“Don’t
worry; it’s only a flesh wound!”
Now, I read
the summary of this originally and my mind started going “Bakemonogatai ripoff alert”, but I kindly told it to shut up
because Kyoto Animation would never make something like Bakemongatari. And I was
actually right.
Despite the immortal main male character and the girl about to symbolically fall and a fast-talking female character with somewhat Bakemonogatari-esque lines, there’s a lot here that’s different. In fact, it’s comparisons to Bakemonogatari are a bit more topical, and I’d say that at heart, I’d point at Hyouka for similarities. And, considering how Hyouka was also a KyoAni production, well, that isn’t that odd. Except there’s a lot more stabbing. And fighting demons. Well, I guess that there was some demon fighting in Bakemonogatari, but it was more of ‘Araragi getting murdered repeatedly’ than ‘fighting’ in that.
No, this
isn’t about a bunch or students solving mysteries, but the tone and writing
here is similar. Beyond the Boundary doesn’t necessarily spell everything out for
you, and you actually have to infer a bit from everyone’s lines and
actions. I know that this sounds very
basic and obvious, but I’ve seen far too many shows lately that blankly tell
you everything instead of letting you draw your own conclusions. Not that Beyond
the Boundary is a genius piece of complex writing, but I appreciate its
efforts. It also has prominent
characters of both genders, which is something else I like, as the amount of
female-dominant or male-dominant shows that exist is mindboggling.
So, from
what I can tell, the story’s going to be about the world’s most moe demon
hunter and a half-demon guy who is immortal, for some reason (full-demons in
this universe aren’t immortal, so I have no clue why half ones are) who she
stabs because she sucks at hunting demons, so she wants practice.
She also can
manipulate her blood into a badass sword (reminds me of Brotherhood), but apparently this incredibly powerful and useful
skill is frowned upon in the demon-hunting world, so she has to hide it.
And did I
mention that she’s MOE? I mean, being stalked
by someone with a dangerous weapon and intent to stab you has never been this
adorable. And she’s very polite about
it, too.
While my
descriptions of stabbing and fighting demons and sword-wielding moe girls may
make you think that this is a really hardcore anime… Eh… It really isn’t. It does have a lighter, sweeter tone than I’m
probably leading you to believe (but it’s nowhere as sugary as some of the
stuff KyoAni puts out, trust me). In
other words, expect more amusing character interaction than thrilling
action. Again, I compare the writing to Hyouka, and I’m including the dialogue
in that category.
So far, I
don’t want to be too optimistic about the characters, because it seems like
every male lead in this sort of thing is bland as all hell. I can’t say too much about the main guy yet,
but he does get some fairly memorable lines in and I have some hope for him, especially considering how much I liked the lead in Hyouka.
The moe girl
is moe. I mean, she stutters, trips
adorably over things, and even eats in a cute manner (I’m not even entirely
sure how that’s possible, but it is). I
can’t say that she’s totally generic (she does seem to have a bit extra going
for her, especially that demon-hunting job)… yet. I can understand people who are completely turned
off of this show by her, but I personally don’t have a burning hatred for all
things moe so it doesn’t bother me much.
As long as that doesn’t become her only defining characteristic, I’m
totally fine for KyoAni doing what I’ve come to expect from it. The vampire half-demon male lead and
the moe girl got some fairly nice dialogue with each other. I definitely enjoyed the scenes they shared, which
is a good sign.
There is a
third character, a girl. She’s my
favorite so far, because she definitely gets the best lines. However, her role in the actual plot of this
episode is somewhat negligible, so I’m only getting to mentioning her now. But her speech patterns and deadpan delivery actually
are somewhat Bakemonogatari-esque, in
a way. She is set up as a childhood
friend of the male lead, meaning that they hang out and she makes fun of
him. She also seems to be involved in
this demon world thing. I assume that
she’ll be doing more plot-stuff later on.
In fact, I hope it.
So, from the
way the main guy and the moe girl interact, I’m going to assume that this anime’s
overarching plot is going to be about their developing relationship and her
struggles to improve herself while devoting the individual episode’s stories to
their demon-related adventures. And the
opening song’s teasing another character (a guy with a scarf) being thrown into
the mix to further even out the gender ratio.
Hmm… I’d say that this anime definitely has potential. I’ll keep watching.
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