I rarely reach for horror manga, but in the end, stepping out of my comfort zone a bit, I decided to break through.
Nervous class
Kouichi Sakakibara ends up in the hospital for several months. The reason is the recurrence of pneumothorax, which the boy has been suffering from for a long time. Accustomed to hospital stays, he worries about skipping the beginning of the school year more than with his own health. Fortunately, he is not alone: his family visits him and manages to befriend one of the nurses. Eventually, his new class arrives, asking about his health and when he can leave the hospital. At this point, Kouichi notices the strange behavior of his future colleagues for the first time.
After returning to school, the boy becomes anxious. Students in his class are nervous and he meets a girl with an eye patch. When he tries to find out about her, those around him dismiss his questions as if she doesn’t exist. It also seems that only Kouichi is able to see and hear her. Are we dealing with one great conspiracy of silence? Or maybe there is something wrong with the main character’s head? The boy decides to discover the truth on his own. It doesn’t take long before one witnesses the death of a classmate. And this is just the beginning…
Japanese horror
The tension in Another is built on the secrets surrounding the characters and their gradual discovery. The reader feels lost with the protagonist, because even discovering the answers to some questions leads to more puzzles. This effect lasts until the end of the story, which is its big advantage. As in horror movies, dead bodies appear. The characters’ causes of death are mysterious and mysterious, and it is hard to find the key to successive victims. The macabre scenes appear very rarely. Usually, we learn about someone’s death from dialogues or by showing a dead person in the frame. In the case of this series, limiting the number of violent scenes works to her advantage, because when they do appear, they can make an impression.
The characters drawn by Hiro Kiyohara are distinguished by realistic anatomy and features that make it easy to distinguish them. The backgrounds are fairly simple for the most part, although there are also some more detailed forms. Unfortunately, the rooms do not stand out with anything. The entire manga is in lighter tones, except for more dramatic and emotional scenes. At the beginning of each volume, we find several colored pages, then we deal with black and white.
Kouichi and Mei
The two main characters, Kouichi Sakakibara and Mei Misaki (the girl with the headband) have been well created and they act reliably and rationally in their actions. Both of them have had some difficult past events behind them. Solving the mystery of the curse becomes their priority for very personal reasons. Of the less important characters, only a few deserve more attention. Let me use the example of a librarian who has been trying for years to figure out how to stop the death spiral.
Summary
Another is a horror film that creates a disturbing atmosphere and revealing secrets. We will not find much macabre in it, and the mystery of the raging curse could also appeal to lovers of crime stories. Although the investigation that is taking place here is very different from the typical scheme, and it will be impossible to identify the real villain.
