Another

[lilboocorsola]

Re: Akazawa and Kouichi

Spoiler: show

Given how Mei confirms her cousin was actually her twin (surprised you didn't comment on that), I still wonder if Kouichi might've had a secret twin. I plan to go back and re-examine that conversation.

I think we can both claim half credit for guessing the way to stop the curnomenon.

Spoiler: show

I did always believe it was a given that any method of removing "Another" would work, whether it be through self-realization or murder - but in the context of the show I figured killing a random person would be more dramatic. Plus Matsunaga didn't strike me as someone capable of finding out Another's identity on his own when no one else could. I see now an accident explains things, as well as the fact all records of Another's existence that year were erased.

Speaking of sexual innuendo, LOL at the scene where...

Spoiler: show

Mei pushes Misaki onto the bed. XP Close cousins indeed.

I find the eye explanation a convenient cop-out at this point, but meh. It's the obvious answer we've been expecting.

Re: Teshi

Spoiler: show

I theorized from the beginning he may be the type to lose his cool and off someone in a panic, so I'm not surprised. (Just disappointed.) I initially thought he might've killed Kazami though. He was seen yelling on a balcony, and I thought maybe he got into a heated argument like Matsunaga, rashly accusing and doubting his long-time "friend" (or maybe the other way around). Kazami was seen climbing the stairs earlier with a determined look on his face. The body at the end seemed to have fallen off a balcony, and the lightning flash revealed a boy with short, dark hair.

You may be onto something with the camera lens though. However, I don't think Teshi is the knife assailant. There was a shot of someone sharpening the blade on a grindstone. I doubt Teshi has the guts or wits to premeditate murder in this manner. It looked like he was simply lounging around on his bed earlier. I believe he simply got into a scuffle with Kazami, and accidentally pushed him off. Kazami(?) might not even be dead. With such heavy foreshadowing, not to mention this being Teshi we're talking about, it could just be a false alarm.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by YUKI.N

I think we can both claim half credit for guessing the way to stop the curnomenon.

After boasting so much about the other prediction seemingly being confirmed, I completely forgot to mention this. But yes, you're right:

Spoiler: show

Talon's theory: "They have to get the ghost to realize that they're a ghost."
Yuki's (or Chaotic's or somebody else's) theory: "They have to sacrifice somebody."
The correct answer: They have to kill the ghost.

I think the sacrifice people were closer to the mark, but you're right that my heavy emphasis on the solution having to do with knowing the ghost's identity has proven right too. It's just ... my theorized method was totally wrong.

Originally Posted by YUKI.N

Re: Teshi

Spoiler: show

I theorized from the beginning he may be the type to lose his cool and off someone in a panic, so I'm not surprised. (Just disappointed.) I initially thought he might've killed Kazami though. He was seen yelling on a balcony, and I thought maybe he got into a heated argument like Matsunaga, rashly accusing and doubting his long-time "friend" (or maybe the other way around). Kazami was seen climbing the stairs earlier with a determined look on his face. The body at the end seemed to have fallen off a balcony, and the lightning flash revealed a boy with short, dark hair.

You may be onto something with the camera lens though. However, I don't think Teshi is the knife assailant. There was a shot of someone sharpening the blade on a grindstone. I doubt Teshi has the guts or wits to premeditate murder in this manner. It looked like he was simply lounging around on his bed earlier. I believe he simply got into a scuffle with Kazami, and accidentally pushed him off. Kazami(?) might not even be dead. With such heavy foreshadowing, not to mention this being Teshi we're talking about, it could just be a false alarm.

This is a good point. To be quite honest ...

Spoiler: show

I was wondering why they even bothered to bring Kazami back after his ridiculously long absence from the series. I had written him off at this point as being one of the students who had left town. Were it not for the opening scene to the episode which strongly hints at Akazawa and/or Kouichi being the ghost, I'd have suspected that they were hiding the true culprit under the radar and had brought him back out now that he was needed. Or, more likely, I'd have suspected him of being the red herring and would have still supported my Akazawa & Kouichi theory.

In any event, you may well be right: he's back because he's who Teshi accidentally (?) pushed off the balcony. But if you're right, it begs the question as to who kills Mochizuki. Which, uh, brings us to your pet theory ¬_¬; ...

What if Kouichi really does go ebil? What if he's the one who kills Mochizuki? It seems unlikely for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is that the person whetting the knife was shown doing so while Kouichi was talking with Mei. But what if that was not concurrent? What if Kouichi really is the nocturnal slasher from the OP? I forget where we saw Creepy Kouichi, but it would help to locate that scene and to rewatch it. To see if where Creepy Kouichi is standing can be discerned. To see if it might possibly be this summer retreat.

However, I hope/do not think that that's going to happen. I have to admit, I'll be pretty disappointed if it does. I'm more a fan of Kouichi remaining the sane, rational hero we've seen him be this entire time.

I also don't want to see Akazawa be murdered nor commit suicide. I mean, I don't want to see her die period! Remember how I've been saying all season long how her death is probably gonna get me all teary-eyed the most? So even if I've long suspected that she's the ghost, I've ... I dunno, I've always hoped that the way to cure the curse would be something relatively innocuous to the ghost (like simply getting them to realize that they're the dead person) and that they'd then fade away while tearfully saying their goodbyes to their friends and loved ones. A kiss between a departing Akazawa and Kouichi would have been nice.

Yuki: You are SO SAPPY.

But instead, it looks like she's going to either (1) be murdered, (2) commit suicide to spare the others, (3) be killed by her own curnomenon's effects (somehow), or (4) die in some other way. REGARDLESS, it's looking like death is inevitable for the adorable tsuntsun. So that makes me sad. *sigh*

Place your bets now for who's going to die by chandelier. My bet goes to ... Takako, the girl with the glasses and the short brown hair. Only reason being I don't see Kouichi, Mei, Izumi, Teshigawara, Mochizuki, or Ms. Mikami dying that way, and you've persuaded me going into Episode 11 that Kazami may have just died by being pushed off the balcony by Teshi. So that leaves me with Glasses Girl #1 (the pale nerd with the long black pigtails) or Glasses Girl #2 (Takako). And I've arbitrarily picked Glasses Girl #2.

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by Talon87

After boasting so much about the other prediction seemingly being confirmed, I completely forgot to mention this. But yes, you're right:

Spoiler: show

Talon's theory: "They have to get the ghost to realize that they're a ghost."
Yuki's (or Chaotic's or somebody else's) theory: "They have to sacrifice somebody."
The correct answer: They have to kill the ghost.

I think the sacrifice people were closer to the mark, but you're right that my heavy emphasis on the solution having to do with knowing the ghost's identity has proven right too. It's just ... my theorized method was totally wrong.

Like I said...

Spoiler: show

I think your method is a perfectly valid way of stopping the curnomenon too. Maybe it's just never been achieved before - or maybe it has, considering it's just been demonstrated that once Another is removed one way or another, all the memories associated with him/her fade away as well. If you know the ghost's identity though, automatically moving to murder doesn't seem to make logical sense. Obviously you'd try to negotiate peacefully first, unless you're really desperate. Neither of us anticipated an unintentional killing, believing the ghost to be exempt from such accidents typically activated by the curnomenon itself.

Re: Kazami

Spoiler: show

After focusing on Teshi so much, I was inclined to lean more towards Kazami being the ghost instead. But the fact he has been completely out of the picture for so long does seem to rule him out as a candidate.

Re: Creepy Kouichi

The scene is 01:15 in the prologue. It certainly looks like he's standing in the woods. In the rain. Hey, isn't there a thunderstorm going on right now?

Re: Akazawa

Spoiler: show

I still feel like it's too early to call her out just yet. I think any obvious path they try to lead us to before the final episode is inevitably the wrong one. So perhaps there's hope (for you). XP

Re: Chandelier

I guess I'll arbitrarily pick Glasses Girl #1 then. ^~

On a somewhat related note: Checking through the cameos again, I haven't been able to pinpoint the scene of Teshi yelling from the balcony, since the positioning might put a damper in my theory considering he'd have to be yelling at someone already below. However, I did notice Mochizuki seemed to spot something outside the window that arrested his attention.

Spoiler: show

Perhaps that's what leads him into the woods to investigate, where he meets his death.

Edit- Found the scene. Ho ho, perhaps I'm right after all. Teshi's still in the room when he's yelling. He's just facing directly towards the outside, arguing at eye level. Also, right before that scene...

Spoiler: show

There's a dark image of what appear's to be a chef's back inside a kitchen/dining room. So I think it's safe to assume either the knife is not specifically being prepared for any purpose other than to cook, or we've got a crazed killer chef on our hands.

[Shuckle]

Holy carp! I'm behind! D:

I need to get watching. I'm only on #7 now!

[Talon87]

Well, you've got a lot to look forward to then. Try to pace yourself. Hell, if I were in your position, I might even try to put off watching 11 until mid-to-late week. That way, I could have minimum delay between 11 and 12. But if you do decide to watch all the episodes you're backlogged on right now, I'm sure Yuki and I and the others won't mind!

[big bad birtha]

Do you like your middle school boys rare or extra crispy?

[Talon87]

Yuki and I talked and talked and talked this one into the ground on Skype. ^^; (Apologies!) But yes, we've both seen Episode 11 as well. It was ...

Yuki says: "Something."
Talon says: Not sure if great, terrible, or some combination of the two.

It definitely came out of nowhere, that much I can say with confidence.

Spoiler: show

And according to Yuki, according to people who've read the book, this episode more than any other that's come before it took many liberties with the source material. So if you liked what you saw, give three cheers to the staff writers at P.A.Works! And if you don't like what you saw, give 'em a hearty boo urns for deviating from the source material. Me? I have no clue. It just ...

... all hell broke loose this episode and out of fucking nowhere too.

On to Episode 12!

[big bad birtha]

The answer you're looking for is that Another 11 was funny. I spent most of that damn episode laughing.

Spoiler: show

There were so many damn silly deaths that episode. It had the girl doing a gymnastic pose after falling to her death. It had a boy suddenly burnt to crisp with no warning whatsoever. It had a guy kill the teacher with a fucking mop. It also had a guy killing his best friend because he had a bad memory. All while this was happening, Misaki kept a "meh" expression.

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by big bad birtha

Do you like your middle school boys rare or extra crispy?

Well done!

For all my nitpicking, I enjoyed this episode. It was because there was so much ridiculousness that it's easy to just sit back and take it all in stride.

Originally Posted by big bad birtha

All while this was happening, Misaki kept a "meh" expression.

What's even funnier is that she still managed to show a shocked expression at times, while Kouichi was uncharacteristally calm throughout the whole thing.

P.S. If you want to see a real silly reaction face, check out Teshi's at 9:11: O_O

[lilboocorsola]

Double-posting because I think I may have stumbled on something important?

Still putting stock in Knox man's (you know who I'm talking about, Talon) claim that there is a major clue to Another's identity which is made "obvious" by episode 10, I've been poring over it repeatedly. I don't know if this is it, but I've just realized...

Spoiler: show

Didn't Mei say that "the color of death" is faint in those with serious illnesses or injuries? Wouldn't Kouichi's lung condition count as a "serious illness"? How come he appeared perfectly normal to her then?

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by YUKI.N

Double-posting because I think I may have stumbled on something important?

Still putting stock in Knox man's (you know who I'm talking about, Talon) claim that there is a major clue to Another's identity which is made "obvious" by episode 10, I've been poring over it repeatedly. I don't know if this is it, but I've just realized...

Spoiler: show

Didn't Mei say that "the color of death" is faint in those with serious illnesses or injuries? Wouldn't Kouichi's lung condition count as a "serious illness"? How come he appeared perfectly normal to her then?

Pneumothorax is when your lung collapses, usually because the parietal pleura has been punctured in some manner (e.g. knife stabbing, gunshot wound, fractured rib). It can happen "spontaneously" due to infection or other chronic ailments. But unless it happens bilaterally -- in which case you need to be placed in the modern equivalent of an iron lung ^^; -- you usually just wait for the pleura to heal and then that lung is able to re-expand on its own. Kouichi seems to have some sort of congenital defect he inherited from his father that predisposes him to these pneumothorax incidents: but seeing as he wasn't on a ventilator or anything of the sort, we can assume that only one of his lungs collapsed. Thus, he wasn't really in serious serious danger of dying. It's not good to have a collapsed lung -- the patient definitely feels like they're struggling to get as much air as they normally would (I WONDER WHY) -- but you usually won't die from it, certainly not with modern medical assistance.

You can read more about the different causes of pneumothorax here.

tl;dr it's conceivable that, depending on the author's impressions about pneumothorax from the medical literature, Kouichi either ought to have the aura of death about him or he ought not to. And so ... we can't really say much more until the story wraps up.

[Shuckle]

Originally Posted by YUKI.N

Well done!

I lol'd in spit of myself, though I fried to keep from laughing.

[Talon87]

Just watched Episode 12. It was ... good and okay and ehhh all wrapped into one. ^_^; I didn't care for how everyone just completely lost their minds over the past two episodes, but I definitely appreciated the tugging at my heartstrings that they did both at the halfway point and at the final climax.

Spoiler: show

When Akazawa died, that was really, really sad. What a terrible way to go. To finally remember the boy you loved ... and for him to not clearly remember you ... all while having been impaled by tens of shards of glass. Just awful. I didn't actually cry, but like I told Yuki in an earlier PM, I wish that I had! ^_^;

But what really emotionally got to me was the scene with Mikami-sensei -- or should we say Reiko!? -- trying to crawl out from underneath the debris and pleaing with Kouichi not to murder her. She looked so beautiful even in her final moments but here she also looked so pathetic and helpless. The way her arms were flailing was like the classic body language of Japanese ghost stories. Sad stuff. Again, though, no tears or anything. Purely cerebral in its sadness, I guess.

Kazami going apeshit and killing a lot of people was blah. I guess "he deserved" to die, then, but really, I don't feel like any of these poor kids deserved to die. In fact ...

... it was pretty shitty of Mei to keep it a secret that Ms. Mikami was the ghost after she saw that the countermeasures weren't working and that people were dying. Yes, Kouichi is your friend. And yes, you clearly wish he was more than just a friend. And yes, you can tell that Reiko means a lot to Kouichi, who never got to know his real mom. But holy shit, girl, you need to tell someone that you have reason to believe that Ms. Mikami is the other. Whether it's old man Chibiki, whether it's Akazawa, whether it's your mom, you need to tell somebody so that they can try to look into it, if at all possible, and try to figure out how to deal with it. You could say (fairly) that they wouldn't have even known what to do to poor Reiko until after they found the cassette tape, but even then I would say, "Okay. You're at the summer retreat. You just heard the rest of the tape. You've just learned the grim truth that the only way to end the curnomenon early is to kill the extra person. And you know who that extra person is. So even if you don't have the heart to kill 'em yourself, you need to go out now and tell Chibiki-sensei what you just discovered. And tell him your suspicions. And let him handle it." I dunno. I don't want to put too much blame at Mei's feet since ultimately a lot of this is the curnomenon's fault, not hers, but still: I feel like to at least a partial extent the deaths of every single student at that summer retreat are on her hands, especially those who died after she ran into Ms. Mikami and clearly had an opportunity to do something about this. I guess this brings me to another point ...

... which is, would you be able to kill somebody if there was a high but uncertain likelihood that they were causing a lot of deaths? And if that likelihood was all based (ALL based) on circumstantial evidence and hazy memories? Nothing concrete, nothing physical you can show to others, nothing solid enough by which to persuade them? I'm not sure I would. If I were in Kouichi's shoes, (1) I'm almost 100% certain I would not have been able to kill Reiko then and (2) I'm 70+% certain I would not have gotten out of the way for Mei, even if it meant risking my own life. Sure, "all's well that ends well," but you can't count on that when you're in the act of actually killing the person you believe to be the extra. In that moment, you are a murderer. In that moment, you are ending someone's life and you have no solid evidence to prove that you're killing the right person. I'm not sure it's fair to distinguish between what Kouichi did and what Kazami or Tatsuko or the other murderer-students did. Mei remembered seeing Ms. Mikami get murdered, sure, but Kouichi only remembered his grandfather mourning and muttering both girls' names. Aside from that, what we saw in his flashbacks was nothing but evidence that Ms. Mikami was actually Reiko -- evidence meant to satisfy us, the readers/viewers at home, but nothing new to him of course. He didn't recall a funeral for Reiko. He didn't recall anything of the sort. The closest he came was remembering (and I don't even see how he could have remembered this since he wasn't there for it ) his grandparents purchasing the myna bird a year and a half ago. That's as close as Kouichi's memories got to condemning Reiko as the extra. All he really was going off of when he ended her life was the testimony of one strange little girl. And then down the pickax fell. Lucky for them, they were right. But it was still ridiculously sad. Poor Reiko.

Overall, I feel like Another was a pretty good show. And so ... I guess it's Review Time.

Plot: 7/10. It was a decent enough mystery story. A little silly at times and not too amazing of a mystery, but pretty good nonetheless. Definitely worth checking out if you like mysteries and you like anime.

Characters: 8/10. I gave this a 9/10 at first but that feels maybe a mite too generous, I dunno. In any event, the characters were well done. Sure, they were kinda tropey, but they were very exemplary in their tropishness. I enjoyed them.

Animation: 10/10. Very good animation. The color, the lusciousness, the physics, all of it. Very well done.

Music: 7/10. It does the bare minimum it needs to do: provide pleasant ambient music for most of the episode and then provide tense, exciting music for the tense, exciting climaxes. Not a big fan of either the OP or the ED, will not be getting their CDs. Probably won't bother with the show's OST either.

Replay Value: 3/10 to 7/10. It's always hard to say with a mystery. It could be as low as a 3/10 because, let's face it, a lot of the fun in watching a murder mystery is trying to figure out who the culprit is and once you know that, well, you know it and it removes a lot of the suspense and intrigue. On the other hand, it could be as high as a 7/10, especially on the second viewing specifically, as you not only re-enjoy what was otherwise a well-presented story but you specifically look for any and all clues that might have tipped you off as to the ghost's identity. So I dunno, this one's tough to say.

OVERALL: 7/10. I liked the show, but the final two episodes did the story more harm than good in my eyes. Probably would have been a generous 8/10 before them, but now I can safely say that this show gets a solid 7/10. It was a good show, and a 7/10 ought to fairly reflect that.

[big bad birtha]

Last episode watched. Details about the last episode in the spoiler box.

Spoiler: show

I was pretty disappointed by it. I was really hoping the curse wasn't an actual curse. They don't even make it as Misaki's vengeful spirit killing people, it's just a random fucking curse because someone died 80 or whatever years ago. The prevention measures and details all seemed silly to me. Honestly, this show seemed more like a superstition come to life than anything. Hell, they might as well make a show about a black cat, and have everyone who crosses its path explode.

All in all, I just saw Another as something to laugh at. It had a great buildup, but I just wasn't crazy about how it all played out. For the most part, I couldn't take the show seriously enough to care about the deaths and all that, and just make fun of how over-the-top and silly they were. The pillar fall in episode 12 was hilarious by the way. To me, Another deserves a 6.

[Talon87]

So, apparently Another got an OAV episode. O_o "Episode 00," taking place before the events of the series proper. I went ahead and watched the pre-OP credits scene, the OP credits, the first minute after the OP credits, then I grew bored and started to skip through the episode. When I landed upon the only thing I felt was worth watching maybe for some sort of tie-in to the actual series, I watched it. Not a pleasant scene though. And then the episode was over soon afterward.

Spoiler: show

The OAV is pretty much just about Misaki Mei and her cousin. It's pretty much there, I think, for fans of Mei. It's very much an omake and not something you'll need to see if you've already had your fill of Another. I certainly don't think I'd care to watch it all myself. ^^; As for the relevant scene, it comes at the very end of the episode -- it shows how Mei's cousin dies. Like a lot of Another's other death scenes, it's pretty realistic in its depiction of her emotional state, physical anguish, etc, and that makes it pretty discomfiting to watch. >_< But I guess I'd say "See it if you want to see it." The episode then ends with Mei in the elevator and shows how she met Kouichi, this time with the camera more from her point of view than from his. Final bit post-ED credits shows that she placed the doll atop Misaki (her cousin's) Japanese-style coffin.

Underwater doesn't appear to have moved to translate this yet. For now, I went with Commie. Someone's asked Daiz on the Underwater blog if he plans to work on this so we'll see.

[Doppleganger]

OK, I've started watching this. It's mildly interesting...but not like, gripping, as tsuritama and Yes PreCure 5! have been.

I'm on Episode 2 and the nurse is infuriating me. I just took a test yesterday about HIPAA protocols involving PHI (protected health information). The nurse offered to find out the name of the dead patient. W.T.F., nobody in their right mind would do this. I can't believe the hospital to be "shut down" like it is, too. And why's the nurse so fancy with main dude-kun?

[Doppleganger]

Going to throw stuff out here.

Spoiler: show

Episode 07

The show is implying that Kouichi is the ghost, and his apparently resistance to PTSD suggests he's not normal, but it feels like a red-herring to me. I read Talon and LBC's posts but I still don't buy it. There's a fudge-ton of evidence pointing in that direction but it would be a cop-out, ala M. Night Shyamalan to make the protagonist the special person.

I'm leaning toward the teacher Mikami-sensei, since details are being made in reference to her (which draws my attention) and because it would be an "outside the box" pick.

The mechanism hasn't been stated yet, but it's never said that students are the only dead to enter the class. Such was the case in the 1996 case - Asakura Mami was a student who died in 1993, but came back as the extra in 1996. It's reasonable to assume Mikami attended school in Yomiyama and we just need her age to frame her in the time-line.

The other possibility, less likely than the main duo, are the three who visited Kouichi in the hospital. The implication was Kouichi's memory was faulty, but he's been in Tokyo...allegedly, for a while. So his memory could be fine and theirs the one tampered.

Kouichi has been in the presence of every person who died, however. Hopefully that's just a coincidence and isn't causal.

The "doll" metaphor interests me and I hope to see if it plays in later. Dolls have no souls but naturally seek them out. The "dead" isn't a ghost, but it has a soul and a body. If we apply the analogy to Mei and Kouichi, Mei is the doll who seeks the soul, Kouichi. More implication he's the dead kid?

The doll imagery I don't get though.

Originally Posted by Talon87

Reiko: a man's woman

What's funny is I agree with you 100%, she was definitely attractive before the "drunken misery" stage. I think I commented to BBB that Kouichi should ask her for H, but I didn't know she was an aunt until way later.

I found it odd that everyone in this class is 14 or so, but they're too well-endowed. It's really off-putting.

My scribbles from the first few episodes or so-

Spoiler: show

Story of girl who died due to accident

Reiko

Some dude = Kouichi Sakikabara

Kazami Tokihito (boy) Pop de gozaru

Sakuragi Yukari (timid) Ai Nonaka

Akazawa Izumi (tsun)

Yomiyama = Dark Mountain?

Camera in elevator?

Ask if he's lived here before...

Girl with eye-patch isn't very cute

Dude should ask her for H!

Misaki Mei

I love this atmosphere. The whole city reminds me of a grave-yard.

"Why, Rei-chan, why?" sounds like something the parrot picked up.

Hey, it's older Mikuru! And she lost weight!

hahaha.

Mikami-sensei.

I just realized Kouichi = Kamijou Touma.

And there's biribiri.

Hashibara heart condition. Dead man walking.

Class 3 is isolated.

Kazami, Teshigawara walked around.

Akazawa will get mad...

Ai Nonaka freaked out over Mei. Ghost? Too obvious,

I bet she's real.

Ask her for H!

Second basement level in the hospital.

Something sad happened that day. Maybe Kouichi is

dead, WHAT A TWIST!

Ending probably features everyone who dies. It's all light and weird.

Looking at the beginning, Misaki died 26 years earlier, and Reiko was 14 years ago. That means Reiko was in Misaki's class (14, making her in junior high. I bet Reiko was a Pretty Cure!)

Mochizuki (screaming lemon, Mei = scream)

Chibiki librarian didn't comment on Mei, nor did that idiot Touma say goodbye

Doll with no arms, wings. The drawing looked like Mei and she wanted it to have wings.

The Hollow Blue Eyes of Yomi at Twilight

Mizuno is the nurse

Is that woman a doll?

There's the doll from earlier.

I have a doll's eye

Dolls are synonymous with death

Maybe protag-kun is a doll? collapsed lung

Kirika

Uphold class rules at all times. Maybe a taboo?

Asakura Mami died in 1993, but returned in 1996.