It’s about time… Shiki has reached her final destination in the form of the continuation of Murder Speculation. We have been traveling around through lots of mysteries and absurd scenarios from 6 chapters at this point. We’ve been speculating both the murder cases and the reasonings, the manifestation of the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, tracking down the 2 culprits who happened to be victims, hunting down the true culprit himself who has a tragic vision, and even regaining memories. But one of these things still has yet to be continued. The speculation of murder hasn’t been completed yet and we’re still finding the answers, so where on earth do we find those? That, my friend, is where Chapter 7 arrives for. While Chapter 5 is the conclusion of the Magus conflict (at least specific to this series), Chapter 7 is the conclusion of Shiki going through hell while risking a major value in order to reach her light. In my opinion, this is easily Kara no Kyoukai’s best chapter. …but why is that? Is it because of hype? Is it because of the music? Is it because it’s simply the last destination? Well, it’s time we dig a hole…
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As mentioned, this is the continuation of where we left off in chapter 2. Shiki has faced dozens of gauntlets at this point and even Araya isn’t as much of a difficulty spike to her. What will be, however, is a virtual hint to the murder case questions and this is where she finally reaches her limit. The story of this chapter starts off with Shiki chilling in her apartment while Mikiya gives her soda. However, a new string of murders has lured in and that string is a very long one at that. Funnily enough, those murders aren’t really caused by Shiki. She may have caused a handful due to her unstable personality, but that is nothing compared to the mass streak run by the final culprit we aren’t aware of until now. Who could that be? But while we’re at it, Shiki has gained a final objective and that is to not kill a single person. That final objective will calculate the results of how far Shiki has come with learning what life and death mean in multiple ways. To me, saving the answers for the last gauntlet stage was a great idea because the previous gauntlets put Shiki to the test, especially because of how strategic she was in fighting against her opponents.
Anyway, as for how the movie itself started, it’s surprisingly very strong. Shiki has defeated Araya and his arsenal, so how come she still feels like she’s in prison? She and Mikiya still have to take the murder cases from Chapter 2 into account and here, they’ve been extrapolated. The newest addition to the crimes is the enhanced cannabis created by Araya which is believed to be hella more potent than marijuana. Because these cannabis are now given to certain victims, it’s even more difficult for both Shiki and Mikiya to deal with these cases. The reason why this start is really good is due to how much depth and care they put into the interactions between Shiki and Mikiya. Even though they’re couples that love each other, they also point out their surroundings as well as being aware. Shiki has studied the philosophies of life and death and she still shows mad violence regardless of what kind of enemy she sees. Mikiya, on the other hand, wants people who enter their hell phases to go back to normal so that things won’t be hectic. This truly adds to Shiki’s final test very well. Let’s also not forget that her other objective is to keep Mikiya alive. It’s not the best thing out there but there’s a lot of heart found here. But this series’ best chapter? Where did that come from?
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Well, it’s time we enter this next part. After Shiki has dealt with multiple drugged servants sent by the culprit which damages her goal progression all while Mikiya is on the investigation of a strange mess, she has finally confronted the culprit himself. That murderer is none other than Shirazumi Lio, the guy who Shiki rejected a few years ago due to his incompetence and he was Araya’s first victim. Every other victim alongside Araya is a small scratch, but Lio is a whole different beast. Lio wouldn’t hesitate to kill literally anyone he sees but wasn’t so sure if he could kill Shiki (and/or even Mikiya in that case) due to his relationship. However, Lio also manipulated Shiki into thinking she would be the real killer after he took a look at Shiki’s unstableness in the past. Lio is a strange character because of how weird he acts with his obsession towards Shiki which explains why he looks like her but I think he’s a genuinely compelling final antagonist in the sense that he’s a perfect puzzle for Shiki. He will still force Shiki to enter his own delusions. Shiki is still pissed at him for his disgusting actions but will nonetheless try to remain relatively tame on him for the sake of her final goal. If you pay attention to the post-credits sequence in Chapter 6, there was this one scene where Lio broke down crying after being rejected to the point where he performed cannibalism on a bully for him to show more violence and Araya sees him as an apex predator which made Lio his depraved puppet.
Another thing that makes him a great villain is how he pretends to be a spirit of male SHIKI. Because male SHIKI died in exchange for giving Shiki her powers, Lio trolled her into thinking the male personality is caged inside him (although at least from what I see). This puzzled Shiki so hard that she didn’t know if she should take him seriously or not. By that, what I’m referring to is if she even thinks he deserves death or not. Lio is not only a brutal killer but he’s also a liar and even though he’s not amazing at lying, he still finds ways to get away with shit. Hell, he even used most of his advantages against Mikiya. He didn’t try to kill Mikiya, though (...for now). He calmly spreads rumors before losing his sanity after being pointed out multiple times. While watching the scenes of Lio talking to Mikiya, one detail I truly appreciate is how good he is at mimicking male SHIKI as a whole. Despite the male personality being unstable, there’s still a lot of good involved. Unfortunately for Lio, it won’t last for long because Mikiya needed to find a solution. Lio has been regarded as either a flat or unnecessary character but I disagree with that, he’s great because of those things.
This transition is amazing because, after all that investigation, Shiki and Mikiya face massive challenges that would corner them for eternity. Even if they’re smart enough to find their solutions, it seems impossible and that’s all because of Lio. Despite being Araya’s victim, all he wants is to have people view him as extraordinarily competent. Touko stated that there’s no cure for Lio due to Araya’s complex and potent black magic. And this only gets even better from here. In Shiki’s second confrontation against Lio, this is where she reaches her dead end. Lio is a massive obstacle that will take ages to move aside without hesitation, but oddly enough, her other obstacle is Mikiya himself. But that’s because he warned her about that one rule. This is even harder for her when considering the fact that Lio has gone too far with all the nasty stuff he caused to Shiki. Sure, there are scenes that are difficult to watch but even then, this sequence greatly conveys the flaws of Shiki when she tries to overcome challenges. She has a hard time valuing herself when she takes this test. Nothing’s more difficult than keeping an insane victim alive.
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Of course, Mikiya isn’t free from Lio either. As mentioned, Mikiya wanted victims to turn normal, and to turn Lio normal is like taming a cat by feeding it with dog food. But as always, Mikiya had the balls to do so. His entire philosophy is that victims aren’t really fully on their faults and still can be forgiven. This may sound silly but I always adore Mikiya with how he spreads it. His progression may look like he makes dumb decisions but in truth, they add life to the story as he’s one of the few things that perfectly contrasts with Araya's tragic yet twisted influence throughout. And this is one of the reasons why Shiki has always been a compelling character throughout the entire series. Of course, he still points out flaws like a true human being and this is where he hits the road for the worse. When Mikiya continues to point out how monstrous Lio is, Lio got insanely pissed that it injured Mikiya’s left eye. Oh, and Lio’s uncontrollable rage perfectly shows how massively unstable he is. ‘ahem’ After that, he shows Shiki that Mikiya is “dead” and this is where Shiki has had enough. After struggling with her final objective, Mikiya has always been protecting her with everything he has, and with him supposedly “gone”, Shiki had to sacrifice her progress of completing her final objective, that being to value how many people she kills, in exchange for cleansing the growing evil, and that leads us to such a formidable conclusion.
Shiki definitely forgives Fujino and Kirie because of how much suffering they’ve gone through but for Lio? Despite being trapped in the same hell, he’s going to be sent to a worse one because of what he did to Mikiya. The only real cure for him… is EXTERMINATION… After giving Lio a brutal beatdown, Shiki finally wins… but also loses… She wins because evil in the place she lives in is no more but she also loses because she broke the one rule that would evaluate her perplexing journey. By process, she indirectly failed her late male personality. Shiki has never been this sad in her entire life. Mikiya wakes up after being heavily injured and slowly slithers his way if Shiki and Lio are okay. Luckily for Shiki, she’s alive. But unluckily, he had to look down on her because she failed to complete the last objective. Despite this, both still have their happy ending because they’re back to seeing a beautiful light. This ending, even though we still have yet to see the real ending in the next chapter, is just really heartwarming and compelling simply because it shows how flawed Shiki and Mikiya are with their strategies and ideologies while still overcoming their challenges until the end of their destination. All of their progression has led up to this moment and what a fantastic result it is…
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Shiki has always been one of my favorite protagonists ever, even right from the start. She’s an anti-hero who builds and spreads her philosophies the more she ventures into her adventure while also overcoming the biggest of obstacles with both her characterization and the amount of tension involved. Even if her philosophies appear to be the bare minimum, she always finds clever ways to conflict with both the ignorance of the world and Araya’s influence. And that’s ignoring her amazing chemistry with not just Mikiya, but with most characters throughout, although her relationship with Mikiya is definitely the biggest seller here. Her entire characterization, development, and catharsis in every chapter (except 6 but she’s still really good in there) have always spoken the word ‘brilliant’ from left to right but Chapter 7 is truly her magnum opus. This takes all of her development and writing and adds a phenomenal conflict to fully reflect her advantages and disadvantages. Not only is she a divine character but she also perfectly reflects TYPE-MOON/Nasu as a writer in general.
We can’t forget about Mikiya either. He’s also one of my favorite characters in the entire TYPE-MOON franchise. Even if he couldn’t fight back, he’s such a complex and endearing character because his detective skills truly make him look like he solves a lot of puzzles while also spreading his wisdom of how fighting isn’t the only way to face evil. Like Shiki, his ideals aren’t really the brightest but he’s still smart enough to lay a finger on a villain’s influence/ideal without causing a bit of physical harm, even if it would cost him his life which is what we see with him getting injured by Lio. Oh, and speaking of Lio, I know he is an arrogant dick but despite that, he’s still who I fully admire as a character and one I empathize with how much suffering he goes through. Yes, he is a weirdo with how much murdering, stalking, and other shit he caused but even then, it’s not like that he grows to be a doomsday device. All he wants is to be complimented. In my opinion, he is the best of Araya’s victims as a character with how much contrast he puts on Shiki and Mikiya.
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Before we close this review, let’s talk about other things. The animation and spectacle are only always getting better the more we progress through each chapter. The fight between Shiki and Lio in two rounds, while not as impactful as Shiki vs Araya, is still massively impactful. As far as character designing is taken into account, Lio looking like discount Shiki is a genius move as it perfectly reflects his lust for her. The voice acting… Don’t get me started on that part… SakaMaaya and Hoshi Soichiro really went all out voicing their respectable characters with the sheer amount of personality and reflection put together.
--- > "...And so, the part of me that still holds the old Lio Shirazumi quiets and fades. I'm sorry, Kokuto. It looks like the part of me you believed in has now finally disappeared."
Yet another character tier list recap!
I can’t praise this chapter enough. This easily cements Kara no Kyoukai as my favorite TYPE-MOON series ever. Not only did we come full circle with how Shiki and Mikiya met together alongside started their journey but the amount of writing, directing, and character writing are just pieced together amazing. I think this was the moment I really fell in love with figurative storytelling in any industry and honestly, maybe even TYPE-MOON as a whole. While admittedly, it is confusing, there’s just no denying that the psychology, themes, and so on are thought out really well. To this day, I can’t think of anything made by the franchise I personally like better than this one (and Kara no Kyoukai as a whole). Hell, throwing in the entire anime film industry, it’s still among the best. For me, it’s only just beaten out by Liz and the Blue Bird and Revue Starlight’s movie sequel. But even then, it’s extremely close. I’m sure there are more points I have missed while talking about this chapter but all I can say is that I want to Nasu for writing Kara no Kyoukai…
