DESCRIPTION

CAST

OVA HorrorAnother: The Other - Inga
NOVEL HorrorAnother
MUSICAnother: Misaki Mei - Shizuka ni
MANGA HorrorAnother

REVIEWS

• 

  TheGruesomeGoblin

  20/100
  A complete failure on almost every level. But hey, the gore's great!

  _“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?

  

  Oh shit. I mixed the things up, I already reviewed this show. 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???

  

  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

  

  ---

  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'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 and is more than not, faithful and serious to the source material, brought to us by P.A. Works who also made Glasslip (to be fair they also made Shirobako and Uchouten Kazoku 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--

  

  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--

  

  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.

  

  ---

  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.

  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...

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

  ---

  Cameo Starring Stephen King.

  

  Let's talk about this now. Stephen King is probably my favorite author, 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...

  

  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.

  

  "Stephen King??? I know that name! He's that guy who wrote all of the horror novels! The Shining! That book that ruined clowns as a real occupation! The one about the haunted car! The other one about the haunted car! 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.

  

  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.

  

  ---

  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 die die die die DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE--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.

  

  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.

  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.

  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.

  

  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 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."

  

  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.

  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.

  

  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?

  

  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!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

  

  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--

  

  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. 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. 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? Was I supposed to care about these characters 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.

  

  Genuine anger.

  Next section is ENTIRELY on the ending of the show.

  ---

  M. Night Shyamalan is a Hack Fraud.

  Context: M. Night Shyamalan made that one movie with the twist ending and basically ever since then, he's made horrible shit 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.

  

  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.

  

  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"???

  

  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 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 and also he went to space. Fun fact, apparently both of those are the same fucking movie.

  • 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.

  

  ---

  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."

  

  "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?

  ---

  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!"

  

  "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..."

  Continue on AniList
• 

  biogundam

  50/100
  great comedy and shitty as a horror

  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.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  TheRealKyuubey

  40/100
  My review of the anime Another.

  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.

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