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The creature which killed the 5th Abe Minorus strikes again, this time kidnapping a girl inside the town.

At the Academy the next day Kozue and Ami are discussing the disappearances in the town and Kozue mentions a rumour that a Tengu demon maybe to blame for the disappearances. At this point Maya appears and thinks the idea of a Tengu is stupid. This does not discourage Kozue who suggests going out to prove it exists.

Later after thinking about it more Maya talks to Fumiaki about the Tengu in the Principle’s office, leading him to break down in fits of laughter. Maya then explains that she thinks it’s possible the Tengu is a scout for the invaders and orders him to investigate, and even if not its possible the Tengu could have killed her father.

The start of the third episode is quite dark in tone with, the creature kidnapping a girl/woman in a residential area, while we do not learn much from this aside from that it is still around, the fact that the beast is making random attacks suggests that Fumiaki’s predecessor may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, rather than it being an attempt to neutralise him.

After the credits a link is then made between the Tengu rumours that Maya heard about in the first episode and the creature with Kozue all for hunting it. If the next episode preview is anything to go by there is also a strong element of foreshadowing regarding the true nature of the creature in Kozue’s “Tengu hunting costume”.

Maya also demonstrates some level headedness at this point in the episode since after initally thinking the Tengu idea is stupid, she puts it together with the information received from Fumiaki and thinks the Tengu needs investigating. Fumiaki’s response on the other hand while in character is strange since he knows that there is some kind of “monster” near the academy as it killed his predecessor. Even if he does not believe that is a Tengu he should at least be open to the idea that there is something dangerous living in the town.

On a side note for the second episode in a row there was a crystal skull seen. In Episode 2 a crystal skull was used as a hypothetical Nostradamus key, while in this episode one was thrown at Fumiaki. While it is possible that it is just a motif or running gag in the series it is also possible that it is an example of hiding in plain sight what the Key actually is, especially if it is a crystal skull in the principals office that is being used as a paper weight.

As Fumiaki is leaving the school he runs into the Vive Principal who after dressing him down for his scruffiness, asks him why he is in the Principals office with Maya so much. Unable to think up a reply he changes the topic to complement her on her hair style. This causes the Vice to collapse in surprise and declare her love for Fumiaki as no one has complemented her before.

As the Vice Principal moves in with her eyes closed for a kiss, Fumiaki decides to use his camera to see what would happen if he hooked up with her. The resulting picture shows a haggard Vice Principal with 2 children and his skeleton in the background leading him to walk away without kissing her.

While the scene between the Vice Principal and Fumiaki was predominantly played for laughs there were two points of potential significance hidden within the levity of the situation. The first point is that Fumiaki’s visits to Maya have not gone unnoticed and this is likely to cause him problems later on. The second is in the result of the picture he took of the Vice Principal while deciding whether or not to “hook up with her”. While this is largely played for laughs given that the Vice Principal is the leading candidate for “villain” it is odd that she is seen in a bad way in an alien ruled future if she was trying to bring them over. Depending on how accurate the camera technology is this may actually prove that alien invasion is not the Vice Principal’s goal even if she is the one responsible.

When Fumiaki gets back home he runs into his (old) landlady who reminds him of the garbage days. He then turns on the TV and sees his younger self bending spoons. He then reminisces about himself at the time and eating his mothers curry. He then phones his mother but is unable to speak and hangs up.

Disconsolate from the experience he goes to a local restaurant that turns out to be run by his landladies older sister and orders curry. After an extremely long wait in the empty restaurant he is eventually served by a young waitress who he thinks is just his type.

Just at that moment his younger self once again appears on the TV, and he thinks that people used to love him just because he could bend a spoon but that changed once he couldn’t. He is also annoyed that everyone called him Bunmei rather than Fumiaki. Fumiaki then nearly chokes on his curry when the waitress refers to his younger self as Fumiaki rather than Bunmei. He then becomes even more embarrassed when the waitress who we learn is called Mikaze calls his younger self cute. As he leaves the restaurant he thinks he hears something and thinks of the Tengu, but thinks it is ridiculous, it is then we see that the “Tengu” is watching him.

To be honest I found this part of the episode rather slow though I did think it played out in a realistic manner when Fumiaki decided to phone home. The main point of the scene seemed to be to establish a potential love interest for Fumiaki in the form of the waitress who is the Mikaze from the episode title.

One interesting piece of information that we do learn is that it is strongly implied that Fumiaki can no longer bend spoons which would explain why he couldn’t demonstrate it for Maya in the previous episode which leads to the question of why cant he bend spoons anymore? Another thing which is probably lost in cultural translation is why is Fumiaki known as Bunmei.

Something that I do wonder about was the end of the scene with the “Tengu” watching Fumiaki since while it could just have been there for dramatic irony given his thoughts about there being no such thing, or it could have been sent there to watch him since he had raised the Vice Principals suspicions recently (not to mention ignoring her advances).

At school the next day Kozue is missing, but Ami is not worries as she has a habit of doing strange things. Later Maya asks Fumiaki (who she calls Bunmei) how the investigation is going and he assures her it is going fine. Maya also runs into JK who is also investigating the Tengu.

Fumiaki returns to the restaurant that evening and Mikaze offers to show him around the town the next day. When he gets picked up he is shocked when Mikaze is driving a Porche 911. Unfortunately for Fumiaki he is not able to enjoy the tour of the local landmarks fully as he is stunned from Mikaze’s driving.

Despite Ami’s lack of concern for Kozue, I suspect that there is a good chance she has been kidnapped by the “Tengu” as her character seems to scream “designated victim”, though I suppose its possible she could turn up after all this has been resolved ready to hunt the Tengu only to find it has already been caught.

I also found it amusing that Maya calls Fumiaki Bunmei, given his earlier complaints that everyone calls him Bunmei. There was also a suggestion that JK will show up at some point in the Tengu’s lair as it was shown that he is searching for it and had found a signal of some sort.

Moving onto the restaurant scene, and I was unsure how much time is meant to pass in the scene as Fumiaki seems to be given several meals, this could indicate a passage of time and meals or it could just be that he was really hungry. The scene the next day with Mikaze also raises the question of just how did she manage to afford a Porsche if she works at a small restaurant? I also had to laugh at Fumiaki’s gradually worsening “car sickness” due to her aggrssive driving, especially when one of their destinations was walking distance from their starting point.

At Maya’s house the Vice Principal delivers a Map of Matsushiro to her and is visibly displeased when Maya refuses to say what she needs it for. Maya then uses the map to mark where the disappearances have taken place and identifies Zouzan Bunker as a suspicious location.

Fumiaki’s tour of the town continues with a look at Zouzan Bunker. While there they both note that there is no one else around and there should be tourists. As they pass a fenced off branch of the bunker, Maya watches them from behind a rock and is angry at Fumiaki for slacking off.

Fumiaki and Mikaze then reach a part of the Bunker which is full of paper cranes. The sight of this causes Mikaze to start to cry so they leave the Bunker. Mikaze then explains it was a tribute to the people who died constructing the bunker and that it upsets her. Fumiaki then pats her head to comfort her.

Back in the bunker, Maya is being chased by the “Tengu”, she then shoots at the “Tengu” with a crossbow and appears to hit it. As she starts to relax, there is a glimpse of a patterned wing and she screams as something attacks her from above.

At the conclusion of the episode it is finally confirmed that Zousan Bunker is close to if not the lair of the “Tengu” with it appearing that Maya has become the next victim. Before that though she manages to annoy the Vice Principal even more and spies on Fumiaki who was very close to Mikaze at the time.

On the topic of Mikaze, I do wonder if there is more to her being upset about the wartime deaths than simple empathy. This could be something as simple as having an ancestor who was killed there or it could be more occult related with her turning out to be a spirit or a lot older than she appears to be. It is also interesting that she appears briefly in the opening credits and is paired with the Vice Principal, while this could simply be down to lack of characters it could also be an indication that she will turn into a villain at some point, though given what we have seen of her it seems doubtful.

On the topic of the “Tengu” itself even before the next episode preview, from the brief glimpse of its wing it appeared likely to be a giant moth and the next episode preview all but confirms it, this ties in with the foreshadowing of Kozue’s costume earlier. The main question from the cliffhanger is of course how is Maya going to escape, but there are also a few more loose threads that need to be dealt with such as Kozue’s location and will JK find the Tengu that could come into play.

In terms of the episode as a whole, I found it to be a little on the slow side for my tastes, especially the third part (of my summary) where Fumiaki reminisces about the past. That being said until we see how the situation is resolved it is difficult to give a fully objective appraisal, especially as I found I appreciated the episode more on my second viewing while preparing this article. Even so, I think this is probably the weakest episode to date, but given that there have only been 3 episodes it does not mean that much. This episode also seems to demonstrate that Occult Academy is meant to be a “dark(horror) comedy” rather than a horror with comic elements that it was close to in the first episode which is in no way a bad thing.

Episode Rating

7/10 – A relatively slow episode that I found to be the weakest episode to date but was still more than watchable