Sakakibara Kouichi's first few days at Yomiyama North Middle School as a new student are dampened by bizarre events and the seemingly cold treatment he gets from his classmates. When starts talking to Misaki Mei more frequently, his classmates act more suspicious by telling him to "stop seeking things that do not exist." Instead of leaving the matter alone, he begins to ask more questions which eventually lead to his discovery of the 26 year-old curse of class 3. This curse which began after 1972 has claimed lives of a number students from class 3 and their immediate relatives. A fan of horror and mystery, Kouichi indulges his curiosity by asking the people involved with class 3 in the past few years in the hopes of discovering a way to stop the curse.They eventually learn that a pattern exists when they examine the records provided by the adviser of class 1972, but finding the means of stopping the curse has chilling prospects.
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| Misaki Mei and Sakakibara Kouichi |
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| Class 3 |
This 12-episode series (it also has a special episode 0; Another: The Other-Inga which is about Mei and her twin) is a well-crafted mix of horror and mystery. There's a handful of bloody scenes as well so I do not recommend this to those who do not like to witness bloody deaths. The premise of the curse of class 3 is in itself a disturbing idea that got me hooked right away. The main characters and the overall mood of the series helped in creating a solemn atmosphere so that even during the fun and light moments there is an anticipation of bad things to come. Clues to the mystery are handed out to the viewer expertly by also providing false trails. In some scenes, the clues seem to point to one character but then more questions pop up later that will make the viewer reconsider everything. Except for the apathetic reaction of Kouichi and Mei at the beginning of the last episode, I think the series is very well done.
As a horror fan, Another did not disappoint. It is a fresh take of an overexploited genre that I enjoyed immensely.
Rating: 10 out of 10
