Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – 02

What a team! Tsundere with a fumbling Time Agent… ^^;

I’m quite happy after hearing about Supernatural anime and finally covering Shiki. Seems like supernatural has become a theme for my blogging these days. I should take up something silly or romantic next… time will tell. Even when I was expecting the summer titles to be bland, I’ve found at least four that I will highly enjoy and most of them are from horror/supernatural genre. *squee!* (Occult, Shiki, HOTD & Kuroshitsuji II). I’ve to prepare you, dear readers, that I won’t be able to post quick review of this particular series because it comes out on a work day and in simple words: Work is crazy, Life is crazy and People around me are also very crazy! The sanest thing I am doing these days is ani-blogging. No kidding! ^^;

Now, if I go back to the last review, most of my predictions came true. Will you ask me if I’m an esper or precog? Well, no of course, these things are not real (or are they…?!) Jokes aside, this episode was hilarious and not just because Maya was beating the crap out of Fumiaki but those surprise attacks (Smile punching JK totally out of random and dragging him away) and then some. I have a warning for this series: do not drink anything while watching this show or else you might just have more than a  :pfft reaction. I’ll quickly get over the summary but in short this was an EXPLANATION episode to provide groundwork for the plot to move ahead.

Let’s start with the rotating Johnny from the last episode, shall we? Maya is pretty much aghast at the perverted flashing so she simply runs off like a kid being chased by a demon. Sadly, the terrain is not so good to number 6, who falls in a ditch. Even if he saved his Johnny, his butt must have hurt like a… err, I should stop right here.

So, ladies and gentlemen, Abe Minoru (alias for number 6) is off to start his first job in 1999 as the sophomore history teacher at Waldstein Academy. Little does he know that the feisty yet awkward girl he chased down in the forest has become the acting Principal of the same institute, which came into force after the discovery of Jun’ichirō Kumashiro’s will entitling his ex-wife (Kanae) and/or Maya the sole heir of his fortune. It was fun watching Maya’s reaction, which even made Chihiro run out in a hurry.

Different faces of anguish. Tsk!

This is SPARTAAAAAAA!

Most of the secrets are revealed when Maya corners the sixth Abe Minoru about his weird entry act and follow up with his phone that actually showed a skull when she captured herself with it. Fumiaki has no other choice but to spills the beans about his mission as a Time Agent. As previously predicted, he’s from 2012, the future which is facing troubles due to an alien invasion that occurred in July of 1999 as per the prophecies of Nostradamus (refer to Angolmois). The survivors of the event formed a resistance to wage a guerrilla war. In the process of which they acquired alien technology and not only built a time machine but many nifty gadgets. One of them being the cellphone of Fumiaki, built with a historical change simulator that shows whatever captured in 2012 timelines. The setting is very War of the Worlds and Terminatorish I might add.

My first Nokia! The only difference was that it was metallic red.

The catch for Fumiaki is that he has to snap a picture of anything suspicious, while thinking of destroying it; if the resultant image of a peaceful 2012 with no aliens, Bingo da se~! The Nostradamus key found and world rescued. We also find out that number 6 is actually the famous spoon-bending boy seen by Maya on the tube, Uchida Fumiaki–Bunmei ja aarimansen, Fumiaki desu~. His ability is indeed Psychokinesis, yet for some reason he’s unable to perform in front of Maya. Tsk! With camp grade of Top class, he’s still no match for her quick draw of whatever available to throw at him.

Thoughts of ghosts got you limp? No worries, use easy-to-apply—oh sorry, wrong advertisement.

So, everything boils down to preventing a rift from another dimension to open at the Waldenstein Academy and that would be done by finding the Nostradamus’s Key and destroying it before that. Interesting enough, Occult Academy is filled with so many paranormal artifacts / items that finding the Nostradamus’s Key is akin to finding a needle in a haystack. However, he does try his best combing through the frightening and creepy place.

Hasta Lavista, baby! There, I used it. XD

On the other hand, Vice Principal of Waldenstein Academy has an agenda of her own and is not at all happy in seeing daddy’s little girl taking over the school. With her father cremated and evidence gone, they still have a long way to go. The motive of sending off a ghost on Maya is still unsure but can be interpreted both ways (good, part of that big plan of her father’s or bad, she’s really behind his death and part of a faction opposition). I’ll wait another episode or two to make my mind about the real motives behind Chihiro’s actions.

Again, Keikaku doori! Maya does get a complete Psycho scene minus knife effect, followed by a spirit-ghost attack. Fortunately for Fumiaki, he jumps in like Tarzan with audible sonorousness too to save the damsel in distress. Sadly, her tsun-ness catches him on a bad time and he faints like a girl (tch!). The savior in the end is Jun’ichirō’s notebook that he had induced with defensive spells for such events. After dealing with the ghost, Maya almost reverently opens the notebook to read her father’s last note to her. Of all the occult things he had researched, Nostradamus’s Key was at the top. His sole aim of life was to discover and destroy the key to the prophecies to stop them from happening. However, there were people who didn’t want him to continue the research and the ones finally responsible for his demise. The only advice to his daughter is that she should leave the Academy and live a peaceful life away from all the dangers.

Rather than running away, tail between the legs, Maya decides to stay to discover the killers of her father and solve the Nostradamus’s Key mystery with Fumiaki. Of course, it takes all the resolve she has to do so because she simply hates the occult (Dai Kirai daaaa~!) but I would have to agree with Ami that she doesn’t really hate it rather how it had played a part in her life for making her parents separate.

Fumiaki: You do like occult don’t you? Tsk…, why do you do this to yourself number shix~

End Thoughts: Another good episode I must say! This made me chuckle a lot and in some places actually laugh. I quite easily giggle but genuine laugh is genuine indeed. I stand corrected about most of the predictions I made, like Maya’s father being the main guy in the cell responsible for Fumiaki to be sent to the past; still not 100% sure but we are getting there. I liked Fumiaki as a character, though I have a feeling that he was not particularly true in the details he provided, using more than a pinch of salt in explaining the future. Like lazing on a beach, while the aliens destroyed your planet? Uh-huh, but we’ll soon find out surely as per ANN, this is going to have 13 episode. I would like some more but if this turns out to have a pacing like say of Tatami Galaxy, I would love it.

This was a good installment to establish the kind of elements involved and seeing a ghost, it’s clear that not all of it will be sci-fi. I wish I had studied symbology and could’ve deciphered the symbol shown in the special technology of aliens to know their origin or a clue about the rift to occur soon. Something that I noticed out of the melee of symbols in OP is the Ouroboros from which both Maya and Fumiaki are climbing through; does this mean a cycle of time as ouroboros symbolizes the end of something yet beginning of another (something like a Phoenix rising from its own ashes)? More information is needed to speculate more on this. Btw, you can check out Saphire Pyro’s research on the symbols shown in the OP at Hyper Parfait.

Of course, the time travel done here is between parallel universes, even when the researchers said to be careful, if Fumiaki and Maya are successful in finding the Key, their future would definitely change. I’m curious to know what would happen to Fumiaki if they succeed because a 12-year-old (approximated) version of him already exists in 1999, so would the 24-year-old just vanish into thin air when the events change? (Wouldn’t that be just sad?) There can be two possibilities in case of time travel paradoxes (at least what I know):

• The assumption is that the past and the future are unalterable. Events that had occurred in the past or are supposed to happen in the future (such as Fumiaki attempting to save the world from aliens), cannot be changed. Therefore, the time traveler will be endlessly thwarted by “mishaps” in his attempts at trying to change the past. Thus, the rift would happen anyway and the flow of events will remain intact.
• The second possibility is a little more complex and is centered on “The Split Universe Theory”, given by Schrodinger. That is whenever an event has equal probabilities of occurring or not occurring, the universe splits into two and that is how in one world the rift would occur, while in the other one (where Fumiaki really is), the rift would not occur and no invasion of aliens. Still the question remains of the traveler’s fate and I hope the second paradox occurs rather than the first.

It was good to see the humane side of Maya, even if it was a glimpse that she doesn’t hate her father or the occult even if she keeps on screaming about it. I’ve learned a very valuable lesson in my life that even if you lie in a loud voice, it’s still a lie. Thus, her shell of who-cares would crumble under the truth that she would find about her father as the story progresses. I missed the supporting cast in this episode but of course not that much because the information given was needed to plough on into the storyline. I would like to see how the dominatrix-slave relation of Maya-Fumiaki progresses because till now he hasn’t really shown any promise of manning up except for providing comic relief, which not bad until one of those cornered situations occur again. Their chemistry is interesting to watch and I would like to see some more development.

Preview shows a new character blowing in… Mikaze Nakagawa, who is clearly flirting with our Time Agent Fumiaki, causing a beet-red blush I might add. Whatever kind of wind she turns out to be, I just wonder who the VP is looking at with such gooey eyes! Hopefully, that is not Fumiaki again or he’d soon be victim of a cougar. Tsk! All is not well though as a student gets kidnapped by the bat-like monster we saw in the beginning of the first episode. And another prediction, it might as well be Kozue.

Note: Gomen~ for unloading all that time travel explanation but I couldn’t help it… d(>.<)b Also, I’ll be onto replying all the piled up comments from today on LIFO (last in first out) basis. So, as always would look forward to your thoughts here or on twitter. Till next time, Ja ne~

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About Kyokai

The Boss lady of Metanorn, who makes it all happen. An animanga enthusiast, who watches/reads almost anything that strikes her fancy. Just beware of her Death Perception and always keep her happy. Regularly found at @KyokaiTM & #[email protected].