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.