English Dub Review: Midnight Occult Civil Servants “Trickster with Amber Eyes”

How to stop a plague of zombies.

Overview:

The group very quickly realizes things are out of their control.

Our Take:

This becomes more of a race against time.

The mysterious being recognizes Miyako, but not as himself, as Seimei. This confirms that the Anothers see, especially if the person in question has powerful abilities, blood over individual identity. At the same time, Miyako looks exactly like Seimei, practically a clone. The stranger set up this whole incident as something for Seimei to solve because that is what Seimei did when he was alive- solve problems pertaining to the supernatural. I suppose that would make the current bureau something akin to modern-day on Vodou.

As it turns out, the bureau is mostly powerless to stop the incident until backup arrives. The team that they came with is more suited for containment, not for taking on a whole throng of what is essentially zombies. As soon as the current team engages with them, they become quickly overpowered. What’s worse, what is acting as a magic gateway is connected to the lives of four girls, meaning that there’s no way to sever the magic without killing them. It becomes a trolley problem, which is more valuable, the victims or their coworkers.

There is a third way out, with Miyako pretending to be Seimei and remembering the being’s name. He manages to recall at the very last minute- a fox that Seimei tamed, Kohaku. Indeed, that’s the correct answer, and backup comes just in time to save the day.

Interestingly, Kohaku’s true name is Huehuecoyotl, a diety from Aztec mythology. Honestly, this is a really nice touch to see in a series that focuses on modern mythology. A lot of series that try similar things usually pull from the usual pantheons: Greco-Roman, Egyptian, Nordic, and in Japan, usually its own lore. Mesoamerican lore tends to not be touched upon all that much in popular culture, and the most frequent export would be Quetzalcoatl or Tezcatlipoca. Seeing that Kohaku is actually from Central America would explain his appearance, and also why he found Seimei interesting. I do like how they’re expanding into other lore outside of the traditional few, and I hope to see more.

The quality of the show hasn’t gotten better, but it’s still campy and fun. I don’t have any investment into any of these characters, but I do want to see exactly what sort of mythology they’re going to borrow from next.