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mikeyk255
Reviews
Gekijô ban Kara no kyôkai: Dai isshô - Fukan fûkei (2007)
A slightly confusing but artistic masterpiece!
Firstly this is a review of all the Kara No Kyoukai series of films, of which there is 8 at the time I write this. There are no spoilers and specific details about characters and plot lines will be kept vague.
Introduction; When I came across this series of films id been mostly watching anime series containing supernatural and romance elements, having tried action based ones and found them to be rather boring at the start of my anime testing adventure. This was also the first anime I watched that was in Japanese with sub titles rather than a dubbed version and also the first feature film(s) id watched as oppose to the usual 25min series.
Characters and plot; Most of the films are centered around a knife wielding anti-heroine with glowing eyes and the ability to see the end of all things, represented as lines she sees in objects and people, that when slashed will bring about their destruction. Our heroine (and occasionally) her gang of scooby sidekicks from a kind of supernatural detective agency, investigate and ultimately destroy an array of evils while she desperately tries to maintain her humanity.. or at least thats what they want us to think. I say anti-hero loosely because she spends a large portion of some of the films trying to convince us shes a monster and becomes the suspect for several acts of foul play a long the way, I never found this particularly convincing and think someone who is tortured by so much evil and lack of humanity probably would't spend half the film talking about it and instead go and get on with some actual evil doings and general shenanigans.
The relationship between her and scooby gang member number 2 is a kind of balancing act where he constantly tries to tell her shes good and that she doesn't actually gain any pleasure from slicing and dicing people and various monster types. In the beginning I found this to be quite cute and appreciated the yin/yang element between them however its continuing presence throughout several films whilst failing to develop starts to become slightly annoying and I found myself thinking 'omg OK your evil.. we get it! now shush about it' This and some other seemingly flat character development sometimes takes its toll, possibly made much worse by the films being out of chronological order. Asides from our 3 main characters who have the emotional content of a teaspoon sometimes, lesser protagonists introduced for specific films are thankfully much better and serve their purpose well (mostly as victims and comic relief) while providing a welcome change of dialog. With the exception of film 6.. whose addition pulls off a battle scene with some fancy looking magic that totally upstages everyone and makes me wonder why they didn't do all the fighting to begin with, oh well. Thats where the faults end (mostly) The antagonists of KnK are very well done, introduction to them and their evil plans could be better, but their characters are diverse and emotive, with some being down right wacky and diabolical. I particularly enjoyed feeling sorry for one of them as they explain twisting peoples arms and legs off with will power alone was necessary so they could feel human! awww! Asides from some mild confusion during the first few films and then again while trying to grasp the complexity of film number 5 for the first time (made slightly better if you cheated and read the synopsis) the rest of the presentation is flawless. The stories fit together nicely by the end of the series and you can sit back and reflect on some of the incredibly far fetched tales you've just witnessed or re-watch the entire set with your new found knowledge. The content is extremely violent in some parts but unlike titles such as 'Elfen Lied' the production quality kept it in the horror category rather than me thinking it was laugh out loud silly, other adult topics such as rape, patricide, and nudity are present but rare, well presented and often used to explain why a character ended up the way they are, so it doesn't seem to over the top for shock value alone.
Production; While the directors for KnK are different for each film the production is the same throughout and this is where the movies shine. All that flat character dialog that seems completely off topic you've been subjected to is suddenly forgiven! The action scenes while short and scarce are simply godlike and easily the best i've seen so far from any anime, in particular films 5+6 excel with lavish battle scenes laden with fancy particle and lighting effects you'd expect from a production with movie funding, so much so that I found myself replaying them multiple times at the end of each movie. The accompanying music is also brilliant and follows the same haunting yet upbeat and compelling theme albeit remixed throughout the movies. Scenes are highly atmospheric, dark and complex and often fill in for the seeming lack of character emotion in some parts. At the time of writing this there is no English dub for the films, which is slightly disappointing because I would have liked to compare voice actors to see if my connection with the main characters improved at all.
Conclusion; 7/10, exceptional production quality, highly imaginative and well presented story content, unfortunately let down by some character development and interaction flaws. Still a must see in my opinion regardless!
Recommendations; I found it quite hard to find similar anime to suggest for this but going from the angle of slightly unhinged leading female roles that I enjoyed you could try Mirai Nikki (ahhhh yuno!) or Elfen Lied, both have graphic violence and other adult themes so ye be warned!
Kuranado (2007)
I've honestly never been able to say any film or television series has changed me as a person until now
Introduction; I've honestly never been able to say any film or television series has changed me as a person until now. I'm not going to write any specific detail about the series (no spoilers here!) Be careful with reviews and especially comment areas about 'after story' unless you want the plot to be ruined, 2 words seen accidentally did this for me! The definition of good artwork in my opinion is any media that provokes an emotional reaction and this is how I've reviewed the series and why it gets 10/10. Clannad and Clannad After Story will leave you reaching for tissues and possibly even questioning the way you look at life. Being new to the anime genre, I started watching this with a fair amount of skepticism. After all, how grown up or engaging could a 'cartoon' about the lives of some high school children possibly be? The first few episodes left me feeling a little embarrassed for watching them to be honest (its been 12 years since I was in school) but I told myself I was going to give it a proper try and am glad I did.
Structure review; The detail put into character development is second to none, half way through the first series I was highly engaged with the main characters going about their mostly? normal lives, in fact most of the first series seems to be primarily character development with some supernatural elements and a large portion of school / slice of life thrown in. At the core of the story, Its the usual rebel boy meets goody girl cliché, fortunately there's enough detail put into making this believable as well as character role reversal that it doesn't get dull, added to that the main story is interwoven with some wacky sidekicks having stories and oddities of their own and also dropping hints towards the greater picture. There's also a great deal to be learned about typical Japanese culture and the rich nature of their imaginations when telling a story. Animation and sound.. i cant really comment, it was my first anime so i had no comparison at the time, however some scenes particularly from the side story were very imaginative. The dubbed version I watched was well done and some of the sound, IE a certain song (u'll see) added while very simple was cleverly effective at expressing character emotion.
The second series 'After Story' holds most of the actual content as it follows the lives of the main characters after they leave school and over the next 7 years. I've never seen this done before and it was nice to see how the characters grew and progressed. This is where the story really begins and will hit you with spectacular ups and downs as well as rounding off stories for some of the lesser character arcs. While some may be tempted to skip straight to series 2 I would consider this a huge mistake as your connection to characters will be largely meaningless. Try to pay particular attention to any strange myths/legends that are mentioned as many of them form the more advanced version of the ending!
Getting to the sub-story set in an alternate reality... separate from time yet running in parallel with both series and key to the ending or at least if you want to come away from it without questions. This is my only criticism of the entire series, while I had no problem coming to a semi accurate conclusion, I know a lot of people did have lingering questions. This isn't to say the series isn't concluded, but rather there's a much more complex explanation of exactly what happens available in the visual novel which is rather hard to get to from the series alone, which only offers u tiny pieces of the whole picture and generally tries to hide those in the middle of some obscure dialog or graphically semi hidden at the edge of the scene or behind characters we're focused on. In fact I would have liked to have seen a third series detailing the events that happen off screen and in repeated time lines that you're left to piece together for yourself. I even go so far as to suggest they might have intended this originally as so much content was omitted or crammed into the final episode, either that or they just wanted a simpler version. Some will say it was presented this way purposely for effect though causing (almost all) explanations regarding the end you can find to be wrong or missing large parts of information.
Taste + genre; I think people of any tastes will enjoy watching these series given a serious attempt, Its obviously aimed at the young adult demographic. An interest in anime, romance, supernatural or science fiction genres will help things a long. Die hard action fans may want something else however i challenge even the manliest to watch both series and then say they felt nothing.
Recommendations to watch after this (Similar); Clannad (After Story) Obviously! Anything else by Kyoto Animation, in particular; The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006 - 2009) 2 series anime, similar school setting but the focus is more on Sci-Fi and comedy, IE more content, less tissues! The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010) Film set after the series above, watch the series first or it wont make any sense! Air (2005), Kanon (2006) both single series anime; These are both very similar to Clannad and feature the same highly emotional plot lines.
Other recommendation (Something different); Kara No Kyoukai (a set of 8 films, adult only content!) probably the best newer anime films available. The stories are complex and told out of chronological order so requires a lot of thought at the start but the animation and sound are simply beautiful, especially during the action scenes.
All in all.. 10/10!