Another – 03-05
My reaction exactly.
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I just want to make a public announcement: I hate school. Especially my organic chemistry lecture. It’s my third class of the day. That being said, I still appreciate my school and MY “class 3” a hell of a lot more than Kouichi’s. Talk about creepy… Let’s go back to episode 3, shall we? I’m sure you all want to revisit all these epically gory deaths just as much as I do… *shudders* |
Episode 3 starts off as Mei finally takes off her eye patch to reveal that she has a doll eye. It’s a little anticlimactic, but disconcerting nonetheless. She then tells Kouichi the story of class 3 and a student, also named Misaki, who died 26 years before. While at school, nobody tells Kouichi anything and his aunt, Reiko, won’t even tell him anything either. So he continues to be left out of the loop which is unfortunate for us, the viewers, as well. He also continues to spend time with Mei despite the cryptic warnings that his classmates give him. The episode culminates in the gruesome death of Sakuraki – after an exam, Kouichi steps outside to talk to Mei. A teacher runs up the hall to summon Sakuragi and, as she runs out, she spots Mei and, with horror, dashes away…only to trip down the stairs and impale her neck on her umbrella. Oh dear lord.
And this is why pointy umbrellas are outdated, guys…
It turns out that Sakuragi’s mom had also died that day in an accident, which puts a rather awful twist on things. After school a little while later, Kouichi runs into one of his classmates. As they talk, however, a massive sheet of glass almost falls on them, causing the girl to have a panic attack about not wanting to die. He meets with Mei again at the doll shop and, though she is extremely vague, she only emphasizes the fact that there is something extremely wrong with class 3. At school, Kouichi’s classmates discuss the recent events, considering implementing new “countermeasures.”
Mizuno, however, is helpful through all of this as she offers to investigate through her brother, who is also in class 3. Kouichi confronts his classmates about what’s going on and, during this, receives a frantic phone call from Mizuno. She had asked her brother about Misaki Mei and he told her that he knows of no such person. While on the phone, Mizuno steps into the elevator. The supporting cables snap and she ends up plummeting down to a terribly painful death.
…And this is why I take stairs. With no umbrella.
The next day in school, Kouichi tells Mei about Mizuno’s death as his classmates look on. In art class, Mochikuzi expresses concern over Mikami-sensei’s absence, especially considering the recent events. He doesn’t tell Kouichi much more than that, however, which prompts him to go to the library to investigate. He pulls out the photo album and looks at the class 3 picture from 26 years ago, the class that his mother was in. The librarian comes up and asks about Kouichi’s mom, who he knew in the past. He seems to know more than he’s letting on…
Akazawa interrupts and tells him that he was summoned to the faculty room. There he is interviewed by the police about Mizuno’s death. When he gets back to class, he finds all the students gone. After class he walks home with Mochikuzi and Takabayashi. They warn him that things are about to get rather bad for him and, right as Takabayashi attempts to explain, he dies of a heart attack. The next day in class, Kouichi finds that everybody is ignoring him. He finds the class roster in his desk from Mochikuzi, who also wrote a note asking him to ask Mei about it. He goes to the doll shop, which ends up being where Mei lives, and has her tell him about the story behind class 3.
It turns out that, when the class 3 of 26 years ago acted as though Misaki was actually alive, they invited the dead to the class. And an interesting phenomenon began to occur in the following years where, when the class size increased by one student, students and people related to them would start to die. Essentially, the “extra student” was actually one of the dead victims posing as a student in the class. As such, the students of the class started to form countermeasures against this phenomenon. The only thing that seemed to work was ignoring one of the students so that the number of students in the class would go back to the right number. And this is what was happening to Kouichi and Mei.
Wow. I definitely expected people to die in this show but not quite…so many. This is a crazy, gruesome and constant stream of death, which makes it quite clear that there is definitely, one hundred percent, something extremely wrong with class 3; though, we already knew that from the start. Either that, or the universe is pulling some crazy-as-hell coincidences and they’re not pretty. Though I find the deaths to be a little excessive at this frequency, they are rather effective plot devices in that they serve to emphasize the sense of urgency and dread that this “curse” is putting on the kids in the class. Though it may seem fairly antagonistic of the students to isolate one or two of their classmates in an attempt at self-preservation, I can’t blame them. I, myself, am a skeptic of all things superstitious, and yet, if I were in class 3 and witnessed all these deaths I would, quite frankly, flip my shit.
The ending revelation about the actual class “curse” came as a bit of a surprise to me. I thought it would be something along the lines of a ghost of Misaki out for revenge. So, in this sense, I’m pleased with what the phenomenon ended up being. Though I’m not typically one to prescribe to horror (and thus not familiar with the archetypes), I found it to be a very original twist on things. As to the dead in the class, the most obvious individual would be Kouichi himself. After all, the dead person has no memories of anything in the past and wouldn’t even be aware that they were dead. And wouldn’t it be perfectly convenient that the protagonist, the one we’ve been growing to trust and the individual, through whom we are experiencing this story, is in fact the villain of the entire affair? Furthermore, he’s definitely got a familial link to class 3 seeing as his mom was in the original class 3 and his aunt was also in it 15 years later. Also, isn’t it quite ironic that Reiko was in the class the same year that her sister, Kouichi’s mother, died? This theory would explain the sinister smile that he wore in the montage of images in the pilot episode as well as his apathetic response to recent string of deaths. It is this latter point that is especially concerning to me. If I were Kouichi, I would have been A LOT more concerned, bordering on hysteric, about the entire situation. The numbness in his response just doesn’t seem normal to me and I’m not willing to dismiss it as a coping mechanism.
Continuing on, Mei definitely had me fooled. Everything about her screamed that she was the ghost of the Misaki of 26 years past, from her doll eye, which is SO unsanitary, to her manner of speech, to her skin color. Let’s not forget the fact that the entire class didn’t acknowledge her existence, either. Though we supposedly understand the reasoning behind that last bit, the only reason I am inclined to believe that she exists is that Mochikuzi told Kouichi to ask her specifically about what was going on – which means that he knows she’s real. The past behavior of the other students, especially with Teshigawara telling Kouichi not to mess with things that don’t exist, also points to this conclusion. It still doesn’t explain why Sakuragi reacted with such horror at the sight of Mei before she got skewered by her umbrella, though. I’m definitely looking forward to the next episode to get some of my questions answered. …I wonder who’s next to die… T_T
Preview:
Um…romance?
About Zabobinator
Doesn't get enough sleep. Dork with a rather eclectic taste in manga and anime. Adores Studio Ghibli films.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
Class 3 deserves what they get. Not because it is mean to ignore people or whatever, but because they did such a sloppy job of integrating Kouichi. If the rules were that damned important, they should have made more of an effort to explain things to him.
People do this sort of thing all the time. Someone gets hired and then starts filling out the sugar bowls the wrong way, so everyone gets upset that the new guy made a mistake. Well if it was that damned important, explain the correct way to do things in the first place. If you don’t explain the rules in the first place, you have nobody to blame but yourselves when you start getting umbrellas though your eyeballs and stuff.
Learn from this, people! If you want someone to do something a special way, tell them what you want from them clearly before they are forced to guess. If you force them to guess, you forfeit your right to complain about them doing it wrong.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 243 comments
No, not in this case. They couldn’t have explained things without breaking the taboo on Misaki’s existence. Pretty vicious catch-22, don’t you agree? (Took me a little while to figure that out, but now it makes the whole ‘not explaining anything until it’s too late’ cliche actually pretty well-done in this case.)
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 338 comments
That revelation was amazing. I didn’t know what I was expecting but I liked it. And those deaths wow, they rival Higurashi! So realistic too, she even twitched! Love it, and ya those umbrellas are totally over rated.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Another – 03
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more disturbing: A doll’s eye as a replacement for the real one. One that can perceive unseen things. In an unrelated matter, I thought it was a Sharingan under that eye patch. This episode had more dolls than the previous ones. To me, it feels like the entire town is cursed, and all by the death of one girl.
There’s no way I’ll ever buy an umbrella with such a sharp tip. The way that girl died was gruesome. Almost like Final Destination. I replayed it “Another” 5 times. That was such a tragic/graphic death….poor girl……LETS WATCH IT AGAIN! Don’t know whether to blame the umbrella or the cheap shoes!! One thing’s certain, though. She should’ve been on the Red Cross’ donor list. Definitely a MAJOR bleeder…..
Another – 04
It’s turning out to be very gruesome. First Sakuragi dies from an umbrella and shortly after, her mother dies as well. A classmate nearly gets killed by pane of glass then mentally breaks down. There’s definitely a curse going on in the class and the more Kouichi gets deeper, the worse the situation gets. My gosh, I was thinking about umbrellas and now I have to pay mind to possibly broken down elevators, too. Poor Mizuno. She was too young and cute to die, especially in that gut wrenching fashion.
Another – 05
Mizuno dies in an elevator and her brother dies from a heart attack. I haven’t seen anything this creepy and thought provoking since Shiki and this show has the same pattern of genocide among the people living in the town and whoever has ties to Class 3. It has torturous cliffhangers and makes you wonder who will die next.
If Mikami-sensei is absent, it could mean she’s next in line to die since a classmate along with a relative dies every month. I’m surprised that Misaki isn’t a ghost. This is my thought: Since they treated Misaki as nonexistent so they thought they avoid the problem but then Kouichi joined the class making the number of students +1 so in exchange the deaths started to happen again… and now they decide to treat Kouichi as nonexistent too hoping this will again avoid the problem…
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Glad to see you were able to crawl out from under the mountain of schoolwork to post, Zabo~ :3
I was surprised that Mei was actually real. So surprised that I still refuse to believe she’s real <_< Anyways, I like the twists and turns of the story, but I feel like it's being dragged out too much. Or rather, it's being dragged out because Kouichi is so passive about everything and never directly asks people in the school what is going on. I just wish he would grab someone and shake them violently until they tell him what's going on. I don't mind slow storylines, but only if they're building up tension for a good reason. Another is trying so hard to be dramatic that it misses more than it hits. :/ Still...the story and art has me hooked, even if everything is a little bit ridiculous. :B
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
What if…Misaki is actually not real? As it was mentioned, people’s memories were altered, and even the ghost himself doesn’t realize that he’s a ghost. Meaning 1)the ghost thinks he’s real, and 2)he has the knowledge of the curse just like the other students. The ghost is so real that nobody even knows who the ghost is. And since the ghost acts like a human being, it’s not impossible if the class also picked the ghost to be the extra one. Mochizuki asked Misaki (indirectly) what she’s going to do because he doesn’t know who’s he ghost and thinks she’s real.
I’m being skeptic here, but it’s hard to say who the ghost is right now. Anybody, even Kouichi and Misaki, can be the ghost
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Thanks, I really did need that mind screw before I got to bed. Oh, well, you gave me an excuse for another glass of wine. Cheers.
Good Review, Zabo. I am glad to see you take your studies seriously (not pulling your chain by the way…I wish you all the best in your studies).
POWUH: 400-499 with 428 comments
So much bloodshed…that’s what we like, right? Especially with the genuine mystery. Some of the facts have already presented to us, like anaaga says above. So far, all of the deaths have just been…unfortunate accidents (sorry, Battler mode right now 😀 ), each of them explainable so far . I was pretty shocked to see Mizuno die so early because I thought she would have had SOME immunity because of her character’s importance of information passing but apparently that doesn’t earn you any brownie points with the Grim Reaper…
I had the feeling that Misaki wouldn’t be the ghost/boogeygirl probably because of a lack of…resistance? Idk why, but it was just a hunch. Koichi though, there are things more suspicious about him, especially if you’ve seen the latest episode 😛 and speaking of which, I WANT NEXT EPISODE NOW! Ep 6 definitely kept the pace up, which I won’t spoil for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet, but you will be pleased 😀
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
damn …I just watch this anime and WOW !! GREAT INTRO
GREAT QUALITY ON THE SOUND AND BACKGROUND
GOOD JOB P.A. Works
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 50 comments
I usually don’t like horror anime but this one has definitely got me hooked. God the deaths were so gruesome (which reminded me why I don’t usually watch these) but the suspense and
cliffhangersstory are so well laid out that I can’t help but be drawn in.On the theory of Kouichi being a ghost though i don’t think it’s possible. The ghost is supposed to have no memories at all, but kouichi knows the name of his old school in Tokyo, remembers his father and communicates with him. The only person he doesn’t remember is his mother and since she died giving birth to him that makes sense.
I think the ghost is actually the president of countermeasures for some reason.
Maybe because I don’t like herMisaki seems to obvious to me though, and I can’t really think of anyone else.POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
I. Freaking. Love. This. Show !!!!!!
Honestly, this was the twist I least expected in this show, and I’m so glad that I’m following it.. But now, I wonder, who will this dead person be. Clearly, not Misaki, because she still fits that role all too well. Maybe Kouichi, but we’ll see. :3 Can’t wait until some more interesting deaths ^_^
I’ll finally get someone to ramble with about this show on Metanorn 😀 Zabobinator, yoroshiku-ne~ ^_^