Initial Impressions

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Okay so after a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong break, I'm going to resume with the blog posts, and this time I'll be taking a look at an anime from the new season: Kyoukai no Kanata, which is an anime about spirits called "Youmu" who are roaming the human realm while being pursued by "Spirit World Warriors", who are trained in fending the youmu off. There has been quite the amount of hype surrounding this show before it's airing, so we're about to judge whether it's worth the hype!




STORY



Our main protaganists in the story as of the first episode are Mirai Kuriyama, a female high-school freshman with the ability to combat youmu using her blood as a weapon ( I wonder what her branch of sin would be called ), and Akihito Kanbara, a male high-school sophomore whose lineage is partially youmu-based.



As of the first episode, there has not yet been the appearance of a big bad antagonist yet, and most of the progression in the first episode feels like a session where we are being shown the antics of each character, and being eased into the story and setting, and the meeting of the two characters. After all, I feel that this show gives off a slice-of-life -ishvibe, with a bit of action, although I can't really judge the pacing and validity of the plot of the show until later on, as things are pretty slow in the first episode story-wise.



Kuriyama gives off the clumsy, shy glasses girl type of vibe. Somehow, with the over-emphasis on her tripping over things in serious scenes, she is still able to come off as a fun character because the tripping is somehow more hilarious than irritating in the scenes where it occurs.



Akihito gives off the typical male MC sort of feel to him, and he is actually rather dull as a character, coming into the first episode though, this is not really unexpected as the story hasn't really had it's time to develop and grow yet. However, one thing I do like is the chemistry that Akihito and Kuriyama has, and I find their interactions with each other quite humorous and light-hearted.



Character-wise I'm still on the fence about how the characters will be and their character development/growth, so I'll probably be more into that during the SCA of the series.



ANIMATION STYLE & ART



The art and animation quality seems to actually be better than most other shows this season, and it is as always reminiscent of the KyoAni style(Chuunibyo, Haruhi, K-On!, etc..), though the animations, overall character and background design are more polished than the previous shows that KyoAni has done, although I have to comment that the art and animation quality of most anime this season is really up from the previous seasons, so props to everyone for that.



The animation is really good. It is fluid and succinct, such as when showing the blood power of Kuriyama being used, and how the blood gleams in reference to the angles of light, and how it moves and swirls, to how it strengthens comedic effects through showing a really quick few frames of Kuriyama tripping over something. The animation actually seems to get even better in the second episode, with some really astounding direction of the animation of the scene through, even though the scene is moving at a quick pace. It is probably on a level comparable to the scenes in Bakemonogatari when the action scenes unfold.



SOUND



I think the sound quality was just average overall. It wasn't weak and lacking, but it wasn't particularly strong and memorable that it had to I paid particular attention to it, However, the opening and ending themes were pretty nice to listen to, which is enjoyable enough. No complaints for this section yet. moving onnnnnn



CLOSING



Overall, I feel that KyoAni was able to match the hype that was building for this show animation and art wise, although there are places that I don't really have too strong of an opinion yet, because it was not really that emphasised/well hit-on during the first episode(Story, Sound), so I'm excited to wait and see how good it can be, and if Kyoukai no Kanata is able to live up to its potential.



SCORE: 8.0



P.S



Sorry for the inactivity over the past month or so, was really busy with school-related matters, and I'll be doing at most only 1-2 more IIs for this season, (Tokyo Ravens comes to mind here), because I don't know about how hectic or free my schedule will be during the upcoming holidays. As such, you can expect : the SCA for gin no saji soon, and Monogatari,KnKand Tokyo ravens soon. For the matter concerning Gatchaman Crowds, a second season has been announced, so I'll be giving my SCA after that.As always, if there is any constructive feedback that you can offer, please do! I'm always striving to improve my writing ya :O
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