Kara No Kyoukai

Or that.

Yeah. You really need to read as much stuff Nasu has put out as possible to understand the magic system and stuff. Like the information on what Origins are is scattered all through KNK, FSN and FZ. The reasons why the MEODP take a bit longer to kill certain things is also alluded to in Tsukihime instead of just being in KNK.

I've never seen this thing before. What is it like?

Kara No Kyoukai? I gave up on the movies because I didn't get them (they're all closely tied together as a storyline so the scope is pretty big for long movies).

But I finished the books and they're like (not really a spoiler but just in case): Who's the murderer? You know who the murderer is. Well no, you can't actually prove it. Still morally ambiguous regardless. Mages don't understand regular morality either. Anticlimactic battle!

Basically I found them a little long, and while I can't find anything in the concept to recommend this to people the writing is decent. Some awesome parts, but mostly of interest to Nasuverse fans I think.

edited 23rd Aug '11 4:15:29 AM by UltimatelySubjective

Wait, how do you not know who the murderer is? Lio stated himself that he killed the people in places that Shiki would come across, didn't he?

Yes, but that information is withheld from us for most of the series. It may be slightly less in novel form, but that's something like eight movies.

Should I watch the films or read the novels? (are they all translated, and well?)

The novels are fully fan translated so I'd start with them unless you really take to the first movie. If you don't think much of the film try the novels before deciding if you like the series.

Nasu said movies > novels.

Maybe, but traversing the story is quicker by novel.

But in my eyes, the story is worthless and the movies are only good because of amazing animation and soundtrack.

I couldn't make it past the first movie without referring to the novel to get a better idea of what was going on.

Potentially you could swap between them.

In the end it comes down to personal preference.

edited 23rd Aug '11 10:18:40 AM by UltimatelySubjective

Giving the first film a try.

I like the soundtrack, but its too bad the stream has poor sound quality.

I think after this, I'll give the novel a try.

Well, you guys weren't kidding when you said the story in the films is a little slow.

Somehow, I loved the exchange regarding the Haagen-Daz at the end XD

The first movie isn't really the best way to judge the series as a whole. I remember catching it without even knowing what the series was called, and figuring that whatever it was, it was one of those shows that was more artsy buildup and good directing work than substance. It was pretty, but I didn't bother tracking the rest of it down until after I'd gone through the novels, and realized I'd seen it before.

The fight scenes in the later movies are even more engaging, and there are usually a whole lot of other events that are action packed even without the fights.

I didn't like the first movie, personally. I don't think I really liked the series until, what, the third movie? I have trouble keeping track of them since they're not in chonological order.

I thought the art direction and the elocution was gorgeous, but it was still too much time to spend framing a simple conflict that is totally resolved in a very straightforward fight scene.

Huh. I preferred the novels to the movies, personally. I found that the movies' animation was a little odd outside of the fight scenes, and the fight scenes were slightly over-exaggerated (but still pretty awesome).

I'll grant that the plot is rather Nasu-esque though, so it's probably a matter of taste. I personally enjoyed the story, but there's definitely a lot of YMMV on that. Re the reveal of the murderer's identity only happening at the very end: well, that's kind of the point of the series. It's deliberately been placed as one of the main plot points, so of course it won't be resolved until the end. I suppose one could argue that it shouldn't have been placed as a main plot point in the first place, but I appreciated the story this way.

edited 24th Aug '11 6:24:32 AM by ashnazg

Asagami Fujino made this movie series for me. Then the fifth movie came along and HOLY SHIT AWESOME

How I got to know this series...

1. Saw this series under the Most Triumphant Example of Scenery Porn. Interested.
2. Saw the series image in Evil Eye. Holy shit, this sounds awesome.
3. Watched this video.

1. Fell in love with the series instantly.

edited 24th Aug '11 7:54:45 AM by dRoy

Oh, I liked that fight scene too. I was like "Ooh, pretty..."

My impression while watching this:

1. Ooh, a Raincoat Girl! (In Korea, there's a fairly popular web animation series called Raincoat Boy)
2. Okay, she's at the rooftop andwhatthe?
3. HOLY SHIT PIMPING EYES!
4. HOLY SHIT COOLEST POWER EVER!

And then there was where she jump off to next building and slides across there while splashing water, with the view of citylight on the background and THE MUSIC!! My GOD, all in all that was THE most GORGEROUS fight scene I EVER seen back then.

oblivious was also a great song. But nothing beats sprinter.

In my opinion, that cannot beat this:

EDIT: Hmm, it appears that I can't embed more than one youtube vid per post.

edited 24th Aug '11 8:10:16 AM by dRoy

Is there a place where I can find a translation of the Future Gospel epilogue? I was kinda disappointed at the OVA epilogue, seeing as it's just a conversation between Mikiya and "Shiki".

Also, I've asked this on the first page already, but has anyone read the Future Gospel epilogue?