Another

"Another" was the first anime of the horror, mystery genre I've ever watched. Because, in fact, I actually dislike watching horror movies due to various reasons. And after watching the first 4 episodes I thought about quiting it, because I thought, it would be kinda like the Final Destination Movies. I disliked those, because (in my opinion) the films and the story are quite focused on the way how those people die. I assumed after the first 4 episodes that would also be the case for Another... Oh how wrong I was. Story: 10/10 So like I said above, I actually assumed that the story would focus on the death of those people. After watching the first 4 episodes, I (like i mentioned above), was about to quite this anime. The reason, why I kept watching it, was mainly, because I was extremely curious about the secret behind Misaki Mei. Unlike Final Destination this anime focuses not on the death of the persons, but rather on the, let's call it "curse" of the class 9c and how those people struggle to avoid it and finally, how to undo it. The story itself is very well written. Each episode of the anime feeds us viewers only little information, like puzzle pieces that we have to put together one after another, but keeping us all on the wrong path till the very end ,so, after each episode, we could basically screw the puzzle and start all over again. The beginning was a bit slow, but after the first few episodes it quickly shifts into a way faster developing story that keeps you engaged and nail biting. *SPOILER* And the plot twist at the end was beautifully done. The only things about the story I disliked are: 1) The beginning of the anime is quite slow. And all this "don't tell the new guy anything about this" is a bit annoying, cause they keep doing that for quite some time. 2) The other thing is the ending. The end it self is nicely done, but the final 2-3 episodes are a bit overstretched and are kinda missing the right feeling for me. I mean... *SPOILER* ...Misaki could have just telled Sakakibara the name of the dead person, so they could have announced it. But no, let a huge bunch of people die first, and than tell him afterwards. I think, it would have been a way better ending, if they actually did, what I just said, and then show, how Sakakibara would react and how the would have proceeded to lift the curse. That would have added quite some drama as well, but that's just my personal opinion. At the end I was just like....woh. Never would have guessed that. Art: 9/10 The art was beautiful throughout the entire series. The only thing, I didn't like that much, was that I had the feeling that most of the male characters kinda had a female touch of the way, how there faces have bene drawn. Sound: 7/10 The sound was....good. Not outstanding, but not bad either. The music fits the genre and the story of the series well, but that's about it. Charcters: 7/10 The characters all have different personalities, but the only character that actually was really interesting, was Misaki Mei. There is not much backround story, so we don't really know much about any of them. There is also a lack of character develpoment, I feel. Enjoyment: 8/10 I enjoyed watching this series. I've actually completed the entire series in one single night. I wasn't able to go to sleep, neither were I able to stop watching it, because I was just biting my nails the whole time and needed to know, what will happen in the following episode. Like I said at the beginning, I actually dislike horror movies and stuff, but this series is in my opinion less horror, but more mystery. I would basically recommend this anime to anyone (except to little children and people, who have a weak heart), who like the mystery genre and don't have a problem with quite a lot of blood being spilled. Overall: 8/10 PS: I will never ever bring an umbrella with me again.

I was amazed at how great Another was. I must say that there were lots of things that had really stood out to me while I was watching. The most noticeable thing for me was the art and sound. In my opinion the art and sound really enhanced the atmosphere of the story and the events that were taking place. The music made things so uncomfortably eerie along with the decaying, drearier backgrounds. The story to me was a little cliche and predictable however that didn't stop it from being any good. There are lots of shows with the similar "main character moves to new place" "strange things happen" "people die" type plot however out of the many that I have seen Another's unique take on this was very enticing... exciting. "Another" thing (get it?) I loved most about Another was that it brought to me the lovable and memorable character Mei Misaki. There are in the anime-verse millions, of mysterious girls characters, Mei Misaki is perhaps my number one favorite for now. She has lots of great qualities to her personality other than being strange (lol )and her hobby of drawing is something I like most. The damn girls a great artist. Lastly, and the thing that really made Another amazing to me was how thrilling it was! Especially towards the end where all chaos breaks lose and people start acting straight up savage. It was one big thrill ride for me, there is however a lot of talking during the show, so if you've ever watched Bakemonogatari or anything similar to that series then you should know what to expect. Overall I would highly recommend Another to anyone who loves Horror Mysteries because it is well worth watching!!! 9/10

When searching at night for anime I say to myself I'll watch one episode now and the rest tomorrow. This has always been my rule and I've stuck by this. However, When I watched the first episode of Another I couldn't help but to watch the next one and then the next and so on for the entire series. Before I knew it, it was 4 in the morning and I had watched the entire series. The story starts when the protagonist starts his new school but is bed ridden due to some illness he procures the day he was meant to join. He meets a strange girl in the hospital at night (I know...cliched a bit). That's where he meets Misaki. When he finally goes to school, he realizes something very odd is happening in his class and his class mates are dieing accidentally. The story is about his year in class 3 and how he discovers the horrible fate that awaits anyone who has anything to do with class 3. I'm going to crack down now and get straight into this. The story in this anime was amazing. Defiantly worth the 9 I gave it. I have no idea who wrote Another but bravo to you. It had some amazing ability to give me hints and clues to what was going on and eventually I had worked out what was going to happen and I made my predictions. I could not have been any more stupid. The story swiftly and neatly changed and more things came to light. I thought I had it worked out but then more things happened and my prediction was as useful as a bra for a four year old. The constant changing of the story kept me entertained and I could not stop watching it. Moving onto the art, I thought the drawing of the characters was pretty average for the year the anime was made. Nothing special yet I gave the art a 9. You must be thinking I'm retarded or something but no. The backgrounds were stunning. Truly worthy of a 10 (if not for the mediocre character design). The level of detail and care taken into making these backgrounds had me in awe. The artists also managed to achieve a very good dull, run down, ghost town sort of look by making wood look faded and metal objects rusty. This effect complimented the horror theme. Sorry guys but I really haven't got much to say about the sound except that it's very fitting for the scenes that it's heard in. I usually skip the intros and outros of shows so again, sorry about that one. I will say though that scenes where it's very violent, it has eerie sound sin the background which add very well to the atmosphere. I do think I've gone over the character's art a bit but the characters themselves are well defined as individual people. That might not make much sense but if you have watched bad anime with a crap ton of cliches then you will know that writers tend to get lazy and characters end up with very similar personalities, eradicating all variety and potential in the anime. Another does not have this problem since the characters have got their own personalities. I enjoyed this anime alot and would recommend it to horror lovers with the promise of plenty of blood and suprise. My only criticisms is that this anime, with a few more episodes, could have some romance between the two protagonists. But I guess I'm just saying that as an aid fan of the horror/comedy/romance genre. Overall I give the story a 9, Art a 9, Sound a 10, Character an 8, Enjoyment a 10 and the overall score a 9. These scores I decided whilst trying to think of the tastes of others in mind but personally I'd award this show a straight out 10. Ignore what everyone else says, this is the anime to be watching. If you're still reading at this point, thanks for reading my review.

Time for Another review of a P.A. Works show that I absolutely despised that was equally beat to death, this time attempting to do a horror series and resulting in one of the most beloved unintentional comedies of all time within the medium, that nowadays is remembered as a better Mayoiga, a title that was almost universally mocked to death and that I didn’t watch because if this is supposed to be the better version, why bother with the other one? Anyways the studio definitely delivered with the visuals in some regards and didn’t with others. The overall artwork is clean and consistent with no major issues, and as usual for them, the backgrounds are very well made, the rather dark coloring fits the attempted mood and tone well, and the special effects are very good as well. But again the problem is the completely uninspired character designs that seem to have been taken from literally anywhere else, not only that but unlike the last show I covered, this time they don’t even have a distinct hair style or color or accessory to at least stand out from the other characters within the same show, outside of the main girl with an eye patch. It goes for a kind of realistic approach in that regard but the result ended up being completely unmemorable and dull to look at, plus the style of faces it went for went against that idea of realistic looks. The motions are a bigger issue in the visuals since the characters in this series are seen only in three ways during its whole duration: 1-Completely still and emotionless. 2-Barely moving, and emotionless. And 3-Moving so much and in deformed ways for the sake of being unnerving that instead comes off as a joke. Since the overall aesthetics are quite plain and flat for a horror product, the makers tried going for crazy faces and exaggerated movements as an attempt to scare the audience and the result was, once again, one of the most cherished unintentional comedies within the medium. The directing is pretty average as well, nothing regarding camera work adds to the atmosphere it tries to build, and the quick cuts the series does to broken dolls, or other things like a particular part of the body of someone about to die, to feel random and, for the third time, unintentionally funny. Similar things happen with the sound department, the sound effects are good and fitting and the background music is a typical albeit well made horror soundtrack. It’s just that, again, the directing doesn’t use them properly in the least. The volume can randomly go up by a lot for no reason to make the sound effects seem intense, and the tracks turn to something like seem taken out from Silent Hill, and what might be happening on screen when they are used is just the characters walking to some place. In Another series it could have been a little bit scary but for this one, from the premise itself it’s clear that nothing supernatural is coming out at any moment, so it’s all both artificial and fake tension or interrupted by one of the most random death scenes that you’ll watch in the whole medium, making you laugh at best and be irritated, like myself, at worst. Which is a shame because the main theme is actually quite good, but it’s a bit long and repetitive for what it’s worth, and so overused and misused that it loses its effect very fast. I found the opening to be unfitting for the anime and quite crappy even on its own, and I can’t even talk about the ending song because I don’t even remember and I don’t care enough to check it out again for the purpose of this review. Voice acting is standard. The series was always thought of as the anime equivalent of the Final Destination movie franchise, which people liked in the beginning but ended up hating as it went on, so right out of the bat the comparison warns you to better skip this title. In this case, the reason for all the deaths is a curse from a former dead student that kept ongoing for thirty years, as presented in the show in its first three minutes. This makes anyone from a specific class to die at any moment, meaning, anything bad can happen to anyone at any moment in any way just because the script says so, you already know what the result of that ended up being. Essentially, a butt hurt causes lots of innocent people die even decades after their death. What’s worse is that the main girl knows a lot more than she lets others know, making an otherwise simple resolution for an equally simple show being stretched out for way more duration than needed, especially when you consider that she is the main suspect, being accused just because of her appearance and rumors about her or some shit. And that’s not all, as the growing dementia because of the curse makes any character to change completely for no reason other than just because. A completely normal person can turn into a psychopath murderer the next moment, to kill everyone and soon afterwards die themselves, mostly because of the main plot device of the show, but sometimes because they lost their mind. Except for the two protagonists, every other character can get totally rewritten at any given moment. Not that it makes much of a difference really, as there are no real characters in the series, considering how weak their presence and personalities are, and how practically nobody has a backdrop, even less so any development and catharsis. Only a few of them are alive at the end of the show, and they remain completely unchanged from all the horrible deaths and killings they witness and survive by a hair. Only the main girl has a pretty dumb backdrop, and is not present in the main series, it was released as an extra episode or ova. Forget about character archetypes, these don’t even reach that level of characterization, they are closer to mannequins which only difference with the dolls shown at some points in the anime is that these ones are kind of alive, as they kind of move and kind of talk. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this might be the worst cast of characters I have seen in my life, both in quantity and quality, as there are a lot and not a single one of them isn’t terrible. The absolute worst aspect of both writing and characterization is how the curse can make everyone forget the information they gathered and, at the end, the person responsible for it, in what’s essentially the worst excuse for delaying the plot and any kind of character progression whatsoever ever written. Not only that but despite all the deaths and killings going on for thirty years, nobody in the little town the show takes place in does anything about it. Even when is known that only a specific class is cursed, nobody investigates, nor tries to close the class, nor change the numbers of the classes, nor moves the students to other classes, nor close the school, not even tries to alarm others, nor moves on from the town on their own to avoid the possibility of being caught in all this tragedy. By comparison, last year I read Uzumaki, where it also takes a lot of time for people to react, but at least they do at some point, and the setting ends up explaining why no one could do anything, I found it underwhelming as essentially the characters weren’t any better nor had any more of a real option than this cast, but at least they try and there is an explanation, over here there’s absolutely nothing. This is easily among the highest positions on the worst written shows I have seen in my life, dragging on with no excuse just because it has to. There is only a half positive I can say about this anime, which is that it anticipates at some point who the dead person is, it’s just that it’s quite subtle and easy to miss, since every other second in the show is completely different than how that information was given. And the reason for why it’s only half a positive, it’s because it ends up being a huge plot hole, sice that character was nowhere inside the class during most of the whole show, which was a rule that the series established earlier.…

I'll say this now... if you have problems of dolls, lots of blood, and unexpected death, I would probably not watch the first episode or any episode. Plot/Setting: I'm not going to lie, I was very confused on what the heck was happening at first. It's like a mix of Series of Unfortunate Events, Clue, The Final Destination, and Stephen King's The Shining. For twelve episodes, a lot happens. You cannot miss a second of this or you'll be lost out of your mind. However, this anime, because it is in the horror genre, was able to grab me right way. I was hook like a fish out of water! I couldn't stop watching it and watching it! It's a very mysterious, horrific plot line, and for something that is based off a Japanese Book, it's very well done. Yes, it's based off a book not a manga. Now...I would love to pick up the book, and if I could speak Japanese, I would. The setting really made me a bit...mad until I understood why there was so much rain. I'll tell you right now, and here's a geography lesson for you all, it does not rain that much in valley areas. There is something called a "Rain Shadow Effect" and what this does is if there is a mountain range between the ocean and a interior town, the rain will be stopped by the mountains which will create a dry-ish climate on the other side. It will still rain...but not as much as it did in Another. The climate is the same as an ocean city in Canada. So not much was explained to me before the geographer in me got a bit uneasy. Art: I'm going to say it now, I've never been a fan of the big-eyed anime characters. They really do creep me out. But because this was an horror genre anime, it fit quite nicely. Once again, I am impressed with the animation in this. There were a few "whoopie" moments, but they did not hesitate on the gory bits. There was enough blood that literally made me look away. Sound: Very nice opening. The song set the mood of the story very well. It was an eerie, but exciting and catchy song. The ending...not so much. I would've picked a more darker song than something that made me want to smile. This show is supposed to make you be at the edge of your seat and covering your mouth with your hand, not dance around like a ballerina. The rest of the soundtrack I wasn't paying much attention to since I was so focused on the scene and the dialogue, but at the one part I did listen to it, I felt it fit fine into the scene. Character: Oh boy...my favourite. The characters didn't have a lot of emotion to them. Whenever someone died, their reaction wasn't there. There was no trauma involved. I agree, from someone who has gone through trauma, shock is part of it, and yes the characters went through that, but they moved on the next day like nothing ever happened. There was no fear in their eyes except that one girl who screamed. Mei is a stotic character. No emotions what so ever. Kouichi reminds me of Erwin from Attack on Titan for some strange reason. Izumi is actually a very likable character until the end. And many more characters have very...unexpected twist. You'll be surprised. Overall/Enjoyment: It was okay. I'm not a fan of horror and have a strong phobia of horror movies and anything blood. This hasn't given me nightmares yet, so I think I'm good, but I won't be watching it again. However, I found myself at the edge of my seat the entire time (the joys of the horror genre). And at the end...let's just saw I was a bit mind blown. But like I said above, don't watch this if you have a fear of dolls and grossness. This show is rated R for a reason...make sure you know what you're getting into before watching it. I give Another a B- or a 74% on the blood scale.

Hey guys, my first review here. For my reviews, I will not mention the setting or summarize the plot, because people can read that on the page of the anime. I think that Another, is a very neat piece of work overall. I first started watching this series a few years back, and I actually dropped it after watching the first few episodes of the series. Man, am I glad to pick it back up. Story: 8/10 I gave the story of Another an 8 because I thought that it was rather slow-paced at the beginning section of the anime. Many people decide what anime they want to watch next by looking at the genres of the anime. I personally like horror and mystery series, which is why I decided to give Another a try. There was definitely the mystery attribute during the whole anime, but I being the "patient" guy that I am, got somewhat frustrated after watching the first few episodes since nothing was really explained until the end. I am not going to spoil any part of the anime, and I would just like to say that Another has some of the most intense mystery and murder cliffhangers. Art: 9/10 Being from P.A. works, the art was just fantastic. One of the best attributes of this anime was the detailed quality of the characters. One thing that I really liked were the red eyes of Misaki Moe Mei (MMM). Obviously, her eye was not the only reason I gave the art section a 9. The background graphics were terrific as well. The wind blowing on the rooftop of the school and the detail of the leaves flying and blowing made the whole anime experience much more interesting. Sound: 7/10 You can tell that the producers behind this anime have definitely put a lot of effort behind choosing, selecting, and/or creating OSTs and songs for the opening, ending, and run-time music. Although I personally did not love the opening, I think that it really suits the vibe of the anime in general. Being a mystery and horror anime, the violin is an instrument that is utilized a lot. From the soundtracks of this song, especially at certain scenes where dread is jump on you from around the corner, the music that is played is very well matched. This factor of this anime further helps create the gloomy atmosphere of the anime with ease, and arouse feelings of dread and suspicion in the audience. The juxtaposition between the constant feelings of dread and the peaceful "ending" song provides a period of relaxing for the audience. Character: 9/10 Hard to explain why I gave this a 9 without spoiling. I'll just say that each of the characters that gets introduced actually play a major role in the story. At the start, you get introduced to a medium cast of characters, and despite mostly being side characters, the plot is constructed in such a way that each of the characters actually matter later on in the story FOR A WHILE. It is very likely for the audience to get confused over the characters at the beginning. Some reactions that I had were: "Why are they doing that?" "Who is she or WHAT is she?" "What.". And guys, get confused, but don't stop watching. It gets explained. Enjoyment: 9/10 Couldn't stop watching after episode _. I really enjoyed this series, and it is one of the best tragedy pieces I have watched so far. Overall: 9/10 If you like horror and mystery, by all means give this a try. Just hang in there, and do not drop it like I did once after watching a few episodes, and I am sure you will not regret watching this series.

Genres: Mystery, Horror, School, Thriller This description could not be any more misleading. The only tag this anime deserves is Comedy, and nothing more. If you're looking for an anime to freak you out, you are most certainly not going to find it here. Another is what I would like to call an unintentional comedy. Although it contains aspects such as curses, superstition, violence and death, rest assured that all of this solely makes the anime all the more humorous. The constant death scenes in this anime are absolutely hilarious, and make next to no sense whatsoever. They are so ridiculous and far-fetched that it is effectively impossible to take the story of the anime serious in any way. They will however make you laugh your ass off. I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone who's looking for a dark mystery anime, but if you can see it from a different angle then the entertainment value of Another is actually extremely high…… albeit for all the wrong reasons.

I'm extremely skeptical when it comes to any sort of animated entertainment and horror. I went it into this anime having been told this was one of the best horror anime, and I have to say I was slightly disappointed. To be fair, I never asked why it was so good so for all I knew, this anime couldve been praised for things other than its horror setting. And that was exactly how I felt. Story: 8/10 The story follows the bland and over curious Kouichi, a new transfer student to extremely strange and eerie high school, as he meets the mysterious and beautiful Mei, a girl who seems to be non existent to everyone else in the class. His curiosity about the school and Mei leads him down some dark paths and he learns about forces which no one can comprehend, all of which he ends up trying to battle with the aid of his classmates. It sounds like a really interesting story but I feel like it wasn't told as well as it could have. I found the the first episode to be boring. Like really boring. And for me, first impressions have a really large impact on my opinion of an anime, especially if said anime is 12 episodes long. So even though subsequent episodes made the story more interesting, I continued to have a somewhat negative opinion of the anime as I continued to watch it. However, having said that, this anime has some really freaking good cliffhangers, the only thing which really kept me interested in investing my time in this anime. As one episode ended, I wanted desperately to know what going to happen the next episode despite the fact that the episodes themselves were somewhat boring to me. It's only after things are finally explained that I really began to appreciate what the first few episodes were about, and thus my first impressions had been erased quite a bit. But one of the things which made me dislike the first few episodes is the fact that I felt like the anime tried way too hard to be a horror. It continually placed you in really cliché settings like a dark under-funded hospital or a shop full of creepy looking dolls. To me, it wasn't scary at all and I would've much preferred it just be a regular mystery anime rather than a mysterious horror. Sound: 9/10 While on the topic of Another trying too hard to be a horror, I want to talk about the background music, particularly in the first few episodes. The background music itself was actually pretty darn good; it was ominous, mysterious, fear-evoking. However, I felt like it was overused and definitely used in scenes which didn't need such background music. If I recall correctly, there is a scene where a few of Kouichi's new classmates visit him in the hospital to say hi in he first episode. Sure they act a little strangely, but I really did not see the need for the music to be that typical to any sort of horror medium. This only really seems to be a problem for me the first few episodes because as the series went on, I found that the music started to fit the scenes a lot more appropriately and the horror music was used a lot less, making it more scary when it was actually played. I watch english dubs and I have to say that I probably should have watched the subbed version instead, especially seeing that it was better than the dub in the OVA which I could not find dubbed. It's not to say they were particularly bad. The voice acting was decent. No one felt out of place but at the same time, no one stood out as being good. However, I did like Mei's voice acting. Despite being kind of bland due to her "I don't really give a shit" attitude, it really made her all the more mysterious. Characters: 6/10 This is one of the more major problems I had when I was watching Another. Aside from Mei and her mysteriousness, all the other characters were bland, uninteresting, and at times just plain annoying. None of the characters are really given much development, if any at all, and even if they were given development, most of it led nowehere. In particular, I want to point out Izumi's development. She's initially shown as cold and heartless but after things are explained you realise that she knows she comes off as cold and heartless but it is for a good cause. Its an interesting development, however it leads nowhere. There is also her connection to Kouichi prior to knowing him at their current highschool which was introduced but had absolutely no connection to the story, well at least one that I couldn't see and which still bugs me quite a bit. Art: 10/10 This is one of the things that this anime does extremely well. It's beautiful in just every scene and it's heavenly in the scenes where it wants to be beautiful. While I wasn't scared at all, the art did a really good job of compensating for it by always having me slightly on edge because the art was more realistic and vivid. This also translated to more gruesome moments when people die, especially since deaths are kind of creative in this anime. Seeing how well the art was done when somebody's neck was pierced by a sharp object or stabbed by more than enough knives really made it seem all the more gruesome. Enjoyment: 8/10 As I said before, the first few episodes were boring and this anime tried too much to be scary. However, as events are properly explained and the anime tried less and less to be scary, I satrted to appreciate it a lot more, especially the final two episodes which really explored some pretty dark themes and which were extremely intense. I hope I helped you in the decision as to whether you want to watch this anime or not. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Oh boy oh boy.... I watched this on a whim and was utterly unprepared for what it flung at me. Brilliant anime. Story - 9 The greatest thing about this anime's story was that it surprised me right up until the last second. As soon as I thought I had figured it out, something happened and it blew my ideas out the window. I genuinely couldn't stop watching. If you like easy to follow plots, I'd probably avoid this. I won't deny it's a slog to try to work out what is going on and how it fits together. But that's part of the appeal for people like me, who enjoy figuring this stuff out. Art - 9 I thought the art of this was brilliant. The dolls in the shop gave me genuine goosebumps, Mei's eye was just freaky and was quite obviously not real. I hesitate to give this a ten though because I have seen more realistic blood in anime. Sound - 8 The 8 is solely for the opening theme which was just....... creepy. Characters - 9 Whilst there isn't much back story to the majority of the characters, the way they are presented in the present is good enough to compensate. Plus, the events of this anime wouldn't suit expansion of characters' stories. You'll understand if you watch or have seen it. Enjoyment - 9 I haven't enjoyed an anime as much as this for a long time. I found myself eagerly trying to solve the mystery as I watched and I definitely 'felt' the emotions of the characters, which isn't something I experience too often so that made it that much more enjoyable for me. Overall - 9 Watch this. This is very similar to the Final Destination film series but it is done so much better and in a way that is a bit more believable, albeit with a bit more of the supernatural edge. Oh and avoid if you have a weak stomach. This anime doesn't hold back in the blood and guts department.

As an avid horror fan, I am a sucker for horror anime when done right.The world of anime has not really seen a good horror one since the Higurashi series. So, when I first heard of Another getting an anime series, I had really high expectations from it. So, quitting all the blahblah's, here goes my review~ Another starts with the male protagonist, Kouichi Sakahibara, coming to the dreaded class 3, in the summer of 1998. Soon he grows suspicious of the fearful atmosphere and the fact that his classmates are hiding something from him. Meanwhile, he finds a beautiful and lonely girl named Mei Misaki and learns the fact that she might have something to do with the mysterious deaths occuring to the students of class 3 each year. Plot- 5/10...The story is somewhat unique, however flawed. A lot is left unexplained, like how does the dead one really come every year? How can Mei see death if her eye is just that of a doll? Also, towards the end, it basically becomes a boring survival bloodfest. Characters- 4/10...arguably the weakest part of the show. Another has a large set of characters, and so no one gets the time to develop much over 12 episodes. A couple more episodes just to flesh out the side characters would have made it more enjoyable.The standout part was the budding relationship between the two main characters, which was nicely done. Misaki's backstory gives the character some depth, but Kouichi was really the weak link. Often stoic and bland, in the final episode he was basically talking in phone calmly being surrounded by fire, which doesn't make much sense. Animation- 8.5/10....the strongest part of the show. Nicely drawn characters makes the gory scenes a tad easier to watch. Soundtrack- 5/10....meh, nothing really to talk about this, was average at best. Overall- 5/10....Another fails miserably as a horror series.At certain points, it tries too hard to scare the audience, by showing random images of dolls and using a scary soundtrack. The death scenes, though gory, are really laughable (not to mention most of the deaths are of piercing something through the neck). However, it succeeds in the mystery part, and with a decent plot twist, keeps you right on the edge. Also, the side characters were interesting, a fact non existent in most other anime.The ending is decent enough and gives the series a proper closure. So, despite its flaws, and the fact that it should have had more episodes, you will enjoy this anime if you like good,old fashioned mystery elements. However, if you go into this anime for the chills, you may feel disappointed to some extent.

My first review in MAL!! When I first saw the synopsis of Another ,it seemed to have a really interesting plot. Not many animes deal with this sort of school horror involving superstitions of the type found in many old institutions. The start though painfully slow ,managed to keep me interested long enough to reach the third episode where things first started to get interesting.. Things start to pick up once Sakakibara learns the truth about Misaki and why nobody else seems to recognise her existence .The suspense and potential horrors in store for me really excited me. *MINOR SPOILER* The ending of the show though turned out to be really disappointing.Almost all of the deaths occurred due to simple lack of communication between the classmates.When the stakes are so high you would think the class would act together. But what we actually got to see was a mindless and baffling blood bath, all of which could have been prevented.. All in all, the show never really manages to fulfil its potential.Most of the deaths are comical rather than scary.The creators seem to be under a delusion that amount of blood=horror.The heavy handed direction of the show irked me a lot.There was no subtlety.At frequent intervals,random shots of creepy dolls were shown almost to artificially crank up the horror levels. As for the characters themselves,with the exception of Misaki,none of the characters are likable at all.Stupid teenagers are a common sight in such gore fests,but some of the actions of the students were really baffling.As for the main lead ,Koichi was so painfully dense that I shouted at him through the screen many times!! Overall ,I would give it a 7 rating.The story was awesome and had loads of potential,but lack of proper direction and a weak ending pretty much ruined the show for me.Still,I would recommend watching Another.When it touches its high points,it's worth a watch. P.S:The scene in the last episode where Koichi, standing in the middle of a raging fire, finally finds a network on his mobile and calls Misaki is the most unintentionally funny moment I've ever watched in an anime :P

'Another' is an anime that looks and feels like a great horror detective story. It puts the viewer in a camera room, displays some fucked up stuff on the screens and then expects you to work out what really happened. And just when you think you have an idea of what might be going on, 'Another' busts through the camera room door and starts violently slapping your face until you have no idea what's happening. It then leaves and shows you more fucked up stuff on the screens. And it does it well. The story is simple. It follows the life of 15 year old Kouichi Sakakibara as he moves to Yomiyama North middle school at the beginning of the series. He's a smart fellow who asks a lot of questions and quickly adapts to his new surroundings. He's also eager to adapt (iykwim) to Mei Misaki, his mysterious eye-patch wearing female classmate. Apparently though, that eye-patch isn't the only mysterious thing about her and as soon as Kouichi makes contact batshit crazy stuff starts to happen. This is your basic premise and the anime builds on that. For a 12 episode horror series there's a lot of gore here. 'Another' has no qualms about precise, high quality bloody mayhem. This is a huge plus for any horror enthusiast. The way the story ties these bloody events together and slaps you with a plot twist after another is sure to keep you frosty. Spare pair of pants strongly recommended. The characters are a strong point here. Kouichi is your typical kind of guy caught up in a series of events he does not understand. He tries to keep a straight face when shit gets real but we know that he's quaking underneath. Mei is an emotionless femme fatal who has Kouichi's undivided attention. Watching those two is like watching a National Geographic documentary of a hypnotized Lion following a disinterested Lioness half across the savannah with hyenas tearing animals apart in the background. Good stuff. We also have a couple of notable supporting characters. The uptight tsundere Izumi Akazawa, the chick in charge of the class, who'd make a good friend to a rock or seaweed. An annoying addition to the cast but she does help make the series complete. The laid back Naoya Teshigawara who is actually a pretty cool character and always tries to help out in his own retarded way. Then there's bookworm Yukari Sakuragi who'd be handy to have around if you ever daydreamt during class (cough Kouichi cough) and forgot to take notes. There's a horde of other characters - women who like to get smashed on high quality alcoholic beverages, silent psychopathic types, old melodramatic geezers... you get the idea, it's a fun cast all around. Now with all that said, 'Another' is not without its flaws. For starters this series is too short. It tries to deliver too much plot material in a very short amount of time (only 12 episodes). There was definitely room for more (think Higurashi) and the plot could have easily been spaced out to make this a 24 episode series. And as strong as the plot is ( a solid 9 imo) there are certain things that make the ending very anticlimactic. That is, the ending is unsatisfying and that is quite enough to knock down a point in the story section. As for the rest - the art is flawless, the gore scenes captivating and the overall tone and art style complements the story well. The sound department however is slightly lacking. The sound effects and voice acting is good but the OST leaves room for improvement. I quite literally failed to notice it and the opening and ending songs don't fit to this particular anime AT ALL, imo. With all of the above mentioned, the enjoyment section deserves a solid 8 points. You will be intrigued, you might get scared depending on your disposition and sometimes you might just pause the video and ask yourself if that really just happened (dat daydream). A must see for horror fans. Generally however, I'd recommend this to anyone. All in all, 8 points. Thank you for reading!

Kouichi Sakakibara arrives from Tokyo to his new high school, from the very first moment he makes a lot of friends but he notices that something is not right, one of the desks is empty. One day he realizes there’s a mysterious girl at the school, she wears a patch in her left eye, seems distant from everything, nobody pays attention at her even when she enters the classroom and sits at the empty desk. He decides to talk to her to find out what’s happening but his classmates warn him not get in contact with her, he just has to act like she doesn’t exist. Ignoring this warning he contacts her and mysterious accidents begin his classmates. Kouichi finds out that all these strange events started 26 years ago and decides to know the beginning of this mystery. I must say this anime got my attention until the last episode the problem is they don’t tell us what happened 26 years ago, why these strange accidents happen, who’s the responsible for all this to happen. Not even the way to avoid these accidents is clear. All these points make the story to be a bit complex and make it not a horror story at all, but very scheming. The main character, Kouichi Sakakibara y Mei Misaki, have a lot of punch together ad become nice, especially Mei. She’s mysterious, always speaks with calm, seems not scared of anything and wears that eye patchin her left eye hiding something. También es muy simpática. A bit of love between themewould have been good. The problem of this story are the last two episodes that become in a mess of murders and paranoia, besides taking us to a final you don’t understand very well. Another surprise is that there’s floor 4 at the hospital. Despite all questions that remain with no answer and to the nonsensical final I recommend this anime to everyone.

Another is one of those animes that you'll love if you're a horror lover. Amazing story with beatiful art and sound but I really couldn't understand the reactions of the characters. So my rating is something like this: STORY: 9 Amazing story, even if i really didn't like the ending, I really loved the connections and the whole concept of the anime. It was simply amazing. ART: 10 I really loved the design. Every character is special and the part with the dolls.. oh god so beautiful! SOUND:10 Beatiful soundtrack and the sounds in general made the experience more intense! CHARACTER: 3 I think, that the characters were poor and I really couldn't understand their reactions. I think that most of them were stupid because they didn't make sense to me and that's the only flaw the anime has, in my opinion. ENJOYMENT: 10 If I forget about the characters I really enjoyed this anime. It was amazing I was hiding under my covers many times and I really loved it. That's why I think it deserves a 9, so: OVERALL: 9 I recommend it to anyone who loves a good horror anime!

A pleasant surprise to say the least. I had low expectations for this anime but i was soon very interested in it. In terms of "horror/gory/thriller" anime most of them have in some ways disappointed me (elfen lied) but this one was nice. not really scary like some people make it out to be but it really is creepy and the death scenes are pretty awesome. plus the animation along with the music is also top. unfortunately another show with a pretty plain MC, but everything else makes up for it.

Another（アナザー）is some kind of psychological/supernatural horror anime that has some scares here and there and a really, really, actually really bad OP. No, seriously, what the hell is that opening? It’s scarier than the whole concept of the anime. But anyway, let’s begin with the story concept. By the way, I’ll try my best to hinder spoilers. Story Concept Somewhere in Japan, we have a little town in the middle of nowhere called Yomiyama（夜見山）which is your plain, rural town. Then we have the protagonist, Sakakibara Kouichi（榊原恒一）, which is a guy with a disease called pneumothorax, which is why he goes to Yomiyama. Or maybe he went because his father was working in a research in India…? Well whatever it is, it’s not actually the focus of the series (I think). The thing is, he’s transferred to a Middle School in Yomiyama, and that’s where the story actually begins. The issue with the classroom that he gets transferred to is, it’s a cursed classroom. Meaning, real gruesome deaths of adolescents because of the curse. Anyway, we also have Misaki Mei（見崎鳴）, a heroine loli that has deep meaning in the story. And she has an eye-patch. There are also a whole cast of classmates, their relatives and the protagonists’ relatives, but of course I won’t name all of them. Specially because they are not that important anyway. Now then, the concept of a cursed classroom would not be bad, until the moment you notice that it makes no sense to have a dozens of deaths of children (and their relatives) from the same classroom and nobody actually giving a crap. Well that’s what happens on Another. For some reason, every death goes unnoticed by everyone besides the characters of the story, as if it’s a given that, if you are in a cursed classroom and you might die, you have to keep on that classroom. Couldn’t the school just close down and the students go live in Another city? Noticed the lame pun? What I’m trying to say is, the anime itself states that you the curse only affects those in the perimeter of the town, so yes it would be completely okay to blow up the whole school building. It can’t be that it’s the sole school in the whole town. But then, maybe I’m misunderstanding the concept of the curse, and it would actually pass on to the next classroom/next school building. Whatever is the “rules” of that game, it feels stupid anyway when you have a dozens of children and 3, 4 adults in a situation of life and death every god damned year and still no one in the rest of the city ever realizes or helps. It’s as if it’s a secret. Now that’s something I take my hat off for Shiki; even being the slightly rushed adaptation that it was, it had that awesome moment when the villagers finally realized and accepted the truth of what was happening, and reacted to it. In a gruesome manner. Anyway on to the next part. Art Concept It’s anime, so I believe it goes without saying how the characters’ art concept is. And yes, sometimes the art gets really bad, and you can easily spot deformed characters in the background. Or maybe it was intentional for the freaky effect? The scenarios are okay, actually. I’m no art specialist and I actually don’t have much of an opinion, but I don’t remember backgrounds being bad. On a fast note (since I’ll be talking about this on a special part), the deaths have no censoring as far as I recall, so yea lots of blood on your screen… Sometimes a bit too much. Not that this is a bad thing, of course. Audio Concept I am, once again, no specialist in this audio thingy, but I can tell you that, being death as the nature of the anime, it has really dull and unimpressive BGMs throughout the whole time, except when someone’s dying. Usually you get a really drastic change of music, which may or may not scare you (mostly for it’s 140% increase in volume), and that music is usually fitting for the death scene. Wait, I like the ring “Death Scene” has. From now on I’ll be referring to the deaths as Death Scenes. Death Scene Concept Let’s be frank out of the bat. Most of the Death Scenes are ridiculous, not to say obvious. I mean, the protagonist talks to a girl that has no name (or at least is not important at all, because I don’t remember it) beside a truck with a big window glass on it… Oh, don’t forget the glass was not fastened on anything. Yep, the moment you see it, you’ll immediately notice a Death Scene is coming― except it had no death! What a combo breaker, for a series that kills a character per episode. Death Scenes, besides being quite weird and ridiculous, are also forcibly gruesome. In most Death Scenes, the dying character will agonize and agonize, and you don’t know if you should smirk at the silliness or be horrified at the fact the Death Scenes are actually well-looking (as in, good art) while the plain scenes are not. Well, I just generalized. Like I said in the Art Concept part, it’s not a bad-looking anime. It just suffers the same problem as every other anime: low budget. So they pay more in the Death Scenes, and less in the other scenes. Happens all the time. Anyway off to the next section. Living Zombies in the (Burning) Cursed Inn!! (some spoilers here, you’ve been warned) …Yea I just wanted to go for a weird name. Truth be told, most of Another was the horror of “dying at any time, being hopeless before death”, which might also be the sole redemption of the show itself. But then, because of story details I can’t spoil, you get a whole classroom of students walking like zombies (not in the literal sense) around the inn, trying to kill you with brooms and… whatever happens to be in their hands. Of course I understand the purpose was to show what a human being can do when facing imminent death but… please, could you walk like you actually want to kill? Felt really preposterous when dozens of students started to close in around the protagonists like zombies. Or maybe I’m just out of the loop and zombies are really fast? I haven’t really played any new zombie games after Resident Evil 4 (lol quite some time, I know). And then, on the very last episode, we get the epitome of nonsensical happenings and a exploding inn. By the way does that inn have gasoline inside it's walls or something? I can't see Another way (Another pun!) to have it so explosive. Even the lightnings were overboard, and in the very end I expected more of a drama than what we get. To be honest, there's not much to say about the last episode; it's just weird. Well, I've seen worse, and I'm sure everyone did, too, but that doesn't mean I should just say it's fabulous. Because it wasn't. Conclusion This anime doesn’t deserve more than 6/10. It does have it’s ups and downs, but it quite lost it's way twisting around the mystical and the horror, and in the end I would've been happier if the protagonist went Chris Reddfield mode and shoot everyone in the head while running around the explosive mansion with his girl. Oh yea that would've been one awesome ending. Nothing like sarcasm to finish a review. :P

Ugh. Didn't live up to the hype. If you liked this you might like Deadman Wonderland as well, they are fairly similar but equally hard to watch. Deadman Wonderland was hard to watch because it was brutal, Another was hard to watch because it was a bit of a trainwreck. The art is good, the sound (not music though) was great and highly engaging, but the story... It starts so good and ends, well you'll have to decide on your own. I thought it was an affront to the story and characters, but your mileage will vary. This show suffers a bit from the Akame ga Kill syndrome (or the other way around) and style of Shakespearean story writing I go to Anime to avoid. Don't believe the hype, watch for a thrill, don't expect too much.

Another is one of those animes that you can sit down and watch and then want to rewatch right after you finish. Now i will talk about many different reasons why to watch this ranging from the story to the osts and i'll give a rating for all of them First off is the story. It is very well done and you can tell the author put ALOT of time into making it. It can get pretty complicated at times which to me was great. This anime will make you believe one thing at one point then another thing at a different point and then once again make you believe something else. It is very very unpredictable. At episode 3 is when it gets really good and really drew me in. after that episode something happens every single episode after that which is done extremely well. how they ended the story was perfect in my opinion. overall i give the story a 10/10. Ok now for the osts. the osts are so good in this anime and really makes the moments in this anime more intense. now they are not as good as shikis osts where but they are great. now to me good osts are a must have for an anime. and another osts will make it so suspensful. one thing is at the start of each episode after episode 3 a song plays while recaping the big moment tht happened in the last episode and it made those scenes so much more better. i give the osts a 9/10. because while it made it very suspensful and other emotions too it just wasn't as creepy as it could have been characters are very very likable. and prety good character development by alot of the characters. since it would spoil it if i explained why it is good i won't so i'll leave it to you guys to see when you watch it. i'll give the characters a 10/10 because what hapens in the end ws such a great portray of how people might act if this really happens. death scenes. now this i a horror anime so there will be death scenes. and they are very bloody. however most of them are very creative and so well done. there was 2 scenes that i felt where done very very well and thats the 1st two death scenes. the 2nd death scene was my favorite because afterwards i didn't want to go near or in what had killed the person. overall the death scenes get a 10/10 creepy factor. now i thought i'd add this since it is a horror anime. now for me i've been watching horror movies since i was 7 and i'm almost 19 now. so blood and gore dosn't scare me. but if blood does scare you then this anime will scare you lol. now i found this anime suspensful more then scary or creepy (except for the scenes with the dolls those where just plain out creepy lol) but to otherpeople i could see it creeping them out or even scaring them so i'll give it a 7/10. overall i give this anime a 10/10 but thats not saying it is perfect because it isn't. but it is pretty close in my opinion. i've yet to find a perfect anime and i've only seen a few close to perfect ones and this makes that list. if yu watch another you won't be able to stop untill it's over.

26 years ago a student from Yomi North's class 3 grade 9 passes away. The next day however someone in the class says he's still alive. . . as the year goes on others agree that he exist until the time the student graduates. From this point on class 3 grade 9 has been known as the class closest to death. This is the pretext for Another. I would consider Another to be the first horror anime I've seen (Thinks back to School Days *shudders*) but regardless I would say that it's a very well put together piece of work. The first arc so to speak of Another starts off with a scene of one of our main characters Sakakibara Kouichi in a hospital bed surrounded by his classmates. Seems normal enough. After he's discharged from the hospital he meets a girl, Misaki Mei on the hospital's elevator. When he goes to school a few weeks later he sees her and goes to talk to her although his classmates strongly object him doing so. From this event we start getting the meat behind Another's story. We start to ask questions to ourselves such as why do they act as if she's nonexistent? Is she a ghost? Whaat's going on? Is how you start to feel basically. You may also start to wonder why there's a few seconds of zooming on on panels of broken glass windows, and why there's so many dang creepy dolls... Although these shots may seem random they are fully intentional and provide good foreshadowing for what's to come later in the episode, or series. The second arc of the show is where Another's masterful storytelling really comes together. Once the background on class 3 grade 9's story comes to light is where the story really picks up with one of the major questions of *Spoiler* (Who is dead?) This arc is very powerful in the way that it addresses some complex moral issues on the value of life, in a way that's subtle yet powerful. Although others may disagree and think that people are just killing people there's nothing deep in that is where I think that everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and opinions and this is mine. All in all Another's storytelling style manages to hit you with plot twists left and right to keep you on your toes, and just when you start to think you've figured out the story, your hit with a cliffhanger which jumbles up your thinking leaving you feeling pretty mindfucked so to speak. I don't have much to say about the characters in Another, just that they played their part I guess, even though some of them weren't around for long. . . The main characters Sakikabara and Mei were good but Mei really caught my attention. I don't watch horror anime often but her personality really appealed to me. I like the fact how she's mysterious, reserved, and is able to maintain a rational outlook on things. Even though there's not much change in the characters they're fine the way they are. The art for Another would be what I would consider to be one of the show's strongest aspects. The color palette for this anime is strong, dark, and bold which really compliments and meshes with the scene's background settings creating an overall solemn and dramatic feel throughout the show. The vivid details put into the death of people in this anime also left my jaw agape with horror at times, but also left me feeling appreciative of the beauty of death basically... and how everything lays out (call me sick but some of the scenes in this anime are powerful...) The final component of Another is its sound. The OP for this show is some sort of dark opera song I guess, but it matches the show and does its job. The ED is a more mellow Jpop tune which gives you relief after an episode filled with tension and horror. The bgm's do their part of setting the mood for a suspense scene, or horror scene, and it does its job as well and ties in well with the other elements of the show. In conclusion I had a wonderful time watching this show. From intricate and detailed story telling, to magnificent gory scenes depicting death and destruction, this show has them all. The only thing that kept me from rating this a 10 is it's not my usual cup of tea for anime, but nevertheless it's definetly a show worth a watch. :)

With its creepy atmosphere and stylistically graphic deaths, Another is a wickedly fun horror ride. It effectively (and gleefully) uses horror tropes to provide plenty of chills, and has enough mystery to keep you guessing from beginning to end. While it is not close to being subtle or refine, its insatiable desire to entertain and its love for bloodletting make it a gory good time. Too bad it doesn't have much staying power. The basic set up is something we've seen plenty of times in horror. Our protagonist Kouichi Sakakibara moves from the big city, in this case Tokyo, to a small town to live with relatives because his father is a way, and his mother is well... diseased. Due to lunge problems, Kouchi enters high school late, an has spent a good amount of time in the hospital. When he finally does begin attending school he finds that a girl he met the day before is release from the hospital, Mei Misaki, is one of his classmate in class 3-3. However, nobody else in class acknowledges her existence... or maybe they are not aware of it (dun dun dun). At the same time Kouichi can't help but think he is being kept in the dark about something by his classmates. Soon, a string of gruesome deaths begin to take place, all of which are somehow connected to class 3-3. The story provides plenty of mysteries for viewers to view on. What exactly is going on with class3-3? What are Kouichi's classmates hiding from him and why? Has Kouchi visited the town before? If he had, is it somehow connected to the current situation? Is Mei real, a figment of Kouichi's imagination, or a spirit from beyond? These questions arise and keep you interested in what might happen next. And you know you won't get the answers until late into the story, because the show has a fondness of being cryptic and throwing in red herrings. This is good because it allows the show to maintain the suspense throughout its run; keeping the viewership wondering what exactly is going on. Even with bits and pieces of the truth being revealed, there is a veil of mystery that only gets pulled away in the show's final episodes. That said, the show is hardly subtle in its handling of its mysteries. In fact, they are almost always in your face. The plot may as well be yelling "SOMETHING STRANGE IS HAPPENING!" sometimes. This is especially true for the early episodes before the plot really kicks in. Most of those episodes consisted of Kouchi's classmates dodging his questions or downright refusing to answer them. While this does keep a good sense of mystery in the early episodes, it can get a bit frustrating when the show seems like it is about to give answers and fakes-out at the last second. Luckily, it does have the sense to actually give answers before your patience runs out, and provides plenty of gruesomely fun deaths along the way. Even when the story gets rolling, however, there is a distinct lack of subtlety. The deaths in Another are as entertaining as they are bloody, and boy, are they bloody. Whether they be homicide, suicide, or accident so improbable that they had to be of supernatural decent; the deaths are extremely graphic. However, rather than being gratuitous to the point of off-putting, the deaths are nightmarish spectacles that are equal parts shocking and gleeful. This is largely due to the frenetic energy they are directed with; the deaths are easily the most exciting moments in the show. The fact that majority of the show is talky and cryptic makes the straightforward, matter-of-fact death scenes all the more effective, in all their deranged blood-soaked glory. Admittedly, the energy the deaths are directed with can be a double-edged sword. Sometimes they can end up being more comedic than frightening. Still, the show cannot be accused of being boring or uninspired. Another is a show that is far more concerned with its plot than it is with its characters. As far as main characters go, Kouichi is actually kinda plain. You get the impression he is generally a good guy, with a rather convenient fascination with the strange and mysterious; especially with Mei and the ominous circumstances surrounding class 3-3. Outside of what the plot requires him to be, he doesn't have much personality, honestly. Mei is the more interesting of our two protagonist, as she is surrounded by mystery a good portion of the show. Her back story also gives a reasonable explanation for her peculiar personality. However, she can be too calm and reserved; her stoic demeanor makes her a bit too distant to completely relate to. The rest of the cast just feel kind of like fodder for the body count. Even more important characters like the head of countermeasures (of what I won't say because of spoilers) Izumi Akazawa, and Kouichi's other school yard friends feel kind of like walking corpses, and you half expect one of them to drop dead at any moment. The problem with the characters is that they are mechanisms of the plot, rather than figures that you can get invested in. The art of Another looks really good. Admittedly, the character designs fall into the same glossy, attractive look that all the shows from studio P.A. Works have. This isn't a bad thing, however, as they are still very polished and never get off model; even when they are going bat-shit crazy. More impressive are the elaborate backgrounds that make up the world of Another. What should be just a mundane school and a mundane town, instead look downright ominous because of the fantastic art direction. The use of lighting and sometimes subdued color pallet (there are plenty of bright moments in the show) does wonders for the show's atmosphere. The music is also well composed and fittingly creepy. The thing is, though, Another wields its soundtrack like a sledgehammer. There is rarely a time when the music is used with subtlety, and often plays very loud at times that you should be scared. That is not to say it isn't effective, it is much of the time; but also overplayed. Another is nothing short of a bloody good time. The show has no shortage of thrills and chills. The mystery, while being a bit gimmicky, will keep you on your toes. However, the back-hand to all this is that Another doesn't have much in re-watch value. The bland cast provides little in way of characterization, and once the mystery is unraveled there honestly isn't much reason to re-visit the show. Add to that the hammer-fist manner in which the show handles its content. As it stands, Another is a deliciously graphic thrill ride, if only just for one viewing.