After bad mouthing the movie series based on clips of the various movies and watching KnK1 years ago, I decided to give the entire thing another shot some time back. It took a while, but I'm finally fucking done with all 7 movies. Here are my honesty thoughts on each one.
Kara no Kyoukai 1 - Overlooking View
The direction here is interesting, because while the material is certainly somewhat compelling, there is a deliberate attempt to portray it in a rather distant way, something that mirrors the lead character's cold and callous nature well. Unfortunately, since the characters are never actually introduced, some scenes can feel a little confusing or random.
The heavy digital usage is also less than perfect here, with a lot of awkward scenes of CG doors and passageways which look rather ugly and amateur. There's a pretty good scene in the middle involving Shiki struggling with her own hand, great direction and animation. I can't say the same for the action sequence at the end though, which I didn't like and felt rather artificial. Overall, it felt interesting enough to continue on through the series.
Kara no Kyoukai 2 - Murder Speculation Pt1
This is a completely different tone from the first film, focusing instead on the past when Kokuto and Shiki were still in high school. This also means that the entire film is about a totally contrived and painful tsundere relationship. It's honestly rather stupid, and not very enjoyable. I don't particularly have much patience for dumb characters doing dumb things, and most of the dialogue here qualify as dumbness.
I did like the extended date scene though, where there was almost no dialogue and just music playing over the two characters doing stuff. Plus there was a scene where they animated what happens when you drip water from a straw onto the straw cover - that puts it on equal footing with Eureka Seven and Sailor Moon! Other than that, it was mostly not very good.
Kara no Kyoukai 3 - Remaining Sense of Pain
We're back to the same setting the first movie had, with another supernatural mystery for Shiki to tackle. This entry turned out to be really entertainment surprisingly. The animation was pretty great, the direction was dynamic and well paced, and there was some really solid camera work. The premise is also much more exciting because the villain is presented as an actual character who is developed in the story.
The one thing I disliked was how casual Kokuto's reaction was to rapists, and his illogical attitude in general towards the entire situation. I find his personality pretty annoying to be honest, but he isn't the focus here so it wasn't a huge problem. There were some really nice effects animations in the climatic battle, and the decision to use 2D backgrounds for detailed close ups for some of the scenes was a great decision. I enjoyed this film quite a bit.
Kara no Kyoukai 4 - Hollow Shrine
If this were a TV series, this would probably qualify as a bad filler arc. Nothing happens in this one other than Shiki lying in a hospital bed. There are some experimental uses of digital effects and filters to try to make monologues more interesting visually, but the writing is just so awful that I spaced out most of the time.
Pretty boring story here, and the best parts of the movie were the random scenes around the hospital showing the other patients from time to time, because Ufotable does really nice crowd scenes. It made the setting feel believable, and honestly most of the other patients looked far more appealing and interesting than Shiki lying in bed. Zzzzzzz.
Kara no Kyoukai 5 - Paradox Spiral
Now this was a total surprise. I'm still shocked at how amazing I felt this experience to be. It has some of the most impressive direction in a full length animated film I've seen in a long time. Lots of unorthodox techniques are applied here: non-linear narrative, repetition to create themes and moods, color and lighting to disorientate, scenes purely directed by music and sound, etc. This is the longest entry in the series yet running at about 2 hours long, but it felt like the shortest one because I was so engaged to it.
There's a lot to like about how the movie was put together and structured, and the individual scenes are also well animated and generally feel unique and interesting. The camera work is never boring, and there's a lot of effort put into how scenes flow and little details in the frame or in the script which provide clues as to where something falls within the timeline so the viewer won't be lost as long as you're paying attention to what's going on.
The villains here are also fantastic, with true maniacal characters who are simply fun to watch. They're not exactly troubled individuals you're meant to feel sorry for, but schemers who have set up a plan to achieve their objectives, and it's extremely interesting to watch how things play out all the way to the end.
The movie felt like a puzzle box to me, where half the fun was putting things together while watching it, and at the end it just all fits together in a really satisfying way before the movie goes into pure audio-visual overdrive with the climax. One of the most surprising anime experiences I've had, especially since I didn't think I would find something like that in this series.
Kara no Kyoukai 6 - Oblivion Recorder
Watching this movie after seeing Fate/Zero is kinda hilarious, because this is basically a prototype of Fate/Zero Episode 10. Azaka is Type-Moon's Rin prototype, and this entire film is a prototype of the same concept Ufotable had with F/Z 10 - an entire self-contained story about Rin doing cute things while exploring a supernatural mystery. Unfortunately, F/Z 10 is also better than this movie in pretty much every possible way.
Azaka is definitely depicted in a very cute fashion here, and to their credit a lot of the setting is pretty appealing in a cute way. She has a lot of moe expressions, there's a cute dog in her room, the mystery they're investigating involves fairies, etc. The problem is that the scenario is also overloaded with terrible stuff like how Azaka has a huge brother complex, and there's some fairly contributed nonsense about the entire case being investigated in the first place. The villain also sucked.
I honestly didn't mind watching this, because it was fun and cute, and that's much better than watching Kokuto and Shiki talk about how much they like each other without actually saying that, but it still wasn't really great.
Kara no Kyoukai 7 - Murder Speculation Pt2
Wow... what a mess. I guess it was inevitable that the series would have to conclude dealing with Kokuto and Shiki's relationship since they're the main characters and the core on-going plot couple in the series, but even then I didn't expect it to be such an overindulgent nonsense-vomiting climax. Everything I disliked about the series in general is concentrated and expanded here. What makes it worse is that this is just as long as the 5th movie, but about ten times less interesting, and ten times more annoying.
The direction is also all over the place. At some points there are really well composed shots, and interesting camera work. Other times it feels either lazy or over artistic. The overall feel of the film was extremely inconsistent. There were some good action scenes though, but also some bad ones which felt off. The villain is also horrible. Not much more to say other than, I really disliked this one, and the only reason I would put it above the 4th movie is because there's actually some semblance of a story here.
Overall Thoughts
I liked that the series did some experimental things with regards to extensive digital usage in animation. There's clearly a lot of passion from the staff, but the source material is unfortunately often plain bad here. Another thing I enjoyed watching was how each film was done by a different director, and hence you can see a clear difference in approach to similar types of material in each movie. It also showcases how some directors were better at tackling some themes compared to others. The final movie was apparently directed by four of previous directors, so that might explain why it was just a mess in terms of tone.
I don't regret going through all of it, but that's mostly due to my interest in Ufotable these days. As far as actually recommending this... I would only go so far as to recommend the 3rd and 5th movies. The rest are a mixed bag, but if you're looking for something cute and moe, the 6th movie is not a bad watch. It's only about 50 minutes long too. The most valuable lesson I learned here is that Nasu is definitely a bad writer. No question at all about that.
Kara no Kyoukai 1 - Overlooking View
The direction here is interesting, because while the material is certainly somewhat compelling, there is a deliberate attempt to portray it in a rather distant way, something that mirrors the lead character's cold and callous nature well. Unfortunately, since the characters are never actually introduced, some scenes can feel a little confusing or random.
The heavy digital usage is also less than perfect here, with a lot of awkward scenes of CG doors and passageways which look rather ugly and amateur. There's a pretty good scene in the middle involving Shiki struggling with her own hand, great direction and animation. I can't say the same for the action sequence at the end though, which I didn't like and felt rather artificial. Overall, it felt interesting enough to continue on through the series.
Kara no Kyoukai 2 - Murder Speculation Pt1
This is a completely different tone from the first film, focusing instead on the past when Kokuto and Shiki were still in high school. This also means that the entire film is about a totally contrived and painful tsundere relationship. It's honestly rather stupid, and not very enjoyable. I don't particularly have much patience for dumb characters doing dumb things, and most of the dialogue here qualify as dumbness.
I did like the extended date scene though, where there was almost no dialogue and just music playing over the two characters doing stuff. Plus there was a scene where they animated what happens when you drip water from a straw onto the straw cover - that puts it on equal footing with Eureka Seven and Sailor Moon! Other than that, it was mostly not very good.
Kara no Kyoukai 3 - Remaining Sense of Pain
We're back to the same setting the first movie had, with another supernatural mystery for Shiki to tackle. This entry turned out to be really entertainment surprisingly. The animation was pretty great, the direction was dynamic and well paced, and there was some really solid camera work. The premise is also much more exciting because the villain is presented as an actual character who is developed in the story.
The one thing I disliked was how casual Kokuto's reaction was to rapists, and his illogical attitude in general towards the entire situation. I find his personality pretty annoying to be honest, but he isn't the focus here so it wasn't a huge problem. There were some really nice effects animations in the climatic battle, and the decision to use 2D backgrounds for detailed close ups for some of the scenes was a great decision. I enjoyed this film quite a bit.
Kara no Kyoukai 4 - Hollow Shrine
If this were a TV series, this would probably qualify as a bad filler arc. Nothing happens in this one other than Shiki lying in a hospital bed. There are some experimental uses of digital effects and filters to try to make monologues more interesting visually, but the writing is just so awful that I spaced out most of the time.
Pretty boring story here, and the best parts of the movie were the random scenes around the hospital showing the other patients from time to time, because Ufotable does really nice crowd scenes. It made the setting feel believable, and honestly most of the other patients looked far more appealing and interesting than Shiki lying in bed. Zzzzzzz.
Kara no Kyoukai 5 - Paradox Spiral
Now this was a total surprise. I'm still shocked at how amazing I felt this experience to be. It has some of the most impressive direction in a full length animated film I've seen in a long time. Lots of unorthodox techniques are applied here: non-linear narrative, repetition to create themes and moods, color and lighting to disorientate, scenes purely directed by music and sound, etc. This is the longest entry in the series yet running at about 2 hours long, but it felt like the shortest one because I was so engaged to it.
There's a lot to like about how the movie was put together and structured, and the individual scenes are also well animated and generally feel unique and interesting. The camera work is never boring, and there's a lot of effort put into how scenes flow and little details in the frame or in the script which provide clues as to where something falls within the timeline so the viewer won't be lost as long as you're paying attention to what's going on.
The villains here are also fantastic, with true maniacal characters who are simply fun to watch. They're not exactly troubled individuals you're meant to feel sorry for, but schemers who have set up a plan to achieve their objectives, and it's extremely interesting to watch how things play out all the way to the end.
The movie felt like a puzzle box to me, where half the fun was putting things together while watching it, and at the end it just all fits together in a really satisfying way before the movie goes into pure audio-visual overdrive with the climax. One of the most surprising anime experiences I've had, especially since I didn't think I would find something like that in this series.
Kara no Kyoukai 6 - Oblivion Recorder
Watching this movie after seeing Fate/Zero is kinda hilarious, because this is basically a prototype of Fate/Zero Episode 10. Azaka is Type-Moon's Rin prototype, and this entire film is a prototype of the same concept Ufotable had with F/Z 10 - an entire self-contained story about Rin doing cute things while exploring a supernatural mystery. Unfortunately, F/Z 10 is also better than this movie in pretty much every possible way.
Azaka is definitely depicted in a very cute fashion here, and to their credit a lot of the setting is pretty appealing in a cute way. She has a lot of moe expressions, there's a cute dog in her room, the mystery they're investigating involves fairies, etc. The problem is that the scenario is also overloaded with terrible stuff like how Azaka has a huge brother complex, and there's some fairly contributed nonsense about the entire case being investigated in the first place. The villain also sucked.
I honestly didn't mind watching this, because it was fun and cute, and that's much better than watching Kokuto and Shiki talk about how much they like each other without actually saying that, but it still wasn't really great.
Kara no Kyoukai 7 - Murder Speculation Pt2
Wow... what a mess. I guess it was inevitable that the series would have to conclude dealing with Kokuto and Shiki's relationship since they're the main characters and the core on-going plot couple in the series, but even then I didn't expect it to be such an overindulgent nonsense-vomiting climax. Everything I disliked about the series in general is concentrated and expanded here. What makes it worse is that this is just as long as the 5th movie, but about ten times less interesting, and ten times more annoying.
The direction is also all over the place. At some points there are really well composed shots, and interesting camera work. Other times it feels either lazy or over artistic. The overall feel of the film was extremely inconsistent. There were some good action scenes though, but also some bad ones which felt off. The villain is also horrible. Not much more to say other than, I really disliked this one, and the only reason I would put it above the 4th movie is because there's actually some semblance of a story here.
Overall Thoughts
I liked that the series did some experimental things with regards to extensive digital usage in animation. There's clearly a lot of passion from the staff, but the source material is unfortunately often plain bad here. Another thing I enjoyed watching was how each film was done by a different director, and hence you can see a clear difference in approach to similar types of material in each movie. It also showcases how some directors were better at tackling some themes compared to others. The final movie was apparently directed by four of previous directors, so that might explain why it was just a mess in terms of tone.
I don't regret going through all of it, but that's mostly due to my interest in Ufotable these days. As far as actually recommending this... I would only go so far as to recommend the 3rd and 5th movies. The rest are a mixed bag, but if you're looking for something cute and moe, the 6th movie is not a bad watch. It's only about 50 minutes long too. The most valuable lesson I learned here is that Nasu is definitely a bad writer. No question at all about that.
