The Summer 2020 Preview Guide

Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation 2

---

Muhyo and Roji are finally back in town, but business isn't so good. Worse, they seem to have a major new competitor: Goryu Daranimaru, of the Goryu Bureau of Supernatural Investigation. He was an upperclassman of Muhyo at Magical Law School and, while not on Muhyo's power level, is nonetheless a capable enough enforcer that, with his trusty judge assistant Ebisu, he can tackle spirits plenty well and has built a nationwide chain of bureaus. Roji and Nana find that out themselves when Goryu and Ebisu show up when Nana goes to check on two friends who had been playing Kokkuri-san (basically Ouija) and accidentally summoned a real spirit. But Goryu's pricing and business methods are ruthless, and he further seeks to take over Muhyo's own bureau. Meanwhile, Enchu is having problems with fake forbidden texts.

Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation is based on a completed manga and streams on Funimation on Tuesdays at 6:30am EST.

---

Theron Martin
Rating:

After nearly two full years off since it ended with “to be continued,” this series is finally back for a second season. The new season is a direct continuation of the first, so much so that Funimation is numbering the first episode of this season as episode 13, so this is not an entry point for newcomers.

At first, things seem to have returned to business as normal. That means that business is not good for Muhyo and Roji, to the point that their diet is meat-light, and Nana is back in the picture. The one minor difference is that Muhyo is now acknowledging up front that Nana is something of a medium; if this happened in the first season then I am not remembering it, and I watched it within the past month. That also, annoyingly, means that Roji is back to having little confidence and again feeling incompetent as Muhyo's assistant. Also like in the early stages of the first season, a random spiritual case arises which Roji and Nana get involved with. Unlike in the first season, however, Muhyo is not the one who steps in to save the day with Magical Law, and that's where the new twist comes in.

Muhyo already has a rival in the form of Enchu, but that is at a “Harry Potter and Voldemort” level. He has not yet had a more direct, business-related rival, so Goryu and his assistant look to fill that niche. Goryu's role is more important than just that, however. Prior to this point, the series has not shown anyone but Muhyo actually performing magical law, so the audience had no ability to judge the scale of Muhyo's powers compared to his peers; we were just told that he was one of the strongest. Seeing Goryu in action allows us to see more clearly that Muhyo's ability is, indeed, on a whole different level; he's faster and generates more powerful effects, and perhaps because of that he does not have to employ borderline-sadistic methods. (Or maybe that's just Goryu's personal taste showing through?) His exorcism also does not have a hellish theme to it, though so far we only have one example to go by.

Even though Goryu is clearly competent, this episode does not even pretend that he's not the villain. The screenshot I chose makes him look even more wicked than Enchu, and both his regard for the woman who refused to pay and the price tag levied on Nana's classmate mark him as an obvious lowlife. (Even Enchu is shown as being concerned that Rio is suffering.) At least the next episode will deal with him, but he also feels like he could be a seasonal focus character. Regardless, his presence prevents the series from returning to a pure “monster of the week” format, and that's not a bad thing. Artistic elements and the promotion of horror elements are on par with the first season, so this is an episode I can recommend to fans of the earlier installment.