Beyond the Boundary - Episode 11

She may have been gone from the real world for three months, but Mirai Kuriyama is neither forgotten nor deceased - rather, she continues in her battle against Beyond the Boundary while a whole other world dangles unseen above the Earth.

Although nobody can see this odd phenomenon, Akihito can certainly hear it, even if he isn't sure what it is.  This isn't the only strange occurrence either, with Spirit World Warriors reporting a drop in their powers.  Something is amiss but nobody knows what, although perhaps if they were to look a little harder they would find that both Kuriyama and Beyond the Boundary's existences are being manipulated and meddled with by Fujima to his own ends.

From Akihito's point of view however, all he really cares about (beyond making up for three months in a coma without food and doing so with gusto) is finding Mirai or at least ascertaining what happened to her - a seemingly impossible task that leaves him decidedly depressed until the answer to his questions almost literally lands on his doorstep as Fujima's plan swings into full effect.  With some assistance and advice from his mother, Akihito has everything he requires to rescue Mirai... aside from the loss of his immortality that is; rather a major blow when you're trying to fend off an insanely powerful youmu, it has to be said.

Although a lot of this episode was really simply set-up for the grand finale to the series over the next couple of instalments, it felt like another strong outing - often stunning to look at and watch, and with a satisfying emotional core that was weakened only by some ill-advised forays into comedy courtesy of Akihito's mother which simply tried too hard to bring some levity to proceedings when something more subtle would have been more effective.  Even then, this series has certainly managed to turn itself around somewhat over the past few weeks - it isn't a resounding success all of a sudden, but it is at least a series that holds some emotional resonance and is making good use of its assets at last after far too long spent scrabbling around and focusing its attention in all the wrong places.