This thread is to be used for discussing the entire episodes of Another ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive footage etc.

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:

• General impression of the series.
• Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
• Thoughts about the animation quality.
• Characters/Character Design
• Voice Acting
• Which kind of footage (Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive) you feel you'd really like to see.
• What the show meant to you.
• What could the creators/animators/writers have done better.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Soundtrack: 1-10
Editing: 1-10
Enjoyment: 1-10
Emotional Involvement: 1-10

Average = Total Series Rating

Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling.

Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun :)

Another set up a pretty good introduction, and had a very alluring draw in the mysterious Misaki Mei. There were also some pretty spiffy looking deaths, but the series slowly went down the drain after the beach episode. Still, they had brought up an interesting scenario where one could have to deal with the terror of possibly having to kill the "Another". Unfortunately, they seemed to be too focused on the shock shots which got desensitizing and Kouchi is a fucking dumbass with the personality of a watermelon. Not even Izumi can hope to make up for it. Everyone else... well they're just kinda there. And all that mystery just goes to waste in the end. And unfortunately I ended up just not caring.

It also looks good, as PA Works can draw and animate if they can't do anything else. Kou Ootani did the music for Shana, and the BGM for it sounds similar in many cases; not a bad thing.

On the other hand, it makes for a good popcorn watch and is worth a few laughs and some moe. It's certainly not bad. But otherwise, look elsewhere.

Rating: 5.5/10

Oh I should have voted a 6 to round up, whatever...

I pretty much enjoyed the series except for the last 2 episodes. I also agree to everyone who said that PA Works kind of cheated with the whole Mikami/Reiko thing... I guess they decided to do that cause they were pushing for the beach episode thing and it would have been too obvious :rolleyes: if they didn't cheat. Meh whatever well since I did enjoy majority of the series I'll give it a 7/10 for "good." score.

Simply put, a great story, a could-be sleeper hit, but messed up by a pair of batshit insane grindhouse slasher-movie-style episodes, unrealistic depictions (i.e. walking through a blaze-filled hotel without full protection)... and yeah, too many plot holes, plus characterization and character development.

7/10 from me, mostly because of the excellent sound effects and music, great background art, some pop-culture and Stephen King shoutouts, and a plot (at least initially) that left everyone guessing what happens next...

...and ruthlessly sending cute-looking characters to their deaths.

I hope that the sequel has a better director than this. Or I hope that the live-action movie adaptation doesn't follow the way of this show.

But, man, it really forced us to think much about who is this "Another"!

-----------
BTW, I think we're not alone in feeling cheated, as this post at the other side of the pond shows:
http://yaraon.blog109.fc2.com/blog-entry-8411.html#more :heh:

meh
 

i thought the extra was gonna be the main character and they should have added more to the ending and yea like after teh beach episode it got scairy intens secretiv i felt like i was watching a badass version of scooby doo but th emore closer the to the ending the less exciteing and scairy but i well continue to keep the series as a good nice memorie forever but they should like kinda explain like wat happened after the ending dose the main character and misaki like bone eachother the day after or like idk i dont like endings were it just instant fade to black in the middle of something and i wen every1 dies in the end i was afraid wen he asks misaki to tell him who was the extra she would like say oh it dosent matter now cuz if all characters die i can imagine the creator doing that but generaly the show was awsome suspensfull uhh kinda tooo suspensufll and just soo creativly structured

I am not a fan of horror anime, but I this one I actually enjoyed.... but the thing is, I only enjoyed!
The art is great, the music also but I somehow feel like the plot wasn't very consistent.
6.5/10 (I voted 7)

EDIT: I actually watched it in school, where I teach. That was a creepy thing to do...

The first 10 epis were the best, not many shows make me hold my breath as I watch. I liked the idea of the dead being among the living and not knowing, kinda like The Sixth Sense. The music was simply fabulous, made so many scenes that much creepier. Also epi 3 when Yukari bites it down the stairs made my jaw drop. As creepy as it sounds I like trying to figure out who was gonna die in the episode and how (yeah Im weird).

I think parts of the plot could have been done better. So much info we found out after the fact, such as Sugiura being emotionally unstable after she went on a rampage or the innkeeper's being tied to the Heart Attack boy. Honestly when Chibiki said they were his grandparents my first reaction "Who the heck was that?" I know this was school setting but the mass amount of characters who sadly most didn't get a whole lot of scene time made a lot of them hard to remember and forgettable. Plus as much as I kinda liked the whole mass murder in epi 11, I dont think the Innkeeper needed to be used as a plot tool. The whole mob-mentality state would have been happened when Sugiura played the tape over the loud speaker.

I liked the interactions btwn Mei and Kouichi thru the entire series. I like how Mei developed from this almost "ghost-girl" to an actual character but kept her aloof attitude nearly the entire time.

So there were flaws but overall I think it was excuted pretty well as it made reading the threads very fun seeing everyones guesses and speculations on who Another was and how the class was going to stop the calamity. I havent watched an anime lately that got this much talk and to me thats the best part of watching anime.

In the epi 12 thread I gave a 9/10 but I think Ill give it a 8/10 as final vote since Ive had time to think about the series as a whole. If there could have been a few less plot holes this could have easily gotten a 10/10 for me.

A slow start, better follow-up from ep3, then it jumped the shark for me with the beach episode. The before last episode felt incredibly stupid when it decides to give in the most hated horror movies tropes, those being people acting batshit crazy and idiotic, random granny going on a murderous spree, etc... The final episode managed to salvage it a bit.

6/10, could have been way better if not for mentioned points.

EDIT: episode 11 would have been much watchable as a musical sung on the tune of "Kill Misaki! She is the Extra!"

Amusing and rather fun to watch. It basically delivers what I had expected that the show generally is. Tried to give that sense an air of mystery and chills, without being too pretentious or trying to be overreaching in it's premise. It sure did deliver in it's body-count, some in the most comical way. Main faults is it's rather disconcerted storytelling, being it too episodic to maintain it's atmosphere and too mysterious that it baffles the casual viewers, by practically hiding key information.

Would give my final verdict after I see the coming Another 0 OVA

It was very good, but the last episode kinda disappointed me. Talk about anticlimatic. 7.5/10 nontheless.

Another started great, usually had an exquisitely executed engrossing atmosphere to it, was consistently good throughout, had a very solid pair of leads (especially the nicely mysterious and sympathetic Mei), and typically did a good job of building up intrigue and suspense. But ultimately, I think Another is a case where the whole was a little bit less than the sum of its parts.

I think the reason is that it didn't always do a good job in balancing Mystery with Horror, and in the last couple of episodes in particular, it felt like the Mystery had been short-changed a bit while gorn predominated.


The gorn and the odd reveal on who "the Dead" was did clash somewhat, perhaps lowering the effectiveness of both. The identity of "the Dead" struck me as pretty clever on the writer's part, but the way it was presented (in the anime at least) also caused that identity to come off to me as cheap and eyebrow-raising (in a bad way, lol).

The ending also lacked a certain emotional satisfaction to it for me. But then, perhaps it's silly to expect that from a Mystery/Horror show pretty much guaranteed to have a "Bad End" (in the sense of Sad/Tragic, rather than a more basic quality sense).


8/10 overall for Another.

I really liked it, but it was never scary. I think Child's Play was scarier than this series. The tension was decent, the animation was beautiful, I liked the fact that the characters acted like real people for the most part, and I do get enjoyment out of seeing the deaths, even if it's mostly for laughable/awesome reasons. The fight scenes in the show are also well-done.

But I can't deny that the show felt like three different arcs rather than a continuous series. The first five episodes composed an arc where the main character is trying to wonder what's going on, and it was clear that it was trying to be scary, but it failed, making it a bit of a chore to watch. The second arc dropped the horror aspect for a mystery one and it was well-done in my opinion. The last arc (composed of the last two episodes) felt like a pulpy thriller that was more LOL than scary. I liked it, but for the wrong reasons.

I liked the ending though. Everything made sense, it was logical, and it kept to Another's own rules

Overall, an 8/10.

It was mysterious and kinda different from the rest of the anime of the season. You kinda have fun trying to figure out who's the another...tho the clues weren't very clear on who it is <__< The ending was pretty typical of everyone going crazy. I give it a 7/10. I think it could be better :P

Add me to the chorus of people who found the first 10 episodes (even the beach episode, which honestly I enjoyed more than any beach episode of any other series I can think of) atmospheric and suspenseful, and I actually found Mei, Kouichi, Izumi, and Teshy all likeable as leads.

Then the last two episodes ran off the rails by:

(a) Trading mystery and atmosphere in on Blood, Blood Everywhere.
(b) Having the sudden uptick in gorn be punctuated by far-more-comedic-than-scary environmental deaths that ruin the horror mood. (Similarly, crazy innkeeper granny whom we don't even find out is a granny until after the fact, so she seems like she's another environmental problem with the hotel: falling chandelier, burning walls, killer innkeeper, exploding windows...) Likewise, Crazy!Izumi is semi-comedic as well, simply because her emotional base appears to be entirely yandere. Unlike Sugiura and the others, who genuinely came off as desperately trying to save themselves by killing Mei, Izumi came off as wanting to kill Mei because Kouichi liked Mei better, and if she turned out to be the Another to, hey, bonus! :D
(c) Minimizing the scenes between Kouichi and Reiko so that the emotional impact of the final reveal is virtually lost. (Similarly, losing out on Sugiura's instability so that her meltdown comes completely out of the blue.)
(d) Making Reiko's original killer look like Kouichi, adding ambiguity to a scene that wasn't supposed to have any (and simultaneously eliminating any statement that his visit a year and a half ago was due to Reiko's funeral, doing the same).
(e) When the tape was found with the "Kill the Another to save us all!" message, well, the students-turned-killers subplot became a virtual inevitability (the only question whether it would be "Crazy Mob" or "Individual Tragic Cases").

All in all, a few bad decisions by the director and scriptwriter turned what could easily have been a 9 into a final grade of:

7/10.

I also found the first 10 episodes quite near a 10/10, each episode.
The main fault of the series lies on the dramatic change of pace of the last two episodes. No need to point out what went wrong in that two episodes, because I guess it is crystal clear. They went over the top. Nothing more, nothing less.

I have even a minor complain regarding who the Another is.
The very end was nice, it is a horror/mystery story after all :heh: Surely an hand in hand moment would have been perfect precisely because it is a horror/mystery story. As the dancing delusion has been before. :heh:

Having said all that, from a wider angle I really enjoyed this series, firstly because I don't recall any other anime of this genre hitting the target as Another. Probably I haven't watch so many horror/mystery anime, but the only one I can recall is Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. But I think Another is special because the setting were handled brilliantly. We did have a supernatural factor ,but it was so well mixed with the reality that it became something quasi-natural. I don't know if I'm saying it properly. But that is an aspect I liked, no magic, no zombies (ok, leave the poor 3-3 students alone), no vampires etc etc. But the atmosphere and the tension lasted, I'd say, for ten episodes. With ups and downs, surely, but they did a great job.
The character development of Mei and Kouichi relating with the other characters could have been better, but it was ok.
Sadly i can't forget episodes 11 and 12. It should be an 8/10, but since I think this genre is the hardest to handle in anime my final score is 9/10.

what the hell did those quick pictures of random dolls were there for in the first episodes?:confused:
like when it switches to another scene it well like show random dolls i thought the whole mystorie had to do with dolls cuz of it like if they had a huge part in it but like after episode 4 or 5 it stops

Another. Last Thoughts
 

Whenever I see the promo arts advertising the new shows for the coming season that's time when I feel I get drawn or not right into the show before actually seeing it, and whenever it comes to mystery or horror anime it's almost a 100% certainty that I will pick it up.

Another is a prime example of the above statement.

To start I cannot change peoples' opinions about how not that good or that bad Another came to be for them, but I do respect their negative criticism.

Another became a must for me, because I was expecting the TV show to deliver a lingering feeling of fear against the uncertain, and that's what I got at the end.

Very few details were touched upon the Phenomenon that made it scary, although some people whom I read their posts argued that more information about the Phenomenon should had been provided in the story to get a more grounded framework to understand it better.
Probably, this was one amongst the several flaws the show carried over the course of its one-cour run.

But, instead of that, I got to watch the interactions between Kouichi and Mei which were very naturally portrayed and convincing for teens acting their proper age.
I do not feel that there was a true romance vibe per se blooming between those two. It felt like me that they became more of soulmates due to sharing the same positions as being chosen as the two non-existent people in the year the calamity took place again haunting with death classroom 3-3.
Believe me that back when Kouichi had been chosen to become the second non-existent person in the whole class I raged inside for believing an injustice was done to him at that time, but once the plot progressed again in the next episode explaining the reasons why he had to become that for the entire class my head cooled down.
Whenever Kouichi visited Mei at the doll shop or both happened to meet with each other sometimes it was a moment of wary suspicion to me during the earlier episodes, but by the later ones I came to care and trust Mei enough to find her conversations with Kouichi quite immersed.

Furthermore, I do have to apologize to Mei's character because my first impressions about her during the first three episodes, and particularly the second one when Kouichi saw her at the library room when nobody else did, were deceiving and unfounded.
I do remember in my post for the second episode that I got scolded by a user for posting outright that Mei was, indeed, non-existant when I got carried away during a particular scene.
The saying goes that looks can be deceiving, and to me it turned out the case for Mei, which thankfully she turned out to be a reserved but gentle person, as Kouichi got to know more about her and her family.


The circumstances surrounding her past were unique, particularly the explanation she revealed to Kouichi in episode ten about the peculiar ability she unwillingly earned in her early childhood.


Now for the deaths, if I exclude the ludicrous twelfth episode's slaughterfest, were handled superbly without intruding into Hollywood-style territory which, unfortunately, happened in the final episode.

After all, the writers and the directing show they could build tension episode by episode shrouding the characters inside the mystery of an unexplained event that claims throughout the school year's run both the lives of students and teachers from the classroom 3-3, involving as well their families and anyone connected to them.
The music gets high marks for setting the calamitous environment all over the place even when the struggling characters come to relax in a sunny day at the beach before the Phenomenon strikes once again. Though I do digress for the choice of the artist performing the OP for reasons that I stated in the Another's Generic discussion thread.

This is psychological horror that works at its prime when its developed as a mystery surrounding Kouichi's forgotten memories and to figure out the identity of the current year's Another...


I do plan to buy the complete series once all the DVDs get released, because this is a must show for me to have in my collection, and I already chose it as my selected horror anime to save for watching again in Halloween season with the lights turned off.
- My fourth title for this nearly ended season that I came to finish.

For one thing, I'll definitely not try to take any series the director does from now on seriously, since he turned both BLOOD-C and Another into some "Let's see the most entertaining ways to kill people!" show.
Well, BLOOD-C was like a 1-story building, so big woop, but Another had been building up from the beginning and it was a shame when the last arc came around and toppled the entire thing. Really a shame, since it was an interesting mystery until then.
I'm also glad they decided to keep the phenomenon a phenomenon, instead of giving it a "realistic" reason.

However, there were a few parts of the... well, setting that was a bit forced...
For one thing, the fact that everything could be solved if you err... maybe destroyed the classroom? Abandoned the school? People are dying in the masses every year or so and they still assign people into the classroom? Who the hell is in charge of the school? The god of death himself?
Next, of course, the last arc. Too many people going either too crazy or too calm. High schoolers gaining the most unrealistic physical abilities, whether it is kicking down a door or dodging a knife.

And then character-wise...
Mei...
She might have been able to save Akazawa-san and Sugiura-san if she actually took more action than just stand there and watch people die. Damn b-*cut*

Protagonist...
Also extraordinarily calm, but the biggest mystery is his gender! I'm sure he is male, but he didn't react when Sugiura-san kicked him in the balls, so I'm not so sure anymore!

So anyways, a generally good show that tripped in the end and thus had a poor impression on me after it ended. 7/10.

And yeah,
Sugiura-san > Akazawa-san >> NEET brother's sister >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Mei
(*´∀｀)b

FINAL DESTINATION: THE ANIME

PA Works could have had a gem here, but they really didn't have a focus for this show. The ending was also very disappointing. Really, what they should have been doing is trying to stop the cause of this phenomenon. Instead, all they did was barely save what few asses they had left, and left future generations to suffer and die horribly. And as my initial statement attests, this had a very "Final Destination" feel to it in that people we don't really care about are dying deaths they can't avoid, and the audience could care less.

This show did have a good atmosphere, and really could have gone somewhere with Mei's ability to see who the dead one was. But no, they didn't, and whats left is a mediocre shock and gore fest. Very underwhelming, and could have been so much better.

5/10 for the series

From the first episode, I became hooked on Another because of its compelling atmosphere. The mysterious Mei, the strange, small hints dropped in the episodes and the shots of the dolls added to the mysterious aura surrounding the series. The series begins to pick up after the deaths of Yukari and the nurse. After Mei's explanation of the phenomenon and the discovery of the tape, I found myself on a road of no return as Kouichi, Mei and the cast became embroiled in their task of finding out who the Other was.

I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed by the final two episodes, which left a blatant impression on me. While we find out that Reiko is the Another, the way the answer was arrived at detracted too much from the atmosphere that the series had set up so successfully. The students' killing spree did not add anything to the two episodes other than presenting a horrific setting for the discovery of the Another, and all of that left me feeling as if the solution was simply done.

Despite that, Another had a very good foundation from the beginning. It builds up tension, mystery and horror in a subtle and consistent way. One example is the stills of the dolls, which, though not playing a major role, managed to create tension and uneasiness in the viewer. That and the astounding sound direction adds to the mysterious atmosphere of the first few episodes, and inexplicably becomes an alluring feature of the series. The subtlety steadily builds up into horror, arriving in full blast in Episode 11 and 12.

"Another" aspect I liked about the show was that the phenomenon was presented in a logical way, even if it was of supernatural origin. We have a system of students dying and returning from the dead, the rules of the class, the altering of memories and the "balancing out" of students in the class. Kudos to the staff for being able to handle the complexity and presentation of the phenomenon.

Overall, I enjoyed the series. In my opinion, the only let-down was the final two episodes, but since Another had a solid build-up from the start, that wasn't enough to completely derail my enjoyment of the show. 8/10 for the series.