Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Seikimatsu Occult Academy 01-03 - First Impressions

I realize that it's pretty late for a first impressions post now we are already three weeks into the summer season already. Nevertheless, here is my first impressions post on Seikimatsu Occult Academy, a show that I decided to pick up a couple of days ago.

It's out of the park!!!

Not sure which one of the two is more frightening.

Premise/short summary of first two episodes:
In 1999, a girl named Maya becomes the headmaster of an occult academy in Japan that was founded by her deceased father. Maya knows about the occult but hates it because her father became obsessed with the occult and caused the family to break up. Maya originally intends to run the academy into the groun, but shortly after taking over as headmaster she is visited by a time traveler named Fumiaki Uchida from the year 2012. Fumiaki states that in his time, the world has been ravaged by aliens, and the aliens emerged from the occult academy. The surviving humans managed to obtain the alien's time traveling technology, and Fumiaki was sent back to find and destroy an object in the academy known as the Key of Nostradamus in order to prevent the alien invasion. Maya is initially incredulous towards Fumiaki's story, but after an attempt on her life by an evil spirit, Maya learns that her father was killed in connection to the object Fumiaki is looking for and she decides to join forces with Fumiaki to find her father's killer.

What? You've never met an exhibitionist time traveler before?

One reason why one shouldn't live alone in a big mansion.

Despite all the monsters, demons, and spirits, Maya is the most fearsome creature on this show.
(I wanted to capture the frame just after this one, but couldn't do it in about 30 attempts and gave up)

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Three episodes in, Seikimatsu Occult Academy is turning up to be quite an enjoyable series. Production quality is quite good, and the comedy, action, plot, and the supernatural elements make a very interesting mix. There is just a lot of stuff going on in Seikimatsu Occult Academy, and most of it is attention-grabbing. In the span of three episodes, we have had a naked time traveler and a plot to save future mankind from aliens; a girl giving her own father's dead body a steel chair shot and then hacking the head off with an axe; a guy executing ground and pound on a school girl (she was possessed, but still...)... and the list goes on. I also enjoy the scenes that look like they came out of supernatural horror movies. I won't lie: episode 2 was slightly unsettling lol. There is no mistake that this show is about the occult.

As for the characters, Maya seems to be quite a competent and strong female lead. Maya has shown her vulnerability, but she has the strength when it counts. Meanwhile, Fumiaki appears to be the complimentary meek male sidekick in contrast to Maya's strong personality, but he'll probably have to show some skills too if he and Maya are going to be successful at saving the world. The supporting characters have been decent too, but it's a little early to tell.

Due to its excellent debut episodes, Seikimatsu Occult Academy has been the best show I am watching for the summer 2010 season so far. I would blog this series, but too bad I've already committed blogging Sekirei and Highschool of Dead. Blogging a third anime series would take up too much time as I have to get ready for grad school in the next month. I'm also planning to watch the first two seasons of Black Lagoon. I watched four episodes of Black Lagoon by chance and it's the kind of show that's right down my alley. Getting back on topic, I won't be blogging Seikimatsu Occult Academy, but I'll definitely be following the series.

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