Not really, I’m kinda distracted by the mummy.
At first, I have to say that my heart sank a little when I realised that this epi was going to focus on Kozue. Sure, I could see it coming, given the previous foreshadowing about how kooky her character is and how she’s always going off by herself in search of mysterious occult type things etc. etc., but in spite of this penchant for the mysterious, I’d sort of found her a bit of a third (and not very bright) wheel.
Until I finished watching this episode.
Thoughts:
I did this section first this time and it was becoming too long, so no Summary this week (I tend to go a bit overboard with those too, hehe), so instead I’ve mixed in some summative comments amongst the analysis, with more pics and headings:
First impressions:
Woah. Even for a show about the occult, this was pretty far out. Of course, I’m talking about THAT ending (and another cliffie no less, that’s two in five epis already, I think), so I’d better go in some kind of chronological order…
Kozue:
After the predictable klutzy moment and the recycled from epi one ‘Megane! Megane!’ routine, her faux OOPArts spoon at least allowed our favourite occult-loving/ -hating tsundere to show off her awesome knowledge of all things spoonbendy. However, it didn’t take me too long to start warming up to Kozue, after watching her chase after the cat (something I’d probably do). Such shenanigans were in danger of going on too long for the viewer perhaps, but, fortunately, she then promptly and rather spectacularly fell over a cliff. Okay, not so fortunate for Kozue, but pretty awesome comic timing, which is one of my favourite things about this show.
The middle section with the girls was the turn-around point in my re-evaluation of Kozue, when the girls were having lunch and then lying back and dreamily discussing various superstitions and Kozue’s fascination with the occult. Not least of all cos it was so refreshing seeing them do normal things like have lunch, gossip and giggle together, as opposed to being possessed by lamias or chased by mothmen, I guess. Speaking of which, Kozue seemed perversely ungrateful when she dismissed these in her nothing-occultish-ever-happens-to-me speech. However, her reference to The Little Prince and her determination to grow and learn more about herself through such longed for, potentially epiphanic experiences indicates that she’s not just an occult-themed attention seeker…
And then, just when I was thinking, isn’t it nice that there are other teachers in this place trying to make their students learn stuff, one of the teachers asks for a volunteer to almost kill himself. Talk about interactive teaching and learning. Despite Ami and Maya’s worried faces, Kozue’s bravery and sense of adventure were admirable. As were her last thoughts. Admirable and hilarious that is.
Damn right, desserts are sacrosanct.
And then that FREAKY SH*T at the end, which made me think of kozue’s near death experience as a cross between a regression into the womb (that umbilical cord like rope thing), an outer space/ gravity-less setting, and a Ghibli-esque dreamscape (er, more My Neighbour Totoro than Grave of the Fireflies, that is). Were we simply seeing the kinds of things Kozue might hallucinate about if she were near death? Or was it really some limbo-type, in between life and death space? Of course, we didn’t see enough of it nor long enough to find out, before Kozue was pulled back into the land of the living. Or was she? Would the Kozue we know really shrug off her lost glasses and think so little of her beloved occult all of a sudden? Unless she decided to change her priorities after, of course, almost dying and thus is on her way to find other, perhaps more practical things to spend her time doing? Or was she once again possessed by some kind of supernatural beasty, leaving her real consciousness behind to search for said glasses? Either way, clearly a good moment to have a cliffie-ending.
Other character- and plot-development of note:
There was, of course, less of Uchida this week (will leave it up to you as to whether that’s a good thing or not), but we certainly saw enough of his funny faces, which seemed to fall either into the ‘terrified’ (of Maya) or ‘loved-up/ perverted’ (due to Ms Cute Waitress) categories. Seriously, though, you’d think he’d learn after picking on Maya the first time round not to do so again, unless he’s some kind of masochist of course. Regarding the waitress, her voice is simply too annoying for me now to say any more about her than I’ve already done so in this sentence. But speaking of she-who-must-not-be-named, at least the Vice Principal has found at about her rival, I’ll admit that I enjoyed her displeasure at what she saw, in a sadistic kind of way (well if she’s going to fall for someone that useless, I have no sympathy for her).
Brief gripes:
When Maya answered Number Five’s phone, I was pretty disappointed that it wasn’t some scary supernatural prank caller, and even more disappointed that the Mysterious Man didn’t give Uchida more hell when he spoke to him on his phone later. Also plot hole ahoy: wasn’t the phone only supposed to be for one-way communication, for the Time Agents to report back, rather than receive calls? On the other hand, I appreciate the irony of calling plot holes in this show, which, let’s face it, is not really about an intricate plot anyway, as opposed to supernatural flavoured comedy…
Moments of Win:
…which leads me, finally to fan-girl over some of my highlights. Not least of all the many more faces of Maya. I think that these should be put into their own web-comic, or photo-album at least. There were just so many of them and they were all so awesome. except for the one after Uchida dares to tell her that he doesn’t see her in that way at all. Which is a pretty damn good thing if you ask me, certainly not worth her getting angry about. I’m only hoping she reacted that way because she was offended by how vehemently he denied it, rather than the fact that she might have had any feelings for him that were crushed. Besides, it looks like she’s due to meet real-time Bunmei-kun next week, so that’s one weird thing we can do without.
Other moments of Win in brief: Maya’s (as mentioned) very informative OOPArts lecture; Ami’s face while Maya was giving said lecture; Maya’s first pissed-off face in reaction to Uchida daring to pick on her in class the morning after the cowardliness before; Maya (bizarrely, from what we’ve seen) requiring Ami’s help to limber up in P.E.; finding out Japanese people had the three-second rule in 1999 too; lunch with the girls and Maya’s rare, but heavenly smile; Uchida’s Epic Fail when he tried to pick on Maya again; kozue’s final prayers and thoughts about her family, especially her gluttonous sister; and the freaky arse near-death sequence and Kozue’s even freakier recovery at the end.
In short:
I thought it was a much slower paced epi than last week, but that, this time, it worked (unlike the middle of epi three). Also, I thought it was a great way to build Kozue’s character and the relationship between the three girls, and to incorporate the comedy that we love so much in this show.
Ah, Maya-san. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more tem- okay, maybe not quite…
29 Comments
i am also glad that ushida has no intrest in maya she is too much woman for him and im glad that he realizes that a lose like him has no place in her presence, but i must say he has no eye for beauty. i looks like we will see more of smile next episode
hopefully maya smile and jk will all go in after kozue together.
I laughed at that. Its like an insult saying Maya isn’t attractive. I’m starting to think Maya is projecting both her love and hate of the occult on Fumiyaki. It has been established as a child she loved the occult like Kozue. But the occult ultimately betrayed her with her father’s descend to obsession. In a way Maya found Fumiyaki interesting but like the Occult he betrayed her. The girl has father issues. She finds out that her father was likely murdered and on top of it a potential alien invasion. With a useless bum who is supposed to save the future.
indeed comrade the occult did tear her family apart, and ushida who represent the occult and also is sopposed to save the world is out skirt chasing on top of being a complete idoit and a failure at life. and on top of that he lied to her to make himself look cool and he abandoned her, pretty much left her to die at the hands of the mothmen. i believe that before she didnt hate him she was more just didnt wanna be let down, but then when she gave him a chance he did… i mean he did smell, and he was a liar, and an idoit, but on top of all that he didnt even have enough backbone to atleast attempt to help or protect her. i hate him soooo much.
I’m glad you guys cleared that up, was wondering why she was so upset/ offended, but it seems you might be right in that it was a(nother) betrayal. Poor girl
There’s also the age (and not least of all time) difference to consider, so I’m glad too. Can’t wait for more Smile (did his smiley badge have love hearts for eyes in the preview?!) and JK next week!
Smile and Smiley Badge FTW!!!
Agreed!
I’m still super-conflicted on this show. I like Maya as a character quite a lot. But other characters I’m starting to find extremely annoying. I’ll admit that I laughed at the end of this epi because I found in those short few moments that pseudo-Kozue was a much more likeable character than the original. I’m also usually not picky at all about animation consistency, but it’s really getting to me in this show where Bunmei sometimes randomly ends up with HUGE SHOULDERS and a very small head…
Maya definitely steals the show, which is probably why the others seem to pale in comparison. Kozue and Uchida are certainly not my favourites, but, unlike Mikaze, I don’t actually find them that annoying. Speaking of Mikaze, though, they seriously need to decide if she’s the moe girl or the parody of one, cos right now, along with Uchida’s puppyish reactions to her, she’s just an irritating cliché. But lol about Uchida’s head and shoulders – I assumed that was becasue of his ill-fitting suit (it’s also too short for him in the leg)? Either way, it’s probably another thing we’re supposed to find oh-so-hilarious about him…hmm…
I didn’t see a problem with art consistency in this episode. In fact I thought this episode looked better than ever.
Maybe it is supposed to be an ill-fitted suit. But other times it’s not so bad. Otherwise the art was fine. It wasn’t a comment about the general art (I think it’s quite good). But, the damn shoulders on him (intentional or no) are starting to get to me.
I’m on the see-saw again. this time, I’m down on Occult Academy and find the comedic aspects distracting and the characters’ quirks annoying. Then again, the last minute of the episode actually advances the plot and I have to give it props for that.
who knows? maybe I’ll swing back up and enjoy the next episode
Did the last minute actually advance the plot though? It’s a nice cliffhanger, but I don’t see anything from this ep and probably the next one affecting the July 21, 1999 anti-invasion plot, unless I’m missing something.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Hmm, when you put it like that, I guess not (not that I can see, anyway). Though, they did explicitly refer to that date again in the middle of this epi, which I assume is a bit of foreshadowing for an epi or two’s time (like they did at the beginning of last week’s epi about Kozue often going off for long stretches of occult-hunting at a time, and, lo and behold, we saw that firsthand in this epi). In the meantime, I’m guessing they need to show more supernatural activity occuring specifically on the school grounds, given the impending goings-on on that piece of land…
And yes, I thought that might make you happy, RP
We’ll have to invent a nosebleed emoticon for you for when/ if she ever does blush. 
Whether the cliff hanger applies to the plot or not requires some speculation until we get confirmations from the next episode, but I do (ATM) believe this episode was the catalyst for the 1999 plot. This assumptions behind this line of thinking (caution SPECULATION): Kozue traveled between dimensions in her “near death” experiment. She did not return to the 1999 world, instead a being from the other dimension used her body to travel to 1999. Since the “aliens” are inter-dimensional beings, The thing possessing Kozue is an alien/demon of just the type associated with the End Of The World. It could even be Nostradamus’ Key.
I love all your crazy theories, Joojoobees, and your commentators’ ones on your blog. We’ll see, eh, we’ll see…
I think the comedy largely works, for me, as long as they don’t drag on those scenes too much (and are relevant to the plot, of course). Hhowever, I totally get how some of the characters can be annoying (e.g.: I still haven’t made up my mind about the Vice Principal yet, though for some reason I feel guilty laughing/ eye-rolling at her than I do when laughing (or not) at Uchida). The last five mins or so definitely opened up some more interesting possibilities… I shall wait to see which direction you next go in too
Agreed – the plot advancement in this episode was the highlight for me. Doesn’t the prophecy say that a Great King of Terror will come from or out of the Sky? The last landscape Kozue saw in her “near-death”/unused-Studio-Ghibli-backdrops dimension was a sky at sunset, and then she began to be called back by her schoolmates and then knocked aside by a swam of bubbles. Something sinister is afoot!
Oh yes, it started to go all stormy just before she was pulled back… perhaps something sinister indeed!
I’m quite content with that cliffhanger, as it upped my interest in the series; it’s been funny, but not engaging.
Yep, as cliffies go, it was one of the more awesome ones. The series seems to be coasting along with flashes of brilliance, so I agree that it would be better, maybe even amazing, if was, as you imply, more consistent and balanced in its mixture of pathos and bathos, as well as plot- and character-development of course.
On your “Ocult Academy episode 5:The Rise and Falls of Kosue.”, there’s a picture of Kozue who poses a strangely. Do you know where the pose comes from ? Older Japanese soon remember it’s come from Osomatsukun （おそ松君、drawn by one of Japanese famous manga drawers) In that manga the very famous character is a man called ” Iyamai ( lierally 嫌み ” ) who poses strangely like that when he was surprised crying ” Sheee !” I was raised by Manga, which is a little differnt from a present day anime like manga where many little girls always appeared. The origin of Japanese “Manga” comes from his works. It was the atomosphere after World War Ⅱwhen most Japanese could nott enjoy so much except Manga.
Hi, I’m afraid I don’t know where that pose originates from, I just assumed it was some kind of meditatative or martial arts position. I don’t know much about pre-90s manga, but I’m enjoying reading Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s ‘A Drifting Life’ at the moment and I always appreciate recommendations from others. Speaking of which, thank you for the tip, I will definitely check out ‘Osomatsukun’.
It’s not so much that the communication is one-way as it is that in 2012 Earthlings only have really crappy phone plans, and if you call during peak hours you get charged an arm and a leg.
Overall, a pretty boring episode for me.
Hmm, my spider senses are telling me you’re not a Kozue fan. 16 months is a long time in the world of phone plans, though, so who knows what we might all be walking aorund with in our pockets by then…
Well if Uchida was lying about him being a fully established time agent then he was also probably lying about the one-way communication thing too. That lie was probably just meant to make the situation sound that much more dire.
Ah yes, I certainly wouldn’t trust Mr Unreliable Narrator as far as I can throw him
if I were Maya. [About my throwing distance that it, as I assume Maya could probably shift his cowardly arse pretty damn far.]Not quite. The ‘silver cord’ is a common element of out of body experiences/astral projections/etc, which ties the astral body to the physical body. Supposedly if the cord is cut, your soul is cast adrift into the ether and you’ll never wake up again.
Ah, I haven’t seen that used before, so thanks for clearing that up. It would certainly explain why it was attached to her back, rather than to her stomache, lol. I’m guessing the chord might have been cut just before she was pulled back then… again, I’ll have to wait until I’ve seen the next epi… *hurries off to finish blogging/ catching-up on stuff I’ve missed…*
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