Juri Yukawa is a graduating college student, interviewing to enter the work force, and she’s more eager than most to get her first job: her father has been laid-off, her older brother is a NEET, and her younger sister had a child out of wedlock. Juri wants to leave home. But in a sudden turn of events, her nephew is kidnapped, and the key to saving him is a supernatural spell known by her grandfather—and to the family’s despair, by other, more devious forces.
Well, I didn’t expect this! Although there are strong shades of all sorts of series in Kokkoku, including some of the more violent fare of recent seasons, episode one felt original and interesting. The main family was flawed and felt authentic, and there are real moments of peril in this episode, which mostly went places that I didn’t anticipate. The appearance of creatures in the “Statis” is maybe the least interesting part of the episode, however—I’m not sure if this alternate world and its creatures prove to be anything new, but I am excited to see how Yuri is able to interact with this mystical power that runs in her family.
Kokkoku: Moment by Moment is available for streaming through Amazon Prime.
