Kara no Shoujo 3: Demons of Paranoia

It is very difficult for me to talk about Kara no Shoujo 3 at all. Inside, all I have within me are conflicted emotions. On one hand, I want to like it. I keep telling myself that the final entry in the series I love so much is the perfect send off. But on the other hand, the imposing abyss of disappointment is staring me right in the face and I am unable to avoid its daunting glare. This is my paranoia, the curse that keeps dragging me through hell every time memories of Kara no Shoujo resurface into my mind.

Before I even discuss The Last Episode, I want to lay the groundwork for the structure of the Kara no Shoujo series as a whole, as I see it. Between the three games in the series, there are a total of six story arcs, 2 in the first entry, 1 in the second entry and 3 in the last entry. These story arcs function similarly to those in shounen manga, where each arc can be considered its own self contained story, but there is an overarching narrative loosely connecting each arc to each other. While none of this is official and nor do these arcs have a proper name, I have decided to unofficially coin names for each of the six story arcs below.

The main problem with Kara no Shoujo 3 can be easily surmised from one look at the above table. It takes on too many story arcs, and given that it is shorter than Kara no Shoujo 2 in length, does not bode well in creating anything worthwhile. That is where all the core issues of Kara no Shoujo 3 stem from. It is a prime textbook example of biting off more than you can chew. It ends up sacrificing elements like character development and emotional weight to push through with its disjointed narrative.

The first two arcs, Egg of Neanis and Girl in the Shells arcs, serve as a nice introduction to the series. They lay the groundwork for the rest of the story and are engaging in their own right. The plight of Touko Kuchiki and her dynamic with Reiji Tokisaka is established in these two arcs. Their relationship is what makes the Kara no Shoujo as effective as it is, since it is a story for Touko Kuchiki, even when it does veer away from that in later arcs. More importantly, there is continuity between these two arcs, instead of a jarring transition separating the two.

Moving onto Kara no Shoujo 2, the entirety of the narrative encapsulates only one arc. In essence, Kara no Shoujo 2 in its entirety can be considered the Chimera Ant arc of the Kara no Shoujo series. It is by far the longest of any of the six arcs and tells a story parallel to the main narrative. Like with the Chimera Ant arc, it introduces many new characters and delivers upon a heavy, and sometimes unsettling, narrative. And after the arc is over, much of the story and characters revolving around it disappears in the later arcs. And even though the Hitogata Village arc might be far removed from the plight of Touko Kuchiki, it is able to keep the reader enthralled in its intricate web.

And with Kara no Shoujo 3, there is a major shift in focus, even in between its own arcs. Each time a new arc begins, it scrubs the narrative plate clean, allowing no room for inter-mingling of plot points or characters. And while something like that is expected in various Shounen manga and their approach to storytelling, it feels blasphemous in the hands of the more grounded and mature Kara no Shoujo series. A series like Kara no Shoujo should rely on its continuity to gap the bridge among all three entries, but Kara no Shoujo 3 burns that bridge immediately. In contrast to the first entry where the shift between The Egg of Neanis and Girl In the Shell Arcs, while a bit jarring, at least feels consistent with the flow of the story and does not shift gears and changes focus once the new arc begins. The jump to Kara no Shoujo 2 is of course a massive leap, but one done well. The leap from the Hitogata Village to the Divine Punishment Arc should have been expected, but the internal jumping around in Kara no Shoujo 3 is my major issue with how the story is structured. There is even a time skip between the Surprised Paranoia and Girl in the Sky Arcs, further distancing the components of Kara no Shoujo 3 away from each other. Each new arc in Kara no Shoujo 3 feels like a whole new story rather than a proper continuation. This constant rebuilding of the narrative is frustration beyond belief to deal with, especially when it dances around the main focus of the series, that being Touko Kuchiki, for the vast majority of its run time. Instead of building up new plot points that ultimately will not matter by the end of the series, Kara no Shoujo 3 should have stayed true to its roots and built around Touko Kuchiki and her daughter. There is not enough time to make the readers care for anything new, especially when the pacing goes too fast so it can not linger on events to make them any sort of emotion. And when the readers know what awaits them at the end is not related to anything they introduced in the story before, it all becomes a wasted experience.

Besides the story structure, the characters in Kara no Shoujo 3 are treated with great disrespect, whether it is curb stomping their development, ruining their character arc built in the previous entries or leaving them as puppets for the narrative. Beyond that, the characters have no compatibility with each. I can not fathom the characters that were introduced in Kara no Shoujo 3 interacting with the older cast because they feel as if they came completely different games. This is not helped by the fact that the characters rarely interact with each other anyways. Chie and Sae barely interact with any of the main cast; however when they do, it feels stilted, as if its only purpose is to further the narrative instead of building up their character. Instead, they are trapped in the role of the killer. Other new characters like Yuusaku and Kaede feel like afterthoughts, their whole existence could be cut and the story can remain unchanged. Uozumi is a character that was in Kara no Shoujo, but is reintroduced in Kara no Shoujo 3. When he does have the chance to interact with characters from Kara no Shoujo 2, such as Masaki, it is always about discussing the current case. They have no chemistry because there is no attempt to make their relationships work besides their prescribed archetypes given to them by the writer.

The character compatibility across stories was not a problem with Kara no Shoujo 2, where the old and new cast integrated well enough with each other. Masaki and Yaginuma’s dialogue features a lot of teasing and trading jabs between each other. Compared to Kara no Shoujo 3, their dialogue has sparks of life and emotion, something to make them more than puppets for the story. I can feel their humanity whereas with Kara no Shoujo 3, that sort of human element is sorely lacking.

In regard to the disrespecting of characters, there are plenty of examples. Touji only appears during investigations and other such places where it is convenient to showcase the fact that she is a handy partner and has connections to the Undergrounds of Japanese society. There is no such growth for her character in the story for her. All of her character potential was curb stomped and for what? So Kara no Shoujo 3 can continue to tell its dwindling story at a breakneck pace. That is the true tragedy here.

In Kara no Shoujo 3’s trial, Masaki had an interesting plot point of not being able to feel emotion and having his emotional response all but stunted. This is an excellent piece of development and in that moment, I understood Masaki more than I did in Kara no Shoujo 2. Unfortunately, the main story did not build on this at all and was not able to build off this in any capacity, instead letting Mssaki’s character rot as he played the part of the hopeless romantic chasing after Naori for the whole story, while sometimes serving as the story jester. It is soul crushing to the least that they had the potential to do something great with his character, but instead the story does not allow for character growth as it wants its actor to follow a rigid and disastrous script.

Yaginuma and Fumiya had their character arcs tarnished and destroyed for the sake of the narrative. Their characters arcs from the previous two entries were all but eviscerated, as the story of Kara no Shoujo 3 instead decided to carve out new niches for them as it would be convenient for the story, not because it makes sense for them as characters in the slightest. There is no indication that Yaginuma would betray the police force and release Makoto for the sake of his sister. In every previous entry before Kara no Shoujo 3, Yaginuma was shown as a work before all type of person. He would stow away his personal feelings and not let them interfere with his work. And yet, in Kara no Shoujo 3, the whole facet of his character is thrown away just so the story can reuse the plot of Makoto being on the loose again. And Fumiya was never shown to be obsessed with Touko before Kara no Shoujo 3, Chizuru was always the one he desired. The sudden shift in his desires is jarring to say the least, and it is only added so the plot can have an additional unexpected antagonist for the mighty protagonist to take on. This type of character development is pathetic and cowardly, retroactively destroying characters for the sake of a flimsy narrative. It is absolutely soul crushing to see characters I have become familiar with turn into fodder for the story.

The themes of acceptance and purging desires is poignant as always, but until the true end, the themes at play are really only peripheral, not really focusing on the core issue at hand. Instead it focuses on other characters and their fall from grace, as if that has not been beaten to death in the previous two entries. There is no real advancement in Reiji’s own thematic development until the true end, so while his thematic conclusion in finding Iroha so many years later is perfect, the amount of meandering to finally reach that point is staggering.

The true end is the only saving grace of Kara no Shoujo 3. All three entries have a strong and memorable true end and I am glad that the Kara no Shoujo 3 did not buckle under the weight of its own incompetence and manages to deliver on a beautiful conclusion to the series. The true end is the only reason I cling onto my delirious hope, being the single light in a dark room, guiding me towards salvation. And yet, that light is not enough, the darkness consuming me further and further into its gargantuan abyss. Kara no Shoujo 3 truly is a deceptive game, roping me in with its webs through the True End and blinding me from the failures that happened before. It took a true awakening to for me to admit that those webs were transparent all along and the only thing holding me back was my own paranoia and inability to face the truth.

Even factoring out all the deep-diving analysis, Kara no Shoujo 3 is not a memorable experience at all. Each entry has at least a strong true end, and for Kara no Shoujo 3, that is the only thing going for it. The previous two entries at least are memorable beyond their true end. It takes me a long time to recall scenes because it is presented so blandly and in such an irrelevant manner. There is no emotional spark to give it that ever lasting impact. There is no reason to care for the story when the game itself does not hide the fact it thinks the story is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. All it is happening is that the lack of heart is rubbing off on me. But I do care, which is why I feel so strongly. If I did not care, I would just ignore all these elements and move onto my next read. I want Kara no Shoujo 3 to be the best version of itself and it is absolutely depressing seeing it squander all of its potential. And sometimes, I try my hardest, but there are times when I find myself not even caring any longer, the apathy only continuing to boil over.

While writing these thoughts, I even forgot the existence of the central heroine Stella, until I screen grabbed the menu art for the trial and thought to myself what the menu art for the main game was. Stella’s existence to Kara no Shoujo 3 as a whole is essentially non-existent. I am not surprised that I forgot about her, but Kara no Shoujo 3 does not even try to make it engaging in any way, shape or form. It is things like this that epitomizes the floundering that Kara no Shoujo 3 does throughout its whole runtime.

When listening to an OST for any VN, I tend to recall those gut wrenching, emotional scenes. But for Kara no Shoujo 3, whenever I listen to the soundtrack, the only memories I have are of scenes that never even existed. Whether it is quiet forest strolls with Touko or playing a guitar on a park bench as she listens to me, there is nothing in the soundtrack to help invoke memories of the story at all. Day by day, my memory keeps on slipping and my apathy keeps on rising. There truly is no escape.

And those are my demons of paranoia, coming to haunting every time memories of Kara no Shoujo resurface in my mind. Maybe by writing out these thoughts, I can find a way to drive away these demons once and for all and release myself from these treacherous fiends. Or maybe it will only pull me deeper into the void. I am not sure, but when that day of acceptance comes, I will reach out towards that azure sky, holding all the memories of Touko Kuchiki close to my heart.