Mirai Kuriyama and Akihito Kanbara, two cursed souls who
should never have met. Together, these
two defied the odds and stopped one of the most powerful entities on the
planet…but not without cost. Mirai has
lost her memories and Akihito is desperate to keep his distance to make sure
she isn’t consumed by her own cursed powers.
That might prove difficult when a new yet familiar evil appears and
starts tearing its way through Spirit World Warriors, searching for Mirai. For more than the world and for the woman he
loves, Akihito must head into battle once again and this time he’s going to
bring Mirai back home for good
Beyond the Boundary was such a huge letdown for me from a
studio I adore tremendously.
Sure it has
a good core romance and some decent action but overall, the show felt lacking
in world building, storytelling and, most of all, it had one of the most
unlikeable supporting casts I’ve ever seen.
Given my disappointment with the series, I wasn’t sure the films would
do much to improve that opinion.
And…well I wasn’t entirely wrong.
The I’ll Be Here double feature certainly maintains a lot of what made
Beyond the Boundary an at times infuriating watch to sit through.
However, that core romance is still a good
one and it comes together big time in the final act of Future.
Does it save the entire story?
No, but I will give Beyond the Boundary
credit where it is do and admit I was moved at a couple of parts.
I decided to review both Past and Future feature films
back to back well before I started the series and I’m glad I did because I can
sum up my thoughts on Past pretty quickly: it sucks.
As I figured it would be, Past is a
Compilation Film keeping the focus on Mirai (even more than Akihito), kicking
out the filler and anything close to an arc for other characters, and with all
the rapid fire pacing you’d expect from a movie like this, losing any emotional
connection or impact in the process.
Which
is weird to say because Mirai is the best part of the series and you’d think
telling the story solely from her perspective wouldn’t be so bad…except there’s
nothing new added in terms of footage so you’re really just watching an 80
minute feature of a 12 episode Anime that isn’t great.
It only proves how much time the series
wasted on the pompous and boring Nasse storylines and how empty the world feels
outside of Mirai and Akihito.
The series
was already a rough watch and Past was somehow even rougher.
I’d advise a skip and just going right into
Future as soon as the show is done…even if that does present some problems as
well.
Future picks up directly after the end of the Beyond the
Boundary Series but with one added wrinkle: Mirai’s lost her memory as a result
of her mysterious restoration.
It’s a
forced plot element from a story that ended at least decently when it came to
its main couple and now it just feels like Future wants to ring out as much
drama from Mirai and Akihito as possible.
Its case isn’t helped when Akihito is being incredibly selfish thinking
it’s his call not to tell Mirai about her past, lest it possibly lead to her
own doom.
Not surprising, the Nasse’s
and every other character seem to follow his lead, even though they admit they
feel bad, so my sympathy for them remains as low as ever.
On the upside though, this all builds heavily
in Mirai and her emotional breakdown around Akihito’s secrets is a great
scene.
It shows the strength of their
romance which is one of, if not the only thing, that worked about the TV
Series, and shows that, despite Future feeling like an unnecessary epilogue
most of the time, there’s more to mine from it.
Also it leads to Mirai going totally berserk for reasons of villainy and
I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t entertaining to watch her beat the mess out of
everyone, even Akihito but especially Mitsuki and Hiroomi.
That said, Akihito’s deep love for Mirai
helps keep the movie from being totally unforgettable with a final act that is
arguably the best segment in the entire Beyond the Boundary storyline.
Seriously, I almost cried it was such a good
scene.
The rest of Future continues to highlight Beyond the
Boundary’s weaknesses in full.
As I’ve
indicated, I’ve got no love for the Nasse’ siblings and they get no further
love from me here.
Other supporting
characters either have very little to do (Ayako), are woefully underutilized
(Sakura), or continue to lack any reason to even be in the story at all
(Shizuku).
The sudden appearance of a
new big bad comes out of nowhere like it does in any Anime film.
But if you remember the lingering plot
threads from the TV Series, it’s easy to know who is back and when you find out
the further reasons why they’re doing what they do, God it only makes it more
obvious Beyond the Boundary has a serious villain problem in a story that
arguably either didn’t need one or had one in the eldest Nasse sibling,
Izumi.
Even for a feature film, the
world of Beyond the Boundary still feels very empty and without a lot of depth
and nothing is done to rectify that.
It’s still the same small bunch of characters doing very little and any
attempt at emotional resonance with anyone beyond Mirai and Akihito is utter
fail.
Thankfully the last twenty minutes
belong soley to them and leaves everyone out to the wayside where they should
be. And yes, there are the usual last minute revelations about characters from
the series but it’s hard to care about anyone beyond the main romantic duo.
The Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here double feature
doubles down on the best and worst elements of the TV Series and the results
are about what you’d expect.
The romance
somehow gets better closure than it did in the series but to get to it, you
have to suffer through Mirai’s needless suffering while the rest of the cast
acts like selfish idiots and villains prove they still cant take a freaking
hint.
The animation isn’t much better
for the show and sadly, Beyond the Boundary isn’t KyoAni’s best looking project.
Half of this two parter you can skip unless
you really, really want to get caught up on the events of the TV Series, albeit
poorly.
Overall, it’s 75% a trial to get
through but Future has a good climax for Mirai and Akihito that really touched
me in the feels.
But again, that’s more
power to how well their romance has been handled while everything else is
lacking and dismal.
Is I’ll Be Here
better than the series?
Heck no.
But because the finale itself is so well
done, I’ll say it’s about on par, that’s pretty generous.
Good on you Mirai and Aki.
Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here (Past) gets a 2/10
Beyond the Boundary: I’ll Be Here (Future) gets a 5/10
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