Home » Reviews

Kara no Kyoukai – the Garden of Sinners 01: Now THAT’S What I’m Talking About

Posted by blissmo 1 July 2008 16 Comments

Sorry about the green shit on the snapshots ;_;

I’ve heard about this movie from loads of bloggers. Sorry, guys, but it was actually the amount of glorious bloodied images on Setsuna-san’s post that enthused me to finally watch this. I felt that the very beginning may have started off rather weakly (strawberry ice-cream?), but then a suicide occured and from then on, things just got so much more interesting and I became completely engrossed. However, the ending left me unsatisfied and I became really excited by the preview — more character development from Shiki and Kokuto, and more blood! I really enjoyed the part when Shiki was fighting against those eight spirits because the action was just pure brilliant and it completely blew me away.

I also loved the part when Shiki’s hand became manipulated by Kirie, and my reaction to all the beautiful gruesome suicide scenes may be even scarier than the suicide scenes themselves. Plot-wise, I thought it was pretty interesting but it was no surprise that Kirie was actually unconcious and her “other” self was in the sky because it reminded me so much of Shigofumi and perhaps, most of those other horror supernatural films I’ve seen. This movie wasn’t scary — it was interesting and sometimes, maybe wonderfully disgusting. I liked the short tale at the end about the dragonflies and the butterfly being unable to float and only fly. The part when the dog was walking away and leaving behind blood footprints was too cool as well. Regarding the characters, they’re not exactly the best but Shiki became more awesome when she was slicing up those spirits. Kokuto was barely in it, Tohku was just so and so, and Kirie was just plain freakishly confusing.

A few bad things about this film is that I’m tired of “jumping off the tallest building” suicides — can’t someone please stab ten billion nails inside them and die like that instead? It’d be more interesting if the deaths were all different and yet the setting was the same, so that apart from all the victims being high school girls, the detectives won’t be able to figure out any other connection. I think the story could have went deeper, and perhaps a huge twist could have been inserted here and there, but I think the animator saved all the brilliant stuff for the next chapter. Also, the movie was less than fifty minutes, so that was not long at all and maybe that’s why when I finished watching this, I felt kind of empty or that I was given enough excitement, excluding the suicide scenes plus the blood.

AWESOME, MUAHAHAAHA!!

The artwork didn’t reach my standard, and I think Shiki’s lifeless eyes represent her containing no soul or something, but when it goes blue-ray mode, it may mean that she now has something to fight for, and in addition to that, the ability to see her enemy’s weaknesses. The music was compelling — it suited the movie extremely well and so watching the introduction with the butterflies and list of cast names didn’t bore me like the start of Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, which, by the way, I never got passed the intro at the start because it was that horrible. Overall, the voice-overs were decent — I never really bother mentioning them unless someone’s voice stands out really well like Ranka’s — but Maaya Sakamoto, who voices Shiki and Hitomi Kanzaki from The Vision of Escaflowne, did a good job sounding apathetic.

Hurry up and jump already

Verdict: Nice film to watch, it may leave you wanting more (especially after watching the preview), and I recommend it to people who love all the blood and gory in anime. So it’s not the best, but definitely worth your time. And I know, I’m ashamed that I did not take enough snapshots of all the dreamy squashed images of chicks that just fell off a hospital building, but as you can see, I still have no idea why that green crap along the right side of the images above are there (you may have to look closely in order to see it).

16 Comments »

  • The Sojourner said:

    [ID Sojourner]

    Whut. NO BUNNIES IN THE SCREEN SHOTS?

    The Sojourners last blog post..DILDO 6: Confessing the Right Way!!

  • issa-sa said:

    Yea, what’s with you pointing out the green line that I wouldn’t have noticed if you didn’t??
    Sakamoto Maaya as Shiki (seriously?) Okay, you may have just convinced me to finally watch this as well :P

  • blissmo (author) said:

    @The Sojourner:

    I would’ve liked to, but I can’t take proper snapshots with VLC

    @issa-sa:

    Well, when the lines were still black, I swear the green lines stood out so well. And I like pointing things out to annoy you! MUAHAHAHA! Stuff this, when are you gonna watch ROOKIES?!

  • TheBigN said:

    issa-sa: You’re slow with Maaya. Hop to it. :P

    blissmo: Given that there are going to be seven movies in total, I don’t mind if there weren’t any plot twists or things like that. It didn’t help that I really didn’t have a starting point with the characters (other than Shiki’s power) because there was little backstory or explanation of who they were. That was pretty much the only thing that bugged me about the movie, and they gave me some of that in the second movie, so that’s kind of cool. Granted, based on your response here, I’m not sure how much the second movie will appeal to you. There’s a lot of blood in that one though. :3

  • blissmo (author) said:

    @21st Century Digital Boy:

    Yeah, I realized, which is why I need to download chapter 2 immediately

    @TheBigN:

    Clearly I’ve been reading too much Deadman Wonderland, and if I had known that there was going to be seven chapters in total for this movie, I may have written this movie as an episodic post instead. So long as there’s a lot of blood, I think I will be satisfied with the next chapter, and it’s true that you hardly get to know who the characters are in this movie. Hopefully, along the way of the seven chapters, there will be some huge twist though.

  • Hynavian said:

    I couldn’t resist the urge after reading Shin’s post and this post, so I just caught episode 1. Amazing knife slashing fights from Shiki, she’s a dare devil, look at the hand that she willing slice off! The block to block super jump was wow! Clear graphic, eerie music and mysterious plot, I’m glad that I caught it. (:

  • midnightrose said:

    OMG BLOOD?! BLOOD!? BLOOD!? BLOOD?! midnightrose WANTS ITTTTTTTTT!!! Whoo! I’m finally uncapped… and then I’ll be capped again in another week ;_;

  • Setsuna-san said:

    Hehe, I’m just glad that i managed to convert someone. Still, where is this mysterious green line i fail to identify any in your screencaps.

    Setsuna-sans last blog post..Kara no Kyoukai: A Study in Murder (Part 1) (殺人考察(前)

  • blissmo (author) said:

    @Hynavian:

    YES! We can be BFF nnow!

    @midnightrose:

    lols, this movie may scare you, a person who even refuses to watch the k-movie Cinderella alone :D

    @Setsuna-san:

    I suppose the white border hides it, but you can still see it

  • Baka-Raptor said:

    I just bought some Haagen-Dazs. Seriously.

    Baka-Raptors last blog post..PersaCon 2008

  • Shin said:

    I SEE IT! THE GREEN LINES OF DEATH!

  • otou-san said:

    Sounds fun, I can pretty much get by on a mostly-crappy anime if it’s gory enough (see: Elfen Lied) so I figure it’s a win-win.

    otou-sans last blog post..Geass gets serious

  • Kaiserpingvin said:

    Shiet, that’s beautiful! Not to mention Nasuverse is always nice. Very nice even. I’ll definitely watch this.

    Kaiserpingvins last blog post..Breaking the Chrono Trigger: “Come on, sleepy head!”

  • TheBigN said:

    Baka-Raptor: The question is if you bought them because of Kara no Kyoukai. Correlation does not imply causation and all of that jazz. :P
    TheBigNs last blog post..LOL TOUHOU HIJACK!

  • jenn said:

    I can tell you really like blood, eh. XD

    This is an old post, but I still remember this episode when I watched it. ^^ “A few bad things about this film is that I’m tired of “jumping off the tallest building” suicides — can’t someone please stab ten billion nails inside them and die like that instead?” –> I completely agree. I didn’t like the suicide thing at all…it’s so…unoriginal.

    On the other hand, I did like the strawberry icecream at the start, so choice of motifs depends on the person, I suppose. ^^

Leave your response!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

:D :-) :( :o 8O :? 8) :lol: :x :P :oops: :cry: :evil: :twisted: :roll: :wink: :!: :?: :| :mrgreen:

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

For spoilers please use the tags: [spoiler]text[/spoiler]

Before asking where to find a series please check Animesuki, Tokyo Toshokan and D-Addicts.

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.