Tag: Animation

Anime Review: Kyoukai no Kanata (境界の彼方)

Anime Review: Kyoukai no Kanata (境界の彼方)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Damn! I had so many reviews written down with me. This one was written in 2014! Let’s just get started….

Literally translating to Beyond the Boundaries, this 12 episode anime is, what you call it, a little different from the league but at the same time, it contains everything a mainstream anime has – romance, action, drama, evil sisters, mysterious outsider, demons, humans, immortals, hidden motives, fetish driven perverts and so on.

From above, one might get an idea that it’s not lacking in anything but to be honest, I felt the story a little rushed and jumbled. I don’t know about the light novels though. Throughout the anime, I had the following feels as well:

Kyoukai No Kanata Mirai
                     I can watch it! I can watch it!

Plot – Going to the story, Akihito Kanbara is an immortal half demon half human who is obsessed with girls with glasses. When he sees one on the top of his school’s roof, he goes to save her, and instead gets stabbed (That was totally weird imo). The bespectacled beauty, as he calls the girl, Mirai Kuriyama is a demon hunter who is from a cursed clan which used to use blood manipulation. She uses her blood to form her sword but is afraid to face the demons or dreamshades as they call them in the anime.

Kyoukai No Kanata Getting Stabbed
                                            Ouch!

Being the selfless guy, Akihito helps her in overcoming her past and fears and make friends. In the due course the real nature of the half shade residing in Akihito comes out as well the hidden motives of Nases, the governing family of spirits and spirit hunters in the area and the Spirit Hunters’ Association.

Ah, yes, the spirit hunters. They are the people who have special powers to see and kill the shades and they earn money through them. In the end it is revealed that shades are nothing but manifestations of negative emotions of human beings. (Well, well, no surprises there, it’s been shown in a looot of series after all)

Since the setting is high school, there is no doubt that there’re powerful side characters as well. But:

Kyoukai No Kanata 1
                       The mystery….. is still a mystery

Analysis – Ultimately, it is one of those victory of good over evil anime and I am literally tired of writing the same thing. I like that the negative emotions of human beings can give birth to such a thing as demons, this element is my favorite actually though. And the emotions in the anime are far more overwhelming than the real life. So, I don’t remember if I laughed or not, it definitely made me spill my tears a li’l bit.

Kyoukai No Kanata 2
Damn! How do they make this? Such beauty…. It’s making                                            my eyes………

There is an element of women empowerment as well, as you generally don’t see a girl as the one doing the action in such kind of series.

Other things – Art and animation are amazing. Reminds one of Hyouka, Tamako Market and K-on!, if you’ve watched any out of those. It’s Kyoto Animation after all.

Plot, again, okayish, a little confusing and with lots of loose ends, but would do. Hopefully, they did tie them in the subsequent movies, I couldn’t muster up the courage to watch them though. I didn’t want to be disappointed again with the ending and plunge myself into all the drama this anime presents. I mean, it’s okay for one time watch, but I had watched it in 2014. The movies aired in 2015. Including subs and all, it would have been minimum August at least, when I would watch the movie. Sorry, not that much patience. (I did wait for Tamako Market’s movie, checking everyday if the subbed movie had come out or not XD)

Music, suits to the series, no complaints there.

Kyoukai No Kanata Night Scene
         I ended up choosing the beautiful scenes after all!

 

So, here it is. Again it’s a review because I don’t particularly recommend it to everybody. If the elements seem interesting to you or you’re into demons and stuff, then you can definitely take up the series, or you can watch it just for the animation sake, because it’s beautiful, just drop dead gorgeous! (I ended up choosing the sparkly natural scenes rather than characters to insert into the post >.<) All in all, I’ll give this anime 7/10, the plot doesn’t contribute to it though.

My First Character

My First Character

by eastasianlover ♥ 3 Comments

I realized today  that I haven’t updated my fandrawings section after it’s first post. Today, I’ll post the first character I made with Photoshop when I was trying my hands on 2-D animation. It’s not that I’ve left it, but it’s been a while since I drew any human characters. I have been designing posters though (mainly for the company I’m interning at).

I know, I know. I’m not good at it, yet. But this was made without any help of Wacom or any other tablet. In fact, I didn’t have any mouse either (I still don’t own one 😛). Oh, now I think about it, it’s easier to just use photoshop tools rather than draw because I have been trying with tablet and it took me a long time to be able to draw straight lines.

Meet Kang Jin Ae…… That’s the name I gave her although she looks nothing like Koreans. But I was obsessed about it, I guess and I searched and searched for a good name. And this is what I found came up with. More about her, she is a recent graduate from an art college and has changed very much from her school days. Her crush was stunned to see her! In school, she was a hardworker and excelled in academics (only). And she was a nerd, so nobody took notice of her (or so she thought) Now she is working in her dream company which she joined not too long ago.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sigh! If only I could draw better. I’m practising hard though. I hope, in future, I’m able to post some good character sketches (with full body and all). Till then, Keep practising Ms. EastAsianLover……. (Lol! What am I doing? Actually, that did cheer me up a little. ㅋㅋㅋ)

Yes, talking helps!

Yes, talking helps!

by eastasianlover ♥ 1 Comment

Ok. I did say I would write a review but as soon as I start preparing, I watch something else and then I move on to the new thing and the cycle continues. So I have not been able to do any. Moreover, I find writing my everyday experiences easier and more interesting. My semester exams are also near so I haven’t been able to focus on anything (including THE EXAMS! God!! I am screwed!!!)

So I had been preparing an animation movie to send to companies for internship for past one month or so. I missed a lot of tests and assignments for that but I don’t regret it because I was happy doing the work. In my college, BITS Pilani, it is compulsory to do training for one semester and mine comes next sem. The companies are arranged by the institute only, but through some procedures you can change that. I had my mind set on doing my training in an animation company, so I prepared a video. But it didn’t turn out how I wanted it to be. Of course, it was my first attempt and some of my friends have praised it a lot but I myself am not satisfied with it. How will other people be?

Recently, I got to talk, heart to heart, with a long lost friend of mine. She was having similar problems as me like losing interest in her own discipline, wanting to explore other areas etc. etc. Well, I am one those few, who chose their own discipline. In India, it’s difficult to get your own choice of trade when you get a rank which lies in middle – not too high but not too low either. I left a lot of good colleges just to get chemical engineering at this prestigious institute. Now I have come to realize that this is not my cup of tea. We talked for one hour or so. And she advised me a lot of things like how I can improve in the given time for my training, by joining some courses while sticking to my discipline. I can think through my options too. And I was like “what was I doing?” I directly wanted to jump to a different field without any background. Just wanted to do it. She totally changed the direction in which I was thinking. Then again, she told me to talk to some seniors. As I am an introvert, I don’t have many contacts. But her advice was enough for me to take some big decisions of my life. This post, I dedicate to that friend. Thank you very much for helping me clear my mind (a 90 degrees bow to you).

Yes, I have a habit of solving problems myself. I don’t tell people my concerns and like to keep things to myself. But sometimes, when you don’t know what to do, where to head, telling your worries to a friend or even a stranger works wonders. Yes, talking helps!

PS: Another song, this time its from SS501. I have been randomly listening to various South Korean groups and stumbled upon this song just yesterday :