Monday, December 30, 2013

Beyond the Boundary Review

STORY:

Akihito is a sophomore in high school who loves girls wearing glasses. A lot. Which is weird enough all on its own, but he also happens to be an immortal half-youkai. When he meets a young female Spirit Warrior, whose blood is cursed, his casual life is destroyed as first one dangerous youkai and then another begin popping up in preparation for the biggest danger of all: Beyond the Boundary.




VIOLENCE:

Because the heroine in this show uses her own blood as a weapon, there is, obviously, quite a bit of blood. Most of the time, however, the show grazes over anything graphic as her blood is usually fashioned into a blade or somesuch thing, which really isn't all that bad. The worst the show gets is a few characters getting stabbed and her blood losing its shape and spraying all over. Defiantly YA, but nothing unusually bad.



LANGUAGE:

A few b-words, but not often. Expect the usual d-mns and sh-ts for a YA anime title, not excessive, but not non-existent either.



NUDITY:

Another shock! Maybe Japan is toning it down a bit. Although this show has a lot of opportunity for panty shots and such, they don't take it. There is one episode with a few shower scenes, but nothing except backs and shoulders are shown. One male character likes to tease Akihito by touching his waist, but like most things in this show, it's for comedy's sake. Just like that same character's fetish about his sister. Rest assured, we're spared any serious attempts on that.



THEOLOGY/MYTHOLOGY:

If you don't know what a youkai is, check and then come back here. Are you cool with that? If not, drop this show. This series is in a world where youkai, which in this show are often embodiments of people's negative feelings, are fought by Spirit Warriors. It's an unavoidable part of the show. Of course, there's no reference to God or how the world came to be like that, so don't worry about universal implication. It's a show that simply focuses on where it is. There are monsters that need to be defeated. Pretty simple, actually.



PERSONAL IMPRESSION:

I really enjoyed this show. It's by far one of the best of the year. It has amazing comedy and appropriate darker elements. And, thankfully, one doesn't really destroy the other. They mostly balance out. The art is amazing, the characters fun and deep, the story pretty straight forward at the start, but complex enough to throw a curve ball or two. The music is pretty good as well, the ending theme especially so.

The only real issue I had with this show was the "human" villain's motive, which didn't really make any sense at all. We never find out why he wanted the whole world to blow up. I mean, you'd think you'd have a reason for wanting something like that. But we never know, which kinda irritated me at the end. Also, although I loved the stylistic symbolism at the very end, it is a bit confusing and doesn't really say for sure who lived and who died. If those kinds of endings bug you, I'm not sure you'll leave the last episode as a happy camper. But word on the street is that an OVA is in the works, so there's hope for more answers in the future.

If you like quirky characters, some dark end of world stuff, dream-like parallel worlds and such, you'll probably adore this show just as much as I did. Just don't hold out for a kissing scene. This ain't that kind of show. Just sayin'.



PERSONAL RATING: Young adult



Episodes: 12

Languages: Sub

Official rating: TV14

Genre(s): Action, comedy, fantasy

: Sentai Filmworks

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