Murasaki and Daidaiiro: (✪㉨✪)/ Another (AR)

Misaki Mei and Kouchi Sakakibara

Another

Episodes: 12

Aired: Jan 10, 2012 - Mar 27, 2012

Another is not your typical horror anime. It doesn't involve scary monsters or your typical ghosts (Ghosts here don't really float and scare you). It's about a "curse" where the class 3 of Yomiyama North Junior High had to endure ever since a horrible incident involving the death of one of its student (Misaki). Legend has it that the classmates of Misaki (even after her death) treated her as if she was still alive and existing in the class. The only problem is that the already dead Misaki inexplicably showed up in their graduation photo (Yikes!). This is kinda where the mysterious curse began. This curse is a mystery to everyone, all they know is that every school year, student lives are taken through horrible freak accidents (one for each month).
Over the years, the unlucky students who gets assigned to the cursed class, using clues from past students, designed "special rules" in the class in order to avoid the killings. (which did work)

The Unlucky Class of Yomiyama High

L-R: Reiko (a teacher and Kouchi's aunt), Kouchi and Kudobara-sensei.

Our main protagonist is a 15 year old boy Sakakibara Kouchi, a transfer student from Tokyo. He is taken care of by his grandparents and his aunt Reiko Mikami (a former student of Yomiyama along with her mother). His mother died due after giving birth to him and his dad works in India. His arrival kinda complicates things for the students as it conflicts with the "rules" they have set. There he meets a mysterious girl with an eye patch, Misaki Mei, who is somehow invisible from the eyes of the other students. Not taking the advice of his fellow students to avoid whatever it is he's seeing, a negligence of the rules (though he didn't really know that rules existed), leads to a roller coaster ride of death and madness.

Sneak Peek at the Madness of Another

I think she fell face first on a patch of mud.

Now, Another, possesses good and neat art, the characters at least for me, were a bit cute looking (just a tiny litte bit) for a horror anime, but it didn't really matter much because they showed genuine emotion fit for a horror story. The artists did a good job of rendering the creepiness, mysteriousness and the gore for the story whether through the cute but fine and detailed art, the creepy and dark backgrounds, and the sounds (that can be eerie at times). The plot is amazing, it'll keep you guessing until the end of each episode (and more times than not you'll end up wrong). It started slow and very mysterious, builds it up with answers and then adds more questions, and then when you finally realize what's going on it'll just take you by surprise. They did a great job at building it up for the climax.

The Original Class where it all began. (Rumor is that you can spot a ghost here)

26 later, the allegedly cursed class still exists.

They truly did a good job for the creating the atmosphere for a mystery horror show. Overall, it was above average, everything fits together and the only thing that really bothered me was the outrageous-ness of some of the deaths which can be pretty silly and funny. Another minor thing I didn't like (just a tiny bit) was the quick pacing near the end where everything will just blow up right in your face. It's a solid mystery, suspense, thriller that'll keep you on your toes.