English Dub Review: Midnight occult civil servants “Shinjuku Ward Nocturnal Community Relations Division”

A lost god.

Overview:

Miyako happens upon an Another that has lost his memory, and offers him a place to stay.

Our Take:

This is the final episode of the series, and it’s overall a sweet one. Miyako finds an old man Another, who happens to have lost his memory and home. Since the old man can’t remember anything, Miyako offers his house and home to him in the meantime.

This episode shows mostly of how far Miyako has come in how he treats the Anothers. At first, he was put off, understandably, and took a more passive route. While he could understand them, he rather preferred to stay in the background and let things unfold naturally. It was his job to deal with them, but he only really did so on a surface level. Even though things kept undeniably happening around him, Miyako never really wanted to engage. Here he is much more active, preferring to step in and stick his neck out for an Another that he barely knows. He even goes as far as risking his health, something unfathomable for the old Miyako. He’s become much more comfortable with the idea of being the human-Another bridge and is willing to put his health on the line for it. He’s become much more aware of his abilities and his role and is putting things to good use. I’d say this was a good way to show his growth.

The Anothers’ identity turns out to be Volos, the Ukranian god of the hunt. I don’t know a lot about Ukranian folklore, so this came as a surprise. Honestly, it’s kind of nice to see a variety of folklore used, instead of just the usual go-to’s. This also made the mystery harder, even if we got some hints because this likely isn’t something that a lot of people would know.

This was overall, pretty touching. Volos has been displaced from his homeland and was losing his identity because nobody worships him anymore. His old housing artifact was damaged, and he has become something that only wanders from place to place. Seeing him recall his old home, his identity, and realizing who he is when he finds his new home was touching. He was fascinated at seeing how the world changed, and being able to do that himself, by becoming part of a museum artifact, was a nice sentiment. Sometimes, it’s small things that really make it.

A pleasant way to end the season, I’d say.