First Impressions / Kyoukai no Kanata

「ムーンライトパープル」 (Muunrito Paapuru)
“Moonlight Purple”

Three episodes later and this anime has not let me down. The first episode was a great introduction, but the episodes that followed are even more amazing and it builds up this world which youmu exist in. As the story goes on, the audience learns more about this world and how it functions – who the top clans, the “authority” that watches over you and the differences in youmu. I’m amazed at the fantasy elements that bring this story together, but even more so, I’m impressed that it’s been able to keep my attention without confusing me. The anime is fairly straightforward for a fantasy and it’s not so complex that it’s filled with jargon; instead, a lot of things are shown through actions rather than words. Definitely a great pick to be adapted into an anime since a lot of what happens is captured on screen.

I’d like to think that Kyoukai no Kanata divides up its story very well into two parts. You have your everyday slice-of-life atmosphere in the first half, before getting hit in the second half with the action and youmu. Although I’d love to see more action and fighting, I think the slice-of-life moments build up the anticipation for the fight. There were some new characters introduced – Fijimu Miroku (Masaya Matsukaze) and Nase Izumi (Ayako Kawasumi) and their meeting is so casually thrown in that I don’t feel bombarded with too much information at once. Izumi is actually the eldest daughter in the family (Mitsuki and Hiroomi’s elder sister) and likely the strongest of the siblings. It’s quite interesting to see that the Spirit World Warriors are actually watched and not just sent out there to destroy youmu. As Miroku was suggesting, youmu exist because people do and it’s simply a circle of life that happens because of the nature of youmu. That’s a very clean cut way to explain the phenomena that exists.

Nase Hiroomi (Suzuki Tatsuhisa) was brought in last episode, but I couldn’t gauge much from his character other than the fact that he likes to grope Akihito from behind. He’s quite a strong Warrior himself to defend the city against Hollow Shadow, but also a brother with a sister-complex. I took this quite literally but hey! I’m not judging. He appears to be a bit of a loner like his sister, loitering around by himself, but he does find comfort by being a part of the Literary Club (sometimes) with Akihito. I never took Akihito’s obsession with glasses quite as seriously until today; I guess I won’t take his confession to Mirai so lightheartedly then. It’s not an fetish that I have with them girls and boys, but I actually liked how he envisioned Mitsuki in glasses. I’d like to see if this leads to any potential third-wheeling, but by the looks of things, Mirai is the obvious choice (if it even goes there…).

So the murder mystery turns out… not to be such a difficult case at all. I was expecting this to be dragged out at least another 2 episodes, but it’s so clearly laid out by Mitsuki. It doesn’t take two brains to figure out that Mirai murdered her only friend growing up, and she feels incredible guilty for doing so because Inami Yui (Sayuri Yahagi) was possessed. Obviously the guilt is eating up Mirai and she feels that by destroying the Hollow Shadow, it gives her some form of revenge or at least helps extinguish the grief that she’s been feeling. Although I can empathize with Mirai, I think she does act very irrationally at times and that’s where Akihito comes in. He’s the perfect person to balance out her feelings and smack some sense into her – or you know, save her life. I’m not quite sure what happened between Sakura and Mirai in those moments on the cliff, but it seems like they’ve entered an alternative universe or a dream-like place. Next week’s episode seems to be all about Akihito and the battle against Hollow Shadow. Luckily Akihito is immortal and I’m very certain that this is how his “powers” come in handy.

—

TL;DR – @RCCherrie: I’m liking all this action so far. The story is pacing fairly well and all the characters are likable without being annoying. Didn’t think that Mirai’s murder was going to be so straight forward. Hoping there was story to it, like a better motive.

Full-length images: This is what I’m talking about 😉

 

Preview

58 Comments

  1. I think the biggest problem this episode has is confusing flow. Too many things are thrown in suddenly especially the appearance of Sakura and the transition between scenes felt forced.The other problem is the unnecessary humor
    Other than that like Cherrie said it has managed to keep my attention, especially with those action scenes

    ShuA
    Reply

    3. I really, really can’t complain. This show is original material and guess what? there will be no fucking rushed ending, obnoxious fillers, source material defiling, butchering or anything of the sort! And what’s better: It’s a great show with kyoani visuals and I’m enjoying it!! :3

      Helvetica Standard
      Reply

      1. Actually this show is based off a Light Novel so it’s not original material – although I’ve read a bit of the LN myself and the parts that I’ve read, they’ve adapted faithfully. Hopefully it continues that way.

        Cherrie
        Reply

    2. Either someone related to Yui, perhaps a friend. Or a sister, cousin, blood relative. She did mention something about not accepting atonement and asked why Mirai was still alive.
      I just hope that Sakura lives because she’s to darn cute.

      Helvetica Standard
      Reply

  6. every episode we are exposed to more things, therefore there is an improvement in KNK as a whole in terms of story and characters every episode.
    I love Mirai and the fact she’s stubborn about refusing Akihito’s offer again and again. the way it’s executed isn’t something we see on daily basis. in addition, while Mirai is more consistent character, Akihito isn’t that much, it feels like they are just throwing scenes with him – the bizarre humor with the glasses (reminds the weird “meganebu”), then he follow mirai, gives up on her and come back to save the day at the end…it’s too much “bumpy” in one episode.
    that’s causing the pace/flow to be out of balance(a bit)..luckily, as you said, the fantasy element/world isn’t much complicated to grasp.

    I do like the “dark” elements starting to make an effect on the story (aka the past of mirai). yet I’d like for a bit more. I think they didn’t tell us everything, and it could have been much more dark and tragic IMO.

    battles again are good. animation quite captivates your eye. the blood, the sword, the saw, the movments…together everything fits perfectly.

    the ending was a bit weird. I’d have given up on the “saves the day” scene with Akihito. too cliche, and as mentioned above – mess up with the development of the flow. cliffhanger at the end would have been more proper ending.

    thedarktower
    Reply

  7. I’m assuming Sakura is related to Yui I mean her sister perhaps.

    The anime is doing fine right now it’s not bad it’s actually the opposite I just think that it have so much potential maybe too much I guess I’m just afraid that Kyoani might waste it.

    Curiousreborn
    Reply

  8. megane

    Megane

    MEGANE

    MORE MEGANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    HADAKA MEGANE NASE MITSUKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    (~^_^)~

    Both Akihito and me can be the best of friends since we both share the “same fetish”

    c2710
    Reply

  9. I really like how each episode title alludes to a colour scheme used in certain scenes within an episode.
    I always enjoy picking out how that colour is used.

    Wonder how they’ll use ‘Orange’ for next episode.

    zztop
    Reply

  10. For all the narrative’s focus on Mirai, I’m very intruiged by the whole human-shade discussions, and on Akihito. What his past was like, how he knows the Nase siblings, what they know about him, and the nature of the truce he made with Hiro’omi.

    ($5 the huge scar on Hiro’omi’s back relates back to that flashback scene with blood-soaked Akihito in ep 2)

    zztop
    Reply

  13. Honestly… this has been a pretty resounding meh for me so far. It hasn’t been terrible but it hasn’t really proven itself to be very good. Apparently the higher ups agree and the show’s actually changing directors to Takemoto Yasuhiro (aka the guy who directed FMP and Hyouka and actually made Lucky Star watchable) so here’s hoping things improve starting at episode 5 when he takes over.

    As far as this episode goes Akihito apparently has the ability to teleport now. We also get introduced to someone from Mirai’s past the same episode we actually find out about it. Bad directing yo. Not to mention from what I heard the anime makes a massive amount of changes from the light novel.

    Also, megane Mitsuki was glorious. And I don’t even have a glasses fetish.

    Kuntzy
    Reply

    1. lololol, nm about the director change. I got trolled so hard.

      F’ing 4ch. This is why I stopped going on that site on a regular basis…

      Need to learn to scroll down more before getting excited. Honestly don’t know why I didn’t in the first place. It’s to be expected from the people of that site.

      Kuntzy
      Reply

    2. Yeah, you have to use 4-5lbs of salt when reading stuff on 4-chan. Still, I have to agree with you on the “meh” part. Your comment about substantial deviation from the LN source has me curious as to what changes were made.

      The show has some good elements, but the presentation is gets confusing. Took me few moments to realize that Sakura wasn’t Mirai’s possessed childhood friend Yui out for revenge for “killing” her. I still don’t get why Mirai is so reluctant to finish of youmu. Is it because she thinks Yui might be alive as a yuomu and thus afraid that she ends up really “killing” her? Too many unanswered questions. I’ll stick with it for now, but my enthusiasm is waning with each episode.

      LOL a little at your teleport comment. Akihito really did find Mirai awfully fast – and of course arrived just in time to save her (sure there’s a trope for that). I hope that when the battle is done Mirai finally drops the “go away, what do you know, didn’t ask for you help, etc.” attitude. For me that’s become overdone.

      Despite her protests, Mirai’s lucky Akihito has such a strong megane fetish. She’d be in big trouble without his help. Now that I think about it, if Mirai really wants Akihito to stop “bothering” her, all she needs to do is get contact lenses. Problem solved.

      daikama
      Reply

      1. I’m a little bit late to respond thanks to trying to forget about my embarrassing little gaffe there so hopefully you’ll see this.

        From what I heard, Mirai is almost a complete 180 in personality and rather relishes in hunting youma as opposed to being afraid of them and she isn’t nearly as clumsy (sigh Kyoani…). This Sakura character is also completely anime original and the novel apparently put more emphasis on the Nase silbings.

        That’s all off the top of my head. I’d have to find it again to remember it more thoroughly.

        Kuntzy
        Reply

      2. @Kuntzy: Thanks for the reply, though TBH, now I’m even more confused. There have been clear signs that Mirai dislikes (or even hates) youmu which wouldn’t be surprising given what happened to her childhood friend, but in EP 01 (Horrible subs) she says she’s “scared to kill youmu” – even one living in her apartment. O.o I really don’t get it.

        Given your comment about Sakura being an anime original character I’m starting to think there’s a substantial amount of deviation from the source material. Granted I haven’t read the LN, but given what I’ve seen so far it’s hard to imagine the bulk of the changes have been for the better.

        daikama
        Reply

      4. @Kuntzy – Thanks! That helped a lot, especially:
        Show Spoiler ▼

        Wow… I’d really like to know the director’s rationale behind that and all the other changes mentioned in that forum thread.

        Honestly, the changes the anime made seem terrible imo.

        After reading the info you linked in your above reply, I can only agree. :<

        daikama
        Reply

      1. @starss: Actually, Mirai first said she killed someone at the end of Episode 3, NOT this one

        I think you mean episode 02, as this is episode 03.

        While it’s true that Mirai mentioned that event in a previous episode, that’s all she did. We didn’t get any details or names.

        daikama
        Reply

    4. Introducing someone while giving a basic background on who they are in one ep is not an indication of bad directing; it’s actually a good thing that they didnt give everything away about who yui was right away and just gave us the clear cut back story of what happened; she will be fleshed out in future eps (the backgrounds of yui, sakura, and mirai are far from over). Bad directing is when a directors loses focus of where the narrative is going and its setting or loses sight of the personalities and actions of its characters because of lack of cohesion or forced developments and i didnt see any of that this ep. I do agree that the direction could be tighter though such as scene transition but even then, there’s a certain appeal of just being thrown into certain scenes; well, for me at least…not all the time tho (the scene jumps dont happen often so im sure that at times, it’s intentional….at times).

      The stuff that is working for me in this series is Akihito’s drive to help Mirai; their confrontation before she left for the hollow shade was a well-directed scene with nice somber colors and rife with subtlety of them being at odds. This series has been a solid effort so far and since this is ishidate’s first full-time directing job, he’s handling this series decently enough. KnK has that feeling that it keeps getting better every ep and if it keeps this dark story progression along with fleshing out the characters, this series, in my opinion, can end up being great (right now it’s just good, but it definitely has potential). I suspect that this ep is the last of the comedy bits as i think they were just to ease us into the dark plot, in which to be frank, the comedy seen in this series is not different than in other series airing this fall so it didnt really bother me in particular.

      sonicsenryaku
      Reply

      1. I do find it to be bad directing though. I would have liked a couple episodes of foreshadowing before springing her loose so that the impact of her appearance would be better. Not to mention Sakura’s non introduction, with our only clue from the episode itself that she was involved in Mirai’s dilemma being the “trying to atone for your sins” line. Sakura is also an anime original character so this essentially falls on the shoulders of the writer for the anime and the director in my view.

        Sure, I may not be completely correct, it’s just how I feel about it though.

        Kuntzy
        Reply

    5. Akihito appearing out of nowhere was annoying. I hope there’s a good explanation for that.

      Sakura’s introduction was a bigger misstep. I watched the previous episodes to see if she appeared at all, but she only showed up in the OP. Even a brief scene of her arriving in town or something in an earlier episode would’ve given helped. I assume she’s a member of the Inami family, but she wasn’t even in the background there, either.

      Rob
      Reply

      1. Well there were the few scenes in the beginning of the ep showing her watching mirai and then her waiting for the hollow shade, indicating that she came with the inspector so that served as her “mysterious” introduction. It could have been handled ina way to make it more cohesive with the narrative but this way works as well; just as long as she didnt just show up in the end.

        sonicsenryaku
        Reply

  14. If you take a look at Sakura’s weapon it’s like the perfect Mirai killing tool, a staff to out range her, a chainsaw to cut through her blood blade, stainless steal to deal with her acid, and a shotgun to make sure she can’t get away. That’s a lot of hate for Mirai huh.

    poseidonhands
    Reply

  15. I been waiting for something about this show that makes it stand out over other anime I could be watching, and while there’s nothing shockingly exciting about it, the world building IS pretty easy to understand as it’s revealed, and the characters are amusing.

    starss
    Reply

  16. they have alot of material that they need to fit in a limited number of episodes and they havn’t been very successful at this so far, especially in comparison to how the hollow youmou issue is explained in the novel and the nase family case ect, they have been making very poor choices so far but the source material isn’t that great to begin with, I had hoped that they would just get rid of the lame humor from the novel but it’s like the only aspect they decided to be faithful to ! they changed so many things, they cld hv at least spared us the ewful siscon thing.

    selma
    Reply

    1. I would have to disagree with your statement about how they are handling the source material as i feel that the original content that has been made for this series actually improves it. I do agree with you about the source material though as ive always felt that it wasnt that strong, but the anime is definitely making an attempt to give the material the emotional depth and darker setting it needs and so far its doing a solid job. I was also praying that the comedy bits would be left out but after seeing the pv’s to the series beforehand, i lost all hope and just dealt with it. In the end, while i wish they were omitted in favor of more story content, they are not as bad as some ppl make it out to be, especially considering some of the comedy bits in more well-received shows (guess it just comes down to personal taste). I did find the scene between akihito and mitsuki in this ep particulary enjoyable as her suggestive teasing attempts were well done and not too “anime-ish” for a lack of a better word; felt like good ole natural high school flirting.

      sonicsenryaku
      Reply

  17. Same old KyoAni formula with the characters,they never take risks do they?The cast in other shows such as Unbreakable Machine Doll,Strike the Blood & Tokyo Ravens(which aren’t spectacular by any means) still have more personality than these.But hey,I’d like to think this ep was better than the other two in that it didn’t have so many awfull attempts at humor and stuck to doing what it does best a.k.a. eye-candy action scenes,with a better BGM this time.

    Oh well,I suppose I can’t say that Kyoukai no Kanata has let me down,because I never expected much from it in the 1st place.

    MgMaster
    Reply

    1. I agree they are going by the book(aka their own formula) with characters and story.
      same goes for “free” and “chuuni” (though it was the better one IMO).
      but it can’t be help. it’s not like hyouka or clannad that has original source.
      those LN (free, chuuni, KNK) are published by KNK , and the anime isn’t really an adaptaion. yes, it based on the characters and concept, but doesn’t have the follow the LN (for example, “free” novel is somehow prequel to the anime), in other words it’s almost like “original anime” of KyoAni. in contrast to hyouka and clannad which have a much more specific source and isn’t “belong” to KyoAni
      BTW
      all those anime you’ve mentioned (STB,machine-doll, tokyo ravens) are full-time LN. again, unlike KyoAni’s novel (free, chuni) which aren’t a continous series.

      so yes, KyoAni still sticks to their formula, but it doesn’t mean KNK isn’t enjoyable. it is indeed, however I can’t deny it would be much more fun if they were to break a bit the formula. we saw an attempt to do that, with the emerging of “dark” and “fantasy” elements, but it’s still needed some more.

      thedarktower
      Reply

    2. It’s true that if you don’t enjoy the characters in an anime, you’re not likely going to enjoy the anime at all. I can’t say that the characters in KNK “lack personality” though nor do I think they aren’t unique enough. Many characters can be cookie-cutter and still be fun to watch because that type of persona fits with the story. In KNK, I think the problem is more that we don’t get time enough with the characters to fully empathize with them before the next event happens. It’s good and bad because while I like the pacing and the story, it’d be nice to see more character connections.

      Cherrie
      Reply

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