FIF#55-The Garden of Sinners

Shiki Ryougi is a beautiful girl with no memory and the skills of a seasoned demon hunter.  She also has the “Mystic Eyes of Death Perception”, allowing Shiki to walk the fine line between two worlds of the living and the dead.  In search of her lost memories, Shiki finds herself drawn into a series of grizzly inverstigations, all involving powerful supernatural phenomena.  Her only ally in these endevors is Mikiya Kobuto, a classmate who has always wanted to be close to Shiki.  Life.  Death.  Love.  Hate.  Heaven and Hell all collide in this supernatural thriller from the creators of Fate/Stay Night.

The Garden of Sinners first came to my attention via a Youtube trailer while looking up Fate/Stay Night stuff.  Immedietly, I was hooked by the mix of bizzare but beautiful images, an equally beautiful musical track from the always amazing Kalafina, and the focus on a beautiful lead protagonist.  It made me wonder if this might’ve been Animes answer to Constantine of DC Comics.  Still, I wanted to give Sinners a try one day and that day has finally come.  Whether I finish the series or not, that’s going to be a tough call.

 

Right away, what was promised in the trailer is present.  Thanks to this being a work by Studio Ufotable, the artists behind most of the Fate franchise (Zero, UBW and Heaven’s Feel), The Garden of Sinners continues their trend of giving movie level quality to any kind of animation…and if its already a movie production it just becomes next level.  There’s an eeriness to every image of the first episode.  It provokes feelings of wonder and mystery but also a very unsettling danger.  This is as far from kids ghost stories as you can get, especially when suicides are at the front of these supernatural perils.  This is aided by Yuki Kaijura and Kalafina bringing their A-Game to the proceedings.  Seriously, I could purchase and listen to their entire lineup of soundtracks from Fate/Zero to .hack//Sign to Madoka Magica and Id never get tired of Ms. Kaijura and her group.  Then there’s Shiki.  Being the first episode, of course we’re not going to get the full deal with her situation but that doesn’t mean she isn’t interesting to watch.  Save for the lack of cigarettes, my comparison of her to DC’s Constantine isn’t too far off, I think.  Shiki is devil may care, rushing into face monsters without second thought.  With her powers, her investigative skills are amazing.  Plus, she is beautiful, and easily to be drawn to much like Kobuto.

 

Where things are a little iffy despite all these being the makings of a solid show is the pacing and storytelling.  Even without all the immediate facts present, there’s a lot of jumping around with events and cryptic dialogue that makes you wonder why we didn’t just start at the beginning and endure a ten minute world building tutorial.  I suppose The Garden of Sinners could be considered an exercise in silent storytelling.  The art itself could tell the story without dialogue I think but it could move at a slightly brisker pace.  Also, I should mention that this is actually a film series, not a TV one.  So each episode looks to clock in at anywhere between 45mins to an hour and there were times I felt the drag and was looking at the video timeline to see where I was.  It could pick up in later episodes but maybe starting slow wasn’t the best move.

 

In the end, I guess I could pick at this series little by little.  Granted that means it could take a while to finish.  But The Garden of Sinners seems like it would be worth the time and effort to do so.  It is definitely one of the most beautiful Anime titles ive ever seen, pacing be damned.  It’s mature themes and intense action prove it isn’t planning on pulling any punches.  And Shiki…well her silent but attractive way of carrying herself could win me over completely in the end.  So yeah, I’ll keep at it.  Just don’t be surprised if I don’t finish this series any time soon.