Bulk update: Shiki 5, Occult Academy 5, and Ookami-san 6
August 9, 2010
An excellent week all around
Well, I’m about a week behind, so this will be a short rave about Shiki episode 5, Occult Academy (Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin) episode 5, and Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi episode 6.
- Shiki episode 5.
- Occult Academy 5.
- Ookami-san 6.
Shiki episode 5
Bou-san on the move.
Shiki is still in building mode, so the main thing I want to say about it this week is that Natsuno showed some nice character development by responding to this funerary service better than he did to Megumi’s. I got the sense that he was genuinely remorseful for what happened, and he even felt some responsibility for what happened. At this point I really like the idea of somebody who knows there are vampires, because nobody ever believes the person who says there are vampires in the town.
You're kinda provin' the other guy's point.
Occult Academy 5
It’s Student versus Teacher at the Occult Academy. Not too surprising, considering Uchida turned out to be a lying coward.
What do I spy with my jealous eye?
Meanwhile Abe Minoru helps Mikaze get approval for selling bread at the school. This irritates the vice-president to no end. I’m really hoping she is gonna go yandere on his ass; there is a good potential she was involved in something messed up to begin with, so just imagine a crazy demon-summoning jilted woman.
Kozue, dimensional pilgrim.
The most significant event of the episode seems to have occurred in the final moments, when Kozue (voiced by Kana Hanazawa, Tenshi from Angel Beats!) agrees to become an experimental subject in a near-death experiment … what could go wrong? Well, for one thing, Kozue’s body might have been captured by some extra-dimensional being. Since the aliens are described as extra-dimensional beings, whatever has possessed Kozue’s body, plays a role in Nostradamus’ prophecy; it might even be the key itself.
Ookami-san 6
Ryouko X Ringo
This episode was great. I thought the artwork was absolutely excellent, One great thing about the artwork, was that there was some appreciation of Ryouko’s particular body style. She comes across as lanky, but graceful.
Ryouko's trainer may be a cliche, but he's an awesome cliche.
This episode approached the issues in Ryouko’s past that have driven her to become obsessed with her boxing regime, but by no means spelled it right out. I would imagine it will be fully revealed when Ryouko can fully accept Ryoushi.
Pissed off Ryouko is pissed off.
Abandoned Factory Anime Review 
August 9, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Well, cliches still work as long as they’re used well! Looking forward to seeing more backstory on Ryouko, so I guess I better get caught up too… orz
August 11, 2010 at 4:18 am
Right you are. And definitely catch up ‘cuz this was a good episode.
August 9, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Gosh I should’ve thought of this kind of bulk-post idea :<
Anyways if Kozue's gone, who's the alive Kozue? Another manifestation of her consciousness? Or a random evil alien?
August 11, 2010 at 4:20 am
I certainly can’t take credit for the idea, as it is basically a half-assed way of doing the weekly summary post that Cara posts on her site.
August 9, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Ryouko really is very lanky for a boxer. With (the lack of) upper body muscles like that, I doubt she could take anyone down.
August 10, 2010 at 10:41 pm
She needs to use long range attacks (that is punching at full distance). If she lets someone get close to her, she is toast. That’s basically what happened in the episode where she was kidnapped. If she can hit first, she might be able to disable an opponent, especially an untrained opponent, through technical mastery, but if she gets backed into a corner, she is the one going down. There is no way she can stand up to a repeated pounding.
August 9, 2010 at 10:48 pm
My interest in Occult Academy was beginning to flag all throughout this latest episode, but the plot twist involving Kozue perked it back up. I really appreciated the alternative animation style of her “afterlife” experience (if that’s what it actually is…?).
In contrast, great episode for Ookami-san: backstory, character development, touching friendship, and a nice reversal of the traditional folktale’s positions: this time it’s Little Red Riding Hood who goes after the Wolf! =)
August 10, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Yeah, and Little Red goes to see the Wolf, whose in her own bed, instead of going to Grandma’s. š
August 10, 2010 at 12:14 pm
I’m really enjoying Ookami-san partly because it’s a great show with a pretty good story, but also because of the character designs and art!
August 10, 2010 at 10:25 pm
It was really good this week. I’m always happy to see that, because shows seem to put a bunch of money in the first episode and then some cheap out, and you get poor artwork later. If you see good art in the mid-series, it usually means they aren’t planning to cheap out.
August 10, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Re: Shiki – Poor Natsuno, not only does he have to deal with self-induced insomnia due to a vampire-stalker, but to be semi-responsible for the death of his bbf at the fangs of said vampire-stalker AND have that creepy nutter (and that’s saying something in this town)in his face must’ve been seriously tough. At least said creepy nutter got what was coming to him… except that he’ll probably be even more of a head-case in vampire-mode. And to think they all thought this town was boring!
Re: Occult Academy – Vice Principal as a crazy demon summoning yandere would certainly be something, not least of all for the fact that she’d get some decent screentime, as opposed to having Ms Annoying Waitress steal hers all the time. The last, rather trippy sequence of scenes and of course the cliffie certainly turned the mood of this show on it’s head again. I’m guessing that All New Kozue probably isn’t the Nostradamus Key, simply because we’re only halfway through the series after all… unless they’re planning a lot of Back to the Future style plot twists in order to kill a lot of time that’s left in this 13 epi series, guess we’ll see…
August 10, 2010 at 10:23 pm
RE: The Key, and the number of episodes left. That is actually a very good point. The only thing I could say in response is that they might spend the time trying to come up with a way of destroying the Key that doesn’t kill the real Kozue.