Kara no Kyoukai 1: Fukan Fuukei acts as the first movie of the 8-movie series, but technically, it is the fourth if you go off chronological order. It makes sense how this works seeing as how we are introduced to Shiki and Mikiya—the series main protagonists—already knowing one another quite well, having strong feelings for one another and dealing with supernatural beings as if they have been around the block. Some of you might be wondering why this make sense to see what is essentially the middle of the series first but here’s why. Thanks to this strange out of order set up, we skip the usual issues with anime movies taking too long to build up their characters and world. Kara no Kyoukai 1: Fukan Fuukei throws you into the heat of everything—with Shiki having to face off against a strange ghostly force—and does it in a intellectual way. You won’t understand every character and why they are okay with dealing with these strange forces—or why Shiki kicks so much butt—but movie 2 will begin to set up some informational pieces for you to put together.

For those who begged to know how Shiki and Mikiya meet, Kara no Kyoukai 2: Satsujin Kousatsu immediately heads your prayers. Mikiya’s first encounter with Shiki is quite different than when we see her in the first movie. Shiki isn’t wearing her famous red jacket and she doesn’t look to be as rebellious as her later attire and attitude make her to be. However, it doesn’t take long for the viewer to realize that Shiki is still Shiki due to Mikiya witnessing her over a corpse of someone it looked like she killed. Kara no Kyoukai 2: Satsujin Kousatsu from here delves into their past meeting and sets up for a possible incident that awakens Shiki’s supernatural abilities.

The third movie—Kara no Kyoukai 3: Tsuukaku Zanryuu—is where we finally see Shiki and Mikiya again closer to their adult age from the first movie but still not yet at their full strength. Shiki and Mikiya end up in a rather bizarre rape story where we see Shiki has an affinity for getting involved in dark mysteries and we also meet with a third important character—their future boss—Toko who only had a minor role in the first movie, Kara no Kyoukai 1: Fukan Fuukei. Kara no Kyoukai 3: Tsuukaku Zanryuu doesn’t add much to our mystery supernatural story but it does begin to explain how Shiki gains an artificial limb and why she has such power within it.