This episode… just went all out. Now that everyone knows that the dead student needs to die, this show just descends into one giant string of murders, with the ghost helping a little bit here and there. Holy crap, this was intense.
While the series has its problems, with this I do have to say that aside from perhaps Milky Holmes and Natsume Yuujinchou (both sequels), Another stands as my favorite Winter Season so far, because of how interesting it made its own plot. The progression so far was very creative, it knows how to use mystery really well, and now that things are spiraling out of control it’s really turning into very good horror here.
Problems in this episode were the abundance of overblown facial expressions, along with that fire in the kitchen. I’m no physics major, but I’m very sure that fire doesn’t work that way. Of course, it’s possible to build up an explosion and all, but that’s only assuming that the pressure can’t escape. While this is plausible in a new building, the hotel they were in seemed rather old. Plus, with a giant fire burning everywhere I’m not sure why there weren’t any holes burnt into the walls at some point. Or why nobody could hear an entire dinner room on freaking fire.
But yeah, the gore was good, but what really made this episode was the psychological horror of everyone just going crazy. This entire episode made use of that by using the entire class for that. One point of criticism would be that the series should have focused more on each of these people, because it’s pretty obvious who the ghost is right now by the logic of that 1) it has to be a named character and 2) it has to be someone who stays into the background, but for that you’d need a 24 episode series.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
The explosion is called backdraft and while exaggerated, it is physically possible.
I just figured the fire got to the gas line.
Whether it would be better as a 2 cour/ 24 or 26 episode or 1 cour/ 12 or 13 episode anime, they did not waste any episode for this one. I really enjoyed the students’ descent to madness. When Takako played the tape, that was pure icing on cake. Watching Another was a sweet ride for me. Wonder how it’s gonna end.
The source material is some 600 pages so there really wouldn’t be enough material for 2 cours. But anyways it was a very enjoyable episode, though maybe a bit over the top at times. The whole class going into insane zombie mode just because of what one girl said over the radio felt a bit forced.
I think it wouldn’t have played out to the anime’s advantage had they turned this into a 2 cour series. That would’ve played out as pretty much a 1:1 adaptation of the source material and could have rendered some portions pretty boring.
Everything necessary was basically in the anime (it often used showing instead of telling quite well) the only thing dragging it down were some strange directing decisions. It’s not like with Mouryou no Hako where they basically cut away half of the book to make the plot fit.
Damn, I watched this episode in the freakin dark! . . .I usually hate gore in horror stuff but this episode did it Right. . .
How did the glasses chick die, I was a bit confused. . .it looked like when she got pulled up by the thing that caught her neck, that it was crushing her head and splattering her brains all over Mei lol. . .
what a fitting end for the glasses chick (I did not like her at all…)
I agree with Pat about the fire. Fire can be pretty vicious and backdraft is clearly a real possibility. Btw, this series is simply awesome.
Yeah. Agree with the many people above. If this had been 2 cour, I guess it wouldn’t be as well executed as
The one now. It’d probably have some fillers in between but who knows. Reason why i usually am worried about 2-cour series is mostly due to the fillers :/
But heck, Another has been awesome so far and I really hope the series will end well, even though I wonder how they are gonna stuff everything in one episode. I for one applaud the director of this series. 😉
If you’re going to keep a secret from the class do a better job of preserving it. Sakaki & Co. had a choice last week: destroy that infernal tape, or play it for the class in a controlled situation, like the dining hall earlier that night.
Instead, they did neither; the tape fell into the wrong hands at the wrong time, and boom…High School Blood Festival.
“Backdraft: this is a classic backdraft. I am a firefighter, but fortunately have not suffered one of these myself. You can tell its a backdraft because of the way the fire is “breathing”, the smoke appearing and disappearing. The fire doesn’t have enough oxygen to burn, but is smoldering, heating up to a few thousand degrees. It forces the smoke out then sucks it back in as it tries to get oxygen. Then someone has opened a door or broken a window and kaboom – to use the technical term.”
Example of a real life backdraft: http://www.break.com/index/fire_causes_major_backdraft.html
Gimmicky, but good.
Aw yeah this episode was awesome indeed. Even with the unintended comedy with the facial expressions and a few logic holes, it didn’t matter cause it was fun to watch from beginning to end.
So the show started off as ‘Final Destination’, now its thrown in ‘Battle Royal’ into the mix. Hohoho, Fun stuff.
Like I already said in the shout box, I must have really enjoyed this episode because i was laughing most of the way through.
… is that what you call unintended serious humour?
Exactly my thoughts. Now they should really do a Battle Royale anime – now that would be fantastic!
I know, I’m kind of surprise they never tried one, I mean, they did do a couple of (terrible) movies afterall. They should adapt the manga, now that was epic! Give it something like 52 episodes and it would be perfect! Battle Royale is one of my favourite manga, it’s just so gory and sad 😀
Liar Game and Bloody Monday should get adaptations too! But the Battle Royale anime would be an icing on the cake!
good old backdraft – ok it shouldn’t be so big if there is still fire, which means there is still fuel to support the reaction
on the other side he shouldn’t be able to open those doors as knob would be rather hot
but that hanging that was total exaggeration
awesome episode to watch, I loved how the deaths just kept piling on and how some of the characters went batshit crazy there.
One thing that annoys the hell out of me is that Mei Misaki knows who the killer is, and throughout the whole thing, doesn’t think about blurting it out or explaining herself. And her face just remains stoic throughout.
The only way i can make this believable is think of her as having some kind of mental condition that means she is unable to pull any kind of facial expression.
Anwyays awesome horror and gore, and loved the variety in deaths. I knew as soon as the tape played in 10 where he said you have to kill the ghost, that something like this would happened, but it was done very well.
The plot holes are becoming numerous now. Playing a small part of a tape and saying “this girl is dead because she didn’t have an eyepatch when she was younger” and not to mention saying it like a delirious psychopath is enough to turn students into mindless zombies that chant.
The dining hall was on fire and not only did nobody notice but isn’t there normally smoke? The door wasn’t completely closed, there should have been smoke bellowing out of it.
Misaki, staying completely stoic will students are trying to kill you is only making things worse! And could you at least try to say “I am not the dead one.” Or throw out a small explanation of your cousin. Sure they probably won’t believe it but it doesn’t hurt to try. And picking up a weapon after someone dies in front of you… Christ.. Are you trying to get yourself killed?
Plus shouldn’t the Countermeasure girl have noticed that her friend was strangled instead of stabbed?
It would have been nice to see that girl displaying psychotic tendencies instead of making her go crazy off-screen.
Does rigor mortis set in fast enough to make your legs still bent when you hit your head on the pavement?
You know what? Feck it. I shall treat this like Mirai Nikki. Turn off brain. Enjoy. It is good mindless fun when you get down to it.
Do That!
Well, every one of my predictions pretty much went tango uniform.
Still, fun watch.
Upon noticing the fire and realising that the alarm doesn’t work, why didn’t Koichi immediately run through the building shouting “FIRE! FIRE IN THE DINING ROOM!”?
Or he could announce it from the speakers like the girl did with the tape. Considering it only took her a minute to get to the announcement room from the main hall it couldn’t have been too far away.
Just as Mei was about to mention who the dead student is, Teshigawara urgently enters the room. The plot progresses by making almost everyone go mad. Wow talk about bad storytelling. Many times this episode made me laugh. And this is actually one of the better anime from the winter season.
This anime kinda reminded me of Shiki at times, but there they had more time to develop the characters, here I don’t care much for most of the characters since I don’t know them.
i agree that this episode is ridiculous …
I push him and he’s not moving .. but maybe he’s still alive? let’s search him leisurely and slowly …
Someone’s stabbed? no big deal …
The dinning room is on fire and the manager died? Let’s tell everyone one by one personally and privately in their room …
the situation is in chaos, but let’s not call the police lol ..
seems like no one take death and fire accident seriously in this episode >.<
the way some character died is .. kinda stoopid too .. yoga position lol?
I decided to read the manga, so far it's better than the anime ( still waiting for chapter 19 to be translated now
Well The phones aren’t working and there’s no cell reception, also the building is old so probably no fire alarm.
you can shout “FIRE!!”
and maybe they can’t call the police. That’s actually ok since no phone etc.
but why they have to say “let search her face, and call the police later?”
Christ! This was complete insanity. I was shivering throughout this episode.
Didn’t want to wait between episodes when it was airing so I just picked it back up now… and WOW. I don’t know who the dead person is though, since I can chain the episodes without having time to sit back and think.
You said it in an earlier review ep Psgels (I think the beach episode?) but it’s making me crazy with all the red herrings, I’m jumping at everything.
Seriously, fire generates a LOT of carbon dioxide and usually some monoxide (not to mention HEAT), you can’t just go walking around a house that’s fully engulfed in fire. Nobody seems to give a crap about the fire. People are acting like “oh, the house is on fire, that’s nice.” Maybe it’s a Japanese thing, I don’t know. Most of the characters that died in this anime would have probably died on their own even without the help of the “incident” seeing how they were living.
People saying this is scary… riiight. Go watch Ghost Hunt (anidb a4564, ep18-21, might need to watch ep01 first to know who’s who) and then come back saying this is genuinely scary.