“ Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
-Albert Camus
If nothing else, Kyoukai no Kanata was an entertaining anime. It was able to produce tears, surprise, excitement, and many laughs. The coherency of the plot may have been questionable, but nonetheless, the ride that the anime portrayed was over-exceeded any nuances with the direction of the story line.
The main issue that I had with KNK was the plot/story line. The first episode of Kyoukai provided substantial expectations about the nature of the plot. You have an immortal main character (Akihito Kanbara), and this mysterious arched four eyed cutie (Mirai Kuriyama) stabbing him in the stomach every chance she gets. You wonder why she is compulsively stabbing Akihito, and you start wonder whether she is some sort of physical sadist.
The mystery surrounding Mirai is enough to compel watching the next few episodes. Unfortunately, after the first three to four episodes, there is a sense that an integrant factor is missing from this anime. The location of this missing factor can not be exactly pin-pointed, but the direction of the anime did not seem to culminate to any substantive climax. It is like this anime prided in not taking itself seriously, and was being amused by our attempts to do so. However, in an attempt to reel us back in, the story took an interesting twist by showing us the back story of Mirai. This was probably the highlight of the anime since the episode molded and answered the ambivalent aura of the semi-seriously constructed plot that was been shoved down our pharynx.
The last few episodes did not leave us with any certainty which is not a necessary requirement for excellence, but the ending did leave a significant amount of abstruse quandaries unanswered. If I assume that there will not be a second season, then this ending, in terms of plot development, was sub par.
The art style of this anime was fantastic. The grandiose colours matched with uniquely drawn characters were enough to have me gaping at some of the scenes. For the most part, the animation was consistently fluid, and the action scenes were marvelously done. Every episode seemed sumptuous and fervent with sound and colour.
Speaking of sound, the background music was decent too. I do not believe that KnK has any stick-out-the-page musical piece, but the soundtrack wafted along with the majority of the scenes benignly. What did stand out to me was the ED of the anime, the way that the beginning of the ED innocently guided the final ending scenes of the episode into the first ED scene were done with potent aesthetics. I was amazed by the way Mirai was used in the ED as being alone, and extending her hand in front of her chest, aiming to have someone...anyone grab it back. You see people, supposed friends, just walk past her, giving her no mind. Finally, Akihito comes to her, and does not need to grab her hands, he just smiles at her. She smiles back. Amazingly done, I was not an initial fan of the ED, but it really grew on me after giving it a fair chance.
The characters of Kyoukai No Kanata had a tendency to be archetypal and paradigmatic. The variance of their comportment usually did not portray diversity. After a while, you get sick of the glasses fetish jokes given by the Akihito, the incestial jokes of Hiroomi loses shock value after the second episode, Mitsuki's jokes are uninspired and non-rememberable, and Mirai's unpleasantries showed no bounds of reason. I understand that the anime is restricted to 12 episodes, but at least there should be an attempt to diversify these character's personality instead of the blatant banality of creativity.
This is not to say that I absolutely disliked the characters. I found Mirai to be rather cute, and charming (in her own way). Her shy but honest ( and I use the term honest loosely) attitude grew on me, and left me wanting to see more of her, minus her annoying “This is sooo unpleasant” quote. I enjoyed her character design, it is not typical of an anime heroine, and she resembles the girl next door, or the girl sitting next to you in calculus class.
I found Hiroomi to be a comical character, most of my laughs originated from this guy. I just found his nonchalant demeanor to be hilarious, and I laughed at his initial incestial jokes, before they became repetitive and boring. I wanted the story to delve deeper into his background, and there were hints on his past (intertwined with Akihito's past) being shown, but at the end left me wanting.
Mitsuki turned out to be the most lacking of the characters. She was the standard paradigmatic witty beautiful arrogant but caring girl. Nothing more, nothing less. Her jokes were useless, let alone funny. Her strength was not substantive, and there episodes at a time where she was MIA....I mean it's like we were expected to not care for this character at all. Mituski existed in this anime in just the capacity that she needed to exist for Hiroomi's jokes to be relevant. Her character design was also non-inspiring.
My favorite character in KNK is by far Akihito. Despite his turbulent and dark past, Akihito still manages to demonstrate an exuberant comportment, and a fervent fetish towards girl wearing glasses. Though his jokes were hardly funny, I found Akihito's optimism to be inspiring and touching. The moment where he tells Mirai, “ I'm just like you....a monster.” was the most powerful moment for me in KNK. Though he suffered an abject past, he continued to make friends, laugh, and even fall in love. His maturity was refreshing for me to experience, and my only drawback is that I wished that he would have been more combat-inclined. There may not be any unique qualities about Akihito, his character type is rampant in modern anime, but that did not decrease my enjoyment of him.
My enjoyment of KNK was in a state of fluctuation between the first half of the anime, but strong near the end. The ambiguity in whether the anime should be taken seriously or as a comedy left me ambivalent about my enjoyment until a decision was made to take the second half seriously. There was a “filler” episode thrown in there that had me rolling in laughter, but after that episode, the plot became more dark and serious. Ignoring the nuances of the plot, I would say that this anime was enjoyable and has the capacity to be rewatchable. Overall, I give the anime an 8/10, and I would recommend KNK to anyone who is looking for a quick watch (that involves comedy, drama, and action) and isn't meticulous about plot details.
Rating:
Story: 5
Art: 10
Sound: 8
Character: 8
Enjoyment:9
Overall: 8
