Common Name: Occultic;Nine
Alternative Names: Occultic 9, Occultic Nine
Score: 6/10, 1/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Mystery, Supernatural
Summary: At what point does the unknowable or paranormal become occult? Perhaps there really is some clandestine organization or team of immoral scientists out for world domination? Or is it not simply plausible that gods and the infinite mysteries that surround them are based in truth? Regardless of the source or validity though, NEET God Gamon Yuuta will try to make a quick buck off of it on his affiliate blog, "Kiri Kiri Basara." Perhaps such things were made occult for a reason though.
Review: If I were to narrow down my complaints about this title to a single statement it would be this: The biggest problem with Occultic;Nine is that it lacks focus. I will, of course, go into greater detail to explain this, but every single fault I have with the show stems from the fact that it fails to find of focal point from which to tell it's story and instead flounders around with it's material until it eventually ran out of episodes.
One of the best examples of this lack of focus can be seen in the show's lack of consistency. While the self-proclaimed NEET God, Gamon Yuuta is most certainly the hero of the entire show, it is difficult to claim that he is the main character. The reason for this stems, in part, from the show's rather large cast, but mostly because he never does anything that warrants main character status. What's even more strange is the fact that he is central to the plot, but is rendered utterly useless for the vast majority of it. To be fair, though, his uselessness is one of his key traits. He is after all, a god among NEETs in that all he does all day is hang out in a bizzare spiritual cafe while managing his affiliate blog that posts articles regarding the paranormal, "Kiri Kiri Basara." As if to reinforce his claim to godhood among those who are considered the scum of the earth, he doesn't even maintain his blog out of legitimate interest in the paranormal. Instead, he does it as a means of making quick and easy money, since the supernatural is ridiculously popular.
Hero of the show, right over there, mooching off other people's generosity.
The show's hero isn't without his good points as well though. Even if he only does it to get richer faster, Yuuta is apparently dedicated to his "work." Though it's ultimately just a means of getting more money even faster, he does go out of his way to meet and connect with members of the paranormal community on both sides of the aisle (those who truly believe those who believe anything supernatural can be scientifically proven). In fact, in a weird way, Yuuta's blog is more important to the plot than he is because the blog itself is supernatural. I say Kiri Kiri Basara is supernatural because it lends Yuuta a kind of professional credibility, enough to encourage people to not only listen to him, but consider him a comrade as well (even though he does absolutely nothing to warrant that trust). To reiterate, Yuuta was able to make a blog that can help him make money and friends.
Oh yeah, it does that too.
Unfortunately, the arrival of Yuuta's new friends ushers in a plethora of more issues in terms of the inconsistency I mentioned before. Like I said, I find it difficult to consider Yuuta the show's main character in spite of his critical role in the story. The main reason for this is because as each new character joins the party, Yuuta practically vanishes from relevance. Instead of focusing on him and his role in the lives of his friends, the story encourages the viewer to just ignore him while everyone else gets a turn to overcome whatever is vexing them and subsequently get a new clue for the overarching mystery. Here's the thing though: not a single one of them really has enough to them or does enough to warrant being main character material either. Now, at this point I would assume it's just another ensemble cast kind of show, and perhaps that was the intention, but there characters are anything but equals in terms of relevance to the plot or even screen time. This problem, unfortunately leads to a nonsensical conclusion to the characters' shared story.
I called you a stubborn ass. You called me an idiot. Best friends ever since.
What's arguably worse than the lack of focus on the characters though is the fact that the plot itself lacks both focus and constancy. While the lack of focus might just come part and parcel with the poor character focus, since they are what drives the story, it does have it's own separate issues. The most egregious of these issues is that there just too many loose ends to the story. There are multiple instances in which key character and events are blatantly forgotten for the sake of story progression. My personal favorite was when one of the story's villains shows up to make his big play, fails to explain his reasoning, and then just exits stage right to never be seen again. It honestly feels like the studio in charge of this adaptation wanted to include everything they could from the source material, but trimmed out anything that offered closure, solid answers, or the moments that would explain why these characters are friends. Even the characters' lengthy conversations feel like they've been sped up or have had pauses for breath cut out of the audio for the sake of speeding things up.
So, perhaps the real issue with Occultic;Nine is that it's just one of those titles that can't be adapted into the standard seasonal anime. It couldn't be done with Stein;Gate or Robotic;Notes, so I'm left to wonder why they thought this work could be told in a shorter form. In any case, I can't say the show was bad because it honestly wasn't. It just felt poorly managed and rushed which will always result in an inferior product in the end.
ON A COMPLETELY SEPARATE NOTE: I have to say I would LOVE to see Occultic;Nine as some kind Persona-esque visual novel game. The art style and overall mood of the story seems to just fit that particular format. Throughout the entire show, I kept thinking how much better character interactions and the mystery itself would play out in that format.