The basic story of Another is that a new student moves in, only to befriend a girl that no one else seems to see. When he meets her and starts to seek her out to try and become friends with her, bad things start to happen. There isn’t much more that can be said about the story since that would give away far too many twists. Overall, the story was rather interesting, as it was not something I had seen before in a mystery horror manga. Many of the mystery horror mangas tend to follow the same story line of a lot of people dying from a mysterious cause and everyone has to figure it out, however, this took a different spin.
Art -7-
The art within the manga was also on par on what it should be, as the characters were distinctive and the art got the point across. This series was not supposed to make any artistic stretches, so the artist, Hiro Kiyohara, kept the details to a minimum. Since this was in the horror genre, there was some gore, and that is always hard to do correctly. They tended to stay away on drawing some of the more detailed aspects, such as skin being sliced and broken bones, but what they did do, they did well.
Character -8-
The characters in the manga all had a reason to their actions and it was clear to see why. The main character, Kouichi, was a more passive main character, which was different from many other horror mangas, where the main character is much more active and more of a leader. The other main character, Mei, also did not really develop through the series; rather she stayed the same as when she is first introduced in the first book. This wasn’t a series where the characters were supposed to develop however, so that cannot be counted against them. The only characters that deserved a bit more detail to be revealed about them was Izumi and Yuuya. Izumi was shown to have a rather destructive home life and not much was known about Yuuya, and these were two of the more interesting characters that were not really focused on.
Enjoyment -9-
Overall, the enjoyment of the manga was high, as it was interesting to try and figure everything out with the main character Kouichi. Since this manga is classified as horror, there is a lot of gore, which could take away some of the appeal toward those who are not a fan of the genre. However, as I am a very big fan of this genre, it was very enjoyable for me. The only real turn off was that it was so short and so many other avenues could have been explored through the other characters. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery and doesn’t mind a little bit of blood along the way.
Overall -7.75-
This manga only had a few flat points, being the somewhat common storyline within its genre and the art was average. If the story had been expanded upon more, making it a bit more complex than it was, the story would have felt a bit more original. The art also needed to go beyond drawing the characters well, but also needed to put more details into the gore and backgrounds. These two things however do not stop me from recommending the series, as it was rather well done for what it was and it is a quick and easy read once you get settled down.
