I think it's best to describe my reaction to this series in phases. Upon finishing the final episode I entered Phase 1, in which I was still feeling the adrenaline rush from the climactic action scene and a mild sense of wonder from the ambiguous ending.
Perhaps 20 minutes later I entered Phase 2, in which I began questioning the quality of the anime I had just spent 4 hours watching. This is when I started recognizing loose ends and the almost non-existent character development.
One hour after finishing the last episode, I entered Phase 3, in which I realized that Kyoukai no Kanata is a mediocre series at best. It falls short because it tries to accomplish far too much within a mere 12 episodes.
In the opening moments, we are thrown straight into the action. Anything that even remotely resembles an explanation of the series' events is nowhere to be found in the first episode or, for that matter, any episode. The series fails to lay down a foundation for the universe in which it exists, leaving the plot an incoherent mess of shallow characters and loose ends.
The characters are as two-dimensional as they look. Little, if any, time is spent on developing the characters and instead each character is simply given a set of traits that they possess simply for the sake of possessing them; and honestly, the entire cast of characters doesn't fall very far from the tree of action anime tropes. Personally, I found Mirai to be incredibly annoying all-around and her apparent inner dichotomy between weak, clumsy, indecisive klutz and strong-willed, morally righteous warrior got on my nerves for the entire duration of the series.
As for the rest of the main cast, although they are reasonably likable, they have no depth and no motivation for their actions other than that they are the good guys who have to fight the bad guys. Sadly, the supporting characters seem to contribute little to nothing, including the pathetic attempt at a main antagonist, who appears to aim for nothing and accomplish nothing in his maybe 30 minutes of screen time.
Kyoukai no Kanata's only redeeming factor is its presentation. The art is gorgeous, which makes the action scenes a visual pleasure, if nothing else. The series is packed with eye candy that may or may not be able to make you momentarily forget its flaws in almost every other department.
It is with great regret that I acknowledge that I did, in fact, waste 4 hours of my life on this series. Kyoukai no Kanata's only high point is episode 6, which, ironically, is essentially the equivalent of a filler episode. If you are like me and are feeling discouraged from watching this anime because of all the negative reviews--
Good. You should be.
