Another
a review by TheGruesomeGoblin
a review by TheGruesomeGoblin
Uh, no it's not? What the fuck type of nonsensical drivel is th-- wait, why am I getting deja vu?
Oh shit. I mixed the things up, I already reviewed this show. 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 I'm forgetting the name of it. To be honest, I could see why I mixed it up with that one... but what was the title???
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 wasn't 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. That's the title. I don't know how I forgot it since I've been wanting to ~~rag on~~ review this show ever since I watched it a year ago. So much that I bought the novel ~~(didn't read it)~~ and rewatched it AGAIN ~~(only partially)~~ just to fully remember how much it's just so... incomprehensibly ANOTHER.
#The ANOTHER Review#
#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 writer's works pushed to the absolute max limits of absurdity. No, of course I'm 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, it's safe to assume that it's simply more absurdity, and yes it was.
ANOTHER on the other hand, is a firm adaptation of an actual novel by Yukito Ayatsuji and is more than not, faithful and serious to the source material, brought to us by P.A. Works who also made Glasslip (to be fair they also made Shirobako and Uchouten Kazoku which are GOOD). Therefore, while it's pretty absurd itself, I'm 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 I've 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 I'm going to address every single point I have about this goddamned show. Actually, let's do a table of contents just to be safe. Anime reviews shouldn't 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!
Okay, so let's just get into the plot of Another. It's really the driving force behind why everyone loves this series and I just really don't understand wh--
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 someone's throat? That fucking part of the umbrella looks like it's specifically meant for that purpose and no other purpose? Is murder Mary Poppins going to fucking come down from the sky next???
Okay, no, let's get back to the plo--
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, WOULDN'T 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 WASN'T THE UNDEAD PERSON?
WHY? WHY? WHY? EXPLAIN TO ME WHY.
#EXPLAIN TO ME W H Y.#
#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, I'd 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.
youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWlH13Ka3Dk)
I actually did watch this when I still primarily watched English dubs. I can't believe there's 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. It's about a "cursed" high school class. The students don't really know if it's truly cursed or not, but there's a very clear trend of students of the glass dying over the top gory accidental deaths. Apparently, to the extent it's 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, she's right there like always.
Then for some reason, the rest of the students and teacher basically start treating like she's there as well. To be fair, since this is a passed down story thing, obviously we, the audience, have no idea if it's 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 doesn't 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, it's 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 it's link to the class itself? Like it's a different building, different actual room than the one that had the original Misaki person, but... it's haunted still? I don't think we're ever given answers as to if it's actually the original ghost of Misaki that's coming back as these non-existent fake students or... or... I don't know. I literally don't know.
Why am I even talking about the "Another"? Let's 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", I'm not too sure, but something is capable of completely altering people's memories. This is important. Be sure to mark it in the notes you should be taking to accompany the reading of this review. We'll be coming back to it later.
However, don't 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 don't 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 it's going to work, but there's a lot more, and I just... let's 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 that'll stop the "Curse" is basically just giving it what it wants. Finding the "Another" and killing them. But there's basically no real way of finding out who it is.
There's 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. That's convenient. I mean that's obviously just a red herring. Obviously, she can't be the "Another". That'd be too obvious.
Now, I know what you're 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 what's the plot???
Slice of life about middle schoolers with vague supernatural/mystery elements, and also a lot of gore and death happens. That's really the heart of it, or what matters. The "Curse" is idiotic and I hate it for reasons I'll get into later in another section, the "Another"... what the fuck was even its goal? It's not like they did anything nefarious really. It's the fucking "Curse" that's going around causing gruesome deaths.
It's 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. Let's 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.
Uh. I may have bit off more than I could chew with this one. Describing Another's 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 can't really say anything more than "well, their name is blank and they're 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 I'm referring to!), I think there's even less memorable characters. Because at least with Glasslip, I could remember things to actually criticize about them. In any case...
Here's 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. He's 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 I'm sorry to tell you that you haven't 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 that's why he doesn't know everyone is ignoring one specific student to apparently fend off omniscient curses that are mad about the existence of ghosts.
Kubodera is apparently the name of the class' teacher that kills himsel--wait. 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 doesn't stop the "Curse" and he just goes crazy??? Was that seriously what happened? I don't 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 I'm 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, it's not my favorite gore scene) in my opinion.
But let's get back to the characters... enter, middle-schooler... uh... hold on. I truly do remember their names off the top of my head, I'm not simply opening character pages at random. Oh! Yukari Sakuragi! That's the umbrella girl! She's a middle schooler whose favorite hobby is being brutally killed via umbrellas!
...It feels like I'm just wasting time talking about these bit players in the grand presentation that is Another. Fuck it. Let's do it. Let's get to the real protagonist of Another.
OH! THERE HE IS. THE UMBRELLA ITSELF. WHAT A MAJESTIC AND WELL-FLESHED 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 DON'T 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 YOU'RE 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. This'll be the last time, though.
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, it's 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.
You say well okay, that explains that. Or maybe you still (rightfully) think it's stupid, but now that the OVA is over, you're done. You're 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 they're capable of. Then when you learn more about what the actual plot/conflict of Another is, you just go...
...Why won't 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 WASN'T WEARING THE GODDAMNED EYEPATCH, SHE WOULD KNOW. IMMEDIATELY.
That whole reasoning of... well, she doesn't 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 DIDN'T. BECAUSE EYEPATCH. BECAUSE SHE'S THE EYEPATCH GIRL AND SHE NEEDS HER EYEPATCH TO LIVE.
#Cameo Starring Stephen King.#
Let's talk about this now. Stephen King is probably my favorite author, I've literally read every book the man has published up until like recently when he started like a trilogy of detective novels. I don't 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...
Pet Sematary is one of the "old King" books, and is genuinely a creepy idea for a horror novel. Yes, it's 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 King's 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 DOESN'T 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 there's a much simpler explanation (it's 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, it's 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.
"Stephen King??? I know that name! He's that guy who wrote all of the horror novels! The Shining! That book that ruined clowns as a real occupation! The one about the haunted car! The other one about the haunted car! If it's bringing Stephen King into this, it's gotta be good horror!"
But then it isn't, and apart from the occasional gore, it's "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 we're still on the subject of Stephen King... and... I believe the comparison is fair considering this series brought Stephen King into this itself, let's talk about Stephen King's IT.
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 there's 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 that's brutally killing them one by one.
Stephen King's IT is about this small town and there's this omniscient entity that is brutally killing and eating people (IT's 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, it's an actual character, has motivation, has a physical form, and is genuinely menacing. Another's "omniscient curse" is... is a faceless force that we never see, that's 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 gore's great and yes, you can't 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 WASN'T ON THE SCENE.
#Doesn't Work as a Cheap Horror Either.#
This is where we get into some shit. I've made it apparent enough that I don't think the actual serious plot of Another works or is even really entertaining to watch. But I also don't even think it really works as a cheap silly horror that you just sit down to watch specifically to see kids/teems die.
Yes, that's right. Horror fans love seeing kids/teens die die die die die DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE--ahem, excuse me. The ghosts that live inside my brain took control of the keyboard momentarily.
Anyways, let's just bite the bullet and finally talk about the Final Destination series.
I know this review is all over the place, as this is now the third thing I've 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 didn't watch all of them. It may or may not have been the one with the rollercoaster, I literally don't 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 bed.
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, she's probably a ghost" but nope, they're just ignoring her to somehow combat some weird omniscient curse that's causing everyone to die somehow but then later they just accuse her of being the "Another" anyways.
At least in Final Destination, they don't pull any punches and straight up say it's Death itself.
But hey, what do you know. There's another similarity between Another and Final Destination. There are videos on Youtube of all of the deaths in both.
~~I'm definitely not making the suggestion to just watch the "deaths" video and just leave it at that. That's definitely not what's happening here.~~
youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H87bqxAAymc)
youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYPY7Lq63kw)
It's almost like THAT'S 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 YOU'RE GOING TO INCLUDE ONE, MAYBE MAKE IT A GOOD ONE.
GOD.
#Cliches.#
Here we go. Here we fucking go.
Okay, let's 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 aren't both of her eyes the same color? Why does she live in a building that's 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 doll's eye put in as a replacement and that somehow gives her the ability to see who is alive and who isn't and who is going to die and etc?
Well, why the fuck does putting a doll's 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, there'd be no questions. But since she's 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 didn't 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
Also, you know why she lives in like a doll shop? Because dolls are creepy and creepy is horror of course, don't you know. The doll shop and the dolls just felt so fucking out of place that I just can't 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 wasn't from a doll's 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 doll's eye as a replacement after a four year old loses their eye? Who made that decision? Why did they make that decision?
I've been talking too much about the plot and character stuff. Let's briefly talk about a couple of the more horror-y 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.
youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh48D2q4H7w)
youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPtcJBb9_KU)
Both of those are probably among my favorite scenes of Another (of which there aren't many) and... they both end exactly the same way. The "Main Guy" is just having a nightmare. Oh. So, what you're really telling me here, is none of that mattered at all because it was just dreams. "Wow, some creepy stuff is finally happening!"
No, it's all just a dream. Good. Great. Wonderful. Fantastic.
Then, there's 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 they're 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 everyone's going into. Yet... they don't 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 that's when the show just completely collapses into craziness and gore.
To be fair, it's to show "Eyepatch" and "Main Guy" but... why just leave it lying around where others can find it?
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. It's all... it's all just nonsense from there on out.
We're 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 they're done appropriately (in a fun way and in something that is purposely of the "fun horror" category), I'm fine with them. But when characters in this more or less played straight show decide to... like all they do is basically transfer the tape's 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 NOBODY'S GONNA FIND THE TAPE OR MESS WITH THAT LOCKER OR THAT THEY'RE NOT GONNA GET A NEW NEW BUILDING? ADDITIONALLY, WHY NOT ADD LIKE ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS OR MAKE IT EASIER TO FIND? IT ALMOST FEELS LIKE YOU'RE GRUMPY THAT ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD SO YOU WANT THE NEXT CLASS TO GO THROUGH THE SAME EXACT SHIT. THIS IS THE FINAL EPISODE'S 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 don't seem to be making much progress if any at all towards stopping it.
"LET'S GO TO THE FUCKING BEACH. BEACH EPISODE! LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
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, there's no escaping omniscient curses because yes, there is a death this episode. But this is like episode eight. Isn't it a little bit late to be pulling these shenanigans? I don't know maybe, it's better in the nov--
OH SHIT. IN THE NOVEL THEY DON'T JUST DECIDE RANDOMLY TO GO TO THE BEACH? OH SHIT. THIS ONE ISN'T ON YUKITO AYATSUJI, THIS IS ALL P.A. WORKS' DOING. I'm just surprised they didn't decide to go hiking instead. You could have one of the students get mauled to death by a bear or something. It's 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. Here's 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 gore? Was I supposed to care about these characters or think they were deep in any way shape or form? Even now, I still really don't 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 don't know. Almost the entire time, I was just bored and mildly grumpy whenever gore wasn't happening. Mind you, it's 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. That's also about when I ended up feeling a completely different emotion.
Genuine anger.
Next section is ENTIRELY on the ending of the show.
#M. Night Shyamalan is a Hack Fraud.#
Context: M. Night Shyamalan made that one movie with the twist ending and basically ever since then, he's made horrible shit 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. Didn't know about all the gore, didn't know about the umbrella, didn't 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 you're 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 she's 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 can't believe that the "curse" really had NOTHING to do with that. They just "go crazy" and that's it.) while all this is happening.
But guess what? It's a fucking teacher. It wasn't 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 there's no possible way that the viewer could ever actually figure out who the "Another" is, there's absolutely no clues or anything. Like, the "Another" is perfectly nice to the characters and doesn't 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 Guy's" aunt, and his memories were altered to include memories of his fake dead aunt so he'd think that yeah she's totally an actual living person. There are various problems with this.
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.
Number three. The presentation of the "Another" is... baffling. "Main Guy" comes out and there's 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" wasn't killed, so why did the students ever believe that "the Curse" had really ended. Did they just believe "Eyepatch" and "Main Guy"'s 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 didn't 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"???
I just... it's just a fucking mess. Not to even mention that, they literally didn't 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, let's 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 I've ever seen. Or at the very least, it's 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, there's 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 couldn't 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 Edogawa's grave was danced on, and then a completely different series 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, I'm 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, it's this one.
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! That's the end! This is the last review I'm ever writing! It's the end, it's the end forever. These reviews are never coming back, it's the end, it's over.
___#Climax.#
"Gee, I think I might have actually went overboard with this one. Over 8,000 words... that's ridiculous. It's actually a seventh of the cumulative amount of words I've spent on all of my previous reviews added up together. But I feel like I'm forgetting something..."
There is a sudden scratching noise from the direction of the window.
"That's weird. What's that fucking noise? Who's scratching on my window? Hello? Even though it's a really strange and illogical decision, I'm 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."
"OH FUCK. IT'S MARY POPPINS. THE ELDRITCH UMBRELLA LORDS HAVE BROKEN THE SEVEN SEALS AND LOOSED THEIR MASTER UPON THE WORLD. PLEASE, MARY POPPINS. I'M 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 don't you head to the store and buy an umbrella?
#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 isn't real because there's nothing beyond that one article about it so I'm just going to believe that it doesn't exist. Oh wait, but I need to finish that review! Just gotta throw my score on it... and... done!"
"Alright. That's finally over. Now, I'll just walk downstairs and depart my domicile and start my day."
"Oh... but it's supposed to rain today. I'll just grab my umbrella first..."
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