Forum - View topicKara no Kyokai: Paradox Spiral Interpretations?
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Wu Ming
Posts: 113 |
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Alright, alright. I admit defeat on this one.
Kara no Kyokai/The Garden of Sinners is a visually stunning anime brought to us from TYPE-MOON (Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime), who like CLAMP also maintains an integrated world where connections between their various animes/books/games appear in other series - so much so that sometimes a scorecard/cheatsheet/wiki devoted to their work feels necessary. I say that last comment with the utmost respect, its much harder to run multiple anime that actually connect to each other without causing some massive paradox. I think only CLAMP has gone further then they have. Anyway, let me just lay it out there, i'm a little lost on the 5th movie - Paradox Spiral and was hoping that someone here who either has read the KaraNoKyokai novel or an encyclopaedic knowledge of TYPE-MOONs series could help. Massive spoilers ahead. - You have been warned. 1.) Is the real Touko dead? Definitely the first jaw dropping moment of the movie was the death of Touko at the hands of Sōren Araya. Of course the fact that she steps through the door a few minutes later doesn't really clairfy matters much. Toko is a puppet master and there's no indication she has access to any Reality Bending powers like Shiro Emiya's Unlimited Blade Works Reality Marble (Fate/Stay Night). If anything, Soren Araya's setup in the Ogawa apartments may have been a Reality Marble. So - what exactly died the first time around? Touko or her puppet? It seems it really could have been either since her own explanation stated she "created a puppet that was exactly like her." Which would make no difference as to who survived. 2.) The Cigarettes? Before Real Touko/Fake Touko err how about "1st Touko" goes off to face Araya, she tosses Mikiya Kokutō a pack of "bad tasting cigarettes made by a Taiwanese man" What the heck was that all about? Is this some sort of veiled reference to another TYPE-MOON series? 3.) The Counterforce and Tomoe Enjo? Ok, so the Tomoe Enjo we've been watching for more than 60 minutes is actually one of Soren's fakes. He's been programmed by Araya to go find our heroine and lure her to the Ogawa apartments. And yet "2nd Touko" at the end points out that the Counterforce was already looking to stop Araya and that Fake Tomoe's escape wasn't planned at all. Huh? Was Araya simply bluffing? And since i'm not privy to the whole Cosmology that all of TYPE-MOON's series are built off of - just what is the Counterforce? 4.) The Cafe Vision at the End? I first need to say, the scene was cinematic gold. Extremely Poignant, the "reflecting cafe" hammered home to the viewer both the connection and incompatibility of Enjo Tomoe and Shiki. They really are two sides of the same coin in need of a person like Mikiya Kokutō to balance them. But err... which Enjou were the viewers seeing? |
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Wervyn
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Oh fun, I'll give it a shot. Paradox Spiral is easily my favorite installment in one of my favorite anime series.
1) Who did Araya kill, Touko or Touko's puppet? The general impression I got was that it's not quite that simple. Or, when Touko is giving Alba the spiel about having created a puppet that was exactly like her, I'm pretty sure she's just messing with his head (to great effect, as we see). To paraphrase something I'm SURE Touko said in one of the other movies, a body is just a vessel, and it's the soul inside of it that matters. Touko's backup didn't go into action immediately not simply because her previous body had to die completely to trigger it, but because until that time it was empty. So basically, the Touko Araya killed was the real Touko in her real body (or at least current body, who knows whether she's pulled this trick before). But the Touko that shows up after Alba crushes her head is also the real Touko, just in a new body. That's why she immediately made for the apartment and retained all of her memories of what was going on. We can only speculate at the details, but I'm thinking some sort of magic that bound her soul to two vessels, so that when the first one dies, the second takes over. Araya recognized this, which is why he took off her head and kept her brain alive, to prevent her from escaping. 2) What's up with the cigarettes; reference to other work? My TYPE-MOON-fu isn't strong enough to discount the possibility of an external reference here, but what I generally took from the cigarettes was a thematic reference to the Yin-Yang (the label on the pack), which is one of the primary visual elements of this movie. Honestly I'm inclined to think that's all there is to it, but I could make up some crap about how that represents her entrusting Mikiya to become another vector for the counterforce to act against Araya (which he does indirectly become). Sometimes though, a cigarette is just a cigarette. 3) What is the counterforce anyway; was Araya bluffing about Enjou? Enjou first; the answer is "it's both". Araya's plan was indeed to use him to lure Shiki. Araya's plan did not take into account the aftereffects of Enjou falling in love with her and acting on those emotions. Or more to the point, he considered those effects inconsequential. Which brings in the counterforce, which as explained in the pseudo-philosophical jargon of the film is basically the pushback against people trying to seek and obtain the Source. The Source I took to be the root of all knowledge about the world. You could think of the counterforce as karmic justice, which sort of fits. Considering that the basic problem with a finite human trying to understand an infinite and indescribable source of knowledge and wisdom, it makes sense that Araya would be undone by the the things that he didn't understand, or rather thought beneath him. This is archetypal fairy story stuff, seeded through all of the great works: the weak overcoming the strong, love conquers all because the bad guy just doesn't understand it. Which brings us back to Enjou as a manifestation of the counterforce. Did Shiki escape by herself, as she said? To an extent, she had the ability and that was another of Araya's miscalculations. But I'm convinced that Enjou's arrival was the trigger. And so the discarded tool that Araya thought didn't matter brought about his downfall, just as in all the great tales. 4) Which Enjou do we see at the end? The one we got to know over the course of the movie, otherwise the scene doesn't make much sense to me. Which is to say, the copy, but is he really just that? Going back to Touko in the first question, I think the Enjou that we see is also an accumulation of all his experiences. Very disoriented by them, but he hasn't forgotten them. Each incarnation isn't a fresh copy, but a continuation with a memory wipe, which is why over time he begins to remember the events that happened to his previous selves in dreams. He broke out of the loop as a result, although I think Araya allowed that to happen. And so when his body and brain were destroyed along with the apartment, he passed on, an accumulated whole, onto wherever the hell people go when they die in the Nasuverse. More questions? Thoughts? This was a really fantastic movie and it's full of things to ask and explore. "The cigarette is a phallic object, and so clearly it represents your desire to have sex with your mother." |
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