Kyoukai No Kanata Review In Few Words (Mini Review).
Have you ever seen a guy who tried to save a girl from committing suicide, only to get stabbed by her?
In a world where creatures called Youmu exist, and where some warriors from the Spirit Warriors make living by killing the harmful ones among them. We have Akihito Kanbara, an unharmful half-youmu who looks like a normal human being, but is in fact immortal, thanks for his ability to heal fast, and Mirai Kuriyama, a Spirit World Warrior from a cursed clan that can manipulate blood. The story revolves around these two and how they manage to face many things together.
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Who Should Watch Kyoukai No Kanata?
Kyoukai no Kanata is another anime I won’t recommend to anyone for the story. Giving how short it is, it barely covers much of the story of the novels. Despite that, I still believe it can be a good watch. People who care about animation & art in their anime are going to be pleased by what Kyoukai no Kanata has to offer.
Kyoukai no Kanata is a good anime if you like the Slice of Life genre, and it can be a good for you even if you don’t like Supernatural & Occult anime, as these are not the main focus of it.
Good Things About Kyoukai No Kanata
- The fighting scenese are very good.
- Has a great art & animation.
- The idol song in one of the episodes. XD
- A good amount of funny moments & remarks.
Possibly Bad Things Kyoukai No Kanata
- The anime barely covers anything from the novels.
Story
“Someone who looks as good in glasses as you do, simply shouldn’t die. – Akihito Kanbara.
To be able to judge Kyoukai no Kanata well, it is important to set the right expectation about it. Kyoukai no Kanata is a Slice Of Life anime for the most part, with fantasy & supernatural elements added to it, so it is likely to appeal to slice of life fans. If you judged it based on the other genres, you are very likely going to be disappoined.
For a starter, we have Mirai Kuriyama, a Spirit World Warrior with the ability to control her blood, and Akihito Kanbara, an immoirtal guy thanks to his fast healing abilities, which he got by being a half-Youmu.
Youmus are mysterious creatures that roams our world, they come in all shapes & sizes, some youmu are human, just like Akihito, and some are harmlful and go after humans, it is unknown why they exist. But some of the warriors from the spirit world make money by killing Youmus.
One day, Akihito finds Mirai on the rooftop of his school, ready to throw herself and commit suicide, so he tries to save her, only to get stabbed by her sword, which is made from her blood. It turns out she is a Spirit World Warrior, and the last survivor of the Kuriyama clan, the clan with the ability to control her blood. Despite the ability being so cool, it made the Kuriyama clan a cursed in the Spirit World, and that made Mirai to feel alone & isolated.
After that, and for some reason, Mirai tries to kill Akihito over & over, and succeeds in that a few times. At the end, it turns out she was using him as a way to practice killing Youmus. XD
“Why don’t you just let her kill you as much as she likes?”
And the story goes from here, the anime covers a few small arcs, where we get to know more about Mirai and Akihito’s past, and few other things.
The anime is based on light novel by Nagomu Torii, though the anime doesn’t cover much of the original novels, which gives you an incentive to go and read the novels if you liked the premise of the story & the characters.
The Art
Kyoukai no Kanata has such a beautiful art, you will notice how beautiful it is from the very begining of the anime. The fighting scenes are nice to watch, and the music that goes with it are done well. If you care much about the art in your anime, then you will like what Kyoukai no Kanata has to offer when it comes to that.
Pacing & Enjoyment
The pacing of Kyoukai no Kanata is good, there are some fillers here and there, but these fillers are good for the most part. I don’t like to spoil anime in my reviews, but there is an idols song in one of the episdoes, which was a nice addition that parodies idols anime. And it is the first thing I think of every time I remember Kyoukai no Kanata.
Since Kyoukai no Kanata is short, we don’t exactly get to know everything avout all the characters. For one, I was really longing to see a full Nase Mistuke fighting scene.
I find Kyoukai no Kanata to be pretty enjoyable overall, the way Mirai is clumsy at times, and the way some charactes have fetishes or sister complexity, and the bickering between the characters adds to the fun of watching it.
Characters
The story the anime revolves around the 4 main characters for the most part, which all appears in the first episode.
Kanbara Akihito
The protagonist of Kyoukai no Kanata, and a second year high-school student. As I mentioned in the story part above, he is a half-Youmu with a fast healing ability, which makes him immoirtal. Despite being immoirtal, he still feels pain whenever he gets injured, which is why he tries to avboid being stabbed by Mirai at the beginning of the anime.
Akihito likes girls with glasses, and tends to call Mirai a specacle beauty every now and then,
Kanbara Akihito is voiced by KENN.
Kuriyama Mirai
The female protagonist of Kyoukai no Kanata, she is fom the cursed Kuriyama clan, with the ability to manupulate blood, which causes her anemia due to the blood loss.
She is the last member of her clan, she feels isolated thanks to that, which is why she tries to kill herself in the first episode.
Despite her power, Mirai is clumsy in a funny way, and she tends to say “How Unpleasant”, or “Fuyukai” a lot in the anime, making it her catch phrase.
She has a blog where she vents about things, where she often gets flamed & ridivuled.
Kuriyama Mirai is voiced by Taneda Risa.
Nase Mitsuke
The president of the literary club, and a Spirit World Warrior from the prestigious Nase family.
Mitsuke is always with Akihito in the club, where she is assigned the task of monitoring him.
Nase Mitsuke is voiced by Chihara Minori.
Nase Hiroomi
Mitsuki’s brother, who suffers from a sister complex, his power makes him sensitive to cold, which is why he always wears a scarve.
Nase Hiroomi is voiced by Suzuki Tatsuhisa.
Extra Few Things
The Opening Song & Ending Songs
I quite like Kyoukai no Kanata opening personally, it starts very nicely, and it shows you how great the animation of the anime are. The opening song itself, which also named Kyoukai no Kanata and sang by by Minori Chihara, is also nice to listen to, and it is one more opening to be watched with almost every episode. ^^
The ending song is “Daisy”, which is sang by STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION.
Kyoukai no Kanata Blu-ray
Kyoukai no Kanata Blu-ray comes in 2 discs, which contains all the 12 episdoes. The blu-ray comes with the Japanese voices, as well as English dubs & subs.
Kyoukai No Kanata Movies:- Kyoukai No Kanata Movie: I’ll Be Here – Kako-Hen -Yakusoku No Kizuna
There are two Kyoukai no Kanata movies, which are a recap of the Anime. The movies come in two parts, the first part was aired in 14 Mars 2015, while the second one aired in 25 April 2015. The movies have the following names:-
- Movie 1:- Kyoukai no Kanata Movie: I’ll Be Here – Kako-hen.
- Movie 2:- Kyoukai no Kanata Movie: I’ll Be Here – Kako-hen -Yakusoku no Kizuna.
I didn’t watch the two movies personally, so I can’t comment on them. But I will update this part of the review once I do.
Anime to watch if you liked Kyoukai no Kanata
None so far, but you may want to check out the other Slice Of Live anime I reviewed.
And Finally
While I think Kyoukai no Kanata is a beautiful anime, it is not one to watch mainly for the story, which is the case for many anime nowadays. It is enjoyable to watch despite that, you can get a glimpse of what the anime is about from the very first episode, which is why I recommend that you watch the first and maybe the second one before deciding if it is for you.
I hope you liked my Kyoukai no Kanata review, and see you again in another review. ^^
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Kyoukai No Kanata Quotes
- “Individuality that stands apart from the rest is a great asset.” – Mitsuki Nase.
- “A person can work for their ideals. But if you lose sight of those ideals when things don’t work out as you hoped, you’ll never accomplish anything! You won’t be able to protect yourself or those dear to you” – Hiroomi Nase.
- “Y-you made me kill a bucket!” – Mirai Kuriyama.
- “How unpleasant.” – Mirai Kuriyama.
- “So what if people hate me! Everyone loves flaming me on blogs and twitter!” – Mirai Kuriyama.
- “Someone who looks as good in glasses as you do simply should not die!” Akihito Kanbara
- “Do you realize how many times you’ve stabbed me in the past week, Kuriyama-san?” – Akihito Kanbara.
Review Credits & Sources
- Youmu definition was taken form Kyoukai no Kanata Wikia,
- Some of the cahracters information were taken from the same Wikia.
