Occult Academy

Summary: >

The year is 1999. Students at Waldstein Academy (often referred to as Occult Academy) can pursue studies in strange other worldly phenomena. Maya is the estranged daughter of the recently deceased headmaster, who takes over the academy and ironically hates the occult. On her first day on the job, Maya discovers a guy who fell from the sky. Fumiyaki is on a mission from the future. Apparently in the year 2012, the earth becomes an apocalyptic wasteland after an alien invasion. To prevent this, he is tasked with finding the key of Nostradamus.

Maya is sceptical, but as strange happenings occur with increasing frequency, she may be starting to believe. However changing the future isn't an easy task.

Thoughts: >

Occult Academy is all about the supernatural, but fairly reserved for an anime on this topic. It has a rare level of intelligence which is refreshing, so I was hopeful this would become something like an anime version of the X-Files. Unfortunately it never gets there, mostly meanders and has a messy ending. It does actually end though, so there's that.

I'm not going to waste your time and make this longer than it should be because there are only three basic aspects to consider here. 1) It's mostly kind of dull. You'd think there would be lots of crazy stuff on an occult focused anime, but I didn't feel the caper of the week stuff was that interesting. 2) The characters work well together, and are well developed. They are the strength of the show for sure. 3) Things pick up at the very end where stuff gets kind of crazy, but the finally of the show is resolved with the typical time travel paradox "plot twist" done countless times since the 1950s.

I want to say better things about Occult Academy, with good (enough) characters and high potential, but it simply falls short. It's an okay watch sure, but I'm sure there's plenty of better shows on your list to be watched before this one.

Screen Caps: >