Kara no Kyoukai Movie 5: Mujun Rasen

In November 1998, a double homicide occurs at the newly constructed Ogawa apartment complex in the heart of Mifune City. The murderer, Tomoe Enjou, has fled in a panic. To his astonishment, he is not pursued by the police and news of the incident has not been reported through media outlets. After Shiki Ryougi defends Tomoe from a group of thugs, she allows him to use her residence as a hideout. However, a few days later, Tomoe is shaken to discover that his mother is alive, even though he is convinced that he killed her.

Coincidentally, Mikiya Kokutou is investigating a tip that his associate Touko Aozaki receives regarding the murder at the unique apartment complex. As he uncovers more information about the incident, Mikiya takes a particular interest in Tomoe. Deciding to investigate him further, Mikiya soon discovers the disturbing truth of the foreboding Ogawa complex.

The fifth installment of the Kara no Kyoukai film series, Mujun Rasen combines an intricately constructed mystery with established themes and characters to produce a dark, thought-provoking story.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ryougi, Shiki Main

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Aozaki, Touko Main

Honda, Takako Japanese

Kokutou, Mikiya Main

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Araya, Souren Main

Nakata, Jouji Japanese

Enjou, Tomoe Main

Kakihara, Tetsuya Japanese

Kokutou, Azaka Supporting

Fujimura, Ayumi Japanese

Alba, Cornelius Supporting

Yusa, Kouji Japanese

Enjou, Takayuki Supporting

Yamanoi, Jin Japanese

Akimi, Daisuke Supporting

Touchi, Hiroki Japanese

Enjou, Kaede Supporting

Itou, Miki Japanese

Iwakami, Atsuhiro Producer

Kondou, Hikaru Producer

Hariu, Masayuki Producer

Toba, Yousuke Assistant Producer

Reviews

Mar 27, 2023

MrRedMage

Recommended

Wow. Just... Wow.

The Kara no Kyoukai series has been on my radar for quite some time, mostly due to its connection with Tsukihime and the rest of the Nasuverse. Up until this point, the series as a whole had been a solid 8, something I'll remember going forward but nothing to write home about. Mujun Rasen, or Paradox Spiral, is another matter. This movie is smarter than I am, and I don't say that lightly or to make fun of it. I sincerely mean that this film is more thought-provoking than I was able to comprehend.

As far as the writing goes, this is ... the first time I've seen any anime property in the Nasuverse really dive into the metaphysics of the Counter Force and the Root of Akasha, but it was woven into the story very well. The characters are all very well written with no real exception, and the story knows exactly what it's doing. I would have liked to see more of Ryougi, but that's probably a me problem and the story is probably better for having her on-screen way less than in previous films. Touko finally gets the attention she deserves here and it almost feels like 'her movie' in a way, though that's not to say she's the most important character, far from it.

The art and animation have stepped up astronomically from the previous movie, it really is a spectacle to behold. The music is outstanding, even for an ufotable production. It gets a 10 in this category.

Overall, I don't want to spoil the film. Go watch the Kara no Kyoukai movies, this one is my favorite thus far.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jul 21, 2020

Zelas01

Mixed Feelings

First four movies left us guessing a lot, so I expected a final info of some sort but didn't happen. A lot of raw information was displayed and it didn't quite catch my attention, as a result I wasn't fully invested.

Animation and Sound were amazing in this movie, there are some very nicely animated scenes and the music was straight outta SAO which is really good, the relationship between the characters wasn't so bad either.

Overall, it's a 6 (fine) for me, because I didn't understand the motives of the main villains, the magic powers of magus weren't explained at any point, but were ... teased at points in a slightly edgy way.

I understand that there is a certain charm in keeping the viewers guessing, but there are limits.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 23, 2025

1stDecame4Danime

Not Recommended

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. But now the spinoff leans more fully into its roots as suddenly everything is maguses and puppet masters, and bs everything magic in which nothing matters, and welcome to Fate and the quest for caring about the author's akashic headass library of +9000TB of [Redacted]. (oh yeah, Nasu did write Fate, makes sense, wait is this just a Fate spinoff? Damn I've been tricked into watching Fate filler side stories haven't I?)

The plot ... of this movie pads out a laughably contrived and overcomplicated 1-note murder mystery centered around filler noncharacters as an excuse for the noncharacter antag to interact with the protags culminating in a big dumb action sequence ending with zero actual consequences and exactly how I and anyone else predicted.

Since this 1-note movie is 2hrs long, it is crammed full of overindulgent directorial vomit and masturbatory filler and noncharacter nonwriting that is not only dumb and filler, but also completely irrelevant.
Ultimately, they stick the landing with another big dumb action climax for all those shonentypes to clap at. Genius.

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 any of this happening? So the movie can happen. wrighting 100.
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 5: Mujun Rasen Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) dtshyk - Aug 22, 2008	513 replies	by LonesomeAxolotl »» Jun 13, 10:02 PM
	Which city inspires Mifune CITY? RyogiSHIKI7 - Jul 1, 2024	5 replies	by RyogiSHIKI7 »» Jul 1, 2024 12:45 PM
	best plot twist in anime history? sabervergarden - Feb 12, 2021	11 replies	by sudhanshu_hbk »» May 11, 2024 8:27 AM
	OMG FIRST PLACE ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) 5layer - Feb 2, 2009	963 replies	by Zoshlog »» Mar 14, 2024 12:59 PM
	why peaple gave this episode low rate to be lower than it deserve? this episode is masterpiece RCvvvv - Sep 17, 2022	16 replies	by Phloup »» Sep 17, 2022 4:03 PM

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