the wait is finally over.

I was hyped up about this anime for a very long time. I’m quite a big fan of Type-Moon’a works, but unfortunately they had really bad luck when it comes to anime adaptations. Tsukihime had awful lot of potential and the short promo movie for it still remains to be the very best anime promo ever made. It has eerie atmosphere, great visuals, intriguing premise and incredible music (the “Wounds” track alone is worth getting the soundtrack for). Back then I didn’t know anything about Type Moon, but the promo was so intriguing that it kept me interested despite the actual anime series being underwhelming. Enough to import the original game and then play it with glorious Mirror Moon’s translation patch. Fate/Stay Night unfortunatelly also was pretty mediocre. Probably even more than Tsukihime, the story was more developed, but at least Tsukihime anime had great atmosphere, F/S lacked even that.

It’s a damn shame, because Type Moon is easily one of most important visual novel companies. But while the other giant: Key, had a luck of getting glorious anime adaptations done by KyoAni, TypeMoon was getting lackluster productions. It’s not just budgeting issues, what KyoAni did right with their animes is to take all the game routes and merge them into one storyline. With Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night their studios animated only one single route (in F/S they added bits and pieces from others, but not enough), which resulted in crippled story lines that all pretty much just teasers of the real deal.

When I’ve learned about upcoming Kara na Kyoukai anime I got hyped. First of all it was being created by Ufotable, a studio I admire a lot (especialy for Futakoi Alternative). Second, KnK is a novel, written before TypeMoon was even formed although it does share the same universe as other TM’s products, so in this case there wouldn’t be a problem with anime adapting only one route, as there is only one route to begin with . Then camed a bucket of cold water: it was supposed to be a movie. So much for my hype- I though. There was just no way to decently fit the whole long book into one short anime movie. But then Ufotable revealed they won’t do just one movie, but seven movies, each adapting a single chapter from the novel. It’s perfect idea: you get to tell the whole story without any cuts and all this with a movie-sized budget and no censoring problems that plague TV productions. Ufotable is crazy though, making 7 movies was a huge risk, fortunately the anime is a real success in both theatres as well as DVD release.

Like every recent Ufotable production Kara no Kyoukai also has a short clay animation segment.

Visuals: First of all, this anime is simply gorgeous. The characters have detailed, slightly more realistic than usual look and everything is animated with lots of fluidity. The real scene stealer though are backgrounds. They are insanely detailed, with lots of grit and texture. They often look almost like photographs and their realism helps to ground this supernatural story in reality, which is very important considering the horror atmosphere Kara no Kyoukai aims for. It’s easily one of the prettiest animes I’ve ever seen, big plus for Ufotable, there’s no way they could make it even half as detailed if it was a TV production.

The music helps also a lot, it a mix of creepy old Japanese instruments and female choirs. Especially the first track drills into the brain nicely.

Plot: The first movie throws the viewer into the middle of the action. The characters appear without much introduction, but we can deduce some stuff from what they do. Nasu’s works are characterized by complex mythology and explaining everything would take a lot of time, which wouldn’t be a good idea for a first movie.

There are three main characters. One is Tohko Aozaki, maker of supernatural dolls and owner of dolls shop/decective agency, if “Aozaki” sounds familiar to you, then I you have a good memory ; she is the sister of the mage who gave Shiki Tohno his glasses in Tsukihime.

Second one is Mikiya Kokuto, a young man with knack for detective work

Third and most important character is Shiki Ryogi, not only she has the same first name as Tsukime’s protagonist, but she also shares similiar power: she sees the lines of death and when she cuts along the line, the target dies, no matter who or what it is.

There are differences however, first of all Roygi can turn the eyes off and second: she doesn’t seem to experience the brain damaging side effects Shini Tohno had to go through. Anyway, she’s completely bad-ass, the rooftop fighting (or later slaughter) scene that was seen in trailers is breathtaking, incredible animation and great subtle use of 3D. She is an enigma for now, she does seem to be pretty detached from everything aside from Mikiya Kokuto, her only friend. At least part of her body is composed of doll parts. I absolutely loved the scene when she was saving Kokuto and said: “I don’t care what you do, but I won’t allow you to take him, I’ve found him first”

This movie contains a standalone “case story”. Several young girls have committed suicide by jumping from the roof of the same abandoned building complex. They didn’t have any real problems at school or at home and not even one of them left any goodbye letter

I won’t spoil the plot, but it’s creepy and well developed. Especially the writing is excellent (well, it is Nasu’s novel ). For example: from most people’s perspective there isn’t much difference between
“flying” and “floating”. Here this difference is that the whole plot is built around. The arc reaches it’s satysfying bitter sweet climax by the time the movie ends and promo for movie 2 promises to explore Shiki’s past

Impressions: Excellent beginning. It has everything fans of this genre could want. It took three attempts, but finally TypeMoon seems to have hit gold with anime adaptations of their work. It’s also looks like it will be Ufotable’s magnus opus. The story is creepy with excellent pacing and interesting, altough still not developed characters. It’s a great hook for the whole series, but it also stands nicely on it’s own. Simply put: get it, get it NOW!

rating: 9.5/10

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