Kara no Kyoukai Movie 2: Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen)

In the winter of 1995, Mikiya Kokutou passes a young woman during a late night stroll in the snow. Clad in a striking white kimono and bearing an enigmatic gaze, Shiki Ryougi smiles at Mikiya who stares back with curiosity. Later that spring, Mikiya notices Shiki at his high school entrance ceremony, and they become acquaintances through lunchtime conversations. As Shiki begins opening up to him, Mikiya learns about her unique upbringing.

Meanwhile, a series of unprecedented murders takes place across Mifune City. Seemingly related, these murders are particularly brutal and warrant a large scale police investigation. Because of his cousin's work as a police investigator, Mikiya is given insight into the investigation. Concerned for Shiki's safety, Mikiya decides to monitor her actions, but in doing so, he stumbles upon a truly frightening discovery that changes his life forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ryougi, Shiki Main

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Kokutou, Mikiya Main

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Aozaki, Touko Supporting

Honda, Takako Japanese

Shirazumi, Lio Supporting

Hoshi, Souichirou Japanese

Gakuto Supporting

Takahashi, Kenji Japanese

Akimi, Daisuke Supporting

Touchi, Hiroki Japanese

Ryougi, Father Supporting

Sugisaki, Ryou Japanese

Iwakami, Atsuhiro Producer

Kondou, Hikaru Producer

Hariu, Masayuki Producer

Toba, Yousuke Assistant Producer

Reviews

Sep 26, 2023

TheScarletCutter

Recommended

Informative

Kara no Kyoukai is perhaps one of the most acquired tastes in anime, whether you're a TYPE-MOON fan or not. It has gotten a reputation for being a complicated mix bag, whether it's boring and/or pretentious, too hard to understand, or possibly a masterpiece. I've watched the entire movie series and while I barely understood what any of that means, at the same time, I've been amazed at how masterful its craft truly is. A series that yes, it's super complex, but doesn't take itself seriously while still being a serious work of art. All of this is thanks to the golden tickets that are ... Paradox Paradigm and Murder Speculation Part B. But... Those aren't what I'm talking about. What I want to talk about is Murder Speculation Part A, in my opinion, the most underrated installment of Kara no Kyoukai. My goal here isn't to talk about how the series works, it's more of me expressing my feelings with it and it resonates with me. With that being said, let's get started!

STORY: 9/10

Even though this is the second installation of the series, funnily enough, this is actually the beginning, especially if you watch the series in chronological order. It starts off with a boy named Mikiya walking through the snow and suddenly sees a mysterious girl named Shiki. Even since they briefly met, Mikiya begins to fall in love with her. That April, she started to attend the same school as he does. The Mifune City, on the other hand, is filled with unclear victims and the investigators have yet to find out who the culprit is. If I'm being honest, it's quite hard to understand. It has a lot of interesting ideas on the table but the story is heavily full of puzzles. I barely understood what it literally was supposed to be and at that point, I don't think I will.

That is... When it shouldn't be understood. Kara no Kyoukai doesn't have any literal meaning but is arguably more of emotional surrealism. This installation did a fantastic job of how Shiki is trapped in a virtual, non-linear prison. Shiki has a male personality gained from her family that is meant to show certain differences between her female one but is suddenly cursed to the extent that she's forced to commit a silent massacre. It's honestly scary personally. I still don't understand the whole situation but what I understand is that some of your human emotions may turn into a living nightmare. This series did an excellent job of how Mikiya encounters the complicated scenario. It gives more time for him to find hints on what went wrong with Shiki. Knowing TYPE-MOON, I would gladly watch the whole thing even if it means not knowing much.

CHARACTERS: 9/10

We have two main leads, one being Shiki, the maiden who has been invaded by her corrupted human emotions, and Mikiya, the clueless inspector. I really adore these 2 characters because of how much impact they brought to both their characterizations and the story. Shiki may be a mysterious figure herself but she really helped me explore the mystery surrounding the series. She may be quiet but she really shows a lot of expression in her writing. I find it very tragic how she's both the culprit and victim in one setting. Not to mention how she's nominated to gain her male personality in the first place.

As for Mikiya, yes, he may not fight back but what definitely makes up for that is how, again, explores certain hints regarding Shiki's murders. I really find it compelling how he investigates stuff on his own and encounters great danger, be it a mistake or on purpose. Even though he's inhuman for how he encounters said danger, at the same time, he's human for how he tries to act. Admittedly, I find it weird how even though he counters something threatening, he still forgives the culprit, even if they would be killed later on. But I really understand that. After all, he plays a major role in contrasting Shiki's grimdark emotions.

Both Shiki and Mikiya have amazing chemistry with one another. Even though Shiki has her own yin and yang, both portray separate elements incredibly well. Sure, it can be toxic at points but at the same time, they play well with each of their elements. The side characters are quite nothing to talk about but this is heavily protagonist-focused so it doesn't matter much.

ART: 9/10

Even though there isn't much action, the production is very fluid and doesn't have any of the slideshow nonsense. Shiki's fashion is very adequate. Cool jacket or not, her Kimonos are downright stylish and beautiful.

SOUND: 10/10

The music is haunting yet beautiful at the same time. The OST truly reflects both the atmosphere and the events very well. The voice acting is also superb, with my personal favorite being Maaya Sakamoto as Shiki for how portrays her stoic behavior very nicely.

PERSONAL ENJOYMENT: 9/10

Even though it's complicated when it comes to understanding what it literally is, I believe it to be one of the series' best chapters. It figuratively shows how corrupt your life can be and why you need to be aware of what's causing the world. I truly resonate with each of the 2 main leads for how they are constructed. Of course, not everyone is into complicated storytelling like Kara no Kyoukai and you know what? That's extremely fair. But if you're looking for a psychological series packed with beautiful action, this is the way to go. If you're watching the series in broadcast order, treat this as the second order. If you're watching (or preferably re-watching) chronologically, treat this as the first.

OVERALL: 9/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 6, 2022

mateoid

Mixed Feelings

Horrible pacing with anticlimatic twists and full of exposition, ultimately boring. The feeling of wasted potential started here, a distaste and disinterest that will loom in future entries, keeping me from fully enjoying this disconnected series. Probably my least favorite episode. The story was boring, it wasn't predictable, still I didn't enjoy it. The art style is fitting for the story, maintining the beauty from the first installment. The characters remained as half-baked messes, all of them are weird and confusing and frustrating. They didn't react to situations in a realistic way and I guess some people will enjoy it more than I did, ... that's why I'm feeling a light six on this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 19, 2024

Gsarthotegga

Not Recommended

Spoiler

This entry does away with the alienating solidity of the first film, and even the audiovisual appeal and dense atmosphere are diluted compared to other entries in the series. The mask of pseudo-depth concealing our duo falls aside, and we're left facing nothing but hollowness, and "Tell my crazy yandere waifu to stop murdering people!" It doesn't help that the storyline is kind of stupid, with the female lead, who is in high school, wandering around the city late at night, while a serial killer is prowling the streets, making her an obvious suspect (she might be a high school girl, but she has the ... ice-cold killer vibe) or thrusting herself into dangerous scenarios for no worthwhile reason. Her wealthy, upper-class family even seems to realize she is leaving, making them either neglectful or harboring a special motive. While I've yet to see part 2, there are a few oddly placed scenes involving her brother that suggest the latter is true. Either way, this is not believable nor compelling.

It's hilarious how the yin-yang symbol (even recycled with the stuffed cat toys) is being used to convey Shiki's alter, acting as her "partner in crime," and the other half of her dissociative identity disorder (is it made up? It's certainly an exaggerated phenomenon in fiction). The film presents a conflict of halves between what can be characterized as a noble samurai on the light side and a perverse serial killer on the dark side. The detective even states, "some kind of symbol was etched upon the body." Yeah, it's obviously a yin-yang symbol, dipshit. How could you miss that?

The male lead is a dope for not realizing the obviousness of the situation with his yandere sort-of girlfriend, even after his "bunny rabbit" admitted many details implicating her as a potential culprit and stating that he would probably die if he didn't stop sniffing after her tail like a dog in heat. He even stumbles upon Shiki playing with the blood of a corpse, wets his pants in fear, and is like, "Ungh, I can't turn my waifu over to the police. Maybe she'll be my girlfriend eventually! She told me that she wanted to kill me. That's so intimate and means she's totally into me! It's so exciting thinking she might kiss me one second and gut me the next!" probably followed by wetting his pants again, this time in ecstasy. What a fucking degenerate. It doesn't help that Shiki is such an unpleasant personality, making this unacceptable as waifubait, meaning we're just left with schizobait (sigh, just to prevent an akshually, yes, I know the difference between schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder). The latter half of the film, where the male lead is standing outside in the cold upon the premises of his waifu because she is ignoring him (or maybe he's trying to cockblock her kill streak) reminds me of that John Cucksack romcom garbage Say Anything, when Cucksack stands outside the girl's house and holds up his boombox.

Frankly, serial killers are mostly a sensationalized media construction by the U.S., whether it's some MK Ultra or other spook psyop or just a means to close cold cases. A lot of the body counts have little evidence to tie them to a particular killer, often only having a modus operandi in common, most of which are not especially unique... in fact, the bulk of the alleged body count of any particular serial killer is not even unearthed (very few of them carefully keep all the evidence collected under their house, like John Wayne Gacy), merely attributed to them because they claimed them to up their infamy, and a higher body count, more inventive methods, and an interesting story leads to the serial killer being more popular; it's already common for nutbars to call in and take responsibility when they verifiably had nothing to do with the act! One could even liken serial killers to a pantheon of dark gods, committing outlandish acts to enthrall and grow their followers, which gives them strength and love letters in their shrine (prison). Of course, it's glamorized in such a way that a person who would never have a place in history is immortalized by pointlessly killing a bunch of people by means of a discernible pattern, memeing the behavior into having a tangible existence it would never otherwise enjoy, only to be snuffed out by DNA, CCTV, and voluntarily opting into carrying a spy device everywhere (the smart phone). Man, I'm sick of serial killer plot lines. So trite, just like this film and psychobot anti-waifu.

For the reverse scenario of a female getting wet over a serial killer or murderer in prison, in which we have a cuck male falling for a female serial killer (the guy would definitely qualify to be the president of the Yuka Takaoka fanclub) who could and maybe even would turn his spine into a Christmas ornament, The Garden of Simpers Chapter 2: A Study in Hybristophilia - Part 1 is perhaps the ultimate vicarious experience. What a deranged, embarrassing romance, where the young lovers whisper sweet psychobabble and pseud philosophy 101 into each other's ears.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Poll: Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu (Part 1) Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) dtshyk - Jun 23, 2008	237 replies	by Zangetsu_111 »» Oct 9, 1:04 PM
	Can I watch this as a stand alone? EfiChan - Apr 14, 2022	16 replies	by 24846 »» Apr 21, 2022 8:50 AM
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