Oldtaku no Radio #028 – The Garden of Sinners

We’re doing a Type Moon thing! And who better to help us on our
exploration of this very memorable eight-plus-part OVA
series about a paranormal investigation agency than Alain/Hisui
of Reverse Thieves infamy. After exploring a bit about how
this property came to be via the general leanings of its
creators, we dive into each of the OVAs as they are presented
(non-linearly). Garden of Sinners is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll. Additional notes from Saber Fan #1 (aka @hisuiRT)
follow the show notes for some more in-depth background that will
add a lot more appreciation to the discussion.


Direct Download – RSS Feed – Stitcher – Google Play:
Music – iTunes
Send us Feedback! – More episodes


Runtime: 2 hours
Show Notes Opening Song: “Transmission” by Cop
Shoot Cop X Sending Radio Messages (Principles of Radio – Part One)
0:00:00 – Intros and general discussion on Type Moon,
Nasu, and Takeushi 0:22:45 – Overlooking View (Thanatos.)
0:35:00 – Murder Speculation A (…and nothing heart)
0:49:00 – Remaining Sense of Pain (ever cry, never life)
1:09:00 – The Hollow Shrine (garan-no-dou) 1:16:00 –
Paradox Paradigm 1:33:35 – Oblivion Recording (Fairy Tale.) 1:43:15
– Murder Speculation B (…not nothing heart.) 1:51:20 – Twitter
questions! Ending Song: “A La Mode” by Les Sans
Culottes

 More Show notes from Alain (@hisuiRT):


A simple timeline of the chronological events of Kara
no Kyoukai. If you have a hard time picturing what happened
when this helps immensely. It is filled with spoilers BUT it
helps reflection on the story after you have seen it immensely.


The History of Kara no Kyoukai is very interesting.
The Ufotable movies are not based on the original
version but the more refined commercial publication. It is worth
noting that Kara no Kyoukai is in many ways the bedrock
of the Type-Moon
universe. Mahoutsukai no Yoru may have been
written before Kara no Kyoukai, Tsukihime might have made
them famous, and everything Fate might be what they a
most know for now it is worth remembering that Kara
no Kyoukai is the first major project Nasu and Takeuchi
worked on. It shaped, influenced, and crosses over
with much of what would come after it while still being its
own work that can stand alone.


The very first version was basically the first 5 stories
(Overlooking View through Paradox Spiral) that were released on
the web via Nasu and Takeuchi’s
shared Takebōki blog. Those chapters were then combined
with the final two stories and sold at Comiket 56.


BTW This original version of Kara no Kyoukai is very
rare. While the handful of original copies of Mahoutsukai no
Yoru are far more expensive and rare only a person
with tons of money (or Yomiko Readman) could own an original
version of Kara no Kyoukai.


I know this version of Kara no Kyoukai is different
from later versions but you really have to be fluent in Japanese
to hunt down what those differences are.


Type-Moon was formed after this book was released and eventually
they created Tsukihime which was their first big hit.
To celebrate the success of Tsukihime they released
the Tsukihime PLUS-DISC which was a disc of extra
material you could buy alongside the game. One of the extras was
the first 4 stories of Kara no Kyoukai. This increased the
popularity of the original and the novel was released again
at Comiket 61. I’m not sure if this version was
different from the Comiket 56 version. I assume there
were some small changes but it is another question for someone
with Japanese fluency.


After Type-Moon really started blowing up in popularity Kara
no Kyoukai was licensed by Kodansha which gave them
wider distribution. This is the version the movies and manga are
based on.


The Future Gospel material was all written after the
initial Kodansha release so that is why they are not
part of the original movie materials. There is a story called
Final Record which has yet to be adapted into animation. It is a
short story with the girls of the Reien Academy and a
magical movie projector.


A last little thought experiment for any deep lore nerds.
Considering that most of the material about Touko
or Aoko mention at least in passing Touko’s
fervent desire to defeat and/or kill Aoko all of
Garden of Sinner could just be seen as a prelude to a plot
centering around Touko building up Shiki’s abilities to unleash
her on Aoko, I’m not saying that is what the story is about
but it would hardly be out of character for that to be a
long-term scheme of Touko’s and would cast all of the
series in a very different light.


 
OnR Sticker logo by AJ Martinson (@ajmartinsson) of Black
Market Eagle Twitter: Ani-Gamers, Oldtaku no Radio, Reverse
Thieves, Alain, Ink, Jared Ink has also written for Otaku USA
Magazine and The Fandom Post as well as talked about bad
(and good) sports anime over at the Taiiku Podcast. Jared also
writes for The Electrum Edition and Wave Motion Cannon.