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「死者」 (Shisha)
“Stand by oneself”
Arrggh… Another, I love you as a series – but this feeling I have right now isn’t what I was hoping it would be when you ended.
I probably don’t need to tell you not to read this post until you’ve watched the episode, but just in case – don’t read this post until you’ve watched the episode!
And so begins the longest day of the anime season for me, as probably my four favorite Winter series all come to an end. Not only do I have to say sayonara to my companions and friends of the last three months, but summarize my thoughts about them too. And it starts with Another, a series I adore but which ultimately leaves me feeling a little unsatisfied for a few reasons. That’s not to say I didn’t like the last two eps a lot, but I think they strayed too far from the formula that made this series so great and were somewhat tarnished by conventionality. Perhaps Mizushima-sensei wasn’t “over” the Blood-C debacle quite as much as I’d assumed.
Let’s start with the ending itself. In hindsight, there are things in Another that only make sense if Reiko and Mikami-sensei are the same person. But hindsight is, as they say, always 20-20. There was certainly ample evidence that something was “off” with Aunt Reiko – many of them mentioned here. I think of “Why, Rei Why?” and “My poor Reiko too” as very prominent examples – not to mention the headaches, and “Painting is my real job” and now I recall a very odd moment in episode 3 (which in hindsight was a crucial ep) in which Kouichi and his friends are talking to Mikami-sensei and there’s a quick – and otherwise seemingly extraneous – cut to Kouichi in pajamas on the couch, talking to Reiko.
There’s other stuff too, and some of it is pretty out there. I mentioned way back near the beginning that Reiko’s seiyuu was credited as “Sakakibara Naoko”, which I found odd. But it’s also percolated out in this last week (I think Kanon on ASF spotted it first) that Mikami’s seiyuu is credited as Miyamaki Misayo – which with some very minimal jiggering can be changed to “Yomiyama Misaki”. It seems that P.A. Works was trolling us with these seiyuu names, and I suppose it’s likely the “two” characters were actually played by the same actress. But I think it’s very legitimate to ask – could an unspoiled first-time viewer have taken the facts as presented and figured out that Mikami = Reiko? I’m not so sure, myself – I won’t list all the clues that exist, but it’s some pretty vague stuff – the kind of thing no reasonable person would connect unless they knew what they were looking for. I won’t accuse P.A. Works and Mizushima of cheating, but I’m not sure they were playing 100% fair, either. And I’m not sure the mystery wouldn’t have been just as interesting if they’d let us know from the beginning that the two women were the same person, and made the game a lot more fair in the process. There would certainly have been enough clues that the Another wasn’t a student, some of them already covered in prior blog posts, to suggest Mikami-sensei as a candidate.
Let’s set that aside, though, and talk about the episode itself and why I say it strayed too far from the formula. No, there was no “human blender” moment but I do think the last two eps gave themselves over to a lot of gore and “Final Destination” style coincidences. What I loved most about Another for 10 episodes was the character interaction and the subtle, tense and sinister atmosphere it created. It was the anticipation of terrible things happening that made the show exciting more than the events themselves – and when they did happen (once an episode, or sometimes even less) their impact was all the greater as a result of that. It took us three episodes to build to that terrible moment with Sakuragi and the umbrella, and it hit like a kick to the solar plexus – in the last two episodes, that sort of scene was a dime a dozen (was it really only eight students that died? It seemed like twice that many).
There’s also the matter of what I would consider to be gratuitous carnage and gratuitous coincidence. I don’t know about the novel, but was it really necessary for the anime to show the four kids crushed by the chandelier – and then when the one boy escapes, to have him crushed by a falling column? That was almost comical, to be honest – a Mizushima “Blood-C moment” – and it felt beneath the dignity of what Another has been as a series. It also defies explanation in a way that doesn’t thrill me. The students going a bit crazy when Mochizuki let the cat out of the bag might have been overplayed, but it at least makes sense – they were acting in what they saw as self-preservation. But why did all these students die in such laughably bizarre circumstances in the final two episodes? It’s a degree of coincidence that I don’t think is explained by anything we’ve been told about the phenomenon as we know it, and it feels as if Mizushima-sensei threw it all in for effect. Through episode 10, the horror that occurred in the series was what was essential to build the mystery and the impact it created. In the last two eps much of it was superfluous, and it desensitized this viewer in a way I didn’t find welcome. I felt oddly emotionally removed from the events of the finale, after having been completely wrapped up in them for most of the series, and I think this is the reason why.
Of course there was much to be admired in this show, and in the ending, too. I thought the moment when Chibiki arrived with the gorgeously understated “This is not normal.” was beautifully handled, both for impact and for irony. The moment when lightning struck the lodge and the glass shattered was one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful sequences of art in animation I’ve seen in many a season – and that was before the impact became clear. Akazawa’s death was a bit heavy-handed, but the cinematography and art design made up for that. And while it had already become pretty obvious just by process of elimination whose arm that was reaching out from under the rubble as Mei hefted that pick-axe, it was still a very powerful moment, and Kouichi’s pain was intense and difficult to watch. This is the fundamental dilemma of the “solution” – there’s no tangible way to differentiate the Another from a person, and they themselves think they’re alive. In terms of their own actions, the Another has done nothing wrong, the genius of this premise. Could everyone do what Kouichi did, even knowing what he did?
Final Impressions:
There’s little doubt in my mind that Another will stand as a great series for me, but it will be as one with serious flaws as well. I can start to list the things that were exceptional here and go on for far longer than I should. It’s P.A. Works, and the series looks fantastic. There are indelible visual moments that stand out for me all throughout the series, right up to the final episode. BGM was excellent, and really found its voice in the finale, where it was a bulwark of restraint and sadness against the visual excesses of gore. I think the show had the most effective sound design since Ghost Hound, another series that used sound brilliantly to create a mood. Sound was almost a character in and of itself, and it did so much to unsettle the viewer – pounding on doors, distant thunder, static… I wish this show had followed Ghost Hound’s example and relied on atmosphere for tension and terror all the way to the end, but that’s a matter I’ve already covered.
Horror is a tough medium for anime, which I think explains why it isn’t attempted more often – well, that and the fact that it doesn’t tend to be a big money-maker. The issue here is that it feels like Another was a mystery for ten episodes, and a horror for the final two. I liked it better as a a mystery, but that’s me. The core relationship in the series was the best one, as some of my favorite moments simply involved Kouichi and Mei interacting as two kids on the outside of the social infrastructure of Yomi North, taking comfort in each other’s presence as they shyly began to explore stronger feelings. Kouichi’s ballroom-dance dream sequence was possibly the best scene in an anime this season, for it’s visual brilliance and stylishness and humor, but also for how it both contrasted with the “reality” of the series and fit perfectly with it. I could have done with even more Kouichi-Mei development than we got, but what we got was enough to make them one of the best anime couples in quite some time.
I won’t argue that Another is under any obligation to explain everything that happens inside its boundaries. I like the fact that the true nature of the phenomenon is still left as a bit of a mystery, but I could have done with a little more background on just why events seemed to be conspiring to kill as many students as possible in increasingly unlikely ways at the end. I would’ve also liked a little more explanation about Mei’s odd ability to “see” using a false eye, which feels a bit like a dramatic crutch to lead us (and the characters) to the identity of the Another, and whether there are any deeper significance to all the mysticism surrounding the dolls.
At its heart, though, I think the central conceit of Another is pretty ingenious. It’s something of a tale of good intentions gone wrong – it seems so noble, to proclaim that a person who has died tragically isn’t really dead, but their spirit lives on. And this is a supernatural horror that doesn’t give is an easy target to focus on – our “villain” isn’t really the Another, who isn’t actually doing anything wrong. In a sense, they’re like any other person – but one carrying a terrible disease (death) of which they’re asymptomatic. Imagine someone carried such a deadly illness, but was otherwise fine and had no desire to hurt anyone. Would it be so easy to just kill that person, never mind if it were a member of your own family? You might think of putting them in isolation, and searching for a cure – but isolation doesn’t help, the disease spreads as long as they’re alive.
There’s no “evil” in this story – not until the truth comes out, and people start behaving in an evil manner towards each other (John Saul comes home to roost, after all). I guess I think of the deaths as nature’s attempt to restore balance when confronted by something outside itself – something quite literally “supernatural”. Nature may abhor a vacuum but it also abhors something that violates its laws, like a dead person among the living. It tries to correct for this by killing someone, but that doesn’t fix the problem – the dead person is still in the living world, so it kills again, and again, and until the imbalance is corrected it won’t stop. This is the dilemma Mei faces – she has no idea that eliminating the carrier will stop the flow of the disease. She has no desire to crush the feelings of the boy she’s come to consider the person closest to her in the world, now that her dear cousin (in reality, twin) has died. So she suffers in silence with her knowledge, until Matsunaga’s tape surfaces – and then resolves, too late, to try and fix the situation herself.
I may wish the ending had been handled differently, but I still rank the series as a resounding success. It made me feel deeply, it unsettled me, it made me laugh, it made me think and it scared the hell out of me. The mystery was engaging and interesting and never boring, even if the ultimate resolution wasn’t completely satisfying. The production values were off the charts. And most importantly, Another recognized that no mystery or horror scenario can succeed if it doesn’t build a connection to the characters, and it did the hard work and heavy lifting to turn Kouichi, Mei, Mochizuki, Teshi and Akazawa – and even Chibiki and Aunt Reiko – into real and complex personalities that we could identify with and care about. That gave the finale arc a power and emotional resonance whose impact not even the missteps of Mizushima-sensei could dull. It wasn’t perfect, but it was exceptional, and Another definitely goes down as the best example of the mystery and suspense genres that anime has produced for quite a while.
Another finale, now waiting for the finale of Ano Natsu..
I’ll miss seeing this show. Wonderfully made imho…Mei is gonna be missed.
“Our flight trip has finally arrived at its romance-feasible final destination. We greatly appreciate your time with us. As you exit the plane, please make sure to gather all of your screen shots and watch your step. Thank you for flying Mei x Kouichi Airbus 101. We hope to see you again.
You are now free to move about the ‘Another.”
AKAZAWAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
First Twin tails girl is died in anime history make me sad . In manga she is alive as well as glasses brat too. Epic death ever AKAZAWAAA.
Mei so calm till the End I wonder how cute she want to be soo cute.
For all my love to Akazawa, it was fairly easy to me not to feel sad. By stating, that the majority of the last two eps didn’t happen. They were jus too friggin’ stupid.
All hail to the manga ending.
If anime Akazawa could’ve had the manga ending I would’ve loved this show to the end of time. Manga Akazawa just wasn’t as good.
R.I.P. Akazawa. You will surely be missed (in the anime, of course).
I think the alternate “realities” of the anime and manga make Another a worthwhile series to read/watch just because of the minor and major changes.
This was pretty much the first “horror” anime I decided to watch, and it set the bar pretty high. I was surprised how well they were able to maintain the tension throughout. Definitely recommending this to everyone. Thanks for covering it, Enzo, my man.
You should try Shiki, which has a similar theme (humans trying to survive a supernatural phenomena). At first it moves at an excruciating pace, but builds up in a magnificent way and reaches it’s peak by the final episodes. That’s why I had to rate Another a bit lower… It just couldn’t fulfill all the potential and blow my head like Shiki did.
Denk you for de advices. I’ll be sure to check it out.
This finale was great for me. If Akazawa had lived, it would’ve been perfect. Sorry, I really liked her even after she snapped, so I wish she’d lived. Definitely not at the cost of Mei though, which is where things were headed. Mei really made this show, with the teasing mystery and the bits of levity and cute that kept everything for just plunging off the deep end, especially wen she was with Kouichi.
I dunno, I think half the greatness of this series was how it was actual realistic horror, if that makes any sense. Sure the accidents were fantastical, but the reactions and atmosphere seemed pretty perfect for middle-school students going through this kind of terror. Even with how everyone snapped at the end, it almost felt like that was the logical next step after everything that’s happened.
To me, it felt like playing the Mikami Reiko card so close to the vest cheapened it a little. With just what we were told, we could only guess half the story. You could guess it was “Mikami-sensei” if you really focused on her, but then she wasn’t there and suddenly we get a Reiko-signal. Then we find out they’re the same person. It just felt… lacking. Like it should’ve been possible to guess they were the same, which I guess it was, but still… okay, enough grumbling from me 😛
Thanks for the coverage, Enzo!
I believe in the manga…
I felt like all the signs point to Reiko was just trolling us because she wasn’t a part of the class. I did suspect Mikami-sensei as she was apart of the class and the only class it seemed she was involved with as part of her work. But I’d never put two and two together as Reiko when she was in school mode was very controlled and authoritative in her speak patterns like you expect from a teacher, while as Reiko on her off time speech pattern is much more relaxed, playful or aggressive with a lot more emotion behind it. It wasn’t just the visuals that fooled be.
When she was on her own time even with her students in tow to the beach she way behaving out of character for her students in ep.8 and even Akazawa commented (in the translated version) “You can’t judged a book by it’s cover”. I though it was the relaxed Reiko to the speed demon she was commenting about.
I’m serious wonder what the actresses real name is. As bio were listed with a image for both. lol
http://myanimelist.net/people/15121/Naoko_Sakakibara
http://myanimelist.net/people/15297/Misayo_Miyamaki
In truth the the death toll only toke place after the male student try to kill Mikami-sense. The group that confronted her are all dead as well. Attacking the Another might just have put the curse into overdrive.
A number of student were also killed by their 2 classmates out of panic rather then the curse it’s self so that might not have counted them as part of the curse casualties. (Anyone want to do a body count? because I think there was more then 7 as well.)
Yes, she lived in the manga.. And there’s quite an explanation to why she snapped. XD
Whosa whatsit? Akazawa most definitely does not live in the novel. She has a different much lamer death. Her death in the anime was an amazing improvement for her. I was PRAYING she would live though because there are seven deaths in august in the novel. And there were 10 in the anime. So I was hoping that they had killed off someone extra in order to let her live.
You’re welcome, All. It’s been a lot of fun – and a lot of work – covering Another. I went through a lot of ink and notepads…
Maybe you could show us some scans of your notes, Enzo! 😀
Those are spoiler tagged.
By this point do we still have spoilers???
how do i up vote more than once
?
get another computer?
If you ghetto and don’t know how to use a real proxy you can use hotspot shield.
It’s pretty self explanatory
http://hotspotshield.com/
who killed reiko before? why didn’t MC remember he was there in town before?
Didn’t say who killed her before, random murderer. And Kouichi didn’t remember because she was the Another, so everyone’s memories of her death and her being dead were altered, and he came to town for her funeral.
I think there was a quick cut to a newspaper in one of the first three or four episodes (can’t remember which one T_T) that had a headline about an increase in stabbings/murders in the streets.
The same culprit perhaps?
It was a serial killer whose identity is unknown. Mei witnessed the crime first hand a year and a half ago. Kouichi (MC) didn’t remember because of the curse. He even forgot that he had met Akazawa when he came for Reiko’s funeral. So did Mei, until the very last moment.
I think the killer was Kouichi. To me, they the same.
I read on wiki that she drowned in the novel. Is this true?
I just read the same entry. Apparently the anime differs from the original story. For example, Akazawa did not die in the novel.
…she what?! Dick move, killing Akazawa off D:!
Well the anime Akazawa is a lot cuter/friendlier than in the LN and manga. In the LN and manga she’s pretty much pure hostility, and forget about crushing on Kouichi :/
In the manga, it was indeed mentioned that Reiko Drowned.
Akazawa didn’t die as well. And they provided enough pages to explain the change in Akazawa’s story.
To explain:
Manga:
She did not appear til the class started.
Sakuragi was her only friend…..
She hated the 2MCs upon Sakuragi’s death.
She was afraid she was next because of the circumstances happening in her family.
Her brother committed suicide.
Upon listening to the tape conversation, she begins having doubts about herself, whether she’s the or not
She stabbed Mei’s eyes.. /So sad.
She calmed down after Mei confirmed her not to worry because “She was not the “
@ Dusk, Akazawa died in the Novel. I haven’t read the manga so she might have lived there. But in the original novel she is one of the minor characters killed off in the end.
missing words in my statements are [extra one] . it got omitted. huhu~
“But I think it’s very legitimate to ask – could an unspoiled first-time viewer have taken the facts as presented and figured out that Mikami = Reiko?… I won’t accuse P.A. Works and Mizushima of cheating, but I’m not sure they were playing 100% fair, either.”
Great review that hits on all the points I would have made myself, especially the above quote, which perfectly describes how I feel about the Reiko Mikami twist. It just felt… lame, not astounding the way the endings of Sixth Sense and The Others were, for example.
For a series I’ve enjoyed so much, it’s a bit sad that I was all but emotionally detached from it during its finale. I don’t know if that is the fault of the adaptation or the source material. Certainly, there’s not much to talk about in terms of larger “meta” issues, which would have been interesting to discuss, such as the morality of killing in self-defence, but given the shallowness of the ending, it’s hardly worth dwelling on any further.
In short, simply ask, does Another have rewatch value? Now that the answers are known, not likely, I’m afraid. It’s pulp fiction: Great for the moment, but not for posterity.
I’d say it has rewatch value as just a good horror show, not necessarily a mystery. True the magic is faded by the ending, but I’ll still watch it a few more times to just enjoy it, see what I missed the first time around, and just soak it all in.
Related
Thanks! That was quite informative.
Well guys, i’m not sure in the anime. But in the manga. On the start of the series, insisted the MC not to mistake and call her his aunt in the school. One reason is because of the rules that were set before the MC arrived in Yomiyama.
Also, the constant checking of his other classmates to the MC’s house was to also check whether Mikami-sensei was spilling info that should not have been spoken inside/outside the school.
Just imagine if you were reading book. No voices, no pictures of Mikami and Reiko. There’s no way the reader would have guessed.
And the novel is DAMN thick too…. and pricey. Good thing I found a chinese-translated copy at my bookstore.
Yeah the Mikami twist felt cheap. To me they always seemed to be two totally differnt persons.
The color and style of their hair, the behaviour. But maybe I’m simple just not able to see obvious even then it smacks me right into the face.
Great Series though. Loved the the creepy athmosphere and how unpredictable the curse was. Atlhough I agree with Enzo that they overdid it in the last two Episodes. the thing that made the curse so threatening was that you really couldn’t predict who would die next. During the last two Episodes I rather wondered who Wouldn’t die.
Still wish Asakawa could have survived. I liked her till the end.
It was my first time watching this anime without spoilers, I thought Reiko was the teacher because she said something along the lines of talking to her during school differently than at home, so I thought she was the aunt?
So THATS why I was confused at how all the signs pointed to Reiko despite her ‘not being on the trip’. That also explains why I was confused when people pointed out to me last week about Reiko not being able to be the Another because she wasn’t on the trip. I think deep down I thought that Reiko and Miss Mikami were the same person, but it never connected in my head until about halfway through the episode.
But yeah, totally called Reiko. It was really the only one that made sense to me by that point in the series, and its nice to know that this show had a solid enough plot to not just randomly throw in a side character from left field.
Thank you for covering this show Enzo! As someone who also hasn’t read the manga/novel, it was a great ride and I enjoyed your takes on each episode as they came out!
That said, it still took me 10 episodes to get it ‘mostly’ right…I have to agree that the direction the anime took in the last 2 episodes really didn’t fit the series though. I felt myself more engrossed in the few moments that actually had clues as to who the ‘Another’ was more than any of the ‘Final Destination’ stuff that went on the rest of the time.
I’ve read and finished the manga, would you recommend me watching this adaptation?
… … … . . . Am I the only one who noticed?
http://images.randomc.net/Another/Another%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
Is it just me, or does Reiko’s killer look awfully familiar?
My thought was that it was Kouichi’s father. The resemblance is just too striking to not notice.
I though it was Sakakibara junior at first.
And here I was 3 minutes before the end “OH MY GOD HE IS A SERIAL KILLER”, kinda disappointed that he is a good guy :/
It really looked a lot like Kouichi. If it was just someone who looked like him then that’s just confusing
Yeah, I feel there’s still something we haven’t been told yet. Misaki’s odd smile at the end seems to indicate something too.
Yeah, I think it looks like Kouichi. From this episode he was in town one and a half years ago and that’s when Reiko was killed. I also read somewhere there’s going to be some OVA out that’s supposed to be episode 0. Maybe that’s when we’ll find out the answer.
Its here, an ANN post of the OVA and promo:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-03-02/promo-for-episode-0-of-horror-anime-another-streamed
Yup I thought it was Kouichi too! The posture, the uniform, the hairstyle, the hair color, and skin color, etc. almost everything points out that it was Kouichi. However, I do hope it is not him due to his character and personality that we have been accustomed to throughout the series, and still I cant figure out a motive. After all, according to the manga Kouichi and Reiko have only interacted a few times and according to the manga and also here in the anime that the reason why Kouichi went to the town 1.5 years ago was to attend Reiko’s funeral, so I doubt that he was just there simply to kill her. Can anyone who read the whole light novel let us know for sure if the LN reveals this matter?
What I like most about this show is that the calamity was not “solved” or even explained. It was left as it was originally described, a natural disaster. I for one hope that they do make a sequel where the calamity is further explored by the students so we can get a better understanding of it. Kind of like understanding tornadoes. We know a lot about them but have no way of stopping them. To me, it feels like the initial grunt work in understanding the calamity has been done. We now know how to stop the calamity when it starts and it isn’t always a student who can be the Another.take a class photo and look for the one person that shows up blurry or out of focus. Obviously, take a few shots in case it’s the fault of the camera. I say this base on the comment that Kouichi made about his mother’s class photo about one of the students being blurry and confirmed by Mei.
I for one agree about the amount of death that occurred in the last two episodes. It felt like all the other deaths before were cheapened with everyone else dropping like flies. I didn’t feel shock whatsoever when all the other students were killed off unlike the previous deaths where it felt like they were victims instead of cattle being slaughtered.
Now here is my guess as to how to identify the Another as the current students didn’t explore it,
See, that sounds like something that the first few classes under the calamity would’ve tried, and we really don’t have any evidence that the picture was blurry around the student before that year’s calamity was over. I like the theory, but sounds too simple. You’d still probably need an eye like Mei’s to see who the Another was before the end of the year.
I still say they have Mei come back every year and point the undead bastard out. Yeah, that’d be perfect, aside from the fact that it’d probably drive her insane… >.< Okay, scratch that idea too.
I don’t think the previous classes would have because they did not posses the information that the current class has. Also, if that is the case, so what if it is a simple solution. It’s only simple because of the information we now have. Can you honestly say that using a photo to spot the Another is a viable option without knowing what we do now? The only thing bad about using the photo to spot the Another is what you said about not knowing that it would work during the calamity.
Hey so I noticed that you put mikami sensei in the main 6 pictures. You should remove her I think because she is “possibly” dead as of episode 11, so it’s a spoiler for those who haven’t watched it yet. I had a friend come to check and see if you had done Gundam yet only to yell
“F*UCK. I know who the another is now”
Just a heads up ^-^;;
Honestly, I think that’s a bit of a stretch – but I did go ahead and change it, just in case.
Thank you for taking the picture down. It’s not the first time I’ve seen latent spoilers in the episode pictures. I’m sorry you you thought it was unnecessary but why risk ruining it for any of your viewers, you know?
Thanks 🙂
WORST ENDING EVER… for 2012 series. After the trainwreck Aka Guilty Crown, that is. Okay, 2nd wORST ENDING FOR 2012! What the heck is this? They just kill a bunch of background students like bugs left and right for no reason what so ever. Pacing is horrible. All the good work they built for 11 episodes TOTALLY RUINED BY this episode. What a way to turn a decent series into mediocrity. Well done, well done! Geez. Those of us who read wikipedia entry knew who “the another” was, but this is just stupid. It’s like they are not even trying and just cram it all into 20 min and call it a day (Heck let’s kill some random students along the way!).
And… And….And they killed Akazawa! Since she didn’t die with broken neck after falling from balcony (after running away from an assassin) like wikipedia said, I was secretly hoping that she’d survive, but no! She HAD TO murder an student and HAD TO go completely go insane, thus sealing her fate. Then of course the writers had to burn and destroy her body 2 sec after she died. Terrible. What a injustice to a decent show. I choose to forget this dreadful episode.
BTW, there is no more restriction on spoiler anymore since the series is over, right, Guardian Enzo? I mean screen caps tells all anyway.
Only for spoilers telling how the manga and/or novel might be different from the anime.
Neg reps for that, really? You think there’s no one out there who might like to read the novel or manga and not be spoiled?
wikipedia has apparently changed the entry for Akazawa, so never mind about that part above. It was a bit odd (assassin? huh?) to begin with when I read it a month ago.
It was Mochizuki and Teshigawara who set up the tape but they weren’t involved in killing Reiko. Did they somehow retain their memory or witness the scene?
In any case, amazing series and despite the fact the final two episodes were bat-shit insane, it was still quite a spectacle to watch, despite the unbelievably in some of the events that occurred.
They did listen to the entire tape along with Kouichi and Mei and know how the memories work, It shouldn’t be that hard to convince them. Just ask who was their teacher for the last four months or who drove them to the beach when Junta died or about the creepy gap in the photos.
I’m more worried about the media format they chose to leave the message in.
No red dress for Mei in the final scene?
Come on people… you’ve had that set up in the credits since episode 1 and they couldn’t stick to the manga version and have her and Sakakibara in casual clothes?
oh, it’s so true. the last two episodes really didn’t affect me at all. although i did like the ride. i’m glad i watched this weekly, my impression of it would probably be much different if i zoomed past the episodes and marathoned it.
the visuals and sounds were so quality i can’t even and it’s something i really take into consideration, these two aspects can really save an anime from being horrible. (well maybe except GC..)
THANK YOU ENZO! definitely looking forward to the shows you’ll be covering next season. i think reading your posts makes an anime more entertaining..
Nothing could have saved GC, so your point still stands :P.
Damnit, I was really hoping anime adaptation Izumi would live. At least her death helped give credence to why Kouichi was in Yomiyama a year and a half ago…
Personally, I think the manga executed the ending a bit better with Kouichi’s feelings. The reason why he said “Goodbye, mother” was because he considered Reiko a mother figure to him, since he never had one. They have it in the anime ending, but with no real explanation behind why he said/thought it.
Definitely could’ve done without all the Blood-C/Final Destination madness, too.
From wiki, it seems to be that she survives in the original novel.
p.s> I was hoping for that they would explain the cause of the phenomena and the way to completely stop it once in for all.
Yes was confused by the “Goodbye, mother” statement.
Was just wondering if somebody knew, is the ending faithful to the novel?
also,
why does kouichi say “Goodbye, Mother” at the end after killing reiko?
just for added effect? or because of the bird..?
I think he says goodbye mother because he never met his real mother and since he lived in Yomiyama she has been there for him all the time, like a mother. Only one thing is kind of stupid. In episode eleven after Reiko Mikami got hit by Yukito he just left her there and now he was almost not able to kill her. He already left her for dead once so why couldn’t he just kill her without hesitating?
He ran on instinct to save Mei, but I agree that scene with the mop is weird when you look back on it. It’s not like he wanted Reiko to die though.
I think his mother and Reiko had a super strong resemblance to each other and she was his last real “living” link to his mother.
but the way he killed her just seemed like he didnt have that much attachment to her it seemed she was just a teacher he didnt want to kill… wheres the struggle of killing someone like his mother!!! it just didnt deliver enoughhh!
It really didn’t play that way for me – I felt Kouichi’s agony at having to do that. It was one of the relatively few moments I felt emotionally connected to the finale.
fine i guess he did seem very distraught before he killed her but man Reiko has it the worst she gets killed twice!!
Great anime! Havent watched a well structured anime like this in a long time.
Hope theres more of this! For starters i want to know who killed Reiko. At first my though was that it was the previous dead person but than I noticed that the kid just looks too much like Kouichi o_o The more i reply that scene the more it looks like him.
Maybe the calamity went “astray”(crazy) due to everyone knowing how to stop it, thats why so many died in a short time. Just a theory.
The ending was rather boring…
I am completely satisfied with this series! The hints where all there yet, too many evidence/illusions lead me elsewhere.
No wonder Mei did not really want to tell Kouichi! Last episode I found myself very frustrated that she did not seem to want to warn Kouichi who was the extra person. Some might say the last two episodes were far fetch, however you should see how easily people crack when under pressure.
Ive seen a kid go berserk in my senior year of high school. And Ive seen worst here at Mc Gill University.
Many of these students should go to jail, how many people died of knife wounds.
wow, just wow…
@Guardian Enzo
The building the lightning struck wasn’t a school btw.
And people told me my glasses were a bad disguise.
Yes but Reiko at least changed her hair style as well. haha
LOL hairstyle is different for CK and superman too
So… Reiko’s killer = Kouichi? I mean, for the first time. That, or his friggin’ twin (or dad that just so happens to be the same height as him and has no facial hair- And just so happens to be his clone sent from the future or something like that) killed her.
All I can say is that I’m glad I picked this show up despite my disdain of any sort of horror media since I’m easily scared. Also I loved Mai, I’m so happy she wasn’t a ghost like it seemed at the beginning and that she didn’t die.
In the end, this show was pretty hard to take seriously.
The deaths in these last episodes were just funny and Kouchi/Mei hardly showing any emotions inside of a burning building with their classmates trying to kill them and each other. But it was still enjoyable to watch.
Now that the series had ended so I guess it’s fine to say it now. Akazawa dosen’t die in the manga, she stabs Misaki in her doll’s eye and they both get saved, I don’t know why the ending is so different from the manga. :/
did they kill Reiko in the same weaksauce way in the manga?
With a pickaxe? Yep.
I prefer the manga ending, the part where everyone goes nuts in the anime is weird and uncalled for, the manga ending on the other hand is more suitable. Also there’s sort of a Akazawa x Teshigawa ending 😛
lol yeah that was cruel of them to just toss together a weak finale… i just wanted more closure its like thats it? bye auntie! go back to being dead please! what about the sappy goodbyes! and seriously the random killer had to look so much like the main character? and mei still not puttin out why she gotta hold out!? did the studio just stopped caring sooo weeeak?
anyways! so what series do we have to look forward to in the spring everyone???
Another is such a great series. The mystery and horror of the first 10 eps really had me on the edge of my seat. It’s the first time I actually became startled from watching an anime (thanks to the awesome sound direction and the fact that I have my headphones turned way up EVERY time)
These last 2 episodes were a bit of an overkill. The spacing of the deaths in the 10 episodes was perfect. Each death was significant, and were not delegated to red shirt status.
I thought that the dolls would have had more relevance to the story, but I guess it was just a red herring. The fact that Reiko was Mikami-sensei didn’t surprise me, but I also didn’t see it coming.
Definitely would recommend this to anyone wanting a mystery/horror anime. Good stuff.
Thanks for covering, GE. It’s been a fun ride.
Wow, so my early deduction that it was Reiko, was right, and my later deduction that it was Ms. Mikami was right, as well. Weird. I had no clue that they were the same person.
I was wrong about just about everything else, though, except for Grandpa Mikami being the best source of information.
What a fun ride. Definitely getting the Bluray.
Second season explaining how insane Kouichi really is and how he murdered his aunt.
That likeness is hard to not notice, after all!
I actually laughed in the first few scenes when people started dying. It was like this show just wanted to kill entire class for the sake of killing them. And that guy who tried to run for the door after surviving a chandelier falling on him… epic fail.
What I found interesting was how quickly everyone turned on each other; I guess they all weren’t really friends to begin with. Then there’s Misaki just calmly trying to escape Akazawa, and Kouichi not simply putting Akazawa in a headlock and talking some sense into her ~_~…It was a 2v1; do something Misaki! Maybe then Akazawa didn’t need to die :/ I don’t know if it’s just me but Kouichi and Misaki’s decisions seemed disjointed with how level-headed they were portrayed the entire episode. I know I mentioned Kouichi panicking being a bad thing, but damn was the suspension of disbelief so hard to ignore now when he was in a building that was literally coming down on him with Akazawa trying to kill Misaki. Even after Akazawa died, he reacted like nothing was wrong.
For an ending, this feels weak and dissatisfying especially when compared to the series’ run.
I, too, liked this better as a mystery with a sinister feel. The horror didn’t really feel like, well, horror, since it was just a bunch of kids suddenly snapping because of stupid decisions. Desperation did come into play, but what started the ball rolling was Teshi and Mochi’s carelessness :/
Also, did I miss something or did they never explain what was up with the landlady? o_0 Did she just suddenly go on a killing spree ‘because of the curse’? Since that feels rather…anti-climactic, I guess. Or convenient, given how the previous deaths could be seen as accidents.
I guess the landlady just accidentally became a psycho…
@3242: I don’t know who you are- but thank you =w=
shes grandparent of some dead kid im no good with names (takabayashi whoever that is) old creepy librarian said it at the end i dont remember him… they were just over the edge just like teh girl that went nuts
Chibiki mentions that the landlady was one of the classmates’ relative (either biological mother or grandmother, I forget which), which was why her husband died from the curse. So yeah, turns out she did have a stake in killing the Another.
I’m usually pretty good with mysteries, but didn’t see this coming. I would admit that I did not follow this series too consistently so I may have missed some crucial hints. Hindsight is pretty clear now.
Up until this episode, I still thought Mochizuki or Teshigawara were pretty likely suspects. During the Akazawa fight, I had thoughts of how ironic it would be if the head of countermeasures was the dead herself. All in all, I was completely hoodwinked.
Anyway…where are these kids getting all these weapons!?
Think the important thing to take note of was the focus on Reiko and a hint that the students weren’t a desk short. I think anyone who didn’t read the manga and didn’t spoil themselves would probably have had a difficult time solving the mystery just because the Reiko and Ms. Mikami connection was about as vague as you can get.
Okay… I am a bit unsatisfied with the ending. Yes, it gave a conclusion, but the way they executed is was uh… lacking, for some reason. Comparing it to the manga, Izumi didn’t die. Kazami didn’t die either(Kazami was Teshigawara’s wing man to Izumi XD). I believe that the manga had a more satisfying conclusion.
The good point in the anime was Kouichi and Mei’s relationship. They showed a friendship that would obviously develop and how Kouichi wants Mei to “connect” and form a relationship, as what was shown in episode 9. In the manga, they didn’t show that much anyway.
I realized that P.A Works did a heavy changing in the whole series, especially with the ending per se. Like in the manga, Izumi’s reason for wanting to kill Mei was the death of her brother and Yukari, while in the anime Yukari was Kazami’s reason to kill. Also, Izumi in the manga stabbed Mei’s artificial eye, thus ruining it for good. I think the anime did a nice touch for not ruining Mei’s eye. Yeah.
The manga’s ending had a touch of humor in it, especially in the hospital scene in where Teshigawara was “helped” by Kazami to talk to Izumi. I think the P.A Works are all KouxMei shippers because they expanded the talk Kouichi and Mei had in the ending while in the manga, it never showed any hints of that, besides Kou-kun’s decision to go to an art school so that Mei will have to see an art exhibit.
Over all, I really think that the ending would be better if they expanded it a little. It was a bit unsatisfying, a lot of unreasonable deaths happened. I am also confused on who killed Mikami-sensei. Was that Kouichi?!
So that’s it. I enjoyed riding with you guys, thank you GE for covering such an awesome series and peace out! See ya’ll in the OVA!! 🙂
Ahhhh….?!?!
Another good series has ended. (LOL pun) But of course, questions remain unanswered. Like…IS THAT REIKO’S KILLER SOMEONE I KNOW. I sure hope that isn’t Kouichi. Because Kouichi’s father somehow looked a lot like his son. :\
Akazawa ;A; She didn’t deserve to die, she just got into an accident, I swear ;A; She survived in the manga though, even
cutting her hair short like Mei’s hairstyle. XD
And Reiko’s death. I knew it would be the same as the manga. XD I was thinking it will be altered.
hmm well it was a fun ride. The ending though it felt like I was watching a completely different show to me. I’m just going to write this up as the series being to short and them just compressing what should have been spaced out into just two episodes.
One thing that kept bugging me the entire way through, why the hell is no one chocking on smoke? Especially our young hero who we know has bad lungs. Seriously everyone who stayed in the hotel should have been dead from smoke inhalation alone.
Izumi… NOOOOOO!!!
Good coverage, GE.
How come the murderer that killed Rekio originally looked exactly like the main character? They have the same hair and same chin love. Why aloud to that and not build upon it at all?
I think we can say that was a happy enough of an ending (I guess…?), though I’m feel sorry for what happened to Akazawa and Reiko (*sob*). To me, this is the best series of this Spring season (or at least one of the best). I thank PA Works for a great series, and I thank GE for the excellent reviews.
http://images.randomc.net/Another/Another%20-%2011%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
I mean she was kind of deep thought about something by herself in the room and the reflection in the glass window kinda hinted something.
http://images.randomc.net/Another/Another%20-%2011%20-%20Large%2002.jpg
http://images.randomc.net/Another/Another%20-%2011%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
And when the student’s asked her that if Mei is not the “another” one then “who is?” She kinda was going to say something and then stopped.
http://images.randomc.net/Another/Another%20-%2011%20-%20Large%2027.jpg
If they wanted to make the ending better they should have done the follow. Make Reiko and Koichi really close by showing a lots of Mother-Son like interactions. And by the time he had to kill Reiko, have Koichi unable to finish her off. Then have Reiko herself say “please do it”. I bet if that is the case there would have been a lot of people driven to tears (including myself).
Just wanted to commend Enzo for his stellar coverage of Another over the past season. I followed his posts on this show every week and found that they were even-handed, thoughtful and most of all, passionate. I could see that he put a lot of effort into ensuring that his posts were thought provoking; encouraging discussion, and highlighting new perspectives, yet never degenerating into tangential speculation; which is all too common whenever people write about suspense-heavy shows…
And now that this thing’s over, I think it’s finally time for me to actually start watching it- beginning with the last episode, followed by a marathon in proper order. There’s few things i enjoy more than reverse-engineering the plot of a good suspense-heavy show in my head- minus the uncertainty of the suspense of course…
Thanks, Zen. Report back on your findings!
As promised, Enzo, here are my findings. A word of caution, it’s probably one of the longest articles I’ve ever written. 😉
(spoiler tags added due to comment length ~ GE)
Note to readers: I marathoned all twelve episodes back to back; beginning with the last, and then going through all twelve in proper order from the beginning, meaning I watched the final episode twice. I did so in order to prevent speculatory instinct from clouding my mind; to ensure that my analysis was grounded in fact rather than mere conjecture.
Preamble: The extra student, the risen one; the bringer of death is known as the “Another” in this show. Personally, I find this term to be something of a misnomer because it does nothing to describe the aforementioned nature of the entity that is at the center of this show’s premise, and it is unfashionably inelegant in terms literary flow. Therefore the “Another” will henceforth be referred to as the “revenant.” The English word “revenant” was coined from a form of the French word “revenir” which simply means “to return” and has taken on the meaning of “one that returns after death or a long absence (Merriam-Webster Online definition)” which is a far more descriptive of this show’s central supernatural entity than the titular stock term “Another.”
Now, where do I begin? I should probably begin by briefly describing the things that made this show as good as it was. I will not, however, devote any significant amount of time to doing so as Enzo has already provided a more than adequate description of these things in his weekly posts, not to mention that they’ve pretty much been discussed ad nauseum by RC’s community. So here I will say that what carried Another through the season was its consistent dark mood, the constant sense of mystery, and strong character development, the sum of which created an unrelenting atmosphere of intrigue, suspense and tension.
Like Enzo mentioned, Another’s consistently dark mood was a product of excellent sound design and quality animation. Strategic use of the eerie soundtrack and the excellent sound assets (I don’t think I’ve ever heard better sound assets for explosions and lightning in anime; the ones used here just pop) evoked the right emotions in viewers at the right times, and served to sustain their immersion throughout the experience. Another also succeeded in sustaining a constant sense of mystery; there was always a sense of intrigue, even unto the very end the viewer’s sense of curiosity is constantly stimulated; the answer to every question often leading only to more questions, snowballing into an enigma comparable to that of the titular revenant it/herself. But all of this would mean nothing without the show’s strong character development; sympathetic characters to which the emotional component and the intrigue are conjoined. And it is out of this sympathy for the characters that Another’s heavy air of tension is born; out of the concern for the welfare of our favorites. The convergence of all these elements form the structural lattice that is the basis of the brilliant gem that is Another.
Yet as brilliant and beautiful as this gem may be, no stone is without flaws; Another possesses several glaring deficiencies that while arguably overshadowed by its triumphs, do prevent the show form attaining transcendence. And in the light of a deficiency of discussion surrounding these flaws, it is my duty as an impartial critic to illuminate. (Before I proceed, I would like to again commend Enzo for recognizing that Another possesses many imperfections, and playing his own role as an impartial critic by highlighting them in his post.)
Another possesses 3 major deficiencies that I feel are worth my mentioning, all of which were so astutely alluded to by Enzo in his post above, the first of which snowballs into the second, both for which somebody’s lack of restraint (Maybe Mizushima’s, but I’m leaning in the direction of the author of the original light novel Yukito Ayatsuji) is more likely than not nigh entirely to blame, while the third stems from poor transitioning that may partially be attributable to the short, strict and rigid 12 episode format, although it probably has more to do with either poor abridgment by Mizushima, or flat-out poor plot progression by Ayatsuji.
The first deficiency is related to Another’s ever-present sense of mystery, the same sense of mystery that is arguably the essence of the entire show, especially for the first 10 episodes or so. Much of this sense of mystery stems from the fact every answer to a question only led to more questions, and because the producers were less than forthcoming with these. Ayatsuji/Mizushima constantly titillated the audience by means of both dialogue and circumstance, incessantly attempting to artificially stimulate our sense of curiosity.
For our purposes here, I will say that there are two ways to stimulate a sense of curiosity in an audience, and I will call them “real” and “artificial.” Real stimulation is relatively difficult to accomplish; it is what occurs when an author/screenwriter presents to us a mystery which is comprised of a series of compounding questions (That are often relevant to the overarching plot), each of which when answered, blooms into numerous others. When an audience is subjected to this sort of thing, they will inevitably find themselves caught in a never-ending chain of intrigue, right up to the mystery’s resolution. Another does this, and it does this well. (An example would be the revelation of Mei’s green “doll’s eye” in one of the earlier episodes which blooms into numerous other questions such as “What does she see with that eye?” and “Why/how can she see with that eye?”) This mechanism is very difficult to accomplish; poor application is more often due to outright incompetence rather than someone getting ahead of himself and overdoing things- because of this, Another got real stimulation right, for the most part, but for reasons that will become clear later, it’s likely that Ayatsuji/Mizushima would have overdone it, were he capable of it.
Artificial stimulation on the other hand refers to the taunting of the audience by means of verbal and circumstantial titillation; the act of feinting a revelation and then verbally or circumstantially withholding it. Liken it to boosting the audience’s curiosity with steroids, if you will; a quick and easy way to boost their sense of curiosity. Because this mechanism is so simple in application (in comparison to real stimulation), artificial stimulation is a staple of mystery shows that is so very often overused. In line with this unfortunate convention, Another is no exception, except that its misuse of this device is far less egregious than that of your run-of-the-mill mystery. Another utilizes artificial stimulation at the right times and at the right intensities, but overuses the device overall by a small but significant margin. Mizushima/Ayatsuji recognized the points in the story where this device would fit in most appropriately, and the intensity to which it should be utilized in most of these scenarios; however he was overzealous in its application and ended up using it at just about every opportunity that arose, resulting in a concise application of artificial stimulation that was unfortunately excessive when taken as a whole. The “Should I tell you, or should I not (Dialogue)/kill the snitch (circumstantial)” moments in Another are numerous, especially in the earlier episodes; they tended to occur at the right intensities, and at the right times so as to induce optimal effects; however when the show is evaluated in its totality, it becomes clear that although these moments occurred at the right intensities at the right times, there was an excessive number of them overall. The frustration of some viewers at the mystery wasn’t entirely without reason; the excessive frequency to which artificial stimulation was used in Another made things feel slightly condescending at times; the titillation becoming something more of a taunt than a tease.
Clearly a priority of Mizushima/Ayatsuji was to create, sustain and progressively escalate a sense of intrigue and mystery in Another, something that was exercised to the point of overzealous compulsion by a small but significant magnitude, which is evident from his excessive usage of artificial curiosity stimulation. Another’s second (And its greatest) shortcoming is directly caused by this overzealousness. One of the primary mysteries in Another was the identity of the revenant, something that never became evident until the end of the final episode. In an effort to create an escalating and sustained sense of mystery, Mizushima/Ayatsuji (more likely Ayatsuji) jealously guarded the revenant’s identity. In of itself, there’s nothing wrong with this plot device; in fact hiding ball did serve to create an escalating and sustained sense of mystery surrounding the matter of the revenant’s identity just as Mizushima/Ayatsuji intended; the problem instead arose because he guarded the secret too jealously to the point that it detracted from poor Revenant Reiko’s character development. It seems like Mizushima/Ayatsuji didn’t dare to do too much with Reiko’s character for the fear that the audience would suspect that she was the revenant. Early on he invested far too much in the “Mei is the revenant” exposition feint (which everyone seemed to know instinctively was a feint), and in later episodes he focused more on developing student characters like Akazawa and Mochizuki; Reiko the Revenant, the central character around which the show’s entire premise revolves played a secondary role at best, receiving some character development, but significantly less than any of the primary student characters. Very little is revealed about Reiko’s bond with Sakakibara over the course of all twelve episodes except that she is his aunt, and that he shares a friend-like relationship with her where they treat each other as equals, and that he considers her to be “an important person” in his life (revealed in the scene right before the one where he puts the unfortunate woman out of her misery). Also, in the final arc she gets her 15 seconds of fame when she is injured while trying to stop her students from killing Mei- good for showing that the revenant isn’t fundamentally evil, but comparatively useless in terms of making her death at the hands of her nephew more emotional.
Right as Sakakibara was raising the pickaxe over his head to deal the killing blow to his beloved, undead aunt it became evident to me that the scene lacked much of its potential emotional punch; it would have been far more powerful if Mizushima/Ayatsuji had made Revenant Reiko a primary character and placed an emphasis on her bond with her nephew in her character development (e.g. by showing scenes where she went to Tokyo to take care of him as an infant right after his mom died, followed by scenes of frequent and loving visits with gifts of toys and lots of love). We knew that Reiko and Sakakibara were close, but the problem here is that it was all just knowledge on an intellectual level rather than an actual plot-induced emotional awareness of their relationship. Simply knowing on an intellectual level that they were close does little to evoke actual emotion in comparison to actually watching the parties bond. It’s just like hearing someone say, “He’s a mama’s boy!”- this informs you on an intellectual level that a small child is close to his mother, but barely evokes any real emotion at all, and may even have negative connotations depending on who hears it. But imagine if you were to visit the house of that very same child just a day later and actually see him being a mama’s boy; sitting in his mother’s lap and laughing as she reads him a Dr. Seuss book; I daresay even the hardest of hearts would find such a scene to be very endearing. Both scenarios convey the same meaning to the observer; that the little boy is close to his mother, but merely conveying the message to the observer verbally has relatively little emotional impact in comparison to actual situational observation of the child bonding with his mom. Another is plagued by this very problem. Revenant Reiko’s closeness to the protagonist was established mostly through intellectual rather than situational means in order to facilitate the overzealous Mizushima/Ayatsuji’s hiding of the ball. He was so determined to hide the revenant’s identity that he didn’t want the audience to so much as suspect that it might be Reiko; he dared not put her into the spotlight, relegating her to a secondary role in the story at best.
Where he had ample opportunity to both hide the ball and pack an emotional punch into the ending, he consciously/unconsciously chose to forgo an emotionally powerful ending in favor of the latter (Hiding the ball). Where he could have easily inserted several short scenes showing Sakakibara and Reiko bonding, he did not in his overzealousness; his unhealthily absolute desire to avert all suspicion as to the revenant’s identity unto the very end. Clearly he could have easily added in the observational emotional element at very little cost to the story time and suspicion-wise- insert a few endearing scenes and none would be the wiser…I daresay that he could have even given Reiko a primary role in the story like that of Akazawa and hid the ball just as effectively- he might have even gotten a slick plot twist out of it- imagine if the person who did her utmost to stop the calamity was its very cause all along…Reiko stopping a few murderous students pales in comparison in terms of emphasizing the revenant’s non-evil nature. This second approach might’ve raised suspicion levels a notch, but the benefits clearly far outweigh the costs, and even then he could’ve just as easily hidden the ball. In the end his overzealousness cost him dearly; as the pickaxe was being raised I found myself worrying more about the welfare of the likes of Mochizuki and Teshigawara than about Sakakibara’s emotional state, which is problematic to say the least, when the scene involves the death of the one character who is the center of the entire premise…
The final problem is related to Enzo’s point about how the show “felt like a mystery for 10 episodes, and then a horror for the last 2.” This strange genre disconnect is due to poor transitioning on the part of Mizushima/Ayatsuji between the initial “mystery” stage of the show and the latter “mayhem” stage. The “mayhem” stage that consists of the final two episodes essentially began with Teshigawara’s attempt to kill Kazami, Takako’s madness, and the general release of the secret tape over the intercom system. Notwithstanding the fact that Teshigawara’s attempt to murder his friend felt forced and unnatural, everything immediately degenerated into a chaotic state of nature right after Takako played the tape over the intercom and falsely accused Mei of being the revenant. This occurrence confounds basic cognitive theory; clearly there is no way that a group of classmates, people who knew each other intimately, would so readily resort to murdering one another to save themselves immediately after finding out that killing one of their own would solve the problem; it makes more sense that the first step would be to attempt negotiations, fracturing into smaller and smaller factions as cooperation and trust is progressively eroded. This contradiction of basic human cognitive theory offends the audience’s instincts creating a disconnect between the “mystery” and “mayhem” segments of the show in their minds because their subconscious detects that the way the mystery was morphed into mayhem confounds basic human nature.
As to why the transitioning between the two stages was so subpar, there are several possibilities depending on who was responsible. If Mizushima was responsible for this mess, then it may have been caused by trying to fit the story into the short, 12 episode format; something had to go, or time constraints would’ve killed the show as a whole, no prizes for guessing what got cut out… I am far more suspicious of Ayatsuji, however. I’m sure that the reader recalls two of the books that appeared over the course of the show; one of the books I’m referring to was Lovecraftian, while the other was by the diabolical master of horror John Saul. The two books represent the two influences from which the two segments of Another draw upon, the initial “mystery” segment drawing from the Cthulu Mythos’ air of dark mystery and dread, and the latter “mayhem” segment drawing from the chaos of Saul’s works. Clearly it was Ayatsuji’s intention to meld these two breeds of horror, but perceiving them to be different animals, it seems like he had little idea about how to properly hybridize them, imprisoned by the cognitive dissonance of having experienced both of these elements in separate media. He must have done his very best to meld these two elements effectively, but limited by his own narrow perception of these two genres of horror as separate entities, he was unable to come up with a good way to conjoin the two, resulting in Another’s genre disconnect. Thing is, the solution was right under his nose and he failed to see it- if he had perceived and constructed Another’s two segments as a singular entity rather than a duality of Lovecraft and Saul he would’ve realized that the key to a seamless transitioning between the “mystery” and “mayhem” segments lies in the incremental breakdown of trust between self-interested human actors in a desperate situation, progressively overriding any pre-existing sense of intimacy- something for which that masterpiece called Lord of the Flies is so renowned. Had he recognized this unity, he could’ve easily gone to Lord of the Flies as a source; but he did not, and we’re left with this deep fissure dividing Another’s “mystery” and “mayhem” segments. [The alternative explanations for this disconnect are laziness or haste, which is nigh on impossible for a writer of Ayatsuji’s caliber…]
Another is an excellent work; a gem of rare and exquisite beauty among anime, yet this beauty is marred by significant flaws; that is, the excessive use of artificial curiosity stimulation, the confounding of basic human cognitive theory creating something of a genre disconnect within the story, and the overzealous hiding of the ball to the point that the development of premise’s central character was negatively affected, immensely reducing the emotional impact of the ending. Yet overall Another’s triumphs still far outshine these flaws making it one of the year’s best.
“Awaiting moderation.” Hmm, must be the length of the thing…meanwhile fun fact:
The bird that gives Reiko headaches is a myna/h. Its name is derived from the Hindi word “maina” which in turn is derived from a Sankrit word that means “messenger of god.” The Myna/h also plays an important role in the propagation of the holy banyan tree.
I knew that the bird was a myna/h and that it couldn’t be a coincidence, so I googled it and the above is what I found…
Thanks Enzo, and nice use of spoiler tags- I realized in hindsight that I should’ve probably put used them something like 5 minutes after I posted the thing, but by then it was too late…
Anyways, I was more surprised with Ms. Mikami being Reiko-san than the fact that Ms. Mikami/Reiko was the extra. I was like: Ms. Mikami is the extra? (*shock*)…and Ms. Mikami is Reiko-san??? (Double shock!)
why did Akazawa have to die! ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)
It was a pleasure to read your posts G.Enzo as I watched Another. This one is staying in my heart for a good, long while It really put a lot in perspective. Ultimate, I did guess that Reiko and Mikami-sensei were the same, and that she was the Another, but Ironically only because I had assumed from the start they were the same person. I actually didn’t realize they might be different until I looked at the site for Another and saw that they were listed separately as if two people. Which means i got double trolled…
But this is okay because I grew to love Another and all the main characters. It was a good trip, and my only regret is that it aired on MONDAYS T.T
Killing Akazawa was pure BS.
Seriously, what would have been so wrong with leaving both her and Mei alive? After all that happened, I’m sure Kouichi would have enjoyed having two insanely good looking girls obsessing all over him. Now he has to settle for one.
I enjoy this anime, but somehow the ending doesn’t satisify me, not at all.
Maybe it is just me but aren’t they show too many hints? I must say I couldn’t figure out who is the dead person until the ending, but from what happened, I have confidence to say that none of the main characters is. And I didn’t read manga/novel, so I didn’t know anything.
But, who kills the old grandpa of that house? Or I missed something here?
Why do they always kill off the pretty ladies. I though Mikami-sensei was the prettiest one in the show
i know right 🙁
alot of people already identified and sorted most of the reiko clues. however there were a few more subtle instances like how kouichi would go out of his way to ask if Mikami sensei was alright, how he instantly got pissed off at the student knock he out with the broom, when teshi and mochizuki asked what he thought about the attractive mikami-sensei and all he could do was panic and go uhhh..the fact that reiko was so distressed about the whole ordeal and would not easily provide information to kouichi. Aunts wouldn’t be affected by the curse, she could be distressed from when her sister died but not so much to leave kouichi in the dark like that. In the beach episode reiko puts on her glasses after drying her hair and for a breath second you can see he face without glasses and her hair is darker from being wet(other than that it irks me that her hair color changes so much).
Also on a side note the kids crushed by the chandelier did not die, the were just temperarily trapped and are later see by chibiki’s car. the two girls who were stabbed were not technically confirmed dead, though akazawa claims them to be. there was blood and knife mark on sugiura’s bed, and she was most likely attacked but not fatally wounded until accidentally hung herself. though its hard to think some students could have survive their fatal looking wounds its a possibility they may have survived, even ogura though that’s really pushing it. Even after excluding some students who could have survived I still didnt get a death count of eight.
opps nevermind the two girls who were stabbed are as good as dead
I don’t know how it is in the manga or novel, but I suspect Mei’s “I can see the color of death” thing was a lie that she told Kouichi. In this episode she mentioned how it was the teachers lounge that was short a desk and how no other class had an assistant teacher. She know from that who the other was, but needed to tell the lie to Kouichi to help convince him.
Also, I thought the chaos of the last two episodes fit in with the rest of the series, and it felt natural that tension would build up until one spark would be enough to set everyone off.
I don’t think she was lying about seeing the color of death only because the animators add a scene where you can see a faint navy blue aura around reiko in episode 12, or maybe it was around akazawa after she passed..either or, they added it in even though its a color we shouldnt be able to see.
This series has become my fvorite horror anime, it has everything you could hope for sice nice characters, intriging history, to awsome animation and breath taking soundtrack. I´m really glad that Mei and Kouichi were able to survive that hell hole and to be honest the best part of this conclusion was seing every student go crazy, I think is a perfect exmple of what fear and desperation can do to a person, I know it wasn´t you favorite development Enzo but it has a lot of sense they snap the way they did, don´t you think?.
By the way Enzo, I have a question that has absolutely nothing to do with the show but I´s like your advice in the matter. I read in your other blog that you like the HBO series Game of Thrones and you are reding the books, well I just bought Song of Ice And Fire I Game of Thrones and I really like it so I was wondering, is it worth it to read all the books? I read half of the first by and I want ot know if the story keeps getting this awsome in the future.
In my opinion yes, absolutely worthwhile to read the books. Just realize the series isn’t finished yet, and Martin takes a loooong time finishing each one.
Thank you, I´m from Venezuela and here the book take a really long time to be comercialize by the editorials in spaninsh, and I can´t read them in the computer because a problem I have in the eyes that doesn´t let read for long periods of time in the computer, so I´ll have to be patient or buy the books in english in Amazon or Mercado Libre. By the way I think Martin announced the series is going to be seven books and the last two already have titles, the sixth should be out by the end of the year.
That’s bad info, I’m afraid. The fifth book has been out less than a year, and it took six years between the 4th and 5th books. I’ll be shocked if we see it before 2016.
I had no idea, thank you for the information, them I´ll just have to be very patient until the last ones are finished. By the way, if you enjoy this kind of fantasy novels I highly recomend you the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, the characters are incredibly complex and the story is nothing I´ve ever seen, you should definetely read it.
Just want to give you a heads up: Game of thrones is poorly written. That guy needed to fire his editor after book 1, but never did. the first book is the best. You’re not going to get anything better. But, it’s hard to stop reading!
now I remember there will be the live action
I wonder how they will make reiko and mikami sensei different..
lol, different colored hair dye.
Gotta say, Akazawa had a very beautiful death. It seemed to be one of the more significant death scenes in the whole series, the way they played about with the cinematics to the recollections she had of Kouichi.
I have felt these last few episodes were not very strong, but what really got me was the Mikami = Reiko. Who’da thunk it, really?! But anyway, it was a great series. Really glad I gave it a try because I’ve never watched a horror anime before (I get scared much too easily lol) even if I partly watched it from the get-go because the animation looked pretty.
It was great reading all your blogs on Another, and look forward to your posts after being greatly satisfied by your blogs of this series.
Loved the series but the ending for me ruined it. Not that it wasn’t enjoyable, but it will make the series “forgettable”.
I just found the last two eps somewhat ridiculous and I totally lost most of the emotional connections with the characters that were built up in the first 10 episodes.
I’m glad that you pointed out this exact shot: http://images.randomc.net/Another/Another%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
I have to agree that was a beautiful shot/sequence as it gives a sense immediately of how big the impact was going to be. Poor Akazawa. Besides Mei, I liked her too in this series.
Overall, I really enjoyed this series in how it structured itself with setting the base foundation of the characters and the main plot would be within the first two eps, then gradually giving you pieces of the puzzle that if you’re paying attention, it should connect for you and I didn’t really feel too much that anything was left unanswered. I had my guesses, and it turned out the one I thought was least likely correct was actually the answer. And I think they even gave us a big clue back a few episodes back when the conservation came up about Kouichi’s mother, I think.
All the downright ugly killing and dying left me shivering and frozen. Now THAT is horror. God, no one should go through anything like that. I don’t want to sound like an escapist, but I hope this doesn’t happen in real life (though, I can think of places where this is likely happening).
Before this, I never watched horror shows – now, I don’t think I will ever again.
I should’ve watched this first before Rinne no Lagrange. >_<
People watch horror anime and horror movies because they like getting scare, we have a natural curiosity for ghost stories because it´s a part of what make us human. By the way, talking about hounted houses and curse towns, just stay away from the house of Sara Winchester, any place called Racoon City, Silent Hill and most important of all the town of Derry in Main, if Stephen King has tough me anything is to stay the hell away from that hell hole!.
Now that we’ve come to the end, I no longer have to worry about any of my genuine speculations being wrongfully deleted or edited by Enzo as “spoilers”. 🙂
The beach episode also kind of hinted at Reiko = Mikami, especially when she dropped her glasses and her hair was down, concealing her eyes.
After all the carnage, Akazawa’s death was handled way better than in the novels, when her death was just glossed over casually in the aftermath (she was virtually non-existent in the novel narrative).
Though I’m not too happy with how Kazami was suddenly turned deranged and contributed to two deathcounts in his name before himself being bumped off conveniently, yes I can understand getting a bump in the head after being shoved off can give you strange ideas, but, I dunno… (In the novel, Kazami simply passed out after being shoved off by Teshi and survived the ordeal)
The Calamity of Class 1998 may be resolved, though author Ayatsuji Yukito has cleverly allowed himself to come back to this potential cash cow franchise should he choose to, seeing as how the root of the Calamity itself is still there, much like Silent Hill.
Perhaps Mei should consider a career in assisting Chibiki, or even taking over his role as “Observer”, actively bumping off each year’s Another pre-emptively using her “Mystic Eyes of Death Perception” (Type-Moon joke intended) 🙂
For those of you wondering about Kouichi being Reiko’s original killer, it shouldn’t have been him. When she died he would have been in school back home in Tokyo. If I had to guess by the way they set it up in the show, it was Akazawa’s brother who stabbed her, then killed himself in the same month.
In the manga their deaths don’t seem related, though I could be wrong.
wow goood theory! that explains why Akazawa Izum instantly likes kouichi! he resembles her dead cousin/brother…
Weak conclusion. 11 awesome episodes + 1 mediocre one.
I have to admit, I kind of laughed when that kid got crushed by a column.
Dang it! i love how they hinted her all the way through the series like ‘they say shes a killer’ dont judge a book by its cover and all but it does feel a little less flamboyant i guess? maybe its cause all the mayhem in the lastepisodes made me a bit detached lol. still one of the best and highly recommended for this season! Expecting some decent works to from the w!riter and pa works in the future. Annnnnd props to the sound coordinators, they seriously made this series! thnx enzo for providong the awesome reviews
That was pretty gut wrenching. Watching Reiko squirming, begging, then getting off’ed like that.
Well it ended for me in an unexpected manner. I’m still in a state of awe, but for some reason I feel kinda cheated. I wish they plan the last 2 episodes a Lil bit more, it feels so rushed, there are too many things going-on the screen, kinda wish they made it onto 45 mins longer or at least spread it into 4 episodes. Overall the series is a great watch, and I will definitely recommend it to my friends. And great job GE for the stellar coverage of the series.
And they really need to purge that school, seriously!!
I know one thing I’d do. Move to a nicer town, like Hinamizawa.
I think Akazawa’s death was the only one that mattered to me in the last two episodes. Ok not true, Reiko’s mattered, but more by what happened to Kouichi after he completed the deed. His body gave out on him, but was it memories triggering something? Or all that smoke inhalation finally catching up with him?? *shrugs* who knows.
Ghhh I’m never going to be able to get that first er, first widely acknowledged death out of my mind.
I certainly preferred the series’ mystery tilt. With horrific tragedy being sprinkled just enough to remind us how horrible the calamity is.
“And then it was over….” At least it didn’t end that way. *stares accusingly at Air.* With them running away from the burning building and the Another dying by chance and the Calamity just being mysteriously -over-. They gave us the satisfaction of the solution. I’m thankful.
Well, Kouichi got admitted into hospital pneumothorax, after all. The novel says he collapsed as a side-effect of that due to the shock induced from having to “kill” his aunt.
Wow, good job Enzo, thank you for covering this series has been a good run but as you mentioned there are some things that make this episode feel lacking. All in all good series.
This is definitely the first anime that left me with so many thoughts/feelings after watching the finale. I’ve never actually bothered to speculate about what’s going in an anime series week after week before except for Another which bumps it up in my list of favourite anime despite the rather rushed eps 11-12 that spiraled into an abyss of insanity.
The Mikami/Reiko twist was a lame deus ex machina. How could anyone have guessed the two were actually the same person? Heck, I myself discovered they were the same only in the beach (watermelon scene) episode which I would have missed had I blinked when Mochi’s cheeks turned pink.
Just my opinion: So perhaps P.A. Works weren’t cheating, rather they dropped really obvious clues right at the beginning of the series which made us in turn think that it couldn’t be her because it was too easy which directed our suspicions towards the other cast members. Ah, the power of human suspicion! 🙂
Akazawa was no doubt my favourite over Mei but Mei really impressed me when she took up the burden of killing Mikami instead of leaving the tragic decision in Kouichi’s hands. Gotta <3 that girl! Anyone else thought that the scene with Akazawa pierced with glass was beautiful in a certain way? (No, I'm not a sadist!!!)
i read that Yukito Ayatsuji(the cretor of Another) is planning on making a sequel as well as a spin-off:)
Wow, that was one hell of a series. In the beginning of the series, I wanted Akazawa to died because she so pessimism to the Kouchi and didn’t want to tell him what was going on. Then she grew into me, and I didn’t want her to died anymore. It sucks that she is gone.
AKAZAWA-SAAAAAAN!!!! NOOOOOOOooooo…!!! T_T You will always be in my memories.. RIP. But at least she got her final moments with Kouichi…
HOW CAN REIKO AND MS MIKAMI IS THE SAME PERSON THEY LOOK SO DIFFERENT!!!!
At least this is how I will react when I 1st read the Tvtropes and clicked the spoiler. Well played if not trolling a bit. Akazawa should hv lived…. And who tht creepy Sakaki lookalike tht kill Ms Mikami?
Now let see how the live action movie fares….
Manly Tears for Mikami Reiko-sensei (a.k.a. Best-Aunt-Of-The-Winter-2012-Anime-Season-awardee). When I saw her under that pile of logs, trying to get out, then begging her beloved nephew not to kill her (and the flashback where she explained to Kouichi not to be familiar with her in campus), I felt my chest hurt a bit. Especially the line, “goodbye, mother” – followed by pickaxe to the chest. Manly Tears. *sniff*
I am wondering though, how’d she end up under the pile of logs in the yard? I thought she was unconscious when she was whacked with a mop to her temple?
Akazawa Izumi was killed off because P.A. works executives are Kouichi x Mei shippers. At least her death was kinda sexy? classy? dignified? I don’t know what to call it.
I thought Mei trapped her there. U got to really be careful of those nice ones.
Akazawa’s death was beautiful, but it will be more beautiful if she didn’t die…
The show actually did a pretty good job answering most of the questions the show had raised. I posted a comment about last week’s episode in the thread for that episode. In the comment, I numbered the list of mysteries the show had to solve by the end of episode 12.
Here’s the list of questions they answered:
1. The identity of the “Another” and the mysteries surrounding that person
2. Sakakibara’s family: Reiko, Ritsuko and the dad
3. How will Misaki and Sakakibara deal with the still-ongoing student onslaught? Will they have a happy ending?
Those were the main questions of the series. However, there were some side questions that remain unanswered, along with other questions this episode raises.
1. Is there any way to end the curse permanently? Sure, they might stop this cycle. But is there a way to end it once and for all?
2. What happened with Kazaki? Why doesn’t he remember his childhood memories? Is it just forgetfulness, or is there a deeper meaning to this?
3. Who the hell killed husband and why? Does that have anything to do with the manager going psycho? The show mentioned something about how the husband and wife were depressed, but how did that depression lead to the husband being stuck with sticks like a voodoo doll?
4. Chibiki’s role in all of this. Just how much does he know? He’s always been somewhat of a mysterious figure. Plus, the mention of how he’s an actor a couple of episodes just adds to the suspicion.
5. The dolls. What do they signify?
6. The identity of the person who killed Reiko all those years ago. He looks like Kouichi!
7. Why did Misaki see the color of death in Akazaki? Could she have been another “Another”? Was Reiko not the only one?
An exceptional show overall. I agree that it all got unneccesarily melodramatic towards the end with the Lord-of-the-Flies- and Final-Destination-style madness. It could have had the same impact without all the unneccesary deaths (like that kid who got killed by a falling pillar).
It’s definitely the kind of show that I can recommend to people who have not seen any anime before in their lives.
One last note: I really felt bad for Reiko. She was such a kind person. My sense of empathy went off the charts when I saw her reaction to Kouchi trying killing her.
Some of your questions are somehow answered already.
3) The wife killed the husband. The reason why she went depressed and phyco was because she was grandmother of the student who died of heart-attack.
4) Chibiki was the student who started the curse. He was the one who said that the first Misaki was still alive.
7) I think you meant Akazawa not Akazaki. She can see the color vividly in those who are dead. And in those who are heavily injured or about to die, she can see them faintly. But i don’t remember her saying that she can see it on Akazaki.
Well, the most recent mystery introduced is #6. Maybe the animators were too lazy and just copy and pasted Koichi’s figure.
Twin tails and Reiko (with the sensei look) were such a waste. Both had sad stories
Damn too much questions unanswered. Who is Reikos killer? (He also appears in Ep 1 for a split second). Why Mei gave that smile in the end? (it seems like she knows more- she knew it was Reiko before she knew Reiko was his aunty cmon). Why Mei doesnt like Ferris Wheels? (maybe i am thinking too much). Why Kouichi just happend to have his 2nd lung attack when he killed Reiko? (Coincidence?) CMON!!!!
Thanks for covering this series, it was really enjoyable to read your reviews about it ^^
But I’m surprised you didn’t say a word about 2 things that impacted me personally:
1-I totally thought the murderer was Kouichi, and until the very last moment, I was expecting to see some sort of wicked psycho smile crack on his face and for him to kill both Reiko and the witness of his crime, Misaki. But in the end, he was ‘nice’ till the last minute aha~
2-the fact he said “Goodbye, Mom” right after “Goodbye, Reiko” @__@ Could Reiko have been his real mother in some incredible way?
I thought about mentioning those points but you know, the post was already very long, you can’t mention everything, and honestly they didn’t seem that vital to me. I noted the vague resemblance but I didn’t think there was an intentional implication that the killer was Kouichi. And I thought Kouichi said what he did because Reiko was the closest thing he had to a mother figure, since his Mom died when he was a baby.
Is it just me who noticed the change of Koichi’s clothes in this episode compared to the ones he was wearing 2 episodes ago in Akazawa’s dream ?
http://images.randomc.net/Another/Another%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2003.jpg from her dream
http://images.randomc.net/Another/Another%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2020.jpg from her memories
Based on this this event could have happened at two different times: when Koichi was in hospital in april and 1 1/2 years ago.
During the time of the dream she was not sure or she met Kouchi and when she met him in 1998 he was in the hospital wearing those hospital clothes. During episode 12 she gets a flashback and then she was sure that she met him. So she knew how her really looked back then, wearing his school uniform from Tokyo.
Cassette->MD->CD->DVD->BD->…->Hologram?
If the Class 3 curse goes on…
Hopefully this won’t have a sequel until they think of a way to stop it once an for all or perhaps think of a way that anyone can use to detect the ‘Another’, otherwise a sequel will just be another round of ‘Final Destination’ 😛
I just started the 1st episode yesterday, and finished the final episode just now. For my tastes, this is an all time great series. I’d equate it a bit to Evangelion, in the sense that you know in the back of your mind the show had a few flaws here and there, but it doesn’t really matter, because you still know that you just experienced greatness. It could be another half decade before I see an anime that has me by the balls from start to finish like this one did.
Teshigawara and Mochizuki may have survived this year but they learned nothing. Making a new record about how to stop the calamity and then they just hide it. The last time someone hid it a lot of people had to die. 12 people had to die in 1998 before they knew how to stop it. They learned one thing and that is that you need to discuss things before you start killing people like Takako did.
Something is really weird. Chibiki needed 1 and a half episode to drive Wakui to the hospital but he came back in half an episode, how did he do that?
So in 1998 only 18 students survived and 7 of them didn’t went on the school trip.They are all kind of lucky that they won’t remember those things later when they grow up but Kouchi don’t want to forget it but he will and maybe it is better that he will otherwise he would go crazy eventually.
(Something I would like to see)
Besides the OVA with Mei and her twin sister I also would love to see something about Chibiki acting. They say he is a actor and they never show him acting while he did had some good lines in this episode. I would really like to see him on stage together with Akazawa and Ayano but I’m sure that won’t happen.
A mysterious curse, a deadly adventure, a class put up for slaughter. This is how horror anime should be done. The sounds, the sights, the dead piling. I love how they pulled it off. If this is how they did the anime, imagine the upcoming live action!
Series Score 10/10
Here is the profile of Reiko’s seiyuu, Sakakibara Naoko, from her agency Production Ace.
http://www.production-ace.co.jp/s/sakakibara/
The agency website supposedly also had a profile for Mikami-sensei’s “seiyuu”, Miyamaki Misayo, but it’s now vanished after the airing of the last episode.
http://uploadpic.org/storage/2011/SAZdJyXMh2HnP1LFioIzkDAtA.jpg
If one looks carefully, you’ll realize the lady in both photos is actually the same person.
We have all been trolled by PA Works and Production Ace. 🙂
The fact that Sakakibara is a virtual unknown compared to other A-list seiyuus helps the ruse as well.
Wow, I appreciate the effort they put in!
I guess I will forget about this soon…
Another great series brought to an end.
Since the phenomena will repeat itself, I wonder if they are gonna make a sequel like Higurashi until they are able to solve it.
Two thumbs up with a smile for Another!.. A great series indeed for me, a little funny question, why are they so calm? I mean most of them just walk instead of run, though it really doesn’t bother me.. ^_^
My guess is that they’re just being careful.
Someone noticed that the first few minutes of episode 1 had already hinted at Reiko’s murder by the dam, as well as a “preview” of all other future scenes of death, like the hospital elevator, the school staircase, the speedboat by the beach, etc.
Great show, but quite a pathetic fatigue of an ending. The reveal of identity of the Another was good, though.
Man, Reiko got killed twice and if my instincts are right, by the same guy too.
I loved this show and I’m rarely one for horrors and tradgedies. The subtleties of Mei and Kouichi’s relationship was big for me as it didn’t have them holding onto each other for dear life, just being there for each other. Still the show could’ve used a better epilogue and if there had been room for one or two more episodes than maybe they could have given us a better ending overall.
This show get’s my official vote for the best anime this season as there was no other that left me burning with such anticipation for an entire week.
Yay I was right…
but akazawa ;_; y~
Yeah, not the best ending… so close Another, so close 🙁
So it really seems like its suggesting Kouichi killed Reiko already way back when. :/ Is there more to this in the novel or smthn?
I’m expecting a lot of dislikes for my comment already. ._. Anyway, Another didn’t have the worst ending but it certainly was not the best. I had high expectations for the series, hoping it would be the next Higurashi. I preferred the horror aspect instead of the mystery. I really wanted to be spooked out and get a mindfuck from all the sudden twists. Sadly, it didn’t really happen. Although I think if the two aspects were properly mixed in together, the show would have been the best for the season. What worked was definitely the awesome animation, and Mei and Kouichi as characters. What didn’t work were the minimal details painting our overall picture. Yes, they were morbid but it didn’t really give much insight to the curse. It just sparked confusion to make the series seem more “mysterious”.
I felt like there were unresolved questions. The curse doesn’t really end there. They just stopped it for the year. I mean in 1983, they were able to stop it because they were able to kill the dead one. Fine, they were able to find a new way to stop the curse…. but it’s all because of Mei’s eye. Mei won’t live forever so she can’t always be the one to find that color of death. Either way, the opening ending still worked some how since it shows how they was a hope for the now and future.
Oh I almost forgot to mention, for those who enjoy the series, you might be interested in this:
http://mydramalist.com/japanese-movie/3759/another
Another will be turned into a live-action movie premiering August 4.
Alright series sometimes it was boring episode 11 really fucked up the show as much as I like that episode it was just too much BS going on there. R.I.P Akazawa the only character in this series I give a damn about.
I really enjoyed the whole show and was satisfied with the ending. I think that if everything with the curse was solved or something like that, it would have been too light of an ending for a story that was dark. It also seems to make sense (to me at least) that it wasn’t completely stopped; they weren’t given a way to completely stop it once and for all so I didn’t expect it. I found the ending to be relieving for the characters but have an unsettling feeling at the thought that it will probably happen again in the future.
And like everyone else I was weirded out by the appearance of the mystery killer in the flashback but I thought about it and realized that it can’t possibly be kouichi since it could have been a student at Yomi North (and he was not a student of that school yet). But more importantly it wouldn’t make sense because he wasn’t in the town at that time….he went there for her funeral (as confirmed in Izumi’s memory…which he couldn’t remember since it had to do with reiko and was altered). I think they just mistakenly gave the person a far too similar appearance.
Who was Reiko’s killer? Do they really expect us to sit quietly while the killer looks so much like Kouichi? His dad? Who knows! There has to be an answer to this.
Also – if you look at episode 11, when Chibiki is driving asthma boy to the hospital – at first the boy is whizzing away in the back seat but after that he looks quite still. When you see him again this episode in the back seat of Chibiki’s car – he is still lying, apparently not breathing, after he was supposed to go to the hospital and been taken care of? Couldn’t he even sit upright? I get the feeling Chibiki just grabbed the first opportunity he had to GTFO of that hotel and didn’t give a shit about the boy and practically let him die chocking in his car. why he even returned latter I don’t know :/ Also – no word about him being “an actor” or anything.
The lack of fear with Misaki Drove me CRAZY. Your own LIFE is being threatened and you don’t yell, scream, ask for help, run fast, look scared, nothing! It seems like Misaki isn’t even afraid to die – why is that?
In the end, Kirika didn’t really have much meaning. When the old lady in the shop asked “Are you a costumer? Or…?” I thought there was something to it, I thought dolls had something to do with the curse.. but no. I had this crazy theory about Voodoo dolls, but alas – It meant nothing.
You are acting like Chibiki ran west from the hotel but he did not. The boy in the car during ep 12 is the boy which got stabbed in the back infront of the dining hall. He is a hero for driving back and trying to safe as many as he could. He is a pretty good actor if you ask me. His line “this is not normal.” He sounded really serious but we all knew that the calamity was not normal. Chibiki was awesome and what if he had staid in the hotel and Reiko would have driven the boy to the hospital. Then all the students would have died.
I seriously thought that Another would be my no.1 anime in horror category. Great animation, intriguing plot, nice OST to build up atmosphere, too bad the ending was kind of… weird, at least for me. And that made Shiki my no.1 horror anime again.
Does anyone know how many people actually died in this episode? Chibiki said 8, but sounds like there were more.
The total deads of 1998 is 22 people. This episode 6 people died. Chibiki said 8 because in the hotel 8 students dies but then he says 10 because the managers also died. 12 students dief in total. 1 teacher and 9 family membres. The total comes to 22 then.
now is jus wait for the live action movie huh? sure is going to be a long wait…..
Looks like there’ll be another “Another” series soon. I stumbled on this article here.
Also, I heard that there’s an extra episode coming out. Did they actually announce it?
Yh there will be an OVA which would be ep 0 and will be about mei and her sister.
And to think that…one of those who died this year might be the Another some time later.
Putting many things aside, what happened to everyone ‘aiming to kill’ Mei (and sometime Kouichi) during the bloodbath? Since Kouichi got his lung attack and Mei probably drag him to everyone. Did the death of the Another stops everything that was related to the Another’s event?
the rampage stopped because it was like they were under a spell of a horrible nightmare only that it was real and when the another died its like they woke up and snapped out of it. The students arent normally psycho killers so naturally they went on with their lives…
I just noticed something really odd and maybe the other manga readers also noticed this.
In the anime aunt Reiko ties her hair up and wears glasses at home and at school she takes off her glasses and doesn’t tie her hair up but in the manga it is just the opposite of it. In the manga she ties her hair up and puts on glassesa at school and doesn’t wear glasses at home and doesn’t tie her hair up at home.
How funny.
It’s uncanny how much this episode reminded me of prom night – Oh what a night!
Excellent! A wonderful mystery/horror Anime. I especially liked the friendship/romance
that developed between Kouichi and Mei. It had an ending that fit well (I think) with the
story – not something completely from left field.
There were, as many have noted, many questions unanswered (leaving for the possibility of
future seasons), but, the story was not to explain everything, but simply find the Another
and end the calamity.
so it seems like almost no one could’ve guessed that reiko = mikami sensei, due to lack of info. but there is also a huge lack of common sense that was appeared to be overlooked whan that decision was made. If you know theres a horrible fatal curse affecting a school, why the hell would you accept aa Job as an assistant teacher at that school, (even worse: in the class that is affected the most)?
Also IMHO
I believe that if Akazawa survived, abuit more drama would have been restored to theshow. To see Akazawa have a meltdown after seeing how bad the situation became and seeing her blame herself for being an utter failureas heard of counter measures.
This might have already been mentioned before, but with all the comments that’s been posted it’ll probably be impossible to find…
Anyway…there is one more scene which foreshadowed that Mikami was the Another. Recall when Mei, Koichi and Chibiki were looking at the roster of previous years, and someone made the comment about how unlucky Mikami was at having to return to be the assistant teacher of Class 3. I felt back then that maybe she had something to do with it, but did not consider it as I always thought that the ‘Another’ was a student. Very well written story, even if the ending was somewhat crazy…
can someone give me the list of survivors of the class? or only Mei and Kouichi survived?
Mochizuki, Teshigawara, and a couple nameless NPCs too, but everyone that went on the trip died(unless Kazami made it but I don’t think he did). So ya, from the ED we got Mei, Kouichi, Mochi, and Teshi.
**everyone else that went on the trip died.
too many pretty girls died in the making of this series
utterly upset
It’s no Ghost Hound, for sure.
Passable, but could’ve been so much better.
I really with that the last episode was managed differently, because I’m left with this nasty feeling of being left out or something. Except for Akazawa’s death, that was definitely one of the most beautiful scenes I ever noted. Not even going in the art/animation’s direction, because thin IS PA Works, but the music…. it hit the spot. It fit PERFECTLY. Not I feel like re-watching that scene over and over *~*
It’s the first time I’m on this blog and I wanted to say that your review is written really well. Interesting to read and very well-spoken ^^
Thank you! That scene is truly beautiful, isn’t it? By far the best in the finale, I think.
I was actually still feeling very uneasy until the ending credits rolled. There were like minor hints the curse has not been stopped (characters kept asking each other if it’s finally over). I was half expecting a TROLOLOLOL moment with someone getting killed at the final scene followed by the ending credits.
And yet Mei remains as mysterious as ever(and suspicious?)…or is it just me?
Anyway, not really surprised about who the Another turned out to be. (Yes, I’m looking at the novel/manga guys who commented here). Sure they’re saved at the end but…is there really no definite way to stop the curse?
http://images.randomc.net/Another/Another%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
The house was made of supernatural and them broke to pieces. Dammit Kamijou Touma!!
It seems one of the victims’ little brother killed Reiko as revenge.
Doesn’t the murderer of Reiko looks very similar to Kouichi?
Yeah, I also noticed that too..
^ this.
He was there 1.5 years ago. The same time period Reiko died.
@Kaus:
He was there for her funeral. He wasn’t there until after she had died.
Best thriller of the season. The manga is still running. So there is still hope for future anime production. I’m looking forward to it.
the reason why I think the mystery happened in the first place is that Yomiyama Misaki is supposingly died but the member of the class treat as if he still exist, like what we know. So, the trick is here! Due to the member of the class treat him as an existing member, they were somewhat cursed, it’s like dead people should not exist anymore; people will treat dead person as some who had passed away rather than they still exist. Thus, by doing so, they have created something-like like a supernatural phenomenon. That phenomenon like what Chibiki explained, makes them near to Yomi (hell) itself. Therefore, the event will keep on repeating, like a karma. The series ended without telling the audience how to stop it but only how to prevent it. In the end, it’s something like a lesson taught by the author. The author want us to know when we realize the culprit is among us, what will we do. Will we murder them for our survivor just to found out who is the culprit or will we discuss, plan then only thought of the way? The decision will makes it clear on our true nature and that we must not follow the footsteps of the Class 3-3 students actions.
It took the professor the 12th and final episode to figure out something is not normal —- after hearing him said those magic words I really laugh in amusement and disbelief on how everything is falling down.
I guess in the end the fault is within me for expecting to much from the series, personal expectations that the series failed to deliver.
So it seems my question of whether Reiko and Mikami-sensei were the same person was answered. But what still bugs me is at what point I thought the show said they were the same in the earlier episodes. I guess I’ll have to re-watch the series from the beginning to find that clue.
On a side note:
Poor Izumi. Such a beautiful, yet tragic death. She may have had me cheering for her in the background, but her actions the last two episodes just made me go, “YOU CRAZY”.
Wait another thing can anyone answer this. Misaki said that she lost her eye when she was 4, but that other girl said she knew Misaki in elementary and she still had her eye. Im thinking the calamity didnt start in April and maybe it will be explained in the OVA. Misaki is suspect imo shes keeping secrets.
@BlakOut That girl had mistaken Misaki Mei for her twin Misaki.
>..<
how come if reiko is the another and because the faculty has no extra desk, then when the main teacher killed himself the happenings should stop right because now the faculty will have a extra desk for reiko
“I may wish the ending had been handled differently, but I still rank the series as a resounding success. It made me feel deeply, it unsettled me, it made me laugh, it made me think and it scared the hell out of me. The mystery was engaging and interesting and never boring, even if the ultimate resolution wasn’t completely satisfying. The production values were off the charts. And most importantly, Another recognized that no mystery or horror scenario can succeed if it doesn’t build a connection to the characters.”
Couldn’t agree with you more, Enzo. While I think the last 2 episodes could’ve been handled differently, and the finale ultimately left me with a few issues, overall I’m very happy I stuck with Another ’til the very end.
One chilling detail of the finale that stuck with me was this:
Mei saw an “unidentified person” murder the real Ms. Mikami a year and a half ago, and she clearly knew it was Ms. Mikami. So… Does she also know who the mystery killer is too? (And even more chilling, is it meant to be the person we’re lead to suspect – Koichi?)
Now I’m even more excited for the OVA. I hope this series gets a proper DVD release, as I’d love to own it. Already planning a re-watch marathon to see if I can indeed “spot the fake” by way of the hints dropped throughout.
theres a really high chance nekogrrl_77 got it right for the anime! The crazy killer is none other then Akazawa’s older cousin who died 1.5 years ago around the same time as reiko and he happened to look alot like the main character explaining why Akazawa liked the main character almost at first sight… since she and her cousin were supposed to be really close like siblings but since main is not related to her even more win for her they could get hitched
oops and of course he was probably in reikos class and teh curse made him go bonkers… 3C or watever
The solution reminded me of Ring. There’s no real way to completely lift the curse, but you can escape from falling victim to it by following the rules victimizing someone else and passing on the solution to the next victims. A lot of Japanese stories end that way.
They should make Mei the school adviser and pick out the dead every year to keep it from ever happening again. Maybe then the dead will feel uninvited and won’t join the class of 3-3 as Another any more.
It’s a very incredible moments to spend with Another in this season.
Yet I still shocked to see Akazawa’s death can’t be avoided… even though I suspected that she had already died 1year and half ago on the river bank.
This is truly the best horror/mistery I ever watch.
Wonders if Guardian Enzo is gonna blog the Ova. it came out a few days ago and i just seen it so. im not gonna say anything about it.
I loved this anime, watched all episodes on one evening.
I just wished for a last romantic scene between Mei and Koichi but I guess things like that don’t belong into animes of this genre.