This world we live in is a dream. The dream we have at night is in fact the true world. Uh no its not? What the fuck type of nonsensical drivel is th wait why am I getting deja vu? 440https://i.ur.com/qJfUuiH.jpg Oh shit. I mixed the things up I already reviewed this showhttps://anilist.co/anime/21189/RanpoKitanGameofLaplace. What was I supposed to be reviewing then??? It was a fairly nonsensical show that annoyed me to no end had ridiculous gore and had this supposedly serious plot that drove me up a fucking wall but Im forgetting the name of it. To be honest I could see why I mixed it up with that one... but what was the title??? 440https://i.ur.com/yNnzB27.jpg Oh no. To punish my act of heresy the umbrellas have been sent out to strike me down via unfortunate accident. But before I am executed by the eldritch umbrella lords that reign in the dark realms I shall make an effort to review that which shall not be named. The very first anime that I watched and ended up having an OVERWHELMINGLY negative opinion on all around. But also I wasnt aware of even what the show was before starting it and also as a horror fan the impact it left on me was even worse as a result. ANOTHER. Thats the title. I dont know how I forgot it since Ive been wanting to rag on review this show ever since I watched it a year ago. So much that I bought the novel didnt read it and rewatched it AGAIN only partially just to fully remember how much its just so... incomprehensibly ANOTHER. The ANOTHER Review 500https://images8.alphacoders.com/639/639784.jpg Introduction The more lighthearted and bluntly comical aspects of these reviews I do aside a Ranpo Kitan comparison right out of the gate may seem pretty harsh or even over the top. There certainly may be some similarities but they are still also apples and oranges. Ranpo Kitan is a very VERY loose take on a certain writerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EdogawaRanpos works pushed to the absolute max limits of absurdity. No of course Im not going to write a completely serious and drawn out review of a show that just straight up starts out with a 14 year old girl turned serial killer because she wanted her serial killer teacher to kill her and then TURN HER INTO A CHAIR. NOT JUST ANY CHAIR BUT HIS CHAIR. Because even if that show ends up developing a serious plot beyond that point its safe to assume that its simply more absurdity and yes it was. ANOTHER on the other hand is a firm adaptation of an actual novel by Yukito Ayatsujihttps://anilist.co/staff/106882/YukitoAyatsuji and is more than not faithful and serious to the source material brought to us by P.A. Workshttps://anilist.co/studio/132/PAWorks who also made Glassliphttps://anilist.co/anime/20645/Glasslip to be fair they also made Shirobakohttps://anilist.co/anime/20812/Shirobako and Uchouten Kazokuhttps://anilist.co/anime/17909/UchoutenKazoku which are GOOD. Therefore while its pretty absurd itself Im more inclined to criticize this show more seriously than I was with Ranpo Kitan which I guess is... something. But still while I may have watched shows that are technically worse than ANOTHER I have not watched anything else that has made me so grumpy that Ive been writing a review for it in my head for like over a year. I guess this is my way of saying this review is going to be a fucking mess to both write as well as read because Im going to address every single point I have about this goddamned show. Actually lets do a table of contents just to be safe. Anime reviews shouldnt need those but here we are. Also if you plan on watching this series no matter what stop reading this review at this point. I believe any point to watching this show is outright ruined if you know what the show is/are spoiled. Outright spoilers will still be marked as always but still. Table of Contents Ctrl + f search whatever section title you end up taking a break from this review on for convenience 1. The Plot 2. The Positives. Or Rather The Gore 3. No Really. The Plot. 4. Characters 5. The Prequel OVA. 6. Cameo Starring Stephen King. 7. Doesnt Work as a Cheap Horror Either. 8. Cliches. 9. Mood Whiplash. 10. M. Night Shyamalan is a Hack Fraud. 11. Conclusion. I Hate This Fucking Anime. WOW SPOILERS IN THE TABLE OF CONTENTS The Plot Okay so lets just get into the plot of Another. Its really the driving force behind why everyone loves this series and I just really dont understand wh 440https://i.ur.com/mYWNDT5.gif Oh jesus. What? What the fuck was that? Why the fuck did she decide to walk down a flight of stairs with an umbrella? Why the fuck are umbrellas capable piercing someones throat? That fucking part of the umbrella looks like its specifically meant for that purpose and no other purpose? Is murder Mary Poppins going to fucking come down from the sky next??? Okay no lets get back to the plo 440https://i.ur.com/xwm7FWj.gif WHY IS THE TEACHER COMMITTING SUICIDE BY KNIFE NOW. HOW THE FUCK IS THIS CAUSED BY THE CURSE? IT CAN JUST TAKE OVER PEOPLE? IT CAN JUST TAKE OVER PEOPLE AND FORCE THEM TO COMMIT SUICIDE SPECIFICALLY IN FRONT OF HIS STUDENTS BECAUSE FUCK IT WHY NOT GO OUT IN STYLE AND BASICALLY TRAUMATIZE AN ENTIRE CLASS. HE COULD HAVE JUST GOT A GUN AND BLEW HIS BRAINS OUT AT HOME BUT NOPE. IF THE CURSE CAN JUST TAKE OVER PEOPLE WOULDNT IT BE ABLE TO TELL WHO THE UNDEAD PERSON IS WITH EASE? WHY IS IT JUST KILLING RANDOM PEOPLE WHY DID IT MAKE THE TEACHER COMMIT SUICIDE WHEN HE WASNT THE UNDEAD PERSON? WHY? WHY? WHY? EXPLAIN TO ME WHY. EXPLAIN TO ME W H Y. 440https://i.ur.com/eJz4Qx3.gif The Positives. Or Rather The Gore. Before we move away from the gore and really delve into the negativity that will be comprising this entire review I really just need to take a moment and say I really genuinely do love the gore. As a matter of fact Id honestly love to see P.A. Works do a horror anime in the future. They really do have the gore down. As weird as it may be though my favorite death in the entirety of Another is literally completely bloodless. While explosions of blood are usually always fun I really just love the one scene towards the end where another character who is completely out of their mind at that point is chasing the main characters and to do so she follows them out of a window. But in her crazed state of bloodlust her foot just happens to slip on the windowsill and she falls. The impact of her hitting the ground looks and sounds great. https://www..com/watch?v=BWlH13Ka3Dk I actually did watch this when I still primarily watched English dubs. I cant believe theres actually a comical OH MY GOD right after she lands. Holy shit. No Really. The Plot. No images are included for this section because I believe they would be distracting. Anyways the plot is pretty simple. Its about a cursed high school class. The students dont really know if its truly cursed or not but theres a very clear trend of students of the glass dying over the top gory accidental deaths. Apparently to the extent its essentially suicide if you just go down a flight of stairs a little bit too fast while also carrying an umbrella. But basically years and years ago there was a female student named Misaki in the class that died tragically but then one day one of the students said no shes right there like always. Then for some reason the rest of the students and teacher basically start treating like shes there as well. To be fair since this is a passed down story thing obviously we the audience have no idea if its actually bullshit or true. But apparently this somehow started a tradition of a ghost or an undead person occasionally coming back in the class. But then the universe or some invisible omniscient force doesnt like this one bit. This omniscient force or the Curse basically starts periodically causing anyone in the class or any family or friends of students of this ONE SPECIFIC CLASS of this school to die. Mind you its always in really gruesome or violent methods as well. Additionally the school has gotten a new building and it seems the ghost or Another has somehow transferred? Or its link to the class itself? Like its a different building different actual room than the one that had the original Misaki person but... its haunted still? I dont think were ever given answers as to if its actually the original ghost of Misaki thats coming back as these nonexistent fake students or... or... I dont know. I literally dont know. Why am I even talking about the Another? Lets talk about the Curse. The Curse is apparently capable of disrupting or disabling phones is essentially omniscient but is incapable of figuring out who it actually needs to kill the Another beyond killing randomly is capable of straight up possessing people... and I think this one might be on the Another and not the Curse Im not too sure but something is capable of completely altering peoples memories. This is important. Be sure to mark it in the notes you should be taking to accompany the reading of this review. Well be coming back to it later. However dont despair There is in fact a way to combat the Curse I guess the class after a couple of goes through this repeating cycle they just started trying random things? But apparently APPARENTLY ignoring a completely random student of the class... helps? Sort of? The past classes still ended up having more students die so I dont know why they thought this would help. When a new arrival shows up and joins the class and seems INCAPABLE of catching a hint and just keeps talking to the chosen student to be ignored... they just say fuck it and ignore him as well??? As if they expect that to work? I really have no idea why this is a thing they decide to do in the first place or think its going to work but theres a lot more and I just... lets move on. I already essentially declared this entire review was going to spoil basically the entire basic idea of the show so... the real solution thatll stop the Curse is basically just giving it what it wants. Finding the Another and killing them. But theres basically no real way of finding out who it is. Theres absolutely no established way any character can find out who it is. But hey there just happens to be a student in the class with the last name Misaki you know the name of the ghost from the original class and she just happens to be the one they all decide to ignore. Thats convenient. I mean thats obviously just a red herring. Obviously she cant be the Another. Thatd be too obvious. Now I know what youre thinking. TGG when are you going to get to talking about the plot? Okay yeah we get the omniscient curses and dead people returning as fake people but whats the plot??? Slice of life about middle schoolers with vague supernatural/mystery elements and also a lot of gore and death happens. Thats really the heart of it or what matters. The Curse is idiotic and I hate it for reasons Ill get into later in another section the Another... what the fuck was even its goal? Its not like they did anything nefarious really. Its the fucking Curse thats going around causing gruesome deaths. Its not like the fake ghost person needed to be evil or antagonistic but... it would have been neat for it to be SOMETHING? Because... what it actually turns out to be is terrible. To the extent it has its own completely spoiler filled section. But hey. Lets not get ahead of ourselves. Plot aside maybe the characters themselves are interesting or... entertaining in some way. There has to be something right? THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING. Characters Uh. I may have bit off more than I could chew with this one. Describing Anothers characters is... a challenge. Because there are a good portion of them that are completely forgettable and the few ones that are still rattling around in my brain somewhere I cant really say anything more than well their name is blank and theyre a middle schooler. Thinking about it if I wanted to I could probably rehash the joke I made when I reviewed Glasslip. But actually with Another I think with the exception of one you may already know which one Im referring to I think theres even less memorable characters. Because at least with Glasslip I could remember things to actually criticize about them. In any case... 440https://i.ur.com/pKVJfq5.jpg Heres our main character. His name is Kouichi Sakakibara. He is a middle schooler and is an apparent horror fan because he had one Stephen King book at one point. Hes not ever shown actually really being a horror fan so you might wonder what is the purpose of that scene or even showing a Stephen King book. But Im sorry to tell you that you havent descended far down enough into this review to find out yet because yes that is another dedicated section of this review. Oh... and I guess he had like a health problem or whatever and thats why he doesnt know everyone is ignoring one specific student to apparently fend off omniscient curses that are mad about the existence of ghosts. 440https://i.ur.com/FAbqVSH.jpg Kubodera is apparently the name of the class teacher that kills himselwait. Apparently he killed himself not because the Curse takes him over but because he realizes all the class stupid moronic rule about ignoring a person doesnt stop the Curse and he just goes crazy??? Was that seriously what happened? I dont even remember the teacher being aware that the Curse was a thing. I seriously remember just fucking thinking that scene comes out of literally nowhere but maybe I was just so fucking numbed by that point that I missed or forgot scenes with the teacher... there was actually more stuff about the omniscient curse possessing people but now Im kind of worried that with those as well I might have just forgotten scenes. Though that just underlines my point of... why purposely do it in front of your class which I guess he apparently cared about before going completely batshit insane? Because horror I guess. To be fair that scene was probably the best scene of Another though as previously mentioned its not my favorite gore scene in my opinion. 440https://i.ur.com/2RN0VWC.jpg But lets get back to the characters... enter middleschooler... uh... hold on. I truly do remember their names off the top of my head Im not simply opening character pages at random. Oh Yukari Sakuragi Thats the umbrella girl Shes a middle schooler whose favorite hobby is being brutally killed via umbrellas ...It feels like Im just wasting time talking about these bit players in the grand presentation that is Another. Fuck it. Lets do it. Lets get to the real protagonist of Another. 440https://i.ur.com/Y7bQ8BM.png OH THERE HE IS. THE UMBRELLA ITSELF. WHAT A MAJESTIC AND WELLFLESHED OUT CHARACTER. I KNOW YOU MAY HAVE THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO TALK ABOUT EYEPATCH GIRL eyepatch girl is Misaki girl but not original Misaki girl that was a ghost just coincidentally happens to share the same name as ghost BUT I DONT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT EYEPATCH GIRL BEYOND ALL OF THE CLICHES SHE IS MADE UP OF AS WELL AS HER DEUS EX EYEPATCH. WHICH AND I KNOW YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY GOTTEN SICK OF HEARING THIS IF YOURE STILL READING BUT WILL BE COVERED IN A FOLLOWING SECTION OF THIS REVIEW. It happens to be the very next one though. The Prequel OVA. Before we get into the true meat of this review and discuss the bulk of WHY I really dislike this show aside from the plot and characters I have to go a little bit into HOW I watched this show. There is an OVA for Another. It seems super irrelevant and detached from the actual plot and events of Another but... This is really where the true spoilers of this review begin. I really want to hammer this home. Thisll be the last time though. 440https://i.ur.com/d0eHUqu.jpg Okay imagine you watch a show and at one point a character basically reveals that they are capable of this hugely massive ability that essentially solves the main mystery and conflict of the show. Sure its kind of bullshit but then an OVA comes along afterward and it sort of expands on that and explains why that character keeps quiet about this ability. 440https://i.ur.com/b3AEgSU.png 440https://i.ur.com/ExAcJyh.png You say well okay that explains that. Or maybe you still rightfully think its stupid but now that the OVA is over youre done. Youre out. Imagine... imagine someone watching that... BEFORE... the rest of the actual show. Because chronologically... it precedes it. In fact it explains why that character is where they are in the very first episode and a lot about that character. But while you know more about this character you also know what theyre capable of. Then when you learn more about what the actual plot/conflict of Another is you just go... ...Why wont she just take the eyepatch off? I know watching the prequel OVA first was the wrong way to go about it but since the OVA itself is an adaptation of a side novel that means this is genuinely something the original author established. She has this ability literally the entire time. She could have seen who the Another was THE ENTIRE TIME. ANY SCENE WHERE SHE IS TALKING TO THE PERSON WHO THE ANOTHER IS IF SHE JUST WASNT WEARING THE GODDAMNED EYEPATCH SHE WOULD KNOW. IMMEDIATELY. That whole reasoning of... well she doesnt want to see when people die and etc due to that whole thing with her twin sister SHOULD HAVE WENT OUT OF THE WINDOW WHEN SHE REALIZED THAT SHE COULD HAVE USED THIS ABILITY TO STOP THE CURSE WHICH IS WHAT IN FACT KILLED HER TWIN SISTER. SHE COULD HAVE PREVENTED SO MANY DEATHS. BUT SHE DIDNT. BECAUSE EYEPATCH. BECAUSE SHES THE EYEPATCH GIRL AND SHE NEEDS HER EYEPATCH TO LIVE. 440https://i.ur.com/v4nC0xd.png Cameo Starring Stephen King. 440https://i.ur.com/sSUIvNZ.png Lets talk about this now. Stephen King is probably my favorite authorhttps://i.ur.com/60zhOZ3.png Ive literally read every book the man has published up until like recently when he started like a trilogy of detective novels. I dont know how I possibly could have forgotten about this on the first time I went through the show but this was like a punch to the face in attempting to rewatch Another for this review. Because... 100https://i.ur.com/l1wCy8E.jpg Pet Sematary is one of the old King books and is genuinely a creepy idea for a horror novel. Yes its the one where a guy buries things in a Pet Sematary that is haunted by Native Americans or whatever but the story behind it is fucked. One day one of Stephen Kings toddler sons almost got hit by a truck in a street and he proceeded to write Pet Sematary. Which is essentially... the character in the book DOESNT manage to get his son out of the street before the truck comes. The father character is so fucked up by this that after having resurrected the family cat via Pet Sematary he proceeds to do it again but with his son. Point is while theres a much simpler explanation its probably in the novel too and the author was probably a fan because how could you possibly get a horror novel published without coming in contact with Stephen King material in some shape or form why this is a thing its really silly at almost the very start of a horror show to immediately have a reference to Stephen King. Let alone one of his more famous novels really almost all of it is from before he quit the drugs and also before his accident in 2000. Because it immediately gives the audience expectations. 220https://i.ur.com/gYo6Jy3.jpg Stephen King??? I know that name Hes that guy who wrote all of the horror novelshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StephenKingbibliography The Shininghttps://www..com/watch?v=5Cb3ik6zP2I That book that ruined clowns as a real occupationhttps://www..com/watch?v=QVK72QH6hLk The one about the haunted carhttps://i.ur.com/nKOjH40.jpg The other one about the haunted carhttps://i.ur.com/Cz7eUO3.jpg If its bringing Stephen King into this its gotta be good horror But then it isnt and apart from the occasional gore its omniscient curse this hey we have to ignore this random girl to stop the omniscient curse that and urgh. Getting back to the omniscient curses and while were still on the subject of Stephen King... and... I believe the comparison is fair considering this series brought Stephen King into this itself lets talk about Stephen Kings IT. 100https://i.ur.com/NPtz3GI.jpg I just want to briefly talk about this because it was sort of blowing my mind the more I thought about it. Another is about this small town and theres this omniscient thing that is brutally killing middle schoolers every couple of years or so and for the most part it seems like the rest of the town outside of those connected to the class itself are completely blind to all these fucking HORRIBLE GRISLY BLOODY DEATHS that are happening to these bunch of middle schoolers. The actual plot of Another is a bunch of the students in the class try to combat and stop the curse thats brutally killing them one by one. Stephen Kings IT is about this small town and theres this omniscient entity that is brutally killing and eating people ITs favorite meal is of course terrified children and it does this like every twenty seven years and IT is actively manipulating the entire town to ignore the mass amounts of missing children and death that just seems to roll around every twenty seven years and in some instances even makes other people in the town contribute to the violence. The actual plot of IT is a bunch of kids try to stand up to IT and stop it for good while it is essentially omniscient and EATS CHILDREN. While IT is an omniscient force that is essentially fucking with everything in this town its an actual character has motivation has a physical form and is genuinely menacing. Anothers omniscient curse is... is a faceless force that we never see thats only causing random grisly deaths because of the existence of the Another and when the Another dies it just fucks off until a new Another appears. Sure yeah. The gores great and yes you cant go wrong with seeing kids die in over the top and gruesome ways. Like come on speaking realistically WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF FALLING DOWN THE STAIRS IN SUCH A PERFECT WAY THAT YOUR NECK IS TARGET 1 FOR THAT UMBRELLA? THAT SHIT WOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED IF INVISIBLE MURDER FORCE WASNT ON THE SCENE. 440https://i.ur.com/BwBN0hb.gif Doesnt Work as a Cheap Horror Either. This is where we get into some shit. Ive made it apparent enough that I dont think the actual serious plot of Another works or is even really entertaining to watch. But I also dont even think it really works as a cheap silly horror that you just sit down to watch specifically to see kids/teems die. Yes thats right. Horror fans love seeing kids/teens diehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JasonVoorhees diehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANightmareonElmStreet diehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheEvilDead diehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BewareChildrenatPlay diehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SlaughterHigh DIEhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChoppingMall DIEhttps://i.ur.com/mioAz5U.jpg DIEhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheTexasChainSawMassacre DIEhttps://i.ur.com/1tN4B8Y.jpg DIEhttps://i.ur.com/uKwwnMf.jpgahem excuse me. The ghosts that live inside my brain took control of the keyboard momentarily. Anyways lets just bite the bullet and finally talk about the Final Destination serieshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FinalDestination. 440https://i.ur.com/TKvKPze.jpg I know this review is all over the place as this is now the third thing Ive brought in to compare to Another but... this is without a doubt the one that makes the most sense. Basically a character has a premonition or whatever before they and their friends die horrible deaths and uses that newly gained knowledge to avoid... that death. But basically they were actually fated to die then so Death itself is essentially out for them. One by one they start to die in ridiculous or over the top ways. This was literally years ago and I thankfully didnt watch all of them. It may or may not have been the one with the rollercoaster I literally dont remember but there was that one death where like after a convoluted series of events a girl ends up trapped in an active tanning bed thing and she dies from tanning bedhttps://www..com/watch?v=qaz73KCiKaM. Though you know these movies worked for what they were and that was the Final Destination series so that was a low bar to begin with because while there was a plot it was dumb silly and obviously the characters dying in over the top ways was the entire point. Whereas Another has a bunch of nothing characters this whole ghost story angle and I think honestly the annoying outweighs all of the gore. The fact that the main way to apparently combat this Curse just being ignoring a random student in the class is just... infuriating to me. Because since nobody but this one person can see or interact with this person obviously the first conclusion you go to is well shes probably a ghost but nope theyre just ignoring her to somehow combat some weird omniscient curse thats causing everyone to die somehow but then later they just accuse her of being the Another anyways. At least in Final Destination they dont pull any punches and straight up say its Death itself. But hey what do you know. Theres another similarity between Another and Final Destination. There are videos on Youtube of all of the deaths in both. Im definitely not making the suggestion to just watch the deaths video and just leave it at that. Thats definitely not whats happening here. https://www..com/watch?v=H87bqxAAymc https://www..com/watch?v=MYPY7Lq63kw Its almost like THATS WHAT WE WANTED TO SEE. GIVE ME GRISLY SCENES OF TEENAGERS DYING BRUTAL AND HORRIBLE DEATHS AND HOLD THE HELPING OF A SERIOUS PLOT PLEASE. AND IF YOURE GOING TO INCLUDE ONE MAYBE MAKE IT A GOOD ONE. GOD. Cliches. Here we go. Here we fucking go. 440http://1.bp.blogspot.com/wez9dDc70E8/Umr4wnyvxwI/AAAAAAAABZ0/ir9YhM4hQ6U/s1600/Anotherep12a.png Okay lets start with Eyepatch Girl. She is literally a walking mass of cliches. She is a quiet loner girl and literally the entire reason why Main Guy gets wrapped up in all of this Another nonsense is because the show seems to continually push him towards Eyepatch Girl. Why is she wearing an eyepatch? Why is she so quiet? Why is she usually always alone? Why does nobody talk to her? Why is she wearing an eyepatch? Why did she show up randomly at the morgue level of the hospital holding a doll? Why is she wearing an eyepatch? Why arent both of her eyes the same color? Why does she live in a building thats just full of weird spooky dolls? Why does she share the name of the original Another ghost from the story? Is she related to the original Misaki ghost? Why is she wearing an eyepatch? WHY IS SHE WEARING AN EYEPATCH? Oh... the eyepatch is because she lost one of her real eyes and had a dolls eyehttps://www..com/watch?v=VUuH4TEmgLo put in as a replacement and that somehow gives her the ability to see who is alive and who isnt and who is going to die and etc? Well why the fuck does putting a dolls eye in your empty eye socket give you that ability? Actually how does it even work as an actual eye? If she was just a ghost person thered be no questions. But since shes purposely such a weird character THERE ARE VARIOUS QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED ABOUT HER AND BASICALLY NONE OF THEM END UP BEING ANSWERED. To be fair some of them are answered in the prequel OVA solely about Eyepatch Girl but I didnt find that satisfying at all. The entire purpose of that prequel OVA/prequel novel honestly seems to be just to cover that huge fucking flaw of her suddenly just knowing who the Another is because she decided to take off her eyepatch in the actual main series. Like okay yeah she had a twin sister who But what relevancy does that twin sister play for anything? It explains why Eyepatch was in the morgue level in the very first episode and why she was creeped out about her eye ability thing but Ive already went into why that should have just given her motivation to try and actually stop the Curse by finding the Another. 440https://i.ur.com/MdLfnRt.png Also you know why she lives in like a doll shop? Because dolls are creepy and creepy is horror of course dont you know. The doll shop and the dolls just felt so fucking out of place that I just cant get over it. Okay yes dolls and mannequins are frequently used in horror I understand. But... what fucking relevance does any of it play? None really. Like if they had just said that Eyepatch Girl was just born with her ability thing and it wasnt from a dolls eye nothing would be changed. At all. In fact her just being born with it would be easier to wrap my head around than... why did they decide to just put a dolls eye as a replacement after a four year old loses their eye? Who made that decision? Why did they make that decision? Ive been talking too much about the plot and character stuff. Lets briefly talk about a couple of the more horrory scenes of Another apart from the gore because you KNOW horror ABSOLUTELY has to have gore in it for it to be horror and why they are ALSO terrible. https://www..com/watch?v=Mh48D2q4H7w https://www..com/watch?v=sPtcJBb9KU Both of those are probably among my favorite scenes of Another of which there arent many and... they both end exactly the same way. The Main Guy is just having a nightmare. Oh. So what youre really telling me here is none of that mattered at all because it was just dreams. Wow some creepy stuff is finally happening No its all just a dream. Good. Great. Wonderful. Fantastic. 300https://i.ur.com/YnhBQLY.png Then theres that whole thing with the tape that is what reveals to the students that the only way to beat the omniscient curse is to find out who the Another is and kill them. Everything about this tape is really... it really just gets my goat. The characters who find and listen to it realize what sort of reaction the class is going to have if theyre told that murder is the solution to stop everyone from dying so they correctly decide that telling everyone this information is probably not a great idea given the absolute fear everyones going into. Yet... they dont hide the tape somewhere reasonably hard for them to find? Actually they straight up take it to the inn place where the entire end of the show happens and thats when the show just completely collapses into craziness and gore. To be fair its to show Eyepatch and Main Guy but... why just leave it lying around where others can find it? 440https://i.ur.com/i9jNp0L.jpg Because one of the other students finds the tape listens to it and goes oh SHIT. THE QUICKEST WAY TO MAKE SURE NOT EVERYONE DIES IS MURDER. AND THAT JUST STARTS THE BALL ROLLING PEOPLE START KILLING EACH OTHER THE INN BECOMES ON FIRE ONE OF THE INNKEEPERS JUST FUCKING GOES CRAZY AND STARTS KILLING PEOPLE TOO. Its all... its all just nonsense from there on out. Were not done with the tape though. First of all I need to explain that I am okay with cliche or campy horror tropes. As long as theyre done appropriately in a fun way and in something that is purposely of the fun horror category Im fine with them. But when characters in this more or less played straight show decide to... like all they do is basically transfer the tapes message to a CD and then they put that CD in a locker in their classroom just like the last class did. ...Like are you kidding me? WHEN YOU THE NEXT CLASS FINALLY NEEDED THE TAPE IT WAS STILL IN THE OLD AND ABANDONED BUILDING. WHY ARE YOU JUST TAKING IT ON FAITH THAT NOBODYS GONNA FIND THE TAPE OR MESS WITH THAT LOCKER OR THAT THEYRE NOT GONNA GET A NEW NEW BUILDING? ADDITIONALLY WHY NOT ADD LIKE ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS OR MAKE IT EASIER TO FIND? IT ALMOST FEELS LIKE YOURE GRUMPY THAT ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD SO YOU WANT THE NEXT CLASS TO GO THROUGH THE SAME EXACT SHIT. THIS IS THE FINAL EPISODES POST CREDITS SCENE THIS IS LITERALLY THE FINAL NOTE THE SHOW GOES OUT ON. WHY DID NOT ALL THE CHARACTERS DIE. THIS SHOW WOULD HAVE BEEN PERFECT IF ALL OF THEM HAD DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Mood Whiplash. Everybody seems to be dying brutal and bloody deaths and we dont seem to be making much progress if any at all towards stopping it. LETS GO TO THE FUCKING BEACH. BEACH EPISODE LETS GO 440https://i.ur.com/cogqYQs.gif Are you kidding me? I perfectly understand the purpose of why this is a thing. Basically just to demonstrate even if you do leave the town theres no escaping omniscient curses because yes there is a death this episode. But this is like episode eight. Isnt it a little bit late to be pulling these shenanigans? I dont know maybe its better in the nov 440https://i.ur.com/qGuI1Up.png OH SHIT. IN THE NOVEL THEY DONT JUST DECIDE RANDOMLY TO GO TO THE BEACH? OH SHIT. THIS ONE ISNT ON YUKITO AYATSUJI THIS IS ALL P.A. WORKS DOING. Im just surprised they didnt decide to go hiking insteadhttps://i.ur.com/ip2cBE1.png. You could have one of the students get mauled to death by a bear or something. Its because of the Curse that one of the students had his face ripped off by a bear To be fair this is one of the episodes I enjoyed the most because the twist and the idea is just so goofy. Sure yeah you can do a beach episode but you still have to have someone die horribly. Actually. Here you go.https://www..com/watch?v=4tu7rFtEZM Heres two scenes from Another that both simultaneously exist that I slammed together with shitty video editing. My overall point with this is really I consistently did not know what Another wanted from me. If it wanted to be seen as this serious thing about this ghost story thing or if it wanted to be seen as an anime version of Final Destination. I just could not wrap my head around it the entire time I was watching it and as time passed once the final episode ended like a rumbling storm of growing discontent my opinions of this show worsened more and more as I continued to think about it. Was I supposed to be scared? Was I supposed to be laughing? Was I supposed to be cringing from all of the crazy gorehttps://i.ur.com/oQrQ9b1.png? Was I supposed to care about these characterhttps://i.ur.com/5f36xhZ.pngs or think they were deep in any way shape or form? Even now I still really dont know. From skimming the novel it seems like a serious enough novel this guy wrote. Like at no point watching this show did I feel like... like it was intentionally bad like Ranpo Kitan. But whereas Another is originally a novel a person actually wrote and thought out Ranpo Kitan was just a bunch of ideas ripped straight from a deceased famous mystery writer and done completely over the top and in a horrible way. I dont know. Almost the entire time I was just bored and mildly grumpy whenever gore wasnt happening. Mind you its not like I wanted even more of it. There was plenty considering the later end of the show just delves into complete over the top schlock. Thats also about when I ended up feeling a completely different emotion. 440https://i.ur.com/tqz5WCR.jpg Genuine anger. Next section is ENTIRELY on the ending of the show. M. Night Shyamalan is a Hack Fraud. Context: M. Night Shyamalanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.NightShyamalan made that one movie with the twist endinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheSixthSense and basically ever since then hes made horrible shithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.NightShyamalanFilmography and basically they almost all have twist endings. Throughout the rest of the show the negativity I had towards it was only like a low rumbling in the pit of my stomach. After all I started the show with absolutely no knowledge of it. Didnt know about all the gore didnt know about the umbrella didnt know the concept etc. The entire way through I was trying my hardest to give it a chance. But then the whole stretch with the inn or whatever it was happened. That ending is absolutely the most garbage thing about this series. Okay first of all. The entire show youre led to believe that the Another is a student and at this point the students have mostly completely flipped their shit and are going crazy trying to kill Eyepatch because they believe that shes the Another and are dying due to the fire that starts somehow or being murdered by one of the innkeepers who just coincidentally decides to go insane I really cant believe that the curse really had NOTHING to do with that. They just go crazy and thats it. while all this is happening. But guess what? Its a fucking teacher. It wasnt even the teacher of the actual cursed class because he already committed suicide at this point. So basically all of that conflict among the students apparently was for absolutely nothing. Not to even mention the fact that theres no possible way that the viewer could ever actually figure out who the Another is theres absolutely no clues or anything. Like the Another is perfectly nice to the characters and doesnt do anything nefarious at all throughout the entire show. Not to mention that apparently when an Another appears it can completely alter the memories of other people. So it turns out that the Another is actually Main Guys aunt and his memories were altered to include memories of his fake dead aunt so hed think that yeah shes totally an actual living person. There are various problems with this. 440https://i.ur.com/UJzkLOC.png 440https://i.ur.com/1zyuC3N.png 440https://i.ur.com/y3DJryJ.png 440https://i.ur.com/xUcY2Mw.png Number one. The entire purpose of the Another turning out to be his aunt all along had to be either just to try and have a shocking twist ending or to try and get an emotional reaction from the viewer. Like oh no now Main Guy is going to put a pickaxe through his Fake Aunt who is the Another. Number two. Since the memories are fake while Main Guy is being emotional the viewer has no fucking reason to care about this at all. THE MEMORIES ARE FAKE. SHE IS THE ANOTHER AND THE ONLY WAY TO STOP THE DEATHS ARE TOTALLY ENTIRELY THE FAULT OF THE CURSE oh no I chased my classmates out of a window with a knife and I accidentally slipped fell and died. DAMN YOU CURSE IS BY KILLING HER. MAKE HER DIE FOR THE SECOND TIME SO THE SHOW CAN END. 440https://i.ur.com/q0FKRci.png Number three. The presentation of the Another is... baffling. Main Guy comes out and theres his aunt under a thing unable to get out struggling and she looks like an undead. This... this is what the entire show has been leading up to AND HE JUST PICKS UP A THING AND PUTS IT THROUGH THE BACK OF HER SKULL. Number four. After she dies everybody else but Eyepatch and Main Guy completely forget about her but still remember the Curse and all of the deaths that happen and primarily most of the deaths throughout the inn arc happened resulting from the chaos that initially sparked by the class going mostly crazy about wanting to kill Eyepatch because they thought she was the Another. But Eyepatch wasnt killed so why did the students ever believe that the Curse had really ended. Did they just believe Eyepatch and Main Guys word? But they were literally just trying to kill Eyepatch not even that long ago and Main Guy is clearly Team Eyepatch so why would they trust... They obviously didnt forget about the Curse because if they had then why would the two other students have went to the trouble to putting back the tape that has the instructions of how to stop the Curse??? 440https://i.ur.com/OsodF8a.png I just... its just a fucking mess. Not to even mention that they literally didnt even fully stop the Curse. Therefore there IS going to be a new cursed class down the line. But the students of THIS cursed class are basically like... well most of us are dead at this point lets just try and move on and maybe the next cursed class will be able to stop it entirely or at least before almost the entire class is dead. This has to be one of the worst endings Ive ever seen. Or at the very least its one of the ones that have genuinely upset me the most. You know what I was waiting for? I was waiting for Main Guy to wake up in his bed AGAIN and go OH SHIT THAT WAS A FUCKED UP DREAM. That would have been the only way to top what the actual ending is. It was all a goddamned dream FIN. Conclusion. I Hate This Fucking Anime. You know theres another reason why I opened this review with a comparison to Ranpo Kitan. The Ranpo Kitan review I did if I had actually bothered to go into all of the problems I had with its plot that review would have looked like this one. Instead it was so incomprehensible that I couldnt bring myself to believe that anyone who worked on it even partially believed that it would be taken seriously or well received. But since Another is more serious and less batshit insane it actually bothers me more? Sure yes Ranpo Edogawas grave was danced on and then a completely different serieshttps://anilist.co/anime/21832/TRICKSTEREdogawaRampoShounenTanteidanyori came back for a second helping and danced on it again. But with Ranpo Kitan I could at least laugh at it. Before we get to the score Im just gonna really quickly gather a recap of all of my major points in a nice bullet list form. Because if any TGG review ever needed a summary its this one. The gore is genuinely great. To the point its literally the only strong point of the entire show. While explosions of blood are nice you can also do a completely bloodless death with it still having the sort of impact you want from a show/series like this. The plot is needlessly complicated and done in an annoying way. Basically boils down to people wont stop dying in horrifically gory ways a la Final Destination but it has to be this whole fucking thing. The curse will get you before you can leave town the curse will cause calls to cut out when convenient ignoring a random person can somehow combat the curse except when it doesnt the Another can alter memories etc. Basically no interesting characters at all and the single one thats even remotely close is infuriating. Even for a cheap/cheesy horror thing where the entire point is youre there to see characters die this is pretty fucking bad. The most infuriating thing about the plot is made even worse because theres an entire prequel OVA/side novel that seems like its entire purpose is to rub salt into the wound. Stephen Kings name should never have been brought up. Period. Even if this was a good horror why even do it? Its not necessary. And if the horror fan aspect of Main Guys character actually would have gone somewhere you didnt need to specifically throw Stephen Kings name out there because hes the horror author that LITERALLY EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE knows. Cheap horror does not work if there is a primarily serious tone to it. Look eventually all Im saying is Jason eventually started beating campers in a sleeping bag against a treehttps://www..com/watch?v=mF629C5WRqU and also he went to spacehttps://i.ur.com/d4w3kkw.png. Fun fact apparently both of those are the same fucking moviehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JasonX. Final Destination is better than Another. Eyepatch Girl is a walking cocktail mix of cliches. There are a whole bunch of other horror cliches but lets stop with the dream sequences that literally only happen to include spooky scenes. Lets please stop that. Inconsistent tone and the beach episode. At this point twist endings are more trouble than theyre worth. Because the odds your twist ending ends up being fucking dumb or out of nowhere are RIDICULOUSLY HIGH. But hey Anothers was memorable and frustrating enough to cause me to write a 8000+ word review of it over a year later. Okay with all of that being said I give this a show a 10 out of 10 for all of the gore and the eyepatch girl who is legitimately my most favorite anime character of all time. Goodbye Thats the end This is the last review Im ever writing Its the end its the end forever. These reviews are never coming back its the end its over. 440https://i.ur.com/NDH2Ppc.png Climax. Gee I think I might have actually went overboard with this one. Over 8000 words... thats ridiculous. Its actually a seventh of the cumulative amount of words Ive spent on all of my previous reviews added up together. But I feel like Im forgetting something... There is a sudden scratching noise from the direction of the window. Thats weird. Whats that fucking noise? Whos scratching on my window? Hello? Even though its a really strange and illogical decision Im going to open my window and poke my head out to investigate this random scratching noise. I will also take my laptop with me and continue to type all of this out to essentially record this interaction even though it is entirely inappropriate and foolish to do so. 440https://i.ur.com/6HUCd39.jpg OH FUCK. ITS MARY POPPINS. THE ELDRITCH UMBRELLA LORDS HAVE BROKEN THE SEVEN SEALS AND LOOSED THEIR MASTER UPON THE WORLD. PLEASE MARY POPPINS. IM SORRY I DISPARAGED YOUR UMBRELLA PROPAGANDA SHOW. MARY POPPINS NO There are horrible and brutal noises of disemboweling. Then there is nothing but silence. ...Why dont you head to the store and buy an umbrella?http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20140615/horrorlightnovelanother2plannedforfalllaunch/.75314 Climax: Part Two Woah fuck That sure was a fucked up dream Dreams of Mary Poppins disemboweling me...? Giving Another a positive score...? I need to go see my therapist At least that part about Another 2 isnt real because theres nothing beyond that one article about it so Im just going to believe that it doesnt exist. Oh wait but I need to finish that review Just gotta throw my score on it... and... done 440https://i.ur.com/Tjvqyuz.png Alright. Thats finally over. Now Ill just walk downstairs and depart my domicile and start my day. Oh... but its supposed to rain today. Ill just grab my umbrella first...