Monday 16 August 2010

Occult Academy - Episode 7

A chance meeting between Maya and Ami's father frames and sets up this seventh episode of Occult Academy - A man who remembers the occult-loving Maya of her youth who is more than a little shocked to see this "new-look" Maya who at best has no interest in matters of the occult.

We too get some glimpses into Maya's past as an occult fanatic during this episode - later in the instalment via flashback and, just notably, as Maya and Kozue hang out at Ami's house where she unveils some of Maya's old notebooks, talking of future trips to Loch Ness and the like.


However, these festivities are interrupted by news of a mysterious circle (a crop circle if you'd rather) which has mysteriously appeared overnight - A revelation that (to the eyes of Ami's father) has re-awakened the occult lover in Maya, whereas in reality she's more interested in helping Fumiaki uncover Nostradamus' Key. So, Ami's dad helps Maya to stake out the "mystery circle" that night, which turns into an all-out UFO chase with cattle mutilation and all. Unsurprisingly, this "UFO" isn't what it first seems, a fact which leads to an almighty falling out between Ami and Maya which looks set to reverberate into the next episode.

While this episode suffered from being overly predictable, with a twist in the tale you could see coming a mile off, and arguably bordering on filler, it still made the most of the subtly changing yet still hostile relationship between Maya and Fumiaki, while also reminding us how brilliant it is at being utterly daft to the point of hilarity, mostly when JK was on-screen and particularly when he shared that screen time with pudding to any degree. Yes, this was a pretty week episode of Occult Academy by its own standard, but it still got a lot more laughs out of me than other more focused comedy efforts this season.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You know, what I liked about this episode is that, it was filler, but the main characters eventually realize that and they have that jaded walk home in the early morning light, being somewhat depressed that they wasted their time. It had a certain honesty to it.