Beyond the Boundary is a Japanese light novel series written by Nagomu Torii, with illustrations
by Tomoyo Kamoi.
The work won an honorable mention in the Kyoto Animation Award competition in 2011.
Kyoto Animation has published three volumes since June 2012.
An anime television series adaptation, produced by Kyoto Animation, aired in Japan between
October and December 2013.
An original video animation episode was released in July 2014 and an anime film will be released
in Q2 2015.
Plot One day, high school student Akihito Kanbara
instinctively goes to save his fellow schoolmate, Mirai Kuriyama from committing suicide.
Following his pleas, Mirai suddenly stabs Akihito with a sword formed out of her own
blood and is shocked to discover that Akihito is an immortal "half-youmu"—the offspring
of a supernatural creature called a youmu and a human.
After learning that Mirai is a Spirit World Warrior—specialists who protect humans from
being affected by youmu—and the last surviving member of her spirit hunting clan, their lives
become intertwined as Akihito seeks to help Mirai gain the confidence to kill youmu so
that she may stop attempting to kill him as practice.
In Beyond the Boundary, youmu are supernatural creatures that appear throughout the series
and can only be seen by those with a supernatural affinity.
They are said to be the physical materialization of human animosity such as negative emotions
including hatred, jealousy and malice and therefore as long as humans exist, youmu will
continue to exist.
They can exist in many types of shapes and forms with some even having a human appearance.
There are also rare cases when a youmu and a human mate and produce offspring called
Half-Youmu.
Most youmu are relatively docile and coexist with humans without them even aware of their
presence.
However, there are times when a youmu's behavior upsets the balance, so the Spirit World Warriors
are sent in to kill them.
Upon death, a youmu produces a Youmu Stone which can be appraised and traded, hence providing
a source of income for a Spirit World Warrior.
Characters Main
Akihito Kanbara Voiced by: Kenn, Mei Tanaka
Akihito is a second-year high school student with short blonde hair who is an immortal
half-youmu, the offspring of a youmu and a human.
He has the ability to heal quickly from any wound albeit still experiencing pain.
Due to this Mirai uses him as practice to help overcome her fear of killing youmus.
He is a member of the Literary Club.
He has a preference for glasses, as shown by his spontaneous compliments to Mirai as
well as being disdainfully teased for it by Mitsuki.
If Akihito's physical human body finds itself in a severe weakened state, his dormant youmu
half emerges, physically changing his body into a hideous feral appearance which then
proceeds to go on a rampage.
Akihito's youmu half is extremely powerful, able to easily overwhelm supernatural cages
and barriers that attempt to contain it in addition to having enough destructive force
to physically devastate whatever landscape surrounds it.
Akihito implies that because of his youmu half, the Nase clan are not exactly his friends
but instead people who are tasked with watching him should his youmu half ever go berserk,
and killing him if necessary.
Following a youmu transformation, Akihito falls into a state of depression due to almost
killing Hiroomi in a past rampage.
Akihito's youmu half holds the greatest destructive power of all youmu and is referred to as "Beyond
the Boundary".
Mirai Kuriyama Voiced by: Risa Taneda
Mirai is a first-year high school student with short, strawberry-blonde hair styled
into a bob, and wears red-rimmed glasses, leading Akihito to call her a 'bespectacled
beauty', much to her dismay.
She has the ability to manipulate blood, which is unique even within the scope of the Spirit
World.
Overuse of her ability results in severe anemia while at the same time it causes her to feel
isolated and seemingly attempts suicide by jumping off the roof of the high school until
she is saved by Akihito.
She is apparently hated anywhere she goes as shown by her blog and Twitter being constantly
flamed, which is due to her constantly posting about the misfortunes in her life.
She has a habit of using the phrase, "How unpleasant" to describe most situations, particularly
at remarks made by Akihito.
Despite her cursed blood lineage, she was adopted by the Inami clan and befriended their
youngest daughter, Yui Inami whom she killed out of fear after Yui was possessed by the
Hollow Shadow—an act of which Mirai is deeply regretful and hence gave root to her fear
of killing.
Her signature weapon is a carmine colored sword formed out of her blood.
Mitsuki Nase Voiced by: Minori Chihara
Mitsuki is a second-year high school student with long, silky black hair.
She is Akihito's childhood friend.
She is the President of the Literary Club and has a habit of constantly teasing Akihito.
Her clan governs Spirit World Warriors in their area.
Izumi instilled in her the belief that Spirit World Warriors are to be alone all their life,
due to their duties and hence resulted in Mitsuki missing experiences with her peers
while growing up.
She has a rodent-like youmu called "Yakiimo" as a familiar.
Like her brother, Mitsuki is capable of setting up cages.
Hiroomi Nase Voiced by: Tatsuhisa Suzuki, Ayane Sakura
Hiroomi is a third-year high school student who is also Mitsuki's brother.
He has black hair in a bowl-cut and wears a scarf at all times due to his supernatural
powers that make him cold.
He is also a member of the Literary Club.
Hiroomi likes having his sister call him "Big Brother", and also has a habit of teasing
Akihito and affectionately calls him "Akkey".
He is proficient in setting up cages or barriers that prevent youmu from entering a protected
area.
His supernatural abilities make him extremely sensitive to the cold which not only causes
him to constantly wear a scarf and also warm his fingers in Akihito's armpits much to the
latter's annoyance.
His back is severely scarred due to having to restrain Akihito's youmu rampage in the
past, which almost resulted in his death.
Spirit World Warriors Shizuku Ninomiya
Voiced by: Akeno Watanabe A rather skilled Spirit World Warrior.
She is usually referred to as "Nino-san" and works as a teacher at Nagatsuki High School,
in addition to Spirit Hunting.
Despite her beauty, she always finds herself turned down by men.
Yayoi Kanbara Voiced by: Hiromi Konno
Akihito's mother and a Spirit World Warrior.
She is constantly traveling and sends Akihito a postcard to check up on him every so often.
Akihito describes her as being a "free-spirited" avant-garde thinker in addition to possessing
an eccentric personality and is thus ashamed of her child-like behavior.
This is shown during Akihito's elementary school's Parents' Day when she sat at a student's
desk while wearing a panda costume and participated in the class.
Izumi Nase Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi
The eldest daughter of the Nase clan.
She usually has a calm demeanor despite having a malicious undertone.
She has the viewpoint that youmu are no different from crops or farm animals and exist solely
to provide her clan with a livelihood.
Like the rest of her clan, Izumi is proficient in setting up barriers.
She possesses a type of freezing ability while her signature weapon is a dual-tipped spear.
She has a past connection with Miroku and also harbors a youmu within her body—which
she tries to keep from the rest of her clan.
Maya Minegishi A silver-haired girl who was pursued during
the Spirit World Warrior-slaying incidents.
Her signature weapons include an automatic pistol and revolver.
She also possesses the ability to suppress the power of an Interrogation Officer.
She had an incident in the past with Miroku.
Yu Mashiro Mirai's childhood friend.
He has a puppeteering ability.
Observation Department Miroku Fujima
Voiced by: Masaya Matsukaze An interrogation officer from the Spirit World
Warriors' Observation Department.
He has the ability to instantly kill a youmu by simply focusing on it.
He harbors a youmu within his own body, granting him special abilities.
Ukyo Kusunoki An interrogation officer.
Kikyō Nagamizu An interrogation officer.
She has the ability to manipulate the weight of objects.
Others Ayaka Shindō
Voiced by: Naomi Shindō An appraiser of youmu.
Her appraising business is camouflaged as a photo shop to normal humans.
Her true form is that of a powerful multi-tailed fox-like youmu but usually takes the appearance
of a human.
She is also capable of setting up cages and barriers.
Ai Shindō Voiced by: Yuri Yamaoka
An anime original character, Ai is Ayaka's 16-year-old sister who manages the appraising
shop when Ayaka is unavailable.
She is a cat-like youmu, with the ability to shape-shift into human form.
Yui Inami Voiced by: Sayuri Yahagi
The deceased daughter of the Inami clan.
She was the only one in her clan who treated Mirai with kindness but was ultimately killed
by Mirai when she became possessed by the Hollow Shadow.
Sakura Inami Voiced by: Moe Toyota
An anime original character, Sakura is the younger sister of Yui Inami.
She hates Mirai for Yui's death and tries to kill the former as an act of revenge, but
later realizes her true feelings for Mirai were clouded and forgives her.
She has a tendency to be lazy at times.
Sakura's spiritual powers are practically non-existent hence she fought using a spear
courtesy of Miroku which absorbed the power of youmu stones.
Iori Ichinomiya An information gatherer.
He has the ability to directly link his mind to the internet to obtain information.
Kana Shinozaki Sophomore at Nagatsuki High School.
She wears a large ribbon on her head.
Her signature phrase is "Hey!".
Media Light novels
Beyond the Boundary began as a light novel series written by Nagomu Torii, with illustrations
provided by Tomoyo Kamoi.
Torii entered the first novel in the series into the second Kyoto Animation Award contest
in 2011, and it won an honorable mention in the novel category.
The studio later published the first volume on June 9, 2012, and three volumes have been
released as of October 2, 2013.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation, produced by Kyoto Animation and directed by Taichi
Ishidate, began airing on October 2, 2013.
The opening theme is "Kyōkai no Kanata" by Minori Chihara and the ending theme is "Daisy"
sung by Stereo Dive Foundation.
The series is also being simulcast on Crunchyroll.
The anime has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America for streaming and home video
release in 2014.
Three original net animation episodes of a short series titled Beyond the Boundary Idol
Trial! were released between November 18 and December 16, 2013, on the official website
via YouTube.
Two additional Idol Trial episodes were released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc along with the first
three and a full-length original video animation episode on July 2, 2014.
Reception References
External links Light novel official website
Anime official website Beyond the Boundary at Anime News Network's
Encyclopedia