Apologies for the delay on this one. The fourth Kara no Kyoukai movie is very much different from the three previous movies. While these all had the formula of “something mysterious is killing lots of people”, this one centres around something completely different: it takes place right after Shiki got involved in the car accident, and entirely focuses on Shiki getting back to her senses. It lacks the brutal action sequences of the previous movies, and probably required the least amount of budget to produce out of the first four installments, yet it’s been the most enjoyable of the bunch for me so far.
Because this chapter finally gives us insight in the three lead characters of this franchise. Finally we learn what they are, and especially in Shiki’s case, most of the pieces of the puzzle fall in place and finally get we get a god idea of who she is. Her process of recovery from the injury is long, but now we know exactly why she acted the way she did in the first and third movie.
This episode showed how both she and Mikiya came to work for Touko, where her strange eyes came from and more. It’s a very down to earth movie, and the action only happens for a reason, but that’s probably why I liked this one so much, because it can fly put its time into the development of Shiki and the ones around her.
There’s only one part where Mikiya starts singing “I’m singing in the rain” in really bad Engrish, so that may not have been the best idea of the creators. The fourth movie isn’t the most exciting of the bunch, but it is the most complete, and it does have the best characters so far. It’s interesting how on average, each successive movie has become better than the previous one, and it would be interesting if this pattern could continue.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 |
| Characters: | 9/10 |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 |
| Setting: | 8/10 |
