The horror anime Another had a very promising and innovative premise for its time, but the conclusion ruined the entire series. This is why.
Broadcast in 2012, the horror anime Other wowed viewers with the intricate rules of the cursed Yomiyama North Middle School’s ninth grade class 3, as revealed through the completely clueless new transfer student, Kouichi. Living with his aunt Reiko, he met a strange and ghostly-looking girl named Mei whom none of his other classmates can apparently see. Unbeknownst to Kouichi, Class 3 has been cursed for 26 years, resulting in the death of a student or someone directly related to them every month until graduation. This is because for every class roster, there is an additional student who is raised from the dead. No one knows who the dead student is, not even themselves, because everyone’s memory has been altered. Previous students found out 15 years earlier that if a single student is designated to be treated as if they don’t exist within the class, then the curse has a 50% chance of being lifted. The same class was also the first class to stop the curse mid-year.
Therefore, Mei is designated as the “nonexistent student” for that year. Kouichi, who is unaware of what was happening because the class officer tasked with telling him, Izumi, was absent on her first day, recognizes and talks to Mei, breaking the rules. As the students begin to die, the students and teachers try to make Kouichi a nonexistent student alongside Mei to combat the curse. This proves to be unsuccessful, so Kouichi, Reiko, and a few other students go to the beach to meet with Matsunaga, Reiko’s former classmate from Class 3 from 15 years ago to clear up the conditions of the curse. He reveals that the only way to truly stop the curse is to kill the extra student or “send the dead to their deaths”.
Mei eventually reveals that she has a twin sister who died just before Kouichi transferred and technically caused the curse to happen a month before everyone else thought it happened. As the Class 3 students go on a field trip to an inn near Yomiyama Shrine to pray for their safety, they grow suspicious of each other. Soon, the students are overcome with fear and try to kill each other. Izumi concludes that Mei is the extra student after another student claims to have gone to high school and both of her eyes were intact. Instead, she turned out to be her secret twin sister.
After Izumi is killed by lightning-induced glass shrapnel after trying to kill Mei, Mei reveals that she was in fact the assistant teacher, Mrs. Mikami, who is revealed to be Kouichi’s aunt Reiko. She was killed a year and a half ago, and in order to break the curse on her, Kouichi takes it upon himself to kill her. After reflecting on the events of the year before her memory is finally erased, the students record a message for future students on how to break the curse, just like Matsunaga did for them.
While the slow reveal of the curse through Kouichi’s perspective was well paced, the ending felt very rushed. It seemed to have transformed from a suspenseful murder mystery to be solved into a battle royale. This sudden gender change coupled with the outrageous reveal that Mrs. Mikami was Kouichi’s aunt Keiko cheapened what was supposed to be a big reveal. Many viewers complained that the entire buildup of finding the “extra student” was also ruined by turning the extra student into a teacher. The ending is often criticized for being too chaotic and suspenseful, as the buildup of the previous 10 episodes is wasted. It is also not revealed who or what was behind the curse in the first place.
From the foreigner’s perspective, viewers were fascinated to discover the secrets of the curse, and the suspense of who was going to die next had fans on their toes. However, the reward was not satisfying enough to complete the journey. Other it definitely had potential, but it’s definitely a testament that if the big reveal isn’t executed successfully, then all the buildup will be for nothing.
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