[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by haguruma

Maybe the anime made the whole story around Misaki Kôtarô, Mei's father, a lot more suspicious than it had to be.

Spoiler for novel:

In the novel it is revealed by Mei before she leaves town, that he is a wealthy industrialist and spends almost the whole year travelling around the world leaving his wife home alone (due to reasons we only later learn). He only comes home once a year to take his family on a vacation for a few weeks.

Also it is less the doll eye that has mystical powers

Spoiler for novel:

it is rather that the place where her eye was is the part of her body that was closest to death. Her power is also meant to be ambigious to the point that it is never fully provable if Kôichi's decision to trust her on that was the correct one.

I don't want to sound overly sour, but the above only serves to further convince me that Another had been poorly adapted into anime. I strongly believe that every story must be able to stand on its own, regardless of its medium. That viewers are expected to "find answers" from the novel doesn't cut it with me at all. And if that is part of a deliberate cross-marketing plan to make me read the novel, then it makes me even angrier, because it smacks of cynical commercialism and I want no part in it. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

I also wish there could have been more development with Kouichi's relationship with his aunt. Although I do realize that might have made her status as the Another too obvious.

The above is one of the glaring flaws of the anime adaptation. From what I'm beginning to gather, now that I am safely able to read the spoilers littering the Internet, the "secret" of Kouichi's relationship with Reiko Mikami was revealed earlier in the manga.

That, I feel, is crucial for making readers/viewers care more about Kouichi's emotional connection to his aunt/surrogate mother. The way their relationship was treated in the anime (pretending it doesn't exist thus, in effect, making what should have been a strong bond completely non-existent; ah, the irony), I felt only a yawning hollowness when Kouichi bade farewell to Reiko before "killing" her, when I should have been emotionally crushed instead. It felt like a smart-alec "aha!" afterthought, rather than something that should have hit me like a tonne of bricks.

Originally Posted by warita

Indeed. I discussed it with my bf yesterday and I told him the massacre at the end of the series reminded me of an anime we watched last year... you know the one with the vampires in a secluded village. I couldnt remember the name and nor could my bf, we both had to google it: Shiki

Sadly, Another left a very similar aftertaste in my mouth and will fall into oblivion in no time.

Even if we are a minority, we're likely to be part of quite a sizeable minority, judging by the buzz around the blogosphere. It's a real shame.

The comparison to Shiki is apt, unfortunately. I'd already registered my great disappointment in that series earlier in this sub-forum. I was hoping that Another would be very different. Certainly, in the beginning, it showed a lot of promise. It appeared to be quite clever and well-constructed, in terms of thematic and plot development. In the end, though, it just descended into the horror/slasher tropes that are the hallmark of entertaining but entirely forgettable popcorn summer flicks.

As I've said in a blog, I had been emotionally detached from the show since it "jumped the shark". The series had been immensely entertaining, and it's a great pity that it ended on such a cheesy note.