Another - episode 1 recap
Another is a new mystery/horror anime series based upon the novel of the same title by Yukito Ayatsuji.
The storyline starts in a hospital in Yomiyama in 1998, where 15-year-old student Sakakibara Kōichi is recovering from a pneumothorax. That way the series manages to create an aggrieving atmosphere right from the start. Kōichi just transfered from Tokyo to the local middle school, where a student named Misaki, who was very popular with both her peers and her teachers, had died from a deliberately unspecified cause 26 years before. Oddly enough, instead of trying to come to terms with her death, everyone decided to act as if she was still around, which led to its creepy crescendo when she was even included in their graduation ceremony.
On the way out of the hospital Kōichi meets a somewhat weird girl with an eyepatch over her left eye in an elevator who introduces herself as Misaki (!) Mei and is apparently heading for the morgue. Later she should claim not to have any memory of that encounter. As it turns out, they’re both in class 3-3, the very class Misaki (the dead one) used to be in. From the moment Kōichi first arrives at his new school it becomes evident that something’s off with his classmates who are always behaving very strangely and always appear to be hiding something. Additionally, no one’s ever interacting with Mei who has to sit at the most seedy desk. Therefore she’s always on her own drawing stuff. It’s not quite clear whether she is a ghost of some kind or just being bullied or ignored because of her name.
The entire town and especially the school seem oddly abandoned and derelict which is providing everything and everyone in it with a feel of death. That way, Mei’s statement about class 3-3 being “close to death” perfectly fits the picture. All things considered, “Another” appears to be gripping as the story’s point of departure presented in episode 1 promises a worthwile series that could easily become this season’s highlight. The animation art and the character design are really nice and contribute to the show’s certain eeriness. Solely, those images of supposedly spooky disfigured dolls interrupting the episode every now and then are nothing but gimmicky and soon become annoying. On balance, Another’s first episode is entirely satisfactory and gets 4 out of 5 Kurisus:
