When Kouichi Sakakibara transfers to a new school, he senses a frightening atmosphere in his new
class, a secret none of them will talk about. At the center is the beautiful Mei Misaki. Kouichi is
immediately drawn to her mysterious aura, but he begins to realize that no one else in the class is
aware of her presence. Soon after his arrival, what is known as the Calamity begins, and it claims the
lives of many students.
(Source: Sentai Filmworks)
~~~_“This world we live in is a dream. The dream we have at night is, in fact, the true world.”_~~~ Uh, no it's not? What the fuck type of nonsensical drivel is th-- wait, why am I getting deja vu? ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/qJfUuiH.jpg)~~~ Oh shit. I mixed the things up, I already reviewed _this_ [show](https://anilist.co/anime/21189/RanpoKitanGameofLaplace). What was I supposed to be reviewing then??? It was a fairly nonsensical show that annoyed me to no end, had ridiculous gore, and had this supposedly serious plot that drove me up a fucking wall but I'm forgetting the name of it. To be honest, I could see why I mixed it up with _that_ one... but what was the title??? img440(https://i.imgur.com/yNnzB27.jpg) Oh no. To punish my act of heresy the umbrellas have been sent out to strike me down via ___"""""""unfortunate accident"""""""___. But before I am executed by the eldritch umbrella lords that reign in the dark realms, I shall make an effort to review that which shall not be named. The very first anime that I watched and ended up having an OVERWHELMINGLY negative opinion on all around. But also I wasn't aware of even what the show was before starting it and also as a horror fan, the impact it left on me was even worse as a result. __ANOTHER.__ That's the title. I don't know how I forgot it since I've been wanting to ~~rag on~~ review this show ever since I watched it a year ago. So much that I bought the novel ~~(didn't read it)~~ and rewatched it AGAIN ~~(only partially)~~ just to fully remember how much it's just so... incomprehensibly __ANOTHER__. ___ #The ANOTHER Review# ~~~img500(https://images8.alphacoders.com/639/639784.jpg)~~~ ___ #Introduction# The more lighthearted and bluntly comical aspects of these reviews I do aside, a Ranpo Kitan comparison right out of the gate may seem pretty harsh or even over the top. There certainly may be some similarities, but they are still also apples and oranges. Ranpo Kitan is a very, VERY loose take on a [certain writer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edogawa_Ranpo)'s works pushed to the absolute max limits of absurdity. No, of course I'm not going to write a completely serious and drawn out review of a show that just straight up starts out with a 14 year old girl turned serial killer because she wanted her serial killer teacher to kill her and then TURN HER INTO A CHAIR. NOT JUST ANY CHAIR, BUT ___HIS CHAIR___. Because even if that show ends up developing a "serious plot" beyond that point, it's safe to assume that it's simply more absurdity, and yes it was. __ANOTHER__ on the other hand, is a firm adaptation of an actual novel by [Yukito Ayatsuji](https://anilist.co/staff/106882/YukitoAyatsuji) and is more than not, faithful and serious to the source material, brought to us by [P.A. Works](https://anilist.co/studio/132/PAWorks) who also made [Glasslip](https://anilist.co/anime/20645/Glasslip) (to be fair they also made [Shirobako](https://anilist.co/anime/20812/Shirobako) and [Uchouten Kazoku](https://anilist.co/anime/17909/UchoutenKazoku) which are GOOD). Therefore, while it's pretty absurd itself, I'm more inclined to criticize this show more seriously than I was with Ranpo Kitan which I guess is... ___something___. But still while I may have watched shows that are technically worse than __ANOTHER__, I have not watched anything else that has made me so grumpy that I've been writing a review for it in my head for like over a year. I guess this is my way of saying this review is going to be a fucking mess to both write as well as read because I'm going to address every single point I have about this goddamned show. Actually, let's do a table of contents just to be safe. Anime reviews shouldn't need those, but here we are. __Also, if you plan on watching this series no matter what, stop reading this review at this point. I believe any point to watching this show is outright ruined if you know what the show is/are spoiled. Outright spoilers will still be marked as always, but still.__ ___ #Table of Contents# _Ctrl + f search whatever section title you end up taking a break from this review on for convenience!_ 1. "The Plot" 2. The Positives. Or Rather, The Gore 3. No, Really. The Plot. 4. "Characters" 5. The Prequel OVA. 6. Cameo Starring Stephen King. 7. Doesn't Work as a Cheap Horror Either. 8. Cliches. 9. Mood Whiplash. 10. M. Night Shyamalan is a Hack Fraud. 11. Conclusion. I Hate This Fucking Anime. ~~(WOW, SPOILERS IN THE TABLE OF CONTENTS)~~ ___ # "The Plot" # Okay, so let's just get into the plot of Another. It's really the driving force behind why everyone loves this series and I just really don't understand wh-- img440(https://i.imgur.com/mYWNDT5.gif) Oh, _jesus_. What? What the fuck was that? Why the fuck did she decide to walk down a flight of stairs with an umbrella? Why the fuck are umbrellas capable piercing someone's throat? That fucking part of the umbrella looks like it's specifically meant for that purpose and no other purpose? Is murder Mary Poppins going to fucking come down from the sky next??? Okay, no, let's get back to the plo-- img440(https://i.imgur.com/xwm7FWj.gif) WHY IS THE TEACHER COMMITTING SUICIDE BY KNIFE NOW. HOW THE FUCK IS THIS CAUSED BY THE "CURSE"? IT CAN JUST TAKE OVER PEOPLE? IT CAN JUST TAKE OVER PEOPLE AND FORCE THEM TO COMMIT SUICIDE SPECIFICALLY IN FRONT OF HIS STUDENTS BECAUSE FUCK IT, _WHY NOT GO OUT IN STYLE AND BASICALLY TRAUMATIZE AN ENTIRE CLASS_. HE COULD HAVE JUST GOT A GUN AND BLEW HIS BRAINS OUT AT HOME BUT NOPE. IF THE "CURSE" CAN JUST TAKE OVER PEOPLE, WOULDN'T IT BE ABLE TO TELL WHO THE UNDEAD PERSON IS WITH EASE? WHY IS IT JUST KILLING RANDOM PEOPLE, WHY DID IT MAKE THE TEACHER COMMIT SUICIDE WHEN HE WASN'T THE UNDEAD PERSON? WHY? WHY? WHY? EXPLAIN TO ME WHY. #EXPLAIN TO ME W H Y.# img440(https://i.imgur.com/eJz4Qx3.gif) ___ #The Positives. Or Rather, The Gore.# Before we move away from the gore and really delve into the negativity that will be comprising this entire review, I really just need to take a moment and say I really genuinely do love the gore. As a matter of fact, I'd honestly love to see P.A. Works do a horror anime in the future. They really do have the gore down. As weird as it may be though, my favorite death in the entirety of Another is literally completely bloodless. While explosions of blood are usually always fun, I really just love the one scene towards the end where another character who is completely out of their mind at that point, is chasing the main characters and to do so, she follows them out of a window. But in her crazed state of bloodlust, her foot just happens to slip on the windowsill and she falls. The impact of her hitting the ground looks and sounds great. youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWlH13Ka3Dk) _I actually did watch this when I still primarily watched English dubs. I can't believe there's actually a comical "OH MY GOD" right after she lands. Holy shit._ ___ #No, Really. The Plot.# _No images are included for this section, because I believe they would be distracting._ Anyways, the plot is pretty simple. It's about a "cursed" high school class. The students don't really know if it's truly cursed or not, but there's a very clear trend of students of the glass dying over the top gory accidental deaths. Apparently, to the extent it's essentially suicide if you just go down a flight of stairs a little bit too fast while also carrying an umbrella. But basically, years and years ago, there was a female student named Misaki in the class that died tragically but then one day one of the students said no, she's right there like always. Then for some reason, the rest of the students and teacher basically start treating like she's there as well. To be fair, since this is a passed down story thing, obviously we, the audience, have no idea if it's actually bullshit or true. But apparently, this somehow started a tradition of a ghost or an undead person occasionally coming back in the class. But then, the universe, or some invisible omniscient force doesn't like this one bit. This omniscient force, or, "the Curse", basically starts periodically causing anyone in the class or any family or friends of students of this ONE SPECIFIC CLASS of this school to die. Mind you, it's always in really gruesome or violent methods as well. Additionally, the school has gotten a new building, and it seems the "ghost" or "Another" has somehow transferred? Or it's link to the class itself? Like it's a different building, different actual room than the one that had the original Misaki person, but... it's haunted still? I don't think we're ever given answers as to if it's actually the original ghost of Misaki that's coming back as these non-existent fake students or... or... I don't know. I literally don't know. Why am I even talking about the "Another"? Let's talk about the "Curse". The "Curse" is apparently capable of disrupting or disabling phones, is essentially omniscient but is incapable of figuring out who it actually needs to kill (the "Another") beyond killing randomly, is capable of straight up possessing people... and I think this one might be on the "Another" and not the "Curse", I'm not too sure, but something is capable of completely altering people's memories. __This is important. Be sure to mark it in the notes you should be taking to accompany the reading of this review. We'll be coming back to it later.__ However, don't despair! There is in fact a way to combat the "Curse"! I guess the class, after a couple of goes through this repeating cycle, they just started trying random things? But apparently, APPARENTLY, ignoring a completely random student of the class... helps? Sort of? The past classes still ended up having more students die so I don't know why they thought this would help. When a new arrival shows up and joins the class and seems INCAPABLE of catching a hint and just keeps talking to the chosen student to be ignored... they just say fuck it and ignore him as well??? As if they expect that to work? I really have no idea why this is a thing they decide to do in the first place or think it's going to work, but there's a lot more, and I just... let's move on. I already essentially declared this entire review was going to spoil basically the entire basic idea of the show so... the real solution that'll stop the "Curse" is basically just giving it what it wants. Finding the "Another" and killing them. But there's basically no real way of finding out who it is. There's absolutely no established way any character can find out who it is. But hey, there just happens to be a student in the class with the last name Misaki (you know, the name of the ghost from the original class) and she just happens to be the one they all decide to ignore. That's convenient. I mean that's obviously just a red herring. Obviously, she can't be the "Another". That'd be too obvious. ~!But she does have a hidden ability that would allow her to be able to tell right away if a person was the "Another" or not, if she wanted to. She has it the entire show. It's actually established that she has it the entire show. This is a thing that is true about this show and apparently the novel as well. MORE ABOUT THIS TO FOLLOW FURTHER DOWN.!~ Now, I know what you're thinking. TGG, when are you going to get to talking about the plot? Okay yeah we get the omniscient curses and dead people returning as fake people, but what's the plot??? Slice of life about middle schoolers with vague supernatural/mystery elements, and also a lot of gore and death happens. That's really the heart of it, or what matters. The "Curse" is idiotic and I hate it for reasons I'll get into later in another section, the "Another"... what the fuck was even its goal? It's not like they did anything nefarious really. It's the fucking "Curse" that's going around causing gruesome deaths. It's not like the fake ghost person needed to be evil or antagonistic but... it would have been neat for it to be SOMETHING? Because... what it actually turns out to be is terrible. To the extent it has its own completely spoiler filled section. But hey. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Plot aside, maybe the characters themselves are interesting or... entertaining in some way. There has to be something, right? THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING. ___ # "Characters" # Uh. I may have bit off more than I could chew with this one. Describing Another's characters is... a challenge. Because there are a good portion of them that are completely forgettable, and the few ones that are still rattling around in my brain somewhere, I can't really say anything more than "well, their name is blank and they're a middle schooler". Thinking about it, if I wanted to, I could probably rehash the joke I made when I reviewed Glasslip. But actually with Another, I think with the exception of one (you may already know which one I'm referring to!), I think there's even less memorable characters. Because at least with Glasslip, I could remember things to actually criticize about them. In any case... img440(https://i.imgur.com/pKVJfq5.jpg) Here's our main character. His name is Kouichi Sakakibara. He is a middle schooler, and is an apparent horror fan because he had one Stephen King book at one point. He's not ever shown actually really being a "horror fan" so you might wonder what is the purpose of that scene or even showing a Stephen King book. But I'm sorry to tell you that you haven't descended far down enough into this review to find out yet because yes, that is another dedicated section of this review. Oh... and, I guess he had like a health problem or whatever, and that's why he doesn't know everyone is ignoring one specific student to apparently fend off omniscient curses that are mad about the existence of ghosts. img440(https://i.imgur.com/FAbqVSH.jpg) Kubodera is apparently the name of the class' teacher that kills himsel--wait. Apparently he killed himself not because the "Curse" takes him over but because he realizes all the class' stupid moronic rule about ignoring a person doesn't stop the "Curse" and he just goes crazy??? Was that seriously what happened? I don't even remember the teacher being aware that the "Curse" was a thing. I seriously remember just fucking thinking that scene comes out of literally nowhere but maybe I was just so fucking numbed by that point that I missed or forgot scenes with the teacher... there was actually more stuff about the omniscient curse possessing people but now I'm kind of worried that with those as well I might have just forgotten scenes. ~!Or maybe the inn's caretakers really were just random serial killers coincidentally while the entire class fucking turns on itself and everyone starts murdering everyone.!~ Though, that just underlines my point of... why purposely do it in front of your class which I guess he apparently cared about before going completely batshit insane? Because horror, I guess. To be fair, that scene was probably the best scene of Another (though as previously mentioned, it's not my favorite gore scene) in my opinion. img440(https://i.imgur.com/2RN0VWC.jpg) But let's get back to the characters... enter, middle-schooler... uh... hold on. I truly do remember their names off the top of my head, I'm not simply opening character pages at random. Oh! Yukari Sakuragi! That's the umbrella girl! She's a middle schooler whose favorite hobby is being brutally killed via umbrellas! ...It feels like I'm just wasting time talking about these bit players in the grand presentation that is Another. Fuck it. Let's do it. Let's get to the real protagonist of Another. img440(https://i.imgur.com/Y7bQ8BM.png) OH! THERE HE IS. THE UMBRELLA ITSELF. WHAT A MAJESTIC AND WELL-FLESHED OUT CHARACTER. I KNOW YOU MAY HAVE THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO TALK ABOUT EYEPATCH GIRL (eyepatch girl is Misaki girl but not original Misaki girl that was a ghost, just coincidentally happens to share the same name as ghost) BUT I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT EYEPATCH GIRL BEYOND ALL OF THE CLICHES SHE IS MADE UP OF AS WELL AS HER DEUS EX EYEPATCH. WHICH, AND I KNOW, YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY GOTTEN SICK OF HEARING THIS IF YOU'RE STILL READING, BUT WILL BE COVERED IN A FOLLOWING SECTION OF THIS REVIEW. ~~_It happens to be the very next one though._~~ ___ #The Prequel OVA.# Before we get into the true meat of this review and discuss the bulk of WHY I really dislike this show (aside from the plot and characters), I have to go a little bit into HOW I watched this show. There is an OVA for Another. It seems super irrelevant and detached from the actual plot and events of Another, but... __This is really where the true spoilers of this review begin. I really want to hammer this home. This'll be the last time, though.__ img440(https://i.imgur.com/d0eHUqu.jpg) Okay, imagine you watch a show and at one point, a character basically reveals that they are capable of this hugely massive ability that essentially solves the main mystery and conflict of the show. Sure, it's kind of bullshit, but then an OVA comes along afterward and it sort of expands on that and explains why that character keeps quiet about this ability. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/b3AEgSU.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/ExAcJyh.png)~~~ You say well okay, that explains that. Or maybe you still (rightfully) think it's stupid, but now that the OVA is over, you're done. You're out. Imagine... imagine someone watching that... BEFORE... the rest of the actual show. Because chronologically... it precedes it. In fact, it explains why that character is where they are in the very first episode and a lot about that character. But, while you know more about this character, you also know what they're capable of. Then when you learn more about what the actual plot/conflict of Another is, you just go... ...Why won't she just take the eyepatch off? I know watching the prequel OVA first was the wrong way to go about it, but since the OVA itself is an adaptation of a side novel, that means this is genuinely something the original author established. She has this ability literally the entire time. She could have seen who the "Another" was, THE ENTIRE TIME. ANY SCENE WHERE SHE IS TALKING TO THE PERSON WHO THE "ANOTHER" IS, IF SHE JUST WASN'T WEARING THE GODDAMNED EYEPATCH, SHE WOULD KNOW. IMMEDIATELY. That whole reasoning of... well, she doesn't want to see when people die and etc due to that whole thing with her twin sister, SHOULD HAVE WENT OUT OF THE WINDOW WHEN SHE REALIZED THAT SHE COULD HAVE USED THIS ABILITY TO STOP THE "CURSE" WHICH IS WHAT IN FACT KILLED HER TWIN SISTER. SHE COULD HAVE PREVENTED SO MANY DEATHS. BUT SHE DIDN'T. BECAUSE EYEPATCH. BECAUSE SHE'S THE EYEPATCH GIRL AND SHE NEEDS HER EYEPATCH TO LIVE. img440(https://i.imgur.com/v4nC0xd.png) ___ #Cameo Starring Stephen King.# img440(https://i.imgur.com/sSUIvNZ.png) Let's talk about this now. Stephen King is probably [my favorite author](https://i.imgur.com/60zhOZ3.png), I've literally read every book the man has published up until like recently when he started like a trilogy of detective novels. I don't know how I possibly could have forgotten about this on the first time I went through the show, but this was like a punch to the face in attempting to rewatch Another for this review. Because... ~~~img100(https://i.imgur.com/l1wCy8E.jpg)~~~ Pet Sematary is one of the "old King" books, and is genuinely a creepy idea for a horror novel. Yes, it's the one where a guy buries things in a Pet Sematary that is haunted by Native Americans or whatever, but the story behind it is fucked. One day, one of Stephen King's toddler sons almost got hit by a truck in a street, and he proceeded to write Pet Sematary. Which is essentially... the character in the book DOESN'T manage to get his son out of the street before the truck comes. The father character is so fucked up by this that after having resurrected the family cat via Pet Sematary, he proceeds to do it again but with his son. Point is, while there's a much simpler explanation (it's probably in the novel too, and the author was probably a fan because how could you possibly get a "horror" novel published without coming in contact with Stephen King material in some shape or form) why this is a thing, it's really silly at almost the very start of a "horror" show to immediately have a reference to Stephen King. Let alone one of his more famous novels (really, almost all of it is from before he quit the drugs and also before his accident in 2000). Because, it immediately gives the audience expectations. ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/gYo6Jy3.jpg)~~~ "Stephen King??? I know that name! He's that guy who [wrote all of the horror novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King_bibliography)! [The Shining](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cb3ik6zP2I)! That book that ruined [clowns as a real occupation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVK72QH6hLk)! The [one about the haunted car](https://i.imgur.com/nKOjH40.jpg)! The [other one about the haunted car](https://i.imgur.com/Cz7eUO3.jpg)! If it's bringing Stephen King into this, it's gotta be good horror!" But then it isn't, and apart from the occasional gore, it's "omniscient curse" this, "hey we have to ignore this random girl to stop the omniscient curse" that, and urgh. Getting back to the omniscient curses, and while we're still on the subject of Stephen King... and... I believe the comparison is fair considering this series brought Stephen King into this itself, let's talk about Stephen King's IT. ~~~img100(https://i.imgur.com/NPtz3GI.jpg)~~~ I just want to briefly talk about this because it was sort of blowing my mind the more I thought about it. Another is about this small town and there's this omniscient thing that is brutally killing middle schoolers every couple of years or so and for the most part, it seems like the rest of the town outside of those connected to the class itself are completely blind to all these fucking HORRIBLE GRISLY BLOODY DEATHS that are happening to these bunch of middle schoolers. The actual plot of Another is a bunch of the students in the class try to combat and stop the curse that's brutally killing them one by one. Stephen King's IT is about this small town and there's this omniscient entity that is brutally killing and eating people (IT's favorite meal is of course terrified children) and it does this like every twenty seven years, and IT is actively manipulating the entire town to ignore the mass amounts of missing children and death that just seems to roll around every twenty seven years, and in some instances, even makes other people in the town contribute to the violence. The actual plot of IT is a bunch of kids try to stand up to IT and stop it for good while it is essentially omniscient and EATS CHILDREN. While IT is an omniscient force that is essentially fucking with everything in this town, it's an actual character, has motivation, has a physical form, and is genuinely menacing. Another's "omniscient curse" is... is a faceless force that we never see, that's only causing random grisly deaths because of the existence of the "Another" and when the "Another" dies, it just fucks off until a new "Another" appears. Sure, yeah. The gore's great and yes, you can't go wrong with seeing kids die in over the top and gruesome ways. Like come on, speaking realistically, WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF FALLING DOWN THE STAIRS IN SUCH A PERFECT WAY THAT YOUR NECK IS TARGET #1 FOR THAT UMBRELLA? THAT SHIT WOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED IF INVISIBLE MURDER FORCE WASN'T ON THE SCENE. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/BwBN0hb.gif)~~~ ___ #Doesn't Work as a Cheap Horror Either.# This is where we get into some shit. I've made it apparent enough that I don't think the actual serious plot of Another works or is even really entertaining to watch. But I also don't even think it really works as a cheap silly horror that you just sit down to watch specifically to see kids/teems die. Yes, that's right. Horror fans love seeing kids/teens [die](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Voorhees) [die](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nightmare_on_Elm_Street) [die](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evil_Dead) [die](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beware!_Children_at_Play) [die](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter_High) [DIE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopping_Mall) [DIE](https://i.imgur.com/mioAz5U.jpg) [DIE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Texas_Chain_Saw_Massacre) [DIE](https://i.imgur.com/1tN4B8Y.jpg) [DIE](https://i.imgur.com/uKwwnMf.jpg)--ahem, excuse me. The ghosts that live inside my brain took control of the keyboard momentarily. Anyways, let's just bite the bullet and finally talk about the [Final Destination series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Destination). img440(https://i.imgur.com/TKvKPze.jpg) I know this review is all over the place, as this is now the third thing I've brought in to compare to Another but... this is without a doubt the one that makes the most sense. Basically a character has a premonition or whatever before they and their friends die horrible deaths and uses that newly gained knowledge to avoid... that death. But basically, they were actually fated to die then, so "Death" itself is essentially out for them. One by one, they start to die in ridiculous or over the top ways. This was literally years ago and I thankfully didn't watch all of them. It may or may not have been the one with the rollercoaster, I literally don't remember, but there was that one death where like after a convoluted series of events, a girl ends up trapped in an active tanning bed thing and [she dies from tanning bed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaz73KCiKaM). Though you know, these movies worked (for what they were and that was the Final Destination series so that was a low bar to begin with) because while there was a plot, it was dumb, silly, and obviously the characters dying in over the top ways was the entire point. Whereas Another has a bunch of nothing characters, this whole ghost story angle, and I think honestly the "annoying" outweighs all of the gore. The fact that the main way to apparently combat this "Curse" just being ignoring a random student in the class is just... infuriating to me. Because since nobody but this one person can see or interact with this person, obviously the first conclusion you go to is "well, she's probably a ghost" but nope, they're just ignoring her to somehow combat some weird omniscient curse that's causing everyone to die somehow but then later they just accuse her of being the "Another" anyways. At least in Final Destination, they don't pull any punches and straight up say it's Death itself. But hey, what do you know. There's another similarity between Another and Final Destination. There are videos on Youtube of all of the deaths in both. ~~I'm definitely not making the suggestion to just watch the "deaths" video and just leave it at that. That's definitely not what's happening here.~~ youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H87bqxAAymc) youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYPY7Lq63kw) It's almost like THAT'S WHAT WE WANTED TO SEE. GIVE ME GRISLY SCENES OF TEENAGERS DYING BRUTAL AND HORRIBLE DEATHS AND HOLD THE HELPING OF A SERIOUS PLOT, PLEASE. AND IF YOU'RE GOING TO INCLUDE ONE, MAYBE MAKE IT A GOOD ONE. GOD. ___ #Cliches.# Here we go. _Here we fucking go._ img440(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wez9dDc70E8/Umr4wnyvxwI/AAAAAAAABZ0/ir9YhM4hQ6U/s1600/Another_ep12a.png) Okay, let's start with "Eyepatch Girl." She is literally a walking mass of cliches. She is a quiet loner girl and literally the entire reason why "Main Guy" gets wrapped up in all of this "Another" nonsense is because the show seems to continually push him towards "Eyepatch Girl." Why is she wearing an eyepatch? Why is she so quiet? Why is she usually always alone? Why does nobody talk to her? Why is she wearing an eyepatch? Why did she show up randomly at the morgue level of the hospital holding a doll? Why is she wearing an eyepatch? Why aren't both of her eyes the same color? Why does she live in a building that's just full of weird spooky dolls? Why does she share the name of the original "Another" ghost from the story? Is she related to the original Misaki ghost? Why is she wearing an eyepatch? WHY IS SHE WEARING AN EYEPATCH? Oh... the eyepatch is because she lost one of her real eyes and had [a doll's eye](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUuH4TEmgLo) put in as a replacement and that somehow gives her the ability to see who is alive and who isn't and who is going to die and etc? Well, why the fuck does putting a doll's eye in your empty eye socket give you that ability? Actually, how does it even work as an actual eye? If she was just a ghost person, there'd be no questions. But since she's purposely such a weird character, THERE ARE VARIOUS QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED ABOUT HER AND BASICALLY NONE OF THEM END UP BEING ANSWERED. To be fair, some of them are answered in the prequel OVA solely about "Eyepatch Girl" but I didn't find that satisfying at all. The entire purpose of that prequel OVA/prequel novel honestly seems to be just to cover that huge fucking flaw of her suddenly just knowing who the "Another" is because she decided to take off her eyepatch in the actual main series. Like okay yeah, she had a twin sister who ~!previous to the start of the actual series died as a result of the "Curse".!~ But what relevancy does that twin sister play for anything? It explains why "Eyepatch" was in the morgue level in the very first episode, and why she was creeped out about her eye ability thing, but I've already went into why that should have just given her motivation to try and actually stop the "Curse" by finding the "Another." img440(https://i.imgur.com/MdLfnRt.png) Also, you know why she lives in like a doll shop? Because dolls are creepy and creepy is horror of course, don't you know. The doll shop and the dolls just felt so fucking out of place that I just can't get over it. Okay yes, dolls and mannequins are frequently used in horror, I understand. But... what fucking relevance does any of it play? None really. Like, if they had just said that "Eyepatch Girl" was just born with her ability thing and it wasn't from a doll's eye, nothing would be changed. At all. In fact, her just being born with it would be easier to wrap my head around than... why did they decide to just put a doll's eye as a replacement after a four year old loses their eye? Who made that decision? Why did they make that decision? I've been talking too much about the plot and character stuff. Let's briefly talk about a couple of the more horror-y scenes of Another (apart from the gore because you KNOW horror ABSOLUTELY has to have gore in it for it to be horror) and why they are ALSO terrible. youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh48D2q4H7w) youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPtcJBb9_KU) Both of those are probably among my favorite scenes of Another (of which there aren't many) and... they both end exactly the same way. The "Main Guy" is just having a nightmare. Oh. So, what you're really telling me here, is none of that mattered at all because it was just dreams. "Wow, some creepy stuff is finally happening!" No, it's all just a dream. Good. Great. Wonderful. Fantastic. img300(https://i.imgur.com/YnhBQLY.png) Then, there's that whole thing with the tape that is what reveals to the students that the only way to beat the omniscient curse is to find out who the "Another" is and kill them. Everything about this tape is really... it really just gets my goat. The characters who find and listen to it realize what sort of reaction the class is going to have if they're told that murder is the solution to stop everyone from dying, so they correctly decide that telling everyone this information is probably not a great idea given the absolute fear everyone's going into. Yet... they don't hide the tape somewhere reasonably hard for them to find? Actually, they straight up take it to the inn place where the entire end of the show happens and that's when the show just completely collapses into craziness and gore. To be fair, it's to show "Eyepatch" and "Main Guy" but... why just leave it lying around where others can find it? img440(https://i.imgur.com/i9jNp0L.jpg) Because one of the other students finds the tape, listens to it, and goes oh SHIT. THE QUICKEST WAY TO MAKE SURE NOT EVERYONE DIES IS MURDER. AND THAT JUST STARTS THE BALL ROLLING, PEOPLE START KILLING EACH OTHER, THE INN BECOMES ON FIRE, ONE OF THE INNKEEPERS JUST FUCKING GOES CRAZY AND STARTS KILLING PEOPLE TOO. It's all... it's all just nonsense from there on out. We're not done with the tape though. First of all, I need to explain that I am okay with cliche or campy horror tropes. As long as they're done appropriately (in a fun way and in something that is purposely of the "fun horror" category), I'm fine with them. But when characters in this more or less played straight show decide to... like all they do is basically transfer the tape's message to a CD, and then they put that CD in a locker in their classroom just like the last class did. ...Like are you kidding me? WHEN YOU, THE NEXT CLASS, FINALLY NEEDED THE TAPE, IT WAS STILL IN THE OLD AND ABANDONED BUILDING. WHY ARE YOU JUST TAKING IT ON FAITH THAT NOBODY'S GONNA FIND THE TAPE OR MESS WITH THAT LOCKER OR THAT THEY'RE NOT GONNA GET A NEW _NEW_ BUILDING? ADDITIONALLY, WHY NOT ADD LIKE ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS OR MAKE IT EASIER TO FIND? IT ALMOST FEELS LIKE YOU'RE GRUMPY THAT ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD SO YOU WANT THE NEXT CLASS TO GO THROUGH THE __SAME EXACT SHIT__. THIS IS THE FINAL EPISODE'S POST CREDITS SCENE, THIS IS LITERALLY THE FINAL NOTE THE SHOW GOES OUT ON. WHY DID NOT ALL THE CHARACTERS DIE. THIS SHOW WOULD HAVE BEEN PERFECT IF ALL OF THEM HAD DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ___ #Mood Whiplash.# Everybody seems to be dying brutal and bloody deaths and we don't seem to be making much progress if any at all towards stopping it. "LET'S GO TO THE FUCKING BEACH. BEACH EPISODE! LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" img440(https://i.imgur.com/cogqYQs.gif) Are you kidding me? I perfectly understand the purpose of why this is a thing. Basically just to demonstrate, even if you do leave the town, there's no escaping omniscient curses because yes, there is a death this episode. But this is like episode eight. Isn't it a little bit late to be pulling these shenanigans? I don't know maybe, it's better in the nov-- img440(https://i.imgur.com/qGuI1Up.png) OH SHIT. IN THE NOVEL THEY DON'T JUST DECIDE RANDOMLY TO GO TO THE BEACH? OH SHIT. THIS ONE ISN'T ON YUKITO AYATSUJI, THIS IS ALL P.A. WORKS' DOING. I'm just surprised they didn't decide to [go hiking instead](https://i.imgur.com/ip2cBE1.png). You could have one of the students get mauled to death by a bear or something. It's because of the "Curse" that one of the students had his face ripped off by a bear! ~~To be fair, this is one of the episodes I enjoyed the most because the twist and the idea is just so goofy. "Sure yeah, you can do a beach episode, but you still have to have someone die horribly."~~ Actually. [Here you go.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tu7rFtEZ-M) Here's two scenes from Another that both simultaneously exist that I slammed together with shitty video editing. My overall point with this is really, I consistently did not know what Another wanted from me. If it wanted to be seen as this serious thing about this ghost story thing or if it wanted to be seen as an anime version of Final Destination. I just could not wrap my head around it the entire time I was watching it and as time passed once the final episode ended, like a rumbling storm of growing discontent my opinions of this show worsened more and more as I continued to think about it. Was I supposed to be scared? Was I supposed to be laughing? Was I supposed to be [cringing from all of the crazy gore](https://i.imgur.com/oQrQ9b1.png)? Was I supposed to [care about these character](https://i.imgur.com/5f36xhZ.png)s or think they were deep in any way shape or form? Even now, I still really don't know. From skimming the novel, it seems like a serious enough novel this guy wrote. Like at no point watching this show did I feel like... like it was intentionally bad, like Ranpo Kitan. But whereas Another is originally a novel a person actually wrote and thought out, Ranpo Kitan was just a bunch of ideas ripped straight from a deceased famous mystery writer and done completely over the top and in a horrible way. I don't know. Almost the entire time, I was just bored and mildly grumpy whenever gore wasn't happening. Mind you, it's not like I wanted even more of it. There was plenty considering the later end of the show just delves into complete over the top schlock. That's also about when I ended up feeling a completely different emotion. img440(https://i.imgur.com/tqz5WCR.jpg) Genuine anger. ___Next section is ENTIRELY on the ending of the show.___ ___ #M. Night Shyamalan is a Hack Fraud.# _Context:_ [M. Night Shyamalan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Night_Shyamalan) _made_ [that one movie with the twist ending](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Sense) _and basically ever since then, he's made_ [horrible shit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Night_Shyamalan#Filmography) _and basically they almost all have twist endings._ Throughout the rest of the show, the negativity I had towards it was only like a low rumbling in the pit of my stomach. After all, I started the show with absolutely no knowledge of it. Didn't know about all the gore, didn't know about the umbrella, didn't know the concept, etc. The entire way through, I was trying my hardest to give it a chance. But then the whole stretch with the inn or whatever it was happened. That ending is absolutely the most garbage thing about this series. Okay, first of all. The entire show you're led to believe that the "Another" is a student, and at this point, the students have mostly completely flipped their shit and are going crazy trying to kill "Eyepatch" because they believe that she's the "Another" and are dying due to the fire that starts somehow or being murdered by one of the innkeepers who just coincidentally decides to go insane (I really can't believe that the "curse" really had NOTHING to do with that. They just "go crazy" and that's it.) while all this is happening. But guess what? It's a fucking teacher. It wasn't even the teacher of the actual cursed class because he already committed suicide at this point. So basically all of that conflict among the students apparently was for absolutely nothing. Not to even mention the fact that there's no possible way that the viewer could ever actually figure out who the "Another" is, there's absolutely no clues or anything. Like, the "Another" is perfectly nice to the characters and doesn't do anything nefarious at all throughout the entire show. Not to mention that apparently when an "Another" appears, it can completely alter the memories of other people. So it turns out that the "Another" is actually "Main Guy's" aunt, and his memories were altered to include memories of his fake dead aunt so he'd think that yeah she's totally an actual living person. There are various problems with this. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/UJzkLOC.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/1zyuC3N.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/y3DJryJ.png) img440(https://i.imgur.com/xUcY2Mw.png)~~~ Number one. The entire purpose of the "Another" turning out to be his aunt all along had to be either just to try and have a shocking twist ending, or to try and get an emotional reaction from the viewer. Like oh no, now "Main Guy" is going to put a pickaxe through his "Fake Aunt" who is the "Another." Number two. Since the memories are fake, while "Main Guy" is being emotional, the viewer has no fucking reason to care about this at all. THE MEMORIES ARE FAKE. SHE IS THE "ANOTHER" AND THE ONLY WAY TO STOP THE DEATHS ARE TOTALLY ENTIRELY THE FAULT OF THE "CURSE" ("oh no, I chased my classmates out of a window with a knife and I accidentally slipped, fell, and died. DAMN YOU, CURSE!") IS BY KILLING HER. MAKE HER DIE FOR THE SECOND TIME SO THE SHOW CAN END. img440(https://i.imgur.com/q0FKRci.png) Number three. The presentation of the "Another" is... baffling. "Main Guy" comes out and there's his aunt under a thing, unable to get out, struggling, and she looks like an undead. This... this is what the entire show has been leading up to! AND HE JUST PICKS UP A THING AND PUTS IT THROUGH THE BACK OF HER SKULL. Number four. After she dies, everybody else but "Eyepatch" and "Main Guy" completely forget about her, but still remember the "Curse" and all of the deaths that happen and primarily most of the deaths throughout the "inn arc" happened resulting from the chaos that initially sparked by the class going mostly crazy about wanting to kill "Eyepatch" because they thought she was the "Another." But "Eyepatch" wasn't killed, so why did the students ever believe that "the Curse" had really ended. Did they just believe "Eyepatch" and "Main Guy"'s word? But they were literally just trying to kill "Eyepatch" not even that long ago and "Main Guy" is clearly Team Eyepatch so why would they trust... They obviously didn't forget about "the Curse" because if they had, then why would the two other students have went to the trouble to putting back the tape that has the instructions of how to stop "the Curse"??? img440(https://i.imgur.com/OsodF8a.png) I just... it's just a fucking mess. Not to even mention that, they literally didn't even fully stop "the Curse". Therefore, there IS going to be a new cursed class down the line. But the students of THIS cursed class are basically like... "well most of us are dead at this point, let's just try and move on and maybe the next cursed class will be able to stop it entirely or at least before almost the entire class is dead." This has to be one of the worst endings I've ever seen. Or at the very least, it's one of the ones that have genuinely upset me the most. You know what I was waiting for? I was waiting for "Main Guy" to wake up in his bed AGAIN and go "OH SHIT THAT WAS A FUCKED UP DREAM." That would have been the only way to top what the actual ending is. It was all a goddamned dream, FIN. ___ #Conclusion. I Hate This Fucking Anime.# You know, there's another reason why I opened this review with a comparison to Ranpo Kitan. The Ranpo Kitan review I did, if I had actually bothered to go into all of the problems I had with its "plot", that review would have looked like this one. Instead, it was so incomprehensible that I couldn't bring myself to believe that anyone who worked on it even partially believed that it would be taken seriously or well received. But since Another is more serious and less batshit insane, it actually bothers me more? Sure yes, Ranpo Edogawa's grave was danced on, and then a[ completely different series](https://anilist.co/anime/21832/TRICKSTEREdogawaRampoShounenTanteidanyori) came back for a second helping and danced on it again. But with Ranpo Kitan, I could at least laugh at it. Before we get to the score, I'm just gonna really quickly gather a recap of all of my major points in a nice bullet list form. Because if any TGG review ever needed a summary, it's this one. - The gore is genuinely great. To the point it's literally the only strong point of the entire show. - While explosions of blood are nice, you can also do a completely bloodless death with it still having the sort of impact you want from a show/series like this. - The plot is needlessly complicated and done in an annoying way. Basically boils down to people won't stop dying in horrifically gory ways a la Final Destination, but it has to be this whole fucking thing. The curse will get you before you can leave town, the curse will cause calls to cut out when convenient, ignoring a random person can somehow combat the curse (except when it doesn't), the "Another" can alter memories, etc. - Basically no interesting characters at all, and the single one that's even remotely close is infuriating. Even for a cheap/cheesy horror thing where the entire point is you're there to see characters die, this is pretty fucking bad. - The most infuriating thing about the plot is made even worse because there's an entire prequel OVA/side novel that seems like its entire purpose is to rub salt into the wound. - Stephen King's name should never have been brought up. Period. Even if this was a good horror, why even do it? It's not necessary. And if the "horror fan" aspect of "Main Guy"'s character actually would have gone somewhere, you didn't need to specifically throw Stephen King's name out there because he's the horror author that LITERALLY EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE knows. - Cheap horror does not work if there is a primarily serious tone to it. Look, eventually, all I'm saying is, Jason eventually started beating campers in [a sleeping bag against a tree](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF629C5WRqU) and also [he went to space](https://i.imgur.com/d4w3kkw.png). Fun fact, apparently both of those are [the same fucking movie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_X). - Final Destination is better than Another. - "Eyepatch Girl" is a walking cocktail mix of cliches. There are a whole bunch of other horror cliches, but let's stop with the dream sequences that literally only happen to include "spooky" scenes. Let's please stop that. - Inconsistent tone, and the beach episode. - At this point, twist endings are more trouble than they're worth. Because the odds your twist ending ends up being fucking dumb or out of nowhere are RIDICULOUSLY HIGH. But hey, Another's was memorable and frustrating enough to cause me to write a 8,000+ word review of it over a year later. Okay, with all of that being said, I give this a show a __10 out of 10__ for all of the gore and the eyepatch girl who is legitimately my most favorite anime character of all time. Goodbye! That's the end! This is the last review I'm ever writing! It's the end, it's the end forever. These reviews are never coming back, it's the end, it's over. img440(https://i.imgur.com/NDH2Ppc.png) ___ #Climax.# "Gee, I think I might have actually went overboard with this one. Over 8,000 words... that's ridiculous. It's actually a seventh of the cumulative amount of words I've spent on all of my previous reviews added up together. But I feel like I'm forgetting something..." _There is a sudden scratching noise from the direction of the window._ "That's weird. What's that fucking noise? Who's scratching on my window? Hello? Even though it's a really strange and illogical decision, I'm going to open my window and poke my head out to investigate this random scratching noise. I will also take my laptop with me and continue to type all of this out to essentially record this interaction even though it is entirely inappropriate and foolish to do so." img440(https://i.imgur.com/6HUCd39.jpg) "OH FUCK. IT'S MARY POPPINS. THE ELDRITCH UMBRELLA LORDS HAVE BROKEN THE SEVEN SEALS AND LOOSED THEIR MASTER UPON THE WORLD. PLEASE, MARY POPPINS. I'M SORRY I DISPARAGED YOUR UMBRELLA PROPAGANDA SHOW. MARY POPPINS, NO--" _There are horrible and brutal noises of disemboweling. Then, there is nothing but silence._ ..._[Why don't you head to the store and buy an umbrella?](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-06-15/horror-light-novel-another-2-planned-for-fall-launch/.75314)_ ___ #Climax: Part Two# "Woah, fuck! That sure was a fucked up __dream__! Dreams of Mary Poppins disemboweling me...? Giving Another a positive score...? I need to go see my therapist! At least that part about Another 2 isn't real because there's nothing beyond that one article about it so I'm just going to believe _that it doesn't exist_. Oh wait, but I need to finish that review! Just gotta throw my score on it... and... done!" ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/Tjvqyuz.png)~~~ "Alright. That's finally over. Now, I'll just walk downstairs and depart my domicile and start my day." "Oh... but it's supposed to rain today. I'll just grab my _umbrella first..."_
Warning this review may contain spoilers. First impressions, so we got an anime the is known as the final destination of anime. Sounds interesting enough what could possibly go wrong? Story, 4/10 So the premise of another are main character going to this new school were he finds out that the class room he is in has a curse That will take place every year that kill one student and his relatives once every month and the only way to stave off the curse from happening again for a year is to completely ignore the existence of one of your follow classmate intill the year is over. So my thoughts on this where, oh my god there is a school that has a mysterious curse that will kill all the students. where haven't I herd that before. This premise alone basically screams a generic horror story with a mysterious curse and people we don't give a fuck about die'in left and right And for the most part that is basically how it plays out. So the story is basically about the main character that pretty much kick started of the curse by mistake and him trying to figure out about the mysterious curse. Which is really for me where the show took a nosedive. Because as you find out more about this mysterious curse the more it make less sense. Because they never explain any thing about this curse like where it came from or what's is the reason it is happening. Which is really stupid because if you have seen any horror movie that involve curses for example like a witch as hanged and she placed a curse on the people that wronged her and then like 400 years later a group of people get involved and then try to brake this curse and shit like that. But another doesn't really do any of that. Because these characters do nothing proactive to stop this curse at all. all they ever do is try to stop it from starting and then reacting when the curse starts taking effect and go bat shit crazy by the end of it and try to kill one another to stop the curse. Which doesn't work out very well in retrospect. And I got to ask this question why dose this school willingly let students go into a class room that they know is cursed? So Is closing down a class room and having a little bit of classroom overcrowding that hard to deal with. So as a horror story it really dose fail becuase it never really explains itself probably. Because literally this is what they explain apparently a girl died and then after her death the curse starts going off and this curse brings back a person from the dead I shit you not and if you don't ignore the existence of one off your follow class mates the curse will start killing people and the only way to end the curse for the that year is to kill the person who has been brought back from the dead. So seems ligt. Now some say this is tragic and sad but I couldn't really agree with that. Because this story is forced as fuck literally And your thinking to yourself what type of story isn't forced. But this show is highly guilty of this. Because for some reason they have students who are on the curse prevention duty and yet none of them came up with the brilliant idea of just closing down this classroom. Because being proactive is so bloody hard and Just to add to my point the show even admit it self because at the end the two characters left standing after thay brake the curse. Just deside to continue like nothing ever fucking happened. Oh what main character you going to do some thing what is that. Oh your going to remember them the people who died so not telling the school to close that classroom down that makes sense. Characters, 5/1O The main character is pretty much bland as toast. There is absolutely no personality and is pretty much genenic as all fuck. He is pretty much there to be the average joe. You would think that all the shit he goes though you would think that he would change. But it seems that he is never completely bothered by what is happening. The side characters are also bland and generic. They are pretty much cardboard cut outs that we are superpose to care about. But you can't care about people that you now are going to die and have no personality. Yet for some reason they try to have moments where they have the character interaction that try's to add personality but that in the long run is going to go to waste because they had no personality to begin with and the fact they are al going to die is horrible ways. Art, 6/10 The animation for another was quite polished and clean. Which kind of bothered me because I think that a more gritty animation would have fit the story more. The backgrounds where nice done nothing god tir but they did an ok job. The color scheme for this anime is very grim which fits the show quite nicely. The art style is pretty much the by the book set style that you have pretty much seem almost very where. So its generic. The character designs are also generic as well. Sound,6/10 The op theme song is catchy. but I personally never took to it. The ending song is quite relaxing but other than that there really isn't much to it. Now the ost as quite different because it really did add to the atmosphere of the story. Which is quite nice. So I give them props for that. Enjoyment 5/10 For me personally I really liked the over the top death scenes. Because I am really am the gore fan and plus when I think about it the death scenes are really over the top which kind of makes them funny. I also love the 11-12 episodes because it literally turns into a massive blood bath with people freak out and start killing each other. Which turned this show from a horror to for me to a comedy for me. Overall,5/10 Another is a generic horror story and if you like horror and gore then this will be your cup of tea. But if your looking for more than just senseless gore then you will be unhappy with poor characters and overall bad writing.
Once upon a time, there was a middle schooler named Misaki. He was a beloved student, as smart as he was affable, and he had the unanimous favor of both his student body and the teaching staff. He died tragically in a house fire that took not only his life, but that of his parents and siblings, too. Distraught by this loss, his entire class adopted a ritual of pretending that he was still in the room with them. They left his desk empty, gave him handouts, and even arranged for his posthumous graduation. But little did they know that by refusing to acknowledge their classmate’s untimely demise, they were creating an opportunity for HIM to ignore his fate as well. Every year following this event, Misaki’s ghost stayed in that classroom as a student… But his lingering spirit brought a tragic curse upon the residents of class 3. If the number of seats in the classroom matched the number of students, then Misaki would have nowhere to sit, and thus, a string of tragic deaths would occur among the people who were connected to that class… Both students, teachers and their relatives alike. The only way to stop this curse was to alienate one student, pretending they didn’t exist so that Misaki wouldn’t feel left out… And if they could hold this ritual down for one month, the deaths would not occur for the rest of the year. Everything was going fine until one year, one transfer student was absent from the first day of school, and wasn’t able to hear about these rules, and unfortunately for him, the first and second rule of Death Class is “Do not talk about Death Class.” Will his curious questions draw the class closer and closer to their assured doom, or can they find some way to stop it in time to survive the school year and put it all behind them? With Another, we’re once again returning to the realm of PA Works, a company that’s produced many impressive looking, high budget shows over the years. Another doesn’t seem to have that budget advantage, however, as it’s a very staticky, text-heavy show all around. About seventy five percent of the time, movement on screen is minimal, using fixed camera angles and talking heads for what should have been embarrassing lengths of time. The other twenty five percent of the time, the animation will show off a dramatic increase of it’s frame rate in order to carry the more action heavy moments, especially with it’s bevy of gruesome death scenes. For such a wide clash in animation style, the difference is surprisingly hard to notice, as the aesthetic of the series remains consistent throughout. Chances are, you’ll be too distracted by the show’s gorgeous visual direction to notice just how inexpensive the animation really is, which is what ultimately saves it from looking like a cheap show. Another adopts a dark, gothic aesthetic, and it’s pulled off very well. It’s the most evident in one character’s house, which is dimly lit and full of creepy looking ball joint dolls, but that one setting is small potatoes compared to the over-all atmosphere of the series which is gloomy, foreboding and full of realistic gritty details. The character designs as well are grounded and simple, covering all the essential tropes while still never being over-the-top enough to distract from the heavy, somber mood. Even the beach episode, while full of contextual fan service, never manages to betray the feeling of imminent danger surrounding the characters at all times. The music is also very true to this mood. Kow Otani is a legend, famous for his work on the Godzilla films and, more relevant to Another’s tone, he’s also highly celebrated for creating the soundtrack to the video game Shadow of the Colossus. The music matches perfectly with every beat of the story, showing off it’s blend of cute high school melodrama and harsh, heart-pounding horror to a frightening degree. The perfect example of this is the track “The Story of Yomiyama,” which inserts intense dramatic stings into a soothing yet still really creepy piano tune, and the two intermingle more and more throughout the track, sounding downright sinister by the one minute mark, and it creates the image of people running for their lives away from a terrifying monster who wants them for dinner and won’t take no for an answer. You won’t find this kind of feeling from all of the music tracks heard throughout the series, but the feelings they do express are flawless across the board. There are few things lonelier than Mei Misaki’s character theme, and the opening theme, Kyoumu Densen by Ali Project, is a nigh-unskippable fast-paced goth rock piece, with vocals that match hauntingly well with the orchestration. When I heard that the dub for this show was being both written and directed by the same person, I was initially worried that it might have gone to Steven Foster, the notorious ruiner of material, butcher of teen dialogue, and possible space alien learning human speech patterns piece by piece to further his conquest of the planet. Thankfully, the dub went instead to Chris Ayres. I’m not familiar with his behind-camera work, but if Another is any indication of his abilities, I’m looking forward to seeing more from him. Overall, the performances in this dub are very grounded and naturalistic, with no real standouts to speak of… Although in a dub like this one, uniformity is a good thing. There are a few performances of note, though. Monica Rial, who plays the character Mei Misaki, the student who’s been chosen to be ignored by the class, brings a sense of bitterness to the character that was sorely lacking in the Japanese, as well as a condescending air when talking to odd man out Koichi. Jessica Boone plays a pig-tailed tsundere girl named Izumi, who’s been tasked with the title of Head of Countermeasures, which is a creative spin on the class rep title that a character like her would typically get. She gives the character strength, as well as a patience that has very clear limits. Blake Shepherd, who I’ve bashed in the past, is used surprisingly well as the soft voiced Yuya. The actors are directed extremely well by Ayres, who knows exactly when to get subtlety from them, and when to unleash the reigns and let them scream in blood curdling terror. Every single voice crack is on point, every scream is terrifying, and the noises the unlucky students make as they’re dying are skin-crawlingly realistic. His interpretation of the script is faithful to the original, while still altering the wordings and turn of phrase just enough to be accessible to an English speaking audience without even once betraying the intention of any of it. I first watched Another way back in the fall of 2013, after being intrigued to pick it up by the smattering of clips that it inspired in both versions of AMV Hell 6. The basic plot and several death scenes were already spoiled for me beforehand through word-of-mouth and the aforementioned AMV Hell clips, but I was still finding myself mildly entertained by the material. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t giving me feels, but I was enjoying the dark tone and trying to figure out the mystery. But then the ending happened… The ending that people like to laud as being one of the greatest they’ve ever seen. Even people who didn’t like the show still claim the final two episodes made the entire experience worth it for them. That’s some pretty heavy praise, which is why I was all the more disappointed by my own reaction to it. If nothing else, I can safely admit that the ending of Another affected me in a way that I don’t think any other Anime’s ending has affected me before… It actually made me feel uncomfortable. Honestly, throughout those two episodes, there were times where I felt sick to my stomach, and I wasn’t sure why. It couldn’t be the violence… Oh no, I’ve seen and loved shows far more bloody than this, so what was it? In the two years that have followed since then, and especially after watching it a second time for the sake of this review, I’m pretty sure I’ve finally pinned down what it was that kept me from enjoying this bloody, bloody spectacle. Before I get into that, let’s talk about the characters. The two leads are Koichi, the boy who missed the rules, and Misaki, the excluded girl. I hated them both, and they were the only two characters in the show that I actively wanted to see get killed. Koichi, the boy we spend the majority of the series with, is one of those boring and bland main characters who exists as a blank slate for the viewer to project themselves onto, so that you can explore the story right alongside with them. Honestly, the only thing I can remember about him is that his father lives in India. His role in the story is to ask a lot of questions and make situations worse, so he’s basically Mindy from Animaniacs. “Ignore that girl, she doesn’t exist.” “Why? Why? Why? Why?” And I get that, because nobody’s allowed to tell him, and being left out of something sucks, but for God’s sake, have an arc! Get a hobby! Misaki is where the series gets it’s iconic look, contrived though it may be. She’s the eyepatch girl, which is a tried and true trope, and she is owned entirely by her darker color palette. She speaks in stilted, overly formal slow speech and seems to have a serious phobia of contractions. As far as her speech goes, she’s basically a poor man’s Rei Ayanami, right down to the fact that she literally lives in a house full of dolls that she probably adopted her personality from. She even has a doll’s eye in place of her missing eye. I kind of like characters like that, so I really wouldn’t mind her so much if the series wasn’t such a troll about how they used her. Her darker edges, while somewhat iconic, have absolutely nothing to do with the plot or story of the series, so she’s seriously like that just for flavor, and nothing else. And then there’s the ghost… Yes, I’m considering him a character, deal with it… Who’s level of power and influence is just plain laughable. He’s omnipotent, can monitor and kill you at any time, in any way, and for any reason as long as you’re within the city limits, and I’m still not sure what his motives are. I just started picturing him as some stereotypical Looney Toons style mob boss, flipping a quarter while chewing a toothpick and daring anybody who he can control to oppose him or his best friend Murphy. He has the Yuki Nagato-level ability to alter not only peoples’ memories, but public records as well, which begs the question of why he doesn’t just force people to think he exists, which he totally could. But then again, for someone with so much power, he’s somehow unable to notice a student leaving a tape full of clues behind in the classroom for years. There’s only one character I did like, who I actually wanted to see survive… A strong, selfless character with convictions that I really admired, and whom I wanted to learn more about… I’ll let you find out for yourselves whether or not they lived, but aside from those four, there isn’t much of a cast to speak of. The class is made up of walking character designs, some more likeable than others, and they’re all more or less dispensable, so let’s talk about what kind of story Another is. In the strictest literary terms, Another is a tragedy. You might not think that at first, since it shares the same basic idea as the Final Destination films, which were definitely horror comedies, but it is. Another wants you to take it super-seriously, despite how ridiculous and goofy it’s many death scenes are. To it’s credit, Another is a master of tone, and it places it’s horror exactly where it belongs; on the faces of its surviving characters. Their sense of edginess and unease are only ever interrupted by their terrified reactions to the gruesome demises around them, which goes a long way in making up for the lunacy of watching a girl fall down the stairs and land throat-first onto the pointy end of her umbrella. Yes, Another is very firmly a tragedy, and that’s kind of the problem. I didn’t make this observation myself… I learned it from the work of another reviewer, who also learned it from someone else… But in order for a tragedy to truly work, it has to be earned. A tragic ending can only be earned when it feels inevitable, as if the characters it’s happening to have done everything in their power to prevent it, but were unable to because of one damning flaw in either themselves or their world that made their efforts futile. It’s basically like going to a casino, making millions of dollars at Black Jack, and then losing it all because you just couldn’t handle not doing one more hand. In Another, I just don’t feel that at all. For starters, in order to take this story seriously, you would first have to believe that a school with a yearly student body count wouldn’t be closed down and subsequently demolished to make way for a new building. Would this work? Maybe, maybe not, but the idea of people still sending their kids to a school like that and them willingly going there just infuriates me. But what makes me even more angry is the supernatural power that Mei Misaki possesses, and how easily it could have ended the calamity on multiple occasions… But she refuses to use it in the early episodes because she didn’t want to get made fun of, and she doesn’t put it to good use until the last ten minutes of the final episode for spoiler reasons that are complete BS. She could have saved eight peoples’ lives just by speaking up at the right time. She killed them by not speaking up, and the narrative makes no attempt to even acknowledge it. The only thing that was inevitable about this show’s tragic ending is… And I’m going to try and be vague about this… That the ghost trolled everybody by breaking it’s own rules. I know I’ve been talking a lot about the ending, but that’s where the majority of my serious problems with this series lie, and it’s difficult to talk about why it made me feel so turned off without giving away some spoilers. Instead of saying more about what it did wrong, I’m going to tell you the two things I wish it had done right, both of which could have secured a much higher rating from me. The perfect ending to this series, for me at least, would have seen the entire class… Plus their vulnerable family members… Forming a united front and charging the school at night with intent to burn it down. The school would have defended itself through it’s Murphy’s Law magic, and a lot of them would have died, but the ones who survived would have succeeded in their task, rendering the school unusable and ending the curse forever. The somewhat less perfect ending would have seen a handful of characters confronting the extra classmate, getting them to remember that they’re dead, and speaking to the class’s ghost through them, reasoning with him, learning about him, and ultimately convincing him to move on to the spirit world, ending the curse forever ala Paranorman. If you hadn’t noticed, what with me being so subtle about it, the one thing those two ideas have in common is that, in both cases, the curse is ended permanently. This is important for three reasons; First of all, it gives all the meaningless deaths in the series purpose, as at least it would mean they accomplished in exchange for their sacrifice. Secondly, ending the curse during this particular year would have made said year special compared to every other of the 26 years that the curse had been active, thus justifying that year being the focal point of the series in the first place. And finally, for the simple reason that it would have given the series a much needed sense of closure. Well, that’s why I didn’t like the series, but why did it make me feel so sick and uncomfortable? Well, there’s a very specific reason for that, and it has to do with what I believe to be the intention of the series. Another feels, to me, like somebody with pent up rage issues putting a lot of people into one house in The Sims, putting the carpets too close to the fireplace and removing all the doors. It feels like the writer is a lonely person… Probably in middle school… Who decided to write a story where he could insert himself as a powerful supernatural being who can strike fear and obedience into the hearts of all his fellow students who make fun of him, ignore him and have social lives that don’t involve him. That’s my biggest problem with Another: Not that it fails in a literary sense, which it does, but because it feels like someones sick revenge fantasy that they published and printed for the world to see. I don’t want to see that, and I don’t know why anybody else would. Another is available from Sentai Filmworks in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats, both of which can currently be found on Amazon for around thirty dollars apiece. You can also find it on Crunchyroll, but they don’t currently offer the English Dub. There are two light novels and a manga that are both available stateside from Yen Press, and a live action film that is still unfortunately not. There’s an OVA episode called Another: The Other, Inga that acts as a prequel to the series. Weird title aside, this is probably the best episode of the entire show, and while it’s intended to be watched after the series, I strongly recommend watching it beforehand, as it’s a much better introduction to the power, circumstances, and personal tragedy behind Mei, the posterchild for the series, which helps to clear up any confusion caused by its insistence on using her as a red herring. It can be found on pretty much any release of the series. Another is currently considered the greatest horror anime of all time by numerous sources, such as Rightstuf magazine and Watchmojo, but to say that I disagree is a huge understatement. Rather than a dark horror story or a cheesy slasher film, it feels more like watching a PETA documentary on slaughterhouses. Yes, seeing horses on a conveyer belt getting stabbed in the head upsets me, but not because I care about any of them individually… It’s because I’m pissed off at the people behind it for butchering them so heartlessly and mechanically for the sake of human consumption. I’ll give the series high marks for it’s beautiful presentation and for holding my interest as long as it did, but what started out as a mildly entertaining ride ended just on a giant trollface that taunted me for daring to take the mystery and the fates of it’s character designs seriously. I give Another a 4/10.
Another One Bites the Dust: Review of _Another_ by TravioliPrime Horror is a genre in anime that is not often covered and rarely ever done right. _Another_ is another (I swear that wasn’t intentional) addition to the list of horror shows that bring nothing new to the genre. That isn’t to say that _Another_ isn’t a good show. In fact, it’s one of the better horror shows that I’ve attempted to watch in my brief time (about five years at the time of writing this) as an anime fan. Let’s get started, shall we? Things that I focus on for horror: plot, tension, art and animation. SPOILER WARNING __Story__ _Another_ presents such a mixed bag in terms of the story and plot progression. The concept of the story itself, a classroom cursed by the soul of a deceased former classmate and other dead spirits, is engaging and interesting, even if it is overdone. The biggest problem this show suffered from is a lack of concise direction and overuse of convenient tropes to slow the progression of the story down. Before the details, here’s a quick synopsis to jog anyone’s memory. The story starts with the arrival and immediate hospitalization of Kouichi Sakakibara to the city of Yomiyama. Sakakibara notices that his classmates all act strange and seem to talk behind his back about a phenomenon that he doesn’t understand. He also meets a strange girl named Mei Misaki, who wears an eyepatch and doesn’t interact with her classmates at all. Soon, Sakakibara is enveloped into the calamity of Class 3, where students and family members die in rapid fashion. The deaths of classmates Sakuragi and Takabayashi, as well as Sakakibara’s nurse and confidant Mizuno, throw the entire class into a panic. The calamity of Class 3 has begun. The plot continues to keep going strong into the middle of the story, where the emphasis should be on the mystery of the situation and the attempts by the students of Class 3 to stop the numerous deaths occurring around them. Akazawa, head of countermeasures for the class, decides to essentially excommunicate Sakakibara to try and bring the curse to a halt. Sakakibara and Misaki, who suffered the same fate, work together to find more details about the calamity. All that changes when Kubodera-sensei, the teacher of the ill-fated class, kills his mother and then brutally commits suicide in front of the entire class. This encourages Akazawa, Teshigawara and Mochizuki, among others, to work with Sakakibara and Misaki to solve the curse. Eventually, they learn that a man named Matsunaga stopped the curse in a previous year and find his hidden clue to stop the curse- to kill the dead soul among the living. This culminates in a three-episode finale at a resort outside of town where Matsunaga had killed his classmate to dispel the curse. Eventually, the students, led by a crazed Sugiura, hear the tape and turn on Misaki, convinced that she is the dead soul. Two episodes of absolute mayhem occur, culminating in the brutal deaths of over half of the class and, finally, the murder of the dead soul: assistant homeroom teacher Reiko Mikami, Sakakibara’s aunt. Thus, the curse ends, and life returns to normal for the remaining members of Class 3. __The… Horror?__ The biggest problem that _Another_ runs into is its failed use of jump-scares and gore to create tension. The plot created a lot of natural tension and provided a good basis for a horror story, but this show never was able to properly capitalize on that tension outside of a few moments. First off, the gore was… hilarious. Everyone reading this review has probably seen the scene of Sakuragi falling down the stairs and dying by being pierced in the throat with her umbrella. You’ve probably seen the hysterical blood physics when Kubodera-sensei stabs himself in the throat in front of the classroom and lives for over thirty seconds for the sole purpose of making gurgling noises as blood splatters across the ENTIRE classroom from his wound. How about the scene of Nakao passing out in the water and then getting chopped up by a boat propeller? How about pretty much every death in the finale, some by a murderous old woman, some by a falling column and some by the hands of other members of Class 3? The gore in this show is used so horribly nearly every time a death occurs in this show, but the staff of the show clearly know how to do it right. To show you, I’m first going to focus on a death scene that I thought was done well by director Tsutomu Mizushima: the death of Mizuno. Mizuno’s death happens early in the show and is one of the few deaths that is shocking for something other than blood. After a phone conversation with Sakakibara, Mizuno enters an elevator, which proceeds to free-fall until it hits the ground over ten stories down, crushing her in the process. This worked for me because there was a massive shift in tension from the phone call between Mizuno and Sakakibara, which was serious but relaxed, and the free-fall of the elevator. Mizuno wasn’t a main character by any means, but she still had a lot of screen-time up to this point. After all that investment, we now get to see her plummeting to her demise while Sakakibara listens on. The gore towards the end was brief and violent, as you would expect from a 10-story fall. Instead of watching the impact for thirty seconds, we got a dramatic shift in tension without excessive blood needed to make an emotional impact. Contrast that with the death of Nakao. We go from a fun beach scene to a darker mood with the entrance of Matsunaga towards the end of the episode. After Matsunaga has told the kids that he remembers nothing, wind blows the group’s beach ball into the ocean and Nakao decides to swim light years out to retrieve it. He passes out in the water and suddenly a large boat drives over him and shreds him up in the propeller. This has so many problems that it’s laughable. We never cared about Nakao- I honestly didn’t even know he was in any part of the show outside of the beach trip. The tension didn’t spike, which was a combination of directorial choices, the score, and the previous five minutes of dialogue already lifting the tension up. Add this horrible setup to a gore scene that looked like a kindergarten student drew and you get the useless death of Nakao. Another forgets that horror is never supposed to drive a good show. Jump scare movies like Nightmare on Elm Street and the Halloween franchise are never going to be remembered as good movies outside of their genres. Instead, recent American horror films like Get Out and It show us that you have to have more than horror and gore to compel audiences to consume this type of media. There will always be people who want to go see a scary movie just to get scared, but that type of product should never be the goal of a production team. Despite my criticism, I don’t think the gory scenes and brutal deaths make this show unwatchable. All they do is prevent it from being great. You just have to know what you’re getting yourself into when you start this show. The cheesy horror was much more bearable for me on my rewatch, even though my overall opinion on the show was lower than my first viewing. __Cutting Corners__ The plot, which I previously said I liked a lot, was severely limited by the writing of this show. The interesting design of the show was not able to thrive because the writers spent too much time with useless nonsense and the direction was jumbled and distracted. All of this leads to plot inconsistencies and boring excuses for plot progression. Unlike most shows that utilize memory loss as a tool for plot progression, _Another_ gives us a legitimate reason for memory loss that is built into the very fundamentals of the calamity. The problem is that having a legitimate excuse gives the writers a free pass to say “MeMoRy LoSs” whenever an issue comes up or whenever the students get close to finding a clue. Why does Matsunaga blurt out that he saved the school when drunk, but then can’t remember anything when convenient until Nakao dies and he suddenly remembers that he left a clue at the school? Why do we ever have to talk to Reiko when she doesn’t remember anything the entire show until it’s convenient? Why is Chibiki-sensei a genius until he gets asked a relevant question? Because, dear viewer, memory loss has afflicted them! It’s incredibly annoying to watch this excuse be one of the sole reasons this show is even twelve episodes in length. You want cutoffs right before important plot information? Don’t worry, this show has got you covered. Every time an important piece of information is about to come out, someone cuts them off or some random person dies. Takabayashi finally becomes willing to reveal the secrets of Class 3 to Sakakibara, but then he dies from a heart attack! Misaki knows who the dead soul is (more on this in a bit), but right before she tells Sakakibara, Teshigawara bursts through the door because he pushed someone out a window! Reiko telling Sakakibara that she is Mikami-sensei? Cut her off too! Lazy writing like this is incredibly frustrating to watch because they are trying to create suspense when we need plot progression. Suspense should be natural, not forced by awful writing. Now for a plot-hole that may not be significant, but bothered the living hell out of me. Why does every single 14-year old in 1998 rural Japan have a cell phone? This doesn’t seem significant, but when you pay attention to how important cell phones are for conveying information in this story, it doesn’t make any sense. Another example of lazy writing. If that wasn’t important to you, this one has to be. How about Mei having the ability to see who the dead soul is and not using it? That seems pretty damn important. She writes “who is dead” on her desk even though she can literally take off her eyepatch, look at each person in her class and tell if they are the dead soul or not. Maybe she didn’t think it was important towards the beginning of the show and she didn’t think it was worth revealing her discolored eye for. Sure, that makes sense for the first few episodes. But you would think that once people started dying, she would figure out who the dead soul is and tell people. She figured it out but told no one. You can probably even justify that by saying that she didn’t think it was useful information. However, once they find out that killing the soul ends the calamity, she waits over an episode to TRY to tell Sakakibara. WHY? Her actions lead to the deaths of many of her classmates in the finale for the sole reason of making it interesting. Maybe she should tell Sakakibara and have him not believe her, which is totally feasible since she is his aunt. Maybe she should tell Teshigawara or Mochizuki but keep it secret from Sakakibara so that he doesn’t get in the way of her murder. The approach the writers took here is so incredibly lackluster, lazy, and overall inexplicable that it ruins the “epic” ending of the show. I’m done rambling about the little things, but just remember that this story does not always care about being consistent or compelling. __Characters__ I’m going to keep this brief since the characters in this show don’t matter. I can give pretty brief descriptions of the ones that matter: Sakakibara- bland, but at least he’s not an isekai protagonist. Misaki- useless. Teshigawara, Mochizuki, and nearly every other classmate- little to no personality. Every adult in the show except Mizuno- useless. Akazawa- I actually liked that they thought about giving her a backstory and that she had a strong moral compass, but then they ruined her by the end. Mizuno- pretty damn cool, died way too early. And there you go, my deep character dive for _Another_! Truth be told, characters don’t matter nearly as much in horror as in other genres. Normally, characters make or break a show, but this show was rarely hurt by the boring nature of its characters. If only some of them could be a little smarter… __Art and Animation__ I’ve spent a vast majority of this review complaining about the problems that I had with this show, but don’t worry, this won’t be another (I swear, that’s the last pun. I won’t do… another). P.A. Works and Chief Animation Director Yuriko Ishii did a phenomenal job with this show outside of the gore and a few bad CG shots. The first thing I’m going to talk about is shot composition and framing. Good thriller/horror shows spend a lot of time in scenes with little to no movement and with a lot of dialogue. Another is no exception. To make these scenes interesting and keep an audience engaged, having great shot composition is important to help avoid the show feeling repetitive and keep the audience from getting bored and looking away. Dialogue scenes in this show feel deep and intense but never get stale. The direction in this show clearly knows how to space characters, how to create depth within scenes, and how to create a variety of angles within very defined and similar spaces (classrooms). Depth and unique angles enable directors in this genre to distort images when details get revealed to accent the emotions of the characters. During my rewatch of this show, the shot composition immediately stood out to me and made the show more enjoyable. The art in this show isn’t extraordinary, but it gets the job done. The artistic decisions made in this show make the game feel very much like a visual novel. The backgrounds are fairly mediocre and bland. Most of the background scenes are buildings or classroom walls, but when the show gets a chance to create complex backgrounds in nature, it shies away. The dull feeling of the backgrounds is contrasted by a fairly sharp art style for the characters in a way that makes them almost pop out of the background. This never gets to the point of being unnatural, but it does add to the visual novel or video game style I mentioned earlier. Finally, I’ll touch briefly again on the death scenes, which were the only artistic part of the show that I thought were bad. This show does not understand how wounds work and clearly prioritized the effects of blood splatter more on the scene than the actual physics and logic of the death itself. I did, however, enjoy the way that blood was incorporated into these scenes after the gore had taken place. Blood scarred the scene just like the death scarred the characters, even if the way the blood arrived made no sense. These definitely could have been done better. __Enjoyment__ Something that I think gets left out of reviews too often is the overall enjoyment of the show. I spent most of this review bashing on the show, but that doesn’t change the fact that I enjoyed it both times that I watched it. The first time, I enjoyed it enough to binge almost all of it in one sitting. This show, while not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, has the benefit of being a fun watch. That matters. __Final Thoughts__ _Another_ has a way of frustrating me without making me want to stop watching the show. Despite its failures in script and direction, it manages to keep viewers engaged with an interesting plot and good art. I truly believe that the concept and talent over at P.A. Works could have made this into one of the best horror anime of the last several decades. Instead, it will die in the depths of mediocrity. __Score: 7/10__ __
_“No matter how many relationships we seem to have, we’re all alone.” – Mei Misaki_ __Overall Score : 8.7/10__ __Story : 8/10 Art : 8/10 Sound : 9/10 Character : 7/10 Enjoyment : 9/10__ First of all this was a really good show. _“26 years ago, in a third-year classroom of a middle school, there was a student named Misaki. As an honours student, also good at sports, the charming guy was popular with his classmates. When he suddenly died, his classmates decided to carry on as if he was still alive until graduation. Then, in the spring of 1998, a boy named Sakakibara Kouichi transfers to that class, and he grows suspicious of the fearful atmosphere in that classroom. In particular, there is a beautiful, aloof girl named Misaki Mei who wears an eyepatch and is always alone drawing pictures.”_ I enjoyed it a lot throughout its whole 12 episodes; it’s mystery component kept me hooked until the end. It was my first anime of this genre so I was a bit excited but yet wasn’t expecting too much so I can assure you it exceeded my expectations. It solidified itself as a show I will definitely enjoy only in its first four episodes I realized this as I was getting interested in the plots, asking questions, making my own theories and wanting to watch more doesn’t this go to show how good it was. The OP definitely suited the horror and mystery vibes but tbh the ED gave me harem vibes and ngl Kouichi seemed the main guy of the harem hahahahaaha okay jokes aside the ost was good giving the perfect mystery and horror vibes and totally setting the environment and getting you into the mood. The last ep wasn’t as exciting as I was expecting but it definitely wrapped things up perfectly tieing up all loose ends also that reveal that was being built up the whole show was surprising as hell!!!! Characters are all fair and good, not so good as to leave a big impression but enough for me to like them!! Akazawa was a big disappointment tbh I was expecting her to be one of my favs but she just kept disappointing me. I liked Kouichi, Misaki, Teshigawara, Mochizuki and Chibiki a lot. They were my favs!! As to one thing that I’ve hated my whole life is the survival shows I first hated Hollywood movies bcz of them all being survival movies all will die only a few or one will be left kind of thing example the horror movies or final destination kind they are so annoying tbh btw I like Hollywood movies now after discovering there are many awesome kind of movies as well!! Oh sorry you must think I went off trail but no I didn’t this show is of that kind really you have to pray for your fav to not die seriously and it’s killing this was the reason I wasn’t expecting much of this show but anyways I liked this show overall it turned out to be better! So I’d definitely recommend giving it a watch!!!
#__~!REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER!!~__ __don't read unless you want to get spoiled or you've watched this anime.__ img(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zBVuL0Ar09M/USwUDlPJ8MI/AAAAAAAAAb4/4ZdJyI6Bt-w/s400/another01.jpg) > " How does it feel to not exist? " _- Misaki Mei_ Ah, Another. I still can't believe I've watched it as I got inferred by my friend to watch it. It has a very good premise, to begin with, and mayhap one of the most underrated anime series on this genre. Not many people know how flawless the story development is and how shocking the ending is. It's another series which gives you another insight of another very good anime in another genre (Okay, I used "another" word too much). However, people just can't stand against the premises do this anime gives for the audiences. Yes, the horrible violence and profanity do exist here and they just can't get it so much. Not many people like this anime either and it's turned out to be a low rated series despite its premise is so exceptional. Don't even compare Another to another horror-themed series alike Shiki, Corpse Party, or even Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Those what have aforementioned have gore and horror, but it has no contest weighed to Another. Because for me, Another is "more than a horror series." It gives you an exciting story despite it has gore and horror. It'll give you more than horror and gore as it has the psychological and thriller as the strong traits of this anime series. > "Death isn't kind. It's dark and black and as far as you, as far as you can see, you're all alone, there's no one else. But, it's no different when you are alive, right? It doesn't matter how many relationships we seem to have. We're all alone." _- Misaki Mei_ The premises of the story is outstanding. As I said before, Another has everything it needs to be a very good anime series. It's somewhat flawless as It has a wide variety of premises fulfil with psychological and thriller genre. It also has mystery as the characters have a riddle to solve with and horror as the background of this series. There are some flaws (which I can explain later) but it's pretty much disguised by the thriller which is outstanding. Pretty much sure that Another deserves more appreciation as its whole genres have satisfied the hunger of my demand to watch horror, thriller and mystery in a show (something I've demanded before I watched this series). img(https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/another/images/3/34/Kouichi_and_Mei.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/300?cb=20120110202759) _- Kouichi met Mei in the hospital._ The story itself starts from Sakakibara Kouichi, a student who just moved to Yomiyama from his old school and transferred to a school where his mother was also a student there, Yomiyama North Middle School. Alas, he's moved to a 3-3 class, which appears to have an enigmatic side and dreadful atmosphere inside. On that class, he met again with the one who doesn't exist, a girl named Misaki Mei, aloof girl who wears a left-eye patch which appears to have an enigmatic and calm personality. After he met with her, students avoid him. Kouichi doesn't have a clue about the girl, so he tries to find out. ~!After a sort of conversations with her, later he's unravelled that most of the students and teachers at the school believe that this class is cursed. It's due to the countless series of calamity such as strange and terrible deaths persist in that class and many secrets can't be solved by the students and teachers. So, they've made an agreement to use Mei as a scapegoat to cheat against the calamity of 3-3 class. It was somewhat a successful method as there were many students who survived last year. However, it appears to be sustained even though they have used her as the scapegoat. Secrets have to be solved and they must halt it before it's too late.!~ The psychological side here reveals to be the strongest trait of this series. I wonder if Another has no psychological side, it'd be a terrible show to watch, no doubt. The psychological side to "survive from the calamity" of each character shows at its finest, as they are willing to do anything to save themselves, no matter what it takes. Another strong side of Another is the unexpected thriller which constantly appears in every episode, or maybe every scene, I'm not sure. The mystery side is pretty flawless yet uncertain as there are some sections which I can't understand (I need to re-watch it once again to realize about it), the subtle stuff here is rather hard to solve compared to another series. The supernatural and horror are the backgrounds of those premises, which also gives me a strong feeling of the calamity inside the class and also the insight to cover the flaws of its mystery genre inside the story. > "It's sad when people die." _- Misaki Mei_ The characters are somewhat flawless. I can tell from the main protagonist, Mei Misaki who appears to have the most character development over insight into the story. She appears to be a cold, anti-social and enigmatic person yet somewhat melancholic and quite clever to solve the puzzles of the 3-3 class. Kouichi Sakakibara is the next who have the most development. I must say he is ~~a bit of male version of Chitanda,~~ a person who questions a lot of things happen yet somewhat imaginative, calm, sociable and friendly, commonly a nice guy. The next is Izumi Akazawa, ~~a solemn tsundere girl~~ a strong leader with unabashed and frank personality who is responsible for the class and will do anything to stop the curse, it doesn't matter how and why. For the other characters, I can say a lot of Reiko Mikami, Kouchi's aunt who is caring and nice to each other yet somewhat doesn't have interest over the calamity in the 3-3 class. Other than that, I can't say more about the character. > "The music gives a very good warmth of its story, art is very genuine yet memorable, and the voice actors are transcendent." True, that's all I can say about the visual and audio appearances of this anime. Voice actors are talented and I have to say more about Mei Misaki, her voice is somewhat very unique and recognizable even she said the word frankly in a low tone. The music, I can say that I love the Opening theme so much as it gives you the thriller and enigmatic feeling every time I listen to that song. For the art, it's somewhat unique and perfect, as the event taken from the past, it's, of course, such a memorable art despite the anime released in 2012. Overall, the visual and audio appearances are very good, I like it. > " Don't watch this if you want action. This isn't shounen. " There, read it, clear and loud. Don't watch it if you expect for a show with a lot of actions in every scene, this anime has no action material, so be ready to get a big forfeit and regret your decision to watch if you expect or demand the action. Do watch if you want to experience an anime with a lot of tragedies inside the story which is unexpected yet enigmatic in every section. It'll give you a lot of it and you'll have no regret nor forfeit to watch Another. Also, as I said previously, it's more than a horror show, it has the morality inside the story and a very deep philosophy about life. So overall, I very enjoyed this show and gave it a very high rating, like it or not, I don't care with what you are thinking, Another deserves more than 7, as it's the most underrated series which deceived by the audience's favour to dislike the violence in an anime series. Okay, that's all and thank you for reading this blatantly long review.
# ~~~1. Introduction~~~
I'll start off by saying, this is NOT a __SPOILER FREE__ review, by NO MEANS.
However, I'll mark major spoilers ((BASICALLY THE ENTIRE GOING INTO DETAIL SECTION ON THE PLOT)).
Also some gifs were taken from the @TheGrumblingGoblin review.
+First review on this site
+First time bothering to write a review for an anime
+Haven't watched many anime's of this genre
+I hope the formatting is fine
A small word before I begin as well, at first I thought this was honestly an 8/10 anime, until I
re-watched a few episodes fully awake mentally...
#~~~__The actual review__~~~
I'll rate it in sections, the at the going into detail part on the plot, I'll talk more "freely"
Anyway, let's start with
~~~---2. Music---~~~
An OP, which was choosen nicely and honestly one of the better OP's I've heard, has a good tone to it,
and fits to the series.
The ED is also quite fitting. Most of the time, the right tracks for the right situation were choosen
as well, and honestly, good job on building suspense with music.
Here give the OP a listen:
youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J86lEnfmb50)
Yea, not a bad choice.
Also, cheap jump-scares that..,were cheap..but hey..they did their job
__7/10 for solid on this section__
~~~--3. Art, THE GORE--~~~
__Fucking__ amazing ~~but that's about all the amazing for this series ha!~~
The gore, it's honestly, well yea. It had me shocked, and honestly represented the deaths, in a way
that made me feel bad for the characters, i.eg __Elevator Girl__ and of course, for everyone who has
watched the series, the most favorite. __Umbrella Girl__
I continue..., 2 more sections and one sub-section
~~~ --Characters--~~~
THIS IS WHERE SHIT BEGINS TO HIT THE FAN.
OK OK LET ME CALM THE FUCK DOWN
Let me start off by saying, all characters in this Anime are generic the anime doesn't give the
characters enough time, well to truly show us their depth so keep your expectation low for individual
characters, also my favorites are Eye-Patch Girl, and honestly. The friend of the MC.
For one reason, they were slightly more realistic and less retarded. Oh I take that back, I like the
Eye-Patch Girl because of the insane irony, and honestly...what the fuck
__Anyway,__ this is our dear MC, his name is Kouichi Sakakibara, sound familiar? Well he'll seem
familiar to you.
~~~img220(https://i.gyazo.com/b5a5dd69003d7ab6819da4c485845231.png)~~~
Let me start off by saying, this MC is generic in most ways "Tough, reasonable, understanding
blabla???", and a few things annoy me about him.
Only to the start of the series, does he react in a way I'd call realistic. After that, did he
suddenly acquires insane mental toughness?
Also, he scrubs off the death of his classmates one by one, even when they're dying right in front of
him, it feels nearly like he doesn't care.
~~~Next!~~~
~~~Eye-patch girl! Yay! ~~~
~~~img220(https://i.gyazo.com/baedd7203d97b55cb8b71842c3d32107.png)~~~
Open loner, not particularly trusting, acts a bit weird, interest in dolls...,,__YEA YOU SEE WHERE
THIS IS GOING!__
~~~--The Rest of the Class/+Teachers and side characters--~~~
SPEED TIME!
The rest of the class is your standard generic school-area-setup in terms of personality, they are
honestly nothing special. Same for the teachers, well I guess aside from that one...**warning gore
there, and a death spoiler so**~!
img220(https://i.gyazo.com/57a0f0d214712725a9f2c6d80c9b6f6b.gif)!~
But I'll mention Izumi Akazawa
~~~img220(https://i.gyazo.com/b21d44c859863c4214aaa17c41518d1b.png)~~~
, as she sparked my interest.., and also bears a special role, as the "Supernatural Counter-force"
blab-la enforcement head council or whatever.
Anyway, she's the "Leader-Type", and the "Group above all type of person!!!" anyway, I'll call her
**communist girl**, if I ever refer to her again in here.
__As you can read here, all of the characters are basically generic, the anime doesn't give us a lot
of time to relate to them, not enough screen-time for a lot of them as well, there's 0 bonding going
on here, oh and some of them are retarded, and a small...contradiction in my personal opinion, you'll
see what I mean once I get into the plot
4/10 for...at least we have characters? Sure depressing though__
Edit Note: >continued after 1 week, I might have mentioned stuff double from here on.
#~~~__--4. The Plot, the shit--__~~~
So here's a quick summary..,
Ehem, after some event, which involved a student dying, some phenomenon caused a supernatural being we
call the "Another", to create/immitiate a dead person, which then infiltrates the class, this dead
person is usually someone who died in something, caused by some other.."supernatural being?",
This being basically doesn't like this "Another" person, and can't pinpoint this "Another" and thus
starts randomly killing people in the class and or, people associated with people in the class or
people who try to escape _dun dun_.
Despite starting as a decent horror-mystery, this show soon went downhill and at the end of the day was nothing more than a glorified gore show. I don't mind gore when its done right, but this show used the gore and countless death as nothing more than shock value. The deaths had no impact in the long run, and even when some reactions were shown in response to some of the deceased, it was overblown beyond words. As i sit after completing the show and look back on it, was there even a need of 12 episodes? The answer is no. There was hardly any character development and most of the deaths that we saw occur didn't really add much to the mystery. I'll mention some things that i did like about the show. Mei is an interesting character, and by far the most sane in the show by her reactions even if at first she came across as nothing more than a creepy ghost girl. She was the only source of genuine creepy atmosphere, and later when we learned that she was in fact alive, she didn't change her personality much. She was the only character consistent in her action and words. Her and sakakibara's friendship was good as well. And back to the mystery, the actual twist at the end wasn't half bad, i didn't expect it to be reiko. But with plot holes attached to even that reveal, i can't say that it was anything better than average. As for the other characters, i couldn't care less about what happened to them. I was given no feature to empathize with them. They for most part were nothing but selfish bullies. And at the end showed how vile they are. To be honest we didn't get to even know half of the characters mentioned, so when i saw them trying to go after misaki i couldn't care less about what happened to them. The last 2 episodes actually dropped the ball with the quality, i hated the characters so much. They wouldn't talk to each other and would make dumb mistakes like any other horror show. Sakakibara is just not an interesting mc to follow, he did show signs of a good character at first with his suspicion and inquisitive nature at first, but soon he also caught the worm of stupidity. His actions in the later half of the show are just so questionable. Well, at least the visuals and audio are decent. The character designs may not be the most special, but they do work. The only one with an interesting character model was misaki mei. I liked her doll eye. The show is shot well, some drawn out shots and change of angles even during the conversations made the show a lot better to look at. The op is genuinely good and it's creepy, definitely fit the vibe the show had aimed for (even if it didn't reach as a whole package). The ed has some good vocals, but overall it was quite forgettable. And i thought, a piano ballad didn't actually fit as except mei and sakakibara, very few characters showed actual sadness over the incidents and they were never close. [SCORE: 4.9/10]
Another is the story of this little twink kid; he is not very memorable tbh. Like many pip-squeak male protagonists in high school drama, he only exists to narrate the stories of his classmates, which is exactly what we have going on here. I got recommended this based on the fact that it was spooky, which it is. I don't usually physically cringe during movies and TV that depict death except for a few exceptions that tend to be extremely graphic. For instance, the I Spit On Your Grave films, or any other exploitation / r@pe and revenge horror films tend to be extremely fucking brutal, especially those from the 70s. Another's death, and gore scenes are on the same level. I have seen some compare the death to that in the Final Destination films, which I have seen a couple of, and although those films are graphic, the cringe, gross-out, the gives-you-shivers effect is way more prominent in Another than it ever was in FD. The art style was a touch dated... like I have seen much older anime that looked much better drawn, especially in the horror genre. That being said, though, the animation for the blood and guts was satisfactory, lol, and those are the star of this show anyway. The character designs are a little ordinary, but they ironically come to life once you see them impaled, cutthroat, hanged and crucified. Literally, no transgression left unexplored when it comes to ways to murder school children. As a horror fan, I thought Another was solid; I liked the ghost-story elements. I liked that I couldn't guess the ending, although I feel as though it was a little lazy and didn't really make sense, which is a shame because all other plot holes about the strange occurrences in the school get tied up well in a way that doesn't spoon-feed the audience the information, its trusts we can put the clues together and doubts us in the right places. Unfortunately, this isn't executed as well with the ending, but at least I didn't see it coming. Missaki was a great character, and I love how she was very much so intended to be the prime suspect for all the weird shit that happens; I mean, her look even fooled me...can't be too careful of anime characters with eye patches; there is often something sus going on. But, she was cute and weird, and without spoiling anything, she surprised me. Another was alright; if you like gore and horror and high school and creepy girls, it's fun. It isn't super deep, you don't need to watch like ten video essays explaining the nuances of the show to understand what it's going for, it is basically just a fun little experiment that plays with elements of curses, ghost stories, witchcraft. et cetra. If that still doesn't; tickle your fancy, you got to at least see some of these death scenes lmao, one bitch is killed by an umbrella!
>__Koichi Sakakibara acaba de mudarse a casa de su familia materna, comenzando a estudiar en la Yomiyama del Norte, clase 3-3. Sin embargo, esta clase esconde muchos secretos que, como descubrirá Koichi al lado de una misteriosa chica con un parche en el ojo, llamada Mei, podrían llevar a los miembros de la clase a un horrible final...__ ~~~img(https://i.imgur.com/c7S2ecc.png)~~~ _Miedo, desesperación, ansiedad..._ estos, son algunos de los más básicos y primitivos instintos que poseemos los seres vivos, más puntualmente los humanos quienes tenemos otra característica que potencia a las ya mencionadas, dándoles una mayor profundidad: La imaginación. Aquello que nos permite crear cosas extraordinarias y llegar más allá de los límites establecidos, a lugares insospechados; pero, como todo lo bueno, la imaginación es un arma de doble filo y así como puede nuestra mayor virtud... también puede transformarse en nuestra más grande perdición, haciendo que nos acerquemos cada vez más a la oscuridad, a ese abismo en nuestra mente en el cual se encuentra... Another. La historia nos presenta a Koichi Skakibara, un estudiante de secundaria quien se ha transferido desde Tokio para vivir con sus abuelos y su tía materna, y que terminará asistiendo a la escuela Yomiyama del Norte. Curiosamente, la estancia de Koichi no comienza de la mejor manera posible, pues va a parar al hospital debido a un problema respiratorio; es aquí donde recibirá la visita de sus nuevos compañeros de clase, específicamente de un pequeño grupo que se presenta como la "brigada encargada de las contra medidas" pero que no dicen nada más aparte de eso, lo cual, pone confuso a nuestro protagonista, dejándolo con la sensación de que le están ocultando algo. Es también en el hospital, donde conocerá a Mei Misaki, una chica de apariencia sombría y con un parche en su ojo izquierdo; ella lleva una muñeca colgando de su mano y esto llama la atención de Koichi quien, al preguntarle, recibe como respuesta que la muñeca, así como su presencia en el lugar, son con el fin de cumplir una promesa. Mas adelante, Koichi descubrirá 2 cosas: la primera, que Mei está en su misma clase, y la segunda (y más inquietante) es que sus compañeros de clase, profesor incluido, actúan ignorando permanentemente la presencia de Mei, como si para ellos no existiera... como si fuese algo o alguien que no debería estar ahí; Koichi, al intentar averiguar el por qué recibe una enigmática respuesta por parte de su recién adquirida amiga: Sería mejor que te alejes de mi, aunque, probablemente ya haya comenzado... ~~~img(https://i.imgur.com/M2Mmoli.png?1)~~~ Con la frase anterior alojada en su mente, nuestro protagonista comenzará a descubrir poco a poco, muchas más cosas sobre la Yomiyama del Norte y específicamente, sobre su clase, la clase 3-3, dándose cuenta que todo el asunto hacia Mei, es más que una simple broma o un mal entendido. Esto ocurrirá al tiempo en que ambos comienzan a hablar más y más, entablando amistad; sin embargo, lejos de resultar beneficioso para Mei, terminará haciendo que Koichi pase a ser también ignorado por sus compañeros. Lo anterior se verá fuertemente detonado por una lúgubre razón: Varios miembros de la clase comenzarán a morir de horribles maneras a causa de la maldición de la clase 3-3 (y de la cual Mei informa a Koichi): Hace muchos años, hubo en esta clase un chico llamado Misaki Yomiyama, el era querido y respetado por todos sus compañeros, pero desgraciadamente falleció, dejando a la clase con un sentimiento de vació; al poco tiempo, los alumnos comenzaron a fingir que Misaki estaba en la clase, actuando como si aun estuviese vivo, al punto de guardar un lugar para el en la foto de graduación. Lamentablemente, esto no generaría más que tragedia a los demás pues, a partir de ese momento, un rastro de muerte se posa sobre la clase 3-3 año con año, siguiendo una simple pero enigmática regla: Mientras haya uno de más, las muertes continuaran... hay alguien que no debería de estar aquí... Así, es como comenzará la búsqueda de nuestros 2 protagonistas en su objetivo de encontrar la forma de parar la maldición, y con ello, detener las muertes que una a una irá sucediendo a lo largo de los 12 episodios de la obra así como también, liberarse de su propia inexistencia. Iremos viendo cómo es que Koichi y Mei van descubriendo nuevas pistas, como van escuchando recuerdos de personas que estuvieron directamente implicadas con la clase 3-3 de 1983 y quienes por increíble que parezca, lograron detener la maldición gracias a cierto suceso. ~~~__Al abismo de la locura__~~~ En este punto, me gustaría volver al comienzo de esta reseña y subrayar el concepto que quizá mejor se adapte a lo que es Another:__ La locura__. Esa que, conforme avance la serie, se verá acentuada por otro de los ejes sobre los que se cimienta la obra: Las muertes. Y es que, así como estas serán las que definan el curso de las acciones de nuestros protagonistas y sus compañeros de clase; también serán las que aumenten la desesperación de los mismos, al tiempo que deberán observar (pese a sus esfuerzos por evitarlo) como es que, uno a uno, van muriendo más y más personas, siempre de una forma más sangrienta y trágica que la anterior (lo cual, dejara complacidos a los fanáticos del Gore, presente durante toda la trama). Esto hará que los personajes comiencen a sugestionarse, poniendo a prueba la fragilidad de sus mentes y descubriendo que, la distancia entre la cordura y la locura es mucho más pequeña de lo que creían. ~~~img(https://i.imgur.com/RdVpdy3.png) ~~~ Lo anterior será muy bien reflejado en el personaje de Mei, quien, al momento de descubrir un revelador indicio por parte de la clase del ´83, se volverá objeto de las venganzas de sus compañeros de clase, quienes, perturbados por el indicio, caminarán más cerca que nunca, hacia el abismo de la locura, su propia locura, ya totalmente entregados a la paranoia. Es gracias a este factor, que la serie destaca, pues logra retratar aquello que somos capaces de hacer los seres humanos al estar ante una situación que nos supera (para mal), que nos muestra lo malvada que puede llegar a ser nuestra especie. En lo que respecta a la animación, estamos ante uno de los puntos más sobresalientes de la obra, teniendo un diseño de personajes bastante decente (aunque en momentos algo chocante por sus facciones poco redondeadas), Yuriko Ishii es el encargado de esto, ofreciéndonos personajes llenos de expresiones únicas y que ayudan a transmitir la tensión y angustia que empapa a la serie. Aquí destaca nuevamente el personaje de Mei, quien, mediante su estética y el simbolismo de las muñecas, recrea ese misticismo del no saber que es real o no... Mejor aún es el apartado de fondos y escenarios, pues son estos los que verdaderamente ayudan a adentrarnos en el lúgubre ambiente que tiene la serie, con escenas bellamente detalladas y una paleta oscura omnipresente. El aspecto sonoro es otro punto acertado, obra de Kow Otani, cuenta con piezas llenas de intriga, con ritmos lentos que nos adentran de lleno al suspenso mostrado, haciendo que estemos atentos de cada detalle, sonido y acción que acontezca. Por su parte, el OP "Kyoumu Densen" (凶梦伝染) de la banda Ali Project y el ED "Anamnesis" de Annabel, funcionan bien como introducción y cierre a cada episodio, resaltando un poco más el primero. __________________ _Another es una buena serie y una excelente opción si lo que se busca, es una obra llena de suspenso; logrando combinar una historia envolvente con un ambiente en el que nos adentraremos más y más, al punto de sentir la misma ansiedad que los personajes (recomiendo verla con las luces apagadas), teniendo momentos de comedia que servirá como contrapunto para aquello que estaremos por ver al minuto siguiente. Sin lugar a duda, Another es una digna representante del género, recordándonos que la línea que nos separa del abismo dentro de nosotros, es más frágil de lo que pensamos..._ __Te advertí que no te me acercaras, pero puede que sea demasiado tarde. -Mei Misaki__ >__Más contenido en mi blog personal [13 Fotogramas](https://13fotogramas.blogspot.com/)__
__1. Introdução:__ Como sempre, nesta _review_ eu irei usar tópicos que condizem com a minha experiência ao assistir o anime em questão e pontos que eu acho interessante a serem analisados. __2. Enredo:__ Desde o início o anime é sempre voltado para o suspense, mistério, terror e horror. O mistério principal é, até certo ponto, bem abordado e interessante, mas com o passar de poucos episódios ele vai sendo mais confuso assim como os seus _plot twist_. Essa confusão gerada por diversos fatores como o mau ritmo dos eventos e de um "encobrimento" meio forçado da verdade, acaba por tirar uma coisa que poderia ser interessante. Como eu falei no início, até certo ponto a narrativa se mantem boa, e é mais ou menos na metade que ele começa a se perder, os eventos da metade para o fim começam a ficar estranhos e confusos. E é claro, não poderia faltar as conveniências de praxe que existe quando se trata de terror, o anime é cheio deles e não são nada legais, principalmente do ponto de vista de quem já está saturado desse tipo de coisa. Apesar de ainda ter a ver, os eventos finais do anime são confusos com relação ao que ele vinha apresentado desde o início. __3. Personagens:__ Mesmo com uma obra que se passa em uma sala de aula e que envolve diversos personagens por causa disso, o anime consegue, pelo menos, trabalhar minimamente bem em cima dos mais relevantes. Os demais personagens são ofuscados e nem ao menos são apresentados, seja porquê o enredo necessita que eles se ocultem, o que ele faz muito bem porque simplesmente eles não são mostrados mesmo, mas que mais para frente a falta de apresentação deles deixa as coisas confusas porque eles ficam envolvidos em eventos importantes. Os personagens principais são, dando vista grossa, "OK". O personagem mais destacável aqui é a protagonista feminina. __4. Mortes:__ O anime envolve bastante mortes de seus personagens, e muitos deles nem ao menos são apresentados. Muitas dessas mortes são, mesmo com todo o mistério e a explicação para que as mortes sejam causadas, bem forçadas, o que acaba por tirar todo o clima de perigo e medo, às vezes se tornando até cômico por ser estranho. Esse é um dos pontos mais estranhos da obra, como está havendo mortes em série em uma escola e ninguém além de alguns professores e os alunos fazem alguma coisa? É aqui que se tem a famosa morte causada pelo guarda-chuva, e ela também é uma das que se encaixam na questão de ser uma morte causada de forma estranha, se tornando cômica. __5. Produção / Animação:__ No geral a animação é "OK". Sem muita coisa ambiciosa e complicada, se mantendo polido e bem feito durante a maior parte do anime. Aqui e ali surge algo mais ambicioso e que é bem executado, mas nada de tão relevante. Se for pra resumir eu diria que ele teve um bom tratamento, sendo considerado acima da média para seu porte. __5.2. Ambientação:__ Com certeza o ponto mais forte do anime está em sua excelente ambientação de terror e horror. A direção de arte foi elevada para um outro nível quando se trata de suspense e terror. Realmente transmite a quantidade certa que o anime necessita, ou até mais do que deveria, de transmitir medo ao telespectador. __5.3. Trilha sonora:__ Outro ponto forte do anime. A trilha sonora foi muito bem elaborada, e junto ao clima de suspense criado pela ótima execução de ambientação, transmite uma boa sensação de medo. __6. Pontos positivos e pontos negativos:__ __6.1. Pontos positivos:__ - Excelente ambientação de terror; - Excelente trilha sonora de terror; - Um mistério "OK" até a metade (estou fazendo vista grossa). __6.2. Pontos negativos:__ - Conveniências de praxe de obras de terror; - Acontecimentos confusos; - Personagens mau apresentados; - Eventos finais nada condizentes com o que o anime vinha propondo; - Causas de mortes estranhas; - Episódio de praia, sério? __7. Conclusão:__ Como eu já falei, o anime só tem seu maior poder por parte da boa ambientação de terror e horror, outros pontos que não sejam ligados a isso são confusos e pouco interessante. Os mistérios que são apresentados só são até que bem executados até pouco mais da metade, depois disso eles se tornam confusos e o único sentimento, além do medo imposto pela ambientação, é o de perdido. Conveniências já saturadas de obras de terror. Mortes estranhas que não passam medo, tornando-se até cômicas.
Hello Again! At the moment I am watching small anime's and anime films both on and off my list. Another was one on the list that I knew very little about. This anime caught me off guard many times throughout its episodes and while i never LOVED this show, I did enjoy it. Maybe it's because I am in a funny head space at the moment which is lowering how attached I become to shows, but I still am able to enjoy these. SPOILERS AHEAD, DUH! Another is filled with suspense, surprise and creepy vibes. From the very first episode I was creeped out, it had an eerie atmosphere, with dark places and mysterious actions and people, it definitely hit the right tone for me, as my first creepy anime. Straight from the get-go I was trying to understand and guess what was going-on but now having finished it I realise I just felt right into the trap of the writing. I instantly assumed, Mei Misaki is dead, she was a pale girl, quiet and reserved and no one else could see her, and hell she creeped me out. The first death completely caught me off guard, but I was very excited. Such a drastic turn of events and the introduction of a good amount of blood and gore hit the perfect spot and I knew that this show was about to get GOOD. I knew the show was creepy but a teenager being killed in such a manner, and not just any character but one that had been displayed as kind and a generally enjoyable character was killed in such a memorable way that it completely shocked me, and I was here for it. As the story develops, things slowly make sense, understanding why Mei is "non-existent" the calamity, all the events that are in play begin to add up. With this there is a lingering question of Who is the extra student. This question is what really excited me, with two main characters and other quite prevalent supporting characters, it felt that there was a large pool of candidates that could be this "Other". Initially I believed it to be Sakakibara, it made sense, he was a transfer, few people knew him hell even the show mentioned he might have been the one to die not his mother. But as it develops, I began to suspect Mei, she shows up conveniently in places, she's way to calm, pale and creepy, she hates PHONES (electromagnetic stuff to do with ghosts idk) it just added up. AND THEN AGAIN, I suspected Akazawa, and all the other supporting roles, but never did I guess at Reiko and I was so happy that i didn't, while watching i kept saying to my brother, this show will get a good score if it's reveal is good, I didn't want it to be Sakakibara or Mei, it was too simple or at least if it was, make it a good ass reveal. But the Teacher! Never did I expect that and hell it all added up as we are shown, we knew this from Episode 1 but never thought about it. This was exactly what I wanted for the show, a creepy vibe, lots of death and a reveal that caught me off guard and I got exactly that. Other than the reveal, the amount of death was pure chaos and I loved it. As someone who adore the Amazon Show "The Boys" gore and blood is a love for me. Especially in the final few episodes, this show just goes into utter chaos killing teenagers all over the place in all manners of grotesque and painful ways. Every single one catching me off guard, not a single death was underwhelming or predictable. Hell even back at episode 7, I had left the show for a weekend and forgot the teacher pulled out a knife, coming back to that episode after a break to watch a teacher kill himself brought me straight back into this great anime. Character Wise, they were all generally enjoyable characters. Sakaibara's two friends were fun and Akazawa made for good moments too, Sakakibara himself was OK, nothing special. Mei was both creepy and lovable and honestly I don't know how i feel about her, I both love the cold, non-caring character but also just don't. Also i have to give credit to this beauty of a scene: youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAcSjTZ9kh0) Overall, I enjoyed the plot of the show and liked the characters. May be worth a rewatch in future in a better headspace? Still a good show overall.
~~~__story__ img(https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/another-characters.jpg) The story was one thing and that was finding “another” character who is really dead. It was new to me so I really enjoyed it. But I wish the story had more to it. I’m a big fan of Horror but I try my best not to watch them on my own. “Another” started pretty good. The first two episodes made me believe Mei isn’t real and Kouichi was making her up. I even told myself she is probably not real. After Mei claims that she can only be seen by Kōichi I told myself “I knew it!” but exactly in that moment Yukari ,one of Kouichi’s annoying classmates, runs out of the class and looks at them terrified. Here I noticed she saw her too and I'm really enjoying how mysterious this anime is! Let me be honest, some episode were really intense with all gore especially episode three. After two normal episodes episode three surprised me and made me cover my mouth in agony! The pace of this anime was pretty slow but that didn’t bother me at all because it made the whole thing more interesting. I can’t really say anything about the story because I’ll probably spoil the most important parts but what I really enjoyed was the plot twists this series had. Every time I thought I’ve solved the mystery, Another proved me wrong. Every weird things I saw in each episode came together at the end and I was shocked AF! __Characters__ img(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LD1AL9l5Vv0/XPlC-BcLxfI/AAAAAAAAmAw/ZuPcngj2OJwlXqny1s5CnYs5cjHZk7QugCLcBGAs/s1600/Episodios_Another_sin_relleno.jpg) Most of the characters somehow got on my nerve; specially the classmates. They weren’t anything special and our main character Kouichi was a bit too normal. Unlike other horror-mystery anime, He didn’t even have the brains. We see that every time Kouichi asks the people about the curse of his class, something happens to the person asked such as pain, near death experience or actual death! But he was an idiot so he kept forcing all those people to go through that pain. The classmates were annoying and weird. Kouichi was a new member of the class so they had to tell him somehow what’s happening but they kept silent till it was too late. Between all the characters Misaki was probably the best character in the anime. Since she was shown most of the times as an emotionless character, I found her more mysterious. To be honest this anime has a bunch weak characters. None of them had any personality and they all acted way too stupidly and annoying. Usually I'm able to write about any character. But this anime stumped me. There was no character development or anything like that. The whole series was focused on the curse and who was gonna die next. __Art__ img(https://i0.wp.com/oocentral.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/0154767981b2b67f98c638431d82bfaa.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1) The art looked pretty good. There are a lot of doll scenes that I didn’t really understand but the dolls looked pretty good as well. The gore scenes looked amazing. Character designs weren’t that special; except for Misaki. Misaki’s design was great and mysterious. The color pallets used in this anime was dark which fit the anime splendidly! The sceneries were detailed and I especially loved the rainy scenes! Other than that there wasn't too much going for the art. I also found the eyes very weird; but It didn’t phase me too much. __Soundtracks__ The OST, original soundtrack, of this anime is amazing! The background music can give any human being goosebumps. But the background music in some scenes made me think something important was gonna happen but that moment never came. Other than that the whole thing was pretty good. The opening song for the dark atmosphere in the music video wasn’t anything too special. The ending wasn't too special either, but i still enjoyed it. Even though the music video for the ending was really simple I liked it way more than opening. The lyrics for the ending was beautiful as well! __Overall__ After Corpse Party, this anime had the power to make me jump. The OST, original soundtrack, was pretty good. Character designs weren’t anything special, but the gore scenes were flawless! Characters weren’t that good either, but the story was interesting enough to keep me watching till the end. I would recommend this anime to people who like horror and gore! ~~~
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a transcript of a video review posted here: https://youtu.be/W9VkycsiVH0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "That Misaki girl was famous since elementary one. She was good in both studies and sport. Even her personality was outstanding. As I was saying, after becoming a third year she transferred over to the 3rd class, and died after the incident occurred That sudden death caused her classmates to cry. Even her form teacher stopped speaking and the class felt haunted. Then, someone spoke. Misaki didn’t die, look she’s right there" I’ve been on somewhat of a psychological binge, recently finishing The Flowers of Evil and starting Boy’s Abyss, regardless these were a while apart and I was going through an anime burnout, that was before I watched Another. With it being one of the more popular anime out there it was a surprise I hadn’t seen it sooner; I’d heard a lot about it and seen Misaki Mei’s face more than once perusing the internet. Another is often disregarded by a fair few people, but perhaps today I can convince you to watch if you haven’t already, the anime that pulled me out of that burnout- the story of someone no one can see, the story of one too many, Another. Another certainly isn’t an unknown anime, by any means, if you go to any anime-related forum or discussion on social media you’ll see it quite often. Yet the frequency was at such a level that it was just little enough for me to consider it a show I didn’t need to watch immediately. Thus, like many shows, it went into my plan to watchlist with little to no intention of watching any time soon. I believe that was a big mistake, Another is an anime best enjoyed casually. It’s a fun rollercoaster that at points is a story you almost certainly don’t need to take seriously. I originally intended to read the manga, after not having consistently watched anime in a while I wanted the convenience of experiencing the story at my leisure and not having to sit down and commit to it. I read its opening 6 pages and immediately changed my mind. The opening of Another is particularly captivating, it sets up the premise of the story, a mystery about a girl who died somewhere between 2 and 3 decades ago (depending on the version) called Misaki, a student that was meant to be dead somehow being seen as alive. It’s a bizarre mystery and the anime, novel and manga all start in the same poignant way. We of course move to the present day and are introduced to our main character Kouichi Sakakibara who is moving back to his hometown and the stage is set for a second mystery to occur. That mystery being the one of Misaki Mei. This Misaki has a mystery much the polar opposite of the one we’re introduced to at the beginning, only one person can see her, that of course being Kouichi. To the rest of the world, the girl, Misaki Mei may as well not exist at all. Whilst such a set up isn’t too abnormal from mystery fiction, it does serve to be a genuinely engaging introduction which left me with many questions going forward. That is the part of Another that kept me watching and engaged the whole time, the mystery element of it. It’s quite often a debate of whether Another belongs to the horror genre, especially considering everyone’s definition of horror isn’t quite the same. Another was not a psychological horror to me just a rather engaging mystery but to someone else it could quite equally be a shoddy mystery and a captivating horror. At the core of it I enjoyed the psychological elements more than the horror- it explores what it means to be truly alone and the human need to be recognised and perceived. Its opening episodes are truly great for presenting this and particularly the voice acting for Kouichi done by Atsushi Abe and Misaki voiced by Natsumi Takamori created very engaging performances that enhanced the story and dynamic between a girl who seems almost inhuman and a very humanly average boy struggling to find out what’s really happening at his new school. I believe where the reviews are so divided at least from my own conclusions is how the story progresses from that point, further away from a mystery in an attempt to shock the viewer. However, I have to disagree with this, where many saw a vein and hollow attempt at forcing the audience to be shocked, to me it rang a true feeling of hopelessness and loneliness. The mystery in Another is beyond what I’d even begin to label as realistic, its characters and premise beyond what I’d even begin to label as believable. But not every story, particularly psychological, has to conform to what we’d expect of the human mind. By betraying these expectations, it instead gives a thrilling and warped view of characters rather than people. When placed in such an unreal and fantastical situation, its not too much of a stretch for there to be an element of sacrificing believability. By doing so, Another builds an atmosphere of isolation, presented all too well by its use of weather and particularly its composition and music. Its no surprise with the music being done by the same composer as Shadow of the Colossus, a game that brings the idea of isolation I keep hearkening back to seeping into its world. Everything about Another is empty, and even when its playing on tropes we’re all familiar with *cough cough* beach episode, it still manages to maintain the palpable atmosphere the whole time. “No matter how many connections we have in life, we’re all alone in the end”- Misaki Mei Another wears its themes on its sleeve like this for its entire runtime, for a mystery it is surprisingly not as obtuse as one might expect and is most certainly not a perfect show by any means, and its not one on any day I could label as a masterpiece, it has its fair share of flaws but I think its qualities aren’t stated nearly enough. Another is a show that’s gonna stick around in my head for a while and for those who haven’t watched it, I have a suspicion it might do the same, its dark world, ambient rain and music, the atmosphere of loneliness and its bleak backgrounds- the story of a girl no one can see, the story of one too many, the story of Another.
~~~~~~__~~~Great story great plot__~~~ ~~~img700(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YGrszFVKnDs/WFRCnqWDkwI/AAAAAAAABqM/aohPBkeiDUwjnC4sgdfK9MW3YsvkINA6ACLcB/s1600/639788.jpg)~~~ Ok, I will start my review appointing to the problems that I think that make some people hate this horror and suspense anime. - The confusing plot (if you don't pay attention) - script holes (It's very difficult work with this theme without some hole in the script to help the trama) Is a fact that something are strange at our point of view in the anime, for example: If Misaki knows the whole time about the extra student, why her didn't something with her doll eyes or something like that? Why everyone do suspense and don't tell anything to Sakakibara until Izumi came to the school next day? Why the end was so chaotic, what is this plot? Well, I will try to explain why I like so much this horror/suspense anime and tell my vision about these points. ~~~ __Calamity__~~~ ~~~img500(https://media.tenor.com/4R7K6kWvjuMAAAAC/anime-another.gif)~~~ All the plot spin trough a curse that starts 26 years ago in the class 3 - 3 of the Yomiyama North Middle School. Every year this curse starts for some reason, killing the students in this class and your relatives, now, the objective of the students is stop the calamity that starts when Sakakibara came to YM (Yomiyama North). I don't know in the first time I watched, but this came to be my favorite anime, in any category, I really appreciate this show because he takes everything that is necessary to do a good story and a good plot; - Nice characters, everyone in the right place, with the right time to be in the scene doing what he need to do, connected with the plot and connected whit us, viewers. - Red herrings. What a lot of people don't understand is that to make a good plot, a good suspense, you need a slower rhythm, and Another do this like a masterpiece. Another don't need to lie to you to make a good plot, they point a real doubt, a real question in your mind, and, after this, they broke this and came another doubt different, but keeping in mind what was telling before, they don't need to deceive you to seem good or intelligent, the plot is good exactly why you are discovering the clues with the characters, you are never in front of them, and never behind them. - A good soundtrack, it's simple but is very functional, the sound effects are very good to and the soundtrack is always scary, but something bring some piece in this "scary" and when it need, just put you without breath. The high tones that go increasing and increasing like a machine in a corridor or something like that, make you intentionally feels uncomfortable and it's bring some paralyzing experience - A good plot, all the investigation are fun to watch and make her purpose, the show never wants to be more than he is, just a good suspense anime ant that's it, don't need to be a masterpiece to be good, to bee captivating. __~~~How the gore works (and works well)~~~__ ~~~img800(https://i.makeagif.com/media/12-10-2015/wjcuQD.gif)~~~ One thing that works very well in this show it's the gore, not because is explicit and have a much of blood or something like that, it's because the anime prepare a solid ground to put this gore, slowly showing the mistery, slowly showing the school, the locations and a sequence of images that premeditate where this deaths will happen, so, when finally the calamity starts, the shock of the gore hits you in the face and you think --"what I'm watched right now??"-- and after this, the show starts to take a rhythm more and more aggressive, loud songs, loud musics and the mistery about to be solved at any minute. And then, we finally reach the last two episodes, when everything hatch in a madness and crazy massacre. ~~~"Send the extra student to the afterlife" ~~~ This make any sense? this madness end? this whole plot? Well, to me, yes, much sense. ~~~img500(https://images2.alphacoders.com/639/639792.jpg)~~~ Think, if you have 15 years and see your friend down the stairs with a umbrella trough the throat, or your teacher putting a knife in his own throat too, after that, your parents, brother, everyone starts to die, and all the explication about all of this is a curse started years and years ago. This curse make everyone crazy, and the anime shows very well their decay and degradation, the protagonist starts to have strengths nightmares about seeing his own like the "dead student" and thinks that everyone is his fault. So this end can't be better, everyone in a sanctuary, so symbolic, but, when they discover that one person in specific is the "extra", they gotta madness to kill this person because this will stop the calamity, resulting in a massacre and a crazy end, but, functional. Everyone lost something, everyone just wants to stop this madness. The plot about the "extra" is very good, I really don't expected that, and the anime shows some clues about it, but I didn't believe it could be that. Well, a really and satisfying story and plot. Watch Another (or read). ~~~goodbye~~~ ~~~img800(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/96/a4/52/96a452e000159096a7395dd6794e096f.gif)~~~
~~~img220(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-82fa49QGfR4/UPQFkTUzjOI/AAAAAAAAAco/SX9fGaI5h6c/s1600/1337047655446.gif)~~~ __Esse anime tinha a premissa boa, tinha tudo para ser bom no entanto ele foi a grande decepção dos animes porque vendo a sua sinopse diz:__ >Aquela turma da escola guardava um segredo proibido de se contar... Na primavera de 1998, quando o Sakakibara (15 anos) foi transferido para a Escola de Ensino Fundamental Yomiyama do Norte, ele sentia que uma sensação estranha pairando no ar, lhe parecia como um temor por parte de seus colegas. Até que então, o Kouichi é atraído por uma garota misteriosa chamada Mei Misaki. Ele tenta se aproximar dela para desvendar um pouco daquele seu mistério, mas conforme ele se aproxima um desastre que ele jamais imaginara ocorre! O que há de errado neste "mundo"?! Essa sinopse eu achei bastante interessante misteriosa porque ela é capaz de gerar diversas duvidas para todos os leitores e fans de animes!! sinopses assim bem escritas são muito boas porque elas não entregam a historia logo de cara, além de que cativam a gente em querer conhecer cada vez mais do que se trata aquele tipo de anime! sinopses escritam dessa forma capazes de nos deixar intrigados assim são raras de se encontrarem e dão um up a mais no nosso hype em querer desvendar os segredos por trás de tudo que acontecerá no decorrer da história o que é muito bom uma vez que o storytelling ja ganhou a atenção daquele publico. --------------------------- __Qual foi o erro da produtora?__ simplesmente não ter respondidos esses questionamentos que a sinopse gerou na gente! Ela simplesmente adaptou a obra do pior jeitos possíveis, no começo do anime até que o cenário e a ambientação de algo misterioso foi sendo introduzido de uma forma muito boa e isso foi bacana no começo. porém existe certos aspectos que o estúdio deixou a desejar que são eles: personagens e enredo da narrativa! No anime todo os personagens simplesmente morrem da forma mais brutal possível. Entendo perfeitamente que o anime em sí é sim feito para mostrar que pessoas morreriam do decorrer da historia oque é totalmente plausível e condizente com a lore do que o anime prometia ser, contudo um ponto que vale salientar é a gente como espectador não teve tempo de compreender o papel de cada aluno daquela escola, os fatos da narrativa e as mortes simplesmente foram acontecendo e a gente como espectador só acompanhava o andamento da história. Esse anime não deu tempo da gente se apegar a algum personagem sequer! A cada episódio só mostrava os personagens morrendo um a um da forma mais gore possível! Os pontos importantes da história que poderiam trazer alguma trama e desfecho no storytelling foram completamente deixados de lado de modo que a gente não entendesse nada da história!! Finalizo que, eu abri esse review comentando que é bacana demais ver uma sinopse que gerasse duvidas no começo do anime. mas não imaginei que fosse finalizar o anime com ainda mais duvidas achava que as duvidas seria sanada no decorrer da historia asaushuahsuahuhauhsuhasuhus~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~___[Pocket Review](https://anilist.co/activity/759051882) of Another___~~~ This review contains spoilers, though you can read any part but the one starts with the title "Don't expect anything good." The review starts off with a relatively long intro. Compared to that, the part where I criticize the series itself might seem a bit superficial, but I don't think it'll go against guidelines or negatively affect your reading experience. You can skip it if you want. So, let's get started. _And honestly, I don't love this review but since I finished it, I decided to publish._ ___ - # __Intro__ The horror genre is pretty popular right? People love to be scared, and sometimes they even pay for it. Whether it's live-action films and series, games, or haunted houses, there are many industries that make money by focusing on this negative emotion. What about anime though? Even though I don't read much, it's clear that horror has a big presence in the world of manga. Many mangakas like well known Junji Ito, offer their unique stories and art styles, and they can get quite popular and well-received. But can you say the same for anime? How many "horror" titles are in the top 200 based on popularity on Anilist? 17, and among those, there are examples like [The Promised Neverland](https://anilist.co/anime/101759/The-Promised-Neverland) or [Chainsaw Man](https://anilist.co/anime/127230/Chainsaw-Man), which none of you would confidently call "horror anime." I'd say maybe 8 of those 17 can truly be considered as actual "horror." So, even though there are plenty of horror series that don't make it to the top 200, anime is one of the industries where this genre remains mostly recessive. There are many reasons for this and they can be discussed by length, but for now, let's just say that horror is a risky genre that almost guarantees failure if studios don't deliver high production quality ([an example](https://anilist.co/anime/150653/Junji-Ito-Maniac-Japanese-Tales-of-the-Macabre)). After all, a manga is usually written and illustrated by a single person, so it doesn’t cost much to produce. On the other hand, you know how it is with anime. From animators to screenwriters, there are dozens, sometimes even hundreds of people working together to complete a single season of anime, often at a cost of several million dollars. And if all this isn’t done well, the result can be a complete failure, it doesn’t get watched, and not meeting financial expectations of the studio and the broadcaster. Anyway, if you're relatively new to the anime world and you're looking for a horror anime, there are a few series that definitely will stand out. Tokyo Ghoul, Parasyte -the maxim-, Elfen Lied, The Future Diary… …and Another. This pal is the main focus of this text, obviously. It's why you're here. Released in 2012 and still one of the frontrunners in its genre today, this series seemed like a good starting point to re-enter the horror genre 1.5 years after the last horror series I watched a considerable amount of. I didn't expect much, it was enough if it wasn't bad. Even though I say so, Another is actually a production of exactly the quality I expected in general. Although I like it more than any other real horror anime I've seen so far, the fact that it's not that big of a deal seems to prove the unpopularity of the genre or my lack of culture. But it surprised me and entertained me to some extent, especially towards the final episodes. Let's talk about it. ___ - # __Don't expect anything good.__ I say that, but don't think it's bad. Still, I don't think Another will please everyone, you might have to adjust your expectations or even your taste, and if it's the latter, believe me, it's not worth the effort. Don't like it, don't watch it, that's fine. For example, if you're looking for a solid story and plot, I'm sorry but f*ck off, man. This is a stuuupid anime. Its initial mysterious set-up doesn’t lead to a satisfying explanation, and things take a really different and wild turn. You might expect that in the horror genre, but don't think the characters to act logically or intelligently. They are all idiots. There are 2 main reasons for the horrible things that happen. One is the curse that makes this story exist and the other is the stupid decisions and actions of the characters. I’m not sure how accurate it is to say this, but for some reason, Another gives me the vibe of a B-grade indie film made by high school friends who gathered the necessary crew and equipment. The script feels like it was written while they were talking like, "Whoa, let's do it like this, make this happen like that, holy shit, this slaps." While it may not be good, there’s a fun side to it. It'd probably not be wrong to split Another into two parts in terms of tone and pace. Until episode 10, it's a mystery and a thriller. It's like, "There's something bad, but what is it?" There's a curse that everyone tries to hide but the main character stubbornly tries to find out about. At certain times every year, people who meet specific conditions die in suspicious ways. That's the fun part, the deaths. Whether it's interesting or mundane, There are a lot of death scenes in Another. Scenes like a boy getting caught and being torn apart in a boat motor while swimming to catch a seaball, or a girl falling down the stairs in a panic and accidentally jabbing her throat on the tip of her umbrella, usually happen in surprising and entertaining ways. I wish they were a bit more explicit, but there's the TV censorship thing of course. Especially in episodes 9 and 10, after the story fully unfolds, by episode 11 it turns into a slasher (not exactly a slasher though, but you get it). Everything, everyone gets messed up, people are slashing each other, deaths multiply, places go up in flames… Chaos, mayhem! The last 2 episodes are simply chaotic. Characters’ stupidity, different types of deaths increasingly continues. Tension at the top, what's gonna happen now? It's not that stressful though. Honestly, I probably watched those parts with a subtle smile on my face, because it was funny! The essential thing about Another is that it's entertaining. In all my sincerity, I don't give a shit about the quality of the story or how all of these things developed. I watched it like a dumb, and I'm happy to. The thing I wasn't happy with was the big plot twist. It didn't shock or excite me, I don't know, it felt kinda lame. I tried to focus on its structure and atmosphere more than the story itself. In short, Another is dumb fun. If you turn off your logical brain functions and just enjoy watching people die in various ways, you might have a good time like I did. You might even like the story of course, but personally, I didn’t care. Still, while I had fun and laughed and all that, I have to say that Another is not that great. It's above average. It's not good, but it's fun is probably the best way to sum it up, and that's how I scored it. Personally, my scores are generally below average, but if _you_ dive into Another with expecting it to be a 7/10 series like its score on Anilist, you probably won't be disappointed. ___ - # __What about sound and visuals?__ The visuals are nice. Even if I watched the first episodes of Another and [Blood-C](https://anilist.co/anime/10490/BloodC) back to back, I’d never guess there were only 5 months between them. While Blood-C is not bad, Another is something else. The animation quality may not be that exceptional, but the drawings, colors, camera angles, character reactions, and overall editing are really well done. And it also looks modern. Regardless of the quality, Blood-C looks like it came out in the late 2000s, whereas I wouldn't mind if Another was aired last year. As for the sound, it doesn’t stand out as much as the visuals, but there are no issues. Sound effects, voice acting, and music, they’re all good. Nothing particularly memorable, though. Another is an example of good production is the path to success. If you do it well, people will like it. And they have adapted the source material well, I hope. If it's a faithful adaptation without any serious changes, I'm sure it's not bad. As I said, if the genre is horror, that's extra important. I didn't watch the OP/ED, so I won't talk about them. ___ - # __That's it.__ Another can probably be chosen as an introduction to horror anime. I don't know how scared you'll get, but it seems to me that you'll probably enjoy it. Be aware that, despite its stupidity, it is a fun plot rather than a quality story, and enjoy it.