THIS REVIEW CONTAINS POTENTIAL SPOILERS https://i.ur.com/sVskxo7.png TYPEMOON has made quite a lot of polarizing titles regardless of time. But nothing is ever as polarizing as Kara no Kyoukais 6th chapter. Now Im just going to say this right off the bat Kara no Kyoukai as a whole is one of those anime series Ive been admittedly defensive towards. While it is hard to get into the writing and direction still shouldnt be underestimated. The series doesnt try to take itself seriously while still becoming one of the deepest and most impactful series ever. But if theres one thing we can all agree on its that this chapter is the weakest of them all. It doesnt hold the same impact as all the other installations do. But does it actually deserve the slander it gets? Well enough of this introduction and lets begin yapping. https://i.ur.com/I2muuAK.png This series starts with a new incident appearing after the death of Araya Souren. Kokutou Azaka is now the main focus here. While she was technically a main character in almost every other chapter she wasnt necessarily as focused as the others until we got to Ch.6. Azaka studies in an apprentice academy alongside Shiki where she can perform her magic. While theyre at it though theyre also on an investigation. Another strange mystery lures in and is trying to lure the main characters into a bad situation. These consist of fairies and theyre not the ones you would normally think of. Perhaps this has to have a connection with the previous magus dealt before. Right off the gate this is a far more important addition to the series than what others may realize. Sure this type of story may look off at first but it adds to what makes Kara no Kyoukai in general special in the first place. Each installation has an entirely unique plot line to itself and all of them are special thanks to how they connect their major gimmicks to the central storyboarding of the series. https://i.ur.com/Jber5gV.png So again what is actually something good about this? Chapter 6 serves as a nice bridge between chapters 5 and 7. Since 5 is the storys climax and 7 is Shikis climax chapter 6 is a nice buildup to the series finale. This trilogy had two main priorities and one of them was exploring the dark magic lurking around in the series. Chapter 5 concludes that part since the magus league was the central antagonist that further spread the puzzles since Mahoyo ahem chronologically speaking. The other is Shiki and her personal relationship with both the overall atmosphere and her challenges. While this chapter technically doesnt have much of that it still provides a nice continuation of how Shiki has an impactful relationship with the chapterspecific key characters and that brings us to this chapters main focus Azaka. As much as I love Kara no Kyoukais character writing Azaka was pretty bland and was more of a plot device overall so its nice to see her getting the spotlight she deserves after being easily replaceable by any of the major characters involved. https://i.ur.com/dcGAD18.png Azaka serves as a unique replica of what Mikiya normally does throughout the series narrative which makes sense since both of them are siblings. Azakas motivation here alongside Shiki is to find out the culprit behind the school theyre studying in and regain their memories that are stolen. Again this is quite relevant to the central plot when you consider that Shiki can be clueless sometimes. But sadly like all of you its time I complain about this chapter. For starters the exposition could be better. This chapter spent a bit too much time on buildup proportional to this chapters length so theres barely any tension involved. Thats not to say long buildups are bad I do in fact like them. Buildups in every other chapter in this series are also long but those also get straight to something like drama or action to spruce their stories up. This one felt a bit too much of a slice of life than what it intended to be. https://i.ur.com/U4xdAod.png Another problem is that the mystery elements arent particularly great. On the surface the fairies are actually wellmade. As mentioned they play a very important role in the series and theyre connected quite well. One neat detail for example is how Shiki also wants to regain her memories because she mentions herself in chapter 5 that she was a murderer when thats not really the case for her anymore now that chapter 4 concludes that. But again compared to every other chapter they arent necessarily used as much. Theyre potentially portrayed as gimmicks when this chapter has other things that arent really as important. Yeah theyre important and interesting but what else is there to these things? Theyre mostly or virtually used in the later portions where we see Azakas final climax which is nice but they could have been applied in other portions as well. Still though theyre nice to have in the entire series. They could be complimented more if theyre used more. https://i.ur.com/azZse6v.png Now for characters which might probably be the weakest aspect. First things first we have Shiki the protagonist and the stoic girl who studies death and Azaka the sister of Mikiya who is the main detective. Lets cut to the chase. This movie is absolutely carried by Shiki. To be fair she has been stealing the spotlight in every single installation albeit for good reasons but every other chapter still has a lot of compelling characters to themselves whereas chapter 6 only has one. Now this is definitely the weakest rendition of Shikis character development but shes still pretty great. She has most of the charm in her other appearances and such. As for this chapters focused character Azaka yeah we have a lot of talk about here. Azaka being the main character here is a good thing because she gets more important aspects she should have gotten ages ago and we get to see more interactions with Shiki and for the most part those interactions are pretty good. https://i.ur.com/edIs850.png However thats also a problem. Shes still the same annoying tsundere she was in all of her other appearances so unless youre able to stomach her annoying moments good luck with that. On top of that though her relationship with Mikiya is quite off. Thats not to say that siblings loving each other is bad but this relationship is rendered as romantic which is out of place. Add on that shes still the weakest main character in the whole series and I think she falls short. Still though shes an alright character regardless. I see her as Kara no Kyoukais replica of Tsukihimes Tohno Akiha both being passable main characters but annoying and not much to offer. Kurogiri Satsuki the chapters focused villain sucks though. Its nice to see another twist villain around but compared to someone like Araya Souren hes absolutely irrelevant. Oh and Ouji Misaya is there I guess. https://i.ur.com/ZgHAJTa.png Before we end here the animation like every other chapter is amazing. The movements still remain to be very consistent and overthetop. The action still looks clean as ever even if the fight itself isnt necessarily one of my favorites. The music is outstanding. In fact its probably my favorite OST in this series alongside chapters 1 and 7. The voice acting while not as good as the others still has their charms nailed very well. Not a big fan of Fujimura Ayumi as Azaka but shes decent nonetheless. https://i.ur.com/rz9EGnK.png So while I do unironically like this chapter I can fully understand why its poorly received even amongst fans of this series. It really has a lot of interesting ideas going for but they arent used as properly as they should have been the exposition is quite off and the key character of this chapter could have picked up much more development. Its mostly seen as a stepping stone to chapter 7. But honestly I was expecting worse. Yes what they offered is problematic but I wont lie to you all I think this was more amusing than frustrating. Now its still Kara no Kyoukais worst chapter but its not really one of TYPEMOONs worst. Compared to the real failures like DEEN/Stay Night or Fate/Apocrypha the plot still remains pretty consistent and theres still a handful of character development to be found. So while it could be a lot better with just a few tweaks its still above average.