Another

Misaki Mei and Kouchi Sakakibara

Another

Episodes: 12 

Aired: Jan 10, 2012 - Mar 27, 2012

Another is not your typical horror anime. It doesn't involve scary monsters or your typical ghosts (Ghosts here don't really float and scare you). It's about a "curse" where the class 3 of Yomiyama North Junior High had to endure ever since a horrible incident involving the death of one of its student (Misaki). Legend has it that the classmates of Misaki (even after her death) treated her as if she was still alive and existing in the class. The only problem is that the already dead Misaki inexplicably showed up in their graduation photo (Yikes!). This is kinda where the mysterious curse began. This curse is a mystery to everyone, all they know is that every school year, student lives are taken through horrible freak accidents (one for each month). Over the years, the unlucky students who gets assigned to the cursed class, using clues from past students, designed "special rules" in the class in order to avoid the killings. (which did work)

The Unlucky Class of Yomiyama High

L-R: Reiko (a teacher and Kouchi's aunt), Kouchi and Kudobara-sensei.

 Our main protagonist is a 15 year old boy Sakakibara Kouchi, a transfer student from Tokyo. He is taken care of by his grandparents and his aunt Reiko Mikami (a former student of Yomiyama along with her mother). His mother died due after giving birth to him and his dad works in India. His arrival kinda complicates things for the students as it conflicts with the "rules" they have set. There he meets a mysterious girl with an eye patch, Misaki Mei, who is somehow invisible from the eyes of the other students. Not taking the advice of his fellow students to avoid whatever it is he's seeing, a negligence of the rules (though he didn't really know that rules existed), leads to a roller coaster ride of death and madness.

Sneak Peek at the Madness of Another

I think she fell face first on a patch of mud.

Now, Another,  possesses good and neat art, the characters at least for me, were a bit cute looking (just a tiny litte bit) for a horror anime, but it didn't really matter much because they showed genuine emotion fit for a horror story. The artists did a good job of rendering the creepiness, mysteriousness and the gore for the story whether through the cute but fine and detailed art, the creepy and dark backgrounds, and the sounds (that can be eerie at times). The plot is amazing, it'll keep you guessing until the end of each episode (and more times than not you'll end up wrong). It started slow and very mysterious, builds it up with answers and then adds more questions, and then when you finally realize what's going on it'll just take you by surprise. They did a great job at building it up for the climax.

The Original Class where it all began. (Rumor is that you can spot a ghost here)

26 later, the allegedly cursed class still exists.

They truly did a good job for the creating the atmosphere for a mystery horror show. Overall, it was above average, everything fits together and the only thing that really bothered me was the outrageous-ness of some of the deaths which can be pretty silly and funny. Another minor thing I didn't like (just a tiny bit) was the quick pacing near the end where everything will just blow up right in your face. It's a solid mystery, suspense, thriller that'll keep you on your toes.  

Plenty of scary looking dolls in this show ( I hate Dolls)

Specially "weird" and "creepy" looking dolls.

My Personal Rating: 9/10

OP1: Kyoumu Densen - Ali project (just like most of Ali project songs, this fits the madness of Another)

ED1: Anamnesis - Annabel  (this song will offer you some peace of mind with it's slow and relaxing melody, perfect after an episode of a horror show.)

Akira (Anime)

Akira

Episodes: 1 (Movie)

Aired: July 16, 1988

My Summary: WARNING!! SPOILERS!! (Skip to Review) Akira is set on 2019, tokyo which is now "Neo-Tokyo", a futuristic-dystopian-post-WW3 version of Tokyo. The image of Neo-Tokyo is that it's chaotic, there is tension between the army and the anti-government factions, bike gangsters are everywhere and violence are a common occurrence.  Our story begins in the middle of a night with our main characters(A group of teenage bike gangsters) having a fight with another gang. Not far away, a man with a pistol and an "old-looking child, Takashi" are making their way through the shadows of the city trying to avoid their pursuers. The man was eventually spotted and was shot by the soldiers. The boy, (who was able to hide in the shadows with the help of the man who is now dead) from great shock ,seeing a man in front of him get rained down by bullets, suddenly unleashed supernatural powers resulting in the breakage of glasses and structures.

Shotaro Kaneda riding his ultra cool Motorbike

Yamagato and Tetsou

The biker gangs, the kid and the army eventually encounters each other at one point. Tetsou, one of the teen bikers, got to an accident when he accidentally hits the "old-looking-kid"(who was wandering in the middle of the street!) with his bike. The kid was safe, but Tetsou's bike suddenly was blown up (He hits an invisible barrier instead of thekid LOL) The army accompanied by another "old-looking fat kid, Masaru" captures the one who tried to escape and they also took Tetsou with them. The biker gang who is led by Shotaro Kaneda (The Main Protagonist along with Yamagata and Kaisuke) were eventually arrested by the police (Eventually they will be released).

The Old Looking Kid with Psychic Powers, Takashi

Ok! I'll stop calling him Old now

In some secret army lab, Colonel Shikishima and a doctor were examining Tetsou and discovers that he has the potential to be on par with a supernatural being they call Akira. The Doctor reveals that his powers were possibly awakened due to exposure from the power of the old looking kid (Takashi). Tetsou escapes from the lab and meets up with Kaori (A timid shy girl who is obviously someone special for Tetsou) and invites her to run away. They went to the school and stole Kaneda's red motorbike and ran away until for some reason the bike stopped and unfortunately another biker faction was on the same area. Tetsou was beaten up and Kaori was attempted to be raped until Kaneda and the others saves them. After the incident Tetsou showed frustrations for not being able to do anything and being saved by Kaneda again. His frustrations however led to headaches and then to strange delusions such as the ground breaking and his guts spilling out of his stomach, being monitored by the doctor who feared something wrong is happening, the army and some doctors again took Tetsou back to the hospital.

Tetsou being experimented on the Lab

Tetsou and Kaori

Kaneda will help a young female terrorist "Kei" (They met in the Prison) avoid soldiers (Unfortunately they killed one). Kei eventually let Kaneda join her group of rebellions to help them uncover the governments secrets and rescue Tetsou. Kaneda and Kei with fellow terrorists infiltrates the secret lab. The infiltration proved to be fatal as the terrorist were taken by surprised by flying machines (mounted with machine guns yikes!).  Kei and Kaneda barely escaped and did managed to steal one of the machines which they used to proceed further in the lab.

Tetsou playing with his new friends

Tetsou Ate Something Bad

During the infiltration Kei displayed powers of telepathy as Kiyoko used her to tell Kaneda directions to reach deeper inside the lab. Eventually they find Tetsou in the middle of a fight with the Experimental Children (Takashi, Kiyoko and Masaru). Kiyoko reveals to Tetsou that Akira is the one who is messing with his head. Kaneda tried to convince Tetsou to come with them but Tetsou's stubbornness prevailed and with his new found powers he wanted to do things by himself without the help of others, specially Kaneda. He escaped and flew out of the lab and was headed to a secret underground facility below the Olympic construction site in search for Akira. 

Keisuke, Kaneda and Kei

The Psychic Children: Masaru, Kiyoko and Takashi

The angry Colonel Shikishima (he disobeys the executive councils command to strip him of his duties and started a coup d'etat) ordered the army to hunt for Tetsou. Yamagata and Keisuke had an encounter with Tetsou in their hideout. Tetsou took a detour at the hideout to get drugs, he killed Yamagata but let Keisuke escape. By this time the whole country is in chaos as the army tries to take control against the government. Tetsou leaving trails of destruction in his path made way through the city and eventually reached the secret underground lab, there waits a somewhat possessed Kei. The two battled (Super Saiyan Style!) and eventually Tetsou won and he was able to acquire the special containers containing human organs (Akira is revealed to have already died). Kaneda confronts him and had an arguement with him (Turns out Tetsou is tired of Kaneda always bossing and telling him what to do).

Possessed Kei vs Awakened Tetsou

L-R: Akira, Akira, Akira, Akira, Akira, Akira, Akira & Tetsou

As the argument heated up a fight between the two ensued. The fight between Kaneda and Tetsou was one sided, not even lasers from satellites can stop Tetsou by this point, though he did lost an arm before he went outer space and blasted the whole thing. Kaneda with the help of Kei and Kaisuke barely escapes. During this time Tetsou gradually loses control of his powers, he was visited by Kaori and the Colonel. Again, even with obvious pain Tetsou's stubbornness took over as he refuses the Colonel's advice to come back to the lab and take medicine. The colonel shot him, he retaliates and almost kills the Colonel until Kaneda comes to the rescue. By this time Tetsou finally loses all control when his body mass expands to large proportions, he accidentally kills Kaori (squished within his growing body). The three experimental children kneeled down before the organ containers (They were saying something like "Akira is here").

Tetsou Lost his arm...

...and messes up replacing it.

As Tetsou's growth uncontrollably progresses, the containers suddenly breaks, and a big white orb (turns out its an explosion) pops out of nowhere and pulls Tetsou inside of it.. Takashi, Kiyoko and Masaru tries to prevent the growing explosion by going inside of it too. During the explosion (in mid air) Kaneda experiences glimpses of Tetsou's past and the experimental children's past. The explosion wasn't really entirely prevented as it blew a substantial amount of land but Kaneda somehow survived (Probably with the help of the Children) and the other side characters did too except for the doctor who got squished in his lab. The Children with Tetsou and Akira disappeared but they did hinted that something had just begun and that Kei will play an important role with things that are about to happen.

Tetsou Loses Control (Poor Kaori T_T)

The Great Explosion

Now who the hell is Akira? Akira is also an experimental child who is the strongest of them all. He holds supreme God-like powers and for this reason he was sealed in a cryogenic chamber. (his body parts were sealed in special containers). Kiyoko explained that Akira's power actually existed in every single human just waiting to be awakened.

Review: The Art for an 80's film was superb, very very detailed, the animations are very fluid and nothing is ever kept still. The backgrounds were all moving and alive. It's beautiful but there's a lot of gore and guts too so watchers beware. Even by today's standards only a few can match the art of Akira. Now the plot is complex but well made and is very imaginative, the anime did a great job of showing that to the film. The only problem with the plot is its fast pacing which kinda ruined the character development, maybe because they have crammed a lot of manga material into a 2 hour film. I'm sure the manga is better and will explain things a lot better (more character development and on what happens after and before the movie) and I'm hoping that I can read it one of these days. The Concept of having God-like powers is explored quite well, they showed that with greater power, the more isolated someone will be. He/she will transcend into something not human, and might view humans as mere animals or insects.(Of course his/her perspective will change they way Tetsou's did as he was able to kill one of his friends without hesitation). Overall I am very pleased with the movie and was amazed by the art and plot. If you like Psychological, Scifi and Thriller then this one is for you, The plot is kinda heavy but if your like me (who loves seinen btw) you'll enjoy this.

My Personal Rating: 9/10