Episode 10 – “White World”

If there’s one thing I love, it’s non-linear storytelling even though I’m rarely adept at following its path closely at all. Maybe I’m just slow like that. Regardless of my inability to follow plot progression, I really enjoy when this method of non-linearity of storytelling is employed because it makes everything seem much more mysterious and demands your utmost attention (something I severely lack at times).

We fast-forward a bit to a point after Mirai’s encounter with Akihito and the youmu within him known as the Kyoukai no Kanata (Beyond the Boundary). He’s led to believe that he’s been in a coma until summer, but it actually turns out to be a dream. After all, a lot of things that occur seem too good to be true like Mirai making breakfast for him and seeing Mitsuki in a swimsuit. Though, Mirai using up all of Akihito’s eggs and Hiroomi spying on his little sister are both occurrences that seem pretty realistic to me.

Throughout the episode, we periodically jump back and forth between this dream world and the Mirai’s past. We discover that Mirai was brought to the city by Izumi Nase herself and was ordered to kill Akihito. Of course, we know from watching the series that she repeated fails to do so and even grows emotionally attached to him. Using the Calm to her advantage, Izumi tricks Mirai into thinking that she can kill the youmu without killing Akihito during this time.

What we see at the end of the last episode is the result of this exchange. Mirai induces Akihito’s dream with a bit of her own blood, while she’s presumably searching for the Kyoukai no Kanata youmu in the other world. I also can’t believe that she actually kisses Akihito. I mean, it’s a dream and it’s KyoAni so they don’t show it happen, but I think we can all assume what went down. Too bad it had to be under such bittersweet circumstances.

With the real Mirai gone to nowhereland, it’s doubtful that Akihito will take this lying down. Also, I want to know why Izumi had to contract Mirai into killing Akihito. I assume she’s powerful enough to do it herself, but there must be some other reason that she has. I’m also waiting to see where Hiroku fits into all of this. All in all, I’m excited to see the story take off, especially in such a way I never thought possible. We could have a new contender for our top 10 anime of the year post!

“But the dream is about to come to an end.” ~ Mirai Kuriyama

B.W.