"Are you floating, or are you flying?"
The Overlooking View, the first movie in the Kara no Kyoukai series was highly confusing to me at first. Not knowing who the characters were and as I wasn't attached to them - I really did not even care about the story. Yet the animation and the sound were phenomenal ,it drew me in and made me watched the whole series. Now I get it why people rate this movie 7 or lower, it was meant to be the first film in a series that is presented in a non-chronological order. But now that I have watched the series the second time, I realized that this was a really great film. I rated this film a 6 earlier, but now it was 10. In fact, I believe that this is on par with the seventh and fifth films, which were thought to be the best in the series (and one of the best in anime in general).
On the second viewing and subsequent viewings, you could really appreciate the atmosphere that ufotable expertly crafted. This is a world that is dark and gritty - with magic that are there not to inspire but to slash things. This is anime that has gore and violence, and lots of it - yet they are not there merely for fun, they actually mean something to the story. But this is the film that actually showed how Shiki misses Mikiya, and how she longs for him. Mikiya was asleep for most of the story, which was probably why I didn't care much for him at first. But the longing that Shiki feels because he is gone, now that's what really drew me in. Shiki appears tough and strong. She apparently is immune to all the shit that has been happening to the world, now showed how human she is. This would be further developed as the story progressed, but the longing here is evident. Everytime Shiki wokes up in her apartment all alone you could feel it. Touko here is bad-ass as always, yet her presence is subdued. This movie is after all centered mainly on Shiki.
The animation is top-notch, the best that animation has to offer. The lighting and the action scenes were truly breathtaking, and even more recent anime can't even compare of the beauty that this anime has. The sound, given that Yuki Kaijura is the composer, is obviously also topnotch. Kajiura's other work (that I know of) on Fate/zero is beautiful, and you expect the same on all his works. Overall, I did enjoy Fukan Fuukei as you could only on subsequent watches. I is worth the rewatch! For me, the film series is hard to actually like - but it is worth the effort to force yourself to watch it. The depth of the characters and the story is enough to be seen as a classic.
