Anime Hajime Review: Kyoukai no Kanata

Series Synopsis

Akihito Kanbara (voiced by Kenn) is an immortal half-demon. One day he sees a girl wearing a pair of glasses standing at the edge of the roof as if she meant to commit suicide. Without thinking, Akihito runs up to hopefully prevent a jump, but things don’t go quite as planned. Sure the girl doesn’t leap to her death, but she does stab Akihito with a sword which manifested from her blood.

The girl with the glasses is Mirai Kuriyama (voiced by Risa Taneda) who is from an ancient line of demon hunters. She is the last of her clan which has been ostracized by the rest of the demon hunting community due to their ability to control their own blood. Although she may have attacked Akihito without hesitation, Mirai is actually quite shy and reserved.

Their introductions may have been a little unorthodox, nevertheless Akihito and Mirai start spending a lot of time together. Both of their pasts have made them outcasts to the majority of demon hunters. Even among close friends, there’s always a bit of worry, especially with Akihito’s demon half, that something might happen.

Regardless, Akihito and Mirai start to grow incredibly close and the relationship between half-demon and hunter will be put to the test.

Series Positives

This one’s pretty; visually very, very, very pretty.

I had Kyoukai no Kanata queued up, but I can’t remember why. I have no idea why this show was on my radar. Not a single clue.

I’m glad it was because it was a lot of fun.

Akihito

The Setup

Hand in hand with Kyoukai no Kanata’s visuals, the vast majority of this show doesn't give a lot of exposition. Verbally there's not a whole lot told to you. Much of the story is shown.

Mirai

There's no trigger, no initial event happens which brings characters into the mix. No one's brought behind the curtain as it were. Everyone is already aware of everything that is happening around them before the show even starts.

This world was already established. Characters were already living and existing in it and had been doing so for a long time. It is us, the audience, who are dropped in. From there the show didn’t go into much backstory since there was no longer a need to care about setup. Nothing had to be justified, things were as they were.

We can pick up exactly what we need to know simply by watching the actions and interactions. This is a universe filled with demons and people who fight them; simple, done.

This move allowed Kyoukai no Kanata to focus elsewhere; to get other things right and put time into other aspects.

The Characters

 

Praise to the entire cast, but especially to Akihito and Mirai. These two were fantastic together and they played off each other well. This is mostly because the connection between the two was strong.

Akihito and Mirai’s relationship was built up throughout the entirety of the series, but it was solidified early on. Anything that came later was only reinforcement. It's great when you have leads with a romantic connection and you believe said connection. Without a doubt, by then end I believed it and I got there early on.

Helping to achieve this, Akihito and Mirai’s relationship wasn’t overwhelmingly one sided. Both characters brought something and they fell for each other. One wasn't relegated to being the object of affection. Each party was equally interested, nervous, and hesitant.

The Humor

Kyoukai no Kanata is funny, there were many times when I was laughing rather hysterically in this show.

The series' strongest tools were its visual comedy and writing. The main thing though, the show's humor relied and focused on the personalities of the characters. This was effective in both the lighter moments and also during the times with a rather dark backdrop.

Akihito and Mirai’s backstories weren’t all sunshine and roses, the exact opposite in fact. Luckily neither were brought to an extent were it was too much. It never got to a point that couldn’t be brought back from.

Having now said that, let me be clear. Noragami did the balance of comedy and drama perfectly and it's one of the many reasons why I love that show. Kyoukai no Kanata does a respectable job in its own right. Definitely not as strong, but it was still good. There were times when the humor would overshadow the seriousness and the seriousness would overtake the humor. The two didn’t always blend; almost exclusively during the ending, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

However, the first nine or ten episodes right before heading into the climax did the mixing and the balancing well.

Series Negatives

There's a certain charm to having an already established world. Kyoukai no Kanata played to this, yet it couldn't fully hold back the downsides when a story chooses to go this route. The foundation may be here, but something still needs to build on top of it.

The series did this with its leads and some of the side character who were around from the very beginning. Unfortunately, anyone who was brought in during episode two, episode three, or later, yes that early on, I can't tell why they were in this show.

The Climax and Ending

There were parts of the story which were rushed; a product of poor time management. This all came to ahead upon reaching the ending. Not enough time or energy was spent setting up the final act.

There was too much focus on the world building and it shows; the world was interesting. However, the moment a crisis had to be thrown in there wasn’t anything to smoothly transition from.

For example, there's a character named Sakura (voiced by Moe Toyota) who is seeking to get revenge on Mirai. One the darkest moments in Mirai’s past revolved around an incident where she was forced to do something which has been eating away at her for years. Sakura unfairly, but understandably, blamed Mirai for what happened because there was no one else she could focus her rage on.

They fight for about an episode and half; actually it was more like ten minutes but it was spread over an episode and a half. Then instantly and without any solid reason why, the two made up and became best friends. After one, not very long, conversation, years of hatred was erased. What?

This happened way too quickly, but the reason why soon became clear.

Sakura’s role was to serve as one of the catalyst for the climax. She had one of the major keys for the end game to happen and the moment her purpose was served there was nowhere for her to go. The show put itself between a rock and a hard place. If Sakura was suddenly dropped from the story, her relevance to it would be weakened even further.

The tragedy in all this, Sakura would have been a great character had she been present from the beginning and we were given the chance to follow her a little bit more. She was brought in way too late and was regulated to occasional background noise.

In the grand scheme of things, this would usually be something I would have no problem overlooking if the ends justified the means.

So what did a wasted character amount to? A big, grand spectacle of an ending which was cool to look at, but was at the same time hollow as s@#$. What the hell?

Gorgeous yes, but what was happening was never clear. I understand the part about Akihito’s demon half going berserk and Mirai being the only one able to stop it. The problem I’m having is with some of the other motivations.

There’s this guy from the obligatory evil organization, because why not, and he was basically fueling the end of the world. Not only was he completely lame, I don’t why he was doing what he was doing. He gives no reason. It wasn’t for money, it wasn’t for prestige, it wasn’t for some twisted self-imposed quest of righteousness. He’s just did it to be an asshole. Excuse me sir, but the f@#$? You’re not getting anything out of this.

I’m not done yet.

I will give the climax credit for its pure entertainment value, though narrative-wise there’s nothing else to it. But then Kyoukai no Kanata did something so out of left field, so utterly unnecessary, and was really stupid. This came in the absolute last ten minutes of the show, making the entire series end on a highly questionable note.

I won’t spoil it, but the only reason why I think this ending happened was so the story could have a feels moment. Too bad it didn’t work because it was f@#$ing dumb. And then it didn’t even commit. It went ahead a gave the ending that should of happened in the first place.

You can see this coming a mile away and that’s kind of why it pissed me off as much as it did. Had the series taken the step, I would have been mad yes, but at least it would have taken a risk and I could respect that even though it wouldn’t have paid off. To do this though comes off as annoying.

Final Thoughts

The ending isn’t all that strong, but it remained fun. The series may have ended moronically at the last second, but it was still just the last second. The overwhelming majority of Kyoukai no Kanata is great.

The animation's awesome, the characters are interesting, and the story for the most part is both funny and dramatic. You’re going to get something out of this

Despite what I might think about the finale, Kyoukai no Kanata is good. As I said in the beginning, I don’t what it was which drew me here, but I thankful it did.

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