Kara no Kyoukai 5: Mujun Rasen Episode 1 Discussion

FlagCrusherTaka said:
I have a question here which is, again, regarding bounded fields. Namely

Kreol1q1q said:
And the series' main flaw is still regrettably present, and by that I mean it's reliance on the viewer to have actually read the novels and played type-moon games before watching it for it to make any kind of sense. I get that type-moon fans understand and love these movies, but I think that just makes them deeply flawed for not being able to stand on their own.

objkenkage said:
I had to read so many comments & explanations on here & rewatch some of the scenes to understand it, it's almost as if those who made the movie thought that all of us have already read the source material, well I didn't, not everyone has read the source material.

myBoneismySword said:
So KnK is part of nasuverse right ? along side FSN and, tsukihime, melty blood, etc. So here I am to asked some of detail background in this mujun rasen. Could be that the academy where touko, alba, and araya was the academy for magus and actually connected to organization of clock tower in FSN UBW ?

myBoneismySword said:
So KnK is part of nasuverse right ? along side FSN and, tsukihime, melty blood, etc. So here I am to asked some of detail background in this mujun rasen. Could be that the academy where touko, alba, and araya was the academy for magus and actually connected to organization of clock tower in FSN UBW ?

Kraker2k said:
This was by far the best movie out of the lot so far. The direction was superb, the idea of switching scenes around for parts of the movie was a great move. Then the animation it self was beyond good, again ufotable, shows us what they are made of. 2 hours was well worth it.

As for the plot, it was a little confusing at first with the dual sided apartment block but slowly it all came together. I quite liked Enjou as a character, he really grew from the start where he was a brash individual, but slowly he learned of his circumstances and by the end when he tried to kill Araya it was kinda sad.

Memorable moments:
Unlimited Hagendaz Works
Brofist

Oh and we can't forget blushin Shiki, so adorable.. d'aaawww.

Genix said:

hehe quite! ;)

I love Shiki! She's awesome ^^
Her ability is really cool too, and is totally the best I've encountered in any show or comic book I have come across till now...
I always wonder and think about this though, if she can see the death (or the lines) of "everything" (Including time and space apparently) can she see the "death" of death too? You know, like bringing "things" or people back to "life"?
Anyway, the 2 hours was totally worth it to watch <3

Yakuri said:
I finished watching the whole series, and definitely the 5th one is where it peaked (it went disappointingly down after). Aozaki's badass moment had me whooping, she's my favourite character of the series.

I felt a lot more sympathy for Enjou Tomoe, felt like had a lot to offer as a person and not just a mere character, in one movie compared to Kokutou in seven movies. Hell I was feeling almost teary eyed at the end. This proves that they could definitely introduce and successfully flesh out a character in a single movie. Personally I think Kokutou (and Shiki to some extent) doesn't feel like a "real" person. He's nice but that's about it, hell his sister had more character development and she has zero impact in the story. He's more of a compass than a person.

Eyth said:
I think it's the worst one of the first five movies.

I'm not sure why they added Alba as a villain since he doesn't do anything except being a weak goon of Araya and I don't even think his absence would have changed much.
(And Araya is kinda meh too but better than Alba which isn't hard).
But my biggest issue by far is why they made all the time forward/time backward shenanigans. This makes the entire time more confusing and annoying for no gain at all.

There were some cool parts (and I suppose the reveal of Tomoe's fate was fine) but the infuriating way the story is presented ruined most of it's appeal to me.

kizumi91 said:

Sorry, but I think you misunderstood this movie.

First thing, you undermine the role of Alba. He, Touko, and Araya both studied in London and they had a good relationship back then. Until Touko surpassed him and was given the title "Red", his inferiority complex arose, leading to his resentment and obsession towards Touko. It's for this reason that he decided to assist Araya in making the apartment complex with the sole purpose to take revenge on Touko. His role was to be in charge of keeping the brains of all residents alive and connecting them to the puppet's bodies. Without him, Araya's system couldn't be completed. He also was the one who directly killed Touko later in the movie, accidentally triggering her another body so that we've got a chance to fully know about Touko's true power.

Next, Araya isn't meh. His ulterior motive like other magi is to reach the "Root" to bring the destruction of reality, he believes by doing that he will be able to govern its remnants, thus allowing him to view the records of every single individual human's life on Earth. It can literally be described as "seeking wisdom within himself". Araya is really eccentric and intimidating, pretty similar to Bondrewd in Made in Abyss, another underestimated villain. His plan to attain that goal is more complicated than you think it is.

• He and Alba together created the apartment complex to create a cyclical loop in which the puppet residents repeat their last day before death. The puppets live on one side, and the other side, hidden by a rotating elevator, is used to store their original corpses. He manages to hide the massive experiment, which would normally cause suspicions from even the smallest irregularity and the trail of information in modern society, by making it out to be a normal apartment. The purpose is to have the building form a taiji, a graphical representation of the Yin-Yang theory, and with Shiki, another Taiji placed inside the Taiji of the building, Araya would be able to reach the "Root".
• FYI, in Nasuverse there's a concept called "Counter Force", basically a reality-warping energy that manipulates humans and events to defend humanity and the planet against extinction. In order to capture Shiki, he had to awaken her origin and bring her to his lair. But doing that directly would cause "Counter Force" to notice him. That's why he chose to pull the string behind the curtain throughout the series. The first movie revealed Araya meets Kirie in the hospital and helps her awaken her ability. In the third movie, Araya meets Fujino and offers to heal her spine with the motive is to have her fight against Shiki. Since Fujino and Kirie's origins are both "nothingness", Araya hopes these two would be able to awaken Shiki's origin, which is "emptiness". In this movie, Araya implanted the unconscious imprinting in Enjou's puppet to have him interested in Shiki, later luring her to the apartment. There're other two persons - Lio and Satsuki, who later appeared in movie 6 and 7, both contacted by Araya but they are both a failure. 
  

Finally, the most important thing, the narrative. This movie is really uncanny since it doesn't follow normal linear storytelling but it did that purposely. Remember the title "Paradox Spiral" and the philosophy it wants to convey, the confusing narrative is to question the essence of reality, whether which is real and which is not? The scene where Enjou's mother stabs him appeared frequently turns out to actually happen in reality and wasn't just imagination or dream, it's the loop that Enjou had to experience every day.

You perhaps like other movies for action or other superficial aspects, that's kinda subjective but I honestly believe anyone who actually understands the first 4 movies will also appreciate this movie as it's the culmination of this series. And by looking at your favourite list, I think "Kara no Kyoukai" isn't a series for you sadly.