***Warning, the following may, but honestly won’t, contain spoilers for Another. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
The year is 1998. The new academic term has begun in the small country village of Yomiyama.
Koichi Sakakibara (voiced by Atsushi Abe) has transferred into Yomiyama North Middle School Class 3-3. Things seemed normal on the surface. But Koichi can’t help feeling everyone is keeping something from him.
His suspicions heighten upon meeting his classmate Mei Misaki (voiced by Natsumi Takamori). Koichi tries to get to know Mei, but she warns if he gets any closer something bad will happen. Adding to the mystery, everyone in class, teachers and all, ignore Mei as if she doesn’t exist.
With no one willing to tell him what's going on, Koichi begins to investigate the matter on his own. Things then go from weird to terrifying. One by one, members of Class 3-3 start dying gruesome deaths.
Unrest surrounds the students. Then Koichi learns of a strange incident that occurred back in 1972. Ever since then, the rumor is Class 3-3 has been the victim of a deadly curse. Hoping to save their class, Koichi and Mei team up to discover what is going on in their sleepy little town.
Series Positives
AMAZING! 100% amazing.
This show rocks! It blew me away.
 |
| Koichi |
I was aware this series would have its fair share of violence, so I at least expected to get a kick out of that. But in no way was I expecting this. I have never seen an anime like Another before.
If it seems like I'm excited, trust me I am. There's just so much I want to talk about.
Horror and Mystery
 |
| Mei |
I've said before I can get creeped out, but it takes a lot for a show to actually scare me. It's a rare occurrence, but Another pulled it off in a fantastic way.
First, I want to talk about jump scares. They're an unfortunate trope in horror. They tend to get overused. That's a problem because jump scares are not a replacement for horror. Yes, they're surprising. They are fine on occasion. But if the fear factor is too reliant on them, they lose meaning fast and become nothing more than jerk moves. How many jump scares did Another have? Not a single one.
What Another had was an atmosphere. It didn't let up. Never did I feel there was a safe moment to relax. You stay on edge wondering.
There was always something. You didn't know what it was. You didn't know when it was coming. And it always happened a little after you expected it.
A second horror cliché I need to address is gore. This aspect can be fun in a twisted sort of way. But horror and violence should not necessarily be codependent by default. Another had blood, lots of it in fact. But it wasn't what made the show scary. What made it terrifying, death could happen at any time with no warning. At any minute someone could be dead.
Everyone was fair game.
Just compare Another to a previous horror anime I've reviewed, Shiki.
Was Shiki creepy; yes. Yet it was due to disturbing imagery that made you cringe when you looked at it. But you were still able to look at it. I can’t tell you how many times I had to actually cover my eyes while watching Another.
And for Shiki, it lost its horror elements upon revealing what was going on. From that point, there was a face to the unknown and you knew how to deal with it. In Another, you didn’t know jack.
This was where the mystery elements came in. You didn't know anything about what was going on. Yet it was clear that there were a ton of people who knew more than us and the main characters.
That was another thing. We were just as clueless as Koichi. Then once we understood what everyone else did, we still didn't know what was going on.
This was the entirety of Another. All its secrets were only revealed at the last possible minute. By that point we knew all the details and even knew how to fix everything. And STILL the show found a way to mess with our minds. It's how a mystery story should get told and it was glorious.
The Story
Another is a fantastic mystery, so it goes without saying the story was incredible. And it led to one of the greatest endings in anime I've seen.
This was one of those shows where nothing was done by accident. Everything had a point and was connected to the ending. They made the ending complete. As well as make sense. I love it when a story can do this. And it's a real shame when a story f@#$s it up too; Danganroupa.
I won’t say anything more for fear of spoilers. All you need to know is this is a must watch. Even if you don’t like horror, give this one a try.
Self-Correcting
Odyssey what in the hell are you talking about?
No doubt a weird classification but hear me out.
It was as if the show was aware of itself. Whenever I started to see a potential flaw forming, the show caught it and made it work. For example, one of my biggest problems with horror, in general, are avoidable consequences. A problem only arises because people are too busy being complete morons.
I'm not talking about when the story's in the thick of things. People find it hard to think straight when they're scared. I understand that. I'm talking about during the buildup. In the case of Another, Class 3-3 was getting mad at Koichi for getting to know Mei. The issue I had, no one gave Koichi a reason to do otherwise. In fact, their actions served as a kind of encouragement.
I was ready to hit the show with this. But then Another acknowledged that the class made a mistake. They should have told Koichi right away. Then the series went even further and explained why it was too late to fix the problem. And it made sense. So there was nothing for me to complain about. Each time this happened, the story strengthened.
Series Negatives
Um...Well, this is awkward.
I'm a firm believer that no show is perfect and Another's no different. It was just so damn good that any mistakes were irrelevant compared to the bigger picture. Still, there wasn't a whole I had a problem with.
I guess, all things considered, the voice acting wasn't all fantastic at first. To be fair, this is usually one of my go-to complaints. By the end, though, this becomes a non-issue. I get used to what everyone sounds like. The same thing happened in Another. In fact, the quality of the performances improved the further the story went along.
I also want to point out, Natsumi Takamori, the actress who played Mei, did an incredible job the whole way through.
Another was also detailed heavy; not uncommon in mystery. It sucks too because I'm horrible with names and even worse with Japanese names. It was difficult for me to follow along sometimes. So much so I had to do a little research for clarification. But all the information was provided in the series.
Now that I think about it, this isn't a problem with the show but more of an issue with my own shortcomings.
Huh?
Other than those tiny, tiny details, there's nothing else for me to say.
Final Thoughts
If you haven't figured it out by now, I love this show.
Before, every time I started a new series, I always hoped that it was going to be good. Actually, I always hoped the next anime I saw would be the best damn anime I've ever seen. In the past, there have been many outstanding shows that have been in contention.
Then came Another. Now I'm always hoping that the next anime I watch is better than this one. Why? Because that means its pretty f@#$ing good.
 |
| Google+ Facebook Twitter |
No comments:
Post a Comment