Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners – Murder Speculation (part 1) is a 1 hour long seinen supernatural mystery movie, with aspects of psychological and a tad of romance. The movies continue in the same order as the stories in the novels by Kinoko Nasu, this is effectively a prequel to the first movie and follows the second story in the novels. It’s about Mikiya and Shiki, how they met and is essentially an origin story. Don’t expect it to explain everything we know about those characters though, the Kara no Kyoukai books (and by extension, the movies) are written much like the Haruhi series, in a non-chronological order. There is also the story of some mysterious gruesome murders, which Mikiya is involved with the solving of, similar to the first movie. The supernatural aspect feature’s much less. Don’t be put off by the ‘part 1,’ it follows the book exactly in that regard as the books also split up murder speculation into two parts. Despite that, we still get a complete story… of course the type of story one would expect from this series of movies, drenched in ambiguity. It seems to be more straightforward than the first movie in some ways. Here is my review of the first movie, which I recommend you watch before this, even if it isn’t in chronological order. That said, the story doesn’t heavily rely on the first movie, but watching any of the other Kara no Kyoukai movies before the first one may spoil it as they assume viewers are watching in the same order the stories are written in the book.
Animation
The beautiful animation continues. The snow falling looked a bit weird at the start, but it was because the snow was falling slowly that the framerate seemed lower. There’s some stuning swordplay and action sequences, there’s even one bit where quite a bit of action happens in a single shot of the camera, no cuts to another angle of the action. It remains sensible too, the gore and blood is minimised somewhat and the most gruesome stuff is only described by a character, just as it was in the book. The next point I feel is unnecessary, but I’ll point out that Shiki’s appearance is explained by a bandaged chest, which is done by Japanese women to reduce/hide/be more respectable. Otherwise, it’s the same stunning animation as the first movie, for full details, check here.
Sound
Oh that piano, same old beautiful music and the voice actors reprise their roles of course. See here for the details.
Of course with new characters, they come with their own voice actors. Of the two significant secondary characters, I could only find Daisuke Akimi, who was voiced by Hiroki Touchi, he voiced Chaa in Angel Beats, Kokopelli in Bokurano and Seishirou in Tsubasa Chronicle.
Characters
While the same characters feature, the different setting and more screentime of Mikiya means there’s quite a bit to say about them. Make sure you’ve had a look at my review of the first movie for anything I miss here.
I’d say in this movie, Mikiya Kokutou is the main character. In 1995 he is starting high-school and meets Shiki for the first time. His personality remains the same as the first movie, even if he is younger. He is the same person after all. But since he features a lot more we can see that he is a very kind hearted, too trustworthy person. He isn’t weird, he seems to be well acquainted with various characters we are not really introduced to, so it seems like he has friends. He seems to always have a can of coffee and some bread for lunch, which looks to be melon bread. He always tends to eat his lunch on the roof with Shiki and enjoys being in her company, whether she likes it or not. He isn’t exactly pushy, but Shiki can’t deny him either (more on that in a bit). He describes himself as a bit too optimistic and believes in and trusts others too much, particularly in Shiki. He seems to be attracted towards her, but he can’t figure out why. Perhaps it might be love? He mentions it barely, but the wording used makes me think this isn’t the sort of love we’d describe as romantic. Or I’m just unfamiliar with the Japanese he uses there. He does tend to worry about Shiki and because of this he starts camping outside her home to make sure she’s okay. Despite all this, he is a normal person and while he doesn’t show any fear for Shiki, he still has his fears and can’t stomach gruesome scenes. Despite this, his cousin Daisuke discusses the murders with him and he even mentions it to Shiki at the start.
So spoilers for the first movie, Shiki Ryougi is indeed a girl, her chest seems flat because she bandages it up instead of wearing a bra. She is form the high-standing and noble Ryougi family, where her older brother is next in line for head of the family, even though she is more suitable for the role, she rejected the offer. This is the one small thing from the novels that was left out of this movie, the Ryougi family have a history of individuals with split personality, who were usually insane but were revered as far as the family was concerned. Shiki herself has a split personality here, the other part of her is more impulsive and less formal with words and is known as SHIKI as it is a different Kanji to her normal name. This split personality has affected Shiki since her birth and SHIKI claims that Shiki has never been alone because of having her other personality. Shiki seems to want to protect her other personality and prevent it from coming out and carrying out her impulsive desires. As before (or later in the timeline) she carries her knife and is skilled with blades, she spars with her father using live steel. Akitaka is her personal attendant, but Shiki doesn’t like being attended to. She seems to be an outcast socially, people see her as too scary, the way she always wears a Kimono (they attend a school where there is no school uniform). The only person she seems to have any links with is Mikiya and she doesn’t like how he is trying to get into her life, she wants him to leave her be. However, Shiki has trouble denying, SHIKI is much better at this and even then, she’s a bit cryptic. Maybe the strangest thing, Shiki is often found at the site of the murders after they’ve occurred, letting her Kimono soak in blood, she seems to have some sort of strange obsession with the blood. As it should be obvious, Shiki’s character is delved into much deeper.
The only other secondary character of any significance is Mikiya’s cousin, Daisuke Akiimi works within the police force as a homicide detective. He often spends time around Mikya’s place, to both talk to Mikiya and also for his aunt’s cooking. Both he and Mikiya tend to eat a lot of tangerines and line the peels up afterwards. He is determined to solve this case and by discussing it with Mikiya, he hopes to gain more leads, though he does divulge info about the case to Mikiya, certain clues which might mean something to him, even if he doesn’t mention it to Daisuke.
Very minor characters are Mikiya’s parents, particularly his mother and Akitaka, Shiki’s attendant/servant. There’s also Gakuto, one of Mikiya’s school friends in the judo club who initially thinks Mikiya and Shiki are some sort of couple before Mikiya explains the truth of the limited relationship. Then there’s the mysterious boy at the school who seems to know what Shiki is up to.
Story
So the plot here is similar to before, a series of murders this time. But more importantly there is the character development. The narrative doesn’t take a traditional route, since it is part 1 of a 2 part story and certain things are left a mystery. Most likely, these would be explained in part 2. I don’t know how to feel about this, I usually dislike it when an anime does this, but then this isn’t any old anime and is following the plot in the novels to a T. The dialogue is also very similar or almost the same, depending on my memory. Just like the books split up the two sections, the movie remains faithful. I guess this is a good thing. Though a criticism of both the book and this movie that follows it, the way they solve the climax is a dick move and reminds me a lot of the end of Code Geass’s first season. I will also point out that this movie also shows how Shiki gets her red jacket, however exciting that might not sound.
There isn’t as much to read into here, but the character development and interaction is key. Why does Mikiya do the things he does? The movie seems to delve a bit into the character psychology of both Mikiya and Shiki with her two personalities. Mikiya’s magnetic attraction to Shiki may seem like love and I honestly can’t tell if it is, love makes people do stupid things and while it may seem Mikiya is being a bit silly, when it comes down to it he still has sense and his honesty.
Like the previous movie, it has a post-credit sequence, hinting to part 2 of Murder Speculation, teasing a few characters including one that may seem familiar to veterans of Type-Moons works. And of course, the preview of the next movie, where Mikiya says the one thing that was in my mind when I was reading that part of the novels. Man, Mikiya is a very good character.
Conclusion
I’d recommend this for folks who read the books, I forgot to mention that for the first movie. It’s pretty damn faithful bar a single thing I can remember (the Ryougi family history) and I guess my recommendation from last time still holds. This movie was just as exciting as the first, heck it was a tad better due to the character development. While it does leave a few questions to be answered and does that horrible thing that annoys me as a connoisseur of story, it manages to be very enjoyable to watch for me. Once again not for everyone and I think things are about to get a whole lot more uncomfortable (it was for me) and crazy in the next movie, if the next part of the novel is anything to go by.
Family-friendliness Rating: 4/5 Disturbing themes and complex story (lower is better)
Overall Rating: 8.5/10 (higher is better)
Screenshots
