Carmine

Carmine (カーマイン Kāmain) is the first episode of the Kyoukai no Kanata anime series, which was released on October 2, 2013. The episode was storyboarded and directed by series director Taichi Ishidate, with animation direction by character designer Miku Kadowaki.

Synopsis
After school, the half-youmu boy, Akihito Kanbara, sees a girl about to jump from the school rooftop. Mirai Kuriyama is the last surviving member of a family with blood manipulation abilities unique among Spirit World Warriors. But Akihito has been attacked by Mirai ever since.

Even saying that it is annoying, Akihito, who can not be hard-hearted to Mirai, receives advice from Mizuki Nase, one of the Spirit World Warriors and the Literature Club president. What is Mirai's real purpose?

Plot
One afternoon, a blonde-haired boy named Akihito Kanbara stumbles upon a first-year schoolmate standing on the edge of the school's rooftop. Upon trying to persuade her from jumping off — thinking that she was to commit suicide — this girl in red-framed glasses leaps towards him and stabs his chest with a crimson blade she called out from nowhere. There, the mysterious girl finds out that the boy is far from ordinary.

After that day, Akihito does some club work in the Literary Club with its president, Mitsuki Nase, discussing the many stories that they have to revisit for the club's soon-to-be-released anthology. Akihito then checks out a commotion in the other room, only to discover the girl from the other day, Mirai Kuriyama, in an unsuccessful attempt to stalk him. Eventually, Akihito loses his temper as he remembers the many injuries he had suffered due to this girl's curiosity about his ability to instantly recover from even fatal injuries. He also clarifies that he is a half-youmu, not a normal human possessed with a youmu, which Mirai considers as her usual target as a spirit world warrior. Soon enough, Mirai clumsily parts ways with Akihito as he returns to Mitsuki.

Upon his return to the Literary Club room, Mitsuki proceeds to tease Akihito once more, but also reminds both of them of her responsibility to watch over him. She also advises Akihito to refrain from interacting with Mirai, telling him that her family of spirit world warriors, the Nase family, has the jurisdiction over this part of the neighborhood.

The school day soon ends, and Mirai shows up as Akihito leaves the clubroom. Mirai then explains that she belongs to a family of spirit world warriors shunned by many others due to their ability to manipulate blood; after her clan was killed off by other spirit world warriors, she was left as the only survivor. Soon, Mirai prepares the blade she used to stab Akihito during their first encounter to attack Akihito once again, and Akihito runs away from her, using anything at hand to throw off Mirai. Eventually, their chase ends when Akihito manages to pin down Mirai using a locker. Although Mirai manages to get out of the locker, hunger makes her reconsider the pursuit.

Suddenly, a real youmu appears in the form of a large furry beast, pursued by Shizuku Ninomiya, a spirit world warrior dressed in office attire.

During the battle, Akihito notices that Mirai's hands are shaking in the presence of the youmu that appeared earlier. Later that night, Mirai confesses to Akihito that she never had the chance to kill a youmu, fearing that she might be targeted by people around her due to her ability to control blood. This also reveals Mirai's motivation for turning Akihito into a practice dummy for her combat skills. Mirai soon promises to avoid attacking Akihito for the day, in exchange for treating her for dinner. Akihito then lets out a long sigh after feeling helpless on his end of the deal with Mirai.

After a hearty meal at a Mexican restaurant, Mirai and Akihito walk back to their homes. On their way, Akihito advises Mirai to start attacking youmu instead of him as it is easier than stabbing him forever. As they part ways, Akihito notices the hesitation in Mirai's eyes, something that bothers him throughout the night.

The next day, Akihito and Mitsuki meet up at the school cafeteria, something out of routine for both of them. After a short prelude, Mitsuki reveals her true agenda and asks Akihito to cut all ties from Mirai due to the Nase family keeping a close watch on Mirai Kuriyama. She knows that Akihito wouldn't follow her advice and that Akihito wouldn't die no matter what, but she does warn him that bad things will happen to him if he can actually die.

By the end of another school day, Akihito and Mirai meet up once again, but this time, not a single drop of blood is spilled. Instead, Akihito takes the chance to talk to Mirai about what Mitsuki had told him earlier. It turns out that Mirai has been taking a lot of hate recently (particularly in her bonsai blog), and is struggling to earn money. Akihito decides to help her defeat youmu to earn a living. However, Mirai refuses, but also says that despite her fear of taking a youmu's life, she cannot live a normal life and quit being a spirit world warrior.

At that moment, Akihito tells her that he feels the same way.

Later that night, Akihito and Mirai visit her apartment. Upon arriving, they don't see anything abnormal, but after a short moment, supernatural activity takes place and they find themselves directly in combat with a youmu in the form of a phantom-like mummy.

Characters
List of characters in order of appearance:

Characters in italic are only seen briefly and have yet to make a proper appearance.

Trivia

 * Carmine is commonly known as the color of blood.

Quotes

 * Akihito: "I'm a half -youmu. An extremely rare entity the child of a youmu and a human."

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