Kara no Kyoukai

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Kara no Kyoukai

空の境界 (Kara no Kyoukai)
Genre	Action, Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Seinen, Supernatural, Thriller
Light novel
Authored by	Kinoko Nasu
Artist	Takashi Takeuchi
Publisher	TYPE-MOON (original creators) Kodansha (commercial publishers)
Publish date	1998, 2004 (commercial printing)
No. of volumes	2 (commercial printing)
Movie
Directed by
Studio	ufotable
Released
Runtime

Kara no Kyoukai (空の境界, Kara no Kyoukai^?) is a Japanese light novel series, authored by Kinoko Nasu and illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi (who were later to form the group TYPE-MOON). It is also known under the name Rakkyo (らっきょ, Rakkyo^?), and its tagline Garden of Sinners.

The series originally begun from October 1998 as a series of five chapters released online on Nasu and Takeuchi's dōjin-based website, Takebōki (竹箒, Takebōki^?), with its final two chapters being released at the Comiket 56 in 1999. Nasu and Takeuchi were later to form TYPE-MOON, and in 2001, featured a portion of the book in its 2001 Tsukihime fandisk, Tsukihime PLUS-DISC, which saw it gain significant popularity, leading it to be released as a dōjinshi publication at the Comiket 61 on December 30, 2001.

On September 2002, a drama CD based on the series was released, and on August 6, 2004, noted publishers Kodansha released the series as a commercial publication, which enjoyed immense popularity, with 5000 limited-edition versions of the novel being sold almost immediately upon release. Both editions of Kara no Kyoukai altogether sold more than 500,000 copies.

The series is regarded as being set in the same world as another TYPE-MOON series, Tsukihime, with Aoko Aozaki's sister Tōko Aozaki being featured in this series and the protagonist of the series, Shiki Ryōgi, possessing the same abilities as Tsukihime's protagonist, Shiki Tohno.

The series is also slated to be adapted into an upcoming anime movie divided into 7 chapters, set to be animated by ufotable.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Characters

Seiyū listed are for the drama CD, first released in September 2002.
Shiki Ryōgi (両儀式, Ryōgi Shiki^?) Seiyū: Tomoko Kawakami: A teenaged girl, who possesses a supernatural ability in being able to witness the death of each object, and is currently recovering from a two-year coma.

Mikiya Kokutō (黒桐幹也, Kokutō Mikiya^?) Seiyū: Kentarō Itō: Shiki's classmate and currently at Tōko Aozaki's workshop, Garan no dou (伽藍の洞, Garan no dou^?).

Tōko Aozaki (蒼崎橙子, Aozaki Tōko^?) Seiyū: Kikuko Inoue: Appearing as a puppet maker, Touko is actually an extremely powerful sorceress. She is sister of Tsukihime's Aoko Aozaki, with whom she does not share a particularly good relationship.

Azaka Kokutō (黒桐鮮花, Kokutō Azawa^?) Seiyū: Yukari Tamura: Mikiya's younger sister, who loves him. She becomes an apprentice of Touko due to her rivalry against Shiki, and is talented in the magic of ignition. She is quite similar both in appearance and abilities to Akiha Tohno (though Akiha's ability consists of controlling external heat, whereas Azaka's ability is inducing ignitions).

Sōren Araya (荒耶宗蓮, Araya Sōren^?) Seiyū: Jōji Nakata: An expert of sorcery and a previous acquaintance of Tōko from the Sorceror's Association (魔術協会, Majutsu kyōkai^?, also known as The Mage's Association).