occult academy 1
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Tagged: occult academy
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Stealing from my own Twitter… Maya is #tsundere for the occult.
Yet another paint-by-the-numbers anime from A-1 as part of this “Anime no Chikara” (Power of Anime) project. Ugh. First, we got K-On! with vuvuzelas in the absolutely bland and forgettable So-Ra-No-Wo-To. Then we got horrible Chinese and a horrible attempt at Twenty Faces slash X-Men with Night Raid. Now? Occult Academy (Occult Gakuen) tries to out derivative all of them.
(Gee, the haunted high school concept is sure new! I’m sure I didn’t watch something similar… four hours ago. Rental Magica… Asura Cryin’… Zombie Loan… Bakemonogatari… Loki… Natsume… Ghost Hunt… Ghost Slide… Hayate the Combat Butler… pretty sure there’s tons more. Occult-ish happenings in high school? As over-played as a vuvuzela at the Vuvuzela World Cup.)
(Yes, I know anime is derivative, but the best ones either spin something new or do it really well. Just like how Starcraft isn’t the first FPS, it’s only one of the best. Or how Bakemonogatari isn’t the first occult/oddity anime out there, it’s only one of the best. And… Occult Academy is no Bakemonogatari.)
“They can only be killed by cutting off their heads.”
I swore I heard this line recently. Mmm… when I say, “paint-by-numbers,” I mean paint-by-numbers. The jokes are about on the same level of a Jay Leno monologue, and the animation is mediocre with very bland backgrounds. So-Ra-No-Wo-To is noticeably better in terms of animation. Because of that, I’m not surprised that ANN is praising this show like it’s the third coming of Haruhi Suzumiya.
A-1 rips off Terminator. Guy goes back in the past (sans clothing), meets his future lover, and stops the world from being destroyed by evil forces. Come on, Minakami (Railgun scriptwriter), you can do better than this.
First Modern Law of Anime satisfied yet again. You know the creepiest, most unsettling thing about this anime? Yoko Hikasa is voicing the bully girl who isn’t afraid of anything. Yes. Yoko Hikasa. Mio. This is worse casting than putting Lelouch and Kallen as the romantic leads of a romantic commerce-based anime featuring a fruit-addicted wolf.
(First they merged vuvuzelas with K-On!… now they giving Mio a Linda Hamilton-type makeover… this is like the Atlanta Hawks signing Joe Johnson to a $120 million max deal.)
(When Uchida swung his Johnny in front of Maya’s face like he was trying to hypnotize her with it, we got the barnacle reaction from Maya… so maybe not that bad. But, I feel like if the same thing happened to Mio, she would explode in a puff of smoke.)
The evil vice-principal (maybe you shouldn’t have given it away that’s she’s evil so soon) belongs in High School of the Dead. She’ll fit in perfectly.
Best part of this show? Maya’s thigh highs. And her one piece white dress. I’m amazed she can move so nimbly in that outfit, not get blood, slime, or green gop on it, and manage to always have a table leg, a leg, a dead corpse, a chair, or whatever blocking the view for certain camera angles. Let’s just say I’m glad A-1 didn’t get HSotD.
(One of the other female characters even commented on Maya’s dress… I was sorely disappointed that there weren’t more catty comments like, “Do you think that’s the same dress she wore last night to Pure?” and “It’s okay, that dress will come off after a few Jello shots anyway.” Though… the most relevant comment that I couldn’t believe anyone didn’t ask? “Why is she wearing a skin tight, revealing white dress to her dad’s funeral?” I would ask that one.)
One thing this show kinda does right… cell phones! Uchida is from 2012 while the story takes place in 1999… so, of course, even though Uchida has no clothes, he brought back a 2012 cell phone with him. That’s all fine and dandy, but wouldn’t bringing back an iPhone or Android change the course of history if people discovered it? It’s almost like Biff finding the sports almanac in Back to the Future.
I dunno. I have to watch another episode of this show to see if it will go anywhere. At the very least, figure out what Uchida’s role in all of this is beyond providing Johnny fanservice.
(Prediction: Maya will spend 80% of this anime in that white dress. Apparently, Occult Academy is stuck with 1999 animation norms… see, in the future, we have costume changes. This isn’t a complaint…)
22 Responses to “occult academy 1”
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Starcraft the FPS?
Oh, for heaven’s sake… Spice and Wolf wasn’t that bad, especially since he actually sorta acted and sounded like a heterosexual version of Lulu who might actually be interested in wolfgirl Kallen. Plus, we got flirty Horo.
Ah well – at least the cell phone looks almost contemporary for 1999. Well, except for it not being black and boxy.
I laughed at you saying Starcraft is one of the best first-person shooters. I don’t know if I’m not critical enough or you’re too critical (very likely the former) but I enjoyed the first episode because it really set up the premise well. You know what you’re going to get character wise here and I kind of like it. I gave a quick thumbs up to Smile being voiced by Harima Kenji!
Don’t you mean: Starcraft is one of the best RTS, not FPS. I suggest you moving to Korea so you can make Professional Starcraft League references instead of Basketball and Baseball which I totally don’t get.
I meant Starcraft the tower defense simulator. My bad.
Haven’t seen the episode yet, but at least from the screengrab, the only thing out of place on that phone is the camera; I don’t think cameraphones were around until 2000?
This is the second show this season I only want to watch because of what the heroine wears and the emphasis on her thighs/legs, the first one being Ookamisan.
I don’t know, I thought the show was both cute and amusing. Nothing is new these days anyway.
I’m sorry, did I write there’s nothing new? I meant there’s nothing good these days anyway.
Not entirely related to this post- but with regards to the windows always on the left side issue from before – It’s probably because most class are held during the day, so there is only natural lighting; and since most people are right handed, if the light comes from the right side of the room (i.e. windows on the right hand side), their writing hand will create a shadow over their notebook/refill…etc, making it very difficult to write on.
Almost all the classrooms I’ve been in has windows on the left side of the room. With only a few exceptions where there are windows on both sides of the room (and these classrooms are in smaller, low-rise buildings, and so are not common in east asia).
This is seriously the most frequently I’ve seen this blog updated in 4 years…
I kinda liked this episode, despite nothing really happening in it. So far, for me, more entertaining than SoRanoWoto (and I never even got past one episode of Night Raid…) I might just be a sucker for a girl in thigh highs though; that would explain my unreasonable fascination with Fate/Stay Night despite the anime being pretty much incomprehensible.
@ ._.
Holy God, that’s a well-reasoned response to something I’ve been thinking about for a while – I thought that every school looking the same was just an anime trope (and one that I didn’t really get). You’ve made my day! Time to spam this on to everyone I’ve ever talked about this with!
Does Australia really do this as well? Here in Ireland, our schools don’t get any such considerate planning. Amazing!
Are you going to do thin slicing this season?
Wow, talk about bad memories and too lazy to look at the calender in the archives. Four months ago, Best of 2009 coincided with the start of spring 2010.
@Some Random Guy: Another vote for SC references.
Had to laugh at how the first few comments were corrections of that one mistake.
Sora no Woto would have been better without the whole “we’re the only key to solving this war” plot in an otherwise fuwa fuwa time show, but I still enjoyed it overall.
(Protip: If you squint and tilt your head slightly to the left while watching the bluray special, it’s like you’re watching an official HTT drunken yuri-fest! For the full effect, it helps if you drink heavily yourself.)
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There’s something strangely alluring about Maya. I think it’s the facial expressions. If nothing else, this show could end up being worth watching as long as she stays in
that one-piececharacter..
First thought on seeing the possessed zombie principal: Wow, looks like Slimer has really let himself go since the eighties and has been living in a van down by the river. And now I’m seeing Maya as a genderswapped Bill Murray. Strangely enough, that only reinforces my previous statement about her.
@Giant Humanoid Robot : surely you mean a genderswapped Dan Aykroyd? Any Bill Murray, whether genderswapped or not, would have been quite pleased to see a naked person of the opposite sex mysteriously descend from the sky.
Anyway, I also find Maya alluring, and I don’t find anything strange about it either. Think of her as a young, cranky Katherine Hepburn.
Am I the only one that thought Mr. JohnnyShadow-Come-Lately (heh-heh…heh-heh…) should have been saying “Yoisho… Yoisho…” as he came slowly spinning down from his time portal? If he starts adding “-poyo” to the end of his sentences, I predict this to be the most critically acclaimed and popular series of the season.
@ ._. — That possible explanation makes way too much sense. No way is it true. We’re talking about public education here… ^_^
@Giant Humanoid Robot — Ghostbusters is most definitely not the only 80’s classic this series is trying to evoke. I’m seriously getting an Otho from Beetlejuice vibe off the portly, Kururu-voiced “spirit dowser”, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, given the humor they’re obviously going for.
Something I noticed Jason almost completely ignored… How do you review a show with a possessed meganekko seconds away from a beatdown by the badass handyman (“Don’t get cocky just because you’re a little possessed!”) feeling around on the floor going “Megane, megane…” (an especially popular oldie but goodie this year), and not mention that? For shame… ^_^
The only haunted high school that needs to be animated is Tasogare Otome x Amnesia. Kyoto would do the job just fine and it even has a Mio look-a-like. It would be the ultimate combo of an embarrassed, flustered and teasing Mio. All will be right with the world.
I don’t mind if she wears those one piece for entire seasons :p
@ranggaw0636
And the high heels. Those must not be overlooked.
Isn’t Starcraft a RTS?