History Headscratchers / KaraNoKyoukai

* Who was the corpse that attacked Shiki in the hospital? Normally I'd assume that it's just some random dead guy that got possessed, but those tattoos stand out WAY too much, and the shots even linger on them a bit.
** Pretty sure they were focused on so that the viewer would understand that this was the same corpse. Since before that, it had been just ghosts. They wanted to make it clear that this was a corporeal creature.
* In "Murder Speculation 2", right before Shiki gets up to kick some ass, the raindrops and [[spoiler:Lio's saliva]] rapidly evaporate from her body and clothes. What the hell was that?
** AWizardDidIt? Seriously, I have no idea, but I assumed that maybe her body was metabolizing the drug really fast and it was something like that.
*** Lio's saliva always evaporates really fast for some strange reason. I'm guessing her biting her thumb off allowed enough blood loss to dilute the drug in her body (which, incidently, is also how Mikiya was able to survive the drug Lio made him swallow). Either that or once she got herself free she was able to 'kill' the drug in her body the same way she 'killed' Asagami's illness in Remaining Sense of Pain. Either that or she was capable of 'killing' both the drug in her body and the saliva whilst still being handcuffed.
** Two possibilites I've seen. First, at least in the novel, it's stated or at least very implied that she's been injected in the left (fake) arm. This is likely a factor. Second, the drug's power is stated to be less about the physical reaction, and more about Lio's blood contained there. His blood, being connected to the Origin, should help people awaken their own (and most likely destroy them in the process). Shiki's Origin being far, far, far more powerful, it simply overwhelmed the drug. The effect would be similar to a fever, I'd guess because that's how the body normally deals with foreign entities - i.e., Shiki heats up.

* In the last film, who was that drug dealer Mikiya spoke with? She looked and sounded strangely familiar, you know.
** I got the impression it was Lio, just crossdressing to disguise himself/mess with Kokutou/because he's Lio. Serious FridgeHorror upon figuring this out the second time around.
** She's just a regular drug dealer. Definitely not Lio, because he's been stealing all of her business due to the popularity of the Bloodchip and her refusal to sell them. Any resemblance to other characters is probably just due to OnlySixFaces.
** According to some sources, she is (or at least, shares a name with) Hotaruzuka Otoko, Shirou's employer from Fate/stay night.

* Also, could someone spell out what Touko's goal that defies True Ancestors' existence is for me, please? I seem to have missed that part...
** I believe that it's "to find the ultimate body". (I might be wrong.) Touko's a doll maker after all, and the True Ancestors are imperfect clones of a planet's Ultimate Being.
** That's more or less correct. Touko's goal is to find the 'original body', the template mankind is based on. Modern humans are too widespread and genetically diverse for this, in theme with the Nasuverse's ideas of copies being inferior to originals. True Ancestors are modelled on the Crimson Moon but their bodies were based on the original human template. Arcueid walking around means Touko's ultimate goal is right in front of her. Although, since she so rarely wakes up to do anything it's really a moot point anyway...
*** So, to set this straight, Touko wants to clone Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam?
*** No. The {{Franchise/Nasuverse}} is an AlternateHistory in which humans are descended from an original template derived from the planet itself. That's why Heroic Spirits are capable of moving at supersonic speeds while modern humans can't. It's not because they're dead, they could do this ''even while alive''. It's implied that the development of Magic Circuits are slowly shifting humans away from the original magic-users like Caster, who uses magic using the Divine Language instead. Gilgamesh and Medusa can sense the nature of magic within a magus' body before the magus actually releases it, and Gilgamesh isn't even a magus.
*** Rakkyo made it pretty clear that finding the "original body" was Touko's goal, but she had long given up. If I recall correctly, Ryougi Shiki's own body was the goal Touko sought - a body that connected to the original root of all creation.
* So...why the hell was Araya a counselor at the hospital? Was he just bored with his crazy Paradox Spiral experiments or something? I mean, sure, it'd be a good way to get to Kirie, but I don't thing a magus of Araya's calibre really has a need for fake identities or somesuch. He could probably just walk up the walls to her window or something. It would make more sense if he took that job when Shiki appeared in hospital, but that's when Touko came in. So...what exactly is up with that? Or maybe it was just another random guy who happened to share the name of the story's Big Bad?
** I was under the impression that he was there to look for people with a body he could use for his plans, since it seems like it would take an accident like Shiki's to create someone with the Mystic Eyes or someone like Kirie who would be vulnerable to his offers. Or it could very well be that he was bored and just enjoys messing with people.
** Araya probably worked himself into the hospital so he can observe Shiki. Once Shiki regained consciousness, Touko might have used her old connections with the guy to replace him on Mikiya's behalf -- if he refused, his plans regarding Shiki's body could have been exposed. Alternately, even a magus needs proper medical resources to [[spoiler:keep that many brains alive for so long]]...

* In the movies, Mikiya openly states that he met Shiki in April. However, in the novels, it is heavily implied that we're ''supposed'' to think this was so; instead, the "April 1995. I met her." line was always meant to always be a reference to Lio's diary, when it was revealed (in the epilogue) that Mikiya met Shiki in ''March'' of 1995. Did the movie makers miss this detail, or is there a translation issue here?
** From the epilogue, we know that the one whom Mikiya first met in the snow was [[spoiler:Void Shiki]], and the one both Lio and Mikiya are in love with is female and male Shiki/SHIKI, which they first saw when the school term started.

* Is Keita now in the slammer? Are we even told what happened to him?
** It's stated somewhere that his dick got twisted off at some point afterwards. I'm not even kidding.

* Who was the 1995 murderer after all?
** By the end it's made pretty clear that [[spoiler:Lio Shirazumi is responsible for all the original murders after Araya awakened his origin.]]
* If [[spoiler:Void Shiki]] is top of the foodchain in the Nasuverse on who's most powerful, second being ORT, then how could Shiki herself take Azaka's threat about [[spoiler:staying away from Mikiya]] seriously?
** [[spoiler:Shiki is not aware of her third persona.]] And I'm pretty sure she's actually fond of Azaka so there might be a little of that involved.

* How can Shiki fight Meruka in ''Möbius Ring'' (taking place in late July-early August 1998) at full capacity, and then suddenly go back to getting used to her prosthetic arm in ''Feline'' (later in August 1998)?

** [[spoiler:Shiki is not aware of her third persona.]] And I'm pretty sure she's actually fond of Azaka so there might be a little of that involved.

**** No. The NasuVerse is an AlternateHistory in which humans are descended from an original template derived from the planet itself. That's why Heroic Spirits are capable of moving at supersonic speeds while modern humans can't. It's not because they're dead, they could do this ''even while alive''. It's implied that the development of Magic Circuits are slowly shifting humans away from the original magic-users like Caster, who uses magic using the Divine Language instead. Gilgamesh and Medusa can sense the nature of magic within a magus' body before the magus actually releases it, and Gilgamesh isn't even a magus.

* If [[spoiler:Void Shiki]] is top of the foodchain in the Nasuverse on who's most powerful, second being ORT, then how could Shiki herself take Azaka's threat about [[spoiler:staying away from Mikiya]] seriously?

* If [[spoiler:Void Shiki]] is top of the foodchain in the Nasuverse on who's most powerful, second being ORT, then how could Shiki herself take Azaka's threat about [[spoiler:staying away from Mikiya]] seriously?

* How come Shiki Ryougi is not labeled a GodModeSue? Her powers speak for themselves.

* If [[spoiler:Void Shiki]] is top of the foodchain in the Nasuverse on who's most powerful, second being ORT, then how could Shiki herself take Azaka's threat about [[spoiler:staying away from Mikiya]] seriously?

* If [[spoiler:Void Shiki]] is top of the foodchain in the Nasuverse on who's most powerful, second being [[Visual Novel/Tsukihime ORT]] being second, then how could Shiki herself take Azaka's threat about [[spoiler:staying away from Mikiya]] seriously?

** By the end it's made pretty clear that [[spoiler:Lio Shirazumi is responsible for all the original murders after Araya awakened his origin.]]

* Who was the 1995 murderer after all?

* In the movies, Mikiya openly states that she met Shiki in April. However, in the novels, it is heavily implied that we're ''supposed'' to think this was so; instead, the "April 1995. I met her." line was always meant to always be a reference to Lio's diary, when it was revealed (in the epilogue) that Mikiya met Shiki in ''March'' of 1995. Did the movie makers miss this detail, or is there a translation issue here?

* Why hasn't Shiki Ryougi been considered a God Mode Sue yet? Her powers speak for themselves.
** Because she doesn't even use them that often. Her defining character trait is that "she loves to kill, but she can't bring herself to do it". She has restraint. Also consider that she only awakened her third personality after being in contact with the Akasha. Besides, even with her Mystic Eyes, she couldn't even beat Araya until he made the mistake of getting Shiki in contact with the Origin.
** The books also show how frail as a human she is. During the fight against Fujyo Kirie when she jumps from rooftop to rooftop she does injure her legs. Even with the MEoDP she's still a squishy human. Getting hit by a truck almost killed her.

* Could just be ValuesDissonance at work here, but Mikiya's attitude about what Shiki eventually does to Lio really rubs me the wrong way. I mean, he killed god knows how many people, he had just tried to kill Mikiya and was going to do that or worse to Shiki (and the fact that what he did earlier was more or less rape when you get down to it), and I don't think there's a jury in the world that would have convicted Shiki for dealing with him like she did. It was self defense more than anything in the end, maybe ShootTheDog when you get down to it, but Mikiya acts like she did something horrible and says he won't forgive her. I know there's that whole thing about only being able to kill one person in your life, but Mikiya really came off as unreasonable in that sequence and almost threw it into DartHWiki/DethroningMomentOfSuck for me as far as his character went.

** The last bit with Mikiya not forgiving her was more playful joking as he actually asserts that he would always bear Shiki's sins in order to comfort Shiki's state of mind. If she killed Lio due to her murderous impulse it would have proven that Lio was right about her being a homicidal maniac all along. Despite Shiki's insistence on being a natural born killer she actually doesn't want to become one herself. The whole "forgiveness" aspect was more directed at Shiki with partial sympathy for Lio. It was to stop Shiki from pursuing a vengeful path and a way to prevent her from ''killing herself''. While Mikiya cared for Lio at the start, he realized that he was a lost cause. Unlike a ''true'' homicidal maniac, Lio can't actually accept the fact that he murders people despite his claims. Instead of accepting the weight of his actions, he's running away from it each time he kills someone by justifying it with his love for Shiki, his Origin, and his abnormal state of mind (Mikiya tells him this resulting in Lio's VillainousBSOD which admittedly backfires). What justifies the killing of Lio is that Shiki killed someone who wasn't "human" any more as well as doing it out of love and self-sacrifice as opposed to her murderous impulse. Self-defense can also count because the novel actually elaborates on the final confrontation, outlining how Shiki was still experiencing the lingering effects of the drugs thus being unable to fight as well as she did before. It goes on how Lio was effectively weakening Shiki's limbs one by one like a predator slowly taking down its prey, with the final blow being directed at her neck (Shiki basically [[CounterAttack took full advantage]] of the amount of space between them and killed him in [[OneHitKill one fell swoop]] resulting in the fight to come across as a CurbStompBattle). Furthermore if one remembers what Shiki's grandfather said:
-->''"I've killed many people already. No one would carry the burden of killing me. I would just go to an empty place.....Yes. You can only kill someone once. The ones who killed someone and used it up can never kill themselves. They can't die as a human."'' (all of this applies to Lio who had already killed ''himself'' '''more than once''' and has lost his humanity by the time of the final confrontation effectively removing the burden of killing him)
** As far as I understood it, he wasn't concerned with Lio at all, he just feared that Shiki would become more unstable i.e. have yet another personality switch. That he "forgives" her that easily when he finds her unchanged DESPITE the killing just reiterates it for me. It might be that the novels explain more about this, but I haven't yet gotten to that part.
*** He doesn't care about Lio that much. He just worries a lot about Shiki's mental state. Because Shiki is crazy. Really really crazy. The bits at the end about not forgiving her were more jokes than anything else. Mikiya might talk a lot about how murder is wrong, but he doesn't mind much if evil people die.
**** It's not that he didn't care about Lio a great deal. It's more along the lines of "he gave up trying to save him."

* Pardon me for not discussing the series itself but I can't help but notice that the official boxset (something nobody ever notified me about) is $1000USD and there's no standard edition for people who can't afford something like that either. I'm sorry, but what? WHAT?!
** Standard pricing in Japan, I'm afraid.

* Pardon me for not discussing the series itself but I can't help but notice that the official boxset (something nobody ever notified me about) is $1000USD and there's no standard edition for people who can't afford something like that either. I'm sorry, but what? WHAT?!

* In the movies, Mikiya openly states that she met Shiki in April. However, in the novels, it is heavily implied that we're ''supposed'' to think this was so; instead, the "April 1995. I met her." line was always meant to always be a reference to Lio's diary, when it was revealed (in the epilogue) that Mikiya met Shiki in ''March'' of 1995. Did the movie makers miss this detail, or is there a translation issue here?

* Could just be ValuesDissonance at work here, but Mikiya's attitude about what Shiki eventually does to Lio really rubs me the wrong way. I mean, he killed god knows how many people, he had just tried to kill Mikiya and was going to do that or worse to Shiki (and the fact that what he did earlier was more or less rape when you get down to it), and I don't think there's a jury in the world that would have convicted Shiki for dealing with him like she did. It was self defense more than anything in the end, maybe ShootTheDog when you get down to it, but Mikiya acts like she did something horrible and says he won't forgive her. I know there's that whole thing about only being able to kill one person in your life, but Mikiya really came off as unreasonable in that sequence and almost threw it into DethroningMomentOfSuck for me as far as his character went.

** The last bit with Mikiya not forgiving her was more playful joking as he actually asserts that he would always bear Shiki's sins in order to comfort Shiki's state of mind. If she killed Lio due to her murderous impulse it would have proven that Lio was right about her being a homicidal maniac all along. Despite Shiki's insistence on being a natural born killer she actually doesn't want to become one herself. The whole "forgiveness" aspect was more directed at Shiki with partial sympathy for Lio. It was to stop Shiki from pursuing a vengeful path and a way to prevent her from ''killing herself''. While Mikiya cared for Lio at the start, he realized that he was a lost cause. Unlike a ''true'' homicidal maniac, Lio can't actually accept the fact that he murders people despite his claims. Instead of accepting the weight of his actions, he's running away from it each time he kills someone by justifying it with his love for Shiki, his Origin, and his abnormal state of mind (Mikiya tells him this resulting in Lio's VillainousBSOD which admittedly backfires). What justifies the killing of Lio is that Shiki killed someone who wasn't "human" any more as well as doing it out of love and self-sacrifice as opposed to her murderous impulse. Self-defense can also count because the novel actually elaborates on the final confrontation outlining how Shiki was still experiencing the lingering of effects of the drugs thus being unable to fight as well as she did before. It goes on how Lio was effectively weakening Shiki's limbs one by one like a predator slowly taking down its prey, with the final blow being directed at her neck (Shiki basically took full advantage of the amount of space between them and killed him in one fell swoop resulting in the fight to come across as a CurbStompBattle). Furthermore if one remembers what Shiki's grandfather said:

** The books also show how frail as a human she is. During the fight against Fujyo Kirie when she jumps from rooftop to rooftop she does injure her legs. Even with the MEoDP she's still a squishy human. Getting hit by a truck almost killed her.

** Because she doesn't even use them that often. Her defining character trait is that "she loves to kill, but she can't bring herself to do it". She has restraint. Also consider that she only awakened her third personality after being in contact with the Akasha. Besides, even with her Mystic Eyes, she couldn't even beat Araya until he made the mistake of getting Shiki in contact with the Origin.

** The last bit with Mikiya not forgiving her was more playful joking as he actually asserts that he would always bear Shiki's sins in order to comfort Shiki's state of mind. If she killed Lio due to her murderous impulse it would have proven that Lio was right about her being a homicidal maniac all along. Despite Shiki's insistence on being a natural born killer she actually doesn't want to become one herself. The whole "forgiveness" aspect was more directed at Shiki with partial sympathy for Lio. It was to stop Shiki from pursuing a vengeful path and a way to prevent her from ''killing herself''. While Mikiya cared for Lio at the start, he realized that he was a lost cause. Unlike a ''true'' homicidal maniac, Lio can't actually accept the fact that he murders people despite his claims. Instead of accepting his the weight of his actions, he's running away from it each time he kills someone by justifying it with his love for Shiki, his Origin, and his abnormal state of mind (Mikiya tells him this resulting in Lio's VillainousBSOD which admittedly backfires). What justifies the killing of Lio is that Shiki killed someone who wasn't "human" any more as well as doing it out of love and self-sacrifice as opposed to her murderous impulse. Self-defense can also count because the novel actually elaborates on the final confrontation outlining how Shiki was still experiencing the lingering of effects of the drugs thus being unable to fight as well as she did before. It goes on how Lio was effectively weakening Shiki's limbs one by one like a predator slowly taking down its prey, with the final blow being directed at her neck (Shiki basically took full advantage of the amount of space between them and killed him in one fell swoop resulting in the fight to come across as a CurbStompBattle). Furthermore if one remembers what Shiki's grandfather said: