Beyond the Boundary (2013–2014) User Reviews

Beyond the Boundary

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 21 December 2013]

This anime series is set in a world were creatures known as Youmu exist. They are the manifestation of negative emotions and while some are harmless others upset the natural balance; these are hunted by the Spirit World Warriors. The story's protagonist is high school student Akihito Kanbara who just happens to be an immortal half-youmu; luckily it is the human side that dominates his character. One day he saves youmu hunter Mirai Kuriyama and he ends up helping her hunting. She has an unusual way of fighting; she can create a sword out of her own blood! For the first part of the series things go well as they deal with a succession of youmu but then an event known as 'The Calm' occurs; this weakens youmu but also awakens Akihito's youmu side; the most powerful youmu: Beyond the Boundary. Things now get much darker as they struggle to save the world.

This twelve part series was pretty good; early on it was enjoyably light hearted with quite a few laughs to be had but as it approaches its end the tone becomes much darker. The characters were good; each distinctive in their own way. My personal favourite was Mirai; her introduction feature quite a surprise and her method of fighting seemed rather original. The plot is fairly familiar as there are plenty of series that involve the heroes fighting supernatural beings; if you like that genre you will probably like this. The animation is good and darker in tone than most series as it employs a fairly subdued palette. Overall I'd say that while this isn't a classic it is worth watching if you are a fan of the genre.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

More better if creator's explained it well

[sumittomar-48629 · 8/10 · 25 November 2021]

The movie is all good story , concept , animation but it'll be a master piece if they explain movie well while watching soo many times I got confused how this happened.

I wanted to give 10

[tnrv-70867 · 8/10 · 5 April 2023]

I'm normally a little more liberal with my ratings. The animation in this show is great, and the action/fight sequences are top notch. That's why I wanted to give it 10, but..the story was a little too rushed, I never really felt emotionally attached to the characters or their stories, it was a more superficial feeling of connection. You ever watched something and thought "the writing isn't really bad or anything but for some reason it just feels a little wonky or off"? That's how I felt with this show. I make it sound like this show isn't worth watching with my semi harsh critics, but I def think this is something you should watch if you're into supernatural shonen drama. Love y'all, here's a hug 🤗

a beautiful but bland mess

[Protogeist · 6/10 · 11 March 2019]

The first time I saw the poster for this anime, I instantly wanted to watch it. The warm colors, the usual Kyoto animation style and the general direction they took looked really nice. And the show keeps the same quality. The warm colors aren't kept as much as I would have liked, but it still looked amazing. That was mainly why I wanted to watch the show, and you should too.

The animation is the only thing I found to be special. The music was pretty good and was definitely my second favorite part, but some of the songs were pretty forgettable. the characters were also pretty good, but still the usual anime cast. With the pervert, the cute one, the serious one, and the main character. But I liked these character more than I do for similar characters, cause they weren't very one-sided which made them more realistic. the story was definitely my least favorite part, not that it was bad, but pretty mediocre nonetheless.

The world was the thing I noticed at first. The story is about a world where there are invisible demons that can interact with the human world, and where certain people are born with powers that make them stronger and make them see the demons most people wouldn't see. Now aside from that, the world just like any other SoL anime, which doesn't really make any sense. Cause in my mind, society would change a lot from what it is now if demons could interact with us. You could think of so many interesting changes, but there really is none. That was something that bugged me for a while.

The second thing that bugged me was the first third of the show. The drama aspects were really boring and bland, and the episodes as a whole were confusing. A majority of the drama episodes are in the beginning, but we don't know enough about the characters that would make the episodes interesting.

The last third of the show was definitely my favorite part, cause they give characters more motivation, especially Mirai. The scene where they show us that her original task was to kill the beyond the boundary and why she rejects Akihito so much at the start, was really interesting but didn't feel forced in. And they explain it really well by showing the timeline. but sometimes the show tries to explain a little too much. things that could be explained with visuals.

That's something the show has a few problems with, the show doesn't tell formula. That's something that the antagonist has a lot of problems with. He explains his motivation when he could show it. That character is also the one that is the most boring in the show, cause he feels very unrealistic. He doesn't change over time, he doesn't have any good character traits and is just really boring overall.

So overall I would call this a beautiful show that has a lot of problems with story and characters 6/10 from me

Beautiful and emotional

[tessielydo · 10/10 · 13 January 2023]

This is so sad and beautiful that words cannot describe it, but emotions can. It's so emotional, like Violet Evergarden. I'm literally crying while writing this review, because I just finished the show 2 minutes ago.

This is the most tragic and beautiful anime I've ever watched, despite Fruits Basket being my 1st for such a long time... At first, I thought it's some stupid cringe romance and fighting, because Mirai was such an annoying girl and Akihito & Hiroomi are weirdos that are obsessed with cute girls wearing glasses, but I was completely fooled.

Some shows start out as a cringe comedy, but it starts to get darker and darker.

The last episode and the movie (future) was so emotional and tragic.

This show was so dark because of the blood and cruelty that makes you want to burst out tears because of the realisation of twisted humanity.

I recommend this show for people who are okay with blood and gore and dark fantasy.

60 percent perfect. An Average show. C+ show

[Sabbir_Zoro · 6/10 · 20 November 2020]

1. Animation : 4 out of 5 2. Screenplay : 3 out of 5 3. Character Development : 2 out of 5 4. Scores and soundtracks : 5 out of 5 5. Story : 2 ou of 5 6. Root : 5 out of 5 7. Intensity : 2 out of 5 8. Connectivity : 2 out of 5 9. Ending : 2 out of 5 ..................................................... Series Grade : C+

I liked it.

[Lukasmj · 8/10 · 6 January 2023]

In a world where supernatural beings dwell among humans, young high school student Akihito Kanbara leads a pretty normal life by his standards. Because even if he looks like a human being at first glance, he too belongs in the world of the supernatural. Akihito is a half youmu, a being that grants him the ability to regenerate wounds so quickly that he is immortal. One day he sees that a young girl is about to throw herself off the school roof. But he successfully stops her and ends up in a dangerous situation. Because Mirai Kuriyama belongs to the bloodbenders, a very rare class of the spirit world who are hated and persecuted by other supernatural beings. So Akihito gets into this fight by rescuing Mirai and tries to protect her from then on.

I really liked "Beyond the Boundary".

It's not necessarily something new, but the relationships between the individual characters are very well managed, the characters are written quite well with a few exceptions, and the animation is also very well done.

Great start, bad end

[thelionkrap · 7/10 · 11 October 2022]

The first 9 episodes are great, they setup what appears to be a really intriguing plot, with a lot of mysteries that you're really looking forward to see what happens.

And then, disappoinment comes, you're left with more questions than answers, what unfolds barely makes sense, feels rushed and is uninspired.

It's the kind of ending that makes you frustrated, like a broken promise, you've got to grieve the loss of what you were hoping for and accept that when all is said and done, it was an incoherent story, that didn't hold in the end, even though it appeared to have a great premise and setup a series of event that would lead to some epic ending.

It's really too bad, because I still think the first 9 episodes are great, and that's why I'm still giving it a 7, since 9 out of 12 episodes I really enjoyed, just know that it'll leave you disappointed in the end, so be ready for that.

It's worth watching

[bhaskar-35496 · 7/10 · 10 December 2020]

It's not that bad or not too good but u can watch it i recommend u to watch movie of this series not whole series.

Youmu

[Seras11123 · 6/10 · 17 August 2021]

Of two minds on this show, so will be dividing this into its positives and negatives and evaluating that way. To be clear, I did ultimately like it but there are tons of flaws.

Pros: -The premise is atypical and intriguing. I like the idea of two main characters who are outcasts in their own respects and of course I'm a sucker for non-human casts.

-Mirai/Kanbara bond is believable and they have good chemistry

-The animation catches your eye, and has that expected KyoAni seal of quality.

-Action scenes are engaging, even if they drag too long sometimes.

-The climax leads to a solid enough bookend, even if it is a bit confusing to follow all of it.

-Several twists occur in the climax, some making sense, others not. But it did give me a reason to continue watching.

Cons: -Past this promising slice of life formula, it too quickly reverts to a simplistic pattern of our characters killing demons (youmu) for money or saving people.

-The characters are ill-defined or trite outside of Mirai and Kanbara. None of them are unlikable, but much of the humor here feels flat like Mirai's childish mother or the nonstop glasses jokes.

-One thing that irks me are some of the writing inconsistencies. I might have missed the memo on some lore, but two examples. Somehow these teenage characters live on their own and in apartments with no explanation? And initially the Spirit Hunters and youmu emphasize not letting the outside world see, but soon this school/balancing supernatural double life focus is ditched wholesale in later episodes even though a world ending climax is ongoing.

-The lore felt too piled on to keep up with at periods. I acknowledge it's hard to adapt such an active show into 12 condensed episodes, but instead of doing things like the filler number 7 episode, use that time to pad out more backstory and tension.

-A couple of emotional moments feel "forced." This is much more subjective than the other criticisms, but might as well admit that too.

A very boring anime, boring storyline, boring MC, painful to watch

[shuvongkor · 1/10 · 10 June 2023]

I don't know how I got to know about this anime but the name "Beyond the Boundary" seems very interesting. But after watching first episode I began to realize how boring the anime gonna be.

The MC is boring, aimless and pathetic. Other characters surrounding the MC is also boring, specially the four eyes girl, her existent is painful in the story, other heroine are "doesn't matter".

Even the world and it's "Youmu" sh**t is boring and doesn't make any sense. There was no "Boundary" nor there was any "Beyond", it was just a Boring, Pathetic MC and Other Trash. Just ignore it, if you value your time.

This show ropes you in, only to pull you down.

[dussaultjulien · 3/10 · 6 October 2019]

Man, I cannot tell you how disappointed I am in the writing for this show. The show was fantastic, it pulled you in and from the very start I wanted to just binge watch the show, but I like to enjoy a story and so it took me a few days to actually finish this series, but when I did can I just say wow. What a disappointment. The ending of this series is as bad as the theatrical cut for the musical version of Little Shop of Horrors directed by Frank Oz. It plays on the fact that nobody can deal with a bad ending where not everything pans out the way that you want it to, or that you think it should and that makes the ending bad. Life is not peachy 24 hours out of the day, bad things happen all the time, this story line really lifted you up, took you down, and at the end almost lifted you up again, but ripped that from your grasp only two within the the next couple of minutes ruin itself by coming up with an ending to a story line that was coherent, easy-to-follow and a very enjoyable that completely and utterly ruined it. You cannot revive somebody less than 10 minutes later when you say that they can't be revived. It makes no sense whatsoever. This show is just as bad as any anime that is written very well in the beginning, but once you get to the end it's just a fluffy, annoying ending that's only made two make it so that the people who can't deal with a bad ending feel better. It makes me sad to write the all these things and to be so angry about the show because it is genuinely good and it beautifully animated, but when you pull something like they did in the ending it just turned into a mediocre, boring mess that I could watch it on ABC NBC or even CBS anytime of the day with less talented actors and writers.