Occult Academy 6 is a nice episode which didn’t hang together well in some spots. But at least Kozue has her glasses back.
Maya and her friend start by trying to shock Kozue back to her occult-loving self through little tricks, including a painful spoon-bending experience care of Uchida. It takes them forever to figure out what had happened to her and even then they get it wrong, in spite of the fact that the evidence was right up there on the TV screen. Instead, there’s a lot of talk about seeking for things with your heart, and how the important things are right in front of you, which the new Kozue, now with perfect vision, laughs at … until she bursts into tears. “Aha!” Everyone thinks. She’s lost her heart.
Uchida, who has been roped into helping, volunteers to do the near-death thing to find it. This in itself is a good thing. It gives him an opportunity to atone for his earlier misbehavior. Kozue the skeptic is coming too, except how did they manage to convince her? It doesn’t matter, I think, for we’re going back to happy-bubbly land!
It’s a great scene, not happy-bubbly like Kozue’s experience but after all this is Uchida’s life we’re looking at. It jumps from bad memories to Uchida’s reaction, then back to worse memories, while those watching it are shocked. Not everyone watching knows exactly what’s going on, but Maya, who may or may not have believed Uchida’s story, is forced to see it with her own eyes. Also, she learns some other things. The invasion scenes are bad enough (“Is this a movie?”), but for her possibly the most horrific is seeing his mother slap him down when he protests her breaking a promise. Because Maya’s father did the same thing to her. Uchida is no longer a just a cowardly idiot who claims he’s from the future but a fellow victim who’s had a life at least as rough as hers. Maya grows angry on his behalf.
It didn’t entirely work. Every one of us knew that it wasn’t Kozue’s heart that was missing, it was her glasses. Like I said, it was right there on the screen! So everyone’s big anticlimatical reaction shot was underwhelming. Also, the “let everyone see the character’s past” schtick isn’t my favorite in the world. It’s too easy a plot device. I had quite enough of it in Letter Bee, thank you. Come to think of it, Railgun used it too. On the other hand I doubt we’ll see Occult Academy use it again.
So Kozue is her old, odd self again. Maya renews her partnership with Uchida. We get more of the Waldstein Sonata besides the opening bit, unless it’s a different sonata. In fact, the music for this show can be very effective even when it’s not Beethoven. The bit where the mother strikes Uchida (and Maya gasps) had a musical bump that made ME gasp. Visually, it’s great to look at again. Even when an episode doesn’t hang together this is still a great show to watch and hear.
Too Old for Anime 