TYPE-MOON Review: Kara no Kyoukai/The Garden of Sinners: Future Gospel: Recalled Out Summer
Although studio ufotable’s Kara no Kyoukai film series (an adaptation of TYPE-MOON co-founder Kinoko Nasu’s trio of late 1990’s novels) ended in 2011 with the OVA epilogue (chapter 8), they weren’t done with the story. Two years later, ufotable returned with sequel movie Future Gospel, an adaptation of Nasu’s 2008 Comiket 74-released doujin. In its print incarnation, Future Gospel (or Mirai Fukuin to give its original Japanese title) comprised two linked short text stories and three short manga illustrated by long-time collaborator and character designer Takashi Takeuchi. ufotable adapted the text stories as a two-segment 88-minute movie, plus the manga as three animated shorts. This time we’ll cover the movie, leaving the manga adaptations and an additional final unfilmed novel for next time.
Future Gospel: Recalled Out Summer is split into two linked sections, each set twelve years apart from the other. Part one: Möbius Ring is set during August 1998, and chronologically fits between Chapter 3: Remaining Sense of Pain and Chapter 1: Overlooking View. Part two: Möbius Link is set in 2010, and is by far the latest in Kara no Kyoukai chronology so far. Even within Möbius Ring, the scenes jump between differing time periods over the course of a week or so. Kara no Kyoukai veterans should be well used to anachronic storytelling, and this structure is used to recontextualise earlier scenes with the benefit of new information. As is typical for this franchise, you need to pay attention to understand what the hell is going on.
Möbius Ring’s protagonist is a character we’ve only been very briefly introduced to in Chapter 6: Oblivion Recording — Seo Shizune — teenage girl, student at the exclusive Catholic Girls’ boarding school Reien Academy. At this point in the story she’s yet to meet and share a room with Azaka Kokutou. Seo is yet another character with Mystic Eyes — this time she has the power of prediction, the ability to see the future. Typically she can see up to three days ahead, though sometimes receives flash-forwards from much further into the future. The effect of her abilities on her life means she feels like there are two versions of her — one that exists in the present, and another in the future. There are few surprises in life for Seo, nothing ever feels new or unexpected. She’s ranked highly academically because she’s able to predict which questions will appear on upcoming exams. She was able to predict the inevitable death of her beloved pet dog, and found she was powerless to change it. This has left her with an air of resigned fatalism. Although she presents as bright and cheery, she is emotionally crushed by the weight of the looming, apparently indelible future.
By chance, Seo bumps into all-round nice guy Mikiya Kokutou, sibling of her future-roommate, and he assists her to use her future-sight to change the grisly fate of a random passer-by whose imminent death she perceived. They spend an hour in Mikiya’s favourite cafe (the recurrent Ahnenerbe restaurant that shows up in other TYPE-MOON works, sometimes inhabited by a certain terrifyingly powerful cat… thing…) and they discuss the practical and philosophical implications of Seo’s powers. Like the perfect gentleman he is, Mikiya lifts her spirits and treats her to cake. Seo develops a little crush on Mikiya, who seems to be developing ladykiller tendencies. He already has Shiki, plus the rather unsavoury devotion of his younger sister, and now his sister’s future roommate develops a thing for him? I never expected Kara no Kyoukai to end up as a harem anime, but it is from the writer of Fate/Stay Night, so perhaps I should have expected this development.
Much of the movie is, like the previous chapters, talking heads discussing some fairly obscure and detailed magical lore. Interspersed throughout Mikiya and Seo’s conversation are flashbacks to preceding days where Mystic Eyes of Death Perception-wielding Shiki Ryougi battles another futuresight-wielder, this one much less benign than Seo. Shiki’s employer, the mage Touko Aozaki, explains in exhaustive detail the difference between mere future prediction and future calculation. This explanation is so dense and esoteric that I needed to watch the movie twice and read the original novel before I could get my head around it. Kinoko Nasu is indeed the True God of Galaxy Brain Thinking. He makes my neurones melt.
Möbius Ring’s plot unfortunately hinges on the various iterations of future sight’s intricate mechanisms, so may leave more casual viewers cold. Then again, what the hell would causual viewers be doing watching the ninth part of an increasingly labyrinthine and complex lore-drenched series like Kara no Kyoukai anyway? Little time is devoted to introducing Mikiya, Shiki or Touko, nor are Shiki’s abilities explained. The viewer is expected to be intimately familiar with Kara no Kyoukai’s setting, characters and chronology, especially as some of the more emotional payoffs hinge on this familiarity.
MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS FOLLOW
Shiki herself plays little more than a bit-part in Recalled Out Summer as a whole. She gets a couple of cool action scenes and one hell of a climactic moment of triumph at the conclusion where the various plot threads and chronology come together to form a narrative mobius strip, proving the aptness of the title. Shiki’s enemy Mitsuru Kamekura is a bomber with the ability to not only predict the future, but calculate it. By observing the present with one eye, with the other he can calculate the steps needed to take to ensure his preferred future elapses. His attitude becomes even more fatalistic than Seo’s, living his empty life where every step is already predetermined, predestined. However, by crystallising the future (which Shiki argues doesn’t normally exist) into a tangible state, he provides her with something she can cut. Of course Shiki can cut the future, she can cut everything else. That’s pretty wild, when you think about it.
Möbius Ring takes up the bulk of Recalled Out Summer’s runtime, at around sixty minutes. The remaining twenty minutes or so before the credits comprises Möbius Link, a mostly light-hearted flash-forward set in 2010. Shiki only very briefly appears as the now-head of the Ryougi family, that appears to have metamorphosed into a yakuza-style organisation. She seems very at home with this role. Mitsuru Kamekura, the antagonist from Möbius Ring, now powerless due to Shiki’s actions, is now under her employ and running a new iteration of detective agency Garan no Dou after Touko Aozaki left over a decade earlier. He also moonlights as an author of childrens’ books, which endears him to Mana Ryougi, Shiki and Mikiya’s adorable 10-year-old daughter. Yes, although Mikiya does not feature in this segment, it appears that he and Shiki are happily married. (He’s also taken on her surname after joining her family, so is now known as Mikiya Ryougi, which does seem fitting.)
Mana is a terror to men (specifically to her father, and Mitsuru) and much like her aunt Azaka has an unsettling fixation on Mikiya. I really have to wonder what aftershave he wears that sends women, including those he’s closely related to, wild with lust. Mana and Mitsuru take a cute trip to visit an old lady who offers fortune-telling services in a city back-alley, the third character in this film with future-sight of one kind or another. This woman provides a link between the male SHIKI, the female Shiki, and Mitsuru, as she’s been acquainted with them all. Although Shiki has sent her employee and daughter to try and shut down the woman’s business, Mana decides she “loves” her so engages Mitsuru to convince Shiki to change her mind. Mana remarks that she likes Mitsuru because he’s like her dad — he’s only got one functioning eye, he’s weak to women, and therefore easy for her to manipulate. I’ve a feeling that Mitsuru and Mikiya are both doomed.
One of the most powerful scenes is left to the very end, where we flash back to 1995 when Shiki still had both personalities. We learn that the male SHIKI already knew his time was limited, and with confirmation of his destiny from the old fortune-teller lady, planned to accept his fate for the sake of the female Shiki’s happiness. I admit that I did choke up a little at this final chunk of pathos. It makes Kalafina’s stunningly gorgeous ending song Alleluia incredibly emotional, and fitting as a true conclusion to the series. The post-credits sequence of male SHIKI smiling as he walks away into the darkness is a perfect coda to the series as a whole.
As a movie, Recalled Out Summer is very weirdly-structured. As an adaptation of two different (but linked) stories it doesn’t adhere to a normal plot progression, and its climax hits about two thirds into the runtime. It’s an extremely faithful adaptation of its source material, which is where the non-standard narrative shape originates. ufotable continue to produce beautiful-looking animation, though this installment isn’t anywhere near as gloomy and gothic-looking as previous chapters. Perhaps this is down to a change in directors? Colours are brighter and there are far fewer night-time scenes. Even those scenes set after dark feature elements of bright colours, such as the fortune-teller’s luminescent blue headpiece. Seo Shizune and Mana Ryougi are both rays of sunshine in the previously dark Kara no Kyoukai world, so viewers expecting more depressing detective noir drama may be disappointed by the change in tone. Even the character designs look lighter, more cartoony somehow, even if they remain instantly recognisable as Takashi Takeuchi’s creations.
Nasu’s trademark long-winded and obscure dialogue makes itself prominent, but for once it does make sense, sort of, after multiple viewings. I did enjoy Recalled Out Summer, but perhaps not quite as much as the earlier entries in the series. By brightening its tone and outlook it does lose something of the oppressive and mysterious darkness omnipresent throughout the first seven chapters. I’m glad the characters are in happier places now, though. The associated Extra Chorus shorts are even lighter in tone, and I’ll cover them next time. Future Gospel’s original theatrical release was accompanied by a booklet with one final Nasu-written story — Final Record — of which ufotable has no plans to animate. I’ll cover that next time too. Thanks for reading!
Kara no Kyoukai/The Garden of Sinners: Future Gospel: Recalled Out Summer
Directed by: Tomonori Sudou
Screenplay by: Akira Hiyama
Story by: Kinoko Nasu
Based on: Kara no Kyoukai: Mirai Fukuin novel by Kinoku Nasu
JP Publisher: Kodansha
JP Publication date: 16th August 2008 (doujin, Comiket 74), 11th November 2011 (mass market)
ISBN: 978–4–06–138919–9
Music by: Yuki Kajiura, Kalafina
Production studio: ufotable
Original JP release: 28th September 2013
JP Distributor: Aniplex
US home video release: 21st April 2015
US Distributor: Aniplex USA
Language: Japanese audio with English Subtitles
Runtime: 88 minutes
Fan-translated novel link: here
