Kyoto Animation's Most Underappreciated Anime
Kyoto Animation has achieved a rather illustrious status in the community and could deservedly be called one of the best studios in Japan. Their sparkly and moody teen dramas like A Silent Voice or their melodramatic character studies like Violet Evergarden get no shortage of praise, but Beyond the Boundary, or Kyoukai no Kanata, doesn't get praised enough.
Most KyoAni fans will know Taichi Ishidate's most iconic work to date, Violet Evergarden, of which he directed the whole series, but fewer talk about his directorial debut with 2013's Beyond the Boundary. It tells the story of a young girl with the power to control her blood as a weapon, who hunts a boy who is half-monster, only to end up falling in love with him.
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The show was received fairly well, being followed up with a recap film and then a second movie that concluded the story, but in the time since it's been dwarfed by other international successes. What makes this story worthy of appraisal now more than ever is how different it is from the norm for the studio (at least as of late).
Kyoto Animation isn't a studio one associates with lots of action, sword-fighting, or magical battles. This isn't to say that doesn't happen and Beyond the Boundary isn't the only one to exhibit these traits, but it is a comparatively rare sight.
KyoAni only produced Full Metal Panic!'s second season after it proved itself with a comedy spinoff. Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai had plenty of fights that happened in the characters' heads. Plus, Clannad had that weirdly well-animated fist fight in that one episode.
The more recent Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid can be action-heavy, but Beyond the Boundary is a special case, in that its artwork is far
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