Another Anime Review/Impressions

             Here's a show that's complex and has a lot of depth, this is the kind of stuff you rarely find in your typical anime. Coupled with a terrific score, art, mood, and theme's this may be the best anime I have seen in recent years.

             Now I have this under my review section but think of it more as initial impressions or a mid season overview. The reason  for this is simple, the show is still ongoing. I believe they just finished airing the 10 episode, which I have yet to get to on account of being a busy bee. Anyway this post will just go over how I feel about this show. Out of all the horror themed anime Another is by far the best, in terms of building suspense and creating a genuine feeling of dread and despair there is none better. Another is set in 1998 in a place called Yomiyama and follows a student by the name of Kōichi Sakakibara as he tries to solve the mystery surrounding class 3-3.

          The plot is a little more complex then my summary but you get the gist of it. My knowledge of the show goes up to episode eight, so what happens on latter episodes remains unclear to me and I won't be speaking about those one's. So far the show has had a couple of constants. However every time one of the main cast seems to figure something out or get closer to solving the mystery, something else comes to their attention and either completely erases what they originally thought would happen or present them with a new way of seeing the situation. An example of this is in the beach episode, in which they believe that the deaths can only happen in their town and once one of the students leave they are immune to the curse and safe from death. Only to have that notion completely false, though a smart person would have seen that coming it is still interesting to see how it all works together.

        The characters are school kids as per usual, though one relationship that is interesting to note is Koichi's and Mei. Mei is a character that is considered a outsider for reasons that are integral to the plot so won't be spoiled. It is interesting to see these two relationship become stronger as the series progresses. The other characters need to be strong in order for this anime to truly reach greatness, especially if you are going to kill them off, they need to have some sort of appeal to people so that when their deaths come they really leave an impact on the viewer.

      Like the score, the artwork is just as good and it conveys a bleak and desolate sense infused throughout the shows episodes. Even when they go to the beach you know that they are not really having fun because they carry this burden of possibly being the next one to die. The characters are believable, with great art and a pleasant but foreboding soundtrack this is on anime that shouldn't be missed. Cause who knows will you live to die ANOTHER day.......

8/10

+Great story, cast, art, score
+Pacing is at a good pace
-Need to stay up to date
-I almost feel like I would care more for the characters if the setting was somewhere else and they had been older like university students perhaps.