Kara no Kyoukai: Epilogue Episode 1 Discussion

fri said:

It's 33 minutes of long, boring talk between Kokutou and Shiki.

MAL synopsis said:
The epilogue titled "Kara no Kyoukai" is about a conversation between Mikiya and 「　」.

Urufuzu_rein said:

Uhm, doesn't the synopsis say so?

fri said:

Yes, I'm aware of that. :) But still, it could be a little more... I don't know... faster? fascinating? lively?

Don't tell me I'm going to be hated for having my own opinion again.

fri said:

This is not what I have waited for for more than a year. And the "Blu-ray" movies are mostly DVD upscales. Ufotable, I am disappoint.

FullArmageddon said:
Can someone explain to me why she just disappeared at the end? Was she not physically there, just her consciousness? So was her physical body and the other "Shiki" just sleeping somewhere?

VGJunky said:
Just to be clear

she fixed his limp at the end right

choyos said:
The only reason he didn't want to get his eye fixed was to not make Shiki suspicious right?

fri said:

He said he's too afraid of her messing something up while healing him, as he's used to Shiki destroying things instead of rebuilding. He said it in a humorous tone, so I'm not sure whether that was a joke or not. But I like your version more.

I liked this movie more after rewatching it (I had to do so while and after translating the script). It felt shorter and less boring this time, somehow. Solid 6/10.

Anyways, as you’re probably aware, KnK as a whole has an underlying tale about the relationship between mind, body, and soul.

From a chapter chronology perspective, this is how the work jerks you around:
1) Bodies and mind/soul can be split (Fujou bloodline) and relation between the body and mind (rooftop speech) is explored by Touko.
2) The nature of Shiki (pre-accident) is revealed: she appears to be dual-personality and has a crushing desire to kill. Again, the disconnect between mind/soul and body is emphasized as two mind/souls reside in one body and she talks about how the Shikis feel like polar opposites.
3) Via Fujino the purpose of the body is explored quite heavily. If you remember Touko’s line, “not having a body means not having anything; without it, you never feel pain, and without feeling pain, you never feel elation; and without feeling elation, you never feel the pleasure of accomplishment.” Also interesting is that in the book this chapter explores the difference between magus and superpowers. Superpowers are described as channels, and I can expound on this later if you want because I LOVE this explanation.
4) Four symbolizes a huge “revelation” of sorts as you realize that Shiki was never dual personality. But via the reference “to the hole inside her” you’re left with an unanswered question of what’s going on. The relationship between mind, body and soul is really central to this chapter as Shiki picks up on the speech mannerisms of the deceased Shiki while several forces fight over her body.
5) Via Araya Souren there’s huge emphasis on the soul; this chapter does a LOT. Touko reveals that she’d already created complete clones of herself (body and mind/soul) that always resulted in the same thing; via the Kigen the soul and ancestry/evolution/generations of souls are explained, and then there’s that very, very subtle hint. That oh so very subtle hint when Shiki “wakes up” out of being comatose. Araya believes this is the Ryougi thing about self-hypnosis. There’s an obvious implication of the body simply being a vessel; Shiki’s murderous intent is born from her Kigen of the null, and there’s a lot of hypothesizing about the relation between her null Kigen and the Acasic Record.
6) And then there is Kurogiri Satsuki. Aside from his interesting position in between all parties, he’s actually the symbol for the mind. Satsuki in the novel is actually a guy who lost his past because “of the mischief of fairies;” he’s not actually a magus (as he was described in the movie) because he has little to no magical powers, he’s more an ESPer (ala the ch 3) who happens to be able to speak to and understand everything; as a result of his loss of memory due to the fairies he actually trained really hard under the supervision of the magus church to try to retrieve memories. In fact, via his Goddot Word superpower he’s possibly the only character in the Nasuverse who has direct access to the Acasic Record and doesn’t give a fuck. However, he realized that his memories are absolutely lost because they’re not in the Acasic Records – this is puzzling, but yeah. For reasons not fully explained, he takes off from the supervision (aka captive life) under the Church and becomes hunted, because he’s a wanted man for his direct connection to the Acasic Record. Araya manipulates a very willing to comply Satsuki toward Ryougi, in order to awaken her memories. As a result of Satsuki’s apathetic (and even sadistic) compliance, as a result of this chapter all the memories and thoughts of the deceased Shiki return to her, making her “whole” again, but exacerbating the pain of having lost part of her. This obviously displays the difference between mind and soul, and makes you realize MPD = multiple minds, Ryougi = multiple souls, and the mind is distinctly separate from the soul as Satsuki extracted the remaining mind and reconnected it in her.
7) This is why we said 7 was lame by comparison. This was just a tying of loose ends of the story of Ryougi Shiki. Nothing was revealed here that we didn’t know already. But that leaves…
8) The Epilogue. Mind-blowing. One night, Ryougi Shiki wakes up. This is neither of the Shiki we have come to know, but rather the original; this is the Shiki Kokutou fell in love with (the Shiki that was taking a walk in the snow), this could be the Shiki that woke up on her own accord during the events of chapter 5. To this point we’d been lead on to think of the body as a necessary vessel, and it comes to pass that the body has its own sentience. She reveals that "Shiki"'s murderous intent comes from HER, and seems to imply that she swims around in the Acasic Record as she pleases. But her body shouldn't be anything special, hmm? Because all the Ryougi family does is make it so multiple souls can inhabit the body, etc. Now go through the book again. A lot of little subtleties start to make sense…

VGJunky said:
she fixed his limp at the end right

-OJ- said:


I don't think so, it seemed to me he was still dragging it in the final scene.

I'm more curious about why is Kokutou going back the way he came from?

-OJ- said:


I don't think so, it seemed to me he was still dragging it in the final scene.

I'm more curious about why is Kokutou going back the way he came from?

Kurogashi said:
...this was by far one of the more interesting conversation in anime history...

Grummel said:
Because he cant jump off the cliff with his injured leg. :-)

-OJ- said:


Brilliant reasoning :P

I meant he was obviously going somewhere On The Sidewalk when he saw Shiki#3, so why didn't he continue on in that direction but turn back instead ?

It might have a significance or might not :D

SurferDude said:
Half an hour of pointless, nonsensical, metaphysical bullshit talk between 3D characters. And pretty snow. Nasu, I am disappoint. 4/10.

Daisuken said:

Yeah, I agree with you. Even though I've already rewatched the series twice, and the epilogue once, sometimes even I can be surprised at some twists and sentences. I don't understand those people who find this epilogue "boring and long". It's 30 minutes pure psychology, which has a deep meaning directed towards the audience. Meaning, that the 7 episodes weren't able to fully convey towards you. If you guys are not interested (because everyone is different), and maybe you don't really care about the whole KnK, that's totally understandable, because I said: Everyone is different. Ones like ecchi, ones like mecha, ones like everything, and there are some of those, who're addicted to this. I haven't seen so much anime so far, but from those I've watched, this one is just sooo outstanding... It's not the type of anime for me, that goes by fast by the passage of time. Its meaning touched me deeply, so deeply, that it changed my whole life. It's simply a masterpiece, and with these beautiful OSTs from Kajiura Yuki... I can't even describe its epicness.

Jacut said:
I have one word for this one : soporific.

Byou said:
I could listen to Maaya's voice all day long.