Occultic;Nine

Episode 12

Occultic;Nine is over! I'm free! Well, after another thousand words of plot summary, anyway. While it did manage to be climactic, Occultic;Nine doesn't lighten up on the plot in these final twenty minutes, dishing out a few more heaping helpings of exposition alongside its ultimate outcomes. So let's get on with it – what happens to these characters, and what's even happening at all, in the first place?

The episode opens on the evil villainous cult group beginning their immortality experiment for realsies this time. In the meantime, our ghost heroes have figured out how to revive themselves from the dead. For technobabble reasons that don't make much sense, they have a chance to travel back in time to when they were still alive, but that chance runs out at midnight of the current timeline. The problem is that their one opportunity to destroy the Odd Eye - the evil machine that makes the villains' plan for ghost-immortality-based world domination possible – doesn't open up until after the time limit has run out. On top of that, their method of travelling back in time is dependent on the Odd Eye's electricity (or something), and since machine doesn't fully boot up until the next day, they're out of luck on that one too. The exact mechanics behind this whole bit were really confusing, so I might not have that 100% right, but all that matters is the group has figured out how to revive themselves in theory, but the logistics don't line up, so this dashed hope has them down in the dumps. They mope around for a while until they figure out an alternate solution - Ryoka/Aveline's laser gun, which is a smaller version of the Odd Eye. This can send them back into the past instead of the Odd Eye, leaving it to be destroyed by the person who stays behind. However, that creates a few more problems. First of all, Yuta lost the tooth-key, which unlocks the gun's true capabilities. It can't send ghosts back to the past in its unlocked state, so for now, they're out of luck on that front. The second problem is that Yuta's powers as The Special are needed to destroy the Odd Eye, so even if he did have the key, he'd still have to make the choice between saving himself or the world.

As it happens, the latter problem solves the former – Yuta's Special Powers make it so that he can consciously create ghost objects, so he makes a replica of the key. It works to unlock the gun, and our heroes – minus Ryoka/Aveline and Yuta – get to go back. To Yuta's credit, he takes this ultimatum like a champ and immediately resolves to give his life for the sake of the world. There's no greater thematic reason for Yuta's Specialness - it just happens because he's the protagonist who must save the day. It even leads to a chuunibyou wish fulfillment scene where everyone stands around telling him how awesome he is for sacrificing himself. It's a transparent nerd boy fantasy, but I don't actually mind it that much because Yuta is a charmingly annoying goober instead of a serious sad boy. (To compare him to other iconic chuuni characters, he's way like more Subaru from Re:Zero than Shirou from Fate/stay night.) He may be obnoxious, but I ended up liking him and his choices in this finale.

In the end, he lucks out. The Seven Lucky Gods cult decided to speed up the immortality process, causing the Odd Eye to reach its peak before midnight. He learns this when Takasu, the cult's main schemer, interrupts a moment between him and Ryoka/Aveline in the park. He's finally figured out that Ryoka/Aveline is a traitor to the organization and decided to take her out. In the process, he hits Yuta with a purification rod, essentially killing his ghost before Aveline sacrifices her own existence to revive Yuta (with a kiss, of course). The revived ghost-Yuta takes out Takasu, while Ryoka (who is finally in charge of her own body) encourages him to fulfill Aveline's dying wish. He rushes off to the Odd Eye, growing some chuuni-tastic angel wings in the process. He destroys the thing after being rewarded with a brief reunion with his deceased dad. It's actually pretty heartwarming, and the day is saved. Woo hoo.

In the end, Aveline is gone for good. Yuta also appears to be, but he'll probably come back if there's a sequel. He was zapped within the time limit for revival, and the episode ends with a stinger showing a cryogenic chamber with his name on it, so it's a safe bet. Ryoka has control of her own body again, but she seems to have consented to everything that Aveline did with it, so there's no fallout to her having been possessed by someone else for possibly years. I don't know what happened to Aria, but she met up with Yuta before the end, so it's entirely possible that he zapped her back to life as well. If not, she's probably chilling as a ghost alongside Kiryuu's time-travelling astral projection. As it turns out, Ririka has this exact same power, which she uses to write her fortunetelling doujinshi. She seems to be up to some schemes of her own, but she eludes our protagonists without revealing her ultimate role in this story. This finale doesn't revisit the kotoribako kid at all, so I assume that he and Ririka were being set up for a sequel that may or may not happen. Gotta love it when that happens. He's probably back on the loose though, considering that time was turned back to before his arrest. Cardfight!! Vanguard fans must live in fear once again. Everyone else seems fine, hanging out in the old café (minus the evil bartender) and singing Yuta's praises. All hail chuunibyou, our lord and savior!

This was an alright ending, sequel bait aside. There was still too much dry exposition, and the plot was still a tangled knot of conspiratorial nonsense. Narratively, this supernatural thriller isn't structured half as well as its cousin and reigning king of the “semicolon” franchise, Steins;Gate. It just has too much going on – half of the plot threads are either irrelevant to the main narrative or don't get resolved. The cast is bloated, the characters are tropes at best, and the first few episodes remain nearly unintelligible. It also dedicates long stretches of every episode to dry pseudo-scientific technobabble, including the finale. In spite of all this, however, the direction and art design remain inspired, even managing to counteract some of the story problems. If you're already a sucker for this sort of thing and don't find yourself too put off by the first episode, it does become easier to follow, and the show's visual strengths may pull you through until the end.

All in all, Occulitc;Nine plays like a sort of modern pastiche of that popular early 2000s style of anime – low-fi high-concept science fiction like Serial Experiments Lain and Boogiepop Phantom. But while these shows were largely focused and serious explorations of themes like urban ennui, the nature of reality, and the ramifications of technology, Occultic;Nine throws all serious contemplation out the window to deliver a rollercoaster ride dressed in this genre's retro-cool trappings. It does contain some neat ideas for a serious science fiction show; I liked its focus on analog rather than digital technology, with a neat radio-wave metaphor for the afterlife. However, the show isn't interested in thematic or speculative depth at all, so these ideas remain unexplored. That's fine – in the end, Occultic;Nine was an imperfect but not awful version of what it wants to be, a slightly more stylish and retro version of the typical “semicolon” series technological thriller. Its story problems will put off a wider audience, but I can see fans of the franchise leaving content.

This was an ambitious entry in the series – they're trying to do a Ryohgo Narita thing with the enormous cast of quirky personalities – but the writer lacked the chops to make that style work. Ah well. At least it died down on aping NisiOisin after a while; now those imitators are the worst. While I can't say that I personally liked Occultic;Nine, it had its moments, the production was consistently great, and there's definitely an audience who would enjoy this. Honestly, that's better than what a lot of anime gets.

Grade: B

Occultic;Nine is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.