Midnight Occult Civil Servants Episode 7 Review: Sense of Loss and Proof of Despair

Finally, some closure! Episode 7 of Midnight Occult Civil Servants, ‘Sense of Loss and Proof of Despair’, brings the missing girls case to a close. Whether that means success or failure for the Nocturnal Division… only time will tell.

Original Japanese Title: 喪失感と絶望の証明

Plot

Arata, Sakaki, and Seo convince Kohaku to show them the way to Hell so they can put a stop to the demon that’s been kidnapping girls. But, their trip to the underworld is not without its fair share of obstacles including its guard, Cerberus. They manage to give him the slip, but what awaits them is the demon Azazel himself! Will the team be able to outsmart the demon and free the kidnapped girls?

Episode Highlights

Villain Motivation: To give some context to Azazel’s kidnappings, this week’s episode opens with a brief flashback showing Azazel past. At some point in the past, Azazel met and fell in love with a human woman. However, she died (possibly from disease) and he was left alone. Unable to live in a world without her, Azazel decided to bring her back to life by piecing together a Franken-body made up of different parts of girls he kidnapped.

Search Montage: In order to stay within each episode’s twenty-two minute runtime, Midnight Occult Civil Servants uses a lot of montages. In this week’s episode, rather than taking us through the team’s long search for Azazel’s hideout, the whole search is condensed into a 3-minute montage.

Another Cameo Montage: In a nice callback to the first 6 episodes of the series, all of the Anothers the gang has encountered over the course of the series make an appearance at the end of the episode.

Themes and Trivia

Cerberus: A figure from Greek mythology, Cerberus is the three-headed dog that guards the entrance of the underworld. His capture was one of the twelve labors of Hercules.

Azazel: A figure from the Bible, Azazel is a fallen angel associated with the scapegoat rite, in which a goat bearing the sins of the people was sacrificed to him.

Wolfsbane: Is a flowering plant from the genus Aconitum L. Most of the plants in this species are poisonous. Said in myth to grow from the saliva of Cerberus.

Comments

This week’s episode tied up Sasaki’s missing girls case in a nice little bow. All the girls are returned including Sasaki’s older sister (who is still 17 years old) and Arata’s childhood friend. So all is right with the world… right? Honestly, I don’t know. Episode 7, ‘Sense of Loss and Proof of Despair’, has the finality of a series finale, but, this is only the midway point of the series. Given the episodic nature of the series I’m pretty sure there will be more than enough Another hijinks to keep the team busy, though I’m still holding out for some Seimei payoff down the line.

While watching this episode I couldn’t help but think that they solve all their cases fairly quickly. The Azazel/Kidnapping arc is the longest so far with just two episodes, but the rest are usually solved by the end of the episode. I just kind of wish we could spend more time with some of the Anothers… but alas…

Over the hump

We’re past the halfway mark of the series and with it comes the end of an arc. What secrets does the second half of the series have in store for us? The sky’s the limit and with so many myths, legends, and folklore to pull from, Midnight Occult Civil Servants has plenty of material to work with!

I’ll be back next week with another Midnight Occult Civil Servants review, but in the meantime, don’t forget to check the rest of our Spring 2019 reviews. Midnight Occult Civil Servants is also part of our weekly anime previews.