Forum - View topicREVIEW: Occult Academy Episodes 8-13 Streaming
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23770 |
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Actually, Robert Frazer, that's an interesting perspective. Personally, I liked Maya in all her seasons, but I like bitches, so...
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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It would have been a frustrating series for someone looking for which pigeonhole to pigeonhole it into, given the structure of the series with a two-episode story exploring one pigeonhole then moving on to another. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3489 Location: Back stateside |
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You keep saying that, and I might give you the ghost girl as a bit of a segue, but up until that point every two-episode arc was the same format: monster of the week, wacky hi-jinxes, a few touching moments, the end. 11-13 completely turned that upside down. You call 11-12 a "magical girl theme," but I don't buy it; it's the fake-out finale whose "twists" were being hinted at throughout. And since we haven't brought it up yet, let's talk about the total waste of characters in this. Maya and Bunmei get fully fleshed out, but everyone else? Cardboard stereotypes. I could describe all of them in one sentence. A series with a cast of pointless extras has to either remain a screwball comedy or give them personalities if it wants to be dramatic (especially if it wants a spoiler[heroic sacrifice]). Like I said, the ending would have been awesome... in another series. As it was, I felt completely emotionally disengaged from a finale that ought to have been a crowning moment of awesome. |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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You can boil it down that far if you want, but then if you do not think that the magical girl version fits into that, and add to that the near death experience arc definitely does not fit into that, and the orphan girl arc does not fit into that, so that's 3 out of 6 arcs that don't fit the pattern. And forcing the first two episodes into the two arcs you are taking as defining the series, the introductory story arc turned it back to front, since the monster is supposed to be dispatched at the end of the arc, not at the halfway point. And its more accurate to describe both the first and second episodes as tosses that are caught in episode thirteen and, of course, its in episode 13 that we find out the story about the "monster of the week" in week 1, so ep1, ep2 and ep13 are clearly a trio. Leaving a total of two arcs that comfortably fit into your pattern that is supposed to define the entire series.
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Dorcas_Aurelia
 Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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Wanting a series to have a consistent tone isn't the same thing as pigeonholing it. The series starts off looking like it wants to be a parody of supernatural stories, but with some serious plot threads underneath it all. The problem is, the serious plot isn't consistent enough, and the parody elements often forgot they're supposed to be parody. This is because the show often tries to implement both at the same time. |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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And then immediately you want to pigeonhole it:
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Robert Frazer
Posts: 16 |
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While the reviewer has got some things plain wrong and so underrates the show (cf. my post at the end of the last page), tying in to the argument on this page I don't think the programme was without fault, although it might be less of a fault than it not being given enough of a chance. The complaints of an uneven tone really show that it wasn't given sufficient space to breathe - hell, it was rushed even inside the actual story, with all of its events crammed into scarcely a month of narrative time! I could quite happily have eaten up another season of the cast Scooby-Doo'ing and Ghostbuster'ing it up in rural Japan, and that might have also provided some additional perspective about in what spirit to approach the programme.
If it was going to be extended over two seasons instead of one, more mileage could have been got out of the arc plot by not needing to introduce Bunmei's mission so early, and so not having the spectre of invasion preying on people's minds and distracting them from the spooky, kooky and ooky escapades. He could simply have been the weird and disconcerting traveller insinuating himself about the place for a few episodes, until it all tumbles out when he's finally confronted about his skulking about the archives (which would also be a useful way to introduce his cowardice). |
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Yorozuya
Posts: 332 |
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I watched up to about episode 7 and then stopped. From this review I'm glad I did.
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Bingal
Posts: 95 |
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I'm fine with the lack of proper development for the boring side-characters, as well as the uneven tone. But what really killed it for me was just how anti-climatic the finale felt (I don't tend to associate the occult with streaking fireballs and energy beams spammed by super-powered witches that came straight out of a shounen series) and how the narrative never truly fleshed out its supernatural setting.
It was still a fun show to watch, but one that lost so much potential that I'm really curious to know how it would've fared if a more experienced director was at the helm of the production. |
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Xelgaex
Posts: 2 |
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I was extremely disappointed by eps. 11-12. The reveals weren't handled well IMO. I could have handled Bunmei finding out his crush was a succubus or something but having her turn out to be spoiler[a cackling-ly evil villain who wants to destroy the world for ill-defined reasons] was too much. And it's kind of hard to really care about what was presumably supposed to be spoiler[a touching sacrifice] when you've spent the whole series up to then disliking those characters. Plus the superpowered witch fight felt totally out of place with the rest of the series. On Maya, for the most part I was closer to Robert Frazer's position than Carl's, since I did want to see Maya grow more accepting of the occult and try to forgive her father (though I do see Carl's point). But those two episodes she was definitely too damsel in distress compared to the badassery we'd seen earlier. I was so relieved when I realized in ep. 13 spoiler[that it had been a fake out and that wasn't really how the Nostradamus plotline was going to end] that I probably ended up with a better opinion of the series than I should have, considering. |
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Sven Viking
Posts: 1039 |
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QFT. First episode looked good, started going downhill directly after that. For a moment in episode... 4 or something?... I was actually sort of impressed that they weren't afraid to portray Bunmei as a genuinely worthless craven coward (rather than the run-of-the-mill, half-hearted cowards you commonly get in anime). Wasn't enough to keep me watching, though, especially since it looked like they were going to try to shoehorn in an implausible romance. I also partly agree with Robert Frazer about the "obnoxious and bullying, not strong", but that wasn't apparent in the first episode, where she seemed to have valid motives. |
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zensunni
 Posts: 1293 |
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Perhaps I am less jaded, having not watched as much anime as many people that frequent this site, but I found this series tremendously enjoyable, often hilarious, sometimes creepy, occasionally surprising, and, near the end, frequently touching. There was quite a bit of the show that was predictible, but I find the vast majority of TV and movies to be predictible. The few shows that really surprise me, in ways that do not entirely defy logic, are the ones I usually find memorable and enjoy the most (See "No Way Out" staring Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman for an example in movies.) I have to agree with Robert on the treatment of Maya's character. I found that the character developement was well done, if a bit predictable, and not "destroying" a good character, but a charcter that grew and became a better person, if not as "cool" as people seem to want her to be.
The episodic, monster of the week structure allowed the story to try out a bunch of different horror and SF styles, which kept it fresh. As for complaints about the side characters being left undeveloped, I don't expect much side character development in a 13 episode series! They would have needed to make it at least 26 episodes to make it a real ensemble show. It had a reasonable amount of character developement for Ami and an understandable lack of development for Mikaze, spoiler[since she turned out to be the primary villian]. They were the primary side characters, the others were just plot tools and comic relief, which is fine, IMO. While I enjoyed the touching moments of the ghost girl arc, I thought it detracted a bit from the overall plot. It might have been better placed earlier in the story, spoiler[though the jealousy of Mikaze by Maya wouldn't have worked earlier, and that had to happen in a "Non-Key" episode arc so Bunmei not being there would be OK, so I understand why it was put where it was. There was also a moment when I was truly horrified that the little girl's body might be in the chest freezer, which would have been truly sick. But that is probably because of a story from 20 years ago about a daughter that found her missing mother in the chest freezer in the garage and it turned out that the husband had thought he killed her, stuffed her in the freezer and left her there to freeze to death somewhere around 8 years before his daughter broke the lock on the "broken" freezer and found the body. That obviously was too freaky to forget and when I saw the freezer she was sitting next to start to move, I thought that the show was going to take a creepy in a bad way turn. I was quite pleased that it was not the case and I expect that it colored my opinion of the episodes... In the end I found the arc touching and very sad.] The final episodes were very well done. spoiler[Though I am a fan of magical girl shows and that aspect I found really well executed. I liked the twist with her father being in charge of the time travel group, but saw it coming a mile away, or at least as soon as they faked Maya's death. The bit with Bunmei wanting to see his mother was a bit off in terms of "If you leave now you guarantee the safety of the future, if you stay you risk destroying everything." But in human terms, it was an understandable decision. It wasn't really his mother that he wanted to see, he didn't want to leave Maya any more than she wanted him to leave. Call me a hopeless romantic, but that is how I interpreted that, even though it was obvious that the result would be him seeing his younger self. At one point, I was convinced that they were just going to let the future stay screwed in the end. Bunmei regaining his telekenetic powers and defeating the Alien invaders was not what I expected, so I found that nicely played. The concept of a Maya and Bunmei growing up to be lovers, with the age difference, was a bit creepy, in the non-horror-show sense, but I expect that she was supposed to be about five years off from Bunmei in either direction (younger than the time traveller and older than the spoon bender) so I guess it isn't any creepier than the two of them having feelings for each other before that.] In general, I found it to be a very entertaining, SF/Horror time-travel show, which is right up my alley. I really didn't expect to enjoy it going in. I have to thank Crunchyroll for their Halloween contest, because that is what got me watching it. |
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AlanMintaka
 Posts: 99 |
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NISA just released the BluRay this week (05/08/2012) so I came here to see the review and forum comments. Everyone had some great comments and insights into the series, especially Gasero's observation about the current state of Anime:
You and me both. They've always had problems with series endings, which I had assumed was a combination of simple incompetence and requirements of the industry to force-fit their creations into packages designed by marketers. Lately, however, this ineptitude has been creeping backwards into the series' innards, producing the kind of crap you've all been describing. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles is another good example of how badly a recent Anime series can be mangled beyond repair. Even the popular CLAMP team is not immune to this encroaching incompetence. I also wanted to thank Carl Kimlinger for this fantastic metaphor, worth reading for its own sake regardless of the context: "Of course it's also chaotic, periodically incomprehensible, and moodier than a bipolar water buffalo." Good one! I liked NISA's "premium" editions of Arakawa Under The Bridge and Kimi Ni Todoke. For me the series and packaging were worth the bucks. In the case of Occult Academy, however, I think I'll use the fifty two bucks to pay a percent or two of my property tax. Happy Anime Viewing, Alan Mintaka "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars." --Walt Whitman |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18189 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Now that it's out on hard copy, we are likely to have a new review on this title at some point. Please hold off on further comment in this thread and use the new review if/when it appears. (If it hasn't after a month then feel free to use this thread again.)
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