Kyoukai no Kanata

Mirai Kuriyama is the sole survivor of a clan of Spirit World warriors with the power to employ their blood as weapons. As such, Mirai is tasked with hunting down and killing "youmu"—creatures said to be the manifestation of negative human emotions. One day, while deep in thought on the school roof, Mirai comes across Akihito Kanbara, a rare half-breed of youmu in human form. In a panicked state, she plunges her blood saber into him only to realize that he's an immortal being. From then on, the two form an impromptu friendship that revolves around Mirai constantly trying to kill Akihito, in an effort to boost her own wavering confidence as a Spirit World warrior. Eventually, Akihito also manages to convince her to join the Literary Club, which houses two other powerful Spirit World warriors, Hiroomi and Mitsuki Nase.

As the group's bond strengthens, however, so does the tenacity of the youmu around them. Their misadventures will soon turn into a fight for survival as the inevitable release of the most powerful youmu, Beyond the Boundary, approaches.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kuriyama, Mirai Main

Taneda, Risa Japanese

Kanbara, Akihito Main

KENN Japanese

Nase, Hiroomi Main

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa Japanese

Nase, Mitsuki Main

Chihara, Minori Japanese

Nase, Izumi Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Shindou, Ai Supporting

Yamaoka, Yuri Japanese

Shindou, Ayaka Supporting

Shindo, Naomi Japanese

Inami, Sakura Supporting

Toyota, Moe Japanese

Ninomiya, Shizuku Supporting

Watanabe, Akeno Japanese

Kanbara, Yayoi Supporting

Konno, Hiromi Japanese

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Saitou, Shigeru Producer

Senami, Riri Producer

Tanaka, Gou Producer

Reviews

Oct 31, 2025

50Fiftillididee

Recommended

🎈 Blood Baths & Beasts Inside and Out 📍 °7.8° °excellent° 💯%🔍

Here's a show that starts with one bada$$ boy-girl meet. It doesn't take long to learn that this bada$$ girl and this bada$$ boy are NOT typical HS students. Even in the fantastical world in which they exist, these two are anomalies.

Mirai Kuriyama is the last of her clan. Only she can carry on their mission of eliminating youmu, which spirit creatures borne from the worst of human emotions. Her family of Spirit Warriors can turn their own blood into weapons. So, when Akihito Kanbara ... surprises her on the roof one day, in a panic, she stabs him with a blood sword. Don't worry. He's fine. Akihito is immortal. He is half human, half youmu, and he don't die.

Mirai may look like Velma Dinkley from Scooby Doo with her pleated skirt, sweater, and red rimmed glasses, but that's /exactly/ Akihito's poison. He falls for her instantly. It isn't mutual, not for awhile, but Mirai tolerates him. He lets her practice killing youmus on him, so she should show a smidge of gratitude.

Tolerating him leads to joining the Literary Club, which is where the other like-minded Spirit World Warriors hang out, namely, a brother-sister duo who are Akihito's best friends: Hiroomi and Mitsuki Nase. Hiroomi is beautiful, powerful, and dangerous. Her relationship with her brother is peppered with teasing. Big brother, Mitsuki, gets his chuckles from inappropriate sexual advances that make others squirm. His sister is his favorite foil. Others cringe and he grins. Little sister hasn't been put to use by the family and therefore she's a bit surly. She intermittently calls Mitsuki “pervert” or a snidely spoken ”respected brother.” It's tame. We learn through Hiroomi that not all youmu are dangerous. She has a mousy looking one for a pet. Mirai quickly becomes part of the group, though she has some secrets she isn't in a hurry to reveal.

BTB is fun. It coasts along for about 9 episodes, and then it gets excellent. If you like it, stick with it and fear not. You will be happy you hung around. The execution and craftsmanship are solid. Do the story and acting overpower the animation, causing the viewer to almost overlook it? Or does the animation provide the perfect quiet complement to the show? I think the latter. The action is great! There's a nice twisty surprise coming around ep10. I was impressed. BTW, speaking of action, what /is/ it with the painfully pathetic girl-running in anime? Does anyone actually run with h/h arms out, forearms standing at 90° and swaying? It's like the unbearable squeak nails on a chalkboard - I can barely stand it.

"At the end of the day, I'm a pervert!" No matter how often Mirai declares his flattery “unpleasant,” Akihito won't stop rizzing up this 'bespectacled beauty', The propositioning in BTB is delivered for cuteness and endearment. Our ML may not be able to help his obsession. It could be hardwired into his unique genetic makeup. We'll see another example of strong attraction before the show runs its course.

Mirai has a lot of heartbreak to recover from, as well as burdens, upon injuries, upon obstacles. “How unpleasant,” she loves to say, but her pain occasionally makes her unpleasant. When we first meet her, she's barely breaking the surface long enough to breathe. Both Mirai and Akihito are walking through life with heavy baggage. If they were each a color, she's red and he's white. The colors of their country's flag and the colors of love and purity.

Dreams are the gateway to the spirit world. The (dark) phantoms that come from the Dream World are manifestations of negative human emotions born from people's twisted hearts; their hatred, jealousy, and malice. At some point, BTB departs from the mild sexual banter and tackles some serious dilemmas.

One of the themes is to not let regrets over the past trap you. Another theme is to not get caught up in fear and act in a way that will cause later regret. The plot brings us to a youmu that is so powerful it could destroy the world. COULD. It is intelligent and has never shown any inclination to do so. The only thing scary about it is its sheer strength. That alone creates fear, and fear drives violence: This thing is too scary to let live! The irony is that HUMAN resentment and dark nature is what powered up this being. We'll hear a youmu talk:

“Just what are you so scared of? You don't have to be afraid. Everything about you is also me. All of it existed inside of me already. Your pitch black jealousy, and the despair of never being able to become (what you wanted), the sadness of having been abandoned, and the regret of having hurt someone, all of your selfishness, your paranoia, your hatred, your resignation, your deviance, and your need to save yourself; I won't the single one of these emotions leak out, because they all belong to me. I'm going to take every one of them back.”

If we look at humans more like a multi-celled single organism, which is not as thoroughly inaccurate as one might assume, we are the scariest, most dangerous entity living. WE are too scary to live, also. Rational people must look and exist beyond the boundary of their own fear. Doing the right thing and upholding the rights of others may feel frightening, but it is actually the optimal action to ensure long-term human survival. It gets less frightening with practice.


〰🖍 IMHO

🎬75 📝84 🎭 84💓74 🦋60 🌞65 🎨75 ⚡88 🎵/🔊77 😅70 😭55 😱55 😯58 😖40 🤔60 💤15 🔚90


My age rec: 16+ HS setting with references to breast size, a glasses fetish, and a sister fetish (Sis calmly refers to him as "Perverted brother").

Re-📺? Would

There is more content out there, which is evidence of how well received it was, but only S1 can be streamed.

Per the kind people at Epic Dope here's the full list:

The Release Order
I. TV Series
Beyond the Boundary (2013)
II. Movies
Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here – Past (2015)
Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here – Future (2015)
III. OVAs
Beyond the Boundary: Idol Trial! (2014)
IV. Specials
Kyoukai no Kanata: Mini Gekijou (2014)
Beyond the Boundary: Daybreak (2014)
Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here – Past Special (2015)

The Chronological Order
Beyond the Boundary: Daybreak
Beyond the Boundary
Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here – Past
Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here – Past Special
Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here – Future
Beyond the Boundary: Idol Trial!
Kyoukai no Kanata: Mini Gekijou

Don't give it much thought, though, because via conventional streaming only the first 12 episodes are available. I would definitely watch more if I could.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 15, 2025

fh1478

Mixed Feelings

Love At First Stab

Beyond the Boundary Is the story about a teenager with a perverted fixation on girls with glasses on, and one girl with glasses, that is really cute when she's getting bullying.

I did not get much enjoyment out of this anime, the animation were great, and just production of it all were masterfully done. Just like you would expect of Kyoto Animation.

But the characters feel so flat to me. They have the dramatic moments and quirky personality, but it all just feel so teen, even the perverse element feel sterile.

It's one of those Teenage Drama, where I remember liking this, when I was ... a teenager, but now that I'm an adult, It feels completely flat and boring.

But it's not like there's anything wrong with it. If I look on it on paper, I can see how this is perfectly made and how every element goes up to a really good teenage drama, but I'm an adult now, so it's not working for me anymore.

It's cute and safe with some good animation, Witch is enough for some, but not for me anymore.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 31, 2025

e_art3

Not Recommended

Oh boy. Add this to the list of anime I thought were good as a teenager, only to once again as an adult realize I should never trust 16-year-old-me's taste.

This show has a lot of potential but is unfortunately ruined by really gross fanservice (by which I don't mean just sexy ladies, I mean incest - so, so many incest jokes) and things getting slightly too complicated for a 12 episode anime. I have to be honest, it probably didn't help that I watched these episodes over the span of about half a year, but it was hard to follow the plot near the end ... because there's so much nonsense added to what could've been a simple but engaging story.
The characters in this show are possibly the worst part of it. They are uninteresting at best, wildly annoying at worst. Our main character Akihito has a thing for girls with glasses which starts out as a pretty funny gag but gets... Concerning. Perhaps that's still within the boundaries (haha, get it :D) of what I should expect from anime, but then we get to Hiroomi, who genuinely doesn't seem to be able to get out more than two sentences without making a pass at his sister. Akihito's mom is also super sexualized? Additionally we have Mirai, who is less problematic but boring, which is quite a feat considering her powers are very cool and she comes from a cool clan and all of that. Her catchprhase ("It's unpleasant) is overused. The Evil Guy™'s motivations are way too vague - he's part of some kind of evil organisation, is what I gathered? Why? Whom? What is happening right now? The only saving grace is Izumi, who ironically isn't sexualized but by far the sexiest character.

Now, is there something good about this series, you might wonder? Yes, there's still some good things to say about it. The fights are pretty cool and I would say the animation is above average for 2014 standards. It's unfortunate that I never cared much for the stakes of the fights because I didn't care about any of the characters, but there is definitely some eye candy to be found in this anime. The opening is okay, but the ending? I've been listening to that song for about 10 years now whenever I want to calm down. Daisy by Stereo Dive Foundation is my therapy.
The idol episode was also pretty iconic. It took the part I like least about this show - the comedy - and somehow actually delivered! Still weird at times, unfortunately, but overall way more enjoyable than the rest of the series.
There is also some pretty good plottwists in the series, but it kind of evens out because there's also some terrible ones. Episode 10 is really good for this reason and almost had me convinced that maybe this anime is peak after all, but this was followed up by a plottwist they do MULTIPLE times, the last time of which they don't even have an explanation for. The series basically just goes 'well we wanted it to end this way but we weren't sure how that would make sense logically so we're just not going to explain, teehee'. I have yet to watch the sequel movie though, so I really hope they talk about it there. Because otherwise, oh boy.

Overall, this anime just hurts a bit too watch because I see the potential - pretty cool world building, great character design, nice animation and even a great storyline in its very basis. But it decided fanservice was more important and killed half of those things in the process. Add to that some confusion and an utter lack of empathy for the characters, and we end up with a 4/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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