The thing is... the story it set up was actually very interesting. And I'm a little disappointed that the way it played out and concluded was kind of weak. It was this interesting mix of actual supernatural occurrences combined with misinterpreted ordinary occurrences where you might expect the problems to be supernatural. What stood out most, early on, was how much I liked that Mei was actually (mostly) just an ordinary girl with a dark past. Most of her mystery boils down to family secrets and a notable lack of magic or ghosts or curses or whatnot. While there WAS a mystical element there, this particular point grounded the story a little, and I really liked that.
Despite the heavy-handed eeriness... (the constant creepy music, the way there doesn't seem to be a single building in this whole damn town with proper lighting...) the tone of this series actually had a lot of twists and turns. It starts out really dark and dreary, but then gets surprisingly lighthearted when Mei and Kouichi start to become friends. It was actually really uplifting. And when the effects of the curse really start to pick up, the students who are left form this little team trying to puzzle it out and find a way to stop it. And Another started to feel like it could be this almost cheesy friendship story.
And I honestly kind of wish they'd stuck to that route. When things really go downhill, it started to feel like the writers were more concerned with shock value than the overall success of their story. It didn't feel the least bit triumphant when they finally (sort of) deal with the curse.
All in all, they went a little overboard establishing the ominous atmosphere, it was hard to feel attached to most of the people who get killed off, and the end was kind of disappointing and didn't really feel complete. But they had all the elements here for a story that COULD have been really good.
