== An appreciation for *Kyoukai no Kanata* episode 10

By my standards, *Kyoukai no Kanata* is not a particularly great show on
the whole ([[cf Fall2013Midway]]). But I had [[a very positive reaction to
episode 10 https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/408807766367539200]] and
today I feel like explaining why I feel that episode 10 is an excellent
single episode and in fact retroactively improves the whole show.

(There are spoilers in here, especially by the end. Also, if you want an
idea of what actually happened in the episode see eg [[Bobduh's coverage
http://wrongeverytime.com/2013/12/04/kyoukai-no-kanata-episode-10/]],
which of course contains full spoilers.)

Episode 10 is excellent in not one but two ways, in both its narrative
structure (and associated directing) and in what it reveals about one
character. I'll start with the narrative structure because it has fewer
spoilers. Previous episodes have been mostly told straightforwardly as
linear stories. Episode 10 could have been done the same way but instead
it opts for an indirect narrative using three independent strands of
story, all braided together in a way that builds up to the dramatic
revelation and climax. It is this braiding that is the really powerful
part, as both secondary stories are woven into the mix to make us more
and more unsettled with the main strand.

And that is the real goal and excellence of the narrative structure of
this episode. All of its directing tricks are deployed to show us, right
from the beginning, that *something is up*. Things are wrong and we feel
that right from the beginning when the episode starts well after the
cliffhanger at the end of episode 9 and in fact completely ignores it.
All through the episode the directing works to unsettle us, as it does
things like cut to the inexplicable and odd third story just when we're
getting comfortable and quietly uses inappropriate background music
during what should be cheerful moments. All of this sets us up for the
climactic reveal, both giving it extra punch and making it so that the
reveal is not a complete and disconcerting surprise from left field.

When a show does this sort of thing there is a delicate balance between
shoving things in our faces in an obvious way and doing it so subtly
that people miss it totally, making the climactic reveal terribly
disconcerting. *Kyoukai no Kanata* hits the balance excellently.

(It also doesn't overstay its welcome. Although I'd remembered it as
running through the entire episode, in checking [[Bobduh's coverage]]
again I see that the major reveal actually happened a bit less than
halfway in.)

The other way that episode 10 is excellent is that it reveals Mirai's
backstory. Well, that's a completely inadequate way of putting it, so
let me phrase it better: *the show forces us to completely re-evaluate
Mirai's character in light of what it reveals*. The Mirai we thought
we were seeing from outside over the past nine episodes is not the
real Mirai. The real Mirai is a lot more complex and interesting
than what we thought and in the process much more morally grey.
In the process the show retroactively mostly [[but not completely
https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/408816223128797184]] justifies
a number of Mirai's more obnoxious traits and strengthens the links
between her and Akihito. To push the point home the show reruns a number
of earlier scenes (sometimes from slightly different angles) and leaves
us to reinterpret Mirai's reactions in them in light of what we now
know.

(In retrospect the show did this sort of character reveal once before,
with Akihito.)

=== Sidebar: Where this episode's revelations fail

The revelations about Mirai can be used to justify a certain amount
of her early moe clutziness on the simple ground that this was not
actually clutziness, it was Mirai flinching away from genuinely killing
Akihito (especially as she began to know him). But early Mirai was too
moe-clutzy for this to fully pass muster and it can't explain why she
couldn't even bring herself to hunt dreamshades. Mirai the killer makes
cutely clutzy moe 'can't bear to fight dreamshades' Mirai even more
bogus than it was before.

(You could try to argue that Mirai is doing this deliberately to throw
Akihito and everyone else off, but the problem is that you're reaching
here and the show is giving you no support. Occam's Razor says that
early Mirai was made that way to give her moe appeal and for no deeper
reason. And that is one of the show's failures.)