Kara no Kyoukai

the Garden of sinners

A popular novel written by TYPE-MOON's Nasu with cover and illustration by Takeuchi, it is considered by many to be Nasu's debut work as a writer. Sometimes referred to by its nickname Rakkyo (らっきょ), Kara no Kyoukai shares the same view with Nasu's later works Tsukihime and Fate/stay night, and many similarities can be found within their background setting and character designs.

Kara no Kyoukai was first serialized on Nasu and Takeuchi's doujin site Takebouki between October 1998 to May 1999 as a doujin novel, where new chapters were released on a monthly basis. After the first five chapters were published on the Internet, the final two chapters were released at the 1999 summer Comiket (C56). In 2001, a portion of the novel was released with the Tsukihime PLUS-DISC and reactions were positive, resulting in the novel being published as a doujin novel during the 2001 winter Comiket (C61). In 2004 Kara no Kyoukai was re-published as a 2-volume commercial novel by Kodansha.

In December 2006, a 7-part film adaptation of the series was announced, with the films premiering between 2007 and 2009. The popularity of Kara no Kyoukai skyrocketed after the film adaptation, particularly among mainstream fans who otherwise would not have heard of the series. Between 2007 and 2008, Kodansha re-released the Kara no Kyoukai novels as a 3-volume bunkoban (文庫版, smaller, higher quality paper and comes with new covers) in conjunction with the Kara no Kyoukai movies.

A "lost chapter" was released as Kara no Kyoukai the Garden of sinners/recalled out summer during the 2008 summer Comiket. The 8th chapter, supposedly written long ago by Nasu, but was never released, is also called Mirai Fukuin (literally Future Gospel), and came with bonus comics as well as an Epilogue chapter that gave a glimpse of Shiki and Mikiya's future.

Story

rakkyo_story

Kara no Kyoukai is a collection of 7 (an 8th chapter was released in 2008) seemingly independent stories featuring the same set of characters, each chapter tells the story of Ryougi Shiki, a girl who, like Tsukihime's Tohno Shiki, also has the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. According to Nasu, since two people with the Eyes of Death Perception cannot exist in the same world, the story of Kara no Kyoukai actually takes place in a alternate world that's just like the Tsukihime world, or something.

In the story, Shiki works for Aozaki Touko, resident puppet master, sorcerer and sister of Tsukihime's Aoko (they don't get along well). Also tagging along are Kokutou Mikiya, Shiki's love interest whose talent at information gathering rivals that of Google, and Kokuto Azaka, Mikiya's little sister and Touko's apprentice who has a huge crush on her brother. Together, Shiki and Co. encounters and solves various supernatural phenomenon that happen around them. As the story progresses, details of Shiki and Mikiya's past begins to emerge.