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.
.jpg)
_poster.jpg)
