Kara no kyoukai is a series that I've been willing to try for a long time now and I finally started it yesterday with high expectations. I am watching this in the release order + for the first time :
*Art : 9/10 : It is stunning , specially the background and its beautifully drawn details. The light is perfect and matches the atmosphere. The reason I'm not rating this a 10 is the eyes... I find them at times way too blank or big (the male lead's case) and this might sound picky yet it really bothers me at times.
*Animation is decent I am not even going to rate it since there were nearly no action scenes or focus on movements.
*Sound : 8/10 Like the previous Film , the soundtrack fits perfectly.
*Story : 5/10 : a prequel to first movie.The focus was rather on the nature of the two main characters as it also kind of clarifies the bond shared btw both of them (How they met ... ) To say the least , unique is the adjective that could describe this story , but it being different and new to some extent doesn't mean it'll be good when not handled well. It isn't interesting enough since it only touches the surface even if the dialogue seems to dig in the depth.
The fact that there's yet much to know makes the point of the whole movie either to make you curious or just slightly uncover some of the facts and since there's an ending or rather a result to all what happened in the movie (How Shiki's behaviour was dealt with) with the cause or the reason like I said earlier insufficient and unconvincing (due to lack of revelation : just saying it is because of psychological instability is not enough ) I can't seem as a viewer to buy that explanation.
*Characters : 4/10
Let me start with
- Mikiya : Is he just believing in what he wants to ? Creating an illusion and just going along with it while using 'love' to justify it ... I don't understand the reason there's so much 'depth' in his feelings towards Shiki and I don't buy 'love' as an excuse either... He doesn't know enough and accepts everything the way it is or at least seems to and I dislike this type of characters.
- Shiki : I feel neutral towards her character she's interesting enough and I believe we'll get to know her better (hopefully) in the next movies. She has a heavy past as it seems and just acts under its effect .
- The rest are well , there aren't many are there ? they are decent.
Overall : 5/10
I recommend this movie to those who are interested in finishing the whole series and not this movie in particular because what it lacks may be fixed with the next ones.
