Fall 2016 Anime Season First Impressions (Part 1)

Remember, now: quality comes over quantity. With that in mind, let's get right into this new season!

Occultic;Nine

A dazzling end to the world.

As so goes the tagline for fall 2016 anime Occultic;Nine, animated by A-1 Pictures and directed by Kyohei Ishiguro. There isn’t really one way to fully describe this odd series, though; as with such other anime as Durarara!!, this show features a slew of characters and a whole lot of plot, with all of them being connected in a supernatural/mysterious way.

There’s something I ought to tell you about me and Occultic;Nine: I am an absolute sucker for supernatural mysteries. And, as luck would have it, this much-anticipated anime just happens to be exactly that, giving it more than a little bias on my side. However, for as much as personal preference plays a role in my liking of this show, there are some quite irrefutable positives hidden within these first two episodes, both of which have to do with the amazing art design and knockout story tone consistency. I know I praise the look of pieces of media a lot on Review Central, but, hey, let’s be honest: this anime is beautiful. It has that rough, thin-lined style that really suits itself as a whole, and pair that with a solid story and tone in general, and Occultic;Nine is both a visual and plot-based feast.

Although, for as anticipated as Occultic;Nine was (and still is for the future episodes of its "one-cour" season), its first episode was a bit controversial, and for good reason, too. You see, this anime is based off of a light novel series, and, as with almost all other book-adapted anime, usually 5-6 or more episodes is more than enough time to appropriately cover all of the material that is being adapted, but this certain show had something different in mind…

The first episode of this series covered an entire book’s worth of content.

I’m not exaggerating: the end of the premiere episode was nearly the ending of the first adapted novel, making this aforementioned episode more than a little rushed, according to some. I, personally, thought that this rapid pace, while being, of course, rapid, sort of fit the series in an unexpected way: the sheer amount of main characters just kind of fit right in with its bustling plot.

It’s quite a bold decision to do all that in just the first episode, but that is precisely what makes it so promising: there has to be some sort of (hopefully) genius underlying reason behind it. I hope.

6.5/10- Although slightly rushed in its first episode, Occultic;Nine is a series bursting with both hidden-in-every-frame secrets and undeniable energy, an energy and intuitiveness I hope stays consistent throughout the rest of its airing.

March Comes in Like a Lion

Animated by the genius studio SHAFT and directed by veteran Akiyuki Shinbou, the manga-adapted March Comes in Like a Lion (and out like a lamb, as goes the saying) follows Rei Kiriyama, a 17-year-old who has seldom any friends, family, and school life. He spends his days as a professional Japanese shogi player, living alone in his desolate apartment and only really spending his days with the Kawamoto family, who offer him food, shelter, and care he would otherwise normally not receive: this is the story of his personal troubles, and how he adapts to overcome them.

There’s one large, overall “thing” that follows me around whenever I think about March Comes in Like a Lion, and I think it’s best to get it out of the way (so to speak) right now: everything about this devastatingly effective anime works so, so well. Our main character, Rei, is obviously depressed, and this fact is communicated beautifully through the animation (it’s SHAFT, of course it will be), the voice acting, and nearly everything else. Every single little, tiny, seemingly insignificant thing. Oh, and that’s not even delving into what makes March Comes in Like a Lion truly fantastic: as I said earlier, any positive that you can think of is handled expertly within these first two episodes, including the tone quality of its individual locations, ranging from the warmth and comfort of the Kawamoto family home all the way to the empty, lonely feeling emanating from Rei’s single apartment.

So, yeah, all in all, I think March in Comes Like a Lion is more than great: it’s fantastic.

8/10- These first two episodes of March Comes in Like a Lion feature some of the most brilliantly done tonal work I’ve seen in anime in a good while now: comedy and tragedy somehow both effortlessly and passionately mix in this beautiful series, of which is certainly a hallmark for this already above-average season (or, in other words, just go watch this anime, please).