Water’s bottom, many people, drowning, giant cow-tits…transmission died.
Clearing out the elephant in the room. Nikola Tesla never had an illegitimate child as he was a virgin who devoted his love towards a peculiar pidgin. What if I told you he did father a child, and this child capable of being a poltergeist, has managed to possess someone all this time. Occultic;Nine is a show that explores the occult and probes into the spirit realm. The series scrutinises paranormal activities and tries to rationalise it in a scientific manner, hence tries to inform us that anything can be disproven my science.
Occultic;Nine had one of the worst opening episodes that I’ve experienced in a long time. The pacing was frenetic in the sense that it was uncontrolled and hard to follow. How on earth do you adapt a whole light novel volume into a single episode? The standard is usually 4 episodes per volume but this series is purposely shooting itself in the leg by having the nerve to do this. This series is a combination of the Tatami Galaxy and Durarara at its finest. The lightspeed dialogue combined with a relatively large cast has conceived a child in the form of Occultic;Nine. The child inherited some of the undesirable genes and turned out inferior to its parents. I’ll explain why.
The plot is pretty much focused on the detection of ghosts, material or not. Material ghosts are detectible with the latter being unrecognisable. Gamon Yuuta, our high school NEET runs a blog dedicated on the occult, only to find himself caught up in a crime scene. The murder of professor Hashigami, a leading researcher in the occult field, causes panic for our distressed main character who flees from the scene to avoid getting prosecuted. Good move there as Japan’s judicial system is seriously flawed.
The murder wasn’t the main incident of the show. An intentional mass suicide of 256 people in Inokashira lake sets the precedent for what entails later. The discovery of the corpses in the morgue reveals a shocking truth. The concept of being alive while looking at your own corpse seems alien to most folk. This sounds contradictory but bear with me as the show does explain the circumstances later down the road. The situation is that some of our main cast are alive without feeling dead, the idea of being conscious after parting with the material body can only be explained through science.
Now talking about the main cast, the series does switch around from person to person giving different perspectives. Our main character Gamon Yuuta is being instructed by a voice from a radio. This reliance on a tool indicates that he can’t get things done properly. I compare it to stabilisers on a bike, which is what this character is going through. He doesn’t have any independence and his actions are limited.
Narusawa Ryouka known as Ryo-tas by Gamon is a person whose physical traits defies the laws of motion. Her breasts are so unsightly, that every time she makes an appearance which is usually accompanied by a silly dance. She is literally known as the big-boobed girl who serves no purpose until later on where her character becomes the focus and not her melons.
Hashigami Sarai is the son of the murdered researcher and just like his father exhibits an extreme amount of intelligence which is not normal for his age. The knowledgeable Sarai is able to deduce problems and other riddles in the blink of an eye, which to me is just incredible. Geniuses exist but even then, he struggles on some occasions making it somewhat realistic.
Aikawa Miyuu is a high schooler who is extremely skilled in fortune telling. She has built up a reputation due to the fact of making correct predictions. She is a character for the audience to relate to as she doesn’t comprehend scientific jargon just like myself. Her quirk is surprisingly useful when it comes to putting the pieces together. These four characters are the most important to the series with others such as Minase Ria getting their own screen time but aren’t worth talking about.
The show is produced by A-1 animation, which in recent times has gotten quite some stick for churning out series like the Asterix War. The art style is a breath of fresh air with the character designs being relatively unique. The only downside is Ryo-tas whose has been fetishized with enormous breasts. No fricking way is it breast hypertrophy. The animation as expected from this studio is relatively good with most scenes being aesthetically pleasing and generally fluid. It would be a stain on the studio’s portfolio if it did have poor animation but I’m glad it met my expectations.
The sound is amazing and is composed by Yokoyama Masaru (Your Lie in April, Plastic Memories) with it just adding to my immersion to certain scenes. The mix of electronic and contemporary rock music through auto-tuned measures immediately catches my attention by sending a statement. The use of casual jazz music in the downbeat scenes is a good indicator for the tone shifts. Lastly, the music is great at setting up a creepy atmosphere with extensive use of fading in/out and selective piano compositions. The music used generally follows a certain tempo to match the timing of certain segments, this is useful for scene transitioning and makes for some good cinematography.
TLDR-
The first episodes annoyed me initially but this show manages to redeem itself as it goes on. The mystery regarding the incidents are cleared up in a way you wouldn’t expect. The plot twists cannot be understated with it being interlinked with events. They may not all have a direct relation but by following the lines you gradually see the bigger picture. I would definitely recommend this series for those willing to give it a few episodes. In food terms this is slow cooking, which is higher praised than the generic fast food shit.
