You must create an account or sign in to reply to this thread!

Reply

Dec 25 2012 03:36 AM
Another is based off a Japanese fiction mystery and horror novel originally published in 2009. It follows Koichi Sakakibara who transfers to Yomiyama Middle School and meeting the mysterious Mei Misaki. Unfortunately, his contact seems to lead to a sequence of mysterious, gruesome, and senseless deaths of his classmates. He later learns that this is a curse that has been stuck with this particular middle school class ever since his mother attended the same school. Another premiered with 12 episodes during the Winter 2012 anime season, was simulcasted by CrunchyRoll and licensed by Sentai Filmworks.

So here's another title that took me effectively one year to finish as I continue to clear out some of the backlog. Technically I had completed 10 episodes around March 2012 as it was finishing up but real life got mixed in and put it off until now so I'll try to be brief. To start off, I'm a bit mixed about the story. Another does a great job at providing the suspense factor but does a terrible job at explaining the actual story. It initially starts off very slow with monotone dialogue. The pale setting also didn't really help until the first death in episode 3. After that, it became what you could call a gore fest. As said before, the suspense factor leading up to all these deaths are great but we never really learn anything about the plot. Even at the end of the day, the "ultimate" mystery is finding out who is the "another" in the class and the conclusion is rather questionable in more ways than one. There really wasn't much of a mystery involved and was more "horror" and gore than anything else. In fact, one could even say the show goes full circle and doesn't really resolve anything, such as finding an "effective" solution in remedying the curse in the future.

Background and details are above average for this show. The dark and gloomy setting fits nicely with the show but the visuals get dull really fast due to the vast amount of monotone coloring. Horror is meant to be dark but there is a limit as to what you could do to dark scenery. Everyday should not always be cloudy. Character designs are also stale for the most part. It bugs me how the quality also differs so much when compared to the ED video sequence. Animation is a bit out of wack at times and for the most part basic. Considering this is a work by P.A. Works, this is especially weak when you consider it came off of major titles like Hanasaku Iroha, Angel Beats!, and True Tears.

OP is by ALI PROJECT, a group that I rarely like and Another's theme is no exception. Fitting with the show to a degree though. ED is ok and also fitting with the series. Background music is great for this show as it matches the suspense factor. It's nice that they give viewers "a little scare" using the music even though a death doesn't always occur. Sound effects are rather weak, however. Seiyuu is weak overall. While I didn't really bother to look at the cast line up this time, everyone is literally monotone that it makes listening to dialogue incredibly boring at times. The explanations are often roundabout with no proper conclusion and having a monotone cast only makes it worse. It's as if they're literally reading dialogue from the novel.

Enjoyment? Another had some ups and downs. Ultimately, it felt more like another Blood-C, which is ironically by the same director. Tsutomu Mizushima can clearly do gore but clearly fails at presenting a proper horror story. I'm personally not a big fan of gore. However, I will admit that some of the scenes were well portrayed. Again, if only it was a better adapted story. In terms of other similar titles, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni effectively does what Another does but with a slightly livelier setting. Shiki is another similar title but utilizes a different sort of "curse."

Overall, Another is one of those shows where once the cat is out of the bag, it's over. As said many times, suspense drove this show forward. Its characters, plot, "mystery" and premise were all as dull as they could have possibly been. That said, the show does have a little bit of value mostly for those who haven't seen it and because very few shows exist in this space. However long-term wise as more titles appear in this space, it will likely diminish, especially when titles like Higurashi and Shiki easily top it. In fact, there are even parts of Umineko no Naku Koro ni that I consider more enjoyable than Another.

Preliminary Score: 8/10
Final Score: 5/10

Reply

May 29 2012 01:02 AM
after two months the OVA is out and wasn't bad to watch Mei's happy times when she had fun with her sister Misaki Fujioka adding a few ecchi and "yuri" scenes before her death triggered the curse of class 3-3 in 1998, this episode 0 turned out a bit better than I expected but still isn't good enough compared to the first episodes of the series which preliminarily got 8/10 in the beginning... I though this prequel would be about the origin of that curse back in 1972 after Misaki Yomiyama died and his relationship with Ritsuko Sakakibara but that may happen if there is "another" special, the only adaptation left is the movie to be released this August but probably subbed from the DVD/BRD until 2013 -.- meanwhile I can wait patiently with very low expectation so here go my final scores:

Another (TV series 12 episodes) winter 2012 - 6/10
Another OVA (#00 The Other -Karma-) spring 2012 - 7/10
Another (Live-action film) summer 2012 - ???

Reply

Apr 25 2012 07:56 PM
I watched the final episode a couple weeks back, had to watch on a laptop that was able to view it without it lagging, which it did on my old laptop. I only updated my MAL a week ago because I've been so engrossed in finishing and grinding out Dynasty Warriors 7 till I got all the achievements and 100% everything in the game during the Easter holidays.

I'm so sorry about one of my previous posts, I seriously didn't think they were going to pull out the manga ending in the anime because Reiko really wasn't much of a central character, I didn't even know she was Miss Mikami in the anime, I knew she was in the manga but not in the anime, so when they showed that "flashback" in the final episode, I wondered if they really had shown it in an earlier episode of her saying it to her nephew, I really couldn't remember the scene ever being done in the earlier episode. Obviously, Reiko's initial death is different in the manga than in the anime, I find the initial manga death to be more chilling.

OK, I was a careless when I said that this failed as an anime because it really didn't but I don't think it captured the essence of a horror story well despite having a great concept, it was executed blandly and the characters were awkward. Good horror anime is Higurashi, which Another clearly wasn't even up to its standards. The characters were plain and I didn't care what happened to them because the first few episodes seemed like this series was actually going to be good but it ended up being quite mediocre.

Hence, my rating for this series is a 7/10. Generous rating given because I was biased and had expectations but it disappointed me but the ppl without my expectations will still enjoy this, which I did but not so much.

Reply

Apr 4 2012 08:00 PM
I jsut started watching this.. the dolls give me the creeps XD

Reply

Apr 4 2012 02:54 PM
Wow they threw a real curveball at us in the end. Just like everyone else said it just doesnt make sense.
Ms Mikami is Reiko oO
A lot of people were seen dying but in the end it was almost no one oO
Reiko can change her haircolor daily oO
The Manager going berserk because of that oO
No closure to what actually happened 26 years ago oO
All of a sudden a teacher can be too much too oO
What about all those strange scenes with the dolls from the first ep oO

This show totally fell apart in the last ep. The slaughterfest which wasnt really one didnt make any sense just like the whole Mikami Reiko stuff. And Misaki as a character made just no sense too.

This show really had the best beginning this season, so of course Im even more disappointed now.

Cant believe it is rated as a 8.20 on MAL and the reviews almost all beeing a 9 or a 10 oO But I knew already that the people on MAL dont have taste.

Overall it was enjoyable until the last two eps where it all fell apart. Plot was a giant hole, characters were mostly unlikeable (except Ms Mikami beeing hot) and the end was just bad. Only really good thing was the animation.

A 6/10 from me and I get the feeling this is still quite generous.

Reply

Mar 29 2012 03:55 AM
Well episode one was really odd with the way the family and parrot mumbling weird things and the countermeasure head saying she meet the protagonist. If you came in watching the show looking for clues right off the start than you might find something is odd with his family. The worst part is that they did not SHOW that scene in the first episode which ruins most people's ability to guess it was her all along.

The other problem is the curse is not resolved and the origin of the curse is never fully understood, but a sequel could possibly focus on ending the curse like how Higurashi no naku koro ni did with Higurashi no naku koro ni kai.

If there is a sequel than I'd think this is a good entry in establishing the world, but if there isn't one than this show is just decent with the surprises/gore 7/10.

Reply

Mar 26 2012 07:00 PM
Well with this episode 12 everything made sense as to why he never remembered anything that happened to him a year and a half ago. So I have to say that the things Izumi said to him really made perfect sense, it's a shame that she had to die in the end.

Anyways I guess you can say there was closure invovled in all of this, but for them to burn a disk about how to stop the cure and to metnion to be mindful on the decision or problems will occour over it was kind of the closure they sort of needed.

Reply

Mar 26 2012 05:58 PM
I guess you can say the last episode cleared up the rest of the mysteries to an extent; there were just a few minor details that I wasn't to clear on. I deleted the last episode right after I watched it and have no intentions on ever re-downloading or watching the series again since it was just meh-okay overall. So if anybody has the answers I'll just read your posts and move on from this anime.

So basically Akazawa did in fact meet Kouichi a year an a half ago and just couldn't remember because of the curse correct? Because it was implied that he was visiting from Tokyo (the whole scene from Akazawa's memory) at the time for Reiko's funeral (I guess) even though we never actually saw him attending it in the flashbacks. Plus Reiko becoming the extra would explain why he couldn't directly remember that time a year an a half ago. Though honestly I'm not sure how Mei was able to remember Reiko's murder; the curse didn't have any effect in that particular circumstance? They might have explained it but I didn't quite follow the reasoning.

Plus another thing about Reiko's murder in the flashback that had me somewhat puzzled was the guy who stabbed her. I originally assumed that it was Kouichi because they looked so much alike. I thought that would have been an interesting plot twist. The news report said it was an unknown assailant and Mei never comes out and says that Kouichi was the one who killed Reiko. So was that just some teenage boy who looked like Kouichi that killed her? They could have at least explained why she was murdered in the first place. Was there even a motive behind it?

The last part that was somewhat odd to me was when Kouichi actually killed Reiko. He didn't even bother trying to explain that they had found out she was the extra and had to kill her to stop the curse. I mean he referred to her as his mother (I'm assuming he was speaking figuratively since they were I guess so close) so doesn't she at least deserve some kind of explanation. I figured that was going to be some kind of big emotional scene to make the viewers actually care that he was going to kill his aunt but no he just finishes her off Oh well the anime wasn't that well done to begin with so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. After all Mei keeping quiet about Reiko being the extra after she had heard the tape (and how to stop the curse) cost a lot of other people their lives. But the last episodes wouldn't have had much suspense if she had done something about it then; it just seems kind of odd looking back on that after the series is over.

Reply

Mar 26 2012 04:36 PM
I'm waiting for a certain subber to release this one. Yeah, 8/10 is high, I kinda do that, but my real scoring would be more like 6 to 7 out of 10.

Soz about not being spoiler tags, at first I was confused with the whole Reiko-Mikami thing and MAL character list sort of cleared it up by revealing that they're separate characters in the anime.

Reply

Mar 26 2012 04:15 PM

Hot diggity damn! I am with you on this one, Aus-san! A real stinker in the end that failed to deliver on all counts...except, of course, in the drawn pretty anime characters division...but so what? Like you, I stopped caring about what clues were and where when in reality, they were very minor indeed, to a mishmash story that like I said before and gladly say so again...went down the tubes and fast. I will leave it a 5/10 (and that's being generous) since the anime characters were so pretty even when covered in blood and guts but sure as hell, no glory! Glad this mediocrity is so over.