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Interesting (and dark!) story, great antagonist and enticing final battle. Now THAT'S how you make use of all that top notch animation. If only the other episodes were as interesting as this one..

Sigh...I've always felt that had the first two movies been able to establish an emotional connection with the audience, they'd be nearly perfect. The first two movies were fantastic visually and technically, yet they were more eye candy than anything; the characters weren't appealing and the story had yet to be explained. The movies had content yet lacked essence of any sort; they were soul-less.

Then you get the third movie, which finally handles that problem. I thought that with the final piece of the puzzle in place, the series would finally fall into place, boy, was I wrong. This was probably the first time in the series where the audience began to feel concern for the characters. Of course, that it was also ruined by cheesy plot devices (Kokutou runs into too many wierd girls) and priority over moral satisfaction than story logic: Shiki hunts Fujino down, explains why Shiki hates her, purposely forfeits her arm, only to end up redeeming Fujino. Why? No where is it explained why Shiki would do Fujino any favors (ironically, all we get is Shiki explaining why she wants to kill Fujino). Things like that leave me shaking my head in confusion and shame.

It just makes no sense, especially with a movie that starts with such a powerful rape scene, for a dark toned movie to end with sunshine and rainbows. This movie was the first in the series to make me feel, unfortunately, I was feeling all the wrong things.

Yes it was visually overwhelming, and even if plot-wise it seemed a little underdevelopped, at leat the characters have a little charisma, if no soul (I've seen worse).

From the sounds of it, it's not so much that the characters are unappealing, it's just they're not exactly doing it for you. I thought that everything Shiki did makes sense, you're forgetting that Shiki is actually an insane person not to mention how she has her own moral code system. This is pretty obvious in that Shiki is quick to change her mind depending on her enemies' actions, so that really wasn't outlandish by any stretch. Also one could argue that Mikiya's sympathetic nature is slowly rubbing on her which is definitely a sign of Shiki's developing character. This is definitely becoming more obvious considering her reaction during her conversation with Mikiya at the end.

there's not a great deal to say.. other than what's already been said before me... breathtaking at times and my favourite episode/movie of the franchise so far! God damn this series is just amazingly beautiful and deep, and shocking! Everything I want in an anime all in 1 hour!

I'm really confused over which Shiki is the Shiki that we see in this movie. Because in the 2nd movie, it was clear that the more chattery and playful one was SHIKI, and the quiet one was Shiki. However, in this movie, I'm inclined to believe that the Shiki here is SHIKI, but I actually have no idea how this happened...

It's part of the mystery that you finally get to find out in Movie 4....

The rape scene in the beginning half scared me to death TT_TT
I really did not want to see that. I mean, I have watched animes where the main characters have been raped, but I haven't really seen one that um 'graphic' I guess. Couldn't they have just have made them silhouettes? It would have spared my feminine soul. Now, I'm definitely not going out alone at night.
*rocks back and fourth in my bed*

I understand that the rape scene was crucial for the plot, but some people just find it uncomfortable to watch. I mean its not everyday we see rape scenes, or much less experience it. Oh God, now I'm scared of leaving my home. TT_TT

Gosh same here, rape scene hit me hard. I had to go over here and comment about it just to keep my mind straight.

I really liked this one. The series is starting to get much darker now. The animation was amazing once again. I really liked the scene at the end, it was nice to see Shiki smile. I'm really looking forward to re-watch the rest of the movies because I'm really enjoying the series much more this time around.

I seem to be in the minority here but this was the least enjoyable of the movies so far. It sure explained a lot but it felt like there was something missing. I noticed which parts were supposed to be moving, but I was constantly distracted by the thought "I've seen something like this before". Things that look pretty but make no sense really, meaningless poses that look cool etc, coincidences used as a plot device. Of course if they really wanted things to make sense, the girls would be settling their differences over a cup of tea instead of trying to kill each other. The biggest problem is that the character motivations aren't sufficiently explained and thus, if I can't understand how they think, I'm left with just some action scenes justified by quickly established motives like revenge, insanity etc. And that's not enough to make the characters seem real in a setting that's so clearly a fantasy.

I'm also starting to lose hope that Kokutou will be distinguishable from a generic harem lead who's always nice to everyone. It wasn't a bad movie by any means, I'm just disappointed that despite the revelations and powerful scenes this left me feeling hollow.

@Feorg
The motivations only become clear in retrospect. I would say that it's not so much a fault, as the first movie acts more as an introductory chapter that simply gives the "feel" of the series; a taste of what's to come without revealing its true nature. The motivations may seem simple, even senseless at first glance, but as the series continues to build up, I think you may find yourself looking back at this movie in a much better light beyond the simple justifications of revenge and insanity (which isn't simply the case.) Also do realize that the first 4 episodes are meant to be out of order, just a little something to consider while watching the rest of the movies.



And this is where I can promise you, that you will be sorely mistaken and I find that many others might even agree with me. He is one of the only few "harem leads" (where in which I even have a hard time calling him as one) that actually transcends and justifies that very role within the story.

I do realise that the events here will probably make more sense later. I think most of the problems arise if these movies are examined individually (as they are in the MAL database) particularly because they're out of order. That's why I'm not sure how I should rate the series, whether to watch all of them first and rate them all together or try to view them as individual episodes with a certain sequence.

I didn't mean to say really that Kokutou is a harem lead, it's just because the character hasn't been built in detail yet. Of course in a long series they would have much more time to do that anyway. The action in this movie was impressive, but generally that's not what interests me in anime (or live action). Rather I'd like to know why these people behave the way they do, and it seems that's something that will become clear only by watching all the movies.

In other words, I don't necessarily see it as a fault that they have apparently alternating movies focusing on action and character history. But it takes much longer to establish a good character than to build an action plot so I'm probably bound to find the individual episodes lacking and the total being better than its parts.

@Feorg

Oh no, don't worry. It's not so much I'm accusing you, if anything it's more of a warning or heads-up since the way the series is presented, especially as a series of films than individual ones, I've seen a lot of people do that criticized it immediately for that which I find to be unfair. Because really, it's more like a whole series comprised of film-length "episodes".

>Nudity/Rape.
>ufotable.

What?

Anyway, This One Is Way Better Than The Previous One. 9/10

Poor girl, from the beginning she has always been the victim, her only sin was to be born with that power.

The final fight and the last scene on the bridge was just awesome!

This was amazing. It made me cry.

not bad, this episode has more action.

Wow she got an terrible day. She can't feel pain, Got sex by another person, Killing people, and Got sent to the hospital and finally felt pain. Poor luck of her.
The soundtrack is so beatuful.
8/10