Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Rakkyo, Boundry of Emptiness, The Borderline of Emptiness

Japanese: 空の境界 the Garden of sinners

Information

Type: Novel

Volumes: 2

Chapters: 10

Status: Finished

Published: Oct 1998 to Aug 1999

Genres: Dementia, Demons, Mystery, Fantasy, Horror, Magic, School, Supernatural, Psychological, Doujinshi

Authors: Type-Moon (Story & Art), Nasu, Kinoko (Story), Takeuchi, Takashi (Art)

Serialization: None

Statistics

Score: 8.51¹ (scored by 1,957 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: N/A²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1120

Members: 9,852

Favorites: 354

8.51

Ranked N/APopularity #1120Members 9,852

NovelType-Moon (Story & Art), Nasu, Kinoko (Story), Takeuchi, Takashi (Art)

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Volumes: /2

Chapters: /10

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Synopsis

A teenage girl, who possesses the "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception," a supernatural ability that allows the user to see the "death" of everything in existence and kill the object by destroying its "origin." She recently recovered from a two-year coma caused by a traffic accident. Prior to the traffic accident, she originally had two personalities, a male personality named Shiki (織), and the original female personality Shiki (式). Children born into the Ryougi family are generally male and are raised with two personalities, so the male personality is customarily called the "yang" personality, while the female is called the "yin" personality. It is easy to tell which Shiki is speaking at a given time because they both have a distinct style of speaking, most notably that the female Shiki refers to herself with the pronoun watashi (私), while male Shiki refers to himself as ore (俺). After waking from her coma, Shiki discovers that she can no longer feel the male Shiki's presence and assumes that he died because of the accident. She also feels a detachment from her memories before the accident, and while she knows she is Shiki, she does not feel that she is. In the hopes of regaining herself and the "dead" Shiki, she puts on a cold facade that somewhat resembles the male Shiki's and tries to act as the female Shiki did. Touko understands the sense of detachment Shiki feels, but considers the current Shiki a third, new personality.

The series is regarded as being set in the same world as another TYPE-MOON series, Tsukihime, with Aoko Aozaki's sister Touko Aozaki being featured in this series and the protagonist of the series, Shiki Ryougi, possessing the same abilities as Tsukihime's protagonist, Shiki Tohno.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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Background

Del Rey Manga announced in 2009 that they would be releasing the Kara no Kyoukai novels in English. However, the publisher went defunct before this could happen. The series has been published in Polish by Kotori since in April 2017.

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Related Manga

Side story:	Kara no Kyoukai: Mirai Fukuin - The Garden of Sinners/Recalled Out Summer
Alternative version:	Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners
Alternative setting:	All Around Type-Moon, Type-Moon Gakuen: Chibichuki!
Adaptation:	Kara no Kyoukai Remix: Gate of Seventh Heaven, Kara no Kyoukai 1: Fukan Fuukei, Kara no Kyoukai 6: Boukyaku Rokuon, Kara no Kyoukai 5: Mujun Rasen, Kara no Kyoukai 3: Tsuukaku Zanryuu, Kara no Kyoukai 2: Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen), Kara no Kyoukai 8: Shuushou, Kara no Kyoukai 4: Garan no Dou, Kara no Kyoukai 7: Satsujin Kousatsu (Go)
Character:	Mahoutsukai no Yoru

More characters
Characters

Ryougi, Shiki

Main

Aozaki, Touko

Main

Kokutou, Mikiya

Main

Asagami, Fujino

Supporting

Araya, Souren

Supporting

Kokutou, Azaka

Supporting

Enjou, Tomoe

Supporting

Shirazumi, Lio

Supporting

Fujou, Kirie

Supporting

Alba, Cornelius

Supporting

More reviewsReviews

Mar 24, 2015

10 of 10 chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

bleachsai (All reviews)

38 people found this review helpful

Have you ever been so elated about a decision that you made which brought you an indescribable elation and great fruition to you?
Well, I, for once felt that joy when I opted to read the novel of Kara no Kyoukai (KnK) rather than watching the movie series first. Right after I read the novel, I watched the films (obviously, the animation just blew me away) and then the thought came to me that if I had watched the films first, then I could not have understood almost the entire story behind each and every incident that occurred in that world.

Story & Storytelling (9/10): read more

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Jun 16, 2019

10 of 10 chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

SupremeLord (All reviews)

6 people found this review helpful

A couple of months ago, I reviewed the first Kara No Kyoukai movie. It’s the first time I started to feel comfortable with my reviews, as I am not the most proud of my earlier works. While I do feel I could’ve done a better job, I am otherwise mostly satisfied with it and all reviews that come after it. But now, it is time to bring this all full circle, as there is one more piece of Kara No Kyoukai media I need to cover. That of course, being the original Light Novel that started it all: Kara No Kyoukai: The Garden Of Sinners.

Since this is my first Light Novel review, I’m gonna set some ground rules. Firstly, all sections are gonna be completely ignored, all of it will be talked about at once. I’ll also be here to answer the question on whether or not it is worth reading even if you have already watched the animated adaptation, with the answer either being a yes or a maybe. So, let’s get to this.

Kara No Kyoukai is many things. On the one hand, it is a supernatural thriller. Every chapter features the cast in some way coming in conflict with the supernatural, some in more notable way than others. Often the cast have to figure out what is going on and who is behind it before most of the revelations unfold. The general tone is bleak, with the stuff seen here not being that far off what you would see in your average Seinen Manga like Berserk or Parts 7 and 8 of Jojo.

On the other hand, it also features multiple action scenes, which brings forward one things novels have over all visual media: The ability to make the simplest of things absolutely awesome. Seriously, they can make a guy simple slashing off another guy’s arm the most amazing thing ever due to the way it is described. This is why I am in favor of things being changed in adaptations, as some things do not translate well from one medium to another.

There are also multiple antagonists, as one would expect, all of them being at least somewhat sympathetic (Well, except Alba, he was just an asshole). Each of them get their own little arc all to themselves, with them often being the main focus of it. The story is also not told in chronological order… sorta. The first four arcs jump around all over the place in terms of the timeline, but the last four are all in chronological order. It’s all done well, with this clearly one big puzzle that’s waiting to be solved.

I won’t be covering the individual arcs as I’ve already reviewed their movie adaptations and my thoughts about those remain the same for this novel version. The exception, however, is the sixth arc: Oblivion Recording, which was widely changed in the movie version. The Light Novel version is darker, with most of the focus being on Shiki and her lost memories and the new, enigmatic villain, Kurogiri Satsuki. It’s still probably my least favorite arc, but I do like it more here.

That said, it is also about the journey of our main protagonist, Ryougi Shiki, and her coming to terms with her past and her present. She is an extraordinarily broken girl, bordering on sociopathic at points, and most of it revolves around the death of her other self. That self was the only companion she ever had, the only one she ever needed, and now she has nothing. Yet as the story goes on, she comes to realize that no, she is not alone, if only because her new companion is certainly more stubborn than the last.

There comes the series male lead and Shiki’s love interest, Kokutou Mikiya. He’s basically Shiki’s complete opposite, a normal, nice guy willing to help out even the scum of the Earth even if he is disgusted by them. He also continues the trend of Nasuverse male leads being extremely stubborn in the pursuit of their goals, as he will just go to hell and back to help Shiki out, even when she explicitely tells him to stay away. It’s admitadly part of what ultimately makes him likable, as he and Shiki do make good foils out of each other.

Yet in the end, Kara No Kyoukai is, ironically, a love story. An incredibly dark and twisted one for sure, but a love story nonetheless. Shiki and Mikiya’s relationship gets a lot of focus, with us seeing them grow from teens to young adults over the course of the three volumes. Part of the reason their relationship works so well is, ironically, because they are so different. Generally, when it comes to romances, my favorites are the kinds that are between two people who are extremely similar when you get down to it or between people who are total opposites, and these two firmly fall into the latter.

Yet ironically, in spite of all the darkness in it, Kara No Kyoukai is a surprisingly idealistic story, in the original sense of the word. The world isn’t a nice place, and life will be painful. But you know what? There’s also a lot of good in the world, and with enough hard work and dedication, people can truly achieve their goals and get the happy ending they deserve. And indeed, the story does ultimately end in unambiguously happy and beautiful note.

Now, is this worth reading if you’ve watched the Anime Adaptation by Studio Ufotable? Well… maybe. While the improved version of Oblivion Recording is a treat, the Anime is otherwise a borderline word for word adaptation of the Light Novel with very few divergences. Combined with the fact that this has yet to be imported, you’ll have to resort to unofficial sources in order to read it.

Either way though, Kara No Kyoukai is nonetheless worth it. While there are some missteps along the way, they are minor and frankly didn’t bother me too much. This may have been Nasu’s first work, but in my eyes, it remains his absolute best. I cannot express into words how much I recommend it.

Final Score: 10/10

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	「Kara no Kyoukai Explained」 waalex11 - May 8	3 replies	by waalex11 »» Jul 4, 2:03 PM
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