The Garden of Sinners (Kara no Kyoukai) Watch Order
Kara no Kyōkai, or The Garden of Sinners, is a light novel series by Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi that was adapted into a series of anime films between 2007 and 2013 by ufotable studio. The overall structure of this anime film series isn’t overly complex, but if you’re new to the whole story, you might have trouble following it. This is why we have decided to write this article as a watch order for The Garden of Sinners anime series.
The Garden of Sinners films by release date
The Garden of Sinners has a total of 11 animated works in its roster. Eight of these works are feature-length anime movies, while three are special and short releases. They are, ordered by their release date:
- The Garden of Sinners: Overlooking View (2007 (original) / 2013 (3D remake)
- The Garden of Sinners: A Study in Murder – Part 1 (2007)
- The Garden of Sinners: Remaining Sense of Pain (2008)
- The Garden of Sinners: The Hollow Shrine (2008)
- The Garden of Sinners: Paradox Spiral (2008)
- The Garden of Sinners: Oblivion Recording (2008)
- “Gate of Seventh Heaven” (2009; remix edition)
- The Garden of Sinners: A Study in Murder – Part 2 (2009)
- “Epilogue” (2011; OVA)
- “Future Gospel: Extra Chorus” (2013; short film)
- The Garden of Sinners: Future Gospel (2013)
In the next section, we are going to tell you the proper chronological order of these works, with information about each work’s plot.
The Garden of Sinners chronological watch order
The Garden of Sinners: A Study in Murder – Part 1 (2007)
| Release Date | Running Time | Director(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 29, 2007 | 59 minutes | Takuya Nonaka | Masaki Hiramatsu |
During a walk, the student Mikiya Kokutō meets the strange Shiki Ryōgi, standing in the snow and only wearing a kimono. During his enrollment at school, Mikiya meets her again. She does not make friends, but the talkative and friendly Mikiya manages to develop a friendly relationship with the girl, who is from the Ryōgi family.
This family has been trying for generations to create a human being who surpasses all other human beings. Thus, not only the children were pushed to learn different kinds of martial arts, but also to develop a split personality. This should serve the purpose of making different individuals specialize in different things. She was therefore given two names, Shiki and Shiki.
One describes the destructive masculine side, the other the constructive feminine behavior. Depending on their personality, their behavior and way of thinking changes completely. She is aware of this situation and in control of her feminine side. So initially the feminine side has control over Shiki, but she is convinced that she has committed serial murders.
After finding her covered in blood one day, Mikiya wants to find out the truth. So he sneaks into the family property, he doesn’t believe that she is a murderess, but she notices him. So he reveals to Shiki that he trusts her, but she is overwhelmed and one evening holds a knife to his throat.
The Garden of Sinners: The Hollow Shrine (2008)
| Release Date | Running Time | Director(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 24, 2008 | 45 minutes | Teiichi Takiguchi | Masaki Hiramatsu |
Before she can kill Mikiya, Shiki, emotionally depleted, is tricked into throwing herself in front of a car by the magician Sōren Araya. Driven by the goal of using Shiki’s body to reach the root of all things, which the magicians are searching for in vain, he conducts various experiments on Shiki and the town’s people.
Cared for by Mikiya, Shiki was in a coma for two years. When she wakes up in the hospital in June 1998, she sees the world superimposed with the “interfaces” of death. Overwhelmed by this horrible sight, she tries to gouge her eyes out. Classified as mentally unstable, the doctors forbid Mikiya to visit Shiki, who has just woken up and is lying aimlessly in bed.
While still in her coma, Mikiya graduated from high school and began working for the magician Tōko Aozaki. She pretends to be a psychiatrist and can therefore continue to look after Shiki in Mikiya’s name. But Tōko also has a lot more in mind as she sees a use for Shiki. So she explains to Shiki, who can no longer see through the bandage, that her masculine and dangerous side died after the accident and that with this death she lost all the memories that only this part, which was mostly active for her, possessed.
So she can no longer remember “the boy with an ideal personality who she wanted to protect”. Due to the emptiness in their bodies, the spirits of the deceased try to take possession of their shells at night. Tōko wisely places a magic rune on the door and explains these strange perceptions to her as the special gift of being able to foretell death.
One of the deceased still manages to overcome the rune. This ghost in a lifeless body tries to strangle Shiki in her bed, with Shiki offering little resistance. Shortly before her possible death, due to Tōko’s previous words, she comes to the conclusion that she doesn’t want to leave Shiki Ryōgi’s body to a stranger. In the fight between the two, she eventually jumps out of the hospital window along with her attacker.
In the backyard, she meets Tōko, who had not foreseen such attacks but their intensity. Her magic isn’t enough to stop the ghost, but a beginning of a new self is awakening inside Shiki. She now opposes her pursuer, but is no match for him and breaks her fingers with her punches. Shortly able to move away from the attacker, Tōko throws her a knife, which together with her perception of the vulnerable spots proves to be an effective weapon.
Nevertheless, the spirit manages to flee into her empty body at the last moment. Unsteady and full of anger, Shiki then stabs herself in the chest with the knife in order to kill the troublemaker living inside her. After the fight ends, Tōko offers her a trade. So Shiki is supposed to work for Tōko business and she explains to her how to use her acquired ability. Afterward, Shiki collapses exhausted and wakes up in the hospital with Mikiya at her side.
The Garden of Sinners: Remaining Sense of Pain (2008)
| Release Date | Running Time | Director(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 9, 2008 | 57 minutes | Mitsuru Obunai | Masaki Hiramatsu |
Schoolgirl Fujino Asagami is sexually abused by several teenagers every week in an underground and run-down bar. She seems to be the perfect victim as she is very beautiful and unable to feel pain. One day she uses her dormant abilities and kills them all except Keita Minato, one of the rapists, who escapes.
Fujino is seen sitting in the rain on the street by Mikiya and since Mikiya can’t leave a girl out in the rain, he offers her to spend the night with him. Fujino, still in her school uniform, gratefully follows him. The next morning at breakfast, the dead boys are reported and it is explained that they deserved to die.
Fujino then becomes hysterical and screams that nobody deserves to die and then leaves the apartment. Meanwhile, Mikiya faces a financial crisis after Tōko has spent all her money on magic items. So he asks his old school friend Gakuto for help. In return, Mikiya searches for the missing freshman Keita.
Tōko gives Shiki the task of catching the murderer and killing him if necessary. She is also supposed to apologize to his sister for Mikiya since he cannot come to a meeting. Together with Mikiya’s sister Azaka Kokuto, Shiki meets their seemingly naive friend Fujino. Originally, Fujino wanted to meet with Mikiya to ask him to track down Keita as well.
Fujino is now looking for Keita herself by interviewing people close to him. She meets a friend of Keita’s who was also involved in the abuse but doesn’t know anything about Keita. So that he doesn’t betray her to Keita, she kills him. Shiki observes this procedure and suspects her, but is dissuaded from further actions by Fujino’s statement that she had no other choice.
Meanwhile, Mikiya finds a panicked Keita being pursued by Fujino’s calls. When he tells Mikiya that Fujino was tearing the others apart just by looking, Mikiya takes him to Tōko, who explains that Fujino has a psychic ability she acquired in the past. When Fujino encounters Shiki again, they both fight and Shiki manages to avoid Fujino’s eyes, but loses an arm and is forced to retreat.
It is revealed that the pain-insensitive Fujino kills humans because she believes she needs to feel the pain of others in order to feel human. Shiki is looking for a person like herself to feel alive in a fight. Shiki, no longer feeling empty, attacks Fujino again and after a long struggle is able to pin her down.
Mikiya, meanwhile, found out that Fujino’s father was responsible for her emotions and pain being suppressed so that her psychokinetic abilities remained suppressed as well. Like the Ryōgi family, the children of the Asagami have special abilities that are deliberately suppressed by their parents. In addition, Fujino was suffering from an illness and did not have long to live.
Her father is also the principal who requested Fujino’s death so that she would not use her abilities. Mikiya now drives with Tōko to the place of the fight, but only arrives there when the fight has already been decided. Shiki succeeded in stabbing Fujino, who was suffering from abdominal cramps and unable to fight, killing the disease in Fujino’s body.
This is how Fujino survives and Tōko offers Shiki to replace her arm. Shiki herself now believes she has found her true purpose – to kill.
The Garden of Sinners: Overlooking View (2007)
| Release Date | Running Time | Director(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 1, 2007 July 13, 2013 (3D remake) | 49 minutes | Ei Aoki | Masaki Hiramatsu |
In the summer of 1998, a mysterious series of incidents caused a stir, with schoolgirls throwing themselves off the Fujyō Building for no apparent reason. Rumor has it that ghosts are circling the skyscraper. Although Shiki and Tōko don’t think much of the case, Shiki enters the building after watching another fall and Mikiya falling into a deep sleep.
Inside, she encounters the responsible spirit, the soul of Kirie Fujō, which she just manages to escape. In the process, she was forced to sever her prosthetic arm and return to her apartment alone while Tōko works on a better arm. Convinced that the ghost is also responsible for Mikiya’s deep sleep, she enters the skyscraper again and climbs onto the roof.
There she defeats all the souls of the fallen girls and also the soul of Kirie in a fight. Tōko is meanwhile in the hospital where the sick Kirie is lying. She cannot get out of bed and therefore wishes she could fly. So she created a spirit that asked the girls on the roof to fly in a dream, so that some of them wanted to fly again after waking up and threw themselves off the roof. Since her alter ego was killed by Shiki, Kirie also plunges into the depths.
“Future Gospel: Extra Chorus” (2013)
| Release Date | Running Time | Director(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 28, 2013 | 32 minutes | Tomonori Sudou | Masaki Hiramatsu |
A short film that is an adaptation of the manga by Takashi Takeuchi, which collects several short stories. Premiered alongside Future Gospel. A compilation of short stories occurring in-between the original chapters: “Feline” after Remaining Sense of Pain, “Daylight” after Overlooking View, and “Say Grace” after Paradox Spiral.
The Garden of Sinners: Paradox Spiral (2008)
| Release Date | Running Time | Director(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 16, 2008 | 114 minutes | Takayuki Hirao | Masaki Hiramatsu |
One night, high school dropout Tomoe Enjō gets caught up in a fight with his former classmates when Shiki shows up and knocks out the attackers. He is invited by Shiki to spend the night with her. In his dreams he repeatedly witnesses how his mother kills his father first, then him and then herself. He stays with Shiki for several weeks as Mikiya is on a further education trip.
Tomoe notices that Shiki seems to be being followed, but she doesn’t care. When Tomoe Shiki confesses his love, she simply asks him if she can kill him, and he agrees. After Tomoe leaves the house and Mikiya returns, Shiki and Mikiya’s sister Azaka meet again. But even after being asked again, Mikiya doesn’t want to leave Shiki and Azaka leaves her again after studying the magician’s writings to become one herself.
Meanwhile, Mikiya investigates a house where murders are said to have taken place, but only the neighbors noticed it as screams. Shiki gets her new weapon, a 500 year old katana, delivered the next morning. Tōko advises her not to carry this dangerous weapon in public, after which she leaves Shiki at home.
Meanwhile, Mikiya and Tōko drive to the building in question, but only one family normally lives there. Meanwhile, Tomoe returns to Shiki’s apartment and says he saw his family he killed. Arriving at the house, they find that they are being shown an illusion that Tomoe’s family is actually dead and that Sōren Araya, who previously set Fujino Asagami and Kirie Fujō on them, is responsible for everything.
In a fight between the two, which Sōren wins, Shiki is sucked into a spiritual prison. Mikiya finds a blond young man wearing a red cloak, Cornelius Arba, who tells of Shiki’s capture. When Tōko arrives, a fight begins where Sōren appears and declares that he wants to find the root of all things.
Since Shiki is already at the root, he wants to take over her body. Everything that has happened in recent years is his work. The ensuing fight ends with Tomoe and Sōren’s deaths. Two weeks later, Mikiya visits Shiki, but she rejects him.
The Garden of Sinners: Oblivion Recording (2008)
| Release Date | Running Time | Director(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 20, 2008 | 58 minutes | Takahiro Miura | Masaki Hiramatsu |
Azaka is asked by Tōko to investigate an incident at her school where two girls attacked each other with knives while the teacher who was there seemed to forget everything immediately. Since strangers are not allowed to enter the premises of the renowned private school, Azaka starts the investigation.
Although she still harbors grudges against Shiki, she asks her for help tracking down fairies since she can see them. At school, they meet their class teacher Satsuki Kurogiri and shortly thereafter Misaya Ōji. The next day, Azaka learns from school documents that a class teacher disappeared after a fire at the school without giving notice.
When she visits the room of the fire, she meets Misaya. When she sees a fairy next to her that resembles the missing teacher, she is struck down. Shiki, who is supposed to investigate the life of Kaori Tachibana, wakes her up, but she has lost some memories. Upon investigation, it turns out that Kaori was ill and pregnant, the father was presumably the missing teacher Hideo Hayama.
Mikiya soon explains that Hideo was using the girls to sell them. Further research reveals that teacher Satsuki Kurogiri has long had memory problems and deaths have occurred at every school he taught. Tōko recognizes in him one of those wanted by the Association of Magicians, who has mastered the primal language and hypnosis.
Meanwhile, Shiki, who wanted to wait for Azaka at school, faces Satsuki Kurogiri. He says that he doesn’t command the fairies and wants to give people back their memories. When she attacks him anyway, he briefly blinds her using the original language and gives her back some of her memories against her will.
When Azaka meets Satsuki, he reveals to her that he was responsible for Kaori’s suicide, taught Misaya magic, and collected people’s memories to give back. Satsuki himself was kidnapped by fairies as a child, whom he later killed himself. However, he was rejected by his parents and lost his ability to perceive his own memories, leaving him unsure if his memories are real.
For this reason, he used the original language to create a second image parallel to his normal thoughts, so that by comparing both parts he can check whether his memories are true. However, he made Kaori do what he wanted before. So now Misaya, under the false memory Hideo is her brother, is supposed to set the school building and the students on fire.
But Azaka can prevent this by using her fire magic to free Misaya from the false memories. At the same time, Satsuki is stabbed by one of the students, but ends up feeling remorse. Shiki, who has now got some of her memories back, feels uncomfortable also because she is dating Mikiya for the first time.
The Garden of Sinners: A Study in Murder – Part 2 (2009)
| Release Date | Running Time | Director(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 8, 2009 | 121 minutes | Shinsuke Takizawa | Masaki Hiramatsu |
Although Shiki almost killed him two years ago, Mikiya still believes that she is not responsible for the murders from back then. However, the murderer who was up to mischief two years ago is back and suicides occur frequently when Shiki is once again out and about alone at night. Meanwhile, Mikiya meets the real killer, Lio Shirazumi, a former high school student at Mikiya’s school.
He has medium-length blond hair and wears a red jacket with a black skirt. Due to the resemblance of his clothes to Shiki’s, she was also mistaken for the killer. When Mikiya asks him why he did it, Lio replies that since Sōren awakened his true nature in him, an inner voice asked him to do it. He declines the offer of help and runs off.
In her search for the killer, Shiki finds a person whose death would be worthwhile. During a phone conversation with Mikiya, she also decides to kill Lio and then falls out with Mikiya. She tracks down his hideout, where he himself grows and sells drugs so that other people will go just as crazy as he does.
When Shiki hesitates as Mikiya is opposed to the murder, she is captured by Lio. When Mikiya tries to free her, he is stabbed in the head by Lio and falls lifeless to the ground. Lio thinks only a killer can understand him and a fight ensues between him and Shiki.
She is able to subdue him despite her despair at Mikiya’s death, but is just as badly injured. But soon they are found by the police and can be treated in a hospital, but Mikiya loses an eye. After all, this experience brings them even closer.
“Epilogue” (2011)
| Release Date | Running Time | Director(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 8, 2011 | 33 minutes | Hikaru Kondo | Masaki Hiramatsu |
On a snowy day in March, Mikiya thoughtlessly sees Shiki standing in the street. Her third personality is directly connected to the origins of everything Sōren had been searching for in vain. She tells the drawn Mikiya the connections between the origins and the three personalities in Shiki. As she says, she now also has the ability to restore his remaining injuries, his lost eye and limping leg.
He refuses as Shiki’s abilities only bring destruction and he fears it will be worse than before. In the end, Shiki’s third personality says goodbye to him and disappears without a trace. She says that they will see each other again the next day anyway. Mikiya then continues walking normally, without a limp leg.
The Garden of Sinners: Future Gospel (2013)
| Release Date | Running Time | Director(s) | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 28, 2013 | 88 minutes | Tomonori Sudo | Akira Hiyama |
A bomber shakes the city with his commissioned explosions. His skills in evaluating the future allow him to be infallible until his fate crosses that of Shiki. In the meantime, Mikiya meets a girl capable of predicting the future.
