So, I had been meaning to watch it for ages, I had bought the bluray last year, but hadn't watched it until this week and I absolutely loved it. But the reason I ask is because one friend of mine kept telling me it was awful, and when I started watching it and said I was really enjoying it, they said I was the first person they'd heard say that. The impression that they gave was that it was pretty widely disliked.

I've since spoken to some other people who also loved it, so now I'm wondering what the general opinion on the show is?

But now

Sometimes an anime can be bad but still have an interesting concept. To me, Another was an anime that actually got some things right and actually had an interesting concept but destroyed itself towards the second part of the series. It has a horror concept that’s interesting but what really killed it for me was the fact that it wasn’t able to stay true to the rules it creates and later on devolves into complete nonsense. It was kind of creepy at times and that’s where it does a decent job but the story as a whole has some issues. Here’s why I think despite not being close still to the worst thing I’ve ever seen still failed as a whole series.

Story:

The first few episodes were fine in this show. You see Kouichi going to his school named Yomiyama Middle School where the school is cursed. There he meets a strange girl named Mei Misaki who doesn’t exist in the school to most people except Kouichi himself. They explain I think that Mei was cursed also because of the weird connection with her mother which I think is interesting by itself but they actually forget to develop further with this concept so it still doesn’t mean much. I think they did a well job setting the idea up in Episode 2 but it’s like they forgot about it when they wrote the later parts of it. It’s mentioned that her mom was actually the doll she owns which I won’t lie is kind of creepy.

The main plot focuses on the fact that the school is cursed because there is an extra person that doesn’t belong there. The curse began with the class 3-3 that was killed in 1972. Their souls are what haunt the school to this day.

I think the anime does well setting this up but we’ll get to what makes the concept fall apart when we start talking about the flawed writing towards the end of the show.

In Episode 6, you see Kouichi and Mei Misaki have a conversation together. This is where Kouichi learns that they don’t exist anymore because the law of equivalent exchange is in order to protect the rest of the students from suffering the same past fate. This is not bad by itself because it’s trying to give reasons behind what is going on.

The writing starts crapping itself in Episode 7. In this episode, they are shown having a conversation with a person. This is a problem because it was literally explained in the anime that these people were not able to exist communicating with people anymore due to the school’s curse. They could have written a situation where they maybe could have developed a way to sort of break the curse a bit so they could at least talk to people but the problem is that it’s just shown as a deus ex machina and not as a way to explain how they can just magically exist now.

What I find really weird though in the story was when the characters just decided to go to the beach at around Episode 9 just to show pointless fanservice. The whole episode could really just be considered filler as nothing really happens. Yeah, the characters just like to swim in the beach and play with frigging starfish. I mean it doesn’t develop the curse that the school has in anyway or develop the characters so what was really the point of the episode? Just to have fun? Like alright.

The biggest problem really though with the story was the whole thing regarding Kouichi’s mother. In one episode, it was brought to him that his mother died when he was a young child. In the last episode though, it’s revealed that his mother was actually his assistant teacher and was actually the extra person that they needed to exterminate and here’s where the problems with that lie.

Why would they tell him that his mother is dead when she literally works at the same school he goes to? What were these people hoping to gain by lying to him? Nothing? What was the point of that? Oh and by the way if she was still alive, then why couldn’t she just tell him that she was his mother? The problem isn’t even that she’s his mother. It’s that it just pop’s out of nowhere like suddenly this happens. Like yeah okay. There’s some info dump for you.

The last real thing was really the romance between Kouichi and Mei Misaki. I actually didn’t really care for it. I saw what they were trying to do with the show being dark but it’s like they didn’t develop it past a certain point so I felt lost after they talked in Episode 6.

Ultimately, the real issue with this show was that it was only 12 episodes long. What I mean is that there wasn’t enough time to actually flesh out everything and make a really dark series. They needed more budget I think.

Animation:

The school setting is actually okay in the start of the series but the overall visuals fell apart in the later episodes. The beach setting was bland and generic as crap as I also don’t really care for beach episodes.

Mei Misaki’s character design is pretty cool but the rest of the characters look kind of bland and forgettable. Kouichi himself looks also like literally every protagonist you have ever seen in an anime too and nothing stands out about his design.

There’s also not enough color palette in the world building so that kind of also makes the overall presentation look a bit rusty.

Soundtrack:

The soundtrack felt somewhat forgettable overall but I liked the opening theme.

Conclusion:

Overall, I wished we got more anime out there that actually felt dark and scary. If only they were able to connect the characters more and flesh some more things out then the show would be great but it really felt short towards the end with some of the nonsense with beach antics and a very poorly implemented plot twist about Kouichi’s mother. I feel like they could have explained more why the school was haunted but instead they decided to break the rules they tried to establish and the show just wasn’t what it was supposed to be. I wanted a dark romance with some really creepy horror elements thrown together but all that came out was nonsense that wasn’t really necessary.

That’s why my final rating for Another is a 3/10 (Bad).

Tell me what you thought of this anime down below. I always value people’s opinions. Support the god of all critics and have a miraculous day.

i watched it till 3rd episode, i think. and i don't undestand the story. why the one eyed girl got ignored by the classmate and why they are dyiing one by one? also what are the relation with the one girl who died in 1972? spoilers is okay. i don't intend to rewatch the show.

MAL link to Another

Prologue: Just a dude looking to get better at writing/analyzing anime. I hope you enjoy the following review and the discussion afterwards!

For some people, myself included, death is a scary thing. It is both mysterious and closer to us than we may usually think. Some aspects in our life deal with death as well, such as superstitions and more commonly funerals. It is with death in-mind that Another takes to heart, and after watching the show, I walked away having enjoyed a pleasant experience.

STORY

The basic premise for Another is that our new transfer student Kouichi has transferred into a new middle school. However, when he enters, he slowly learns that there is something quite mysterious going on within the classroom.

To be clear, this show is not horror. It never goes out of its way to scare you or make you jump. What it does, however, is provide a very good creepy atmosphere that adds to the mysteriousness of the situation. Many questions early on are left unanswered, and there is always this lingering feeling that something out of Kouichi's control is guiding him and the class along. And this is what the show does well, especially with the other main character Mei Misaki.

The story is split mainly into two arcs, who is Mei Misaki and what can we do to solve the mystery. I greatly enjoyed the first half of the show simply because it provided the most mystery with Mei. Who is this girl? Why does she act this way? Where does she come from? I think it is generally regarded in the anime world that good mystery/horror is hard to come by, so I was surprised how nicely done the first half was executed.

The second half was not as enjoyable since the majority of the mystery gave way to "shock" value. Now, this show is gory; it is not afraid to kill off people and it happens early (and often). But I felt like the show started to prioritize the gore over the mystery as it went on, which was a huge letdown.

Lastly, there were way too many something-is-about-to-happen-but-is-interrupted moments for my liking. I don't really mind when it occurs every once in a while. But it felt as if the show was using that technique to drive the plot along and it was getting quite annoying when it happened at regular intervals. At the very least, I shouldn't be able to guess when they are going to cut away from some big reveal.

ANIMATION

This show was created by P.A. Works. As such, it may come as no surprise that the scenery and overall art for the show is beautiful. When it comes to thrillers and horror-esque shows, it is paramount that the general atmosphere be filled with unease and intrigue. And the show does this well. It uses a lot of reds, browns, grays, and blacks to give us a town filled with despair, dread, and death.

However, this show is quite similar to Glasslip in terms of actual animation, in that there really isn't any (credit to u/tundranocaps for pointing this out). Yes, the show is definitely pretty and perfectly gloomy. But there is actually very little character movement or anything in particular happening on-screen at any one time. This may be because they focus a lot of money/time/resources on the backgrounds and environments, but they really don't do anything spectacular with regard to actual movement.

Other than the gorgeous backdrops, I enjoyed the character designs as well. I am a fan of these types of characters (my favorite being what KyoAni draws), so I had no real complaints with the way they were designed.

CHARACTERS

For certain shows, certain aspects are more important than others. For example, a slice-of-life doesn't really rely on a strong story but requires its cast to be incredibly strong in order to have an enjoyable show. For Another, it is not about the characters but about the mystery and the story behind it. So I give them some slight bias in their favor when I say that their characters were fine.

No one in particular was engaging to me, except Mei (and again, only in the first half). Besides Mei, the rest of the cast were rather boring and plain. We never learn much about any of them, even Kouichi, and when we do, it is usually irrelevant information that doesn't add anything to situation. Again, I would fault the show more for this, but I understand that they are not the focus of the show, but when I don't care about 9/10 of the people I am watching in the show, then there is something wrong.

SOUND

I think one of the most important parts of horror/creepy shows or movies is definitely its sound, for sound adds to the atmosphere (which is arguably the most important part for these types of shows). The OP can be listened to here. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, especially the visuals (the reds and dark colors give off a nice vibe that was perfect for the show). The ED was generic, but gave a sharp contrast to the rest of the show.

Most importantly, I found the rest of the soundtrack to be nicely composed. There were sharp tones and creepy repetitions. Most of the music is not something you would listen to on its own, which is good, because it was definitely designed to fit the aura that the show was giving off.

ENJOYMENT

When it comes to anime or any other medium, I tend to rate shows more highly if they have the "balls" to kill off very important characters to a story. However, I wouldn't put Another under this same category mainly because the characters themselves were not important enough (to me) to warrant any sort of emotional feedback. But that isn't to say I didn't enjoy the show. Frankly, I liked it a lot simply because it was different from most of the other cutesy/ecchi/dramatic/comedic shows that I had been watching recently. It wasn't perfect, but for at least the first half, the show did a nice job in the genre it was looking to represent.

SUMMARY

Story: Fine, good first-half but bad second-half

Animation: Good, beautiful art but actual animation is lacking

Characters: Fine, Mei Misaki is the only notable character, sadly

Sound: Good, sound and general ambiance add nicely to the atmosphere

Enjoyment: Good, not the typical genre for anime so in this case different was nice

Final score: 6/10

Epilogue: I hope you enjoyed reading my review! If you want, take part in the discussion below!

In a scale of 1-10, how good is this anime for you?

Also, a day ago, I just finished watching Her Blue Sky. It was a pretty good movie tho. What other anime movies would you guys recommend?

My friends tell me it's a great anime, but I've read reviews and it got a 7.4/10. That's not really that great, but do you guys think it is worth watching? I'll listen to the majority.

Hi. My relative offered to lend me a book that includes (as I read online) all the chapters of the Another manga (they did not read it themselves, because the book is in English, and it is not their strong suit). I've heard that, in addition to this adaptation of the novel, there is also an anime. I am not personally familiar with this series, but I am interested, so I wanted to know what I should choose, at least as the first experience. What would you suggest?

I just sat down and watched Another over the last couple days at the recommendation of this subreddit and some friends. Supposedly it was a "must see" and it was good, don't get me wrong, but I feel like it was twice as long as it should have been.
Each episode after 5 almost felt pointless except to articulate another death among the students. Toward the end it completely changed the flow of the anime, which isn't necessarily a BAD thing, but it really felt out of place. Like they couldn't find another way to end it without everyone going batshit.

Is my point of view off here? What are your thoughts? Why did you like it/dislike it?

Can someone tell me where I can watch Another? I remember its an old anime with a scary girl named Misaki. I tried to find the anime with Eng subtitle but no luck. I found some episodes with Eng sub in YouTube but until Episode 6 only. Please help me or attach any link. I really want to watch it. Thank you.

So yeah it was last night when I started watching Another, I watched 9 episodes without stop, I took a break and then I decided to watch the last 3 episodes. I was alone in my room, when suddenly the lights went off. I almost shit my pants. I decided to watch the remaining episodes at bed with my phone and holy shit I was scared as hell.

Overall I really liked Another, it had a pretty decent art, the ambientation was awesome, the charachters were ok and the plot was also good. The ending caught me off guard. I totally didn't expected Reiko to be the extra one!

What are you guys thoughts about Another? What do you think could have been better? Do you think It is fine as it is? Let me know! I love reading opinions :)

It's one of those that I hear varying things about. I'm not to worried about horror itself, I more like story, but if it is actually scary that's a plus. So is it actually worth a watch?

For reference my MAL is linked to my account.

Review of “Another”

“Another” is an anime filled with great mystery and a scary scenario with a suspense thrill and a great chill of horror! But a lot of horror anime has these elements too! But what makes Another great? Is it good? Is it scary? Does the anime do a good job of making you scared to the bones? I will review the story of Another and see if it is as good as it is said to be. P.S., Spoilers!

The story follows “Koichi Sakakibara” as he is plunged into this cursed school class called Yomiyama Middle School. Later, he meets Mei Misaki in the hospital he was staying in from an illness.

From there on it seems a peaceful anime with a chilling soundtrack and a mystery but that all changes soon. Mei is treated as someone who does not exist but ounce Koichi is fed up with the other students who warned him of getting along with something that isn’t even there, he chases one of them and she is killed in a gruesome way with an umbrella and some stairs. I will let your imagination do the rest of the scene! So death after death the class lets him in the secret of why she is treated an unknown being after multiple deaths and school trips gone wrong in so many ways then the kids find out the mystery of somebody in the classroom is dead but still walks along the living. And as long as that person lives, death after death will happen over and over again. Then on the last school trip, the students go to hell. Metaphorically and most of them physically. The reveal of who was the dead one was no one the audience or reader could guess! His sub-teacher/ big sister or cousin Reiko Mikami! Now we got most of what happened down, what made it good?

In any story that is meant to tell a story about a person needs a couple things. The first is character development. Does the story do a good job connecting the audience to the characters? The anime explained the backstories of the main characters of whom it needed to cover. Nothing was left out to the story and thanks to that, we learned the pain Mei Misaki was burdened with and how she was so alone. I bet most of the audience connected with her and was able to relate to her in some way which is what a good story does! Izumi Akazawa is also a character who held a mystery but was kind of different to Mei. She knew the main character from before and we were only shown small scenes about her past. The reveal was right before her gruesome and slow death with her confession to Koichi that they did in fact know him and what was there bond. This made us happy yet sad because she was finally able to confess and tell him that they knew each other because of his kindness and died right in front of Kiochi! So the first thing I have to say about this is that it made us want to watch more until we knew her past and why she acts the way she does which was needed and what makes some stories good. Also, it made the audience emotionally unstable because of what happened to her and the way she died and what she said before her death. Some people mistaken that when stories make you mad it means the show or story isn’t good, but that isn't the case. It is a good story because it makes you feel those emotions which other stories can’t accomplish!

Now there was also some characters that died we couldn’t feel the impact enough in SOME cases were we couldn’t feel those sad emotions. Take their homeroom teacher for example. He killed himself in front of the students which even made the gore veterans in anime flinch and was left surprised! But we, the audience, couldn’t get all the potential emotions out of his death. But his death was important to the story because it rose stress and tension among the students which was good to the plot.

Now the second part of what makes a story good for Another is the plot and the third is the pace of the story itself. What happened in Another was gruesome and terrifying. With the dead person among the living made everyone crazy enough to kill one another and the reveal of key points was very enjoyable and great for a story. The concept of Another is terrifying to your bones if you were put into that situation which is a good thing for any story of any genre.

But to counter that, the story was sometimes taking too long to get to the juicy moments and the good parts of the plot which made some of the audience walk away before finishing or watch a different show before actually getting back to Another. For example, in the beginning we started off with an ominous feeling which is OK for a story but we need more plot reveals than what it did to make us stick to it in the beginning when we started off the show. I will admit, I was one of those who left show for a bit but I am so glad I went back to finish it! The setting along with one of the greatest horror soundtracks in anime was great for any horror lover and anyone who loves a good mystery.

Now knowing what we know, we can make a conclusion that the anime has a good story which was planned in a way which you didn’t expect the next thing to happen so you only thing you could do is watch as more casualties were added and more pain and suffering which made the story a good horror anime. Now if you don’t like horror and mystery as much others like it but it does appeal to those who don’t like it as well only if you stick to the end. Again, we needed to be able to stick in the beginning with plot progression but it paid off later which drew a few people away. The characters were introduced and expressed well that you could feel the pain and fear they were feeling. For example, after a few deaths, the main character found one of his classmates out and about around town and they started to talk. She seemed cheerful and nice at the moment but when a gust of wind made some glass crash down were they used to stand she showed her true emotions which was fear and panic. The audience was able to understand that they had barley to no hope at all but to keep on living through the hell the characters lived through. With that said, the anime did its job of scaring us and keep us crying though the show and for that, this anime is a 4.5 out of 5 stars in my opinion. Thanks for listening and peace out.

What anime series or movies would you recommend if I’m looking for something similar to ”Another” (2012)?

I recently finished this anime..at first i thought how an anime would probably be a scary but it was really a great thriller series ever i watched so far!!...my question is...is the light novel or manga contains the story of what happens next!...whether they found out how the curse started originally and why its happening! and are they going to stop the calamity for permanently!!.....and my second question is this anime is soo much good to make a second season based on the popularity and good rating but still why they didnt made a next season!!...is there a any reason for that?

Well now that this series has ended also, let's talk about it. First I'd like to mention how amazing the landscapes were during the end of this episode. The art style was really great overall and that was the icing on the cake for me.

Plot wise, I was pretty surprised to find out that it was Reiko. From the few spoilers I'd encountered I expected the dead one to be Izumi. Looking back on it though, like most shows, there was a good bit for foreshadowing. The only thing that I'm left wanting is a bit more outward romance between Sakakibara and Misaki, although it didn't really need it though.

Overall this is in my top three for this season. What did you guys think?

It was recommended for me and seems something up my alley. But just incase it’s like awful please let me know lol. Got another 200 anime I wanna watch

I'm not sure if this was originally a novel, but I felt the anime had a lot of sloppy writing and was very unrealistic. Especially the last two episodes it was extremely rushed.

1. If Mei knew about the dead person, I don't see why the first reaction wasn't to tell everyone who it was after listening to the tape.

2. Everyone going crazy and killing each other was extremely ridiculous and sloppy writing in the last two episodes.

3. The fact that Reiko was the extra one was very poor writing. It seemedthat the writers thought "who is the most unexpected character we could make the extra?"

4. Constant cliffhangers and unnecessary fluff in the episodes. For example, when Mei was going to say who the extra person was, their friend busts into the door and they conveniently stop discussing what was probably the MOST important thing to be talking about.

Also, the fact that they have an audiotape on hand and it took two episodes to figure out what the tape said was very aggravating.

5. If all you needed to do to avoid dying was leave the city EVERYONE should've just packed up and left after 1 or 2 kids died.

6. The curse was that there would be 1 death every month, but this escalated to basically the whole class dying in the last episode.

All in all, I think there are animes with much better writing out there. I would only give a 6/10.

I just finished Another 2001, and I wanted to share my review, heavy spoilers ahead!

I’m a huge Another fan. I love the anime, it’s amazing imo and one of my favorites of all time. So I got the first novel and Another S/O, and now this one

This was very good, although I admit the first half of the novel was pretty slow and I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed. Mostly because nothing much was happening and the build up to the calamity was taking too long, and not that suspenseful. The first half could be summed up as this:

Character: Do you think the calamity will happen?

Sou: As long as we keep the countermeasures, we should be fine.

Followed by lots of exposition of the rules of the calamity.

It wasn’t until Sou’s friend died and the calamity started that it got very good.

First of all, I had no idea Izumi was going to be in this sequel. When she was introduced as “Sou’s cousin” I suddenly put the pieces together from the Akazawa surname, gasped and said “Oh shit” when I realised it was Izumi even before she said her name. It was an awesome reveal!

Izumi being back is great fanservice as she’s a fan-favorite character, but it also makes complete sense. She’s very likable in the novel, and her hobby of velociraptors and dinosaur figures was such an endearing quirk that it made you care about her character more. The slow burn of her inevitable death is very suspenseful, you just know she has to die for the calamity to stop. And it’s also some great dramatic irony - when the reader knows something the characters don’t. The entire end section of part 2, where Mei tells Sou Izumi is the casualty and they chase after her to kill her and resolve the calamity was great, and definitely the best scene in the novel imo. The gloomy atmosphere and the way it was written was so suspenseful.

Izumi’s demise is honestly so heartbreaking and tragic. I really felt for her mother when she was playing the piano, reminiscing about her daughter. And the Jurassic Park 3 ticket that she couldn’t go to with her friends…damn man, that was so sad. Who would have thought Jurassic Park 3 of all movies would be an emotional plot point lol (although I’m a big fan of Jurassic Park 3, so I was pleasantly surprised it was referenced). The author did a great job of building the friendship between Sou and Izumi and making you care about her character again, and it’s by far the most well done element of the story

Mei Misaki is in the story a lot which is nice. Mei is great as always and although she’s older she still has the same mysterious personality. I think everyone who has read these books or the anime, has fallen in love with Mei, and the way the author describes her you can tell he has as well. As a Kouichi/Mei shipper I was disappointed they hadn’t gotten together or even have scenes together, although my headcanon is that they still get together in the future lol, besides the author hinted that Sou was jealous that they might be an item.

Towards the end of the novel, I was beside myself because I was sure that Mei was going to die. The author was leaving several hints, like how Sou saw Mei at the hospital and her biological mother, and how Mei was cagey why she was there. I thought Mei’s illness had come back and her mother was there as her guardian, who had a distraught expression, because Kirika would be struck with grief like she was before when she had a miscarriage if Mei had a life threatening illness, and Mei wanted to keep it a secret. Also Mei told Sou her ‘life story’ as if she was going to die soon, and asked Sou if he was afraid of dying. But the main thing that made me think she would die was when Mei called Sou to hurry and show the photo of his class to her because there wasn’t much time, I thought Mei had taken off her eyepatch the night before and saw her reflection or something and the ‘color of death’. But in hindsight, I don’t think her power shows people who are going to die. Thankfully Mei didn’t die lol, but the tension and suspense that she could die added so much stakes towards the end. It was kind of like the last episode of the anime, which is the most tension I’ve ever felt in any show ever, where I had no idea if Mei would die or not.

Initially I was kind of disappointed that Sou was the main character, since I thought it would be Koichi again but I grew to really empathasise with him, especially his complicated relationship with his mother. Although it would have been nice to have Koichi in the story besides over the phone, I thought for sure the last scene would be Sou, Mei and Koichi meeting up together.

It was also interesting that 9/11 was referenced, as it was getting to September in the novel I knew it would be brought up, and I liked how it tied into the tragedy of the story.

The twist at the end of the story that Makise was actually Mei’s sister who had come back as a casualty I kind of saw coming. The author kind of made it obvious with the THUD sound when Makise was brought up.

I hope there’s a sequel which the author hinted at in the afterword, and an anime adaptation

Overall, the story was very good, especially the second half. It’s a pretty sad story, and the atmosphere and dread were heavy towards the end. I would rank this novel as the best of the three so far, only because I read the first novel after the anime so I knew the story. But the anime is still by far the best imo.

What did everyone think of Another 2001?