Review of Midnight Occult Civil Servants

Reason for Watching: The synopsis gave a feeling of Natsume (I do adore this series) and also the Art style really charmed me to check this out. TL;DR: It is worth the time to check out the story Concept and Art of this anime, but the pacing might be a little slow with little tension. Well first off, I think the Occult theme takes up a rather small percentage of the Supernatural Genre in anime as well as other forms of media entertainment. Relatively, I also feel that the fan base for Occult theme animes is rather small too. There may be people who are likeme who have watched a few rather satisfying anime of this theme and will end up comparing (critically) this anime to the others. For example, Natsume as I mentioned, or xxxHolic, or Shounen Onmyouji etc. I am a big fan of Shounen anime, so I supposed I am "Trained" to not critically compare stories between different animes. Hahahha~ Well, Shonuen anime usually uses the same troupes after all, but the element of fantasy usually distinguishes them really well despite similar events happening. I have learned that if I was going to compare every little thing of a new show to one of my "favourites", I might as well, re-watched that anime to get exactly what I want? (I do though, for some animes) hahhaha~ And also there will probably be copyrights issue if a show's context and troupes are close to another's~ hahaah~ There are many stories that are similar to each other, that's what makes a genre, but each story is its own, so a little advice here is: Don't base your expectations for one story because of another. You will end up closing a lot of doors~

I will be using the few Occult theme anime in my repertoire as reference for some details to help with the review.

I will start off with reviewing the Story in 2 parts: Concept and Execution
Concept
The reason for my rating for the Story score would be largely credited to the concept of the story. With modern world detective setting as a basis to bring out the charming supernatural beings originating from the past, along with how the supernatural are officially and scientifically recognized, the concept does bring about an interesting interaction between the Humans and Supernatural beings. I do think that this concept is flexible enough for it to spin an interesting tale even using the most basic of troupes (Making dangerous enemies out of Humans and/or Supernatural beings and then settling it with no casualties. etc~ hahah). I like how the MC has connection to a "mysterious/unknown" past, and how some of his new found supernatural acquaintances are actually connected to that past. That kind of storyline is what can be the main catalyst to a big event, the build-ups using both the unknown past and the modern day association and understanding will be fun to watch. There are several interesting settings that this concept has tied together that really does gives it a lot of potential, like the mentioned past-present connections, the Supernatural beings of different nationalities and time, the integration of Science/Engineering/Alchemy, and also the set-up that the MC is not in an environment where the supernaturals are a taboo subject. There's plenty of potential storylines I can just expect from this concoction of settings, that I am starting to get excited.
Well that's all for my praise of the Concept. But the execution of the story isn't as stellar.

Execution (Story-Telling)
The execution of the story isn't bad, it just doesn't excite me as much as the raw concept does. In all honesty, it is pretty decent for my standard. The story pacing is a little slow, in addition to being episodic (and gradually 2-episodes storyline). I am not exactly a patient person, so I can say that even though is a little on the slow side, it is definitely not draggy. Well by my standard, Jigoku Shoujo and Natsume Yujinchou are both slow paced stories (especially Jigoku, since it took roughly a season and half of episodic stories with 80 percent of them having no substantial connection to each other before the main story starts to unravel) that I have completed with satisfaction as they do reward me with their story plots in an overall sense. Even though is possible for episodic story-telling shows to also move at a fast rate, for this story, the source manga is also relatively new ( since 2015 iirc), which is possible that the animation team paced it slowly to not catch up to the manga (if they have plans for season 2). Well is just a conjecture~ . Anyhow, given how new the manga is, I think it would be a long way before the anime gets me as excited as I am about the concept (But I am willing to invest the time for this concept). BUT given how underrated (imo) this anime is, they may not even get another anime continuation~

To sum it up: For this Concept and Execution of the story, I am willing to re-watch this whole season as a recap by the time a Season 2 gets released. And I am definitely hoping for a Season 2.

I will review animation quality under Art.
For the Art and design aspect of this anime, I have to say, they got me completely trapped. Hahaha~ I do adore the art style of its characters a lot. The characters are drawn very distinctly, which is one thing I always like to observe in all animes that I watched. I admire how artists/animators can create very distinct characters that even in a black/white scenario (aka Manga), you can tell the characters apart, from a close-up on their face (cutting out most of the hairstyle). The characters are all so well drawn, even the supernaturals, that I won't even know an antagonist until he/she took some drastic actions, since I just naturally like them at first glance~ Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder right~ hahah~ The background designs as well as scenery shots are also very well done, in a way that for such quality and style, it could be put into those Slice of life anime that showcases a lot of beautiful and therapeutic scenes. Well for all my adoration for its art, is not a 10/10 because of the animation quality.
DO let me clarify though, the animation quality isn't all that bad, I have seen 50 times worse (not comparing to animes 10 years back, just merely 2-3 years back). The animation just lacks a little in certain movement dynamics, there are areas of movements that are pretty stiff and awkward, but not so bad that it will ruin the show experience. In fact, one of the first things that reassured me that I will like this show is the very first episode where the MC is introduced to the supernatural beings existence. That eye twitch when his colleagues started talking about the Supernatural beings really brings up my expectation for the animation quality. That kind of expression of doubt will mostly be animated by just a widened one eye, or the dead-fish eye. But they decided to go for the subtle facial movement of a one eye twitched. Maybe because that's exactly how my facial muscles will work if I were in the same situation that is why I am impressed by this~ hahaha~ Which also means that for the whole 12 episodes of this anime, the one time I am impressed with the animation is this scene. So in a way, the overall animation could have been even better, but there are no major dissatisfaction~ Just minor lapses here and there coupled with CGI effects that doesn't integrate well with the original art style.

Sound
I usually don't have much concerns with sound of an anime, so I generally rate them way above average as long as nothing below average caught my attention~ hahahha~ I won't say the rating is unreliable. Is just my way of acknowledging the VAs' performance. I mean, no complaints means a good job right? hahah~ But I did discount on this score a little due to the sound effect the anime used for the language of the supernatural beings that humans supposedly can't understand. That "screeching" sound or however it can be described, just doesn't fit into the whole show. Is so odd that I had thought it came from around me and not from the show. Fortunately, there isn't a lot of scenes that require that sound effect.

Character
So far, there really is nothing to dislike from all the character designs. They are interesting and distinct enough, distinct from each other AND from other animes. Maybe is because of the genre or the fact that I watched too much Shounen (hahaha~), but the characters are pretty refreshing. All I can say is, the story telling and pace hasn't reach a stage where I can understand more of the characters beyond the introduced persona. But is also possible that the story will place very little focus on the characters themselves. I won't know until more of the story gets released. But overall, I enjoyed every single character's appearances.

(Well this turned out longer than I had expected, thanks for reading though, hahah~)
All in all, is just 12 episodes, and I think is worth a shot to check it out.