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Dec 24, 2016
I really don't write reviews, but I felt like this show in particular deserved one considering the response it has gotten from most people in the community.
Occultic;Nine, for lack of a better word, was a total mindfuck through and through. I almost dropped this anime after the 1st episode because of how "all over the place" it was. But after discovering that they squeezed an entire volume+ into the one episode, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. In fact, it actually became significantly better right from the 2nd episode on.
The mystery just kept getting thicker with each episode, the
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supernatural phenomenon presented added an ominous feeling to the show, and the scientific principles surrounding said phenomenon kept me intrigued to learn the truths behind this mystery.
Now as for the bad, like many others (basically everyone on this page lol), the pacing was pretty bunz to say the least. The show being a 12 ep season did not do the story justice, and the rapid dialogue didn't help it either. There were many times where I was genuinely lost in the story because I had no idea what was going on, and at first, I thought the reason for the fast-paced talking was to make the characters come off as more intelligent than they really were (cuz we all know when you spout facts out really quickly, you're basically a genius). It wasn't until towards the end that I realized that the production team was going balls deep to try and fit in all this plot and development into the few episodes that they had...
This is by far the biggest complaint for many viewers, but for me, it honestly did not bother that much. The whole reason for this review is to give credit where credit is due.
This anime had great character design, art, atmosphere, and sound. I appreciated all these elements despite having to deal with a "rushed" story. I completely see why people are disappointed. A lot of questions were left unanswered, our main character didn't get the happy ending some of us were expecting (especially after seeing how convenient the final episode was laying it out to be), and the potential for an incredible mystery was somewhat lost in order to speed up the story.
For me, I really enjoyed this anime to the end. I personally didn't find the final episode to be confusing at all. Instead, I thought it to be one of the easiest episodes to understand, and a perfect way to tie any major plot points that confused me. Sure the pace could have been much better with more episodes, but sometimes those things may be out of your control, and perhaps they have some sort of plan in mind if they were able to continue this story.
Overall I give this an 8/10. Many see this anime as a big let down, but I want to see it as an anime with the potential to provide one amazing story. It has its flaws, but I feel they're already stepping in the right direction.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 22, 2016
Before you go on watching this anime, be warned, this is a very typical sports anime to say the least.
I have just wrapped up the series today, and overall... I'm pretty pleased with it.
Story: For those of you who have not looked into this anime at all, it is basically a story centered around a group of guys involved in a made-up sport called Stride, which from simple assumptions after watching the show, is basically a sport where a team of 5 runners race against another team relay-style, and are coordinated by another person called a Relationer. A lot of people have complained that
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the anime does not really go into detail about what Stride REALLY is and the technical details regarding it, and I can understand why that is a bit frustrating, but it being only 12 episodes and based off of a game, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Aside from that, the story is just a mediocre sport anime story: A once great team for said sport, somehow loses all their reputation from an incident among the players, and the spunky freshman characters are the ones who bring everyone together in the pursuit of rebuilding the team. Overall, nothing bad, but nothing good either. I mostly just watched it for the racing.
Side note: I have heard people complain about the fact that the actual races do not have much running shown in them, and more jumping and flipping over obstacles. You CAN say that they only do that for the racing scenes to look cool and actiony, but I think it's the fact that Stride isn't supposed to be your regular track&field type race. I think Stride was intended to be a sport that fused traditional relay racing and free-running/parkour. If you have seen free-runners, the way they run is pretty close to how they run in the show. High steps and very powerful arm movement, and of course, running through obstacles. This isn't really something too important, but I just thought I'd mention it before anyone might criticize that aspect of the show.
Art: The art I thought was very good! The colors are very bright and vibrant, and it can even be a little overwhelming, but the characters were drawn pretty and the animations of the running were also very well made.
Sound: Like the art, the sound also caught my attention. I really liked the opening of this anime. It had a very "get pumped" kind of feeling when listening to it, very similar to openings like from Haikyuu or Hajime no Ippo. Sports animes tend to do a pretty good job with that. Overall sound effects and BGMs were good. Nothing to complain about. They did a good job simulating the sounds of the runners.
Characters: Much like Free, the characters seemed kind of one dimensional so to speak, but were good looking! Each of them held their own personalities, following classic tropes (i.e. the Strong type, silent type, cute/loli type, etc.). I don't want to give too much away, but the characters do have very brief backstories and drama that adds a little bit more substance, but there wasn't too much depth to the characters. They're likable. Nothing too special.
Enjoyment: Honestly, I really enjoyed watching this anime every week. As mediocre as it may be, I'm a sucker for awesome action/sports scenes, and I thought the idea of free-running relay races was really cool too!
Overall: I would recommend this to someone who is just looking for an anime where they can enjoy more so the action than the story. There isn't all that much character development, but it does have great art and sound. Like I said before, I mainly just watched it for the racing. I'm very basic when it comes to enjoying anime, but if you're looking for something exciting, it wouldn't hurt to give this a try!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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