[*Whatever By The Books*]

Episode 5 revolves around a strange redheaded young man called Enjou Tomoe, who, after being saved from a few thugs by Shiki, bums around at her place. And eats a lot of strawberry Haagen Dazs ice cream!

It seems this goes on for a very, very long while — at least a month or so? At the rate of one small container of ice cream a day. -wry- Where does he get money to eat and stuff? Or wash his laundry?! His one piece of clothes? XD

At almost two hours long (1h53mins!), the fifth Kara no Kyoukai (Garden of Sinners) movie is longer than many films currently in the cinema (I think) — while it starts off slowly, it builds up to a spectacular revelation. And though it ends somewhat predictably, it’s the journey that matters, isn’t it? There were parts that reminded me a lot of what I would call a great mystery novel — enough clues to puzzle the viewers, yet it all fits together like the pieces of a well-oiled puzzle (wait, I think I mixed my metaphors up..) . I admit it’s a bit more gory than I’m used to, and a lot of parts had me gasping in horror…

And while I don’t think Touko is as awesome as in the previous ep (Sigh, opening a briefcase just isn’t as cool as calling runes..), I have renewed respect for Shiki’s prowess as a fighter.

Even if you haven’t watched the previous four movies, or weren’t very happy at a few of them (I know I was disappointed by the first one), give this a try and you might love it as much as I do. Read on for spoilers and all 146 screenshots (I cut it down from 178! XD Captions tomorrow).

One note: The ending had me grabbing my hair at the apparent cliffhanger, when I remembered who Tomoe had given his key to… and also frankly, I found him a very likeable character, which really helped in the enjoyment of this episode. Though he kinda reminds me of Fate Stay Night’s Emiya Shirou.

This is Tomoe’s strange story — and always remember, not all is what it seems. Tired of his parents quarreling, he kills them one day — a drifter comes across the body, and rings the police; but when they arrive, the two are apparently…not dead? Of course, Tomoe has fled the scene by then; now with Shiki, he watches the news every day, waiting for the police to catch up to him — but it never appears on the news, and when he spots his mother on the streets, he freaks out.

Shiki accompanies him to the apartment he used to live at, and they realise his family is caught in a cycle that Shiki calls ‘die at night, live once more at dawn’. After Shiki fights many many zombies (one of which was pretty fast and wielded a golf club), Araya Souren turns up. So the apartment block really is his experiment — he wanted to find out whether creating a world that lives and dies in a day would cause some hiccup in the spiral of death. Unfortunately, nothing’s changed..

Meanwhile, Touko meets Cornelius Alba — another of her schoolmates? (Aside from Araya Souren) They segue into some talk about how magicians are always searching for the meaning of life — or the root of existence, rather. We find out Touko’d actually designed Ogawa mansion. (The one Araya Souren was playing around in.)

We also find out that Shiki was captured by Araya (and Cornelius) because they believe they can reach Kongen no Uzu — 根源の渦 — the Maelstrom of Origins (BakaTsuki’s pretty name for it) through her. Since she has mystic eyes of death perception, she somehow understands the root of the existence of things.

At this point, the timeline is no longer linear, it’s 3am, and I need to sleep, so watch it to find out what happens…-wry-

Also, why is Touko known as the Pain of Crimson? ._. Crimson I get (top rank in her school?), but Pain?! XD

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