It is definitely one of the best representatives of the genre.
Horror is not the most common genre for anime, and even rarer is a successful one that is not a low-budget adaptation of Junji Ito or a retelling of Lovecraft.
In honor of the fact that we finally entered the month of Halloween, we remembered one of the most important horror titles and a must-see for every fan of the genre – Another.
What Is Another About?
Koichi moved from Tokyo to Yomiyama for two reasons: his single father is constantly on the road, and the boy is sick with pneumothorax – a collapsed lung. Because of the diagnosis, life in a new place begins with a hospital bed – and it is here that Koichi first meets a mysterious girl with an eye patch, who takes the elevator down to the vending machine in the lobby.
She goes to the morgue floor, holding a beautiful but creepy porcelain doll in her hands. The stranger somehow catches the boy's eye, and when it turns out that they are classmates, Koichi immediately decides to be friends.
Her name is Mei, and she is also the "another" that everyone in the class ignores. While the new guy is trying to figure out what this even means, people start dying around him. This is how Koichi finds out that the class in which he now studies has been under a curse for 26 years, from which it seems impossible to escape.
Another Is One of the Best Horror Titles Ever
When people talk about horror anime, Another is usually mentioned somewhere in the top five. This is not surprising: the series is built on the J-horror model, interpreting its tropes gracefully and regularly throwing new mysteries at the viewer.
The choice of the main character is no less interesting: Koichi is not a local and does not know what happened to his new class. Together with the viewers, he is forced to figure everything out on the fly.
He is not a very good main character: the boy often remains almost an extra against the background of the chaos. However, this does not mean that the character himself is bad: not everyone is destined to be a hero.
This is what makes Koichi so compelling: it is easy for almost anyone who has ever found themselves in an unfamiliar situation with no obvious way out to put themselves in the place of the confused young man in a whirlpool of mystical events.
Another Is Different from Western Horror Projects
Another is also gripping because even understanding the nature of the curse does not help the students deal with it. The paranormal remains paranormal – and here, unfortunately, no logic can save.
This is how Japanese horror differs from European horror: an aspen stake works against Dracula, and werewolves do not like silver bullets. There is no salvation from Japanese ghosts and demons: you can delay the inevitable or free yourself personally, but it is almost impossible to nip evil in the bud.
Where to Watch Another?
Another is available to stream on Crunchyroll.