Review: Fate/Zero (anime)

At first I wanted to combine the first season together with season 2, but then there’ll be a lot of mixed feelings. Because I find the second season much more exciting that the first. And the main reason is to see more of Broskander.... and to hear the OP by Kalafina.

Season 2 is simply the continuation of the first season, and there’s no ‘RESET’ story mode as seen in Code Geass and Kimi ni Todoke. Those who died in the previous season, just died. In this season we have 2 episodes for Emiya Kiritsugu (and more insert song by Kalafina aw yiss), on why he has such principles and his goals in reaching the Holy Grail.

After knowing what the Holy Grail is all about, I really think that the invention is pointless. And all the battles I saw is just totally a waste of time, a waste of property damage. And the fact that the Servants aren’t exactly having the same wavelength as their masters makes me think that it’s even more pointless. Oh but at least you have an (imaginary) friend to talk to, moreover, they’re heroes from ye olden days WHO WOULDN’T WANT THAT weh.

But I gotta admit they’re all really good and nice to watch. As I said in season 1, no abra kadabra POOF you turn into a frog thingy but you gotta use your magic wisely as though you’re in a real battle. Speaking of battles you’ll also see some jet fighting… which makes me wonder where the aircrafts came from. I don’t think it existed during Arthurian legend or Epic of Gilgamesh. But hey it’s magic! Gilgamesh, or also known as “Archer” does not even use bow and arrow to attack, but he opens up a portal to take out the collection of his huge dildos.

sorry i just had to post this w

Going back to Kiritsugu, the probably the second last episode made me go WOW about F/Z (other than Broskander and Yuki Kajiura). All this while I had been supporting Kiritsugu to win the battles (although I still fukken hate Saber) and KILL THE MAGES WITH FAIYAAAA~N , but then he’s given this psychological mindfuck and I got mindfucked as well. I felt guilty all over. Felt guilty for supporting him, felt guilty for having such mindset. But that particular episode OWNS and it made me realized how the second OP very much relates to Kiritsugu. And since then, when I listen to “to the beginning” I feel a sharp pain inside…

Speaking of endings, here’s a bit of spoiler… THE GOOD GUY DIDN’T WIN.

If you've seen or played Fate/Stay Night you would've known this spoiler already but still it answers your curiousity on how it happened. You might feel like your probably favourite team should’ve deserved to become the champion… but this isn’t a contest of how awesome you are as a character, or as partners . No matter how strong your servant is, doesn’t mean that you’re gonna win. No matter how smart you are as a Master, doesn’t mean you’re gonna win either. Ah, Holy Grail is about luck i guess?

And there’s nothing bad about that because we’ve all seen how often the good guys win, and how often the main team of a sports manga always have to win because the plot is about them. Now we see how the good guy had his ass kicked, and how the ‘bad guy’ is satisfied about his so-called goals. And it’s sad that the winner didn’t really have any great wishes to attain the grail, so it’s a waste that it was not given to the ‘supposed’ winner. But at least he did not destroy the whole world. Oh yeah, this is another story where the the shit only happens in one area but they act like it’s gonna affect the whole world, and everything had to happen in JAPAN although you obviously have gaijins as participants.

Art by Yukasu

While it is true that most of the characters are given backstories, I’m just sad that characters like Assassin and even Gilgamesh aren’t given any flashbacks. Assassin is like something to fill in the blanks in the Servants slot, they just can’t wait to finish him off. Gilgamesh on the other hand is just there like a douchebag acting like he deserves to be fangirled over. There doesn’t seem to be any development for this guy either cos he’s an arrogant bastard from the beginning to the end (if turning into a psycho ex kind of character is some kind of development then...okay...). And then there's Irisviel being the isteri solehah, which I personally don't like but sometimes having a character like that is OK.

There’s no need to tell me to start reading the novels or play the VNs etc to understand more about them, I pretty much can refer to their wikia. I’m disgusted by the mage system used in Fate series that I’d rather not indulge in it, disgusted by the battle royale, disgusted by how each of the characters want the Holy Grail for their own selfishness. Especially Saber… seriously, “restore Britain?”. Is she aware about how UK is during that time period? Probably the other Servants too have really dumb goals, unrealistic towards their current state of existence and makes this whole battle royale stupid – except for Broskander’s wish because IT MAKES MORE SENSE TO COME BACK TO LIFE AND DO WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT.

In spite of all that, this anime is highly recommended, but you gotta endure the dullness of the first few episodes of season 1 (I know some of you suffer this, I did too). And keep in mind there’s the awesome Servant called Rider/Iskander and there’s episode 24 to writhe in pain with. Battle scenes are great too. Oh yeah a friendly reminder; OST by Yuki Kajiura.

i have no regrets

Review: Jack the Giant Slayer

I know I have a lot of pending animes to review, but it's just that I haven't found the mood to rant about them yet. But this particular film is disturbing my thoughts lately so I had to let it out.

Jack the Giant Slayer is a film adaptation of the infamous Jack and the Beanstalk and also Jack the Giant Killer. With some unnecessary romance and a really cool supporting character. Unfortunately the story is not as badass as the title sounds, not even the main character himself.

Story starts with a little boy listening to the story about Giants. I assume this is Jack as a child so I thought it was a neat intro. Then the scene switched to the little girl listening to the same story and I was like "oh crap this story is going to have a fukken heroine". At this point I could sense that the predictability is very high. Fast foward, Jack has to run an errand for his uncle and went to the city and got fascinated seeing the first girl he met. As if there aren't any fine maidens in the village area. Turns out the girl is a princess (why does this sound so damn familiar?). And then this girl is a rebel princess; she wants adventure and seek for her true love. I'm pretty sure this kind of princess is overused, and as I predict the princess ran away from home. And then she meets the main character, all the cheesy lines start from here.

So I'm gonna be straight-forward; the script made me cringe in many parts especially when it comes to Jack and the Princess. So I was like can I skip this part? no? Hurry up and finish talking you two! Wow, I don't mind boy-meets-girl kind of cliche but we need a little more revamp ith the interaction between them (I guess I watch to much anime).

But what I enjoy most is the action part; the fights, the battles, the giant slaying - to the point I think they could've made the story work even WITHOUT the presence of a heroine. The princess role is just as a damsel in distress, and a reason to get the plot moving. Don't be fooled by the armour she's wearing ok, it doesn't mean anything. But I'm sure we've expected more from her considering the fact that she wants one hell of an adventure. Jack on the other hand is some kind of Gary Stu, like the writers have no idea how to create an epic protagonist other than a hormone raging one. Yes I understand that he's a teenager but he's just meh. The best character here is Elmont, cos he's cool in everything, and he's the most significant. Plus he's the loyal vassal type (ultimate weakness!).

The villain isn't even worth mentioning, but the Giants are brilliant in their own way. To be honest I was almost disappointed 30 minutes before the movie ends cos I thought there wouldn't be any Giant vs Humans battle. As I mentioned earlier, I expected Jack to be more badass - before watching I had a picture of a BAMF hero slaying giants like they're frail bamboo trees with blood splattering around but NO! No no no you only got Jack trying to impress a girl he just met before all this crisis happened. Therefore, I can conclude that the character development is bad.

The story doesn't have that much plot twist... as I said it was mostly predictable (except for Elmont). But if I consider it as a kid's show then I say it's pretty decent and enjoyable. But since it's PG-13, which implies that it's for older people then... they could've written a less shitter princess, script.... and plot.

Ah now I'm relieved.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I watched this very late. And I even entered the hall 30 minutes late. Long story. Also this won't be so review-ish because I'm sort of out of analytical words to say :P. Just here to let out my after-effects of the film so if you want a proper review go look somewhere else. Don't trust this one (I only like to attack anime)

Also read the summary in wiki or something, too lazy to recap atm. What I'm excited about they're gonna deal with a DRAGON YYAHGSJAHGJHGSFHGHDFSHGFHDGSFHDG

The 3 hour long movie wasn't a waste. It was fun and it felt like we went through the adventure with them. Throughout the film I was often reminded by Gurren Lagann; on how Gandalf chose an experienceless hobbit into the party of drawves and believed in him. Also on how Gandalf sort of admits why he'd choose Bilbo Baggins was thanks to his own weakness.

Of course the necessity of a fantasy-themed story is good vs typically fated to be evil race. It is a nice change to see dwarves being primary main characters rather than secondary main characters. And lolwhut a few of them are surprisingly handsome especially Thorin and Kili. It's only one third of the book, but I see the character development done pretty well (perhaps just for this adaptation, not that I read the novel). Even Bilbo who I think is just a bystander (this also reminds me of Final Fantasy XII), though i thought it was a bit fast. Still, the whole movie does feel like an introduction episode.

they don't look the same!

The lulz parts are Radagast the Brown and rock giants boxing in the rain. That was one hell of an adventure huh. With the many people in one party I was expecting they die one by one but the dwarves are extremely tough (oh no maybe it would happen in the next 2 movies?!). I'm glad they're extending this to multiple films because often one book adaptations is not enough to be compressed in one film.

My favourite scene is the battle in the orc underground cave; it was damn complicated but really got me at the edge of my seat. And speaking of scenes I think most of them are filled with important ones - maaaaaaaaaaaybe the troll and Gollum cameo felt like a waste of time but it was still really entertaining. More like it gives a chance for Bilbo to display his character.

Eh and let's not forget about the epic choir songs during battles! You know I'm weak for folk-ish music too.

If my mom was watching this she'd wonder why a wizard isn't using his for every little thing. But I was thinking that Gandalf is saving his MP wisely.

While watching The Hobbit I keep thinking of the game Dragon Age, the world is almost similar but DA has its own twists and tweaks. The dwarves are given a chance to shine and show how noble they can be (apart from acting similarly like Meleis), so thanks to that I'm more open to select the dwarf race in my next playthrough.

Review: Fairy Tail - Houou no Miko

After Naruto and Bleach failed me, Fairy Tail is the only shounen I cared about (at least until Magi came along). I shall explain why another time, but not here or else it'll become a super long post.

Since the movie is shown in local cinemas, and only on certain dates, coincidently yesterday the schedule was perfect and the cinema is quite near my area. Now I'm not realy of movie spin-offs so I didn't expect much from Houou no Miko (I'm not really gonna summarize the plot since you can read it elsewhere). By the way there were probably like ten people inside the cinema w.

Yes it is a very generic shounen movie, it's just like the story arc. You have a client, you have good vs evil, you have teamwork, you have amnesia, manry tears, friendship, ecchi (with Lucy as the main p0rn Star but why not erza??) blablabla but nonetheless I enjoyed it.

The art isn't very impressive, just as the anime is. I sorta expected they'd refine the art style in animation. Okay maybe Gray's body is the only thing worth mentioning LOL! Not until they went to a city with some kind of Indian-like culture where suddenly the anime looks beautiful. The city reminds me of Magi's Magnoshutat in a way except that Fairy Tail doesn't have any twisted things regarding magic power unless it's Edolas. But the was one thing which is rather effective to me is their 'night time'; you can really feel that the events happened at night and how creepy it is especially when you have a villain who lurks in the shadows. Of course the series have events that occur at night too but in the movie it's really dark.

Speaking of villains, none of them were very interesting. The antagonists are another magic guild called Carbuncle, with rather typical villains whose leader want nothing more than power and immortality. But meh I figured that they have no time to develop the bad guys so I just consider them as cockblockers. One of the villain minions is also a Holder Mage who uses requip, so it's an Erza rival... but the most challenging part is she keeps dispelling Titania's requips until she puts on the wedding dress (she looks awesome fighting as a 'bride'). However, among all the Erza battles this one is the most dull. In fact, most of the battles are not so memorable and by the end of the movie it looked rather messy. I mean, even by reading the manga I can feel how epic the battles are but the movie didn't give me the same feel. Gray and Juvia did another Unison Raid against a magic bullet shooter which I think is the best fight scene here.

I expected some kind of omfg plot twist but then it's just, well, okay whatever the backstory is, is still kinda acceptable. I think if I was a child watching this I'd probably cry at the sad ending (It made me remember the first time I secretly cried over a fictional character's departure - it was a Doraemon movie) but for an oldfag like me the connection isn't enough to move me.

The only thing that made me smile, are the OSTs which I recognized rather quickly especially at the beginning so I thought I could just enjoy the movie thanks to the audio. As expected from Takanashi Yasuharu! I think they have new rendition of Fairy Tail main theme. And then there's Erza in Bridal gown. And then the epic Fairy Tail bromantic teamwork scene.

One questionable thing is that at which timeline did the movie occur in? I'm sure it's after the 7 year timeskip but then the guild is back in their original building. And if I'm not mistaken they mentioned Bacchus somewhere. So I'm guessing that this happens some time after the Grand Magic Games, or else I'd just consider this as not important.

I'm not a NaLu fan but Hiro Mashima himself has confirmed that they're canon, the movie justifies that but I'm glad Natsu isn't the horny guy type so Natsu is still being himself, telling that you have friends to back you up etc (instead of "oh it's ok i'll be there for j00")

Review: Fate/Zero (S1)

I tried to avoid this show, since it’s based on a novel. If I wanted to tweet about every episode, surely one or two type-moon fag would retort when I criticise something. Also, Fate/Stay Night was completely horrible. But since they say this show is a lot better than FSN (and I heard the composer is Yuki Kajiura, plus the season 2 OP artist is Kalafina), why not give it shot?

Just for your info, I’m not a type-moon fan, I don’t follow the visual novels or any other stuff related. So forgive me if my thoughts on certain things seem ignorant. Just consider me as a regular anime watcher. You have been warned.

Unfortunately, the first four or five episodes were incredibly dull for me. Too much verbal version of tl;dr, too much explanation about the master-servant system, where I think they can easily explain ‘visually’ or through one of the action scenes than giving us a full 40 minutes lecture on it. You have seven masters, they’re mages but not necessarily the most powerful mages ever – and each of them has ‘Servants’, of which some of them were kings/leaders of ye olden days, ironicaly. I thought Yuki Kajiura’s music would make me stick to it but the boringness of the initial storyline was overwhelming. And I’m rather disturbed by how the three biggest family of mages act all pompous – which makes me happy that the kid called Waver Velvet decided to prove them wrong. And this piqued my interest.

a tea party before they beat the crap out of each other

Then we have two daddies who fights in the field in the dark; one is the father of one of the most popular tsunderes in the anime world, and the other had a baby with a bimbo-ish homunculus D:

The former, hides in the ‘command room’ with Gilgamesh as his Servant, while the latter, in spite of being a mage prefers to use firearms in his fights. His Servant is Saber, which is disappointingly as bland as she was in FSN. Yeah yeah she’s an honourable knight, cute and all but as a warrior princess not even as GAR as Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail) or the newcomer Morgiana (Magi). Or perhaps I dislike her because I cannot accept that King Arthur is a girl :P. Meh it would work better if the female Arthur is not a small sized sixteen year old.

i think i know why King Arthur is a girl now... a wizard did it...

Which is why I became super delighted when Iskander pwn’d her with his army of bros, and this guy became the main reason why I had continued watching F/Z and all the way to season 2. Even her Excalibur final blow was like meh. His character is really has great as the size of his muscles!

The fights are unlike most shounens, I guess. You can see that they’re more tactical, even with the use of magic. So magic isn’t just any wand waving avada kadavra thingy. I think I can call the Masters in this anime ‘mahou seinen’. Plus there’s no definite good or evil sides, but you can tell which character is mentally sick (which makes him seem evil) and it makes you think… “DEFINE ‘GOOD’”. In this season there is not much of Gilgamesh in action, you can only see him with the kimochi warui priest guy talking about something psychological and philosophical blablabla.

Speaking of kimochi warui the concept of magic used makes me hate this ‘fandom’ so much, that I feel relieved that I have not indulged deeper into it. I think I’ll cover this in the second season’s review, along with other questionable stuff.

IMHO for the first season, they did a really grave mistake on making those 'lecture sessions' because I know some people especially the non-fate series fans got bored of it after a couple of episodes. It's a huge waste because the show is really worth watching, but the first impression was really repelling.
In conclusion, season 1 is not that special yet (just wait for my thoughts on S2). Except for Broskander :3

Tbh I dropped the show until someone told me to "watch it for Rider". I did. And I have no regrets.

Review: Katanagatari

It's a 2009 anime I almost forgot to review. I stumbled upon a samurai themed manga and suddenly remembered about it.

Studio: White Fox
Author: Nisio Isin

Katanagatari is based on a light novel, which explains all the dialog version tl;dr throughout the series. even the words of a dying person is very looooooooooooooooooooooong. The story is about Togame, a self-procaimed strategist who seeks to collect 12 legendary deviant swords forged by the legendary swordsmith Kiki Shikizaki. She can't fight, however, so she finds the head of Kyotouryuu style, Yasuri Shichika to help her out. The reason why she finds this particular guy is because this fighting style requires no sword, hence he will be least likely to be obsessed with the legendary swords.

For an extremely mysterious girl, she talks quite a lot. And Shichika originally begins as a bland character, but this is due to him growing up in an isolated island, alone with his sick elder sister. While they travel together, i expected some typical awkward romance between the main guy and the girl. But I'm glad the emotions weren't that obvious and focused more on hunting the swords. I guess the reason why I picked this up is because I LIKE SWORDS and to my surprise the blades aren't really your typical looking katanas.

apparently this is also a sword

Each of the people wielding the swords, are either good guys, or bad guys. And Shichika, having no sense of right and wrong, does not feel guilty killing anyone. Which is great because I'm sick of looking at goody-two-shoes dragging through the episodes just because of his sense of justice. And Togame herself isn't that weak emotionally - maybe it has something to do with her tragic past. So it doesn't disturb the pace of the story much.

As they collect all the swords, I wondered if they can really fit into the each of the 12 episodes. And I also wondered what are they doing to do once they collect them, what would happen once they do so? In the end we're surprised with a plot twist, and the ending has another twist which I'm glad isn't so emotional in spite of a certain great loss.

Long story short, the whole thing is about honourable and fearless samurais. For something fresh there isn't much talk about relationship and bonds, just personal inner dilemmas about warrior related things. Politics, selfishness, loyalty, hunger for power and greediness. Just those. And oh I forgot to mention that the antagonists are a group of ninjas. And they're defeated sobs.

I absolutely love the art and graphics of the anime. It reminds me of the game Okami, but not exactly the same. Just that it's nice to see something else for a change than the standard anime art. Maybe I like to see colourful things?

I didn't pay much attention to the EDs, but the whole OST is superb!! Composed by Iwasaki Taku, especially this one below

Review: Puella Magi Madoka Magica (anime)

Studio: SHAFT

[WARNING: May contain spoilers]

So I heard it’s a dark mahou shoujo. So I heard kyubei is an iconic mascot.

And I thought when you say ‘dark’ the drawing isn’t as flat and sketchy like a drawing done by a 9 year old -_-

Right, let’s put the art style aside for now. Pink haired girled called Madoka is running around in a strange room, stumbled upon a door and witness a dark haired girl fighting something big in the middle of the night. The girl warned something to Madoka couldn’t hear, and at the same time a white cat-bunny-like mascot was telling her to consider becoming a magical girl. Next day, she woke up and realized that it was just a dream… but when she went to school a new girl called Homura comes into her class who looks exactly like the girl in her dream. And for some weird reason that dark haired girl starts lecturing her about don’t become what she shouldn’t become like wtf. Then in the real world she got sucked into some weird dimension and tries to save the talking plushie with the help of her best friend Sayaka. Along the process, she meets another magical girl, Mami.

So I heard somebody died in the earlier episodes. But when I watch that scene… huh…? It didn’t give much impact as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann had. Probably because she wasn’t an epic enough character to grieve for. Maybe Sayaka and Madoka would but viewers didn’t get the chance to connect with Mami yet. Then Kyoko comes… I thought she was a jerk, but she’s actually the most reasonable mahou shoujo who could still get a grip even though she’s gone through FML moment.

oh don't worry, at least you gain a lot of fanboys from here...

Much later, stupidity keeps coming when Sayaka, who became a mahou shoujo for a short period of time. Thanks to the shit caused by Madoka (revealing the truth about mahou shoujo-ism) and the shit her other best friend did to her. The shit wasn’t as bad as Kyoko’s shit, but Sayaka’s too weak for that. Then when Homura’s past is revealed, we were informed that the cool, calm and collected black mahou shoujo is actually a dumb selfish lesbian (you know, if I were her I’d either revive all my dead friends or protect the whole city from that evil thing). And what I don’t understand was the big boss; does it appear now and then or on that specific time and cause some sort of tsunami to Japan/world? Does it cause the apocalypse? Plot hole here, and another minus point for Homura for being a very lousy thinker.

The show implies that civilization won’t advance without mahou shoujo (apparently, Cleopatra was one). I know of the saying “Behind every successful man, there’s a woman”, now I’m convinced that Ptolemy, Saladin, Newton, Einstein, George Washington, Steve Jobs etc had been manipulated by magical girls (omg they’re pedos!). They didn’t have historical records cos they turn into witches.

But finally, a smart mahou shoujo appears! But she claims to be nothing special, but her wish makes most sense than any other puella magi did. Probably because by now she already know a great deal of truth of what the Incubator race plans by spending a lot of time with Kyubei. OH MAN I cannot believe I ignored Kyubei all this while. I love this creature ‘cause he understands nothing about human values, and heartlessly say sad but true things that we mere humans aren’t able to accept. UNFORTUNATELY, I ain’t satisfied with the ending. Maybe cos I’ve seen that kind of ending before in a novel, and maybe it’s because of my belief as well.

That aside, I believe this anime gives an impact in the moe or mahout shoujo world, cos dealing with magic is not fun and games. You want to fulfil your selfish desire, then your joy would be sacrificed, whether you like it or not. Then you have to fukken deal with it.

Now then, back to the art. Yes, I dislike how the characters are drawn. How even men doesn’t look manly enough. But I do like the Puella Magi costumes, except for Homura’s cos it looks like just another school uniform. Meh. The only part I like was when they enter the witch dimension, where everything becomes funky, fucked up and more 2D than the characters themselves.

Even with all the dissatisfaction, I was captivated by the OST. Beautiful folkish + modern music composed by Yuki Kajiura, and when the episodes end we’re served with dessert called “Magia” by Kalafina. Everytime I listen to this, my thought bubble goes “I’M A PUELLA MAGI” /me_gusta.jpg

don't blame him, you're the one who asked for it

End note: I don’t dislike it, but it really don’t deserve a 10/10, and the characters are really stupid (except for Kyouko)

Review: Angel Beats! (anime)

I actually watched this a bit later than most people did.

[WARNING: May Contain Spoilers]

Even after watching I don’t really get why people are all over it. Okay, I’m pretty impressed with the character backstories especially Yui and Maeda. For a pink haired psycho moe girl, she’s the one I like most, and more than Kanade. No, I don’t hate Kanade. I don't see Kanade having any personality compared to Yui. Just I don’t understand why the quiet girl is the most voted in ISML. I mean, c’mon! Yui’s story is totally inspiring! But none can beat Maeda’s!

Anyway, Angel Beats is about… er… the afterlife. Turns out the afterlife is a school. Complete with school uniform and classes and student council and sports day! And I guess you kind of have the chance to live a life again, but depends on how things turn out; you’d either become the NPC (Non Playable Character?) or disappear. Er… after disappearing, does that mean you reincarnate? Man… for a story about the sorrows of afterlife, it sure doesn’t seem too sad. Also, the story is like going through a video game. Everytime you KO you’ll get another chance to live. And with that fact too I don’t really get why the characters need to grieve if one party member is struck by a giant iron ball. The show has a great number of characters, but too bad we didn't get to know each and everyone of 'em. It's also unfair for the existing members to be ignored while the 'new members' pasts are discovered.

[IMO too many characters ain't suitable for 13 episode action anime]

And it’s funny how all this while the SSS team is doing nothing but chase something that’s not even evil. And I feel sad for Yurippe in the end… not cos I pity her crazy plans were in vain but how she’s all nice to Kanade in the end is quite hypocritical to me -__- I mean, she could’ve tried a more gentler approach to find out about Kanade! But I guess the crazy plans are just to make viewers laugh. (a concert to make a distraction? whut...)

i don't fancy the character design much. Hate how the eyes are drawn.

The songs are okay, not much into the OP “My Soul, Your Beats” until Yui version comes (sung by LiSa). That one was BAM, hits the spot. To be honest, Girls Dead Monster’s music didn’t appeal to me. If it did, I would’ve remembered all of the songs as I write this. Oh yeah, "My Song" was good… buy Iwasawa’s voice sound more like a sick girl trying to sing, so I downloaded Yui’s version instead.

Ok overall, I still don’t think it should dub as the “best series ever”, probably thanks to the fact that I don’t fancy reincarnation themes. Cos… well… you got a chance to live again why is there a need to be sad? I don’t like the storyline much but I do love the characters...

Review: Occult Academy (anime)

This goes way back to the year 1999, and there’s actually a school known as the Occult Academy due to its history of having occult stuff happening around it. One day a teenage girl returns to the Academy to take her deceased father’s place as a principal, and somehow ended up dealing with a ‘zombie’ of her father. Once that is over, a naked man descended from the heavens claiming that he came from the future just to change something in the past in order to prevent the alien invasion predicted to happen in 21 July 1999.

God, I remember nothing of 1999 that I can relate whatever I've seen in this show. I remember fangirling to NSYNC and such... anyhow, here are the protagonists:

Maya Kumashiro – is the daughter of the former principal of Occult Academy, who died and she returned to the school to take his place as a principal while spitting her absolute hatred towards occult. In spite of being a teenager, she’s quite capable of organizing school matters with the help of a smitten secretary. She plans to get rid of the occult culture of the school, yet no matter how much she despises the supernatural, she’s the most knowledgeable about the espers. Geez 2010 sure spawned a lot of tsundere.

Fumiaki Uchida (aka Bunmei aka Abe Minoru) – The man who came all the way from the post-apocalypse future whose mission is to find the Nostradamus Key and destroy it. That way he can change the prophecy made my Nostradamus, where it is predicted that something from the sky is coming to attack earth. When he was a child, he used to be a child celebrity who can bend spoons. He disguises as the history teacher and developed a shallow attraction towards a waitress at a local restaurant.

[supporting characters whom I don't remember much except for the giant wrench and portable keyboard... and also their attempt to troll Maya involving aliens]

Occult Academy made good use of the Nostradamus Prophecy and "2012". The latter disturbs me a bit, and I never like the idea of time travelling and changing history. That aside, I enjoyed looking at the various supernatural things that appear in each episode. You have mothman, chupacabra, aliens and even white/black mages (that’s as far as I can remember). Not to forget the ‘near death’ experience episode, which was rather a different way for the character to tell the truth about himself and reveal his back story.

The character development is really impressive for a series that have only 13 episodes. It was annoying to see Bunmei getting all aroused towards that waitress b1tch, who became a recurring character and emerged as a quite important character in the end. Bunmei was initially just another useless male character to compare with the strong and intelligent Maya, but he had a rather heroic end :3. Maya on the other hand, started off as tsuntsun and genuinely hated the occult as well as that useless time agent. But after the near death experience episode, she began to understand him and opened up to him, as she realized how much alike they were. Not only that, her relationship development with other characters, more particularly her father and her childhood friend, is a great lesson for us *__*

But the main highlight of the show is not the occult stuff, but the comedic elements and how excessively crazy it can get. Especially THE FINAL BATTLE. Oh my God what the helllll!!?? It’s not what I call ‘worthy’ but yes, it’s an enjoyable show nonetheless. And I still dislike the idea of time travelling.

Unfortunately I don’t remember the OP and ED. As for the seiyuu, can you believe Maya is also Mio (K-On)? D: