Summer 2010 in Anime: Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin (Occult Academy)

This is the show of the season. I've been waiting for this anime to come out since....well, since Chartfag gave us the list of shows for summer. Occult Academy is about a girl named Kamashiro Maya, daughter of the recently deceased principal of Waldstein Academy in Japan. Waldstein Academy, also known as "Occult Academy," earns its nickname from the strange and mysterious phenomena that occurs there, as we are helpfully told in the intro by a taxi driver who won't shut the fuck up.

It’s July 1999, and people in Japan are wondering if it’s the last day on Earth.  We're obviously able to relate to this thanks to all the 2012 doom-sayers who keep showing up at our doors and scaring away the Girl Scout cookie vendors. 

"That's not true. Stop telling people we do that."

So the story is about Maya. Maya is headed to her father's funeral at THE HIGH SCHOOL OF THE DEAD OCCULT ACADEMY, where all the students are gathered. As she impatiently sits through the funeral, giving the audience plenty of time to admire her legs, the vice principal of the school plays a tape that the principal had recorded before he died. After we listen to the principal say his pre-recorded farewell to the students, he starts mumbling some satanic bullshit, which summons a demonic spirit, much to the surprise of the onlooking crowd. It possesses the principal's corpse and starts flying around, attacking people.

 No seriously, this is a good series, don't look at me like that! 

Demon-principal flies off, leaving a stunned crowd of students who aren't sure if what they saw was real or not. Isn't this an academy for the occult? Aren't they supposed be a bit more prepared? The principal must have foreseen something like this. I mean, they should be expecting crazy shit like this to happen all the time. Have some fire drills or whatever.

Fucking warlock teachers in my supernatural anime.

Anyway, Maya and a girl named Kozue go looking around the main building for Demon-principal. While they research the demon in the library, we find out that, despite having a strong hatred for the occult, Maya knows a whole lot about it, as she quickly identifies the demon as a Lamie that can possess multiple people. Fortunately, an old friend of Maya's happens to know some professionals who can help.

Kozue is also possessed by the demon and proceeds to attack the cast of the show. They're unable to hold her off, and she gets away, off to possess more people. Oh God, it's like High School of the Dead all over again.

So, I won't spoil the rest of the episode, but I can tell you that it's pretty good. The entire first episode is really entertaining. It's starts off as a tongue-in-cheek comedy contrasted by the creepy setting, but as we learn more about Maya through the episode, we learn why she acts so contemptuously towards the occult. She's a strong, independent person who knows what she's getting into. I really like the fact that her character is a lot deeper than it seems at first. You don't really see that sort of personality enough in comedies, or anime in general. We also learn a bit more about her relationship with her father, which gives us plenty of character development room and some more dramatic moments in the episode.

Now granted, not everything in the episode gets an explanation, and given Anime no Chikara's past records, we might never find an answer for everything. But all in all, it's an enjoyable first episode and it's definitely going to be one of the best shows of the season. The animation is great, the music is fitting, and the character designs are pleasing to the eye. Also, those facial expressions.

You might not like this show if some of the weirder aspects distract you or the fact that it doesn't take itself that seriously at times annoys you. Or maybe you don't like the character designs because you don't think that they're moe enough like Sora no Woto's character style. Possibly you just think it's some dumb, pretentious show that you want to rant about to all your friends on Twitter. Still, if you don't like this show, why don't you go and try to find occult phenomena yourself? Let's see what hell you come up with.

Someone's got competition.