[Anime Review] Beyond the Boundary/Kyōkai no Kanata (2013)

Posted on January 20, 2014 by thegrandshuckett in Anime & Manga // 1 Comment

Plot Summary: Akihito Kanbara is a second year high school student in the literature club who believes himself to be a "Meganest" (glasses enthusiast), and although he appears to be human, he is actually half Yōmu. This status makes him immortal and invulnerable to wounds. Akihito meets first year Mirai Kuriyama when it appears as if she is about to attempt suicide by jumping off of the school rooftop. Mirai is isolated because of her clan ability to manipulate blood, which is considered heresy even among other members of the underworld, so she is shunned. Soon after Akihito saves Mirai, disturbing events begin to arise.

Director: Taichi Ishidate

Writer: Jukki Hanada (based on the light novel written by Nagomu Torii)

Episode Runtime: 24 minutes / 12 Episodes

Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Psychological, Romance

Studio: Kyoto Animation

English Network: Crunchyroll

Main Cast:

Kenn (Kenichiro Ohashi) as Akihito Kanbara
Risa Taneda as Mirai Kuriyama
Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Hirōmi Nase
Minori Chihara as Mitsuki Nase

Review: by Nena

I knew that I was going to watch this anime as soon as I found out that it was being produced by KyoAni. The animation appeared to be of top-notch quality, and the plot summary intrigued me; so, I started watching Beyond the Boundary with high expectations. Thankfully, I was not disappointed.

What I Liked:

The animation was excellent and featured several fast-paced, dazzling fight sequences. My personal favorites usually involved Hirōmi and Mitsuki’s older sister, Izumi, who was as skilled fighting on the battlefield as she was manipulating elements behind the scenes to drive the plot.

I grew to like almost the entire cast of characters and enjoyed watching their personalities grow and clash as well as their interactions with each other and the changing environment around them as events unfolded.

The most notable interactions were the slow but meaningful development of Akihito and Mirai’s relationship (as expected of main characters) and Hirōmi’s incestuous fixation on his younger sister Mitsuki, which was played mostly for laughs.

Akihito’s relationship with his crazy cosplayer mother, Yayoi, was also very interesting and funny. Due to action being one of the primary genres for this anime, there was a reasonable amount of violence, but it wasn’t gory or grotesque.

What I Didn’t Like:

There were a few parts that dragged on a bit, and the last couple of episodes were somewhat confusing for a while due to overlapping dream sequences. These points, while mildly annoying, did not seriously detract from the overall quality of the plot. There were also a couple of loose ends that were not resolved by the end of the last episode.

Summary

Beyond the Boundary is a very good character-driven anime that will appeal to almost everyone who is a fan of the action, comedy, fantasy/supernatural, romance, and/or drama genres. On an unrelated note, Mirai’s character design was very cute, and I wish I wasn’t too big to cosplay her properly.

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User Review

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milesvibritannia // February 22, 2014 at 11:54 PM //

Kyoukai no Kanata was an enjoyable watch for me, though I personally feel it didn’t quite get to live up to its full potential. There were a lot of unanswered questions about the Kyoukai world and characters like the Nases, and I feel like there wasn’t enough development for much of the side cast. Seems like being a one-cour anime really limited its ability to give enough focus to a lot of different areas. But regardless, it was an enjoyable run and I wouldn’t mind giving it another go if KyoAni makes a second season.