HasseRovdjur

This was apparently an entry that got an honorable mention (no winners...) in some kind of contest for light novels held by Kyoto Animation. If this got animated over the other entries, it makes you think how bad the rest must have been. Seriously, this was one of the worst stinkers of Autumn 2013 for me, and it had some stiff competition.

The show stars Mirai and Akihito, two boring persons surrounded by other, equally boring persons. They attend highschool and Akihito has a glasses fetish, while Mirai is a clumsy person with glasses that tries to kill him all the time. Good thing (no, not really) that Akihito is effectively immortal. The setting is basically Japan, but there are some monster thingies, youmu, that infests the place. They range from nuisances to being outright dangerous, but usually it's the former. Spirit warriors go out and hunt these because they're annoying creatures, and Mirai just so happens to be one, while Akihito is half-youmu. And no, I have no idea exactly how that happened, nor do I actually care.

This was all terribly uninteresting for me, given that the characters are flat and without any lasting impact whatsoever, and what plot there was about Mirai, her past and the guilt she felt were handled in a half-assed fashion, to put it mildly. There's some drama involving her past, and of course an overarching plot as well, but it's pretty fuckballs inane and is never really explained enough or expanded upon until it's too late so there is no sense of tension or drama about it. The ending is fittingly disappointing as well, equally rushed and inane. It was the most appallingly unsatisfying climax I've had the displeasure to watch since Diabolik Lovers (which was just last week...).

Since this takes place in a school setting, it automatically means that a lot of characters will interact with each other in light-hearted ways, and lots of conversations about "everyday topics", or something like it. Kyoukai no Kanata has some kind of insufferable twee hipster twist to it, making it even more lacking in substance than the most vapid of slice of life shows. The dialogue is probably meant to be snappy, but it's pretty grating and is either bad exposition, standard small talk or attempts at witticisms that always fall flat.

The comedic element is just painfully bad, and they actually spend a lot of time repeating the same few jokes ad infinitum, only making matters worse. I lost count on how many times I groaned at Mirai saying her catchphrase or the seemingly endless talk about fetishes. How unpleasant, indeed. And not only that, the comedy is even clogging up moments that are supposed to be serious, causing me to care even less as my annoyance rises to critical levels.

Then there's the fanservice –something I'm not exactly a fan of even in the best of works– that crops up now and then, more than usual in a KyoAni work, and it sticks out like a sore thumb, especially given that a lot of the cast look like they're tweens with very moe designs. Of course, it's not nearly as awful or excessive as Walkure Romanze or Wanna Be the Strongest in the World, but it doesn't even serve a purpose or fit in thematically like the fanservice in Kill la Kill at least partially does. There really was no reason to include it here, and the show was worse off because of it. Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things since there's still plenty of things I did not like about it.

The so-called romance between the two is just awkward and devoid of any and all substance. Since nobody has any personality in this show, it seems like the only thing driving the romance is the fact that they're both main characters. Needless to say, this seems more like someone callously trying to appeal to a wider audience than actually thinking it would contribute to the story. Next time, please skip the inane, perfunctory “romances”, it will feel less insulting for everyone involved.

The only good thing about this show is the great animation, but it's generally wasted on shitty character designs (I hate KyoAni's current standard design with a fiery passion), shitty fight choreographics and shitty events that are seemingly engineered to cause me the greatest amount of annoyance. The backgrounds and visual effects were pretty damn bland too, though still highly detailed. I guess they were going for something different, but as usual when it comes to this anime, it backfired.

The sound was okay, with good effects and an OK soundtrack, barring the OP and ED. Those were crap, especially the ED. The voice acting was pretty annoying, with several nasally voices providing incessant whining, but how much that has to do with my loathing of the characters is anyone's guess. It sounded professionally done, at least.

So, all in all, this was by far the worst show Kyoto Animation that I've watched, a big waste of time, effort and money and a huge disappointment all around. If only they could have done a second season of Free! instead...