Occult Academy: Episode 7

Now this was a nice episode! The chase scene which had Fumiaki, Ami, Ami's father, Maya and Kozue chasing a flying saucer was well executed, making it a pretty suspenseful scene. Plus the development for Ami really did a great job of making her an interesting character, unlike previous episodes which had her as a pointless side character with no real purpose. The only flaw was the fact that Ami's dad basically set up the whole chase scene, meaning that the events had no relevance to the main story. Thankfully, it still gets a great rating due to the execution of the chase scene, the character development, and the surprising ending of the episode.

Is she all right?

The first half of this episode gave some insight on how the relationship between Ami and Maya is strained by Maya's hate of the occult. This half wasn't as strong as the second one, but it did do a great job of developing Ami and her father. The latter part was superior though, as the ending of the episode and the exhilarating chase scene were both very interesting. My only problem is that Kozue was basically reduced to a comic relief character, all of her jokes being only mildly amusing and nothing more. However, I did enjoy the fact that Fumiaki wasn't the comic relief character anymore, as he was pretty annoying in every episode before episode six.

The ending scene had to be the best part of this episode, as the conflict between Ami and Maya should provide for some interesting drama later on. Plus I suspect that they may start developing Maya's personality, as past episodes handled her cold personality in a comedic manner, the sudden change to a more serious tone indicate indicating that she may undergo a personality change later. (That isn't to say that I hate her personality right not, as I think her character in general is a huge departure from most female protagonists in anime these days.)

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable episode. Sure the plot twist which had Ami's dad setting up the UFO incident was annoying, but it was made up by the fantastic ending and the suspenseful chase scene. While it would have been nice if the episode moved the plot forward, it was still enjoyable to see the show focus on fleshing out its characters.

Rating: Great