Another (アナザー) is a 12 episode psychological horror series based on the novel of the same name by Ayatsuji Akito. It was originally broadcast in Japan in 2012.
Sakakibara Koichi moves from Tokyo to a small rural town called Yomiyama. He will be attending his final year of middle school in this remote town and living with his maternal grandparents while his father is working in India. A collapsed lung causes him to miss the first month of school and when he is able to begin class he discovers something isn't right. The entire class and faculty is ignoring the existence of one of the students, a moody and dark girl named Misaki Mei. Bothered by the atmosphere of his classmates, Koichi decides to talk with Mei to find out whats going on.
Their class has been cursed following an accidental death of a classmate 27 years earlier. After the students death the classmates and teacher acted as if the student was still alive and part of the group. The following year the class that occupied the room was struck with a series of accidental deaths. Since then a number of rituals have been established in an attempt to ward off any such tragedy, with varying results. Koichi's arrival coupled with his interactions with Mei cause everyone in the class to be on edge as they fearfully await the curse to strike their class.
I am going to be really blunt with this one, it's not that good. The character animation was pretty bad and the twists and plot hang ups were worn out and unoriginal. The gotcha moments were partially due to muddled clues and work-around's more than deep and thoughtful puzzles and plot. There was really only one shocking death and afterwards the show continued to set up scenario's where a character might die a la the horrible teen thriller series Final Destination. The climax of the series was poorly executed and included elements that seemed out of place and were explained rather loosely and conveniently in the epilogue.
Disappointingly, this series fell rather flat and did not really entertain as much as it could have. It seemed the author decided to phone in some of the major plot points and what you end up with is a mix of Sixth Sense and Final Destination paired with galge moe aesthetics. This was not my cup of tea and really dissapointed me. It had the potential to be something deep and interesting, like Nijigahara Holograph, but ended up being fluff that relied to heavy on worn out idea's.
The series is available commercially in North America, I streamed it on Crunchyroll. The novel and manga adaptation are available from Yen Press.
Sakakibara Koichi moves from Tokyo to a small rural town called Yomiyama. He will be attending his final year of middle school in this remote town and living with his maternal grandparents while his father is working in India. A collapsed lung causes him to miss the first month of school and when he is able to begin class he discovers something isn't right. The entire class and faculty is ignoring the existence of one of the students, a moody and dark girl named Misaki Mei. Bothered by the atmosphere of his classmates, Koichi decides to talk with Mei to find out whats going on.
Their class has been cursed following an accidental death of a classmate 27 years earlier. After the students death the classmates and teacher acted as if the student was still alive and part of the group. The following year the class that occupied the room was struck with a series of accidental deaths. Since then a number of rituals have been established in an attempt to ward off any such tragedy, with varying results. Koichi's arrival coupled with his interactions with Mei cause everyone in the class to be on edge as they fearfully await the curse to strike their class.
I am going to be really blunt with this one, it's not that good. The character animation was pretty bad and the twists and plot hang ups were worn out and unoriginal. The gotcha moments were partially due to muddled clues and work-around's more than deep and thoughtful puzzles and plot. There was really only one shocking death and afterwards the show continued to set up scenario's where a character might die a la the horrible teen thriller series Final Destination. The climax of the series was poorly executed and included elements that seemed out of place and were explained rather loosely and conveniently in the epilogue.
Disappointingly, this series fell rather flat and did not really entertain as much as it could have. It seemed the author decided to phone in some of the major plot points and what you end up with is a mix of Sixth Sense and Final Destination paired with galge moe aesthetics. This was not my cup of tea and really dissapointed me. It had the potential to be something deep and interesting, like Nijigahara Holograph, but ended up being fluff that relied to heavy on worn out idea's.
The series is available commercially in North America, I streamed it on Crunchyroll. The novel and manga adaptation are available from Yen Press.
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