Bamboo Broom Brings Kara no Kyoukai Full Circle

The folks over at Beast’s Lair were talking about some of the recent Type-Moon releases at last weekend’s Comiket 74 when I happened to stumble upon a discussion on a project by Bamboo Broom (a doujin circle consisting of Type-Moon founders Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi): Kara no Kyoukai: Mirai Fukuin/recalled out summer. This particular work is meant to be a plot supplement to the original Kara no Kyoukai novels and is divided into two main parts both set mainly some time after 矛盾螺旋 / Paradox Spiral, the novels’ fifth chapter.

A hallucination of summer. Return to where it began, a sidestory linking the future and past.

Hallucinations of summer. Return to where it began, a sidestory linking the future and past.

First up is Mirai Fukuin (lit. The Future’s Gospel) , a short story based around Shizune Seo, a young woman blessed with precognition powered by the mass calculation of the circumstances at hand. She was initially set to appear somewhere in Kara no Kyoukai as Azaka Kokutou’s roommate but was ultimately cut in the final version of the story (furthermore, given her family name there’s a high chance she’s related to Akira Seo from Kagetsu Tohya given their striking resemblance). Basically, the plot of this chapter involves Shizune sitting down with Mikiya Kokutou for a small talk. In this conversation, the two reminisce on Shiki Ryougi’s deadly encounter with Kuramitsu Merka (who has also has a command of precognition, which differs dramatically from Shizune’s as he can bring instances of future events into the present time). According to the discussion at Beast’s Lair, Mirai Fukuin is something of a short treatise on the nature of precognition and the various characters who have a form of it. In addition to the two previous examples are Shiki (who has an uncanny intuition), a mysterious fortune-teller (who seems to see the actual destined fate of her clients whom she decides to help through her business), and individuals mentioned by Touko Aozaki who can, by magic or otherwise, receive messages from the future.

The last part of this particular publication, recalled out summer, is probably the sweeter part of the deal for readers as it’s not only composed of a three-part original manga illustrated by Takeuchi, but also provides a warmhearted conclusion to the stories of Shiki and Mikiya…