BÂAN: OTONA NO KYOUKAI

DESCRIPTION

CAST

REVIEWS

• 

  HidamariSeashore

  80/100
  You see that? YouTubers CAN make good movies!

  Over the past couple of years, the things I've been looking forward to most during every anime season are the videos different anime YouTubers release going over each anime that premiered that season; some of them have even gotten me to check out anime that I wasn't even intending on watching before! One of those YouTubers is Gigguk, a.k.a. Garnt Maneetapho, with his "In A Nutshell" series. This, along with the several other anime-related videos he has put out in the several years he's been on YouTube, may make one wonder, "What would an anime he made be like?" Okay, I don't think there were many people asking that question, but the world still got an answer when Garnt announced his original anime short film, "Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood", or "Bâan: Otona no Kyoukai" in Japanese, earlier this year. With this answer, there is something I'm sure most people who watch his content were actually thinking: "OF COURSE IT'S AN ISEKAI." No matter where you stand in whether you like or hate the isekai genre, though, I think we can all agree that Garnt has created what is probably one of the more unique isekai stories in the anime sphere, even if it's not perfect.

  Bâan, as it shall henceforth be called, is set in two different worlds - Euthania, a fantasy world home to different magical races, and our own world, with the segments of our world being set in modern day Japan. Anyone from either of these worlds can easily cross over to the other through a warp gate and even start a new life in that other world. That's pretty much what Rinrada "Rin" Ratchamanee and Daichi Arai set out to do - Rin travels from Euthania to Japan, and Daichi from Japan to Euthania. From there, we see how their new lives in their new homes pan out.

  As I said before, this is probably one of the more unique isekai anime there is out there. I'm not necessarily talking about the isekai part itself; although there aren't many, there are a few isekai anime out there where the person crossing over to another world does so on purpose, such as seasons two and three of Dog Days. The thing that I think is unique about it is how, instead of some epic, grandstanding fantasy adventure that we've seen multiple times (although there is an action scene in the middle of the story that would be right at home in a story like that), it's more focused on how its two protagonists feel as they go through their lives in their new worlds. Homesickness is a big part of the story that is felt from both characters, albeit one more than the other; that's something that anyone who has moved far away from their original home can relate to, and the homesickness Garnt might have felt after moving to Japan is really felt here, even if the only few times I've personally moved in my life has always been within the same area. It has a genuine emotional core to it that I really appreciated.

  One aspect of the story that I felt was a little lacking, however, was the worldbuilding, at least on Euthania's side. Euthania is a world that definitely sets itself apart from other isekai worlds by having aspects inspired by Southeast Asian mythology, but it doesn't feel like we get to know the world that well beyond that, which undermines its uniqueness a bit. Personally, if the film was a little bit longer than the 18 minutes we got and had some more scenes with Daichi's adventure in Euthania (with some more scenes of Rin's life in Japan to balance it out, of course), there could have been more aspects of Euthania added to flesh it out. Then again, though, I do feel like the 18-minute runtime does allow the story to not drag itself out longer than it needs to. All in all, I have conflicting feelings on the runtime and how it affected the worldbuilding, but hey, if Garnt got the opportunity to produce a sequel to Bâan that showed more of what Euthania was like, that might address my concerns with it!

  Well, even if I feel like the short runtime negatively impacted the story, I don't feel like it impacted the characters and their development, particularly Rin's. I'm not sure if I would rank Rin anywhere on the list of my favorite female anime characters (and I definitely won't draw any R34 art of her, even if I was the kind of person who drew R34 art, which should be a relief to Sydsnap), but she is still a likable protagonist who goes through some relatable struggles. Daichi is also relatively interesting in how he has his own reasons for going to Euthania that isn't necessarily having a grand old fantasy adventure; I won't spoil the reason, but it is something that most young adults will relate to. They also have an interesting relationship to each other that I didn't expect them to have going in; I thought they were just two characters with opposite situations there for viewers to compare to one another and that they wouldn't interact at all! Not many other characters stick out in my mind - and it doesn't really help that there are very few named characters other than Rin and Daichi - but I do want to give a shout-out to An, another Euthania-to-Japan immigrant; she is a warm and motherly character who also serves as a great example of how people who have moved to a faraway place might adapt after a while of living there.

  Of course, the story and characters aren't the only good parts of Bâan. The animation studio behind it, Studio Daisy, is a relatively new studio - having been established in 2020 - and while the animation they put out isn't perfect, such as one part where it felt like some inbetween frames were missing, it still looked good and had natural movement for most parts. The character designs were good, too, with clear distinctions between those from Japan and those from Euthania being made. Kevin Penkin also did a good job with the music, with it sounding gorgeous and like it really came from a fantasy anime. On the note of music, the ending theme, "Bâan" by Elspeth Bawden (which you can also hear in the film's trailer), is a gorgeous song; I don't know what else to say about it. Finally, due to me being unable to switch languages, I did have to watch the English dub during the premiere, but luckily, it's a very good dub with some very good voice performances, especially the aforementioned Sydsnap (a.k.a. Sydney Poniewaz, a.k.a. Garnt's own wife) as Rin. It's clear that Connor Colquhoun, better known as CDawgVA, has put his experience "fixing" bad voice acting to good use with his ADR direction here.

  Overall, Bâan was a good anime film, and I'm glad Garnt was able to produce it and release it. If you like his content in general or isekai anime in general, I'd recommend you to give it a shot; it's available for free on YouTube, so you have nothing to lose by doing so. Hopefully, the fact that this turned out as well as it did is a sign of good things to come for Garnt as he continues his YouTube career and his life in the home he has found in Japan.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  tbhdrinkwater

  65/100
  A Massive Achievement for a Youtuber, let down by the scale of the End Goal.

  Not Spoiler Free

  I've been a fan of Gigguk for over half a decade, was introduced to him around 2018-2019 and he's basically been the only Anituber I watch since then. So fast forward years later and he drops a video announcing his next step which I originally thought was gonna be him announcing he's gonna be a father, but instead announces he's doing from what I believe no other youtuber has ever done in making his very own professional studio made anime.

  Basically the same thing as being a father ya know. It was very surprising to see even more so upon learning that this was entirely self funded by Garnt himself and that he chose to not get additional funding because he wouldn't of had full creative control over the story he wanted to tell.

  Despite anything I say negatively about this I find the whole story behind the production of this to be really inspiring as someone whose just begun writing their own stories and I'm sure I'm not alone in that feat either. Sure Garnt had youtuber money to help produce this, but that money only got him about 18 minutes worth of content.

  And to start off finally talking about the short film itself, we gotta address what'll probably be the biggest criticism Garnt will receive about this, the length. It is very short, too short but lets be real. He knows this, he's probably known of this flaw from day one. They're a lot of things here that aren't fleshed out or could've had more time to expand upon, one aspect in particular which I'll get back to.

  But for the tight runtime he had I think he managed okay. The story that is here isn't bad at all, when I'm writing One Shot manga stories you have to solely focus on key points and leave very little room for much else which I think Garnt had the same mindset here when making this. And in that aspect I believe he succeeded even with the length going against him.

  Beginning with our two characters Rin and Daichi moving to each others homeland. If my mother abruptly went through my PC like Daichi's did yeah I think I'd wanna move as well. Rin settles in her new home and begins looking for work, getting rejected 13 time which lets be honest in todays age is rookie numbers, before finally landing a job in customer service. While Daichi is exploring the new fantasy land he finds himself in lamenting about the chances he missed to spend time with his mother.

  

  Afterwards cutting to a montage of the two living their lives out getting more and more used to their new life. Which brings us to the twist of the film. Daichi is out exploring as he sees the city preparing for something big, which turns out to be a young Rin being tasked with protecting a Dragon Egg (I don't know what those things are so I'm going with dragon to be safe).

  The bigger dragon gets killed probably along with everyone else there while Rin escapes and runs into the onlooking Daichi, revealing that the two of them going to each others homeland in the opening actually happened at two different times.

  There Daichi began taking care of her, and the two formed a very close bond. Even with the strict runtime I believe Garnt managed to give us enough context here to be able to fill in the blanks ourselves, yes it absolutely would've been better to see said blanks but in a way too not seeing them is also kind of the point.

  To get viewers speculating on what could've happened in between everything we did see and believe in this aspect Garnt succeeded. Leading into An asking Rin to come over for dinner. She showed up during the montage which I honestly thought was her sister, took me a bit to realize they were the same person.

  Showing her a voice message of Daichi now grown up left for Rin reminding her that she could come home anytime she felt like it, to which she does ending off the film. Getting the positives out of the way first, I love how the film looks the scenery shots are beautiful even though I think some of them were a bit unnecessary and should've been used on the story itself.

  I'm grateful this wasn't solely focused on these two characters and gave us some extra characters to help make each world feel more alive. Kevin Penkin nailed it on the music once again my favorite piece being the piano piece that plays during Rin and An's conversation at dinner. Character designs are on point here I especially love the wings on the Euthanians? I forgot if they had a name so I'm going with that.

  Daichi looks very generic but I believe that was the point, as he's just a regular dude. And by the end he has a much more interesting design that fully reflects him becoming one with the land and culture of Euthania, and becoming one with wearing ugly glasses.

  The more traditional ceremonial designs of the Euthanians had on during the dragon egg part were great as well, wish we got to see Rin in that outfit again. Honestly, more so on the world of Euthania I'm honestly more curious as to how Japan and Euthania learned of each other and got to the point where they can coexist as they do now.

  

  Writing wise I actually enjoy Rin and An a lot here. Daichi seemed to of been a big help for An in her life, and he raised Rin so from what I gathered both seemed to have a deep appreciation for him and wanted to see what life was like for him growing up to possibly better understand him along with other reasons.

  Rin's determination to stay within Japan further enforces that, while An already has a whole family with a new child on the way. Her becoming homesick by the end was a cute way to end of the film.

  But due to the films length Daichi's writing heavily suffered the most here. I could piece together Rin's reason for leaving her home, yet I can't say the same for Daichi. The most I can say is that his mother was a bitch and didn't feel satisfied living in Japan, but for how little we see of Daichi throughout the film he comes off more shallow then anything else present here.

  Which is a shame too because I think Daichi could've been a much better character had his backstory just been even a little more explored. We have all the pieces for Rin's but theirs very few of Daichi's. Rin's story is one that basically forces him to be out of it, and because of it we see even less of Daichi. Not to say I wanted him to be in Japan with Rin, just that I think we needed more screen time of Daichi getting used to Euthania's culture, people, and life as Rin did instead of him just exploring.

  

  I'm someone who doesn't like to solely criticize media on what they could've/should've been I much prefer to simply focus on what's been given to me and for the most part I think what's here is great for the time given. It's by no means perfect, but if one day Garnt gets the greenlight one day to make this into a full twelve episode series I think theirs a great story that could be told here. 6.5/10.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  PaBNovesec

  55/100
  NGL Just watch Ratatouille instead

  Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood aka Ratatouille but worse
  
  Well...this was alright...Kevin was good on OST's (7-7,5 maybe even 8 on a good day),the plot was also alright (Need more time to develop all plot/character development aspects of the Bâan to make them shine even more aka wtf is these species,what is this 3D Dragon/Lizard thing,wtf is egg and why other monsters attack it,why is Daichi now lives with Girl Mc (fucking Rinrada Ratchamanee that was never said in the movie) or is it because her hitting Daichi with egg connects them/or just the Dragon?,why Daichi and his mother relationship are in such state (One kitchen flashback in not enough), what was his job and why he decided to quit,was he working with his mum/or both parents and what was the atmosphere there,wtf is level 2 threat (this obviously gonna open a lot of questions about 2 world and how it works,how can you get there,what technology did they use in "our" world to get there,how come people restrict magic in their world if they can use those human fairy looking creatures and maybe exploit them for resources and etc (I know this topic would lend movie into society/bullying problems and many others and Gigguk og idea is more about finding your place in the world and don't go into your parents footsteps,but its Him that chose those things to represent his idea and its his fault to not showcase how they work in those worlds even though I know that making your own anime and stuff isn't that cheap at all) and also why did Female mc left her home,was it because her parents died or because Daichi thought it would be the same for her as it was for him (then why it wasn't showed to us and what led to it,since its kinda fucking important to the whole movie and potentially make Daichi manipulate this poor girl mind into thinking that she also need to find her place or maybe a reason to live or was she a princess(cause she had a crown or something like that and now she needs to throw away her burden with crown princess position) why is he her adopted father now,when there was a village that could take care of her)
  TLDR if this was longer maybe you could argue that this is a good short-film,for now its just okay-ish 18 min episode with a lot of unanswered world building questions/character skipped development about finding your place in the world with polished animations and good character designs and good,maybe even great music.(Watched in Japanes,Japan Va's are standard here,good but nothing spectacular to play here since there is not drama or deep enough plot/time to develop heath warming feelings with characters that you don't care enough)
  Would I recommend this to others? ngl,nah.Its cool to sea another Youtuber make his dream come true and make his own anime,but with substance so little I would rather wait another 5 years so this movie would be at least 1 hour long.

  5,5/10 (NGL Just watch Ratatouille instead)

  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR ANIMES YOU MAY LIKE

• MOVIE

  DramaKimi no Na wa.
• ANIME

  DramaDomestic na Kanojo
• ANIME

  ComedyOre no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai
• ANIME

  ComedyKanojo, Okarishimasu
• ANIME

  ComedyEromanga Sensei
• ANIME

  ComedyHataraku Maou-sama!
• MOVIE

  DramaDareka no Manazashi
• MOVIE

  DramaTenki no Ko
• ANIME

  AdventureIsekai Oji-san
• ANIME

  AdventureKaiba
• ANIME

  ComedyLove Hina
• ONA

  ActionBURN THE WITCH