A Supernatural Stroll Through Tokyo
Episode 8
There was something pleasantly subdued about the episode this week. After the attempted rising tension last week that kind of fizzled, Midnight Occult Civil Servants could have pushed for an escalation but instead decided to focus on kind of what the title of the anime implies: the day to day of civil servants. As such, while there are some interesting moments to be found in this episode it really is just a series of events in the days following the last episode.
We begin with some housekeeping as Kyoichi files paper work for his sister given she’s suddenly reappeared after many years and she’s still 17 years old. We also see Arata and Kyoichi take their sister and friend shopping for clothing. It is all just mundane stuff and yet adds a little bit of realism to the scenario presented here with employees watching over encounters with Anothers.
They also confirm that Arata is Seimei’s descendant, although I kind of thought that was already pretty obvious. While it seems like just something else thrown in early on the end of the episode circles back to this with Kohaku (Huehuecoyotl) leading Arata on a tor of Tokyo that ultimately ends in a garden that clearly belonged to his ancestor.
Throw in an encounter with a crow who also knew Seimei as well as the ongoing disturbances caused by Kohaku’s presence creating yet more work for Arata’s co-workers as he unknowingly follows Kohaku across half of Tokyo, and the episode is complete with very little actually happening and yet this episode still felt like it has a place as it builds on the relationship forming between Kohaku and Arata, continues to look at Arata’s connection with Anothers, and continues to examine the role of the civil servants in all this.
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Where the episode is at its weakest is in the visuals. The walk around Tokyo takes us to some very familiar sites but the visuals just aren’t up to the task. It may have been worth have less locations and more detail, or possibly just hoping for a bigger budget for this anime altogether, but basically the visuals are a noted low-point and make this one a harder sell than it should be.
On that note, I love the opening song to this anime but the visuals are utterly failing to live up to the music and would love it is someone had done an AMV to this one because it could be aweseome.
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Series Review
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episodes 1 + 2
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episodes 3 + 4
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episodes 5 + 6
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episode 7
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episode 8
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episode 9
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episode 10
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episode 11
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episode 12
- Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episodes 14 + 15
- Images from: Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin. Dir. T Watanabe. Lidenfilms. 2019.
I thought the fight between Kuro the crow and Yuki was really funny. xD And yeah the visuals did/do kind of suck. Though the garden is pretty.
The garden was suitably pretty and I get they are contrasting the Anothers with the mundane, but the visuals just kind of such for the most part. It is my biggest complaint with this series.
I agree. The linework and way the characters are drawn is about as complex as those dollar store coloring books that I used to get as a little kid, lol.