If you have been to my blog in, say last 3 months, you'd notice that even I've been lagging behind on many other series, there is one series, regardless how busy I was, I always, always allocate my Monday night to see the newest episode of Another.
Simply put, Another is about the most amazing suspense horror anime series I have seen for years.
The approach of the series is rather traditional. It lays out the puzzle one piece at a time while the solution plays catch-up. As I said in earlier posts, for a good suspense series, you'll need some good tension to pull the audience along, but too much tension would just make people feel like being teased unreasonably. This puzzle solution seesaw game allows the story to keep a nice balance to keep the tension just right.
As far as plot goes, it uses some classic techniques such as hidden clues like those you've seen in movies like the Six Sense (which in my opinion is the only good movie Shyamalan made) which cleverly drops clue everywhere but nobody would understand the significance of its meaning until the very end. For the most part, the plot is pretty consistent. There isn't any obvious plot hole I could spot aside from the little attempt that tries to extend the series for one episode without having to reveal the key answer as I noted in the previous post. But even that was mostly address in the last episode so it is somewhat understandable.
While the plot is good, alone it won't be able to propel the series to where it stands right now. The music and art work, especially the background art are just down right amazing. What's really noticeable is the usage of rust everywhere in the background to render a very creepy atmosphere no matter where they go.
Even though I think there's a bit lack of "spectacular-ness" in the grand finale, but as a whole, this is just an amazing ride from the beginning. As you may have guessed, I am just in love with this series, and I'm going to hand it
Short Season Anime of the Season for January 2012 Season
Final scoreboard:
Drama: 97 (Very interesting)
Comedy: N/A
Action: 92 (Death and destruction)
Art/Animation: 98 (Amazing background art)
Sound/Music: 97 (Great BGM)
Character: 90 (Colorful, though short-lived)
Plot: 98 (Simply great)
Ending: 90 (Slightly lack of octane)
Re-watch value: 70 (Loses some mystery, but still interesting)
Overall: 96 - Amazingly Suspenseful
Recommendation: If you like suspense horror, then you definitely don't want to miss this one. This is just about the best horror series I've seen in years.
p.s. I am now in love with Misaki's voice. The calmness and the unique tone is just one of a kind that I don't think I've heard anything similar before. It's a pretty safe bet that in the future I'd be totally watching everything she's a main cast. (^_^)b
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