Ok I'll do everyone a favour and say that if you are a slow reader or if you don't like fast paced shows, DO NOT WATCH OCCULTIC;NINE. THIS SHOW DOES NOT GIVE A DAMN WHETHER YOU CAN KEEP UP WITH WHAT'S HAPPENING.
*ahem*
If I were to describe Occultic;Nine in one word, it would be "convoluted". And don't get me wrong, for me that's not really a bad thing. It's just that there are so many things going on that it is VERY easy to get confused while watching it, the lightning fast pacing didn't help either. While this threw off a lot of people on it’s first episode, making them drop the show, it actually intrigued me with it’s complex storytelling and mystery aspect.
Story:
As I said before, O;9 is convoluted in terms of storytelling and that’s basically because of the fact that the story (especially in the first half of the show) keeps introducing plot point after plot point after plot point. This makes the show seems really mysterious and makes you want to know what happens next and how all these things being introduced are connected with each other buuuuut the downside to this is that it leaves the story very messy and it leaves very little time for the show to explain the mysteries set up in previous episodes. Like I'm pretty sure that the main mysteries and plot points were only started being cleared up/explained in episode 8-9 and forward, leaving only 3 episodes or so to conclude everything. AND IT BARELY SUCCEEDS by rushing everything into those last few episodes. This brings me to my next major problem with the show, the pacing.
I think Occultic;Nine has the most inconsistence pacing of any show I've watched. One episode it's extremely fast, next it's continuing at a more bearable but still fast speed, then it returns to it's original extreme speed, then it starts to slow down to a "normal" speed over a few episodes and eventually just doesn't care anymore and becomes like 5x times faster than it was at the start (ok that might be an exaggeration but you get what I mean). The plot's already difficult to understand by itself but O;9's fast pacing just brings a whole level of difficulty. You'll more often than not find yourself having to pausing and rewinding some episodes to re-read some lines of dialogue or exposition you missed or just couldn't understand.
You could just tell that the staff behind the show knew that they couldn't possibly fit the entire story properly into 12 episodes, so they decided to just cram in as much as they could into certain episodes.
But despite how much I criticised the introduction of many plot points and the pacing, I still have give props to the story for exploring the occult from a scientific perspective. The sci-fi aspect was definitely well written and for the most part believable and was certainly quite interesting. There were some aspects of the sci-fi element that weren't explained well enough but I understand the show was tight with screen time so the staff couldn't but as long as you have a basic understanding of the scientific mechanics in this show, you'll probably won't mind.
6.5-7/10, for the story i guess, but would've given an 8/10 for the actual plot if I looked past the pacing.
Art and Sound:
The overall aesthetic of the show is gorgeous, to say the least. I actually would’ve never expected this type of art style from A-1 Pictures, maybe from SHAFT but never A-1. I loved the weird camera angles, lighting effects, character designs (except for the walking breasts) and especially the backgrounds. The artwork is colourful, imaginative and can be very disturbing when it needs to be. My only main complaints would be the messy line art, which isn’t really that noticeable anyways and the way the character’s noses are drawn.
As for the sound, it’s pretty good. The voice acting isn’t really anything special, most of the voice actors fit their characters, except Ryotas’ voice, I just find it really annoying for some reason. And can I just applaud some of the voice actor’s for being able to talk so fast, like goddamn.
The opening song is amazing as expected of Kanako Itou <3 and the ending song is great as well. The background music is less notable. There are some instances where the BGM does not match the mood with what's happening on screen, for example there might be an upbeat rock track playing over an emotional or messed up scene *coughcoughepisode1&12coughcough*. But there's also other times where the BGM and sound effects really excels in matching and adding to the atmosphere of a scene *coughcoughepisode9*. The show's quite polarising with the effectiveness of the sound.
8.5/10 for the art
7-ish/10 for the sound
Characters:
As many of you would’ve figured out just from the title, Occultic;NINE, features NINE protagonists, each with their own unique design and personalities. O;N’s cast personalities is like a spectrum ranging from the abnormally hyperactive to the enigmatically creepy, you’re probably gonna hate some and love some.
My main issue with the characters are that some of them just fail to make a presence in the show and are extremely forgettable because they don't get enough screen time and unfortunately that was the case for Kusakabe, Aria and Ririka (and that one albino kid lol). Yeah, they look interesting and all that and probably have more to them than just being creepy and mysterious but the show doesn't ever explore that other side to them enough to ever make you care about or remember them. They were relevant for like 2 or 3 things for the plot and then were just complete brushed aside. Again, this was the consequence of trying to fit a story that could easily cover 20+ episodes into 12 episodes instead, something had to be sacrificed.
As for the main group of MCs (Gamon, Ryouka, Sarai, Miyuu and Touko), they all received at least decent development so I had some emotional attachment to them but sometimes their interactions can be so hyper and high-strung it might make them annoying to watch instead.
6/10 for Characters
Overall:
basically a tl;dr-
Occultic;Nine is a show with pretty visuals, a mysterious atmosphere and an interesting plot that leaves you wanting to know what happens next every episode but the show's abnormal pacing and it's 1-cour airing time ultimately leads to it being very rushed in certain episodes. Combine the pacing with rapid-fire dialogue and some exposition dumps and you'll be left with a very hard-to-follow show. Also as a result of the pacing, the show has to sacrifice precious screen time, that could've been used for developing characters or explaining certain sci-fi mechanics, so that it could just barely fit the entirety of the plot into 12 episodes. (but honestly it's a feat itself that A-1 could even fit everything).
O;9 is a very hit or miss show but if you do decide to watch it, then I recommend watching up to episode 3 before deciding to continue or drop.
Overall score: 7.2/10
Anyways thanks for reading this review and hope it wasn't too painful to read lol.
Peace out!
