Even in the annals of good anime being largely ignored (which is a tome overflowing with entries) Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin is an extreme case.  It’s hard to find anyone who even seems to know this series exists, much less watches it, but that’s a real shame.  Because this show is genuinely good – well-written, an interesting mix of Japanese and Western mythology.  And well-directed too, because despite the cast being full of familiar actors, they’re actually acting here rather than simply offering their usual on-screen personas.

This week’s tale is a nice balance between the lighter and darker elements Mayonaka has presented in its first four episodes.  It’s set at the Shinjuku Metropolitan Government Building, a famous double-barrelled landmark popular with Japanese and tourists alike because its observation decks are free.  The surveillance video has picked up incidents of people appearing and disappearing randomly, some visitors appear to have lost their memories, and others report (one on the occult message board Seo set up) being transported by the elevator to another world.

Yes, this humble episode almost no one will watch is probably going to be the best isekai anime of 2019.  At first the bureau suspects multiple Anothers may be involved because of the disparate reports, but it turns out to be the same one who’s responsible for all of it.  When Seo, Arata and Kyouichi investigate, Seo gets nowhere but the 45th floor and his tower but Arata and Kyouichi are transported – which is because of Kyouichi, for reasons that have been hinted at already.  There’s indeed an Another present when the elevator doors open – a beautiful young woman in exotic dress, holding a box.

I’m honestly not sure how familiar most Japanese are with the “Pandora’s Box” myth, but it was certainly apparent to a Greek mythology buff like me who this was.  There are several different versions of the Pandora myth, which certainly was a strong similarity to the Eve legend in that the central figure was the “first” woman, and their strong relationship to the temptation of man and divine punishment.  Mayonaka adopts the common “dowry” version, which sees Pandora having defied Zeus’ will and opened the box (originally an urn) and let the evils of mankind out.  In the original story of course, she closed it just in time to trap one thing inside – hope.

One thing this week’s events do is highlight the “other” part of the Another name, in ways that Seo warned Arata about.  Pandora isn’t evil per se, but she has no conception that what she’s doing – collecting memories from people along with negative emotions – is a violation.  Not only that, but she’s bemused and baffled at the idea she should even care.  What are such matters to her, who has her own agenda and the means to pursue it?  She’s genuinely excited to speak with Arata, but only for the novelty that his Ears of Sand provide – as with many an immortal, boredom is surely one of her greatest woes.

Then there’s the matter of Kyouichi, whose “tremendous sense of loss” (just not the loss Pandora was looking for) is what allowed Pandora’s filter to pick him out in the first place.  We know he has a tragedy in his past, seemingly a disappeared sister – and I think it’s safe to assume an Another was involved, given dramatic necessity.  It raises the interesting question of whether he might indeed be happier if Pandora took that sense of loss away from him, as he’s clearly tormented by it – but how many of us, given the choice, would accept such a bargain?  I suspect Kyouichi would say it was a betrayal of his sister, and to my way of thinking he’d probably be right.