Chuuzenji-sensei Mononoke Kougiroku: Sensei ga Nazo wo Hodoite Shimau kara. Episode 1 Discussion

If you do not know, female mangaka Aki Shimizu's series is based off of Natsuhiko Kyogoku's Kyōgokudō novel series, which has seen Madhouse's anime back in Fall 2008 in the form of the 2nd novel, Moryo no Hako a.k.a Box of Goblins.

Though this show is a precursor to both that and its prequel of Ubume no Natsu a.k.a The Summer of the Ubume, it's safe to enjoy this one without any prior knowledge of the source material.

HoneyWorks feat. KAF's OP, as well as Sizuk's ED, is rather decent.

The setting of Tokyo's Showa Year 23 in 1948, where it lives 2nd Year stduent Kanna Kusakabe and her friends in high school, though one of them, Sachiko, trying to go with her boyfriend of Shingo to the old school library, only to notice a ghost sighting. The mysteries follow and though its outcomes exaggerated with a curse, though Kanna finds it hard to believe despite her friend's overwhelming concern. But a pouch that dropped in the bus, that Kanna picked up and has other people clamoring for it, one mysterious man figures out the komainu pendant attached to it and solves the mystery then and there with the shrine omamori in the pouch itself.

To risk letting the fling's rumour going out, Sachiko claims absence...while the new Japanese teacher of Akihiko Chuzenji comes off as being eccentric and scary from the get-go. Kanna, knowing that she cannot ignore her friend's plight, goes to the old school building to investigate for herself, and indeed, the same ghost sighting is found at the library, though it can't be found thereafter. But she didn't really need to worry since the ghost is Chuzenji in person, following the only path he could go, as well as a hidden book preparation room to preserve censored books from the old teacher Yasuda who retired before him. That said, there're no short of mysterious things, and the hidden room need not be mentioned by him blackmailing her to keep the secret to herself.

Of course, everyone finds it impressive that Kanna "exorcised" the library ghost, no thanks to Chuzenji making her a paranormal detective that's forced on her. That starts the parade between both teacher and student, much to Kanna's chagrin.

It's an alright start into the mystery aspect in a historical state.

@KANLen09

you're a smidge off on your analysis of 'the fling'... in this era these kids were the 'pilot projects' in Tokyo's school systems by the Occupation Government to convince Japan that sexual integration at a 50/50 rate of all Grades was viable. 'their old school building' was most definitely 'the girls school' on that campus 2.5 to 3 years previously. the fling as you call it was part of 'dating' in Tokyo. the only REALLY salacious part was the couple was out late WITHOUT a chaperone from the boy AND girl's families... so yeah, the encounter WAS scandalous and inauspicious for the couple... but if they were ALREADY an arranged couple (which was STILL very popular then) it would have easily been explained and swept under the rug and kept quiet within the two families.

now if the couple was formed via a more 'cosmopolitan' or 'progressive' bond (think modern 20th Century Western social norms) an 'evening date' without chaperones would have been... hmmm... problematic depending on how conservative and bound by traditions each family was.

there are a lot of variables floating around right here... but i'll learn more as the show progresses since it is so early.

This wasn’t at all what I expected, but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I thought it’d have a more supernatural vibe like In/Spectre, but it leaned way more into light detective work — and it actually worked really well! The dynamic between Chuuzenji and Kanna is definitely going to be one of the show’s highlights — he’s calmly solving everything while she tries to keep up, and it’s honestly great 😄

The atmosphere is also on point, and the visual style really caught my eye. It almost feels theatrical in a good way. I’m curious to see if they’ll eventually throw in something actually supernatural, or if it’ll all keep being rationally explained — like a philosophical Scooby-Doo kind of deal haha.
If it keeps this up, it could easily become one of the standouts of the season!

OK, related or not related to Mouryou no Hako, this is bad, like even on a production level.
Drop.

@KiliianSleipnir thanks for the clarification, it's uncommon to see "grounded" relationships in past context, so I was definitely a bit off on that count.

I don't think it really makes sense to say it's "incorrect" in this context considering the fact that "right" as in "right after" referring to timing is obviously a loosely used and defined completely subjective choice of phrasing. There is no precise definition of exactly what amount of time correlates with "right after". It is not synonymous with "the next day", "the next week", or "the next month". It's like the phrase "a long time". That could mean three hours or 200 years, depending on context. There is no one measurement for it.

I'm very familiar with WWII history including the Pacific War and the dates which punctuate it, including, of course, the fact that the war ended in 1945, but nothing jumped out as wrong to me when reading that synopsis because, as you said yourself further down in the post, the U.S. occupation was still going on for years after that and 1948 is and would have been very much considered the immediate post-war period. So "right after' sounds pretty logical and apt wording. They didn't say "24 hours after the broadcast of Emperor Hirohito's surrender declaration via radio". Three years is really nothing in the long span of history. A blip on the radar. The history of the late 1940s and events occurring within it in many countries around the world is considered part of the WWII aftermath.

This just seems like a preference-based thing for choice of language used.