When you see an anime that’s being written by the same person that wrote Steins;Gate, you immediate get giddy with excitement, which was the case when I saw Occultic;Nine. For those who are wondering… no… Occultic;Nine is not part of the Steins;Gate universe. Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate and Robotics;Notes are all in that universe, but Occultic;Nine and Anonymous;Code are in a different world. In fact, in Occultic;Nine, all of those titles are treated how they are in our world… as light novels and visual novels. With that being said, though… I dove right into the first episode and all of a sudden, my excitement was flattened by what I had saw.
First Episode Impressions
The story of Occultic;Nine was pretty interesting. Yuuta Gamon is a 17-year-old boy and a self-proclaimed NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) God. He runs a website called “Choujou Kagaku Kirikiri Basara”, where he blogs about the paranormal sciences. The show follows the stories of nine individuals linked by the website and, eventually, it leads to an event that may alter what is considered to be common sense in the world.
The story has a great premise to it, but the first episode nearly destroyed any and all of my interest in this show. To say that it was rushed was an understatement. Character after character after character are thrown at the viewer with little to no time to digest who you just met. On top of that, the characters speak so quickly, that those of us who don’t speak Japanese and have to read sub-titles, are scrambling to keep up with the dialogue to the point where you’re only getting the gist of what is going on rather than a full understanding.
Then I saw the post that nearly blew my mind. Occultic;Nine is a light novel series that was cancelled after just three volumes. Episode 1 of the anime adapts THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FOUR pages of the first volume. Now… I lauded D.Gray-man Hallow for blowing through nearly 10 chapters of the manga in about two episodes, but this…. This is just something that left me without words. Now, I haven’t read the light novels so I can’t tell you if there was a lot of irrelevant stuff in volume one that didn’t need to be adapted, but if they are going to go at this breakneck speed for the remainder of the series, then I expect everything in the light novels to be covered by the end of episode three and the remaining ten episodes will be anime original content.
Since I’m not a light novel reader, I cannot claim disappointment at the material’s adaption. This is all new to me so had I not seen that post, I wouldn’t have known otherwise… and as they say, ignorance is bliss…. Sometimes. Ignoring the adaptation nightmare that is going on, I would say that just on a face value standpoint that the summary on MyAnimeList.net is more enticing than the first episode. If this is a show you want to stick with, you may want to re-watch episode one a few times because I’m sure there will be stuff you will miss the first pass through.
Also, what is up with Ryouka Narusawa’s character design? I know anime characters, typically, have above average breast sizes, but JESUS MOTHER HOLY JOSEPH… that’s going a little too far. She has got to have one of the worst character designs that I’ve seen so far this year.
OP & ED Impressions
Well, if there is anything positive to say about this show, then it goes to the opening and ending themes. “Seisuu 3 no Nijou” by Kanako Itou is insanely good, as expected. She previously did the opening to Steins;Gate… both the anime and the visual novel. If you’ve heard a Kanako Itou song before, you know what to expect here and if you’re expecting pure awesomeness, you’re going to get it. “Open your eyes” by Asaka was also an amazing ending theme that I’d love to hear again and again. Too bad all the substance between the two songs created one giant shit sandwich.
Worth Watching?
NO – Personally, I’m giving Occultic;Nine one more chance to make up for the horrible first episode. If it can’t do that, then this show is getting dropped. It’s sad because it seems really interesting from a plot standpoint, but if they’re going to treat every episode in the same way as the first, then I’m not even going to bother with it. I have a strong feeling that episode two isn’t going to be any better, which is why I’m giving this a NO recommendation. I can only hope that I get proven wrong.
