This is the movie that Kara no Kyoukai has been building up to. This is the movie that propels the series from brilliant to astounding. This is one of the best anime movies ever created. It starts with a stark black and white divided screen, the name of the film emblazoned across it, and is followed by a chaotic medley of scenes before settling in with, what seems at first blush, a more traditional narrative. However nothing about Paradox Spiral (Paradox Paradigm the officially translated title) is traditional as it twists different threads together in a story that covers time, death, family, gender and the perception of self in a way that is enchantingly cohesive and utterly enthralling.
it permeates the fibre of the film defining its structure, guiding its antagonists and adorning incidental but important props throughout
Set chronologically after the first film, Overlooking View, it is roughly divided into three interwoven stories. The first has Shiki meet up with Tomoe, a teenager who believes he has murdered his parents despite mounting evidence to the contrary. The second focuses on Mikiya and Touko as they investigate an apartment building that Touko apparently had a hand in constructing. The third and final arc binds the previous two together with a face-off against two powerful sorcerers that play fast and loose with the sanctity of human life and the governing laws of the universe. Surpassing even the previous film's fantasy quotient, Paradox Spiral is the most involved and unfettered indulgence in the fundamentals of the Kara no Kyoukai universe yet and manages to weave them flawlessly into a greater exploration of some less travelled topics.
If part one of Murder Speculation was grisly, Remaining Sense of Pain is abjectly brutal. Rape, murder and torture all feature heavily in this pitch black story where a girl aggrieved slaughters her tormentors in a most barbaric fashion. Unflinching throughout, this entry in the Kara no Kyoukai series of movies explores the meaning of pain - both emotional and physical - and the nature of murder.
gone are the warm sunsets and delicately cold whites, replaced with streetlight ambers and frigid blues and greens
Mikiya is older now, Shiki has awoken from her coma and once again someone is murdering indiscriminately. After caring for a girl in pain he finds on the street, Mikiya is asked by an old school friend to track down a junior who has disappeared. Toko, after splashing out on an extravagant purchase, accepts an unsavoury job and assigns Shiki to track down the murderer. The two investigations converge when it becomes apparent the murderer, Fujino - a classmate of Mikiya's sister Azaka, is after Keita, the classmate Mikiya is tracking down. Regularly raped and beaten by Keita's gang of deviants, Fujino is massacring them one by one, but wracked by unfamiliar pain and hunted by Shiki, her power grows as her sanity slips.
Please note: the remainder of this post contains images and themes of an adult nature, if you are offended by these subjects or are otherwise restricted by laws or moral obligations within your municipality, please do not proceed.
The danger with a seven movie project such as Kara no Kyoukai is that certain entries will be little more than stop-gaps meant to prime for forthcoming releases. This could be no more worrying than with a title suffixed "Part One", thoughts of incomplete plots and abrupt conclusions abound. The series has somewhat mitigated this by chronologically shuffling the releases; whereas the first movie was keen to eschew understanding for suspense and action, the second favours a sedate but no less gripping narrative that starts at the very beginning of Shiki and Mikiya's relationship.
the characters all occupy a space in the penumbra of supernatural fantasy and routine reality
Meeting by chance on a snowy evening, Mikiya - bespectacled and easy going teenager - strikes up an uneasy friendship with Shiki - a kimono-wearing misanthrope - which gradually leads to an infatuation with her. Grisly murders meanwhile are happening around town with bodies gruesomely disfigured or dissected and as the number increases, evidence points to Shiki who frequently roams the solemn town in the night time hours. Mikiya's cousin Daisuke is investigating the murders which indirectly leads to Mikiya becoming mixed up in them. Events escalate and a confrontation between Shiki and Mikiya takes a deadly turn that has long term consequences.
Casting Aya Hirano as the lead character is not the worst thing that Fairy Tail does, but it comes close. Her voice is so identifiable and her status so confoundingly overwhelming that it overshadows many of the other more accomplished actors such as Rie Kugimiya (Alphonse from Fullmetal Alchemist) and Tetsuya Kakihara (Simon from Gurren Lagann). The worst thing Fairy Tail does however is through a concerted and continuous effort, wringing all aspects of originality from itself; one would have a more rewarding experience staring at a beige rug than watching the first three episodes.
poor characters can't be rectified by multiplying the number of them
Lucy is a seventeen year old wizard whose uselessness is matched only by her peppiness. No back story is given to her, no parents or family members mentioned, a blank canvas to scrawl childlike motives on in crayon. Living in a world where every gawping twit can buy magically imbued items, she of course wants to join a most notorious and powerful guild, the titular Fairy Tail. After being duped onto a boat and subsequently kidnapped, she is saved by a powerful but sloppy member of the guild, Natsu, and by the end of the first episode she is unceremoniously inducted into the supposedly elitist group. The following two have her run errands for the group. Hilarity ensues.
Visually at least, Letter Bee is remarkably striking: washes of indigo and pinpricks of grey-whites make it aesthetically strong; however in the perpetual twilight of the fantasy world it portrays, appreciation turns quickly into indifference. The motif of particles drifting softly from the sky is overused to the point where its original implication is questionable; sepia flashbacks are replete with translucent stars while during the initial two episode journey, spores and whatever else constantly accompany the bland dialogue and sloth-like storyline.
The first of what is likely to many other ridiculously named comrades is Niche
The first three episodes describe Lag Seeing's - just one of a number of absurd names - journey towards becoming a Letter Bee - essentially an armed postman. Lag is initially found tethered to a monument next to the charred remains of a village, from there he is taken by Gauche - a current Letter Bee - across the mountains, encountering terrible CG beasties along the way. The set up is painfully typical and Lag spends the majority of the opening episodes leaking from all of his facial orifices and whining incessantly, compounded by the addition of a surly, alien looking toddler who, by some kind of perverse skill, magnifies Lag's annoying mannerisms. Dull, plodding and lifeless, Letter Bee is impossible to enjoy and difficult to tolerate.
