English Dub Review: Midnight Occult Civil Servants “The White Nekomata of Kagurazaka”

Your family bloodline.

Overview:

Miyako goes back home.

Our Take:

As the crew investigates Abe no Seimei, where Miyako realizes that he has ties to the ancient onmyoji. From a vague memory that he can recall, his grandfather tells him that he is a distant descendant of Seimei, which would explain how he’s able to communicate with the Anothers. In looking in his family’s old storehouse for more details, he stumbles across an old cat that he used to play with. This cat is no ordinary cat, but a nekomata who has watched over the family for generations. This is extremely convenient, as who better to know family secrets than their old guardian? Then there’s the Another that appears at the end, who seems to recognize Miyako for his heritage.

This raises the question, can the Anothers discern people by their bloodlines? Or is it that Seimei was just that impressive that it’s the easiest way for people to remember him?

Upon some further exploration, they also stumble upon something that is likely a tie-in to the larger plot: a mysterious woman riding an Another. She could be an Another herself, or could be another human with powers to communicate with Anothers. She could be an ally or enemy, but I’m hoping enemy to spice things up a little.

All in all, not much happens in this episode? Very little plot surprisingly happens for a full half hour show, which is kind of surprising. I expected more. It’s not to say that the information isn’t new or revelatory, but it feels like there was very little, all things considering. It might be the pacing contributing to this feeling, but it was overall a rather strange experience.

Episode 2 confirms that this is still just an average anime. The budget is still likely small, resulting in an animation style that’s not very vibrant. You can tell they’re cutting corners on animation a lot, which isn’t too surprising. While this did have a source material before it, it doesn’t seem as popular as some other IPs running this season, so I highly doubt they have the resources to invest deeply in this. Following the rather baffling pacing feeling that I got from this episode, I don’t think this is something particularly deep- but I am on a surface level, mildly curious about where this will go. At the very least, it should be something that will satisfy my mythology tastes until Fate Grand Order Babylonia goes live in the fall.