Anime: Another

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.

Oh, and I almost forgot, since it doesn’t happen much, but there a few scenes that are meant to be funny and are even more random than any of the deaths. Also, this series somehow managed to have the most unfitting and out of place beach episode of any anime of all time, whether its setting is a school or not

Bottom line, this is an even worse anime than the last one I covered, and I hate it even more than that one, easily one of the worst written and directed products I have seen in my life, with no sense of logic and rationality within the script whatsoever, and with one of the worst, if not the worst cast of characters I have seen in my life. It looks nice but that’s about it. Remembering about it only made me drop its score even lower, I’m afraid, making it earn a place among the worst titles within the medium that I have seen in my life.

Story:
Another featured a complex yet simple horror story that would hold you on the edge of your seat till you found out what happened next. Unfortunately its complexity is let down by simplicity. I'll try not to leave any spoilers, so you will find out when you watch it. The plot is consistent and each episode makes some reference back to the main story line. Episode 00 gives some back story so its recommended to watch before starting Another. But episode 00 is a but of a spoiler.

Art and Sound:
Not alot to say about the art and sound except that the character design is really nice and so is the played music. The op really wasn't my thing though. Too dark, though it is a horror

Character
Got a 7 only because nearer to the end you find that the emotions portrayed in each character aren't 'real'. Usually if your classmate is murdered at the age of 16ish you would mourn their death not go a rampage and kill everyone.

Enjoyment
If your like me and likes to see a death where you would laugh at the person for being 'not so smart' than this is the anime for you. Four story drops in elevators, electrocution and justa whole lotta blood that makes you want more.

Overall
An 8. It's major let down was its ending (which was Ok but not the greatest) and character development. Apart from that it was an amazing anime which just missed out of my top 10.

Surprisingly thrilling horror/mystery show

This show focuses on the people who find themselves in a predicament where something supernatural is happening without going into the actual supernatural. Final Destination comes to mind, but this show doesn't follow a horror-path, rather a mystery-plotline before succumbing to the horror; blood shows up only in the latter half.
Most other reviews I read contained too many spoilers, so this one is without real spoilers.

Animation: Long time since I've seen animation CG blend in so well.

Characters
If you solely look at the animation and designs for the characters you tend to change your opinion sometimes that the characters – and especially the faces, in particular the protagonist – look too bland, with too little details. At other times the faces are done very well, with well thought lines to underline the expressions.
Clothes and hair are done especially well for the Akazawa character simply because she seems to have the most details in her character, but they are done noticably well.

Blending of the CG
But the thing which stands out the most is the CG used in the show. Usually CG is being used to display objects in the background or objects where the characters interact with for either of the following two reasons:
1) to cut costs, because CG apparently is cheaper than making people actually draw it as they do the characters, or
2) because it looks cool.
Unfortunately, most of the times where CG is used in tv-series this doesn't turn out well; it then displays characters which interact with a whole different kind of animated object which doesn't seem to belong in the show because it stands out so much from the rest. In other words, it doesn't integrate with the rest of the show.

Another on the other hand does a remarkable job in using many of the CG in a way that integrates it with the rest of the show. This means you either do not see that it's being done with CG, or it has a skin that allows it to blend in with the rest of the show, which does not make the object stand out and makes it actual part of the show rather than it being an Unidentified Animated Object.

Backgrounds
The backgrounds are done really well, despite a few scenes where the background is obviously made in CG without hiding it. Many times they hide it by applying the proper coloring which the rest of the show uses. This is a sort of washed-out style, not exactly blurry, but more aquarel-like (I believe the official term is Watercolo(u)r though). And while hiding is not always good, in these cases it works brilliantly. Two, no three thumbs up for them being able to do so.

Sound: Perfectly chosen BG.

I admit I haven't listened to it, but there is probably nothing on the OST that you would like to listen to on your music player while not watching the show, but that's not the main goal of this set. This soundtrack focuses brilliantly on underlining the scenes, giving suspenseful music where necessary and includes disturbing tones whenever the show displays a moment of uneasiness.

The voiceacting is done well, but many of the voices are subdued. There are no high-pitched female voices like you have in so many other anime; the voices you hear here are the voices you will hear in a normal space where the atmosphere is intense and grave.
The ED-song is soft and might give you a breath of relief after going through another suspenseful episode of intense uneasiness, but for some reason I didn't think the ED-song was actually good. This could be better, like Angel Beats did.

OP-song
One of the parts I would like to point out is the OP-song. Done by the Ali Project (known from shows as Noir, Avenger, Code Geass and Rozen Maiden) they have plenty of experience in anime songs, but while I do not particularly enjoy their songs every now and then they make their songs fit the show with astonishing accuracy. This is one of those songs, which contains cries and screams in the background of the song whenever you the least expect it.
Considering how I sit next to the baby monitor while watching the show I ended up pausing all the time to go check on my sleeping son to see if he was crying or that it was merely my anime.

Story: Excellent build up, but there are a few too many plot holes.

The story is one I particularly like as a plot device. A classroom where they have a student with the title ‘head of countermeasures’ and where people seem to have a great deal of secrets nobody is supposed to talk about is generally the point of interest of any transfer student. Sakakibara is that particular transfer student in a class that has probably never seen a transfer student in decades and although he has no trouble finding his place in the group, he does have trouble fitting in while not knowing the rules he is supposed to follow.

The show starts off suspiciously with him in the hospital and three of his future classmates already visiting him to welcome him to the class. He also gets the urgent advise to, in all circumstances, act in the way which will benefit the class. That doesn't make much sense, but it will later in the show. Many things will fall into place throughout the show's progress and the show does a really proper job in providing the clues bit by bit, piece by piece – while still giving you plenty of time to come up with your own analysis and conclusions before either confirming or firmly denying them.

Plot holes
Others talk about plot holes and such and yes, this show has plenty of them too. Not all of the events make sense and some of the plot parts are simply not quite right. One of the broken parts is the plot part concerning the covered eye of Misaki Mei and the reasoning behind that in the last few episodes, or her not mentioning the stabbing she has seen. Is it wrong? Not really. Is it sensible? Definitely not. But there are various events like these where one might scratch their head wondering why this is happening, which doesn't make it anytime easier to form a conclusion about what the heck is happening in this show.

Surprisingly enough though this doesn't break the show as a whole; you might get frustrated by a few of them because they don't make sense but the show goes on and there is still plenty of plot which does play by the rules. Although some of the rules are particular horror-rules; they aren't sensible, but they are there. As Stephen King said in his novel Lisey's Story: Reality is Ralph, indicating that not all things can be reasonably explained while they still happen, like a dog covering 100 miles to find its way back home or a cat that rides the bus.

I've read about people who make the reference to the movie Final Destination and having seen that movie I can definitely side with the people who have brought up that particular movie. Although there isn't an entity called death which happens to kill off all the characters in the classroom, there are some parts of it that they share, like the feelings of shared fate, helplessness and the feeling of sticking together through all times. It also shares a few particular unrealistic events – especially towards the end – though, which would sometimes raise an eyebrow.

Directing
Often forgotten and hardly ever mentioned in reviews (definitely not that often in mine at least), but here I would like to express some praise for the director. There are a lot of scenes where the director manages to pick scenes which emphasizes the atmosphere or just concludes the scene with a simple focus on the object which was used but forgotten, like the recorder. There are a lot of simple things he decides to show which not only make sense, but also have use for the atmosphere or the story.

I haven't read the novel it's based on, but this director even managed to use the obligatory beach episode with fanservice in this series while sticking to the story and without disrupting the flow of uneasiness. I have never experienced watching a beach episode with a feeling of uneasiness and knot in my stomach.

Characters: Solid cast, but most of them are flat.

This sounds like a strange thing to say, but while the cast is rock solid none of them can really be considered a round character – not even the protagonist as he doesn't really develop. So how come I dare to say the cast is solid? The answer is simple; all of the characters fit the show, add to the story and fulfill their roles as characters to make the show work. Considering there are 20+ students in the class there is simply no space to develop or even introduce all of them so they focus on a protagonist and a handful of supporting characters and a bunch of named characters that usually only have a few appearances. Interestingly, pretty much everyone who is named is also given a slight part of the final in the end of the show.

Out of character?
What bugged me in person was that near the end some characters seemed to play out of character. Composed people ended up in a rage, impulsive people ended being timid and such, but then again, who knows how people behave when in a stressful situation? While I acknowledge that people tend to act out of character in such situations, in this situation it felt a bit off. Perhaps I'm the only one who feels this way, perhaps not, but it bugged me that it happened. But hey, like said before, Reality is Ralph.

So, is it worth watching?
This is one of the few horror shows I would recommend. Usually a horror show is aimed at a particular group of people who appreciate horror, but since this one is slow in the build-up and sticks to the mystery genre for the first half of the show, this might be a good watch for everyone who likes mystery and thriller as well.

Unfortunately, just with all the other mystery shows, this probably doesn't warrant a rewatch as you already know the conclusion of the mystery and the strength of the show – the unraveling of the mystery and the build-up to the conclusion – will fall flat if you already know the conclusion.

Overall, this show is uneven. But when it works, it really works. I would say you may enjoy this show, if you take it for what it is. It's no masterpiece, but it does what it sets out to do in a competent way.
This is a suspense story and as such it is really effective when it needs to be. Although it has it's flaws.

As a mystery it seems predictable, though it is not as predictable as it first seems. At times plot points that seem forced come together later. Which highlights a problem the show has. The first impression is not as good as it aught to be, at times even cringe worthy, but it manages to wrap things up neatly enough that you end up accepting them. So the word that keeps coming to mind is, competent, but not excellent. If it was excellent, you wouldn't stop to notice these things. Effort was put into it and there are some good ideas, but the execution could be better.

Beginning with first impressions, the opening didn't work for me. Visually it's not bad at all, but the song is so mismatched it's jarring. The song is popy and upbeat in a way that really clashes with the tone. What was probably the intention was for it give an unsettling expression. In the way the opening of Higurashi does, which is weird, but in a good way. Here it just seems forced for no good reason. The song does have some fleeting moments, but then it jumps right back to generic and boring.
This is important because where Higurashi had me hooked from the beginning by setting a good tone in the opening. Giving you the proper chilling feeling to set up the rest of an episode. With Another, I just ended up skipping the opening from the second episode and on... which doesn't help you get into the mood. A first impression that is just annoying, doesn't help the series at all... But I'd say give the show a chance to prove itself anyway. I generally try not to judge a show by it's opening, though a good opening certainly helps.

The first impressions though still haunt (pun intended) the first few episodes. The show tries too hard, throwing creepy visuals and plot twists at you, for the sake of "whooho, this is supposed to be scary". Honestly I wasn't really hooked until the 4th episode. Which is bad in itself, I almost dropped the series after 3 episodes but decided it was still decent, it wasn't really bad (like so many other shows that are so generic you can't bring yourself to care at all). So I gave it a chance to see where it was going. After that it had some pleasant surprises that made me rethink my first impressions a bit. The show grows on you.

Where Another succeeds is in the growing sense of despair and tension. The plot has some interesting themes and ideas that work for it. The quality of art and animation is also very good, which helps to build atmosphere. Which is ultimately what the show is all about. Too bad the soundtrack is just decent (apart from a terrible opening and forgettable end theme).

The story though is not that deep, it has good moments and is enough to keep you interested, but won't keep you awake pondering the meaning of life. Although the character interactions, social behavior and pushing your limits is what drives the story. Most of the time, it works. But the show has it's share of "why? because of plot convenience!" moments. It also suffers from "because of magic!" at times, but you can forgive that if you focus on what the show is trying to do, which is build suspense. It's not meant to be a great story.
Also there is the basic "creepy random deaths" theme, which was made popular by the "Final destination" movies. And sure, there are gory creative death scenes. For the sake of, well gory and "creative". But at least Another tries to tell as story at the same time, where as Final destination is just gore for the sake of gore, with no motivation or explanation whatsoever. The deaths here serve a purpose for the story, so while I'm not really interested in gore, I can accept why it's there. If you like that sort of thing, then bonus to you I guess.

There is also a use of horror clichés, but the writing is still competent enough to keep the show afloat. The characters are believable enough and the stereotypes are not overdone too much. There are good moments where some real depth shines though as well and that are even touching or clever. But overall neither characters nor story are all that memorable. Still for what it is it can still be enjoyable.
Another problem is overuse of "I can't reveal that yet" plot points and "I am being unnecessarily vague, for some reason". For the sake of padding the series out and building suspense by revealing a bit at a time. You see what they where going for, But it could be handled better. At times it's really obvious they just want to give you a reason to keep watching the next episode, but it lacks a natural flow and often borders on being forced. It's probably a good thing it was only 12 episodes, because with a tighter script, it could have been done in 6.

There is an obligatory cheesecake episode in the middle, but it's not too bad. The overall tone of the show is still pretty consistent. Which is a good thing, because comic relief for the sake of comic relief gets grating really, really fast. Way too many shows or films suffer from throwing in quirky characters or sudden change of tone moments, just to make it more "accessible". Which is a largely misguided notion.
The episode wasn't really needed, but at least it had some relevance to the plot, so I wouldn't go as far as skipping it. And if you're male, cute girls in bikinis. Enough said.

To sum up. If you enjoy suspenseful horror, give Another a go. There certainly is better out there, but if you don't know what else to watch, it's at least enjoyable.

Let me preface this review by noting that I am by no means an expert in this genre, I typically stick to much lighter toned works. However, due to this aspect, I found Another to be anything but just another series. However, this type of series is tremendously hard to describe without spoilers so bear with me.

I'd say there are two types of horror: there's the Doom 3/Zombie approach and there's the psychological approach. The first one is pretty thrilling during the watch but due to the implausibility the effects are (whew) temporary. The latter approach sticks with you; once you've watched The Ring you can't go back, for example. Another is theoretically more of this second type, however due to the remote nature (at least for some of us) of the setting it doesn't really have the lingering gotta look over my shoulder feeling. What does that mean? Perhaps this is better categorized as a mystery/thriller, more along the lines of the early episodes of Chaos Head, before they started unraveling all the mystery.

If you're looking for a hard core horror/survival tale that is gripping and epic, my recommendation would be to buy/build yourself a decent rig and plug in Dead Space. If you're looking for a change of pace from your typical slice of life and are okay with a bit of gore (think Elfen Lied-ish), this might be a good one. I personally don't do well with horror in general, but found this a pretty captivating series that required utter chainage.

Animation:
I'm apparently one of those thousands of PA Works fans that are lulled into thinking that a series is awesome if it contains moe girls and some occasional flair. I'm actually totally okay with this as I believe the presentation of this series was very well done. In general, the series had unexpectedly detailed backgrounds and a well-chosen color palette (think rusted-like similar to the one used in Kara no Kyoukai). The overall animation was crisp and gave a very tense atmosphere (pressure cooker). One thing I still haven't yet figured out is the usage of shots of creepy dolls.

The character styling was a bit lax as there are plenty of generic-looking forgettable classmates. There are a ton of characters in this series, luckily only a select few are important enough to influence the plot. As for character expressions, you're only going to get four in the entire series: confusion, sadness, fear, and anger (pretty consistent with the pressure cooker atmosphere); don't expect any upbeat characters to lighten the mood. I believe this is intended as it just adds to the mystery surrounding the class in the early episodes. This series also caters to two peculiar character traits in the same character, eye-patches and heterochromia; both of which I will never understand...

Perhaps my eyes have been blinded by the likes of Maken Ki and like ilk as I don't recall any fan service in this series. Much more prominent are bloody scenes as unlucky classmates and relatives meet their untimely fate. The camera angle often saves you from the worst of the gore but I couldn't imagine watching this while eating a bloody, rare steak. As for the "horror" aspect, there isn't much here that will cause you a heart attack or induce a seizure, but the combined visual/audio does cause for some surprise moments.

Sound:
The OP to Another is unique, it's very chromatic and sets the tone quite nicely for the series. The ED is most probably intended as a break from all the madness, a chance for one to catch one's breath before moving on to the next episode; it's a mellow yet slightly dark piece, and it goes perfectly especially at the end of the series. The BGM is mostly forgettable as it's really the sound effects that matter here. You'll get lots of your traditional horror-thriller sounds here ranging from jarring, eerie utterances to sudden, LOUD gusts of wind. I found that it combined with the animation formed a compelling atmosphere.

You're not going to hear an energetic performance from anyone in the VA cast, it just isn't that kind of series. I think it was required to maintain the severity of the tone though yes it would have been nice to have a bit more emotion at times.

Story:
I'll admit it. There are definitely flaws to the story. Certain plot elements were cheap. But to be honest, many of these realizations are in hind sight. In general, the story does a good job of keeping you guessing what it's all about, and slowly luring you to believe something only to pull the rug out and surprise you. It's a very intriguing setting/premise and I think this is one of the better executions this season.

I liked the pacing of the series, it introduces you fairly gently at first but then quickly picks up, never to really let up until the ending. On the topic of the ending, many people have complained that the ending is horrible; it's fairly inconclusive and doesn't really go into any falling action. I actually think it's okay to do so in this case, and it does leave open the possibility for a follow up series.

Looking back, there was plenty of foreshadowing, as well as fake-outs, to try to work out what it was all about. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out all the plot twists, and must admit that I didn't see the final ending coming until the very last moment. Props to the series on that.

Character:
The characters are a bit dry, it may be intentional but overall bland faces definitely will discourage certain viewers. This is most annoying in Mei, as I have no idea why Kouichi finds her interesting at first. There are a lot of students in the class, and believe me there is a good reason for why the class is so large. However, I never got the feeling that the class was a unified class. Character relations in general are weak at best, epitomized by the shallow-seeming connection between Mei and Kouichi. Likewise, none of the characters are ever given any background, though there is at least a reason for this. Basically, though the characters do feel a bit weak, it's mostly to maintain the mysterious tonality demanded by the plot.

Value:
I'm not going to try to act macho and say "yeah I've seen a lot worse this is nothing". I found this a very entertaining watch that did increase my heart rate at times. The atmosphere, though nowhere near the utter envelopment which is Kara no Kyoukai, is a satisfyingly dark tone that just begs you to turn your lights off and watch with the sound on max volume. At least for those who don't have much of a horror background, this is a palatable series that keeps you guessing up to the very last episode.

First, let me begin saying that I decided to write this review to counter a bit the other negative reviews Another has been getting. Please note what the other reviews are saying is completely true, I just think that some of the good points out-weight the negatives and want to write something to encourage new viewers into watching Another. Why? Simple, because I enjoyed Another. It may feel a bit optimistic and on the defensive side, but that is my intention.

Lets get started by the very basic.

• 
  
• ----What is another?
  A horror anime.


• ----What is horror?
  Horror is a genre that appeals to your sense of fear, basically it tries to scare you.


• ----How will it try to scare me?
  A regular series takes you from your boring uneventful real life, and gently puts you into it's own world, that's why we all watch anime right? Well horror is a bit different, it grabs you by your feet and forcefully drags you into its own world. There, it first places you in a closed circle surrounded by a mystery and very slowly develops the characters while at the same time trying to confuse you using inappropriate fanservice or just crazy stuff (in Another's case, that is moe, yes, as weird as that sounds). The horror series then makes sure you unknowingly get attached to a very small group of the main characters (1 or 2), and begins killing everyone else. The feeling of fear comes from you not wanting to lose those characters dear to you. And that is exactly what this series does, right out of the book.


• ----If it is an out-of-the-book series, why should I watch it?
  Because it is horror, and even if a series is completely generic, there are so very few horror series out there it won't feel cliché (unless you do watch horror from media other than anime)


• ----Will there be blood?
  Well but of course, how did you intend it to scare you? By characters violently trowing pillows at each other? That said, Another gets a bit bloody from time to time, but it never crosses the line into gore. For a horror series I must say it is really refined and for the most part deaths are spaced enough.


• ----Will it scare me?
  That is up to you. Horror makes use of the most elements of multimedia to drag you to it's world, therefore the most appropriate medium for horror is videogames. For an anime series, you must help create the atmosphere, watch every episode in high volume, on scary nights, and don't criticize every detail, just enjoy it and let it do it's job; I did say horror drags you into it's world and chooses which characters you like for you, so all you need to do is sit still and watch. Let it scare you, that is the reason you watch horror for.

Now let's get into the review before this gets any longer.

Overview
In the town of Yomiyama, on Yomiyama North Middle school class 3-3 there is a certain curse which kills students and their relatives one by one. Kouichi, the protagonist, is transfered to said class and meets Mei, a weird girl with a patch in her eye which nobody seems to notice except for him. Shortly after, the calamity activates and people start dying. Who is Mei and what is this calamity? How can the students save themselves from it? That is the story in another.

Animation Style and Detail [7/10]
Animation is the serious type, it's not impressive for a PA Works piece, but it is not bad. Characters feel cold and emotionless, but that helps build the atmosphere. Backgrounds are nothing special. Nice camera effects are used every once in a while and for most of the series a "static camera" is used which makes you feel like an observer. Overall the quality was high. I would have given an 8 but episode 1 has a lot of random shots to ugly dolls (not ugly/creepy, just ugly)

Sound [10/10]
Sound inside the series is practically non existent. Why does it get a 10 then you ask? Because despite the Animation not getting a 10, the atmosphere in the series is unique, and it is thanks to carefully playing with the audio; contrary to Mirai Nikki which breaks the atmosphere with a strong BGM. Voice acting was alright (Mei barely talks, but she is just like that). OP has a really weird vive, but it is great because of that, your heart is already beating fast and the episode has not even started. ED is very calming which leaves a lasting impression after each episode.

Story [9/10]
The story is slow paced at first, but the series is only 12 episodes long so it really is eventful. I mean, we watch like 50 Naruto episodes where nothing happens and that is called fast paced. There is a huge mystery in the air an it is well kept until the end. It ends, which in itself deserves some points, I hate series that don't finish. Yes, the details of the calamity are fuzzy and confusing, even inconsistent, but that is the way it's supposed to be. This is not science fiction so a consistent explanation is not required -- you just get what the characters get. You don't like that? They neither, it was killing them.

Characters[10/10]
Again a 10? Yes, this is intentional to up the score, remember I'm on the defensive? Ok, but why on characters? Because characters are developed yet they don't change. Go and try to write a story where no personalities change but a lot of development happens; that is hard. How do you do it then? By focusing on relationships, but wait, every character the protagonist gets near to has a high death chance, not only that, but the female lead is weird as hell and barely talks; now that IS hard, yet Another made it possible so it gets a high grade.

Value [8/10]
Normally, a mystery series is not worth re watching since you know the end already, unless it is a truly high level series as Gosick. Another however cheated to get a high score here. The mystery is so well kept until the end that you will barely buy it; therefore a second watch might be necessary, I think I will at least.

Enjoyment[9/10]
The way to measure Enjoyment in Another is a bit tricky. It depends completely and exclusively on how much you like Mei. If you like her, you will be asking yourself if she is alive trough most of the series, and if by chance you get the feeling she is, you will be begging for her to survive to the point that you really don't care if everyone else gets killed. If you don't like Mei, then you won't care for her or anyone else for that matter, and you will most certainly not enjoy the series. I really liked Mei, therefore 9. Perhaps my review is so biased because of her?

Conclusion
If you read this review to the end, then go watch the series. I mean it. My true recommendation after a lot of thought is that you need to watch the first 6 episodes to get to know Mei good enough to know if you will enjoy the series. However, 6 episodes is half the series so you may as well watch the whole thing.

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