Kara no Kyoukai Movie 2: Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen)

In the winter of 1995, Mikiya Kokutou passes a young woman during a late night stroll in the snow. Clad in a striking white kimono and bearing an enigmatic gaze, Shiki Ryougi smiles at Mikiya who stares back with curiosity. Later that spring, Mikiya notices Shiki at his high school entrance ceremony, and they become acquaintances through lunchtime conversations. As Shiki begins opening up to him, Mikiya learns about her unique upbringing.

Meanwhile, a series of unprecedented murders takes place across Mifune City. Seemingly related, these murders are particularly brutal and warrant a large scale police investigation. Because of his cousin's work as a police investigator, Mikiya is given insight into the investigation. Concerned for Shiki's safety, Mikiya decides to monitor her actions, but in doing so, he stumbles upon a truly frightening discovery that changes his life forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ryougi, Shiki Main

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Kokutou, Mikiya Main

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Aozaki, Touko Supporting

Honda, Takako Japanese

Shirazumi, Lio Supporting

Hoshi, Souichirou Japanese

Gakuto Supporting

Takahashi, Kenji Japanese

Akimi, Daisuke Supporting

Touchi, Hiroki Japanese

Ryougi, Father Supporting

Sugisaki, Ryou Japanese

Iwakami, Atsuhiro Producer

Kondou, Hikaru Producer

Hariu, Masayuki Producer

Toba, Yousuke Assistant Producer

Reviews

Feb 2, 2009

Archaeon

Recommended

Kara no Kyoukai review Part 2

The problem with movies is that all too often they're lacking in one or two fundamental areas, and unfortunately these are normally the plot or the characters. The first installment of this series suffered from the latter, and while it was still enjoyable even with that flaw, there was always the nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right.

Thankfully this episode begins to address that issue.

The second installment in the Kara no Kyoukai ~The Garden of Sinners~ franchise, Satsujin Kosatsu (Murder Speculation), is actually part one of a two part story arc (viewers will have to wait for the seventh movie ... to see the conclusion of this episode), yet while this small irony is amusing, the are some flaws with this episode which one can only hope will be rectified with the final movie.

This time around the story takes place over two years prior to the events in the first movie, and thankfully the main theme is the developing relationship between Ryougi Shiki and Kokuto Mikiya during their time together as high school students. Kokuto finds himself strangely attracted to the seemingly aloof Shiki, and proceeds to befriend her until a bizarre series of murders takes place.

Now the nice thing about Satsujin Kousatsu Part 1 is that the plot takes a far more measured approach than Fukan Fuukei does, and while the pace picks up towards the end, there's something here that was somewhat missing from the previous installment - a sense of purpose.

While the first episode was entertaining, there was a certain aimless quality about it due to the underdeveloped characters that permeated the quieter moments. This movie begins to shed some light on the actions of both Shiki and Kokuto during that time, especially on certain aspects of her behaviour and personality.

The story is generally much quieter in tone than before, which may not sit too well with those who liked the frenetic action of Fukan Fuukei. This is a necessity as the anime of Satsujin Kousatsu Part 1 is to offer the viewer some perspective on every other movie in the franchise, and the clarity it provides may force viewers to reassess their opinion of the first installment.

Once again Ufotable produce the goods with regards to artwork and animation. The character movements are excellent, and the incorporation of CG is almost seamless in respect of the backgrounds and backdrops. There are fewer action sequences this time around, but they are just as good here as they are in the first movie, especially when it comes to choreography and use of environment. As for the the character designs, they're a little different in that both Kokuto and Shiki have a certain youthful quality about them, which is reflective of the fact that this story takes place two years before the first movie.

Sound is, again, extremely good overall, and the movie uses the various effects well, however there are some issues as there are occasions where the various noises clash to create a veritable cacophony. This doesn't really detract from the movie though and, surprisingly, actually improves certain sequences.

The music throughout the movie is generally utilised to good effect, often enhancing the atmosphere in a particular scene. The voice actors are also very good, and are able to show some real talent with regards to their respective characters, however given that this is the second movie in a series of seven, this should come as no surprise. What is surprising though, is that the lead seiyuu are able to instill their respective characters with a degree of naivety and innocence, something which improves the overall effect of the movie no end.

Unfortunately that's not enough to raise the characters from their stupor.

While there is very clearly some development occurring over the course of the movie, one of the issues that seems destined to repeat throughout the franchise is that the plot doesn't give them enough time for this growth to set as part of their persona, and that leads once more to an imbalance in the storyline. The revelation about Shiki's personality goes some way to explaining why she is the way she is, but Kokuto is the real problem. As a character he is simply bland, and at no point does the movie go into any detail about his goals, thoughts, ideals, etc. Everything in the movie actually revolves around Shiki, including Kokuto, and all of his actions stem from that one driving principle. Unfortunately this feels like a missed opportunity to add some real meat to both the leads, but it may be that all of these concerns will be addressed by the time the series ends.

The other problem was the lack of Aozaki Touko. It would have been a nice addition to have more information on her from that time period as she is one of the mysteries of Kara no Kyoukai, and in all honesty this could have been done simply and easily. Sadly, the fact that she has not been included in this movie means that it has a slightly disjointed feel compared to the first, but again this may be rectified with the second half of this story arc.

We shall see...

Even with those flaws this is still an enjoyable movie, and it's nice to finally see how the two leads met and got to know each other. It would have been nice if the plot wasn't focused so much on Shiki as this would have allowed for some introspection of the part of Kokuto. On the plus side, the slower pacing of this speisode actually adds to the tension this time around, but like the first movie the plot continues to retain a degree of predictability.

Fans of Fukan Fuukei will be pleased at this second offering as it is very much in keeping with the spirit of the series, however I would advise against making snap judgements about the whole franchise simply on the basis of this or the first movie.

As before, I look forward to the next episode.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 4, 2016

Schwert

Mixed Feelings

This is my first review on MAL !
Kara no kyoukai is a series that I've been willing to try for a long time now and I finally started it yesterday with high expectations. I am watching this in the release order + for the first time :
*Art : 9/10 : It is stunning , specially the background and its beautifully drawn details. The light is perfect and matches the atmosphere. The reason I'm not rating this a 10 is the eyes... I find them at times way too blank or big (the male lead's case) and this might sound picky yet it really ... bothers me at times.
*Animation is decent I am not even going to rate it since there were nearly no action scenes or focus on movements.
*Sound : 8/10 Like the previous Film , the soundtrack fits perfectly.
*Story : 5/10 : a prequel to first movie.The focus was rather on the nature of the two main characters as it also kind of clarifies the bond shared btw both of them (How they met ... ) To say the least , unique is the adjective that could describe this story , but it being different and new to some extent doesn't mean it'll be good when not handled well. It isn't interesting enough since it only touches the surface even if the dialogue seems to dig in the depth.
The fact that there's yet much to know makes the point of the whole movie either to make you curious or just slightly uncover some of the facts and since there's an ending or rather a result to all what happened in the movie (How Shiki's behaviour was dealt with) with the cause or the reason like I said earlier insufficient and unconvincing (due to lack of revelation : just saying it is because of psychological instability is not enough ) I can't seem as a viewer to buy that explanation.
*Characters : 4/10
Let me start with
- Mikiya : Is he just believing in what he wants to ? Creating an illusion and just going along with it while using 'love' to justify it ... I don't understand the reason there's so much 'depth' in his feelings towards Shiki and I don't buy 'love' as an excuse either... He doesn't know enough and accepts everything the way it is or at least seems to and I dislike this type of characters.
- Shiki : I feel neutral towards her character she's interesting enough and I believe we'll get to know her better (hopefully) in the next movies. She has a heavy past as it seems and just acts under its effect .
- The rest are well , there aren't many are there ? they are decent.

Overall : 5/10
I recommend this movie to those who are interested in finishing the whole series and not this movie in particular because what it lacks may be fixed with the next ones.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jun 3, 2025

1stDecame4Danime

Not Recommended

Funny

This movie (like most all of them) is pretty much a reskin of the others, so there's not much unique to be said about it since it's just more of the same.

This movie comes 1st chronologically in the series. But of course, you've been gaslit into watching it 2nd for pointless overcomplication so you've already been spoiled on what happens after and this movie adds very little beyond overexplaining the generic backstory to what you already know these characters end up as.

The 1st 4 movies were pointlessly rearranged out of chronological order in the same way as the source material (thereafter is chronological). You'll find ... online (much like with any series) fanboys blindly recommend watching it in the order it was released. They will give no actual valid justification for this achronology however. So allow me: The author published each individual chapter online coming up with it as they went and ended up writing prequel chapters and sequel chapters and such off the cuff merely because that's the order they came up with it. Achronology adds absolutely nothing to these movies beyond the pointless achronology itself: pointless convolution of simple linear storytelling, not even adding timeline mystery as it literally tells you the dates for each movie and it's readily apparent which comes before which. What it does do is detract from the story: It shows the chronological last of the 4 1st, thus spoiling your experience of the 3 movies thereafter because all of them are murder-oriented, removing all suspense of whether or not the main cast will die when we now already know that they won't, they have plot armor to live because they need to be there for the later chronology. They made a lame story worse by recommending the release order. If you want to watch this in the release order, go ahead and watch the HP movies in a random order for the exact same result because achronology is just inherently better and aren't you special? (god I'm getting Vietnam flashbacks of Peach Boy Riverside)

The plot of this movie is a filler joke padding out a 1-note murder mystery antag and culminating in a big dumb action sequence ending with zero consequences. It isn't worth mentioning really. In fact none of the plots of any of the movies in this series are as they pretty much all follow this same formula.

Since this is a pointless movie, it stretches very little story of moving the main character duo setpieces into place as a great big nothingburger of 1hr crammed full of overindulgent directorial vomit and masturbatory filler and a joke of tropey character writing that is not only dumb and filler, but also incoherent.
Ultimately, they stick the landing with another dumb action climax for all those shonentypes to clap at. Genius. Get ready to wait several movies before you actually find out the laughably dumb and pointless excuse for plot that is deliberately skipped over at the end of this movie. Now that's just good wrighting.

Each movie in this series follows the main cast involved in another supernatural murder mystery scenario of the week for them to investigate/resolve via exposition dump nonmystery rather than piecing together evidence alongside the audience and often just completely removing all suspense by showing us the murderer and their circumstances from the start.
Both each movie internally and all the movies taken as a whole can be described as a dumb series of random asspulls strung together. Every aspect of it is making itself up as it goes:
For example, intrigue: Why is the killer making swastikas, ying-yangs, and sewing hands and feet swapped on victims? No reason really, plot point dropped forever from the series hereafter.
You can pretty much watch the author coming up with the characters in real-time from blank edgy cardboard nothings to suddenly dumping exposition backstories and that's about as far as they ever get.

Despite being ostensibly 'dark fantasy', while it deals with dark/mature themes this isn't horror, just 20% violence/gore between 80% filler. Rather than horror it's mature action, and whatever attempts it makes to be dark come across as laughably edgy, usually conveyed through idiotic shonen villain monologuing (think Angels of Death taking itself completely seriously).
The handling of themes of trauma/psychological issues is juvenile, tactless, and almost exclusively used for edgy schlock.

The dialogue is nearly 100% filler/exposition to string the audience along while pretending it has anything to say (cryptic nothings = mysterious = good wrighting) in addition to frequent poor translation/nonsense dialogue.

Barely any actual cinematography or even interesting shots. The best it manages is a bunch of superficial nothings like dead body with blood, oOoOo blood, spoOoOoky. But I guess this shallow filler counts as deep to some people.

The MC is a noncharacter simp with almost no backstory and hardly any relevance to the series. most everyone else actually goes out and does stuff while he kinda just shows up to talk and occasionally participate by simping for girls almost certainly because he's been written as a generic MC self-insert for a VN nonromance harem builder with all the hentai scenes left out. He's a pencil-pushing desk warmer the girls immediately fall for who has been written out of the story with dumb excuses like being comatose. Let alone making a different character MC, you know your story is bad when your MC of all people would've been better off cut from the entire series.

They frequently skip entire scenes that are actually part of the plot and just sort of act like they haven't, as if they were supposed to be there but were simply cut for pointless ambiguity because it apparently just isn't interested in telling the story, as if it is rushing through the plot in order to cram in as much cost-saving filler as it can. This series is a low effort unrevised draft.

1/10 (where 5/10 is average)

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Poll: Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu (Part 1) Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) dtshyk - Jun 23, 2008	242 replies	by Darkdaxter »» Oct 2, 2025 5:14 PM
	Can I watch this as a stand alone? EfiChan - Apr 14, 2022	16 replies	by 24846 »» Apr 21, 2022 8:50 AM
	Why does Shiki go along with being the *spoilers* ASimpleLotus - Apr 10, 2015	4 replies	by waalex11 »» May 8, 2020 5:13 PM

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