Another - Anime Series Review

ANOTHER

Release-Date: Winter Season 2012, a 12-episode animé TV series

Genre: mystery/horror/thriller

Novel: Yukito Ayatsuji

Manga Adaptation: Hiro Kiyohara

Spoiler Alert: Read at your own risk. 

Synopsis:

In 1972, a popular student of Yomiyama North Middle School class of 3-3 died before the school year ends. Devastated by the loss, the rest of the class and even the teachers and principal carry on and pretended as if he was still alive, even bringing the desk in the graduation ceremony. Later on they discovered that their dead classmate appeared in the class picture. Gruesome deaths then followed every 3-3 class including their relatives. Humors circulated that the class is cursed and every year there is an extra student that is believed to be already dead but has a physical body and can interact with other people. School roster is completely altered and memories were erased from people involved. Fast forward 26 years after the first incident, a boy from Tokyo named Koichi Sakakibara transferred into Yomiyama Middle School. His mother who died earlier was also from Yomiyama Middle School and his aunt Mikami Reiko is the deputy teacher of class 3-3. She always reminds Koichi to separate their family life from school life, He calls her Reiko at home while at school he calls her Ms. Mikami. Right before the start of the school year he was hospitalized and in that hospital he met Mei Misaki, a girl with an eye patch. Later when he started going to school in May, he discovered that Misaki is his classmate. Suspicion replaced his excitement as he noticed the growing fearful environment inside the classroom. It looks like Misaki doesn’t exist as if he is the only who sees her. His classmates won’t talk about her name and pretended they don’t see her. As Koichi slowly discovered the secret of the class 3-3, he and Misaki and other persons involved must find a way to lift the curse that is to know who is dead and send then back to where they belong.

Review:

First of all, I consider this series as brutal and gruesome due to the graphic death scenes. I was hooked up by the first two episodes. But as the series continued I became irritated at the repetitive habit of somehow waiting for the big revelations of the show, for as some of the characters will try to reveal to Koichi what is happening they suddenly die, and oh, left you frustrated and hanging. And not of the questions were answered at the end of the stories. I felt that “I need to see more” or “What really happened?” & “Why/How did it turned out to be like that?”  Although it is fun unfolding the mystery watching every episode this anime failed to focus on relationships – like between Koichi and Misaki, It should have spiced the storyline, but Misaki doesn’t show any sense of deep emotions, I agree with other reviews that she seemed robot-like.

Excitement Factor – there’s a lot of excitement in the story for everyone is in danger, it’s like you know you are going to die but you don’t know how or when. It’s like you are walking home then suddenly you died of heart attack. 

Traumatic Scenes – well, most of the death scenes were traumatic but here are my favorites:

1.    Death by umbrella – When one of the classmates named Yukari Sakuragi accidentally trips the stairs and impales her neck to the sharp end of her umbrella.

2.    Suicide Scene of their teacher – after being stressed out of the fact that their class countermeasure is not working, he murdered his mother at home and stabbed himself in front of his class.

3.    Death by elevator – Nurse Sanae Mizuno who is also the sister of Takeru who also belongs to class 3-3 died when the elevator she was riding drops down the shaft and the ceiling crushed her.

4.    The insane crone murderer – when Takabayashi’s grandmother/manager of the hotel violently murdered some of Koichis classmates after burning his own husband.

The Good

·         The creepy and dark set up and atmosphere that compliments the story line.

·         The fact that “Another” is not a usual & expected anime that concentrates on endless fight scenes and enemy skill stage but it tackles the horror side which I usually see on horror movies, thus, the story can be stretched and the characters unexpectedly behave for what is expected.

The Flaws

·         12 episodes are not enough to fully end the series. Some questions were not answered and mysteries not solved like who altered the school records? Why didn’t they remember? Why earlier in the series Misaki did not use the ability of her other eye to detect who’s dead?

·         The roles – The story revolves on a cast which is all about a bunch of kids doing stupid stuffs, I mean what can you expect with their actions? The teachers seemed to not help the students and other family members were not given enough parts. There should be at least someone (adult) in the main characters rather than reiko and chibiki.