Beyond The Boundary Episode 11
What They Say:
“There is a girl who is the last surviving member of a ‘certain clan’ and a ‘half-youmu’ boy who shouldn’t exist… This is their story.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Beyond the Boundary threw a lot of things at the viewer in the previous episode that worked to turn the series on its ear. By showing us what Mirai was going through during the past several months that we didn’t see in the nine episodes prior to that, we saw more of the darkness that existed in her and what her larger mission really was. It worked well enough in some ways, but it was also disquieting because it felt like such a basic gimmick to try and pull off. Everything you thought you knew isn’t true and now we have to deal with a different kind of Mirai rather than seeing her struggles throughout it. It does put a good facade on what she went through in all of those episodes, but it made it that all the more, fake in its own way. Granted, you know she was humanized more by what she experienced, but it still left a bitter taste for me.
Mirai’s saving move at the end of the previous episode did exactly what it intended in that Akihito has survived, but now she’s disappeared from their lives. Everything has a somber feeling to it, even knowing that what she did removed the Beyond the Boundary as well. Everything is changing because of that and what makes things even more eerie is the reverberation booms that the characters here, which we know is Mirai in her other place. Amid all of this, Akihito starts to get more of Mirai’s backstory that helps explains what she did and how it was impacting her along the way, which only makes Akihito more morose in a way. He’s not succumbing to it significantly, but you can easily see how he’s starting to build up towards really making an effort to find her rather than just acknowledging that she’s gone and having no answers on what to do.
Not surprisingly, it really doesn’t take long for the two worlds that exist to start coming together and those in the normal world start to see what’s really going on up above. And how so many of the youmu are being sucked upwards. The general chaos is actually kind of fun to watch in a creepy way as it progresses as we see how the gang all ends up coming together in the same place, including Akihito’s mother who orchestrates a lot of it. Having the truth revealed of what Mirai is doing is definitely expected as we zoom in on the finale to the series, but it’s done with some good style here in terms of the visuals when you have the reflective world above and the general seriousness of the characters. Even the humor manages to work right, which is surprising.
In Summary:
Beyond the Boundary works through some decent material here as we get the glimpses of what Mirai is going through, and sympathize well enough with her struggle, while also seeing what her friends are doing. The fallout from her saving Akihito is pretty well done and we see some of the larger impact it has, but the bulk of the episode is dialogue focused and that’s to its advantage. We get some good character time here as they realize the changes going on in the world while Akihito knows something else must be going on as well. As both worlds begin to collide, it has a great feeling and really does some impressive visual work to bring it all together.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.