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Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners: The Hollow Shrine (Sub) Status: COMPLETE
Movie
Can Kara no Kyoukai get even better? We've been on a steady rise since Overlooking View, so let's see!
Kara no Kyoukai's The Hollow takes place after the events of Murder Speculation (First Half) which would make it the second movie chronologically thus far. It's worth noting that in Murder Speculation there was virtually no supernatural elements whatsoever. This movie apparently serves to show how they come into play.
A note of confusion arises with the movie immediately as soon as you realize The Hollow Takes place after a "Part 1". When do we get "Part 2"? Who knows.
At the end of Murder Speculation, Shiki is hit by a vehicle and sent to a hospital. We pick up just as she's being brought to the hospital and after a wicked 2 YEAR timeskip she wakes up.
Throughout the movie we're treated to extended trip-out sequences representing her near-death experience and after she wakes up she appears to notice her visual power for the first time which manifests as a sight that superimposes lines over living subjects showing how they can be disassembled. There are a few shots which I personally found interesting, but for the most part these sequences only serve to suck up time.
After we're told that the time she's been out has been 2 years and Kokutou is still visiting while being referred to as "puppy-kun", we're immediately struck by another horrible realization: Kokutou has the hots for her.
Great. It was hinted at in Murder Speculation, but in that movie I could at least pretend this wasn't obviously what the movie was going for. But now we can't just chalk it up to Kokutou being a good citizen or a nice guy to a near-total stranger, no sir he's got to be IN LOVE with a psychopath. UUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH...
You know, if they in any way established his character, I STILL WOULDN'T HAVE BOUGHT IT, but it would at least hurt a tiny bit less, but instead we have a direct sequel and we still don't develop Kokutou or learn anything substantial about him at all.
Now the EXPOSITION FAIRY, now that's a character we learn about. It took 4 ******* movies for me to finally pick up your name, Touko, and you can bet it wasn't because it's difficult to pronounce.
Apparently Touko is a "magus" masquerading as a speech therapist who possesses not only magic spells, but an intimate familiarity with Shiki's unique power, even citing it's 'official' name, "The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception". She explains that the eyes are able to perceive deconstruction: basically which parts of somebody to attack in order to kill them. This explains her ability to kill ghosts, namely by suggesting that all beings, dead or alive, have these "cutting lines" for her to see.
It doesn't quite explain her ability to perceive the other girl's powers in Remaining Sense of Pain, but whatever, we're not there yet.
So at the climax of the movie- oh. Wait.
I skipped a part.
My bad, let's back up a second, okay, so there's actually this one part where the entire movie stops dead and Kokutou's standing indoors looks out into empty space and literally does a spoken rendition of "Singing in the Rain" in rough English.
Yeah. That one.
It's raining in the scene. At the very least. But holy hell I wasn't this caught off guard since the live-action Death Note ended with a Red Hot Chili Peppers song.
Well anyway, they're going for a dramatic contrast thing, which I didn't think worked, because meanwhile Shiki's getting choked out of her bed by a zombie of some sort.
Shiki with her supernatural ability to see how to kill the zombie JUMPS OUT THE WINDOW. And survives... a several story fall.
Okay, Rule of Cool is one thing, but you've got to explain this if so much of your setting is rooted in reality. When did she get the ability to cast Feather Fall? Did she gain a level in Wizard while she was in a coma? Or did she dual-class into Magus?
Whatever, Shiki survives the fall, takes off her eye bandages (she had eye bandages), gets tossed her dagger, cuts her hair (her hair was long), and then kills the zombie.
Then she stabs herself. WHICH DOESN'T KILL HER.
Get it? Cause she can see the kill lines and stuff? It only kills the BAD Shiki personality, the Shiki that was killing people. Right? Cause OBVIOUSLY, right?
Anyway now the bad Shiki's gone, Shiki's only left with one personality, and so Touko offers to teach her how to use her new eye power and Shiki agrees on the grounds that she'll be able to kill people.
...
Ummm...
Movie?
That was the twist, right? The twist was she killed the good personality? Not that the murderous one is dead now? Didn't we just-?
Movie?
**** it, this doesn't make any ******* sense, and what makes even less sense is that in the middle of the movie Touko states that Shiki doesn't even have split personalities, she says that her personalities are present at the same time and both contribute to her actions.
They even make up a new ******* name for it: "composite individual personality disorder".
What. A. Total. Load.
What to hear an even bigger one? Touko says Shiki's hollow because she doesn't have any feelings, thoughts, or ambitions other than a desire to kill.
Did you catch that?
The entire theme of the movie, the TITLE OF THE MOVIE, is in reference to the main character being a completely blank canvas.
THAT'S GENIUS.
Final Verdict: [Friggen' Awesome][Pretty Good][Meh...][Just... Bad][Irredeemably Awful]
Movie
Can Kara no Kyoukai get even better? We've been on a steady rise since Overlooking View, so let's see!
Kara no Kyoukai's The Hollow takes place after the events of Murder Speculation (First Half) which would make it the second movie chronologically thus far. It's worth noting that in Murder Speculation there was virtually no supernatural elements whatsoever. This movie apparently serves to show how they come into play.
A note of confusion arises with the movie immediately as soon as you realize The Hollow Takes place after a "Part 1". When do we get "Part 2"? Who knows.
At the end of Murder Speculation, Shiki is hit by a vehicle and sent to a hospital. We pick up just as she's being brought to the hospital and after a wicked 2 YEAR timeskip she wakes up.
Throughout the movie we're treated to extended trip-out sequences representing her near-death experience and after she wakes up she appears to notice her visual power for the first time which manifests as a sight that superimposes lines over living subjects showing how they can be disassembled. There are a few shots which I personally found interesting, but for the most part these sequences only serve to suck up time.
After we're told that the time she's been out has been 2 years and Kokutou is still visiting while being referred to as "puppy-kun", we're immediately struck by another horrible realization: Kokutou has the hots for her.
Great. It was hinted at in Murder Speculation, but in that movie I could at least pretend this wasn't obviously what the movie was going for. But now we can't just chalk it up to Kokutou being a good citizen or a nice guy to a near-total stranger, no sir he's got to be IN LOVE with a psychopath. UUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH...
You know, if they in any way established his character, I STILL WOULDN'T HAVE BOUGHT IT, but it would at least hurt a tiny bit less, but instead we have a direct sequel and we still don't develop Kokutou or learn anything substantial about him at all.
Now the EXPOSITION FAIRY, now that's a character we learn about. It took 4 ******* movies for me to finally pick up your name, Touko, and you can bet it wasn't because it's difficult to pronounce.
Apparently Touko is a "magus" masquerading as a speech therapist who possesses not only magic spells, but an intimate familiarity with Shiki's unique power, even citing it's 'official' name, "The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception". She explains that the eyes are able to perceive deconstruction: basically which parts of somebody to attack in order to kill them. This explains her ability to kill ghosts, namely by suggesting that all beings, dead or alive, have these "cutting lines" for her to see.
It doesn't quite explain her ability to perceive the other girl's powers in Remaining Sense of Pain, but whatever, we're not there yet.
So at the climax of the movie- oh. Wait.
I skipped a part.
My bad, let's back up a second, okay, so there's actually this one part where the entire movie stops dead and Kokutou's standing indoors looks out into empty space and literally does a spoken rendition of "Singing in the Rain" in rough English.
Yeah. That one.
It's raining in the scene. At the very least. But holy hell I wasn't this caught off guard since the live-action Death Note ended with a Red Hot Chili Peppers song.
Well anyway, they're going for a dramatic contrast thing, which I didn't think worked, because meanwhile Shiki's getting choked out of her bed by a zombie of some sort.
Shiki with her supernatural ability to see how to kill the zombie JUMPS OUT THE WINDOW. And survives... a several story fall.
Okay, Rule of Cool is one thing, but you've got to explain this if so much of your setting is rooted in reality. When did she get the ability to cast Feather Fall? Did she gain a level in Wizard while she was in a coma? Or did she dual-class into Magus?
Whatever, Shiki survives the fall, takes off her eye bandages (she had eye bandages), gets tossed her dagger, cuts her hair (her hair was long), and then kills the zombie.
Then she stabs herself. WHICH DOESN'T KILL HER.
Get it? Cause she can see the kill lines and stuff? It only kills the BAD Shiki personality, the Shiki that was killing people. Right? Cause OBVIOUSLY, right?
Anyway now the bad Shiki's gone, Shiki's only left with one personality, and so Touko offers to teach her how to use her new eye power and Shiki agrees on the grounds that she'll be able to kill people.
...
Ummm...
Movie?
That was the twist, right? The twist was she killed the good personality? Not that the murderous one is dead now? Didn't we just-?
Movie?
**** it, this doesn't make any ******* sense, and what makes even less sense is that in the middle of the movie Touko states that Shiki doesn't even have split personalities, she says that her personalities are present at the same time and both contribute to her actions.
They even make up a new ******* name for it: "composite individual personality disorder".
What. A. Total. Load.
What to hear an even bigger one? Touko says Shiki's hollow because she doesn't have any feelings, thoughts, or ambitions other than a desire to kill.
Did you catch that?
The entire theme of the movie, the TITLE OF THE MOVIE, is in reference to the main character being a completely blank canvas.
THAT'S GENIUS.
Final Verdict: [Friggen' Awesome][Pretty Good][Meh...][Just... Bad][Irredeemably Awful]