KARA NO KYOUKAI: BOUKYAKU ROKUON

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MOVIE ActionKara no Kyoukai: Mujun Rasen
MOVIE ActionKara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu (Kou)
MOVIE ActionKara no Kyoukai Remix: Gate of seventh heaven

REVIEWS

• 

  ScarletCutter

  64/100
  Honestly, I was expecting worse.

  __[!] THIS REVIEW CONTAINS POTENTIAL SPOILERS [!]__ TYPE-MOON has made quite a lot of polarizing titles regardless of time. But nothing is ever as polarizing as Kara no Kyoukai’s 6th chapter. Now, I’m just going to say this right off the bat Kara no Kyoukai as a whole is one of those anime series I’ve been admittedly defensive towards. While it is hard to get into, the writing and direction still shouldn’t be underestimated. The series doesn’t try to take itself seriously while still becoming one of the deepest and most impactful series ever. But if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that this chapter is the weakest of them all. It doesn’t hold the same impact as all the other installations do. But… does it actually deserve the slander it gets? Well, enough of this introduction and let’s begin yapping. --- This series starts with a new incident appearing after the death of Araya Souren. Kokutou Azaka is now the main focus here. While she was technically a main character in almost every other chapter, she wasn’t necessarily as focused as the others until we got to Ch.6. Azaka studies in an apprentice academy alongside Shiki where she can perform her magic. While they’re at it, though, they’re also on an investigation. Another strange mystery lures in and is trying to lure the main characters into a bad situation. These consist of fairies and they’re not the ones you would normally think of. Perhaps this has to have a connection with the previous magus dealt before. Right off the gate, this is a far more important addition to the series than what others may realize. Sure, this type of story may look off at first but it adds to what makes Kara no Kyoukai in general special in the first place. Each installation has an entirely unique plot line to itself and all of them are special thanks to how they connect their major gimmicks to the central storyboarding of the series. So again, what is actually something good about this? Chapter 6 serves as a nice bridge between chapters 5 and 7. Since 5 is the story’s climax and 7 is Shiki’s climax, chapter 6 is a nice buildup to the series’ finale. This trilogy had two main priorities and one of them was exploring the dark magic lurking around in the series. Chapter 5 concludes that part since the magus league was the central antagonist that further spread the puzzles since Mahoyo (‘ahem’ chronologically speaking). The other is Shiki and her personal relationship with both the overall atmosphere and her challenges. While this chapter technically doesn’t have much of that, it still provides a nice continuation of how Shiki has an impactful relationship with the chapter-specific key characters, and that brings us to this chapter’s main focus, Azaka. As much as I love Kara no Kyoukai’s character writing, Azaka was pretty bland and was more of a plot device overall, so it’s nice to see her getting the spotlight she deserves after being easily replaceable by any of the major characters involved. Azaka serves as a unique replica of what Mikiya normally does throughout the series’ narrative which makes sense since both of them are siblings. Azaka’s motivation here alongside Shiki is to find out the culprit behind the school they’re studying in and regain their memories that are stolen. Again, this is quite relevant to the central plot when you consider that Shiki can be clueless sometimes. But sadly, like all of you, it’s time I complain about this chapter. For starters, the exposition could be better. This chapter spent a bit too much time on buildup proportional to this chapter’s length so there’s barely any tension involved. That’s not to say long buildups are bad, I do in fact like them. Buildups in every other chapter in this series are also long but those also get straight to something like drama or action to spruce their stories up. This one felt a bit too much of a slice of life than what it intended to be. Another problem is that the mystery elements aren’t particularly great. On the surface, the fairies are actually well-made. As mentioned, they play a very important role in the series and they’re connected quite well. One neat detail for example is how Shiki also wants to regain her memories because she mentions herself in chapter 5 that she was a murderer when that’s not really the case for her anymore now that chapter 4 concludes that. But again, compared to every other chapter, they aren’t necessarily used as much. They’re potentially portrayed as gimmicks when this chapter has other things that aren’t really as important. Yeah, they’re important and interesting, but what else is there to these things? They’re mostly (or virtually) used in the later portions where we see Azaka’s final climax which is nice but they could have been applied in other portions as well. Still, though, they’re nice to have in the entire series. They could be complimented more if they’re used more. --- Now for characters which might probably be the weakest aspect. First things first, we have Shiki the protagonist and the stoic girl who studies death, and Azaka the sister of Mikiya who is the main detective. Let’s cut to the chase. This movie is absolutely carried by Shiki. To be fair, she has been stealing the spotlight in every single installation, albeit for good reasons, but every other chapter still has a lot of compelling characters to themselves whereas chapter 6 only has one. Now, this is definitely the weakest rendition of Shiki’s character development but she’s still pretty great. She has most of the charm in her other appearances and such. As for this chapter’s focused character, Azaka… yeah, we have a lot of talk about here. Azaka being the main character here is a good thing because she gets more important aspects she should have gotten ages ago and we get to see more interactions with Shiki and for the most part, those interactions are pretty good. However, that’s also a problem. She’s still the same annoying tsundere she was in all of her other appearances so unless you’re able to stomach her annoying moments, good luck with that. On top of that, though, her relationship with Mikiya is quite off. That’s not to say that siblings loving each other is bad but this relationship is rendered as romantic which is out of place. Add on that she’s still the weakest main character in the whole series and I think she falls short. Still, though, she’s an alright character regardless. I see her as Kara no Kyoukai’s replica of Tsukihime’s Tohno Akiha, both being passable main characters but annoying and not much to offer. Kurogiri Satsuki, the chapter’s focused villain, sucks, though. It’s nice to see another twist villain around but compared to someone like Araya Souren, he’s absolutely irrelevant. Oh, and Ouji Misaya is there, I guess. --- Before we end here, the animation like every other chapter is amazing. The movements still remain to be very consistent and over-the-top. The action still looks clean as ever, even if the fight itself isn’t necessarily one of my favorites. The music is outstanding. In fact, it’s probably my favorite OST in this series alongside chapters 1 and 7. The voice acting, while not as good as the others, still has their charms nailed very well. Not a big fan of Fujimura Ayumi as Azaka but she’s decent nonetheless. --- So while I do unironically like this chapter, I can fully understand why it’s poorly received even amongst fans of this series. It really has a lot of interesting ideas going for but they aren’t used as properly as they should have been, the exposition is quite off, and the key character of this chapter could have picked up much more development. It’s mostly seen as a stepping stone to chapter 7. But honestly, I was expecting worse. Yes, what they offered is problematic but I won’t lie to you all, I think this was more amusing than frustrating. Now, it’s still Kara no Kyoukai’s worst chapter but it’s not really one of TYPE-MOON’s worst. Compared to the real failures like DEEN/Stay Night or Fate/Apocrypha, the plot still remains pretty consistent and there’s still a handful of character development to be found. So while it could be a lot better with just a few tweaks, it’s still above average.
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