Previously on Beyond The Boundary:

The Hollow Shadow has come to town and Mirai sets out to kill it. She is soon attacked by her old friend Sakura and is dragged into Shadow’s illusion until Akihito shows up. Spoilers Ahead!

Mirai & Akihito find themselves lost inside the labyrinth Hollow Shadow created. Confused and on the run from Sakura, Mirai is forced to confront her past. Finally escaping from the Shadow Mirai manages to finally defeat its main body, but in the process she learns the terrible truth about Akihito’s heritage.

This episode of Beyond The Boundary is definitely filled with drama and has a more than few revelations, while also setting up future plot points.

“Yui”

Akihito and Mirai’s escape from the Hollow Shadow is pretty harrowing and immersive as we get to see just how intricate the Shadow’s labyrinth is. The pair go from a school hallway, to a seemingly never ending maze of escalators, and finally to a maze of floating trains. The Shadow also starts to mess with Mirai’s mind by constantly showing her visions of Yui, it even transforms into a giant Yui and attacks Mirai and Akihito. We see here that Mirai is still obviously dealing with the guilt og Yui’s death but Akihito manages to snap her out of it, allowing them to escape the Shadow.

The biggest thing that happens in this episode is the development of Akihito and his relationship with Mirai. After Mirai seemingly defeats the Hollow Shadow (which boasts some amazing animation by the way) it tries to possess Akihito, Mirai forces it out and finally kills it, but Akihito is gravely wounded; this is where the development begins. As soon as Akihito hits the ground, Hiroomi, Ayaka, & Shizuki arrive and put a barrier around him. Their reasoning behind this is that when Akihito is gravely injured, his Youmu instincts kick in and he goes wild, which he does by destroying a section of the forest before Mirai stops him. This is a step in their relationship as Mirai finally understands what Akihito meant by saying they are the same; he doesn’t have friends (with the possible exception of Mitsuki), he has watchers, escorts, jailers, their job is to keep tabs on him and make sure he doesn’t go out of control, and if he can’t be salvaged they have to kill him. And just like Mirai he hates himself because of his blood. Kinda depressing when you think about it.

Akihito in Youmu form

Mitsuki also shows up briefly when she calls her brother to check on Akihito because she’s worried about him. Shes basically the only person besides Mirai & Akihito that we get the most time with, unless you count the people who have to contain Akihito. Sakura does get some light shined on her but it still equates to her still hating Mirai for killing her older sister.

Finally there is a plot point set up after the battle. Mirai takes what she thinks is the Hollow Shadows core to Ayaka for apprasing but only gets 200 yen. However it turns out that Mitsuki & Hiroomi’s older sister Izumi takes the real core to an unknown man, stating that it will “stall the society for a bit longer” just what is she planning?

Izumi

“Bitter Orange” is a nice conclusion to the first arc of the show. Mirai & Akihito’s relationship deepens now they have seen the ugliest parts of each other, and some nice plot points are set up. Boasting some great animation, nice fight scenes, and revealing character moments, Beyond The Boundary is quickly showing why it is one of the stand out titles of the season.

4.5/5