Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin

The story revolves around Maya, the daughter of the former Headmaster of Waldstein Academy, and a time traveling agent Fumiaki Uchida. In the year 2012, the world had been invaded by aliens and time travelers were sent back to the year 1999 in order to find and destroy the Nostradamus Key, which Nostradamus Prophecy foretold as what would bring about the apocalypse. The series then turns to the year 1999, where Maya returns to the Academy with the intention of destroying the Academy by superseding her late father's position as the principal. Her plan was interrupted when she meets Fumiaki and learns of the forthcoming destruction. Despite being distrusting towards Fumiaki, they form a pact to look for the Nostradamus Key.

In order to find the Nostradamus Key, time agents were provided with specially created cell phones. When a user finds an object of interest, by thinking of destroying it and taking a photo, and if the resulting image is that of a peaceful world, then the subject is the Nostradamus Key. Conversely, if the subject is not the Nostradamus Key, then the photo displays destruction. By using the phone, Maya and Fumiaki investigates occult occurrences as they occur in the town.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Kumashiro, Maya Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Uchida, Fumiaki Main

Mizushima, Daichuu Japanese

Kawashima, Chihiro Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

JK Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Naruse, Kozue Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Okamoto, Akari Supporting

Minase, Inori Japanese

Smile Supporting

Takahashi, Hiroki Japanese

Kuroki, Ami Supporting

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Nakagawa, Mikaze Supporting

Chihara, Minori Japanese

Kuroki, Shige Supporting

Shimaka, Yuu Japanese

Iwasaki, Noriko Assistant Producer

Itou, Tomohiko Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Tanaka, Kazuya Sound Director

Nakamura, Ryousuke Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Oct 21, 2010

djhot

Recommended

Actually more of the people are way to far from getting the meaning of this anime. I'm not saying that is the best thing out there, but it's actually pretty good on his own way. Please, read everything, is worthily!

Let's start with some probable obviously things. Bunmei is coming from the summer of 2012, like we all know in the moment that I'm writing that this is the very famous "end of the world", on 21 December. And where is going Bunmei? In 1999, to stop the prophecy of Nostradamus for 21 July. Actually till now there was many endings of the world, but 1999 ... together with 2012 are really big ones. The prophecy of Nostradamus was something real in "our world" and many people believed in it, but we are still kicking asses as ever...

Let's talk a little about the best writer right now, Steven King. Did you read his book "The Dark Tower". It's a strange adventure horror with a lot of strange things like cowboys and shits. In this book he use many things from movies, other books, songs and shits... Not only like parody, but actually he create an complete other thing from them. Actually many people believe that the prophecy was for King. Near 21 July King almost die in incident, but he didn`t. This people think that the "The Dark Tower" is like a reflection of an other world, probable parallel to our. They think that King is important connection between the worlds and if he couldn`t write the book the balance of the universe would brake and the world would end. One of the bad guys in the book come in our world trying to kill King, but he was stopped from the good guys and the prophecy of Nostradamus was stopped and King finish his book.

Why I'm writing all this? Because in "Occult Academy" they use things like that too! For example, the future that they show us is like something that is come from "War of the Worlds" and "Terminator". They didn`t just use movies things, but a lot of anime stuff, like some typical anime characters and even things like magic girls. But it's maybe kind of hard to take everything like parody? This is because not everything is parody, but there still there is a lot of from it, but it use in other way too (kind of confusing xD). So... For exaple think about all shity animes that you watch... Now thing about "Occult Academy"... Isn't it something kind of wrong? All of the characters in this anime are actually maturate people! Yeah! This animes is good exactly in this, by using many stereotype things making something complete new from it that actually is even full of philosophy, but it's not easy to find.

In many animes the names of the heroes have some meaning, but here they are really, really important! They are include in every name of the episodes and if you switch there place with there meaning they make something new! I will give you there meaning replace them on your own, Bunmei - civilization, knowledge; Maya - illusion; (ka)Mikaze - divine wind, Kozue - treetop(check on google for more info); Ami - net, friend; Akari - light.

I'm an assohle so I will give you many keys, but I will not told you which one is for the door and which door, because this way is more good and more interesting. Think well about the name of the episodes and what happen in them, and while doing that, remember "What important are the things you can`t see with your eyes" and try to see the things that it one to tell us about the humans, the occult and the society.

But still i give him 8/10, because I'm fan of the real goods scary/horror storyies and that wasn`t horror at all, but it's not even on the genres even. Still they could do it way more seriously and to use the occult for really scary things and to can say to us the same thing. And the "not seriously" seriously of the anime in some moments was going a little to far and was even a little annoying.

P.S. Sorry for my poor writing skills on this language, and of course you always have the right to think about me like an idiot, because i believe that this animes is actually good. But you are human too, therefore you are an idiot too.

P.S.2 The end was kicking fucking asses all over the place!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 9, 2010

Archaeon

Mixed Feelings

One of the biggest problems with anime is that all too often what you're watching just doesn't hit the mark. There are a number of shows that have been great conceptually, but when it comes to execution they simply do not fulfill their potential. This could be due to the oversimplification of the plot, an uninteresting storyline, dull or overly stereotypical characters, or even just pure laziness on the part of the writers (or something else entirely). Whatever the case may be, there are far too many anime out there that simply do not cut the mustard because they don't do enough with what they ... have.

And then there's the shows like Seikimatsu Occult Gakuen (End of Century Occult Academy).

Originally developed as part of Anime no Chikara, a project run by TV Tokyo's anime department in conjunction with Aniplex, Seikimatsu Occult Gakuen is the third release from that stable (the previous two being Sora no Woto and Senkou no Night Raid), and marks the full directorial debut of Itou Tomohiko.

Set in the fictional Waldstein Academy which sits atop Mount Minakami in Matsushiro, Nagano Prefecture, the story begins with Kumashiro Maya disembarking from the bullet train. She is the daughter of the academy's principal and founder Kumashiro Junichiro, and has returned to the city to attend the funeral of her estranged father. Along the way, her taxi driver tells her about some of the strange rumours surrounding the academy because of its focus on all things supernatural.

On the surface Sekimatsu Occult Academy has a fairly reasonable set up. The plot is, initially, pretty straight forward, and there even seems to be some signs of an intelligent story at certain points during the first episode. Unfortunately, all of that promise quickly goes out of the window during the rest of the series.

For some reason the writers thought there wouldn't be enough going on in an academy that focuses specifically on the supernatural, so they decided to add other things to it. In a sense, Occult Academy has pretty much everything in it that Suzumiya Haruhi wanted, from ghosts and witches, to time travellers and dimensional aliens.

The problem is, it's simply too much for the series to handle.

Occult Academy starts off reasonably well, but the rapid addition of so many threads to an already burgeoning plot ends up giving the series less focus, and it seems that this was simply too much for a rookie series director to handle. The numerous and disparate aspects of the story all begin to come together towards the end of the series though, but the story has an inherent predictability that seems to be an offshoot of adding too much.

In all honesty, if the series had added one or two more supernatural aspects, then it may very well have collapsed under its own weight. The plot has a certain fragility because of the amount of information in the anime, and this makes it difficult to take the story seriously (especially with those little comedy scenes thrown in for good measure). That said, some people may find the show enjoyable because of the oddness surrounding Maya and her crew.

Talking about odd, while the series looks pretty good overall, one can't help but wonder at some of the designs in the show. A-1 Pictures and Xebec have made Occult Academy look pretty good for the most part, but looks are only skin deep. The characters are designed reasonably well and have their own individual attributes, but there's a certain amount of stereotype at play in this department. The short haired girl is a jock, the glasses girl is a geek, etc, etc. It would be nice if the creators put more thought into the character design as personally I'd like to see some of those stereotypes finally put to rest. One other problem is the level of fanservice involved in the show as it really isn’t necessary, and it makes one wonder exactly who the target audience is supposed to be.

That said, the facial expressions are usually pretty well realised (althought it is sometimes difficult to tell if Maya is tense or constipated).

In addition to the design, the animation is of a pretty decent standard as well, except for certain occasions where the character movements seem ... odd. Thankfully these occasions are fairly few and far between, but they are noticeable when they occur. One also has to wonder if Maya likes the short dress she generally wears as she has one with exactly the same design during the flashbacks to her childhood.

Another aspect of the show that's odd is the acting. Hikasa Youko and Mizushima Takahiro are pretty good as Maya and Fumiaki (or Bunmei, whichever name you prefer to call him by), and the rest of the cast deliver some perfectly decent performances throughout. What's odd though, is that even with some decent acting the characters just don't seem to work. The audience is given nothing to sympathise or empathise with, and while some may believe this to be due to poor acting, in actuality its down to a poor script.

The sound quality is decent throughout the series, but one of the problems with Occult Academy is the music, or rather, the choreography. The tracks on offer are well chosen but there are several scenes where they just don't seem to mesh with the on screen action. In addition to this the OP, which is a fairly typical J-rock track called "Flying Humanoid" by Nakagawa Shouko, works well as an opening theme, but the opening sequence itself doesn't seem to work with the music. As for the ED, "Kimi ga Iru Basho" by Takagaki Ayahi is a decent enough song as well, but again the ending sequence makes no sense (unless images of a girl and boy lying in grass are your thing).

It's not that the music itself is bad, but rather its implementation is a bit strange.

As I mentioned before the acting is decent enough, but the characters lack any real depth for the entirety of the series. One of the biggest problems with Occult Academy is that there is simply too much going on at any one time, and because of this the characters seem like nothing more than by-products of the plot. The overly complicated storyline precludes any real growth or characterisation, especially for Maya and Fumiaki, and it's not until the final few episodes that they actually start to develop. Even then the storyline gets in the way, which is a shame as some of the characters, especially Fumiaki, had some very interesting histories which really warranted more of a look.

Sekimatsu Occult Gakuen is a decent enough series that toys with some interesting ideas, but doesn't really go any further than that. The problem is that the story is far too complicated for its own good, and because of this everything else in the show seems to have been thrown off course. It may have seemed like a good idea on paper, but like so many other things like that, the result is nothing more than a decent looking anime with no real substance.

That said, there are several interesting plot points that even I found distracting, but they're not enough to support the weight of an entire series and all its characters. Granted there may be viewers who don't mind that the plot seems to have been hammered together from one of Haruhi's delusions, but it just wasn't enough for me as there is little in the way of justification for anything that happens in Occult Academy.

It's a shame really, but the quality of releases from Anime no Chikara seems to be dropping by degrees, and Sora no Woto remains the best title from that stable so far.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 24, 2015

thereisonlyone

Not Recommended

Story = 2

-- Pretty much everyone has seen one of those "Let's investigate the school's seven mysteries episodes." This story is a combination of that and the movie Ghostbusters. Although, it combines them separately. It's as if two separate entities have been born within one anime.
-- An anime that turns into nothing more than the daily adventures of the ghost club was actually meant to be a well-thought out flow of events.
-- Imagine you watched a movie, now then, have a 12 year-old go back and fill in 4 and a half hours worth of screen time.
-- ... There were so many plot holes that I'm amazed the developers aren't cripples yet.
-- Now include, the most forced romance since Edward Elric and Eren Jaeger.

Art = 6

-- The characters and scenery fit the setting quite well.
-- Each individual pretty much adds his or her own flavor to the series and only enhances the scenes.
-- There are a few lazy looking moments throughout the anime, but nothing that can't be overlooked.

Sound = 4

-- There were times where the music would just kill the mood. At other times it was a good addition. Most likely a result of the on-going identity crisis that went on throughout the anime.
-- The character voices were pleasing. My only gripe is that Kobayashi, Yuu was completely out of her field. Her expertise is little boys and tomboys.
-- The ending and opening songs were nice, but didn't even really fit the atmosphere of the anime, until about the ninth episode.

Characters = 2

-- There were some good character in this and they had some very likeable traits. Sadly the anime was about the main characters instead.
-- The worst part about the two main characters is that they were actually the most two unfit characters in the series. A quirky anime about occults decided to focus on a horribly written tsundere and a randomly selected spoon-bender.
-- I actually wish the two main characters had thought bubbles above their heads. They were honestly ridiculous and not in a comedic way.
-- The two main characters did develop, but it felt like a rick-roll.

Enjoyment = 2

-- Some very good things were here. Sadly someone bought a lot of screen time and suddenly didn't know what to do with it.
-- Enough good scenes and developments to have made two separate anime. At times one could sit back and enjoy the goings-on of this anime, until they remembered what was supposed to be happening.
-- Episodes 2-8 were had their redeeming qualities. Episode 1 and 9-13 had their own Kool-Aid packet to add to the mix. I believe others would still enjoy the experience.

Overall = 3

-- Due to the incoherence of this anime, it is kind of hard to believe one should watch this. There are simply too many superior choices in whatever genre one wanted from Occult Academy.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 ) p31nTSK - Dec 6, 2010	59 replies	by bakakisima »» Jul 1, 9:48 AM
	Poll: Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Oldy - Sep 20, 2010	123 replies	by bakakisima »» Jul 1, 8:48 AM
	Poll: Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) zimno - Sep 13, 2010	236 replies	by bakakisima »» Jun 28, 11:28 AM
	Poll: Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) zimno - Sep 6, 2010	121 replies	by bakakisima »» Jun 28, 9:37 AM
	Poll: Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) zimno - Aug 23, 2010	107 replies	by bakakisima »» Jun 28, 8:37 AM

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