While it was the third episode that really grabbed my attention, the second episode is when I started to pay more interest. While primarily an exposition episode there are moments that touch on the quite dark nature of parts of this fantasy world, and is in many ways a better introduction to the series than the first episode.

Spoiler Warning: Contains Plot Information up to and including Episode 4

Four episodes into the series and Occult Academy has firmly established itself as a dark comedy with a interesting take on aspects of the occult. In this latest episode we discover that Fumiaki is not the most reliable narrator and some (non-sexual) tension is added to his relationship with Maya.

initially decided against writing about The Legend of the Legendary Heroes as I was underwhelmed when I watched this episode, and thought it was an enjoyable but unremarkable anime. Having watched a few more episodes though my impression of the series has changed much for the better and it now one of my favourite fantasy anime series, and knowing what is actually going on has also increased my enjoyment of the first episode.

Spoiler Warning: Events and Characters up to Episode 4 are mentioned

While an enjoyable episode to watch, the first episode of the series had the significant flaw in that it was set part way into the series as part of a time travel episode but was not explained as such leading to some confusion as to what was actually happening. Thankfully with the fifth episode “jump off into never-never land”, the confusion finally comes to an end with a partial explanation about what is actually going on.

After the change in tone between the first and the second and third episodes, the fourth episode is again something of a different flavour in order to provide a timeskip to get events closer to those of the first episode. Unfortunately a lot of the tension that could have been present in this episode is lost due to already knowing the outcome of some events.

While this series got off to a relatively poor start, the second episode provided a big improvement which continued with the third episode. This turned a series which appeared initially to be a generic fantasy comedy with a silly name into an intriguing dark fantasy with political intrigue and occasional lighter moments that is worth writing about.

Its the fourth episode of the series and as such its time for the almost obligatory “swim suit” episode for the anime series. Fortunately there is also time for some plot development though this may not be apparant on first viewing.