Opening Songs
OP 1 - Beyond The Boundary (Minori Chihara)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Daisy (Stereo Dive Foundation)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Episodes: 12
"Kyoukai No Kanata" is a surprisingly simple concept that you can find elsewhere. It's has a story about demon hunters going after demons for cash, and that our main heroine is a demon hunter with a cursed bloodline...then mister protagonist steps in to help her out because he can. Sounds really simple and cliche right? Only that in "Kyoukai No Kanata", everything is executed perfectly, all in that semi "K-on"/"Hyouka" animation style that looks so adorable. The pacing is excellent, and the anime manages to throw in a good mix of slap stick moments in contrast to the usually serious story tone. A strong cast of characters, some cool abilities, a great story and some lukewarm emotional segments make "Kyoukai No Kanata" a more than enjoyable experience. As a series, "Kyoukai No Kanata" has a lot of surprises in store, despite being simple enough. Oh, and Akihito is actually a pretty decent main character (for once) if you can get past his voice.
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| Mirai-chan sugoki kawai desu. |
The opening theme is "Beyond The Boundary" by Minori Chihara, which is to be expected. Most of the time when Minori Chihara is cast in some anime, she'll usually a tie in song, which is most probably the opening theme. Not that I'm complaining, most of her opening theme songs are pretty good, and "Beyond The Boundary" is another one. Its not as hard hitting or intense as some of the other songs, but the steady pace of "Beyond The Boundary" really fits the anime and sounds great too. The ending theme "Daisy" by Stereo Dive Foundation is....pretty slow, but then again, it's an ending theme. Not my cup of tea.
Rating: 8.0/10
I really love the way "Kyoukai No Kanata" was executed. It seemed like a very typical anime about high school kids being demon hunters at first...but it quickly took a turn to a more personal story between two characters, Akihito and Mirai. Oh, and I got to say that before this anime, I never did like anime girls with glasses, you can say that Mirai is the first one that I like. Come on....she's so kawai! Anyway, we have a nice spread of 4 main characters here, with some other side characters, but they don't really matter too much. There really isn't much character development for some of these guys, because they are somewhat already laid out from the start, but the growth of Mirai is something I can vouch for....it was nice to see her change throughout the anime. Fight scenes vary from time to time, but most are fairly good, because we get to see some pretty cool powers (except for Mitsuki's fat squirrel). The overall plot is simple enough, but heats up towards the end, like most good shows do. And the animation style...is awesome, I love it. Its similar to that of "Hyouka", "K-on" and "Tamako Market".
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| Oh that shit look like it hurt. |
The story falls upon the shoulders of yet again, another high school youth, this time by the name of Akihito Kanbaru. Akihito is content living the life of every other boring high school kid, and tries his best not to involve himself in anything stupid, but one day, he just could not control it due to his love to girls with glasses. He looks up in school to see a bespectacled beauty preparing to jump down from the school rooftop, he immediately runs up there to confess his love for her and tells her not to jump off. But what happened instead, is that the girl jumps a massive distance towards Akihito and stabs him in the chest with a sword that appeared out of nowhere. Instead of dieing however, Akihito asks her to pull the sword out of him. Why? Because it hurts. The girl introduces herself as Mirai, and if seems like she stabbed Akihito because she sensed the presence of a Yomu inside him, a demon. Akihito explains that he is half Yomu, and that he is immortal. Now Mirai is going after him everyday to practise her Yomu hunting skills....
That's it for "Kyoukai No Kanata". If you're one to like the main stay themes of high school students slaying demons after school, you'll like this one, probably a little bit more than some others. Romance is one thing, but everything else that is present in other similar anime is probably done a little bit better here, and while the anime itself is short, it gets its shit done. Because there were some things still left unexplained, we may see a second season, who knows?
Peace.
