Final Impression:
I actually wasn’t expecting Kyoukai no Kanata to be ending today, I thought it was going to be thirteen episodes but I must have misread it. So as soon as I realized that, I was not impressed. While the fights were beautifully animated (no complaints about that!), the lines between Mirai and Akihito (though it is totally in character for them) was far too cheesy for my liking and at times felt forced and didn’t fit with the situation. Then we have the whole bullshit I called out on last week which only added more unaswered questions to the list. I mean I can’t speak for the novel because this is only an adaption so it can’t answer all the questions unless they were to make a second season to continue that on (I have doubts- but then again Chuunibyou got a second season (despite it’s solid wrap up) so perhaps they will make one for this show). However all I can hope is that at some point (or perhaps already has) in the novel it does tie up the loose ends and answer the questions that popped up today.
As you know, it irked me last week to have Akihito’s mother step in and be all vague and mysterious and not give us any information. So seeing that when she had the window of opportunity to do that today, it really pissed me off to see her say “TO BE CONTINUED” bullshit and run off to god knows where aka: “YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN SUCKERS”! And then followed by the end of the episode revealed that Izumi had secrets of her own (no surprise there). However what I didn’t expect was to hear that Izumi has a youmu within her as well. Of course we get no explanation whatsoever and POOF she just disappears, and forces Hiromi to become the next the head of the Nase Clan. Then we have Miroku and it was certainly not a surprise to hear that he had a youmu inside of him as well (he’s so messed up) and desired world destruction (gee, that’s so original). He too just POOFS and never seen again until god knows if ever in the novel.
I will at least give this show credit for the bittersweet parting and reunion Akihito and Mirai had. It was really sweet and did tear me up so they succeeded with the delivery. Both scenes were absolutely stunning and magical to watch. Kyoto Animation really did a fantastic job with the animation with this episode to major props to them.
Overall Kyoukai no Kanata is a good show, but it certainly could have been better. The ending has way too many loose ends to my liking and instead of wrapping things up for a solid conclusion they added to the list of unanswered questions. In the beginning this show was sweet, great, I enjoyed it. But somewhere along the lines after the sixth episode everything started going downhill. Each week I started to care less, I wasn’t excited- in fact to be honest: There were plenty of times where I almost forgot that I was even covering this show. Although despite it’s lacklustre wrap up, Kyoukai no Kanata did succeed in the character development for both Mirai and Akihito which was a far bigger priority than the rest of the cast.
Not going to bother doing a separate Overall Review this time round so here we go:
::Score::
Story/Plot: 6.5
Great story and plot, but too many loose ends and unanswered questions.
Characters & Development: 8/10
Mirai’s and Akihito’s Character Development were well done, the others weren’t the priorities. The majority of the characters are very likeable and charming.
Animation Quality: 8/10
Kyoto Animation did an absolute spectacular job! I really hope to see more action animes from them in the future!
Orignal Soundtrack: 8/10
Overall Score: 7/10
Recommended?
Yes, but don’t expect your questions to be answered.
I was also disappointed by the ending. I’m pretty sure most (if not 100%) of the material in this episode is completely independent of the novels, so even if they were to do another show after more books are published it will be hard to make for a smooth watching experience. I like Mirai and Akihito, but with the rest of the plot so incoherently written it’s hard for me to really care about the show at the end. And with this many loose endings it really makes me feel like KyoAni is gearing up for a potential sequel, though I’m not sure I’d be interested in watching it. :\
I’m on the same boat about being uncertain whether I would want to watch the second season. What I do know for sure is that if it does get a sequel, there’s a high possibility that I won’t want to cover it. I am skeptical with shows that end poorly with loose ends , but it doesn’t always mean the sequels will be bad
unfortunately most are if they end with a solid wrap up but not but that’s not the point. In fact sometimes it fixes that by filling in the loophole of the previous season. Utapri is a great example of that as it had SO many problems in the first season (and I was sorely disappointed with its ending), and then BOOM season 2 happens and most if not all the plot-holes and lack of character development was fulfilled without repeating the same mistake. Some shows need to have that second season I think to fix all the loose end (done right) and Kyoukai no Kanata is definitely one of them.I think a lot of anime now are one cour instead of two, when many could’ve benefited from a 24 or 26 episode count from the get-go. I guess it really all comes back to money again. If a show does poorly after the studio has invested the resources of doing a two cour show they’ll loose money, and with a one cour show they can gauge if they should continue with a project. But the problem is I think the writers just did a bad job with the writing for this show as it stands now. Just because they had limited source material to work with doesn’t mean they can pull plot threads out of thin air. In this case the thing with Izumi having a youmu inside her really bothers me because it felt so tacked on. We were never given any foreshadowing that this was her secret. The whole time I thought she had something like ousting the senior Nase family head or challenging the Spirit Warrior Society in mind, but not this!
I will be disappointed by the ending if this is truly how it ends, but I have high hopes for a second season, or least high hopes that they PLANNED on a second season but don’t get around to it because of financial problems and whatever else contributes to whether or not an anime gets another season. Even so, I’m sure the novel goes beyond what is shown in these 12 episodes (and it probably didn’t end the same way either, as with most anime adaptions of manga/novels) and explains the unexplained. I agree with this review, but disagree with your score for the story, if it’s solely based on the loose ends anyways (unless of course this really is how they wanted to end it, then yeah, that’s stupid).
Some parts of it were rather… abrupt, and the ending seemt to have too much deus ex machina. Nevertheless, it’s a decent anime.
The last third of the series completely lost me, I had no freaking clue what was going on. The first 3 episodes were pretty crap, but episodes 4-7/8 were decent. Didn’t really enjoy the characters very much though. the Nase siblings are alright, but Akihito and Kuriyama weren’t very fun and engaging MCs. I particularly thought the dialogue was poor too. I’ve had enough of stupid glasses fetish jokes unless we’re talking about Meganebu.
No you didn’t misread it, I also saw it as 13 episodes just a few days before the 11th episode aired… They must of changed and confirmed the length. Either that or MAL/ANN was just misinformed… >>
Anyway I have the same opinion as you. Beautiful animation (as always), but their ‘original’ stories (that diverged from the original story since episode 2/3) that they put into this show to create more ‘moe’ moments was really unnecessary. They could of used all those moments for explanations. They pretty much diverged from a pretty good light novel. Sad to hear from readers talk about this. I’m starting to really hate this ‘fanservice’ priority that KyoAnimation is putting first and many of their newer shows these days… (ҩ_ҩ)