Beyond the Boundary
Released By: Animatsu
Rating: 12
Running Time: 309 Mins
Audio: English & Japanese DD 2.0
Release Date: 11/1/2016
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
Mirai Kuriyama has an urge to commit suicide and her friend, Akihito Kanbara stops her from trying to jump off the roof of her school. He thinks he is doing some form of good by helping her, but she has her own issues to deal with, one of them that she is a Spirit World Warrior who can use her own blood as a weapon against youmu. Stabbing Akihito with her blood sword, she finds he can't die and must be an immortal half human, half youmu.
In order to help her even more, Akihito offers to use himself as a test subject to help her deal with being able to kill youmu in real life. Being the last of a spirit hunting clan, he sees her as a necessity to kill the evil youmu who threaten human everyday life.
Now you would expect someone like Akihito to die after being stabbed, but as he's the main character, he can't - it wouldn't be anything of an anime without him. And stabbing a character through the chest isn't an unusual thing in an anime, no, I recall watching in season one's first episode of Bleach that Ichigo gets to be stabbed by Soul Reaper Rukia's zanpakuto to make him a Soul Reaper, giving him the powers to do so. Lucky for him that he's half-youmu and likes the look of his would-be murderer, the other part to his whole in this series.
After such an opening scene to the first episode, I had hoped that Akihito had an almost normal life, but sadly he doesn't and on watching, it does make me wonder how he got through being this age as his half-human heritage comes from having a cosplaying, human mother. While his yomou dad tries to be as normal as he can due to his heritage as a monster, he has to contend with his wife acting bizarrely in her cosplay outfits, which for the Japanese viewing public is considered normal, for Westerners, it could be seen as strange and a tad annoying, but as it's an animation, it's funny and you do feel sorry for the poor soul who has to watch what happens next. Akihito's mum isn't the only crazy one here either, Mirai ranks high as a madcap girl who can make weapons with her blood (remember Choji Suitengu from Speed Grapher?) that makes her ill from having to, though this also turns her into an almost helpless heroine who could do with some help from her hero, Akihito at times when she is most vulnerable.
Beyond the Boundary is a complex anime that requires going back to a few times just to get one of its many plot points and reasons for why things happen, but it is colourful, crazy and watchable with some exciting characters who act out of their depth in each episode. Kinks are explored as well, in some shameful fan service mainly aimed at men who like girls with glasses etc, but as an anime it does prove it can go beyond that and shows it can poke fun at these kinks.
Bonus Material: Clean Opening & Closing Animations and Trailers for other anime series.
Summary: Beyond the Boundary has it all, girls, guys, comedy, fan service and a story that grips from the start!
Now you would expect someone like Akihito to die after being stabbed, but as he's the main character, he can't - it wouldn't be anything of an anime without him. And stabbing a character through the chest isn't an unusual thing in an anime, no, I recall watching in season one's first episode of Bleach that Ichigo gets to be stabbed by Soul Reaper Rukia's zanpakuto to make him a Soul Reaper, giving him the powers to do so. Lucky for him that he's half-youmu and likes the look of his would-be murderer, the other part to his whole in this series.
After such an opening scene to the first episode, I had hoped that Akihito had an almost normal life, but sadly he doesn't and on watching, it does make me wonder how he got through being this age as his half-human heritage comes from having a cosplaying, human mother. While his yomou dad tries to be as normal as he can due to his heritage as a monster, he has to contend with his wife acting bizarrely in her cosplay outfits, which for the Japanese viewing public is considered normal, for Westerners, it could be seen as strange and a tad annoying, but as it's an animation, it's funny and you do feel sorry for the poor soul who has to watch what happens next. Akihito's mum isn't the only crazy one here either, Mirai ranks high as a madcap girl who can make weapons with her blood (remember Choji Suitengu from Speed Grapher?) that makes her ill from having to, though this also turns her into an almost helpless heroine who could do with some help from her hero, Akihito at times when she is most vulnerable.
Beyond the Boundary is a complex anime that requires going back to a few times just to get one of its many plot points and reasons for why things happen, but it is colourful, crazy and watchable with some exciting characters who act out of their depth in each episode. Kinks are explored as well, in some shameful fan service mainly aimed at men who like girls with glasses etc, but as an anime it does prove it can go beyond that and shows it can poke fun at these kinks.
Bonus Material: Clean Opening & Closing Animations and Trailers for other anime series.
Summary: Beyond the Boundary has it all, girls, guys, comedy, fan service and a story that grips from the start!
