Kyokai no Kanata - 10

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This episode of Kyokai no Kanata shows us the aftermath of the fight between Mirai and Akihito’s youmu side.

The narrative style of this episode is a little bit atypical in that we learn what has happened slowly as Akihito learns about it, rather than getting a straightforward, third-person view of events.  We see shifting views from Akihito’s dream and Mirai’s subconscious throughout the episode, shifting from summer to winter in a jarring yet quite effective narrative by the time the episode is over.

This style is effective because it makes much more of an emotional impact than a chronological sort of style.  It’s almost as though the viewer, along with Akihito, has awakened from a coma and is reliving the events that put them there.  What’s even more emotionally impacting is the fact that Mirai’s subconscious is the thing giving Akihito all the information in this dream, as some of her blood is still inside him from when she stabbed him at the end of the previous episode.

This episode of Kyokai no Kanata also explains a lot about both Mirai’s and Akihito’s backgrounds.  Mirai came to this town because Izumi asked her to, intent on having someone around who could defeat Beyond the Boundary (which she’s known for a while is Akihito, it seems).  Apparently, when Hiromi was injured by Akihito in the past, it was because he was trying to destroy Beyond the Boundary and failed, so Izumi needs someone else to accomplish this task.

This brings us to the question of why Izumi was so completely sure that Beyond the Boundary would overpower Akihito eventually.  The only times he’s lost control has been when he’s done something reckless (like taking the Hollow Shadow into himself to protect Mirai) or when he’s been forced to lose control by Izumi herself.  What makes her so sure that Beyond the Boundary will take control of him?  Is it simply the fact that it could that leads her to want to destroy him?

These questions are likely to be answered when we discover who the mysterious old man is that Izumi keeps meeting with.  Clearly, he’s an elder member of the Nase family, but that’s about all we can deduce about him at this point.  What does the Nase family want with Beyond the Boundary’s youmu stone?  I’m leaning toward the assumption that it has to do with their family remaining in power among Spirit World Warriors.  But that seems like a very selfish goal, especially considering the fact that accomplishing it seems to require that at least one child has to die; whether that child is Akihito (who is completely innocent in all of this) or Mirai (who has taken Beyond the Boundary into herself of her own free will in an attempt to defeat it), Izumi seems not to have a problem with either of them dying in order to achieve her goal.

Kyokai no Kanata Episode 11 Preview

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