I can easily see this being one or the most frequent question regarding this Anime. The purpose that the creators decided for movie is very likely because they did not want to follow the regular TV episode release date system (one episode per week), and thought that if they split it in movies, they could perfectly split them in Arcs. Personally, I would prefer TV, though, because it would make it easier to review than reviewing an alonestanding movie where it is barely possible to consider certain aspects, such as the character development. On the other hand, it is a good possibility to consider how all the Arcs were done when they are separate. Still, if I had to decide, I would definitely go for TV. It would perfectly fit as a 22 episodes Anime.
For a short movie like this with bare content, it was amazingly done. It is not ranked too high, though, but I can easily see why. It is probably because this Anime is kind of dark, but in another way. It is difficult to define, but it did not feel like there was much life, or maybe unentertaining would hit the meaning. What I am basically talking about, is that it is more or less difficult to concentrate on the conversations, because they did not have an interesting shape. I actually had to watch the first ten minutes twice in order to prevent getting lost and actually understand the plot.
Speaking of the plot, it is definitely interesting. The plot is about various feminine high school students who all of sudden suicided, without having an actual reason for it. They had a splendid life, and there was one conspicuous similarity between all of those deaths - namely that all of them jumped from the top of a high building, but on the same building. A girl named Shiki went to the place because she was curious about it. That building is definitely suspicious, it is abandoned, maybe it is cursed, which is why Shiki went in it, and this is where the Genres start getting more meaning.
Eventually you are asking this question yourself as well, why does a girl have to do this? Why did the police not investigate the building? So far, this is an unclarified question, which I might have missed, though. The story definitely shows potential, but this is all I can say about it, really. It was not shown much enough to judge the story as a whole, but it seems definitely promising so far. It is quite original as well. Considering there are two really high ranked movies, I can easily this getting one of the best stories ever. Knowing that fact, it will be difficult to predict the story, although I already now have no clue what this could become.
For some reason, this movie reminded me a little bit of Fate/Zero. The plot is different in all considerable ways, but both give me a similar feeling. Not only the art is almost completely the same, even the soundtrack sounds slightly identical. Well, most of the tracks do not sound similar, but sometimes the soundtrack manages to create an identical atmosphere between both. It is definitely not a bad thing, though, and I believe I am one of the only persons who does actually think so.
It is enough to see only one or two minutes of this movie to get the feeling of hardly belief that this movie is actually made in 2007. The backgrounds are immensely detailed, sometimes even too immensely for my liking, the characters look amazing and the animation is magnificent as well. The mere background art makes you want to stare at the screen the whole time, and it perfectly conveys the atmosphere a real thriller Anime needs. Like aforementioned, the art is pretty much the same of Fate/Zero, just with a slightly lower quality. It even uses these awesome background effects, such as the mist you might notice. The art is absolutely perfect.
The soundtrack is certainly one of the best soundtracks ever. There is one melody that constantly pops up in this movie and I can not get it out of my mind. It sounds kinda heart-warming, mystical, and beautiful. It is not only that theme, the rest sounds awesome and fitting, too. I have rarely seen something like this before, and especially that it feels so special in a movie that does not even last for an hour, makes it even more special. The characters were voiced decently as well. There is still something regarding the sound I disliked; the sound effects. They sound unrealistic and unfitting sometimes, and sometimes, even sounds were missed.
Overall, this is an awesome movie. It is a little bit difficult to determine a score when there is not even a real end and when there are barely any development remarks in a movie of this length, so I'm forced to rate it from my so-far-impression. Usually, even when there are several Anime seasons, they have an actual end which makes it possible to judge, but this case is different. But so far, I have a good impression of this Anime and this will probably become one of my favorites, because this movie is in comparison to some other KnK movies, ranked fairly low, but is still impressive. I will make sure to watch and review the rest as well.
