[Anime] Another Review

Another - 3/10

I knew going into this I wasn't going to be overawed. I think this was the result of having too much time and wanting to try something new again. I'd also heard the name come up a few times, so figured why not.

The Good: I'll give the series credit that I was curious during the first half. I wanted to know what was happening and why, and cared enough to sit through it to see the resolution. I also didn't figure it out, so there's at least that. And the fact that Misaki was actually alive the whole time surprised me; I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, because she was such a lifeless oddity.

Art quality was also pretty high. That's kind of damning with faint praise but I did appreciate how crisp the whole series looked.

Finally, it had some of the most unintentionally hilarious moments I've seen in a while. The scene where the guy crawls out from under the fallen chandelier, only to have the pillar immediate fall on him...I had to pause it and laugh for a minute. It was comic gold; it just needed a "wah wah" afterward to be complete.

The Bad: It's a suspense-horror series, and follows all the tropes.

1. Nice people with minimal screen time die first. We know it's getting serious when glasses girl impales herself on an umbrella and the nurse dies in the elevator. Their sole purpose is to demonstrate just HOW SERIOUS this curse is.

I have an image of these characters trying to get future jobs with resumes reading, "Can kill myself accidentally with common household items" and "Good at being the final part of a lethal Rube Goldberg machine."

2. The "oh no, will something happen?!?" music will be played for every scene that could potentially be scary. This includes, but is not limited to: opening doors, looking down stairwells, reading or listening to records, discussing the contents of said records, going to an abandoned location, using sharp objects, turning around, and feeding kittens with your grandma.

3. Somebody will break down psychologically, go on a rampage, then die. Another, not wanting to be outdone, has a case of mass psychosis strike the students and lodge faculty. I can only assume that they had been memorizing "Lord of the Flies" in class, preparing for this day.

4. Inevitably has that moment when somebody who's been around the whole series dies. Unfortunately your immediate reaction is, "Who was that again?" Another also went above and beyond in this category. Bodies pile up as the class is decimated by the curse, and I would have felt worse if Misaki's special desk had been destroyed. At least I recognized it.

5. There is at least one colossally stupid decision made. "So, I can see dead people with my doll's eye. I guess I should have mentioned that 10 episodes ago." Yes, yes you should have Misaki. "Oh, did I tell you that I saw the dead person murdered so I knew who it was all along?" Oh really? Tell me more. "I'm a twin who has an extensive backstory that doesn't matter until it's inconvenient." You know what Misaki? I don't think people ignored you because of the curse.

This is of course on top of the whole deadly school thing, that everybody-and-nobody knows about, so they keep sending their students there like cattle. I mean, sure it's only a few students every year. And a teacher coming to class and committing suicide is just one of those things that happen.

So my bar was low, and Another was about where I expected. But at least I got to have fun writing this review because of it.