I am certain this may seem like an extreme rating for some but the number scale always has been something I only carried over as part of psgels format. But this rating exemplifies my feelings about this show in its entirety. This show is awful, terrible, rage inducing, illogical, nonsensical garbage. Watching this show was one of my most unpleasant experiences watching anything. When I started this show I at least thought it couldn’t be as bad as Robotics;Notes, for that show was truly something else when it came to bad writing. But I was flabbergasted to see that this show was so much worse. To the point where I may swear off watching any colon series from this point forward.
The plot of this show is a complete mess and looking at it in it’s entirely it not only makes no sense but the only points where the story goes anywhere is at the every beginning and the very end. The middle portion of this story is nothing but a giant waste of time as the characters only work to try to figure out a mystery that would eventually be explained to them and side plots which are introduced but have not plot relevance whatsoever. The main middle part of this story involves a murderer who not only has little or nothing to do with the main mystery but is dropped and never mentioned again once his little arc is through. The characters are all either unlikable or stereotypical and it’s important to note that they do mostly nothing besides motormouth exposition. Design wise they are not very interesting and need I mention the girl with a chest so astronomically huge that it is incredibly distracting? I do not mean that this is attractive, I mean that this girl’s anatomy is so utterly ridiculous that it’s like having a giant elephant in the room that no one seems to address. I will say as well that his character does nothing but try to figure out every motion she can make to move her breasts as much as possible and make me question how her back hasn’t snapped into splinters. She plays a stereotypical dumb blond joke until the last two episodes. Where she is pretty much lobotomized and replaced with a completely different character.
What the mystery becomes in it’s final episode is something you could swear was parody but the show itself is clear that it wants you to take it completely seriously. It tries to tug at your heartstrings when the characters are talking at a speed of bullet trains. Out of the nine characters mentioned in the title, only two are actually relevant. The rest are just throwaway side characters whose absence wouldn’t hurt the show, if anything it would shorten the runtime and make it more focused. It becomes impossible to take even an iota of this story seriously when it pulls out deus ex machina like those angel wings you happen to see in the screenshots up there. Isn’t that utterly ridiculous for a story that want wants to be an intelligent mystery series? Well if you find that hard to swallow I assure you that it’s the tip of the iceberg. This story has twists and turns that just make you wish to yell at the top of your lungs “WHAT?!”
The direction is a nightmare. Want to know how bad? You need not take my word for it, just watch the first thirty seconds of the very first episode. I assure you that by the time you get back to this review you will be very confused. I have no idea what the director of this show was thinking as screenshots have no logical cohesion with what is being represented. A large number of times our protagonists will suddenly start talking rapid fire like a bakemonogatari series before reverting back into normal speech. There is an episode filled with so many dutch angles you will feel physically ill just from watching it. There is a scene where the camera spins 360 degrees in place for three straight minutes. There are camera shots flipped upside down or 90 degrees for no apparent reason. Sometimes spacial awareness is just thrown out the window and you have a giant girl speaking to a small boy in a close up shot when they are supposed to be on opposite sides of the room. I must ask if they director went to film school because it was almost as if he wanted to make this show as painful to watch as possible. For that I truly pity the animators who do a stand out job despite what they have to work with.
There are some who say that at least this tried something different but I say no. Magical Girl Raising Project tried something different and while it didn’t succeed, at least the end result doesn’t make me want to claw my eyes out. You can say that someone tried something different by making a coffee mug out of monkey feces but it’s still shit no one wants. This writer has passed the point of being applauded for experimentation so it’s an insult to give him kudos for fan fiction level writing. So without surprise I am sure, I recommend you avoid this anime at all cost. Pay no heed to those claiming it’s good, they are clearly blind. Save your brain cells, don’t even watch it as a joke because I assure you that this series will go out of it’s way to make sure you can’t get any fun out of it. I declare Occultic;Nine to be the worst anime I have ever seen and if you are wise you would heed my words. Don’t waste your life on this flaming trashcan of a show. I have wasted far too much of my time on it already.
Wow. Didn’t think I’d ever see a 0/100 rating in all the years I’ve been coming to this site. I always thought that Shinzo movie would be the king of crap on here. I haven’t seen this, nor do I want to. My personal worst anime that I’ve ever seen was a stupid little PSA OVA called Ijime, and I feel that one is worthy of a 0/100 rating more than anything.
As I said in the review, its a pretty personal rating. There are anime objectively worse but to me this is the worst.
Change in authorship means change in the numbers.
I’m sure psgels would have rated it above a 0/100, had psgels continued to maintain this blog.
That said, the show is pretty clearly garbage. I’m one of the folks who finds it a pity that the experimentation didn’t pay off, but I agree with Aidan – at some point the writer tipped over the scales of trial and error into pure error territory.
I’d recommend that anime geeks watch episode 1, and then stop. It tells you everything you need to know about whether breakneck pacing works or not for you. If for some reason episode 1’s trainwreck makes you want to watch more, you’ll probably like the series. Just don’t watch more on the premise that maybe it’ll get “better”. It definitely does not. It stays just as confusing, just as filled with tell-don’t-show, and the characters are just as prone to shouting randomly.
Just throwing in my two cents here. The only part about this review I agree with wholeheartedly is the motormouth exposition. This story was on fast forward, trying to squeeze a very long, complex story into a single season, which, as expected, caused some derailing. I’m not ready to call it a full train wreck yet though. I did enjoy it more than Chaos;Head. It helps that I was already expecting some of the twists of this mystery, having already seen the likes of Robotic;Notes and Steins;Gate. Setting up a supernatural horror while in fact intending for a contemporary sci-fi mystery. It’s nothing that breaks a lot of new ground but I could follow the plot somewhat, including the purpose of the dutch shots to raise tension in an otherwise mundane conversation. The creators wanted the audience confused, to keep them guessing. We saw this technique in stuff like Hyouka too. The pacing there was much slower but I admit there I only could figure out what the story was talking about after watching the whole thing to it’s conclusion and then tracing back. I blame my poor Japanese. XD Hyouka’s pacing was, of course, much slower but stuff talked about in one episode would come around to explain itself again somewhat later is seen again here. I did like the occult plot twist later and I found it good that all the pieces left behind in previous episodes would come back to form a full picture in the end, with some deus ex machina to force some pieces in. I wouldn’t put this show on the same level as Hyouka though. And didn’t hit the high bar Steins;Gate set. But it wasn’t bad for me. It’s just a real pity that they had to squeeze way too much into too little time. I suppose a cliffhanger season ending mid-story might not have worked. I don’t think we have any complaints on production values, which I thought were top notch. Did anybody play the visual novel on pc/playstation? Any comparison between the two mediums?
This show was based on a light novel with only two volumes out currently so saying they have no time is no excuse. There is a game coming at a later date. But as I said, it doesn’t matter if you give this more time because the mystery is broken, none of it makes any sense. You say you have difficultly following it, well I could follow it. Hence why I see so many more cracks in the veneer. If you actually sit down and think about it, nothing in this story makes any sense.
No I didn’t have difficulty following O9. There was only one major surprise for me a third of the way through when they started hearing their names on tv. I was comparing it to Hyouka, which did get me confused. I wasn’t aware the game wasn’t out yet. Could have sworn I saw a VN version out on japan’s playstation store way back when.
O9 has a bizarre unreal premise to be sure, much like inventing a cellphone that can send sms messages through time but it seems to hold together for me.
Nonsensically unrealistic, sure but well, not more so than a boy travelling to alternate fantasy dimensions to battle witch cultists, etc. It’s not terribly hard to swallow. The only real issue I have is that it’s on fast forward. The characters are literally speed-talking, trying to get their nuances in while also pushing a rather complicated plot. There’s not enough time for the cake to set so it’s coming out half-baked. They rushed to many plot points out, including stuff like the spiritual time limit to snap back in time with the right stimulation and somehow self-resuscitating 10 minutes after actually drowning. Would have liked a long scene on that alone of a touch and go situation of one or two of those characters struggling to resuscitate, succeeding and dragging the rest to safety. Sigh. If they just had more time to get the pacing right…
But there was enough good stuff in there to make it an ok show for me. Well, to each his own, i guess.
No Meow. No. I am not saying this story makes no sense because it has supernatural elements. Fiction doesn’t have to be realistic, but it does have to be feasible. What I mean by sit down and think about it, is for you to sit down and think about why the characters in this show do what they do. Then you will see how little sense this show actually makes.
Why did the evil organization kill over 200 people to test some chemical when they could have grabbed some cultists or homeless people and test without causing a media frenzy and the need for a massive cleanup? Why did Ryo-tas wait until the very last minute to reveal herself to Gamotan? How in the hell did that little boy overpower people and turn them into raspberry jam? How did he even drag them to his secret underground lair without anyone noticing? Who the hell even built it and why? Even if you try to explain this stuff it could only come across as either contrived or nonsensical.
I refuse to give this show any merit. It’s trash.
Lastly: “Nonsensically unrealistic, sure but well, not more so than a boy travelling to alternate fantasy dimensions to battle witch cultists, etc.”
Really? You jump right for the obvious comparison to try and make me rethink this? Choosing this is just weak mate. Might as well throw in a comparison to Fate/Stay Night while you are at it.
Wow. You’re really pissed at this show. XD Okay. Okay. I’ve said my piece. But to answer some of your questions…
Why did the evil organization kill over 200 people to test some chemical when they could have grabbed some cultists or homeless people and test without causing a media frenzy and the need for a massive cleanup?
This scene got the audience to sit up and take notice. Very high dramatic effect. Like a bomb going off down the street. Something serious is happening. This isn’t a school occult club looking for the 7 Mysteries in Town anymore. It worked for me. And who guessed it would be a set up for the next whammy. How many of you guys guessed that there was something strange about how the reporter’s colleagues completely ignored her? Or the detective, for that matter? And btw, they did experiment on their own. At least two characters were children of key personnel. They were under observation for years to the point where one of them had a code name because of his abnormal properties. The moon bar was a special observation platform just for him along with techs at hq that could instantly tell every time Gamotan got a shot from Ryo-tas’s Tesla pistol. The rest were probably randomly selected residents within the same control area. Notice how conveniently they could all be disposed of at the same spot, instead of 200 mysterious deaths all over the country. Remember, one of the objectives of the experiment includes mind control over living people. I’d say they had that down pat cos they managed to get 200 people to unconsciously commit suicide.
Why did Ryo-tas wait until the very last minute to reveal herself to Gamotan?
Dramatic effect? Needed Gamotan to gather enough pieces on his own so they could get their objectives to align enough? Ryo-tas had to rely on the mysterious radio voice to coerce Gamotan into doing some waaaay out things, including extracting the tooth out of a murder victim’s body. Would Ryo-tas laying all the cards out from the beginning have worked? “Gamotan, please go get this really important gadget out of this newly murdered guy’s mouth to save the world. Pretty please? You can touch my boobs.” Remember how frustrated she was when Gamotan refused to go out to look for Miyu.
How in the hell did that little boy overpower people and turn them into raspberry jam? How did he even drag them to his secret underground lair without anyone noticing? Who the hell even built it and why?
Cookie cutter serial killer side plot? There’s any number of ways for this to work. Helps that the victims are all young girls who see no harm in walking down dark lonely alleys alone in Japan, maybe? Do you watch Criminal Minds? There’s like a new serial killer every week. Honestly, I didn’t really want to know the gory details. I think this whole side plot was to flesh out the whole cursed box legend to get under the audience’s skin. That there were multiple previous boxes was probably just added shock value. The guy was collecting cursed boxes like cardfight vanguard cards. Gee…nice picture they’re painting there.
Not sure about the secret room under the monument. Is that terribly important? Maybe they just wanted to invent a fascinating fiction about there being a secret facility under a famous real-life monument for dramatic effect? A lot of the story seems to be based on real urban or folktale legends. That whole cursed box tale sounds authentic somehow cos it’s presented like it’s common knowledge.
Happy New Year 2017. Looking forward to a lot more Fate. Btw, ***SPOILER***: That furry in FGO showed up in a different form in Tsukihime. You will probably hate it even more after you find out who/what it is. Even harder to swallow than o9 maybe.
You mean to tell me this show it’s worse than Cross Ange!? :O
I wonder if at some point the internet will have a reverse score system distinguishing from the enjoyably bad, to the irritating, to the boring and to the worse of all, the offensively bad.
I bet psgels would have liked this.
Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean that the show is bad or that other people won’t enjoy it.
Ive been pleasantly surprised I actually quite like this show.
Just goes to show how a lot of Anime reviews are overly subjective and people shouldn’t judge things without trying them themselves.
Sigh…yep, and Psgels never liked bad shows before.
Just because I don’t like a show or a show being poorly written doesn’t mean I didn’t understand it. And no matter how bad an anime is there is bound to be someone who enjoys it.
“Just goes to show how a lot of Anime reviews are overly subjective and people shouldn’t judge things without trying them themselves.”
That’s common sense though it’s unreasonable to try everything just on the off chance of it being your thing. So it’s better to not base your judgements solely on one opinion. Generally if a lot of people don’t like something then there’s a good reason for it.
Fair enough, but 0 out of 100 though?
Even if you don’t like this Anime you can’t deny the Art and music are both pretty decent.
I just feel like most Anime fans are overly critical and negative to the point where if I went by most peoples opinions, the majority of Anime is considered bad and I wouldn’t watch anything.
A lot of people just jump on the hate train without giving shows a chance, if an Anime is flawed in even the smallest of ways people start hating on it despite the fact it may be mostly good.
It’s like most Anime fans are highly negative people who complain and hate on everything they can.
To quote the review: “I am certain this may seem like an extreme rating for some but the number scale always has been something I only carried over as part of psgels format. But this rating exemplifies my feelings about this show in its entirety.”
I get that objectively it’s not the worst anime in existence but on a personal level I have never hated a show so viciously like this one. I did not enjoy this, not one bit.
Opinions on the internet are often one of two extremes. It’s either the nectar of the gods or the abomination of creative thought. There isn’t really a middle ground because the middle-ground is hard to truly hard to form an opinion on. Hence why you wouldn’t see many defend a show that’s flawed but has some good points.
Best not to take it too seriously. Those that spout hate like that are often playing it up in order to be funny or just to vent out frustration. It’s not just anime fans that do that, frankly it’s fans of anything.
I don’t understand how you can watch 12 episodes of something you don’t like lol, I would give up a few episodes in.
Wasn’t my choice. It was voted to be covered in the preview.
I kinda enjoyed this but felt a bit frustrated by the fast forward pacing towards the end. The story really could have done with a lot more space to breathe. So it is disappointing how rushed this was, still not the worst Anime ive ever seen just very rushed.
I agree with what you said about how it tries to tug at your heartstrings when the characters were talking at 100 miles an hour, I don’t think I felt anything for the characters due to the fast forward pacing.
Well, I disagree with you guys.
I try lots of time to watch the first 3 episodes because I fall in sleep and the characters who met in a bar were boring and stupid and make no sense (Student detective?)e
But after the third episode, they find out that they all died, dead and lost souls where nobody can see them.
Later they find out that the time goes differently for them.
I spoil the story because your rating let people, not them self-decide.
I GET ENTERTAINED, and that’s what important.
You spoil the story for people to get people to check it out for themselves? You just ruined two of the biggest twists the series has to offer, what reason do they have to check it out now? To find out the explanations behind those twists? Cause believe me the logic behind them makes no sense and is just really goddamn stupid.
…..But entertaining…
Spoilers are not cool.