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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
 Dreamer
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[series:2318#2279] |
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This was a nice surprise. I didn't know what to really expect. Watching through the various episodes, it got better and better.... Art, Animation & Character Designs Artwork was excellent. Backgrounds & backdrops were rich in color and very detailed. Animation was really smooth, almost velvety. Loved it. There was some great lighting effects as well. Most noticeably in the first episode during the cab ride. Characters were superb. Well detailed, rich with color and well animated. Music The OP was an ok rock-like piece with female vocals. Nothing really spectacular but wasn't bad for the most part. The rest of the soundtrack had a fair amount of, what sounded like orchestraic pieces.... which at first seemed out of place. But then, when you take the series as a whole and the setting, then it does seem to work. Series and Episode Story This was a nice surprise..... if not a bit confusing or WTF at times. So what sets this one apart from the countless similar titles? Well actually, there isn't really any other title to compare it too.... since this series uses some odd character types... i.e. emo type character, a gutless time traveler and more. For the most part and up to about the last 2 or 3 episodes, it was mildly intersting and the plot wasn't really taking off much. Then it really got interesting near the end. Somehow, we got some hot witches, some serious magic fire power and some kick-ass fight scenes.... magic fight scenes... and not to mention a hollywood inspired dooming alien invasion. Yes, a conglomeration of things all rolled into the last couple episodes..... that somehow, in the end, worked out. I sorta liked it. Overall, it was a kinda strange series with a mixture of everything here and there. Not my first choice but still worth watching over once. The better part of this series was the above average artwork and animation, which at times was gorgeous. Last updated Thursday, November 11 2010. Created Thursday, November 11 2010. | ||||||||
| Watch | 9 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2318#1552] |
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Whatever you think of Occult Academy when you get through its entire run will depend on what your expectations were when you first seen the series. If you think of it as a parody of various occult phenomena the show has fun poking fun of, then this is where you would get the most enjoyment out of the series. But if you were expecting a fleshed-out plot, then you will be greatly disappointed as the show haphazardly goes through its main plot of Abe and Maya's search for the Nostradamus Key. In my case unfortunately, its the latter. When it came to pushing along its storyline, Occult Academy did little to advance it in its first ten episodes where five of its ten episodes were more focused on developing its characters than delving into its main plot. If Occult Academy had been a two season series, the character development would have made for decent breaks from the show's main plot. But in this case, it caused the show to stall on developing its plot and to rush through its developments through the show's final three episodes where the main plot is abruptly looked into at the start of episode 11 and the episodes have a bad habit of pushing one reveal after another just about every moment or so, indicating that the pacing was rushed. The ending turns out to be ironic and a big cop-out considering how sudden and deus ex machina events occur. I also have to derail the show for trying to push along Abe and Maya as a potential pairing in the show's second half as the developments were unconvincing considering how there was little development of the pairing's relationship advancing to such a point, Abe not exactly being my favorite character due to his pathetic cowardice and how it took the presence of a machine that would be too advanced to exist in 1999 for Maya to go from beating around Abe for his cowardice to being nice to the guy. If there is one thing that I would have to praise the series for though, it would have to be the visuals which was above average compared to much of what I've been exposed to for anime this past year. Occult Academy put enough color and detail into its character designs and backgrounds, as well as having some impressively animated fight scenes at points (episode 12 in particular). And if you want to get some laughs, the series does do decently well at poking fun of occult phenomena (ex: out of body experiences and chupacabras) and horror/ sci-fi movies (ex: Legion and Terminator) which you will see enough of throughout the show. Unfortunately, it's too hard for me not to ignore the show's haphazard plot development which it has a bad habit of lagging in development with for most of the series until it rushes through developments and revelations in the final three episodes. If you want laughs, Occult Academy will do well at that provided you aren't looking for a plot to get decent development out of. Otherwise, steer clear of this series unless you want to be disappointed once you get past the show's first few episodes. Last updated Tuesday, September 28 2010. Created Tuesday, September 28 2010. | ||||||||
| Rent |
 Anonymous #3232
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[series:2318#3232] | ||||||
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"This production is fictitious, and there are no such things as ghosts, ESPers, aliens, UMAs, or any other supernatural phenomena."
"... as long as you believe it." For some reason, this anime initially reminded me a bit of the 1984 film Ghostbusters because of the detail about the supernatural written into the scenarios (and given that Fumiaki emerged naked, the Terminator reference is a good one). As the series progresses, it becomes clear that there's a lot more wits and brute force in dealing with the trouble these supernatural foes present than the Ghostbusters science fiction such as proton packs. I've watched up to episode 9-- so far, I'm liking the story and characters (though Maya is sounding like a tsundere Mio), and I'd like to see them go into the "apocalyptic future" a bit more. Last updated Friday, September 03 2010. Created Friday, September 03 2010. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 21
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[series:2318#3223] | ||||||
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(Five episodes watched) Interesting series. I like the characters, although Uchida seems like more of a jerk/wimp every episode. Very distinct art style. I'll definitely keep watching. Last updated Tuesday, August 03 2010. Created Tuesday, August 03 2010. | ||||||||
| Rent |
 Stretch
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[series:2318#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched): 'Oh Lordy, another magical academy show' --that was my attitude going into Occult Academy. This one, however, seemed distinctly fun afterwards. Instead of the usual 'aren't I awesome with my mystical powers?' take, Maya despises the occult, which is a fresh attitude that I can identify with. Characters in general seem more interesting and realistic than average. At first I wasn't sure if the mix of horror and comedy would work, but so far, so good. The time travelling spin has me intrigued as well. This show was a pleasant surprise, given my low expectations. In episode two the story seems to be moving at a good pace and, once I easily suspend disbelief, the premise of the show seems plausible. Thus, it holds my interest; I just hope it will continue to deal out original material instead of having a limited supply. The one thing that bugs me is Maya slapping and punching too much--I wish Uchida would give her a taste of her own medicine just once. Anyway, I'm looking forward to more of Occult Academy. Occult Academy is definitely my second-favorite show of the summer, after HOTD. The writing, the humor, the characters, pretty much everything stands well above the average. The plot makes enough sense and draws enough interest to keep me on top of what's going on. As of episode seven the tone seems relatively silly and fun, but there is the threat of a future apocalypse--sort of like in Terminator--hanging over everything. Episode six was pleasantly surprising in that the episodic problem is solved when it turns out to be a silly mixup. This could have easily wrapped up the episode, but a clever side effect is that Maya is finally convinced to take Uchida seriously. Since each episode or two seemed to deal with a bizarre problem (from Chupacabras to Demons to Near Death Experiences) that turned out to have nothing to do with Nostradamus' Key, I was thinking that this would have to be a two-season series. But things came together in a hurry in episodes 11 and 12, and the problem seemed to be fixed, which made me assume that number 13 would be some sort of omake episode. It turns out that the problem wasn't quite solved after all, and a much better conclusion was on the way. I really liked the way things finally worked out; episode 13 offered a rather clever and plausible explanation for everything--so clever that even I understood it thoroughly. It wasn't hard to guess more-or-less what was going to go wrong and bring things to a crisis, but it's not often that a series ends so smoothly and near faultlessly as this one did. When the episode was over, I said to myself without thinking 'F---, that was good'. I had thought of Occult Academy as the second-best show of the Summer season, after HOTD, but after comparing how both shows ended maybe their rankings ought to be reversed. My favorite line: "History changes--starting now!" --Bunmei Last updated Wednesday, June 09 2021. Created Tuesday, July 13 2010. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Silence
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[series:2318#2939] | ||||||
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Time traveler meets occult. I am not really interested in occult, but i will stick around a bit more to see how the story develops.
Last updated Wednesday, July 07 2010. Created Wednesday, July 07 2010. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Japanese Series Web Site | http://www.occult-gakuin.jp/ |
