The Silent Room

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Small Talk:
‘Kara no Kyoukai’ actually translates to ‘The Boundary of Emptiness’, and not ‘The Garden of Sinners’ as is the common misconception. Oh, and here’s another wall of tl;dr.

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Some people don’t understand why I’m such an incurable Type-Moon fanboy. I have never completely played through any of its two most popular productions, the Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night visual novels. I have only really watched two anime adaptation of their products yet I can never be fascinated enough by them. It was probably the character designs or storylines, I can’t put a finger on any of it.

The animated adaptation of Tsukihime did not happen (I reject your reality and substitute my own), and the adaptation of Fate was a little bit more than mediocre (and that’s only thanks to the magic of the amazing Kenji Kawai). What really sealed the deal for me was the anime adaptation of Kara no Kyoukai, Nasu Kinoko‘s early novel publication under the name Notes (before Type-Moon was formed together with illustrator Takeuchi Takeshi). It was often quoted as being the prototype to Tsukihime, with many similar elements in both intellectual properties being carried over.

Kara no Kyoukai follows three people in a detective office dealing with strange cases riddled with the supernatural. The leading lady is Ryougi Shiki (voiced by Sakamoto Maaya) the resident assassin, hailing from a high-class family and highly trained in swordsmanship. She is paired with Kokutou Mikiya (voiced by Suzumura Kenichi), the resourceful scout and information hunter. The two lovers are employed by Aozaki Touko (voiced by Honda Takako), a powerful mage hiding behind bountiful bumpers, glasses and a charming personality.

The light novels are being adapted into a series of seven theatrical films produced by Ufotable. I have never ever heard of that studio before KnK, but judging from what I’ve seen this has been an excellent adaptation worthy of Type-Moon’s reputation. In fact, I believe this has been the best animated adaptation among all of Type-Moon’s IPs.

Since the movies have only been screened in Japanese theaters, there is little hope for us here in Malaysia of viewing it legitimately anytime soon, and we have nothing else but DVD rips to rely on. So far, four DVDs are out and I have yet to miss any of them. There was a strangely huge gap between the third and fourth DVD (July 23rd and December 17th), though. That was probably why, after watching the fourth episode, it felt like I just shot some Coke up my brain stem.

So, what’s there to love about this show?

Animation

As I mentioned before, the movies are produced by Ufotable (how the hell do you pronounce this name, anyway? Yuu-Eff-Oe-Table? Yuu-Foe-Table? YuFoe-tuh-ble?). A little digging and I discovered that they have yet to produce anything that ever caught my attention, only familiar names. Futakoi Alternative, Coyote Ragtime and Manabi Straight – none of which I have ever bothered to spare any bandwidth to.

Regardless, I am truly impressed with what they did for KnK. Beautiful backgrounds, magical gradients, innovative angles and excellent water animation are the major winning points in this product. I would only normally expect scenes of similar quality from Kyoto Animation (especially the genius application of gradients) or Bones.

J.C. Staff did a decent work in Tsukihime, Studio DEEN‘s effort for Fate was alright, but Ufotable simply swept me off my feet and blasted my head off. Screenshots from the DVD don’t do it any justice (neither does Youtube) so you’ll have to take my word for it and see it for yourself. I hope they would release a Bluray edition in the future.

Audio

What I found charming in Fate, I found epic in KnK. No, seriously. Kawai-sensei’s work was what made the Fate experience a fascinating one for me. When I watched the first episode of KnK, I couldn’t help but be absorbed by the music echoing behind the beautiful scenes and it got me thinking ‘Wow, this is awesome shit. But why does it sound so awfully familiar?’ It was only later that I discovered (much to my squealing delight) that it was Kajiura Yuki who composed the soundtrack, as well the ending theme songs.

I discussed this with some friends and while some were impressed, there were others who felt that her style was too obvious, that they were hearing the same things from hack//SIGN and Noir all over again. I thought about it for a while and agreed that there is some truth is what they said. Still, on the insistence of my fandom for her, I think she did a brilliant job. Kalafina, her new project made up of several idol singers, sang some really good numbers too. Oblivious and Sprinter are my favourite ED tracks from the collection so far.

Vocal performances were fantastic, too. You can forget about Tanake Rie and Noto Mamiko for a while. A big surprise came from Sakamoto Maaya, performing a cold hard personality for Shiki. It was so well done I didn’t recognise it was actually her voice. Suzumura Kenichi was a bit amusing, since his voice paired with Mikiya’s looks simply reminds me too much of Tohno Shiki [from Tsukihime].

The biggest star of the show, I believe, is Honda Takako. I only remembered her performances for Jigoku Shoujo (as Hone-onna) and Naruto (as Mitarashi Anko). Why Honda instead of Sakamoto, you ask? Sakamoto carried Shiki’s personality perfectly, true, but Honda played the role of the character with the most lines – and to do that you’re going to need to sound pleasant to listen to.

Honda has done an excellent job talking in lengths, with a sexy and commanding attitude all the way. Aozaki Touko is a character who is ‘in charge’ and at the same time a person with people skills and naturally good at convincing others. To sound convincing AND alluring at the same time is a tough feat to pull off – yet Honda does this brilliantly. The only other seiyuu I have seen performing similar feats would be Tanaka Atsuko when she voiced Motoko Kusanagi (from Ghost in the Shell).

Story

This is probably the most interesting part of KnK. Unlike Fate and Tsukihime, where stories unfold in a linear fashion, KnK has the freedom that many novels enjoy; non-linear story telling. What this means is that a novel doesn’t have to be written in chronological order for the audience to get the big picture. In fact, the story need not even be all that interesting but the experience of jumping back and forth between time frames can make an otherwise plain novel extremely exciting.

My first experience of that style was when I watched Christopher Nolan’s Memento. KnK’s story concept is nothing new, really. An occult detective agency, run by certain people with special qualities. Toss in some heavy character backstory and romance and you’ve got a product to sell; it’s not something that’s never been done before (The X-Files, anyone?).

However, executing its stories and exploring the characters by jumping around the timeline makes the experience a truly enthralling one. Never fails to keep you wondering what’s gonna come next.

Mirrormoon has a translated copy of the first three books, albeit an unedited, open-source version. Del Rey Manga now owns the license to adapt the novels into English, so I’ll be looking forward to seeing those at Borders sometime in the near future.

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If you have read this far, I’m willing to bet that you’re either a Type-Moon fan, or at least curious fan of anime. Either way, if you haven’t watched Kara no Kyoukai yet, go buy the DVD (if it’s available to you) or go get GG’s releases. If my take on your taste is right, you’re in for a real blast.

I’ve found what I desired. It’s vague and fragile, but I’ll have to depend on it for now.
Turns out it’s not as ugly as I thought it would be. I’m a little happy about that. A slight
impulse… Just a slight murderous impulse… that’s leaning towards you.

- Ryougi Shiki, Kara no Kyoukai