Another

Tweekums

In the spring of 1998 Sakakibara Kouichi transfers to a school in the town of Yomiyama; it isn't long before he hears a strange story; twenty six years previously a popular girl in the same class died and, unable to cope with her death, her classmates just pretended she was still alive and present in the class. Since then class 3-3 has been cursed! Initially his new classmates are unwilling to tell him any of the details. He befriends the slightly strange Mei Misaki who is ignored by the other children and wears a patch over her left eye; soon afterwards one of his classmates dies in a freakish accident. It is now that he learns the details of the curse; each year there is 'another' student in the class; this student is actually dead but for the duration of that school year there is no way of determining which student it is as records and memories change to accommodate them… because of this student a student, teacher or close relation will die each month; the only way to avoid this is to completely ignore one member of the class; this year it was Misaki but by talking to her it appears that Kouichi has activated the curse; will they be able to find a way of negating the curse or are more and more people going to die?

This horror anime has a distinctly creepy feel and at times in rather gory; the first death we see sets the scene as to what to expect; a girl trips while walking down the stairs and her umbrella impales her through the throat. After this the sense of paranoia increases as the rest of the class start to worry about who will be next. There are inevitable plenty more deaths and even when they learn how a member of a previous class 3-3 stopped the curse the deaths don't stop; in fact this knowledge just makes thing much worse as the students struggle to ensure they survive. The deaths are varied and fairly creative and the series effectively establishes the rules by which the curse operates. There is a good sense of mystery throughout; early on we wonder what is going on and may even speculate whether or not Misaki is a ghost and once it is established that she isn't one is left with far more questions: 'which class member is actually dead?' 'who will die next and how?' and 'will they find a way to stop the curse?' The conclusion is a little melodramatic and very bloody but it is also effective and leads to a shocking revelation as to who is the dead one. The animation is done well and the characters are distinctive; especially Misaki with the eyepatch that covers a glass eye that is bright green. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to anybody looking for a good horror anime so long as you don't mind some disturbing gore.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

score 9/10

Tweekums 3 October 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3327913/