Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
Screenplay: Ryou Higaki
Based on the serial novel by Yukito Ayatsuji
Voice Actors: Atsushi Abe (as Kōichi Sakakibara); Natsumi Takamori (as Mei Misaki); Ai Nonaka (as Yukari Sakuragi); Hiroaki Hirata (as Tatsuji); Kazutomi Yamamoto (as Mochizuki); Madoka Yonezawa (as Izumi Akazawa)
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles
What made me wish to re-evaluate this horror anime from the early 2010s? Curiosity to be honest and an undying obsession with horror anime that means even the worst are compelling. Anotheris not a terrible horror work; in fact, seeing the opening credits animation was in itself a nice piece of macabre bubblegum for the eyes. Set to Kyōmu Densen ("Nightmare Contagion")by ALI PROJECT, a montage of dolls, usually being broken and disembodied, set to lyrics of a very horror themed sort of romance, and setting up for a show with a complete lack of subtlety but with style to burn. In hindsight, as we will get into, having Tsutomu Mizushima directing the twelve episode series, including one bonus prologue episode that was straight-to-video, in itself explains some of the more infamous moments of this ghostly tale.
In 1998, high school student Kōichi Sakakibara starts late at his new school due to a deflated lung. To his surprise, there is a girl in his new class, already standing out for her mysterious nature and an eye patch, called Mei Misaki who is completely ignored by everyone else in the class even by the teacher. Like many Japanese horror tales, it revolves around a curse, specifically that Class 3-3 itself is cursed; back in 1972, a student died only for the class to pretend they were still alive, their ghostly image appearing in the graduation photo. Sadly in this case for anyone in this world this is, in the proceeding decades onwards an extra person always appears in the class list, a dead figure who can be random, whose entire existence means that if the curse is set off, leaves the students and their loved ones to likely die in violent fashions. The show holds this premise off from the viewer for a couple of the first episodes, barring that by accident, Kōichi by meeting Mei and becoming interested in her, central to a way to ward off the curse, has seemingly started the ball working for it all to get ugly.
Based on a novel published in 2009, in 2012 too there was also a live action feature adaptation of Another co-existing with the animated series. As already mentioned, it takes its time to actually explain what the rules of this story are, a slow burn to the point the first two episodes are very sedate. Not long afterwards, things get gristly with an unfortunate incident with an umbrella. Returning to Another, you have a show which is a conventional character drama, a mystery as eventually it boils down to who the dead figure in Class 3-3 is, and the horror content itself. The show is far more interesting when it is the characters trying to cope within context of the curse, even as archetypes. Kōichi is your typical quiet male protagonist, although the emphasis that usually the female characters are far more interesting is dispelled in this case by the likes of Naoya, a jockish figure who is a little dumb and cocky but kind at heart among others, and that eventually even Kōichi himself gains personality as the series goes on, a significant virtue compared to other animated series. Even in mind that a lot of this cast will be there just as meat for the grinder, there are figures to be interested in despite being cliché. In Izumi for example, the countermeasure group leader with giant red haired pigtails, even the vague colour of the tsundere in her personality, there is a female character who hides a slowly growing affection for someone through a cold and even aggressive personality, only modified here by the fact her coldness is from concern of protecting her classmates.
Then there is Mei herself who, if there ever was a character in anime who really could have been in a Tim Burton film, is this particular figure. Baring an odd detail straight out of a fantasy story or The Garden of Sinners franchise, of a doll's eye in place of her real one that can see death, this seemingly closed hearted character with pale skin and a mind firmly in an entirely different reality is both playing out to tropes to appeal to a (male) viewer yet, as someone who hates mobile phones and speaks with an incredibly distant intonation to her voice, actually manages to be the most interesting character you care for. It helps the production, with a complete lack of subtlety as mentioned, went as far as have her living with a mother at home that is also an exhibit space for macabre and realistic dolls, even down to having the episode titles named after the processes to create one. As much meant to evoke "the uncanny", a term originally coined by Ernst Jentsch but taken further by Sigmund Freud that anything which looks close to us but is not will cause discomfort, it also upon returning to the series adds a moody yet perversely twee nature to the content to go overboard with this aesthetic. Whilst a lot of the show is very conventional to the anime around this time, from the character designs to the look of the world, sprinkles of the macabre like this help considerably.
In terms of miscreants in anime, Mei is a lot more interesting than many male protagonists, and it was actually will-they-or-won't-they romance between she and Kōichi in the early episodes which became the most rewarding episodes in Another for me. The best episodes are when it is decided to also make Kōichi non-existent in Class 3-3 and ignore him, in itself which could have been a strange anime narrative by itself. This light moment, in-between the ridiculous deaths, where they bond, from a fantasy of them suddenly running around in the class and dancing, to the reality of them just being closer as a result, is something which is great especially as it means even Kōichi gains personality as a result.
Not surprisingly, the OVA Episode 0 is entirely about Mei. Never released on the British DVD release from MVM for an unknown reason, it is just a back-story episode in regards to Mei and her cousin Misaki, tragically having already died before the first episode [Spoiler Warning] especially as a later plot point reveals they are actually twin sisters, Mei having been taken in by her aunt as a surrogate daughter. [Spoiler Ends] It does not add a lot at all, and it has the absurd scene of someone dangling off a Ferris Wheel alongside sudden leukaemia as a plot point, but it is appropriate to say she become the figurehead of the series and the franchise, the figure adorning the posters even of the live action adaptation. For a character who was quite cryptic and near moroseness, seeing her actually laugh was interesting for levity in this episode, especially as the one extra we got in the British release, a music video with a chibi version, feels deeply inappropriate for a character you could imagine getting on with Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice (1988) swimmingly.
But this is a horror show, not an unconventional romance of people ignored or a drama about an introspective teen girl who lives in a house full of creepy dolls. The rules for the curse does get complicated, eventually turning into both the Final Destination films, where Rube Goldberg machination transpires, and aspects which are stranger, like the fact that even if you leave the town of Yomiyama to escape it, either you perish trying or something happens in the town beforehand (like a concussion) to make sure you die outside the town. Here is where I have to bring up Tsutomu Mizushima, who started his career with very dark comedies like Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan (2005/7) and has made a name for himself for the likes of Girls und Panzer (2012-13). His stints in horror are divisive though - Blood-C (2011) is infamously, as a spin-off of Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), a misanthropic and hyper-gory production and then there is The Lost Village (2016), a bizarre mishap of a television show where in compensation for the lack of violence in that show, a lot of bizarre characterisation (hello Lovepon) and a lack of subtlety at all in the horror was shown. Another can be very gruesome in its violence, like the first involving a person tripping down stairs with a umbrella with a sharp point, eventually to the stage these scenes feel a bit cruel to these drawn characters. Others are just unintentionally comedic, even late into the final two episodes a random unknown student being crushed by a pillar which comes off as a gag.
Their hyper-bloody nature, even in mind to TV standards, and their silliness clash against the series' serious tone, especially as many could have been prevented if the students stepped in to help their classmates rather than stand there dazed. Let alone imaging the trauma many seemingly overcome with ease, even when someone in their classroom decided to just slash themselves to get the curse to continue. This is why the quiet moments are more rewarding as a result. Even the stereotypical beach episode, really an excuse for female characters to wear bikinis in anime, is a soma to appreciate here as, up to another absurd death at the end, its playfulness is rewarding as a nice episode with interesting character. As for the mystery, the final two episodes happen, where even if this has clues filtered through beforehand about whom the dead person is, it arguably cheats by including flashbacks and plot points never seen before. It is also set in a backdrop of, learning that to end the curse they have to kill the dead person, everyone suddenly goes insane in a resort building, where not only random background students on mass are slaughtered, but even side characters we have seen in the foreground are all abruptly killed or turned insane abruptly.
This ending does have its pleasure but it does get long past the horror tropes we were introduced to, especially when it is comes to a show building slowly to its own premise in the characters having to uncover old archive materials or getting assistance from the original teacher of Class 3-3, now there as a librarian to help. The show's contrast between this slow burn and traditional horror, and the drastic escalation in the finale episodes, are strange bedfellows. [Another Major Spoiler Warning] Also the reveal of who is dead, Kōichi's aunt who is also the teacher's assistant, whilst with clues throughout that are seen from the beginning, does have to rely on flashbacks as mentioned you never had hints to, so the show even if these were actually buried in the first episodes does relay on details it was not fully hinted at. [Spoilers End] Mysteries are also less interesting to me as a whodunit as turning a premise into a guessing game only works for the first viewing, when a story should last for many retellings. A far more compelling narrative is rushed to, when a cassette tape is found that informs the students that they have to kill the dead extra person, which could have been fascinating for all the paranoia involved, and people accidentally killing classmates with the guilt that involves. That the show ends with the curse likely to happen again, as it is never the same ghosts twice, does add a neat irony even if never spoken of, but it never fully takes advantage of this.
I have softened to Another considerably since I first saw the show. It is definitely flawed, and in my fascination with Tsutomu Mizushima as a director, even if the likes of screenwriter Ryou Higaki are as responsible for the quirks, this just emphasises what peculiar and twisted things he has a tendency to reach for, even if horror to him is clearly a genre where his touch is like a square peg being violently forced into a round hole. Another is not exactly scary either, instead a curiosity with a lot to like but with many guilty pleasures to be found instead.
