[First Impression] Kyoukai no Kanata

Mirai: the anime's "heroine."

I love pleasant surprises. When things you thought you knew exactly what to expect of, do a 360 turn and break your expectations, and leave many possibilities for the future. In this vain, and when you consider the anime I'll be talking about today, I think you know I'm talking animation studio Kyoto Animation. These are the people who brought us K-On!(a.k.a the ultimate moe-blob anime), Chuunibyou(moe-blob with eye-patches), and Clannad(moe-blob with feels). But wouldn't you know, come October of 2013, they finally decided to poke their head out of the moe-blob fortress of solitude they've built around themselves and actually try something new. And whether that actually turns out to be a good idea, well, that remains to be seen.
     Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, I hope you are having a fantastic day, and today, I'll be giving my initial thoughts on Kyoto Animations' most recent experiment: Kyoukai no Kanata, or as we say in English, Beyond the Boundary. Let's get started.

So as a quick update, I should probably mention I've only seen the first three episodes of the anime at this time, but since there's only 12 episodes of the anime altogether, I think that's far enough to give my thoughts. And what are my thoughts? Um... I like the fact that the main heroine has a awesome sword made of her own blood? Yeah, that's pretty cool. 
     Our main character Akihito is walking beside his highschool one day at sunset, looks up and sees a girl ready to jump off the roof. After rushing as quick as he can to the roof, he confronts her, but doesn't get far before she stabs him through the chest with a strange blood sword. This girl: Mirai Kuriyamiya, is a Spirit World Warrior, a person with the obligation to hunt down spiritual creatures named "youma", that she has mistaken Akihiko for. Turns out the she's half right, Akihito is a half-youma and half-human, and as a result is immortal. Now I'm still not sure how exactly that works, but I'm bearing with the anime for now, seeing that is still has to answer the question of how we're going to have any tension in the anime's many fight scenes when our main character can't die. Getting the back to the plot though, after being hunted by Mirai for a few days, Akihito finally talks Mirai out of pursuing him, seeing that it's pretty much a waste of time for both of them. Upon learning a little more about Mirai though, Akihito starts to sympathize with her, after strikes a deal that if he helps her with a certain problem, she will stop using him for target practice for real youma. The plot has pretty much gone on auto-pilot from here, detailing various supernatural occurrences, for which Mirai and Akithito must stop. Honestly at this point, there's been more focus on establishing the supernatural world that the characters live in and detailing the rules that govern it, and nothing much resembling a plot has come up, unless you count the fact that a extremely powerful youma is going to be rolling through town soon. I'm OK with this simply because the supernatural world itself is very interesting, and the aesthetic Kyoto Animation has given it is, to be blunt, freakin' awesome.

Our main character: Akihito

I guess it's no surprise that three episodes in that our characters don't have much to them, but the worrying part is that almost none of them have hinted at any kind of back-story. I mean, Mirai looks like she's going to be the focus of the series, and the anime has given her a lot of attention character wise, but everyone else I feel is going to be completed ignored in the show, and remain their separate archetypes. I don't even know what Akihito is going to be doing for this entire series. I really hate how almost all anime go for that "typical guy" for their protagonist, who usually doesn't have a whole lot to him, and Akihito seems to be the perfect example of this. I've got nothing against the "normal guy" protagonist per say, but the point is that nobody is that normal. The best way you can capitalize on this kind of protagonist is have the supernatural setting slowly but surely drag out the best and worst of them, when they're brave and when they're afraid, the best example of this probably being Mikado Ryūgamine in Durarara! But at this point, besides from being immortal, Akihito has nothing much to him. We've literally got one five second flashback that hints that there may be something very sketchy about his past, but that is it. 

     The rest of the characters look like they could be entertaining at the very least, especially Akihito's childhood friend Mitsuki, who looks like she will deliver some awesome dialogue with her sharp tongue and quick wit.

I'll touch on the awesome supernatural aesthetic of the show more in my review of the anime(which I do intend to do at some point), but I'll just sign off for now, with a couple of quick things. Kyoukai no Kanata has a lot of potential, it really does, but it really needs to start concentrating on the right things. First off, if you're going to claim you're a "dark fantasy" anime, drop the slice-of-life feel please, at least in the last half of the show, when hopefully its already hit the fan. Secondly, this world is cool, don't get sidetracked from it with stupid story-lines, like Shakugan no Shana, an anime I feel like has a lot of parallels with Kyoukai no Kanata. And if you can develop the characters more on the way there, more power to you Kyoto Animation. I truly want this anime to be good, because as much as I can enjoy Kyoto Animation's moe/slice of life anime, I don't them to be the only thing the studio does. I want variety. I want more complex story-lines. I just want a good anime. Hopefully Kyoukai no Kananta can fulfill that expectation. 

Goodbye for now guys.


Edit:
I now have of review of the show here, so go check it out of my complete thoughts of the show. 

My other First Impressions: click here for mine of Mekaku City Actors, or here for mine on Eureka Seven/Toradora!

Alternatively, why not try a review? Click here for my review on My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU.

Or here for my review on Kanon(2006).

Follow me on Hummingbird: http://hummingbird.me/users/QReviews