Garden of Sinners E5: “Paradox Spiral” (part 3)

Okay, so.

Mikiya picks himself off the floor, and Touko asks him if he reeeeaaally doesn't care what gender Shiki is. He says that all else being the same he'd prefer she were a girl, but he'd be happy with her either way.

God, that sentence was seriously uncomfortable to type.

Touko tells him that he's in luck then, because Shiki's male persona is dead. Right, Chara allegedly died in the car accident or something, despite appearances to the contrary. According to Touko, Frisk is just trying to act like Chara sometimes because she misses him, including pretending to be genderfluid.

...wait a minute, Touko is explaining something. Why am I paying even the slightest amount of attention to her worthless, perpetually wrong opinions again? Sorry, been too long since I watched the previous film. I'll just cut ahead to when someone who actually has anything to say worth hearing is onscreen.

Anyway, to summarize the parts of this rambling scene that are likely to correspond at least slightly to the actual events of the story: that high rise is built in a Taijitu pattern, and Touko herself was briefly involved with its construction back when she and Redhat were still research partners. Also, she told Mikiya to research the residents of that building and where they came from. This is implied to have happened a while ago.

Why couldn't we have just seen this going on during one of the previous movies? I am continually baffled by the decision to tell this out of order.

Jump to another day in Touko's office, with Mikiya bringing Shiki that katana she brought home that one time that Carrot was there. Apparently, Shiki's family butler brought it to Mikiya and told him to give it to Shiki. Touko cautions Shiki not to draw that sword in her office; its a powerful enchanted weapon, and unsheathing it in here could damage the bounded field she's got set up.

So, Touko's got her office/apartment enchanted herself, then. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, as this seems to be SOP for Nasuverse wizard residences.

Shiki seems actually excited to show Mikiya the sword. In a way I don't think we've ever seen her excited about anything that doesn't involve combat.

Also, this scene is shot in Shiki's first person POV for some reason.

And...fucking...

So, I had to watch this exchange a couple of times to figure out what was being saif. Because, when Shiki sees Mikiya carrying the katana in its case, she asks him "Who did that to you?" And then he replies that the butler gave him the sword and asked him to give it to her.

Somehow, "who GAVE that to you" got translated as "who DID that to you?"

If Mikiya's response didn't immediately make it clear what the question was supposed to be, I'd never have caught this, and I would have walked away with a complete misinterpretation of what's supposed to have happened.

-_-

...

Okay. Moments like this make me wonder if I might be badly misjudging this entire series. If the sub is THAT unreliable about the most basic grammatical things that can completely change the meaning of the dialogue, then...have I even been told the actual story? How many of my complaints about KnK up to now have been purely down to terrible translation?

It honestly makes me reluctant to continue. How do I know if I'm actually reviewing Knk? I've got the visuals, obviously, but unless it turns out that one of my friends is fluent in Japanese and I just never knew it I have no reliable messenger for the dialogue.

For all I know, Touko's explanations might all actually be spot on, and Mikiya might actually not be a clingy narcissistic dipshit; that's all reconcilable with the visuals.

I'll finish this movie, since I'm already half done with it. But I'm not sure if I feel comfortable accepting payment to continue the series from here until such a time as a better English localization comes out. If and when that DOES happen, I plan to rewatch at least the first couple of episodes on my own time to see how big a difference it makes.

...

Cut ahead a little ways to Mikiya having researched the building and its inhabitants. Some of this is stuff Touko already knows, but it's also had a lot of remodeling done since she was involved in writing up the blueprints. There are two half-circle shaped side buildings on either side, connected to the main tower only on the ground floor. There's parking in/under them, but not under the central tower. The main tower has a central elevator and spiral staircase around it going up to all ten floors, with the bottom two levels being spa and shopping facilities and everything above them being housing.

For most of its history, this building was used for company housing. A year ago, it was taken over by a new owner (presumably a front for Araya) and opened to the general public as a condominium bloc. The central elevator was notably down for maintenance for the first few months of its new ownership, and some other remodeling was done around it between owners and during the early public era.

Makes sense. I'm guessing the elevator has a way of recognizing test subjects and reorienting them to the duplicated hallways mid-ascent while delivering the normal residents to their normal halls/levels so as to keep up appearances. "Smart" spells like that seem to be very much a thing in the setting. The inaccessibility of some parts of the building complex from the others except through the ground floor, meanwhile, ensures that no one finds their way from the real apartments to the lab mockups or vice versa.

That burglar must be one of the very, very few people who took the stairs rather than the elevator. Presumably due to the elevator requiring keycard access or suchlike (the front door also would, but he could have snuck in somehow). So, he was able to find his way into a place he wasn't supposed to.

Very Doctor Who-esque concept, this building. I like it as a macguffin.

Touko and Mikiya go there, and ride the elevator upstairs. I really wish I knew if this was before Shiki met Carrot, before she took him back here, or after her capture by Araya.

On the way up, Mikiya feels the bounded field for a moment just like Shiki did (or will). Touko tells him to ignore it. Is Mikiya starting to develop powers, I wonder?

They get off on the fourth floor, but the elevator releases them on a different side than it's supposed to, and the hall doesn't go all the way around. Touko tells Mikiya to try to get to their destination using the stairs, and to close his eyes as much as possible (presumably so the phony room numbers don't throw him off). She, meanwhile, will experiment by the elevator by herself and see if it reacts differently to a lone wizard, or failing that see if she can crack it I guess.

Then we're back to Touko's office in first person Shiki perspective. For some reason. Shiki is asking for a vehicle she can use to get to the tower. Touko tells her she can borrow the motorbike with the sidecar. She leaves the office with the sword.

So, this is the same day that Carrot came back to her apartment. Why did she go to her apartment and be surprised to find him there before going straight to the tower, I wonder?

Well, I guess that's what she meant by it being such a coincidence that he'd show up again on that particular evening.

...wait, evening? It's bright outside when Shiki leaves the office. How long does it take her to get home? Or...did she go to the tower, investigate it unsuccessfully, then go home and find Carrot and drive him back there?

No idea.

Before she leaves, Mikiya tells her he'll stop by her place later so she can swing her katana at him and he can be foiled for the umpteenth time in his quest to swing his katana at her. Jump back ahead to him trying her door and being outraged at there being a lock on it. The next morning at Touko's office, Touko mentions that she strongly suspects that Shiki has a boyfriend, and Mikiya is horrified. And yeah, I don't think there's any way this could be down to mistranslation making Mikiya look worse than he's actually written. God, what a little bitch.

Then he and Touko are driving somewhere, and in response to her prodding he insists that he's glad she got a lock on her door, because...

Mikiya.

What.

Fucking.

PLANET.

Have you been living on?

Do you think anything that could conceivably threaten Shiki is going to be deterred by a fucking lock?

Maybe a magical superlock that Touko rigs up for her, sure. But that's very obviously not the case.

Cut back to Mikiya after he and Touko split up inside the building. Or maybe another visit to the building, idfk. He knocks on the door of the Carrot residence, and Carrot's father answers. Mikiya tells him he must have the wrong address, and leaves. Then he regroups with Touko, they talk about the elevator fucking with them some more in terms of both turning mid-ascent and also skipping floors when taken in one direction or the other. They return to the ground floor, and start checking out the lobbies on either side of the main tower. Pretty ostentatious and occultic looking lobbies you got there.

Touko was heavily involved with the design of the ground floor, so she notices some changes that have been made since the building's design phase. Notable, the base of the spiral staircase is in the wrong spot, and she senses a magical device hidden under the floor near it. She suspects that the staircases can screw around the central tower, possible retracting and extending themselves further from an underground silo. There's wear and tear on the walls to suggest this as well.

I guess there must be another spell to suppress the sounds produced by this, because it seems like that should make for some very loud grinding noises. Also, it would have to "know" that no one was watching when it moved the stairs.

They finish their structural investigation, and then leave the building. As they depart, Mikiya notices Mrs. Carrot passing them the other way with her grocery bags, accompanied by a soft scarecord.

Mikiya tries Shiki's door again that night. Or maybe it's just flashing back to the previous night again for no reason, that's also possible.

Then Touko picks up Mikiya and Carrot from that bench downtown.

Then Touko and Mikiya, without Carrot, are driving to Redhat's mansion, both seeming distracted and preoccupied. Mikiya by Shiki's absence, presumably. Touko by...I don't know, she probably couldn't find the kind of paper towel she likes or something. Outside of the mansion, she gives Mikiya a ring woven from grass that she says will prevent him from being detected magically as long as he stays outside.

We saw him toying with this ring back when he was outside of Shiki's apartment the first time. What order is any of this shit happening in?

Touko goes in and faces Redhat again. Or maybe this is just another part of the same conversation we saw before. Anyway, their discussion here is *completely* incomprehensible. Think "all your base are belong to us" level Engrish, but with a bunch of big fancy words for describe a mystical system that the author made up. So, no idea. I won't even pretend to understand any of it. Just that the bad guys need Shiki's murdervision to do *something* as part of their research into the cosmic truth or something. And they couldn't just hire her (or at least hire Touko to make her) help with this because of reasons I guess. Also, Alba is mad at Touko for never appreciating him back at Type Mogwarts or something.

When Touko ignores that outburst and asks him what the hell he's doing at that building, Redhat - now named as Alba - informs Touko that Araya was NOT able to regenerate all the damage that Shiki inflicted on him during her capture. He died of his injuries shortly after her containment.

Alba could be lying, of course.

When he mentions having captured Shiki though, Mikiya - who apparently has really, really good ears - comes barging inside, throwing the ring to the ground, and demands to know where Shiki is. Touko facepalms. Alba says something smugly that I don't understand. Touko asks if this is a declaration of war, then. Alba says that they will see each other again.

Then they're...in the lobby of the apartment building again? I think? Alba is screaming about how he came all this way to kill Touko. Touko says...something incomprehensible. Then she's bringing Mikiya back to her place from Alba's mansion.

This story is actively trying to stop the audience from following it.

She confirms for Mikiya that Shiki's been captured, and that they (or he? Is it just Alba now, or was he lying or being mistranslated about Araya's death?) are probably holding her in the super secret maximum security part of the apartment building. She muses that she should have known she'd be getting involved in this sort of shenanigan when she decided to recruit Shiki, and then tosses Mikiya a box of custom-made Taiwanese cigarettes' that are pretty clearly magical. I'm not sure why she's trusting him with this after how that grass ring faired, but "why is (female character) granting Mikiya the charity of (literally anything)" is basically KnK in a nutshell.

She proceeds to ramble about how they're probably using Shiki's eyes to open the Gates of Truth or whatever. And also assures Mikiya not to worry, she'll get Shiki back, mages are the sort of people who care deeply about their families and proteges.

Touko leaves to go fight or negotiate or get high or whatever. Mikiya decides he can't just stand around and wait, so he grabs something (a knife, I think? Or maybe scissors?) and runs off, presumably to the apartment tower. The music gets dramatic. We see Carrot panicking and screaming with zero context.

...or, no, actually, he goes to Shiki's apartment. Where Carrot ambushes him and puts a knife to his throat, demanding to know who the fuck he is. Didn't we see Touko, Mikiya, and Carrot all together at the bench earlier? Maybe that hasn't happened yet, or was just a random decoration scene, or another timeline, or oh who the fuck even cares. The music gets tense as Carrot crouches over him, as if reminding us of the possibility that Carrot will have another of his unexplained sadistic outbursts and start cutting off limbs.

I won't say that I'm hoping for that outcome, specifically, but if at least one of these pricks could kill the other that would be nice. A mutual kill would be too much to ask for, but either one would be good.

Commercial break. I guess this was a made for TV movie or something. Afterward, there's a big flock of birds taking off in front of a creepily discolored evening sky and then landing on an archaic battlefield to enjoy some human carrion. I guess this is the site of some ancient battle that Shiki is seeing through the godvision experiments or something? Ah, no, it's a randomly placed flashback. Araya is standing over what I assume is supposed to be an eighteenth century battlefield as the birds tuck in and bemoaning the death of a child soldier who is probably related to him or something.

He murmurs to himself that he cannot reverse death, but he will at least do his best to "record death explicitly," whatever that's supposed to have been translated as.

The imagery gets weirder, and he wonders aloud if he's in a dream. Aren't you supposed to be dead or something, bruh? Then we flash over to Shiki's apartment, where the knives have been put away and a Nice Guy convention is being held.

They exchange information, and then try to decide what to do. They both want to rescue Shiki, obviously. Mikiya isn't sure if it's a good idea for Carrot to go back near that apartment complex, though, considering that he's been exposed to its behavioral programming effects for a long time.

Not explicitly raised is the question of whether or not Carrot is a synth. The movie makes a point of specifying that he's feeling pain in his arm from a hit he took during his escape earlier, so I think that's a hint that he's organic. Or that he can use his telekinesis and is compelled to kill random people now. Because, you know, that's how pain works.

Carrot says that he doesn't care about the particular risks this attempt might pose to him. Mikiya asks him if he has a deathwish, and well, we already know the answer.

This seems to convince Mikiya. Off they go to somehow muggle their way into the lab, I guess. Mikiya says they have one stop to make before then, so I guess he's getting someone or something magical to help with the task.

Meanwhile, Touko enters the apartment complex lobby. Alba is there standing over the dead body of someone that I'm not able to recognize in the split second that we see it. Before he can even react to her approach, Touko lets a giant cat made out of burning crimson energy out of her briefcase, which beats the shit out of Alba until Araya (who is visibly not dead) comes out to fend it off. Touko can summon a superspeed energy-based attack kitty, cool.

So, she confronts Araya. They say some nonsense at each other that may or may not still be nonsense if it was properly translated. What I thiiiink I'm able to understand of it comes down to the following three things:

• He's been replicating the deaths of a bunch of people from throughout recent history in this building in attempts at finding the cosmic truthiness through studying deaths in process.​

• Shiki's murdereyes can reach the cosmic truthiness.​

• He's planning to take over Shiki's body by putting his soul (or..."brain") in it and then using it to access the cosmic truthiness.​

Touko asks him why he wants to reach the damned cosmic nexus so much anyway, and his answer - in its entirety - is the following.

I...is this supposed to be funny? The framing doesn't seem like it. I feel like if someone said something like this in one of the later Nasutype works, we'd be expected to laugh at it, but in this case it doesn't feel like that at all.

A halting wizards' duel ensues. Brief flurries of action, too fast for me to see exactly what's happening, interspersed with one or the other of them gloating about how they tricked the other into thinking they've won before springing a counterattack. Then Araya teleports behind Touko and literally punches her heart out of her chest.

She has a dying soliloquy that's vapid and overblown enough to have come from a Metal Gear Solid miniboss. Then Araya is in that weird dreamspace again, where Alba whines at him about not letting him be the one to kill Touko. Araya appeases him by giving him her severed head in a jar. I'm guessing this is some sort of dreamspace representation of their soul-harvesting power, so they're planning to put her in a synth or something.

Presumably an anatomically correct synth, given how Alba seems to feel about having her.

I guess I'll stop here. I can probably finish the remaining forty minutes in one more post.