Forum - View topicShelf Life - Beyond the Boundary: I'll Be Here
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5514 Location: Iscandar |
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The Beyond the Boundary tv series is one of the biggest wastes I have watched. The visuals are top notch work from Kyoto Animation, but the writing is a mess. That being said, I am actually curious about these two movies. I am wondering if the cutting of so much stuff in the recap movie makes the story more coherent and decently written. I assume I would like the future movie if it heavily focuses in the relationship between Mirai and Akihito because that is the only endearing thing I found in the original series.
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SkerllyFC07
Posts: 108 |
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This is the criticism I fear Violent Evergarden ends up with. I´ve said it before, no one wanting to watch that series should be complaining about it being picked up by Netflix. Instead, as a wise people should do, they have to wait and ask some people in Japan or I don´t know where, if the series is that good in terms of storytelling. It´s like if, without knowing how it would end, Musaigen Phantom World gets picked up by Netflix, anime viewers who know KyoAni complain about it, then they receive the crap piece of shit Musaigen ended up being. But as always on the internet, if you say something opposite to the general consensus, they´ll want to kill you. |
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Angel M Cazares
Posts: 5514 Location: Iscandar |
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My gut feeling tells me that Violet Evergarden will be better written. Beyond the Boundary and Phantom World are rare cases of KyoAni making sub-par shows; the studio usually turns quality work. Also, Kyoto Animation seems to be really invested in Violet Evergarden. I imagine they are confident that this new series will be good and well received. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4161 |
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Kyoto Animation's, sigh, animation is top notch, their shows' success rate is not. There are fans, there are always fans and they don't view things objectively. Narrative structure is not Kyo Ani's strong point and considering how many fans seems to favor things like: Haruhi Suzuiya's disorder order, Full Metal Panic as comedy or action rather than both or Lucky Star's inability to tell a joke, many of them don't seem to care. And don't get me started on the mess that is Clannad I have Beyond the Boundary on BD and it looks great but I don't really like it, not as a show or as a showcase for some really flat characters/comedy. Why do I own it? It's dubbed Kyoto Animation on BD so it's wordlessly beautiful. Also it was on sale. Do I care about the movie? I haven't decided. Tamako Love Story is a different issue and one I'll have to do something about but it never felt like there was anything to conclude with this story. |
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Ethe
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Aaah, Beyond the Boundary. When it first came out, I was still pretty new to anime. I remember watching the PVs for the TV series and feeling overwhelmed by the excitement. I hadn't felt so excited for a show in a long time. And then it finally came out and... let's just say it was my first big anime disappointment
 As angelmcazares already said, the writing (and particularly the worldbuilding) is a complete and absolute mess. What a waste of good visuals and character designs.
I only watched the movie for the animation. At least Beyond the Boundary never disappoints in that aspect. I'm surprised the review didn't mention anything about the crying. This movie is 80% characters crying
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4671 |
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I have to agree that the recap movie is a good refresher, but that is all. I thought about rewatching the series to get ready for the movie since it had been some time, but opted for the recap instead to save time, and since it comes with the actual movie. Frankly, even with previously seeing the series, the movie felt like it cut from one thing to the next so abruptly that it was still jarring.
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3768 |
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@Animegomaniac I'm inclined to agree with angelmcazares' characterization of KyoAni's craftsmanship rather than yours. While their visuals are usually their strong point, I don't know that, aside from a few shows, that the writing was weak. I thought their adaptation of Dragon Maid was quite good even putting aside the visuals, putting a stronger emphasis on family than was in the source. I don't think the broadcast order of Haruhi is much of a problem at this point, as it isn't all that hard to watch it in chronological order. I don't see why their FMP adaptations needed to be both comedy and action if they did one or the other well enough. And if your only criticism of Lucky Star is that you don't find it funny, then you aren't being anymore objective than the fans you chide. It is a perfectly fair and valid criticism shared by others, but it isn't one I share and it isn't objective in any sense of the word. I can't speak to Clannad as I haven't seen it.
As to the latter movie of this set, I have heard good things about it and I would like to check it out. |
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AholePony
 Posts: 330 Location: Arizona |
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I think it's the characters, they just aren't that compelling, and I really didn't care what heppened to them. This series needed more world building too imo. |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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As for writing in KyoAni shows, it's worth keeping in mind that, while they're a studio that's one of the closest to reaching the ideal of doing everything in-house, this doesn't really apply to writing. There are writers who have been recurrently involved in the studio's projects (Reiko Yoshida, Jukki Hanada, Shoji Gato, etc.), but none of them are studio employees. While studio directors do tend to be heavily involved in overall story planning, it's hard to talk of writing per se as part of the studio's brand. Incidentally, Violet Evergarden is written by Reiko Yoshida, who is the head writer for K-On!, Tamako Market and A Silent Voice, as well a large number of non-KyoAni properties (The Cat Returns, Girls & Panzer and Non Non Biyori, to name a few). It's also directed by Taichi Ishidate, whose only series director credits so far are for Beyond the Boundary, both the TV series and the movies. Though he's also credited as the Assistant Director of Nichijou, which, given Series Director Ishihara's MO on other shows, probably implies that a lot of the directorial decisions were actually made by Ishidate (I haven't really read about Nichijou's production or even watched the show though, so I'm not entirely sure). |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4161 |
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"Inability to tell a joke" is different from being funny. Is Lucky Star supposed to be a stand up routine with each other as the audience or do they like beginning every conversation with "Have you ever noticed..." just because? And then there's the ten minute chocolate coronet "skit", um, comedy routine from the first episode. I bought the set years ago after renting it because I wanted to figure why it just doesn't work as a comedy; I never made it past the "Where's the punchline?" punchline because it comes off as something one of the show's producers actually said.. One problem was an insular cast that only fully gets together on rare occasions and the solution to that was to add more characters to form more dynamic groups, characters with actual defined comedic traits rather than character traits. Problem number two? Oh, right, they also fired the director who didn't seem to want to do a comedy in the first place. If he was aiming for "how unfunny can I make this show?" then he did his job. Nichijou is funny because it's timed to be funny and it's written to be funny. I honestly don't know what Lucky Star was made to be. "It gets better" is certainly the case here but "better" is a relative term while "good" is a qualitative one. My favorite scene from Nichijou is situation of Mio trying to get Yuko to go to the store to buy drawing paper while my favorite scene from Lucky Star is the cheerleading routine... practice. The show couldn't even be bothered to make it the one they did for the school. One of those scenes is a good comedic scene while the other is an excuse to play the theme song once again I only made it thought half of Fumoffu before becoming bored and while I watched all of Second Raid, it's just not as entertaining as the Gonzo series because it thinks it has to be so serious. A show with a counter terror ops group commanded from a submarine by a girl younger than its youngest field agent thinks it can be serious? The concept of the show is ridiculous... just not "mascot with a shotgun" ridiculous. The Haruhi episode order thing came up once again when Funimation released their box set. You can't even rationalize how vehement people can get when a show follows a broadcast order... but the wrong broadcast order, the second season one which is the same as chronological. "Wrong order, one star" an actual review I've seen. Thank you for not bringing up Clannad. That one, a long time "#1 best anime ever" show at this site, would take me quite awhile to explain its shortcomings... it's a Key Kanon ripoff made by Key itself. Ok, maybe not that long. But that's just the starting point. Good Kyoto Animation shows: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya but mostly just the first season, Love Chuunbiyu and Other delusions and it's definitely just the first season, K-on! and K-on!!, Kanon (2006) and Air the TV, Amagi Brilliant Park and Tamako Market... I know I'm very much in the minority on that one but it's a slice of life show with direct narrative, it's too competent to dismiss. And Nichijou. I haven't seen Free... not really my thing, sports anime... and while I've heard good things about Ishihara's Sound Euphonium, it's out of my price range. I haven't watched Hyouka's second season but while I loved the first episode, the show quickly buried the feel of mysterious fantasy in favor of detective deconstruction that opened Haruhi's "Remote Island Syndrome". So, yeah, seen it done better, seen it animated better and to top that, the Haruhi episodes ended on a feeling of fantastical mystery. So while I love their animation, it shouldn't be too much to ask for a passable starting script. Or I'd like to think so, anyway. Are all those "Kyoto Animation awards" really just a desperate cry for ideas? Why do I feel like I just answered my own question? |
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Angel M Cazares
Posts: 5514 Location: Iscandar |
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Just to be accurate, Clannad After Story (the second season) is the Clannad show that was considered the best ever according to ANN users' ratings. |
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3768 |
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@Animegomaniac Definitely, Nichijou is much better than Lucky Star, and probably their best comedy. I'll agree that Yamakan did a bad job on the first four episodes (though I heard there may have been other factors that contributed to the change in his position). I haven't seen it in a while so I don't really have any specifics but I wasn't as put off by it as you. I does say something that I remember more about Nichijou than Lucky Star even though I haven't seen the former for a while either.
Second Raid was actually my introduction to FMP, as that was the only portion available on Hulu at the time. I haven't seen it in 7 or 8 years, so I can't really compare it to the original and Fumoffu, which I saw earlier this year. Fumoffu was actually my favorite of the three seasons, which I watched primarily because I heard it was directed by the guy who did Amaburi and Dragon Maid, Yasuhiro Takemoto. While the premise is ridiculous when you think about it, I think it is within the range of suspension of disbelief, personally at least. Sure a person her age commanding a counter terror group from a submarine is unlikely, but I think her powers make it a little more plausible, at least enough that to suspend disbelief. She is far from the only precocious female commander, or character in general, in anime so it is hard to single that show in particular as not able to be serious. I'm actually with you on Tamako Market. I don't know that it is my favorite of their work, but it was done well enough. Naoko Yamada is nothing if not a very good director. There is one thing you have to remember with all the ones that you cited as poorly written - and really most of KyoAni's work in the last ten years or so - is that they are adaptations. The original source is more or less the starting script, and if that isn't written well, there isn't much they can do to change that all that much. It would be difficult to make Beyond the Boundary and Phantom World written as well as they are visually executed without making major changes that would not be approved by the original creator. I wouldn't say that their awards are a desperate cry for ideas as only one series has ever received the grand prize in any category in the seven years they held it, which is Violet Evergarden. Really they mostly have given what was basically honourable mentions to series like Chu2koi, High Speed, Beyond the Boundary and Phantom World. They wouldn't be so stingy with giving the grand prize, which receives an anime adaptation, if they were desperate for ideas. |
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Stampeed Valkyrie
 Posts: 861 Location: PA |
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objectively by who's opinion.. yours? 
Gonna go against the grain on just about all the posts so far. Beyond the Boundary.. liked it. Phantom World.. liked it. Clannad.. really liked it. probably the best of the Key VN novel adaptations to date. Lucky Star... liked it FMP Fumoffu.. liked that too. The latter 3 Clannad, Lucky Star, FMP were all very popular both in JP and the USA.. those fans must not be objectively looking at them then. Back on topic.. While I enjoyed BTB I do admit as the series progressed there were elements that just did not align correctly. The 2nd Movie "Future" addressed a good number of the incongruities but not all of them. And then presented a few new ones which unfortunately will probably never be answered. This would not stop me from recommending this series to someone who hasn't seen it. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5602 |
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Unlike most people commenting here, I really enjoyed most of KyoAni's shows. Only exception really being Free!. Yeah, Tamako and Phantom World were not as great but they were still really entertaining. Much more than most other studio works, IMO. Loved Lucky Star after they fired Mr.FractaleWillSaveAnime. And no matter what they haters will say, the Clannad series is still one of the most beloved in all of anime.
I think Kyoukai no Kanata suffered from TV airing. I got bored of it about 4 episodes in but then binged the rest of it in one night and almost want to say that I loved it, but maybe not quite. The first movie isn't worth watching, IMO. Second movie was a nice way to "end" it but it honestly just made me want to learn more about the world. That was my main complaint - there was a lot going on in the world of the show that I wanted to learn more about. |
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 713 |
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Having watched the show twice under very different circumstances, I almost want to say that BtB holds up better on a rewatch, but again, the circumstances were too different to accurately judge that. In any case, I liked it a lot both times, and have always been a little confused at the hate the show seems to get sometimes. It's basically an averagely written show, with above-average direction and music, and amazing art/animation. I don't know what about that makes it bad. Honestly, though, I think part of the issue is it's too much like a regular KyoAni show for people who dislike KyoAni to get into, and too unlike a KyoAni show for the people who are fans of their work. Other than that, I dunno.
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