Previously on Beyond The Boundary:

Mirai succeeded in defeating the Hollow Shadow, but it came at a price. Akihito was critically injured and his Youmu instincts kicked and he began to rampage before being stopped by Mirai. Spoilers Ahead!

Things have cooled down since the battle with the hollow shadow but things haven’t completely returned to normal. Mirai joins the literary club, but her spirit warrior license is suspended for a month by Izumi because she went after the Hollow Shadow. Although all is not lost as she does find a source of income thanks to Mitsuki getting her a part time job at Ayaka’s shop. As Mirai spends more time with Mitsuki, she finds out just how the young girl sees the world around her.

The theme of the episode is loneliness and how it can consume us, and Beyond The Boundary deals with it nicely as it explores the fall out of the Hollow Shadow attack.

Once again the focus is on Mirai and we see that she is starting to come out of her shell a bit more, finally joining the literary club (where we also learn that she has a keen interest in gardening). She is learning to interact more with others besides Akihito as she spends about all of the episode with Mitsuki.

While the focus may be on Mirai, the main star of this episode is definitely Mitsuki as we finally get a peek inside her head. After Mirai’s license is suspended she begins to wonder how she will pay for food and living expenses until Mitsuki tells her she can get her work at her part time job, which happens to be at Ayaka’s shop. While it is mostly odd jobs Mitsuki also manages to rope Mirai into another job that Ayaka had been pestering her about, modeling, where we learn that Akihito requests for pics of girls in glasses and that Ayaka herself also takes nude photos of people upon request for her private collection (she even shows Mirai some she took of Ai).

Mirai tries to get a dialogue going between them (where Mitsuki comments on Mirai’s change in behavior), but things don’t really open up until Ayaka mentions Akihito, who has been skipping school due to being ashamed of his youmu self coming out last episode. Mirai tries to talk to Mitsuki but she is evasive but when Mirai mentions the Lantern festival in town Mitsuki’s past begins to rear its head. Because of her obligations as a Spirit warrior, Mitsuki was never permitted to go to the festival or have any type of personal life and as a result she feels alone and keeps others at a distance (save Akihito). However through perserverance Mirai convinces her to come (Hiromi also strings along Akihito) and the group enjoys the festival together. Mitsuki even begins to break away a bit when she tells Hiromi she wants a candy apple.

“Chartreuse Light” is a nice episode that really gives us a look into some of the characters heads. The one with most development is Mitsuki and her scenes are pretty well done, with the visual imagery and symbolism really shining through. Everyone is alone, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be together when things go bad.

4.5/5