Kara no Kyoukai

is one of TYPE-MOON's earliest works, authored by Kinoko Nasu and illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi. It is abbreviated by fans as , and is officially translated as The Garden of Sinners. Originally published as a web novel in 1998, the series was republished in novel form in 2004, and then adapted into eight animated movies by Ufotable from 2007 to 2013.
==Story==
===Setting===
The events in Kara no Kyoukai take place in Mifune City in the 1990s. Notable locations include Garan no Dou, an agency run by Touko that engages in cases with supernatural or abnormal elements, and Reien Girl's Academy.
It also introduces some of the most fundamental concepts in the universe of Type-Moon's works, including souls, the Root, Counter Force, Magic and Magecraft, and Origin.
===Plot===
Mikiya Kokutou becomes intrigued by the mysterious series of violent deaths occurring in his town and Shiki Ryougi, a beautiful but unsociable girl. As he tries to become closer to Shiki, he realizes that Shiki is connected to the mysterious deaths and that the supernatural forces involved with both could kill him. It is revealed that in Shiki's family, certain members of her family possess two distinct personalities, both aware and conscious of one another, but possessing different qualities. The dual consciousness, and Shiki's upbringing as a demon hunter, has caused her to reject other human beings.
However, upon meeting Mikiya, she gradually finds happiness through their relationship and a schism develops between her two personalities. As a result, she winds up in a traffic accident and is left in a coma for two years. When she awakens, she finds herself unable to connect her past memories to her current identity. Reunited with Mikiya, now employed as an investigator for Touko Aozaki, Shiki assists Touko's detective agency, Garan no Dou, whenever combat is required, while struggling to come to terms with her identity.
==Characters==
===Major Characters===
;Shiki Ryougi
:A woman who possesses the "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception", a supernatural ability that allows the user to see and directly realize the "death" of everything in existence. She recently recovered from a two-year coma caused by a traffic accident. Prior to the traffic accident, she originally had two personalities, a male personality named , and the original female personality . Children born into the Ryougi family are generally male and are raised with two personalities, and the male personality is customarily called the "yang" personality, while the female is called the "yin" personality. It is easy to tell which Shiki is speaking at a given time because they both have a distinct style of speaking, most notably that the female Shiki refers to herself with the pronoun , while male Shiki refers to himself as . After waking from her coma, Shiki discovers that she can no longer feel the male Shiki's presence and assumes that he died because of the accident. She also feels a detachment from her memories before the accident, and while she knows she is Shiki, she does not feel that she is. In the hopes of regaining herself and the "dead" Shiki, she puts on a cold façade that somewhat resembles the male Shiki's and tries to act as the female Shiki did. Touko understands the sense of detachment Shiki feels, but considers the current Shiki a third, new personality.
;Mikiya Kokutou
:Shiki's friend who, two years ago, made a promise with Shiki to attend college together. He discovers a puppet at an exhibition his friend asked him to attend and is entranced by the hollowness of the puppets that resembled Shiki. He is so charmed by it that he seeks out the maker, Touko, and then finds her workplace. With his hopes of attending college with Shiki crushed because of her coma, he drops out of college to work under Touko as an assistant. Touko holds his investigative skills with high regard because of his ability to find her workplace, an abandoned building hidden by a Bounded Field. The male Shiki and the current Shiki call him due to his last name's resemblance to 's last name.
;Azaka Kokutou
:Mikiya's younger sister, who loves him in a romantic way. She becomes an apprentice of Touko due to her rivalry with Shiki, and is talented in the magic of ignition. She is quite similar both in appearance and abilities to Tohno Akiha (though Akiha's ability consists of controlling external heat, whereas Azaka's ability is inducing ignition).
Touko Aozaki
:Appearing as a puppet maker, Touko is actually an extremely powerful magus. She runs a business in an abandoned building called Garan no Dou, a detective agency consisting of only herself and Mikiya that only takes supernatural or otherwise abnormal cases. She is the sister of Tsukihime's Aoko Aozaki, with whom she does not share a particularly good relationship.
===Sub-Characters===
;Kirie Fujou
:A bedridden girl who controls a ghostly version of herself above the Fujou Building. She is the reason behind the supposed Fujou Building suicides.
;Daisuke Akimi
:A detective working with the local law enforcement, Daisuke is Mikiya's uncle who acts as an elder brother figure to him. Despite his scruffy and laid back appearance, Akimi is a diligent investigator who’s put in charge of unraveling the truth behind a series of strange murders that seem to point towards someone from Mikiya's high school. Daisuke often shares some classified information with Mikiya for suggestions.
;Lio Shirazumi
:An older schoolmate of Kokutou who quit school because he found something he wanted to do.
;Fujino Asagami
:Classmate and friend to Azaka, who both attend Reien Girl's Academy. Fujino has the ability to bend space/objects just by sight, which she uses to twist the bodies of her victims until they are no more than broken bags of meat.
;Souren Araya
:Introduced in . An expert of magecraft and a previous acquaintance of Touko from the Mage's Association.
;Tomoe Enjou
:A teenager that Shiki takes in for a short amount of time. He claims to have killed his parents because of constant dreams of getting killed by his mother.
;Kaede Enjou
:Tomoe's mother. In Tomoe's recollections, he stabbed and disemboweled her. However, in his nightmares, he sees her killing her husband, and then him.
;Takayuki Enjou
:Tomoe's father.
;Cornelius Alba
:Director of the Sponheim Abbey, and acquaintance of Araya and Touko. They were on good terms until Cornelius realized that Touko was considered a better magus than he was. He becomes so obsessed with this inferiority complex that he joins up with Araya solely in order to kill Touko to prove his superiority.
;Satsuki Kurogiri
:A magus with a Sealing Designation, known as "God's Word", with an ability to manipulate others through his words alone by connecting to the Root. He demonstrated this ability by "convincing" Shiki that she could not see him, and she was unable to cut him. Was also the one who gave Misaya Ouji the ability to manipulate the fairies, and was himself capable of manipulating memories, including recalling ones the target cannot remember.
;Misaya Ouji
:The daughter of the Reien's school chairman, was manipulated by "God's Word" into believing that her friend, Kaori Tachibana, committed sucide because she discovered that Hideo Hayama, a school teacher, was taking illegal drugs, and he drugged her in order to keep her silent, and nobody helped her. She planned to take revenge by using the fairies to force the students to commit suicide in the same way that Kaori Tachibana did, at the same site, but was stopped by Azaka.
;Keita Minato
:A member of the gang who frequently picked on Fujino, doing many cruel things to her like hitting her from behind with a bat as well as periodically raping her. Out of all the members of the gang, Keita was the only survivor. He was an underclassman to Mikiya, and was quite attached to him.
;Akitaka Suzurigi
:A loyal servant of the Ryougi family who looks after Shiki. He's only in mid 20's but does his job tidily.
;Gakuto
:Mikiya's friend from high school. He wondered why Mikiya would like a scary girl like Shiki, to which Mikiya simply answered that she is not that scary. He later appeared when Mikiya was having a financial crisis and gave him some money in exchange for making him look for Minato Keita, who had seemed to have gotten involved in something dangerous.
;Hideo Hayama
:The teacher who got replaced by Satsuki Kurogiri. He was hired as a teacher just because he was a relative of the chairman of the school. He's a criminal who was taking his students out of school for relationship money. After Kaori Tachibana died, he was questioned by Misaya Ouji, got in a quarrel, and was accidentally killed.
;Kaori Tachibana
:A high school freshman from the Reien Girl's Academy, who died in the fire incident. She was an acquaintance of Misaya since they were in the elementary level classes. She was forced to go outside by Hideo and got impregnated. Being a pure Christian, she struggled by herself for several months, and finally killed herself hoping that will be a way to save the souls of her guilty classmates and herself.
;Shizune Seo
:Azaka's roommate. Has a collie dog named Akira. She is able to periodically see future events, which she keeps a secret. She eventually discloses this to Mikiya, who gives her a warm lecture on how she should not feel guilty nor helpless about having her ability. Thanks to her power she is the top student of her academy even though she admittedly said that she is bad at studying. Her family handles a wine cellar.
;Meruka Kuramitsu
:A bomber who possesses a Right Eye that sees the future, and a Left Eye that can see "the path" to achieve that future. He works as a for-hire bomber. Kuramitsu Meruka is actually a nickname, and his adult self becomes acquainted with Mana Ryougi.
;Mana Ryougi
:Shiki and Kokutou's daughter. She knows about her mother's male personality. Her wish is to "beat her mom so she can win over her dad."
==Novels==
In January 30, 2018, Seikasha published a new 20th Anniversary commemorative hardcover version in three volumes. The third volume includes Future Gospel and Final Record chapters. It also includes illustrations by Shidzuki Morii.
===Chapter Listing===
*Chapter 1 – Thanatos
*Chapter 2 – ...and nothing heart.
*Chapter 3 – ever cry, never life.
*Chapter 4 – garan-no-dou.
*
*Chapter 5 – Paradox Paradigm.
*Chapter 6 – Fairy Tale.
*
*Chapter 7 – …not nothing heart.
*
* recalled out summerhttps://bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/product?item=0000025592
* the Garden of Oblivion
Overlooking view (novel pic).png|Cover illustration of the first chapter in the original web version.
A study in murder 1.png|Cover illustration of the second chapter in the original web version.
Remaining sense of pain.png|Cover illustration of the third chapter in the original web version.
the hollow shrine.png|Cover illustration of the fourth chapter in the original web version.
Tomoe Novel.png|Cover illustration of the first part of the fifth chapter in the original web version.
Paradox paradigm 2.png|Cover illustration of the second part of the fifth chapter in the original web version.
Oblivion recorder.png|Cover illustration of the sixth chapter in the original web version.
Lio intermission.png|Cover illustration of the Lio intermission in the original web version.
A study in murder 2.png|Cover illustration of the seventh chapter in the original web version.
Möbius ring.jpg|Cover illustration of the Möbius ring chapter of Future Gospel.
Möbius link.jpg|Cover illustration of the Möbius link chapter of Future Gospel.
Kyoukai01.jpg|Cover of the first limited edition Kara no Kyoukai novel
Kyoukai02.png|Cover of the second limited edition Kara no Kyoukai novel
Kara no kyoukai novel cover 1.png|Cover of the first book collection
Kara no kyoukai novel cover 2.png|Cover of the second book collection
Kara no kyoukai novel cover 3.png|Cover of the third book collection
Garden of oblivion.png|Cover of The Garden of Oblivion
Kara no Kyoukai 20th top cover.jpg|Cover of Seikasha's Top volume.
Kara no Kyoukai 20th bottom cover.jpg|Cover of Seikasha's Bottom volume.
Kara no Kyoukai 20th recalled out summer cover.jpg|Cover of Seikasha's recalled out summer/the Garden of oblivion volume.
==Drama CD==
*Kara no Kyoukai: Overlooking the Scenery (2002)
*Drama CD Kara no Kyoukai: Shuumatsu Rokuon: the Garden of oblivion (2014)
==Radio==
 is a radio series released between 2007 to 2011.
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of listeners Vol.1 (2008) https://vgmdb.net/album/63291
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of listeners Vol.2 (2008) https://vgmdb.net/album/63292
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of summers (2008) https://vgmdb.net/album/63293
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of wanderers Vol.1 (2008) https://vgmdb.net/album/63294
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of wanderers Vol.2 (2009) https://vgmdb.net/album/63295
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of winters (2009) https://vgmdb.net/album/63297
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of wanderers Final (2009) https://vgmdb.net/album/63296
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of shiners (2009) https://vgmdb.net/album/63298
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of tellers (2009) https://vgmdb.net/album/63299
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of sisters (2010) https://vgmdb.net/album/63300
*DJCD Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of daydream (2011) https://vgmdb.net/album/63301
==Manga==
==Anthologies==
* (ID Comics DNA Media Comics Special) - 7 Volumes (Complete)
* - 3 Volumes (Complete)
* - 2 Volumes (Complete)
* - 1 Volume (Complete)
* - 1 Volume (Complete)
* - 1 Volume (Complete)
* - 1 Volume (Complete)
* - 1 Volume (Complete)
==Animated Movies==
The series has been adapted into a series of movies divided into 8 chapters, animated by ufotable. The first chapter was released in December 01, 2007 at Theatres Shinjuku. In 2013, a new movie and a special were released.
Title 	Released 	Type
Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of sinners Movie 1: Overlooking View 	December 01, 2007 	Movie
Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of sinners Movie 2: Murder Speculation (Part 1) 	December 29, 2007 	Movie
Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of sinners Movie 3: Remaining Sense of Pain 	February 09, 2008 	Movie
Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of sinners Movie 4: The Hollow Shrine 	May 24, 2008 	Movie
Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of sinners Movie 5: Paradox Spiral 	August 16, 2008 	Movie
Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of sinners Movie 6: Oblivion Recorder 	December 20, 2008 	Movie
Kara no Kyoukai Remix: Gate of Seventh Heaven 	March 14, 2009 	Summary
Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of sinners Movie 7: Murder Speculation (Part 2) 	August 09, 2009 	Movie
Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of sinners Movie 8: Epilogue 	February 2, 2011 	Special
Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of sinners - recalled out summer - Future Gospel 	September 28, 2013	Movie
Kara no Kyoukai - The Garden of sinners - recalled out summer - Future Gospel - Extra Chorus	September 28, 2013	Special
===Movie 1: Overlooking the Scenery ===
Timeline: September 1998
===Movie 2: Murder Speculation (Part 1)===
Timeline: August 1995 - March 1996
===Movie 3: Remaining Sense of Pain ===
Timeline: July 1998
===Movie 4: The Hollow Shrine ===
Timeline: March 1996- June 1998
===Movie 5: Paradox Spiral===
Timeline: November 1998
===Movie 6: Oblivion Recorder===
Timeline: January 1999
===Garden of Sinners Remix -Gate of seventh heaven-===
===Movie 7: Murder Speculation (Part 2) ===
Timeline: February 1999
===Epilogue/Boundary of Emptiness===
===Future Gospel===
===Final Record===
Final Record currently has no plans to be animated.
Shizune Seo, Azaka Kokutou, Fujino Asagami, and Misaya Ouji have their souls pulled into a sentient movie projector, left behind by Touko Aozaki as a form of "self-sustaining next-generation entertainment", during a cultural festival. The projector creates a loop of 90-minute movies from the nightmares or fantasies of the four, portraying the four as the main characters and after 90 minutes in the real world and a much longer amount of time in the movie, the world within the movie would "end" no matter what magecraft or ESP the characters within attempt. The one to end each loop is the "character" of Shiki Ryougi, who is actually the projector itself, personified as an insurmountable obstacle to the four.
After experiencing the destruction of the Earth, a zombie apocalypse, and a murder case where everyone is killed, the four finally realize that they are in a dreamlike loop and confront Shiki together in the new virtual reality world even though they know it is hopeless. Before the end of the fight, however, the real Shiki pulls the film from the projector, freeing the souls of the four.
Even though Shiki wants to destroy the projector, Shizune decides to take it home and modifies it so that it is not as dangerous. On her third year as a high school student, she returns the projector and presents a book during the cultural festival challenging new students to find the projector for an unforgettable experience. She laments that there is no record for her experiences in her school, but remarks that the world is like a set of movies in that the stage is constantly changing, with an "end to the world" after every stage, and she finds hope in that even after the end of a "stage," there remain people who remember the events that occurred. Finally, she dedicates her book to Azaka, Fujino, Misaya, and Shiki.
===Theme Songs===
:Each of the theme songs to the series are performed by , a project formed by .
*
**"oblivious"
*
**
*
**
*
**"ARIA"
*
**"sprinter"
*
**"fairytale"
*
**"seventh heaven"
*
**"snow is falling"
*
**""
*Future Gospel Extra Chorus
**"dolce"
===Trailers===
Kara no Kyoukai PV - anime trailer|Kara no Kyoukai Debut trailer
The Garden of sinners|the Garden of sinners Blu-Ray Box trailer
===TV Series===
A TV series edit of the five films was broadcast from July 06, 2013 to September 28, 2013.
===Books===
* - 1 Volume (Complete)
==Chronological timeline==
;1995
:;March
;*Mikiya meets 「Shiki Ryougi」 for the first time on a snowy night.
:;April
;*Shiki enters high school and gets acquainted with Mikiya.
:;September
;*Murders begin to occur in the city. The most likely suspect is Shiki, but Mikiya thinks otherwise.
;1996
:;January
;*Recalled out summer – Preface. SHIKI meets Mother of Mifune, who warns him of his imminent death and the passing on of his dreams.
:;February
;*Shiki is caught in a traffic accident and spends two years in hospital in a coma.
;1998
:;March
;*Mikiya enters university after graduating from high school.
:;May
;*Mikiya sees one of Touko's dolls at an exhibition.
;*Mikiya meets Touko.
;*Mikiya quits college.
:;June
;*Shiki awakens. After getting discharged, Shiki agrees to work for Touko.
:;July
;*Shiki confronts a killer that can bend objects.
:;August
;*recalled out summer – Möbius Ring. Shiki faces off with the mad bomber while Mikiya meets Seo Shizune.
;*recalled out summer – Feline. Mikiya leaves a cat with Shiki for her to temporarily take care of.
:;September
;*Suicides occur at a building inhabited by ghosts.
:;October
;*recalled out summer – Daylight. Miyazuki is recalling the suicide of one of her friends, who was a victim from the Fujou building and happens to meet Fujino.
:;November
;*Enjou Tomoe escapes from home after having killed somebody. His home seems to be a building that repeats the deaths of its residents.
:;December
;*recalled out summer – Say Grace, Shiki and Mikiya visit a temple
;1999
:;January
;*A magus is found to reside in a girl's academy, using faeries to create havoc. Shiki infiltrates with the help of Mikiya's sister, Azaka.
:;February
;*The murders from two years ago resume, and Shiki finally confronts the killer.
:;March
;*Mikiya meets Shiki's third personality once again.
;;July
;;* Shizune Seo, Azaka Kokutou, Misaya Ouji and Fujino Asagami are trapped within a projector left over by Touko and are freed by Shiki. 
;2010
;August
;*recalled out summer – Möbius Link, Mana Ryougi and Kamekura Mitsuru meet Mother of Mifune.
==Development==
The series originally ran for 5 chapters from October 1998 to May 1999, under the title on Nasu and Takeuchi's doujin website, . Chapters 6 and 7 were released as at Comiket 56 in summer 1999.「空の境界」年表 The original publication on Takebouki's main page is much the story of Souren Araya, and was considered finished as of Paradox Spiral. The subsequent chapters can be considered the epilogue to Shiki and Mikiya's story.
Nasu and Takeuchi later formed TYPE-MOON, and in 2001, featured a portion of the book in the 2001 Tsukihime fandisk, Tsukihime PLUS-DISC, which saw it gain significant popularity, leading to its release as a two-volumes doujinshi publication at the 61 on December 30, 2001.
In September 2002, a drama CD based on the Overlooking View chapter was released, it was the portion of the story with the least action made it into the Drama CD. The voice actors were all veterans. It was an all-star cast that boggled the mind at that time. They are quite rare right now. There were all sorts of mature matters in it and its existence is being erased.
On August 6, 2004, noted publisher released the series as a commercial publication in its two-volumes format, which enjoyed immense popularity, with 5000 limited edition versions of the novel being sold almost immediately upon release. Kodansha later re-released the series in three volumes published on 15 November 2007, 14 December 2007 and 16 January 2008. Both editions of Kara no Kyoukai altogether sold more than 500,000 copies.
In August 2008, TYPE-MOON distributed as a mixed text-and-manga doujinshi during Comiket 74, written by Kinoku Nasu and illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi.
In September 2010 a web comic adaptation began serialization in the online magazine "Saizensen", adapted and illustrated by Tenkuu Sphere.
In November 2011, Kodansha released Future Gospel in a commercial edition under their label Seikaisha.
On the first day of TYPE-MOON Fes., ufotable announced the upcoming movie adaptation of Future Gospel. The screening began in Japan on September 28, 2013, and moviegoers received the 134-pages book.劇場版「空の境界」未来福音 書き下ろし小説は130ページ超の大ボリューム (2013.9.19) An audio drama version of Final Record was later included in the limited DVD and Blu-Ray releases of Future Gospel.
On January 30, 2018, Seikaisha published a 20th Anniversary commemorative hardcover version of Kara no Kyoukai in three volumes, including Future Gospel and Final Record in the third book.
===Movie Releases===
*2008-05-21 (Japan DVD 1: 俯瞰風景 - Thanatos)
*2008-06-25 (Japan DVD 2: 殺人考察(前) - ...and nothing heart)
*2008-07-23 (Japan DVD 3: 痛覚残留 - ever cry, never life)
*2008-12-17 (Japan DVD 4: 伽藍の洞 - garan-no-dou)
*2009-01-28 (Japan DVD 5: 矛盾螺旋 - Paradox Paradigm)
*2009-07-29 (Japan DVD 6: 忘却録音 - Fairy Tale)
*2009-12-09 (Japan DVD 7: 殺人考察(後) - ...not nothing heart)
*2010-07-07 (France DVD1: Thanatos)
*2010-08-11 (France DVD 2: Enquête criminelle)
*2010-11-17 (France DVD 3: Persistante douleur)
*2011-02-01 (France DVD 4: L'abîme dans le temple)
*2011-05-27 (France DVD 5: Spirale contradictoire)
*2011-06-22 (France DVD 6: Souvenirs Oubliés)
*2011-08-24 (France DVD 7: Enquête Criminelle 2.0)
*2010-09-24 (Germany DVD 1: Film 1 - Thanatos)
*2010-11-26 (Germany DVD 2: Film 2 - Mordverdacht Teil 1)
*2011-01-28 (Germany DVD 3: Film 3 - Verbliebener Sinn für Schmerz)
*2011-02-02 (Blu-Ray Disk Box)
*2011-03-25 (Germany DVD 4: Film 4 - Der leere Tempel)
*2011-05-27 (Germany DVD 5: Film 5 - Paradoxe Helix)
*2011-07-29 (Germany DVD 6: Film 6 - Verlorene Erinnerung)
*2011-09-30 (Germany DVD 7: Film 7 - Mordverdacht Teil 2)
(The French DVD editions contain French, German, polish and Dutch subtitles)
==References==
==External links==
*TYPE-MOON's Official homepage for Kara no Kyoukai
*Official website for the Kara no Kyoukai feature film
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Category:Novels
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Category:Released in 1998