objects, and she now has a very abnormal sense of pain. Tohko puts all of the pieces together and explains to Mikiya that Fujino’s chronic pain is from appendicitis, not from a stab wound as Fujino believes. At any rate, Fujino is doomed both mentally and physically; She has the mindset of a serial killer and her appendicitis will eventually kill her.

Shiki finally faces off with Fujino on a deserted bridge in the middle of a typhoon. During the battle, Shiki sacrifices her left arm for an unsuccessful shot at Fujino. As the battle goes on, Shiki sees the flaw in Fujino’s power and counters it with help from the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. As Shiki prepares to finish the fight, Fujino suddenly lets loose a burst of power and destroys all the infrastructure around them. In the end Shiki only kills the disease in Fujino’s stomach and lets her live.

Thoughts:
Definitely a return to form for Kara no Kyoukai. Plenty of everything you could ask for- Mystery, action, and suspense. The fight scene on the bridge was nothing short of epic. The movie did a pretty good job of eliciting sympathy for Fujino’s character. Shiki and she have a striking similarity as both enjoy murder, yet their methodologies are so different. Shiki accepts her identity as a murderer and only kills out of necessity. Whereas Fujino keeps denying her murderous impulses but subconsciously gets pleasure from killing. It’s also slightly amusing how Shiki’s crazy fighting style kept freaking out Fujino.

Fujino: OMG I just destroyed your arm!
Shiki: lolwut arm?

After three movies I’ll maintain that Maaya Sakamoto is an excellent Shiki. Minor spoilers here, but there really are subtle nuances in the way she voices each of Shiki’s three personalities. Fans that already know KnK’s story will know what I’m talking about. If you started from the movies, the next movie will get you all caught up no problem.

Mamiko Noto was excellent in portraying this movie’s antagonist. The performance was delightfully creepy and psychotic. Fujino is royally messed up. I would like to see her pick up more roles like this since she does it so well. I know all you guys out there probably think, “Hell no, Mamiko is best as moe!”. Moe is easy to do but creepy is substantially harder to do well.

The one thing that continues to bug me is Mikiya’s sheer naivety. He seems to be a magnet for strange psychotic women but doesn’t fully realize it. Hmph. Perhaps that idiot is better off in the dark.

I’ll go ahead and give Remaining Sense of Pain a 9/10.

Shiki Ryogi returns to kick more ass in Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kosatsu (Murder Speculation), Part 1. The story goes back in time to explore the origin of the strange relationship between Shiki and Mikiya. This movie is basically all exposition with tons of back story crammed into it.

Summary:
Part one of Murder Speculation takes the plot back to April of 1995, beginning its tale with the first meeting between Shiki and Mikiya in high school. The story proper picks up in August. Mikiya is the first and only person to approach the reclusive Shiki Ryogi and becomes her only friend. It is around this time that a string of brutal murders begins with each new one more horrifying than the last. Shiki seemingly has some sort of connection to the murders.

Meanwhile, Shiki continues to warm up to Mikiya. Out of the blue one day, Shiki invites Mikiya to meet her at a shopping mall. Mikiya obliges and is shocked when he is greeted by a very out-of-character Shiki. She later explains her two distinct split personalities to Mikiya; There’s the normal reserved, girl Shiki (式) that he knows, and SHIKI (織) the impulsive male personality present today.

In January of the next year, Shiki begins to isolate herself from everyone around her. Both of her personalities tell Mikiya to stay away for his own sake, but he refuses to listen. With each murder, Mikiya discovers that the clues increasingly point to Shiki as the culprit. On February 3rd, he finally sees Shiki standing before a fresh corpse with his own eyes.

Shiki confronts Mikiya and asks why he didn’t report seeing her at the murder site. Mikiya simply tells her that he didn’t actually witness the murder itself and that he still believes in her. Afterwards, Shiki tries to ignore Mikiya completely, but he starts camping by her house every night to affirm his faith in her innocence. She gives him one final warning to stay away but he pays no heed.

That evening Shiki attacks Mikiya in the bamboo forest by her house. She eventually pins down the frantic Mikiya but cannot kill him. This part of the story ends inconclusively and we are taken to June of 1998 where Mikiya visits a comatose Shiki at the hospital which shortly leads to the events of the next movie, Remaining Sense of Pain.

Thoughts:
This installment felt like watching three episodes of .hack//Sign and Higurashi mashed together. It has the drawn out dialogue and imagery of .hack intertwined with a Higurashi-esque serial murder mystery plot (Yes I know Kara no Kyoukai is older than Higurashi. The Higurashi reference is just for comparison). Murder Speculation was interesting if slow paced; Some parts were more dragged out than necessary. Don’t be disappointed, all you action aficionados out there, because Remaining Sense of Pain looks to have more slicing and dicing goodness.

You’ll also appreciate the next movie more with the bits of information revealed so far in Murder Speculation. In other words, don’t even think about skipping this because it’s still required viewing. Murder Speculation was enjoyable enough but didn’t shine as brightly as Overlooking View.

Murder Speculation Part 1 gets 8/10 from me.

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.