Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to bring you a new anime review. Yeah sorry about no review last week. I was a bit busy with college stuff. Nothing important. However this review being on a Saturday is not me being late with reviews. Nope this is a new thing that I'm gonna start doing now. Reviews will no longer be on Wednesdays but insisted being moved to Saturdays. Also as you might have been able to tell from the review I did two weeks ago, the Nitpick category will no longer be used anymore. I don't like it and I feel as though it was hindering my writing for these reviews. But anyways let's move on. Last I was here I reviewed the first Kara no Kyoukai film, which is actually like the the 4th film in the timeline of the movies. So now today we jump back in time to the origins of Shiki, when she still had SHIKI. Today I'll be covering Kara no Kyoukai: A Study in Murder-Part 1. Is it just as good as the first one or does it pale in comparison? Let's find out shall we?
Story:
Now as you would be able to guess, this film takes place a couples years before the events of the first years. We go all the way to Mikiya's high school years and follow him when he first meets a young Shiki. The story here is not as intense as Overlooking View but still is a very high quality story on the same level but with different content in it. While Overlooking View was very much a story that talked about suicide and was built as a ghost story. However, A Study in Murder is more of a murder mystery while also having a very odd romance thrown in there. The movie doesn't tackle any major themes that the first film did but it's okay because this movie has a very good story behind. The story mainly centers around Mikiya trying to get to know Shiki more as he ends up becoming interested with her and eventually falls in love with her. All the while a series of murders are happening around the town that they live in. Even worse is that Shiki always seems to be at the scene of the murder. We don't see her actually kill anyone but she is always at the crime scene and standing over the corpse. This leads into Mikiya basically trying to convince himself and even Shiki that she's not the killer. Now even though the story here is really good it also does the dirty little things that a lot of movies in series do, give you a lot of questions and no answers. Now I can understand that this was made to be apart of series but the answers to who is doing the murders and why is he doing them actually doesn't get answers until the 7th movies. That's a pretty long wait. But aside from that small point the story is still very strong and really fleshes out these characters as well.
Animation:
Just like before, Ufotable delivers in this category. But I am very happy to say that the feeling of the animation here is on a very different tone then in Overlooking View. While Overlooking View had a very dark, washed out, and creepy atmosphere to it, A Study in Murder actually has more colorful scenery while mixing in the darker tones as well. This gives the movie a very different feeling to it because by showing what the modern day world looks like and then bringing the darker side of this world into the spotlight it makes it seem even darker. Not only that but the animation for the characters is still just as damn good as it was in the first movie. There aren't any big action scenes like in the first movie but the movie doesn't skip on the quality either. The animation is on par and even at some points better then the animation in Overlooking View. The anime looks really damn good and it just a joy to watch.
Music:
Just like with the animation the music is beautiful but is a different kind of beautiful. The music here works really well with the animation and really likes to keep things very quiet. While the first one had amazing music as well it was more of a dangerous and almost occult sounding, giving a lot of to the supernatural aspect of the first film. But this time around the music has more toned down and somber tone for all of the creepy scenes. But also has more uplifting and relaxing music for the more quiet scenes. If two people are talking and having a normal conversation then the music will be subtle and faint or no music will be used. However if a conversation is being had with a much heavier weight on then the music will be a little louder but will also have a much more sinister tone. The music works great here and is easily the strongest to the movie.
Characters:
Another strong aspect to this movies is it's characters. Just like the first film we don't have a very large cast. The only two characters that have any real importance in the story, Mikiya and Shiki. Mikiya comes off as a normal guy who just ended up falling for a very odd girl. Then again it's Shiki so I can't blame him. So his character is pretty damn determine to prove Shiki's innocent even if she herself believes she's guilty. You can really tell that he genuinely loves Shiki and wants to her to have a normal life. Shiki also comes off as a different person from the first film. That Shiki was a cold but good hearted badass while this Shiki is more of a shut in that doesn't want to get close to anyone. We even learn that she has another personality called SHIKI, (Note: The capitalization of her name means male in the Japanese writing. So the direct translation is just her name in all caps.) her other half that is more out going then her and is even more friendly as well. We get to learn a lot about the two personalities here and get a good sense of who Shiki really is. We see why she's so cold and why she's so shut in. But what sells these characters even more is the fact that they have great chemistry. We can get a good idea of how Mikiya could fall for Shiki while also seeing her warm up to him and how this starts to scare her. The characters work great off of each other and even more so are great characters in of themselves.
Overall:
This is a pretty damn good follow up to Overlooking View. Or a good beginning to the Kara no Kyoukai series seeing as how this is the beginning of the timeline. Oh fuck it, it's a good movie! It has a great set of characters and has some damn fine music. Not all of the questions raised in the story are answered but at least we got an amazing movie in the end, and that's really all that matters.
Arcane Reviews gives Kara no Kyoukai: A Study in Murder-Part 1 an 8 out of 10.
You can watch "Kara no Kyoukai" on:
No legal streaming sites. Sorry.
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