They should never have met. They shouldn't even exist. But when they come together, the entire world
will change. The last surviving member of her clan, Mirai Kuriyama is cursed with the terrifying
ability to control and manipulate blood, a power so heretical that she is shunned even by those with
the ability to understand her "gift". Akihito Kanbara is only half human, but while the monstrous
other half of his lineage seems to have doomed him to a life alone, it has also given him near
invulnerability in the form of rapid healing. Alone, their futures seem bleak, but when a chance
encounter brings them together, it becomes clear that they share more than just an unexpected bond.
Together they share a destiny and a mission that only the two of them together may be strong enough to
survive.
(Source: Sentai Filmworks)
The setting of Beyound the Boundary is really simple: There are monsters and guys that kill monsters. The comedy is created from the character traits of the cast: The protagonist really, really likes girls with glasses, the girl who tries to kill him is a shy girl with glasses. The best friend of the protagonist is really, really obsessed with his little sister, so they fantasize together about the little sister and what she would look like with glasses. This style of comedy is very simple, but at least not terrible. Beyond the boundary manages to at least write comedy that makes sense from what we know about the characters, for example when the poor girl with glasses sells pictures of her to a anonymous buyer with the initials of the protagonist. But the comedy is not the main focus of the story. After episode 6, an episode that only consists of the friends fighting a monster that can be distracted by scantily dressed, singing girls, the story begins to speed up, but also gets worse to the end. That is the biggest problem of the show, it's not a bad show, but it is wasting its potential. The ending has a long emotional buildup, only to destroy the point of the whole fight and story in the last thirty seconds. The characters are characters written for comedy. They have one or two defining character traits and have only little character development. We learn about their backstories and their motivations, but they never become really complex characters. That being said, the love for glasses of the protagonist is a funny idea, it's different to the normal love for little sisters or other questionalble likings, not that they don't exist in this show. The good thing about the characters is that they all are connected, no character is there for no real reason. One of the biggest selling points is certainly the amazing animation, the fighting scenes are fluid and nice to watch. It´s always nice if a bloodsword doesn´t look like a bloodsword, but like a sword made of strange dirt. Sure, good animation alone can't save an otherwise bad show, but Beyond the Boundary is not a bad show, it's better than most shows I watched. It's just sad that there is so much wasted potential.
__“Youmu or Spirit Warrior… In the end, none of that really matters. Nor does the question of who you are. All that matters is to be close to the ones you care about.” –Yayoi Kanbara It really hurts me the most when I finish an anime and think to myself: “If only they had more time to develop everything, it would’ve definitely turned out amazing.” Well, this anime is one of those that unfortunately fall to underdevelopment due to a lack of episodes. From the very beginning, I was in love with the beautiful and vibrant art/animation of Kyoukai no Kanata. From the hilarious moments of comedy to the more than perfect soundtrack, this anime was showing a lot of promise. I had a thought in the back of my head while watching this the whole time thinking: “Why is this anime rated so low anyways? Everything seems perfectly fine!” Then all of the problems started to surface in the second half. What used to be a reasonably paced storyline with much to offer soon did a complete 180, and you found that the atmosphere of the anime had shifted entirely. I know that if they were given 12 more episodes to work with, they would’ve been able to take their time with the storyline and make it the same great quality as the first 6 episodes. You could easily see the potential it had to be SO much more, but it just wasn’t possible to tell the storyline effectively with just 12 episodes. Art and Animation: 9.2/10 - In the day-to-day events, the anime was spectacular. It was very enjoyable to watch all the vivid colors of the world come to life, especially when it came down to the great variety of youmu designs. The action scenes themselves were very good, but somewhat recycled at some parts after careful inspection. You could see that the same “moves” were being used with even similar camera angles, and some of the action scenes were very choppy. When it came to the various character designs, I loved them all! No one really felt too generic, and they definitely fit their personalities for the most part. Storyline and Character Progression: 7.7/10 - This is where the anime struggle the most, although it’s not entirely it’s fault. With all the content it was trying to cover in the span of 12 episodes, it was an impossible task with the way their pacing was in the beginning. I really enjoyed all the anime had to offer in the beginning because it was presented at a comfortable pace that was appropriate for the storyline. After that, I could easily feel the shift in gears, and off we went. Aside from the two main characters, no one else really gained much progression at all. From episode 1 to episode 12, the comparison of each character reveals a minimal amount of progression. Even with our two main protagonists, the full potential of their bond wasn’t reached, but rather rushed. The transition between the “filler” episode and the main storyline was very rough, it all just.....HAPPENED. And ironically, episode 6 was my favorite part of this anime. In the end, while this anime wasn’t a complete failure, it didn’t succeed in EFFECTIVELY telling its enormous storyline in just 12 episodes. This is why I’m not surprised that most of the characters received barely any development through it all. Soundtrack and Audio: 8.9/10 - I couldn’t deny the fact that this soundtrack was AMAZING! From the beautiful OP, to the jam-worthy ED that I’ll continue to enjoy listening to for years to come! I enjoyed every part of the soundtrack. The one HUGE problem though: it staled. The modest use of their soundtrack wasn’t even considered, as it was played again and again and AGAIN. I believe that 30-40% of the episodes had the soundtrack replayed at some point, and that’s a very high percentage for a 12 episode anime. If they just saved the soundtrack for just key moments in the plot, it would’ve given the moment a lot more depth and power. When it came to voice actors, I really did enjoy them for the most part. My only slight problem was with the main protagonist, who sounded like he’d lose his voice if he talked any higher than a slight yell. Unfortunately, this anime really suffered from a lack of episodes, but you can’t really blame them for it. With all the information they were trying to cover, the deep storyline to tell, and such a huge cast of characters to develop, it was impossible to do from the start. The content itself wasn’t bad, but the pacing and execution wasn’t satisfactory. That’s why I said that this anime had a lot of potential, and this is the reason why I’m giving this anime an 8.6/10. While it wasn’t anything that was unbearable to watch, it’s cons weighed it down to being anything but above average because of its beautiful art/animation and soundtrack. I really did enjoy this anime and I hope it’ll get a re-adaptation that’ll do the storyline justice. Until next time, see y’all in the next one!
KyoAni has always been a studio that produces absolutely amazing slice of life anime. When I watch a KyoAni anime, I know to expect great art and cute, endearing characters, but I keep my expectations for plot progression low. It's not that the studio can't produce anime with good plot, they have, but most of the time, the plot only exists to maximally capitalize on the cuteness and the character interactions in the story. When I started Kyoukai no Kanata, it initially hooked me into its plot. It seemed like a show that had a lot of potential for heavy world-building and rich story development. I was hoping this would be an exception to my aforementioned pattern. As I continued watching, it became readily apparent that it was more of a tug-of-rope between a deep and meaningful story and lame cliches that cater to the most common denominator. img2200(https://alt.kevwang.dev/content/images/2020/08/image.png) This had to be the most un-KyoAni KyoAni anime I have watched, in multiple ways. I really disliked how it had just really strange characterization, with overly unneccesary focus on how much Akihito liked girls with glasses and how Hiro'omi had a thing for his younger sister. Both of these things would often be brought up at inconvenient times, ruining the mood, and then be nailed in further as if the writers wanted those to be the characters' defining and only personality traits. There were also numerous whole episodes seemingly written just for some piece of fan service, such as the episode with the dance choreography, or the one that had Mirai take fanservicey pictures. img2200(https://alt.kevwang.dev/content/images/2020/08/image-3.png) On the other hand, it had a--generally--pretty great plot. I could sense some moments of brilliance, real complexity and depth, intense build-up, that contrasts with the typical slow-going laid back nature of most KyoAni works, something similar to the likes of Haruhi Suzumiya. Unfortunately, it kind of fell apart at the end, where it felt like the writers just gave up trying to make a fitting ending and decided to just go with the most impact they could. It was way too rushed, and it could have used an entire second season just for those last episodes along with fleshing out the world more. Nevertheless, it was an emotional story all the way to the end and something that I still enjoyed watching greatly. Of course, even as the work that is least characteristic of KyoAni, it is still easy to tell that it is one of their anime: beautiful animation during both slice-of-life moments and intense action, a delicate and masterful treatment of the nuanced emotions of the characters, and great music. KyoAni could make an anime with a completely trash story and these qualities would still be present. img2200(https://alt.kevwang.dev/content/images/2020/08/image-4.png) All in all, this was a show that still nailed the parts that the studio is known for, had a good plot with an unfortunately rushed ending, had unnecessary fan service, but was still very much enjoyable. Basically, the Darling in the Franxx of KyoAni.
>__Name: Kyoukai no Kanata (Beyond the Boundary) Aired: 2013.10.02 ~ 2013.12.18 Watched: 2020.08.16 ~ 2020.08.22 Origin: Novel Studio: Kyoani__ #__ Cute girl in glasses and the catch phrase Fuyukai Desu! (How unpleasant!) What more do you need__? youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t14NQJWyzLk) __Animation: 8/10__ Animation of Kyoukai no Kanata definately felt "alive" and did not bore the viewer. Definately had some wow-factors here and there but it did not transcend it's time and was a decently good animation for it's time. However, loved the consistency in the art-style, and the quality of the animation was upheld throughout the series. __Music: 7/10__ The music/OST I have to say was a weak-link for the series. It wasn't memorable or anything with eargasm factor. UNTIL, the last episodes of Mirai and Akihito. Kyoani definitely saved their best songs for later. The placement and appropriateness of the OST for the last episodes were a solid 9/10; however, rest of the series brings the overall score down to a 7/10. __Plot: 8.5/10__ For a 12 episode series, the plot seemed reasonable. There were many solid ideas that this series could have taken and expanded on; however, being limited to a 12 episode series, I have to say the studio did a good enough job at world building and delivering necessary information to viewers. The main plot penetrating the entire series was explained just enough, for viewers to keep up with what's going on, but could have done a slightly better job with it since near the end of the series with all the "different" time period and "zones" and what not going on with explain as you go type of business, I am almost certain that some of the viewers would be completely lost to what's going on. The ending wasn't explained clearly and was put to a ~!"forced happy ending, without proper explanation and it's for the viewers to interpret how that happy ending came to be.!~ One thing that I must mention and heavily compliment is episode 6 "Shocking Pink", is probably one of the best "filler"-ish episode that I have seen (Filler-ish because it doesn't have any direct impact on the main plot and it's just a side story, character building at most). The amount of effort that the studio put into this filler-ish episode definitely deserved a standing ovation. A good comparison would be the "Chika Dance" from Love is War ep3, ending credit song, but a whole episode dedicated in to creating that final piece of the dance. __Reviewer's interpretation of the ending:__ ~!In the scene where Izumi and Akihito are talking about "Beyond the Boundary" and "Mirai" near the end of the series at a park. Izumi mentions how beyond the boundary comes every "certain period" of time and it's a manifestation of human emotions and Blood-clan (Mirai) is the only one that can defeat beyond the boundary. Izumi also goes on to explain how the world tries to balance itself. Given these two facts, although, Mirai is believed to be "dead", no one really saw her vanishing, she was assumed to have perished along with beyond the boundary given suttle hints left at the scene. However, we later learn that she was transported to another dimension and was fighting the boundary for a lengthy period of time. Much later, Akihito consumes the boundary once again and Mirai disappears because she was only able to take physical form in this "other dimension" and with boundary consumed by Akihito, the dimension disappeared, hence Mirai disappears too. NOW, going back to what Izumi said, beyond the boundary can only be defeated by blood clan, and the world tries to balance itself. Beyond the boundary is still much alive inside Akihito's body and to balance that, the world needs a blood clan (since Mirai was the last survivor of the Blood clan) and Akihito having somewhat of control over the boundary (this is debatable), his unconscious will to bring Mirai back + the world trying to balance itself gave form to Mirai again. This is my take on the ending, however, the ending given by the studio seems very open ended so this is not a 100% solid answer to the ending, just an interpretation.!~ __Character: 9/10__ Kyoukai no Kanata has characters with very interesting personalities in a positive way, and also memorable. After completing this anime, the first female character that comes to my mind when I think about "glasses" is definitely _Mirai Kuriyama_. The emphasis on "glasses" this anime has is "_beyond the boundary_" Loved the chemistry between characters such as Hiroomi and Mitsuki, and their siscom/tsundere moments, the pervert alliance of Hiroomi and Akihito was also a scene that I looked forward to. However, the chemistry between Mirai and Akihito was the driving force of this anime and where the whole plot revolves around. Overall, very interesting and memorable characters. __Personal Enjoyment: 9/10__ Took less than a week to finish (I know it's not impressive to finish a 12 episode series in a span of a week); however, I am currently VERY busy with IRL stuff while I was watching this and that was as much as I could fit in during my time available. The characters, were for sure memorable and charming. Mirai's catch phrase Fuyukai Desu! certainly was as impactful as Eru's "Ki ni Narimasu! (I am curious!) from Hyouka. There is not much I can write about personal enjoyment since it's my own perception of the anime and my own interest I suppose. >#__Overall: 83/100__
__Kyoukai no Kanata__ __Introdução__ Esse é mais um dos animes que assisti quando estava iniciando o mundo das artes animadas japonesas (descrição desnecessariamente bosta rs), e eu já planejava reassistir a muito tempo, pois sabia que era uma ótima obra, e que provavelmente valeria meu tempo. Quem sabe essa review seja bem pequena, ate porque não extrai muitos comentários a respeito dela... __Animação e Trilha sonora__ Alguns amigos me falam que eu tenho uma analise muito duvidosa quanto a esses assuntos, mas n sei muito sobre o mercado, mas faço comparações com outras obras. Mas resumindo, a animação é de alta qualidade, as cenas que envolviam lutas não decepcionam e também potencializa o drama, que é o foco maior desse anime na minha opinião. Obviamente que a trilha sonora tem que ser a altura, e as vezes ela passa ate mesmo despercebido, mas ainda sim é boa. __Enredo__ Acho que o tema de sobrenatural e o folclore japonês já é bem manjado ne? Mas basicamente, num mundo onde seres formados de sentimentos ruins dos humanos, os youmus, vagam pela terra se alimentando de almas dos humanos, e por sua vez, os caçadores de youmus, os ikaishis, vivem de caçar e manter o equilíbrio desse grande sistema. Nesse momento, uma misteriosa garota tenta matar um meio-youmu, conhecido como imortal, Kanbara Akiriko. Com o tempo temos o desenvolvimento dessa relação, com muito drama e suspense em torno da metade sobrenatural do akiriko. __Drama__ Acho que esse é realmente o ponto forte do anime, pois a heroína, Kuriyama Mirai, realmente desenvolve um tipo de sentimento bastante natural com o desenrolar do enredo, também por causa de seu passado e sua identificação com o protagonista. As cenas de humor são muito boas, principalmente pelas características excêntricas, tanto da mirai, quanto do akiriko, por causa de suas manias e fetiches. Os personagens secundários também possuem personalidade cativante, e não somente um genérico de amigos para tapar buraco de enredo. Ao final, temos o alge do drama, com a batalha contra o kyoukai no kanata, e isso sim se torna emocionante, em parte pela aglotinação dos sentimentos durante o enredo, como também a situação dos personagens. Ainda tinha algumas partes obscuras por traz de outros personagens, como o “pseudo vilao” que surge no final mas não é explicito exatamente o motivo de suas atitudes. __kyoukai no Kanata__ Bom, dentro desse enredo de sobrenatural e tal, surge um youmu como o mais forte de todos, responsável por catástrofes ao longo da historia humana, tao poderoso que poderia destruir o mundo inteiro, o além do horizonte, ou kyoukai no kanata. Por fim, a única pessoa que poderia enfrenta-lo seria um integrante do cla do sangue amaldiçoado (mirai), e olha que coincidência..... o kyoukai no kanata habitava o corpo do próprio akiriko, mesmo que enfraquecido. Bom isso resume bastante o desfecho pra quem não entendeu.... __Filmes__ Os filmes são basicamente um resumo da serie principal, mas que ajudam a entender e resumir um pouco pra você que não quer assistir 13 eps de anime. __Porque?__ Bom, esse anime, assim como no caso de Date a Live, é um anime que eu próprio queria assistir a muito tempo, e com certeza cumpriu minhas expectativas, é provável que a minha nota foi sim influenciada pela minha expectativa sobre a obra, mas recomendo pra quem quer ver um bom drama e uma comedia simples porem engraçada.
There’s nothing quite like anime fans and dissolving shows into different segments, is there? The show starts strong but the ending sucks, the side-arcs are good but the main one drags on painfully, the ending is satisfactory but _man_ they took forever to get there. Beyond the Boundary is a show that I have unusual trouble splitting into multiple pieces. In my mind, it exists as one monolithic blob of exposition, rising and falling action, climax and conclusion. Without the OVA (which needs its own review, let’s be honest), Kyoukai no Kanata is one large glob of relative mediocrity from a studio that I expect a lot out of. Sure – it’s not actually bad by any means, but I really struggled to become engaged with it in the same way that other KyoAni shows grip me. Why don’t we first talk about the show’s strong points? I’m pretty sure it doesn’t need to be said that the animation and art are the studio’s eternally-strong points, and there’s no exception here. KyoAni produced a good deal of lighter SoLs in the decade of existence before this show’s release, and I’d say that the art style continues to evolve on the darker movements portrayed in FMP: TSR. It’s no spoiler to say that this is a fantasy show, and it would be remiss for me to ignore the fantastical art that comprises this show’s backgrounds, particularly in the ending few episodes. Moreover, the art style was very consistent – sometimes, budget and time constraints make certain episodes or scenes suffer in the hands of lesser studios, but uniformity is the name of the game throughout Beyond the Boundary. Overall – while I’d pick some of this studio’s more recent works as having the edge in pure eye-candy, I’d be lying if I said the animation and art in this one are anything less than stellar. Another strong point that surprised me throughout the series was the quality of the voice-acting. In particular, I found that Ohashi Kenichiro, VA for Kanbara, put on an incredible performance. I’m not a voice-acting snob by any stretch of the imagination, but I was surprised with how well his voice portrayed the range of emotion that Kanbara experiences throughout the course of the show. I have similar sentiments towards several other contributors to the main cast – when I watched, I heard the voice of the character rather than the voice of the actor. That’s something that I definitely can’t say for every show I’ve watched. While I’ve praised the performance of the voice actors themselves, I’d say that this show settles closer to the mean when we start to look at the plot itself. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I like to limit the content of my plot reviews to what you’d read in the synopsis on MAL or AniList, or gather within the first episode or two. Consequently, I can tell you that this show follows the stereotypical theme of high-school students fighting mysterious dark forces. I know I’m drastically over-simplifying here, and clearly there’s more details than what the previous statement implies, but it’s what the plot boils down to in the end. Generally, in these sorts of shows, the plot’s nuance comes from how the characters come to terms with what they’re fighting. The same is true for Beyond the Boundary, which means we should turn next to the characters themselves. My favorite part of most reviews centers around the characters, and in general I find this show to have some of the most average that I’ve looked at in some time. I’ve complained about it at length before, but for some reason I don’t really like most of the male MCs that this studio puts out, and Kanbara proves no exception. Most of the time I complain about males being flat, and while I can’t call Akihito properly flat, other aspects of his person are developed woefully short of a proper round character. Earlier, I alluded to the fact that he experiences a broad range of emotion throughout the course of the show, and while that’s certainly true, it’s pretty frustrating when we don’t know enough about the character to say _where_ that emotion is coming from. When we first encounter Kanbara, we learn about his glasses-obsession and that’s perverted and that’s funny right? When we next encounter Kanbara we learn about his glasses-obsession and that’s perverted and that’s funny. Then when we encounter him again we realize it’s not actually interesting or funny anymore. Indeed, most of his character development consist of the other leads complaining about him when he’s present or talking about him when he’s not there. As a result, we don’t get much about Kanbara from Kanbara. We don’t get to experience his thoughts or feelings. And that’s a real shame. It's not a whole lot different with the Nase siblings, who themselves are slightly flatter than Kanbara, and certainly think it’s funny to antagonize him as much as possible. Now I don’t want to suggest that either one goes the whole way without their good moments, particularly Hiro’omi, but the show certainly drags on in its ambiguous state for some time without us seeing any real development. Again, I earlier alluded to this show seems to be one large block of exposition, which comes to us painfully slowly through these two and some of the other figures. Most shows that I truly enjoy drive the plot through the characters becoming better known to us, the audience, but this show almost follows the opposite path. We learn more about the characters because the plot drags slowly onward, and it’s honestly difficult for me to make out _where_ the conflict truly begins because most characters react so slowly to it. On the other hand, I’d say that Kuriyama is the strongest character out of the main bunch. Unlike most of the others, the audience actually gets a good glimpse into her head within the first few episodes, learning about her internal and external demons. We get a sense of what bothers her, and what drives her to fight. It’s hard for me to see a lot of nuance in her character, and maybe there doesn’t need to be, but learning about Mirai is a welcome relief from the relative stolidness of the rest of the cast. I do think her sub-arc with Inami was resolved with far too much ease – which didn’t think was congruent with the depth of backstory between the two characters. But in total, she’s a good character and definitely helps to drive the plot forward. So in summary, the plot came across to me as ambiguous and surprisingly hard to follow. Without learning much about the characters (Kuriyama excepted) besides their superficial qualities, it was hard for me to distinguish where the rising action actually started, and I honestly couldn’t really tell where the climax was until it was almost upon me. As a result, the development and conclusion of the plot failed to leave a notable impression on me. I generally review a show either immediately, a few days, or maybe a little bit longer after seeing it. In this case, however, I’ve waited over a year before finishing my view and starting my review. And it’s not because this is a bad show – as a matter of fact, I think the good art and overall average plot and characters pulls this slightly above mediocrity. But it’s not far above the mean for me to laud it, or give it more than a weak recommendation. If you’re into darker shows and care more about good art than an exceptional plot, you’ve come to the right place. But if exceptional characterization and gripping development is your game, you may want to look elsewhere.