Kyoukai no Kanata

I buy it. While he probably wanted the Earth to...well, not explode, what was really driving him at the end of the last episode was bringing Kuriyama back. Stories typically operate in a progressive manner—if you want something, you'll only get it after you gain something. We know that Kanbara wanted to bring Kuriyama back to life both before and after he regained his immortality—it follows that her return was a direct result of his actions and what he gained. Monomyth trumps drama. Moreover, it's been established that Youmu screw with reality, the eponymous ball o' hate can create human doll things, and that it bonded with Kuriyama.

Oh, and I guess Hateball prefers girls without glasses. Who'd have thought?

edited 18th Dec '13 10:52:59 PM by Rem

I thought the ending itself was kind of okay. With or without Mirai coming back, I'm indifferent to that.

Well, it still reads like someone who desperately wants their work to be "dark".

The poor adaptation shows, I think, because the anime was never given enough time to just be itself. People say Hyouka was boring? I would have liked some of that here, it would have added to the casualness that was only implied and the sense of passing time which you didn't really get to see.

And all that is beside the amateurish writing the original seems to embody.

5/10 I'd say.

Yeah it's kind of hard to be a dark series when you have a fanservice idol episode.

I feel like the series had a lot of untapped potential. The show I wanted to watch was a Mirai-centric series that actually explores the ramifications of the secret war between Youmu and Spirit Warriors in the real world. For a series like this, I find it weird that we see almost no Muggles, aside from Sakura (who is a special case anyways since she is aware of things).

I wouldn't have minded a series more centered on the Nase siblings — there's a lot of potential there, especially with Hiroomi's later character growth, and Isumi's political dealings.

Mhm. Come to think of it, there were a lot of things in this series I would've liked to see more of.

I guess the problem was that was too much focus on the romance aspect.

Ironically, if what Nakulas (the guy who's translating volume 1 of the LN) is saying is true, then the source was actually quite serious in tone, and while it has the usual pitfalls of a shounen LN, these could have been fixed by an adaptation easily. Why Kyo Ani went in the other direction, and actually made a hash of it (they only used 2/3rds of the material of the book, and rest is anime-original) makes one wonder really.

I finally visited the Black and Grey Worlds:

Black World:

• So Mirai was locked in an eternal battle with Kyoukai no Kanata. A raw deal. And she's wearing a gray, soulless pair of glasses.
• Yayoi appears in the flesh. And promptly gets an earful and a pounding. It's her nature as an eccentric one.
• Thank you for stopping by Miroku's Service Station! The World's End just got closer.

Grey World:

• Sakura has limits. Yayoi will make sure she always reaches her limits. Add Nino to that list. Heck, everyone will reach their limits easily by being in her presence.
• Mirai suggesting that weakness was pretty funny.
• Izumi was handed a raw serving of karma. From being trolled by Yayoi to losing her cool when revelations were made. Her siblings even began opposing her after all this time. What else could she do, but vanish? Protecting the world is important, yes. But you should've been less manipulative about it.
• Total youmu massacre! Punches, slashes, and beams galore!
• And thus, Akihito accepted his shadow. And Mirai went poof.
• Akihito lived in a world with no future(Mirai). In his words, very unpleasant. Then she came back. I agree that she's back because of Akkey's will. He is the immortal half-youmu, after all.
• And she regains her red, full-of-life glasses. Akkey did a good job preserving them, ya know?

Episode 12: Watched it, liked the action scenes, resoundingly meh about everything else. Pretty much describes my opinion of the show in general, actually!

I had expected Kyo Ani to polish up the supposedly rough source material, but no dice. There were a lot of plot threads that could have tugged the story in interesting directions (e.g. Nase family circumstances), but Kyo Ani went for the safe, straightforward route, complete with sorta forced happy ending.

Ah, well. All in all it's something to watch for the pretty visuals. There's Chuuni next season anyway.

I think the problem with the series is that it couldn't keep a consistent tone. Good god, mood whiplash was all over the place, and not a good way!

Was it meant to be a funny show? Lighthearted? More serious? Dark fantasy? It felt like they were trying for something but they couldn't decide on one so they tried sticking them all in. The scenes would alternate between serious and goofy at the drop of a hat. Actually no, I think a lot of more serious and potentially heartwarming scenes got ruined by the constant shoehorning of things like Akihito's glasses obsession and Hiromi's little sister obsession. EVERY FUCKING EPISODE. Every fucking episode that got brought up! It's not necessary! We know those are their kinks! We get it!

And I'm sorry but Akihito's mom just kind of ruined the scenes she was in in the last episodes. Those were supposed to be tense and suspenseful and then we have this character that's trying to be goofy and it just destroys the tone. I think she worked better for the first couple of episodes, but not towards the end.

Oh and did I miss the foreshadowing of Izumi having a youmu in her? Because I heard that and was like "wait, where did that come from?"

Also yeah I don't get the ending. The explanation the thread gave kind of made sense but ehhhh.

edited 27th Dec '13 2:15:54 PM by Hermiethefrog

Yes, thank you for pointing out the fetishes! Poor jokes got run to the ground.

Izumi having a youmu is one of those last-minute sequel hooks.

I couldn't even be expected to care about most of the characters besides Mirai and Sakura, who actually got some character development. A lot of the characters were one-dimensional and could be summed up with their one off gags / jokes, etc. I liked Ayaka too (the youmu woman who could turn into a kitsune) since she wasn't reduced to a singular joke. Too bad we didn't really see much of her.

reviving the thread, because it seems that a KnK movie is in the works for 2015.

Surprised. This was one of Kyo Ani's less popular series

Pretty much the reaction on Twitter was "Why?", especially with the botched ending.

well, Kyo Ani did make a Tamako Market movie, and AFAIR it sold less than Kn K.

the volumes of the series sold slightly below the 5k tier on average, but it still sold more than, say, Log Horizon, Strike the Blood, and Yowamushi Pedal.

I guess the money Kyo Ani made off of Free! ended up covering the expenses (and then some).

I personally really liked Tamako Market. I liked Kyoukai no Kanata too but didn't expect it to sell more than the former.