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If you ask around for horror anime recommendations, there is this one anime that always comes up as “the best horror”.
A slice-of-life, comedy, ecchi, harem show called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni…Oh, and it also has some minor horror elements, apparently.
Whenever I asked around why people like Higurashi, the most common answer I’d get, was that it’s scary. No long explanation of why it’s scary or how it’s scary, no, no, it’s just a scary show.
So I explored more into the “elitist” and “critics” realm of the anime community, to see what they say about Higurashi. And apparently this show is viewed ... positively by the anime community… How?
My first reaction when finishing Higurashi was that no one took it seriously and that everyone called it edgy, but people actually liked it.
This show has such sloppy-written characters, use of clickbait mystery, absolutely messed up setting and premise, appalling pacing, and not to mention the very cheesy themes and messages it has.
I know some of you already disliked the review, but please hear me out before you dislike this. I’m not just going to leave it at that and conclude that’s why Higurashi is horrible, not at all. I’ll go in depth as to why this anime fails as a horror anime, and why it fits more as a slice-of-life moe show.
Also, I’m really, really sorry if I piss any of you off. My intention is not to piss you off. If you love Higurashi, then good for you. I’m not forcing you to hate this show. I’m just presenting my own opinions on this show.

Higurashi is set in a village called Hinamizawa, where there is this festival called the cotton-ball festival, in which every year, two people die in peculiar ways — one gets spirited away by the demons, and the other commits suicide or dies in an accident. This is called “Oyashiro-Sama’s curse”.
Not to lie, that’s a brilliant setting for a “supernatural horror”.
But when I started watching Higurashi, it was anything but what they wrote in the synopsis.
They blasted over-the-top slice-of-life moe comedy at the screen for two and a half episodes — two and a half episodes. And just in the midst of these episodes they managed to squeeze in some information about the curse by completely removing any trace of comedy from before, and changing the soundtrack and tone of the show temporarily to a horror.
And in episode three, everything suddenly gets serious for some reason.
I was actually waiting for them to finish the episode off with “It was just a prank bro”, but after finishing that episode, they were really serious.
The problem with Higurashi is that it’s a moe comedy, yet tries to be a horror at times. Moe comedy gives you relief, and horror gives you discomfort. For a show to combine both, you know it has such a low chance of actually succeeding, because I actually thought episode three was a joke because the first two episodes have been nothing but comedy. The way Higurashi squeezes in these “serious moments” don’t go very smoothly.
There was this one video review I watched on Higurashi by UnderTheScope, and at 2:33, he says, “One minute you have moe girls laughing and playing games, and the next they are at each other’s throats brutally murdering each other.”
And then right after that he claims that Higurashi is a master of pacing… “master of pacing.”
That’s a contradiction. The fact that the tone changes in the matter of minutes is bad pacing and only played for shock value.
What this show does is that it wants to shock you by suddenly turning the characters insane. But there’s no build-up to the insanity whatsoever, and it’s just unbelievable that you call that “master of pacing.”
Higurashi is NOT a horror that relies on atmosphere — it’s a horror that completely relies on shock factor.
Take a look at Shiki for true atmospheric horror. Shiki is a slow-paced show that takes its time to properly build up its atmosphere and slowly build up the horror, until death falls upon a victim.
It doesn’t want to surprise its viewers by making the vampires kill humans out of nowhere, and it doesn’t insert some shitty slice-of-life for 90% of the time. Heck, Shiki has very few comedic scenes in the entirety of the show.
A combination of comedy and horror rarely works, and if it does, that’s good writing. In the case of Higurashi, that’s not good writing.

“But the comedy throws you off, because you know the next death is coming, but you don’t know when. So when the killing happens, it’s very shocking.”
...Yeah… That’s called a “jumpscare”.
My friend and I rewatched four episodes together, and we both had the same reaction: “We can’t take this seriously.”
Higurashi confuses me with its manipulation of emotions. You do know that comic relief and horror discomfort are opposite emotions us humans feel, right?
When you have four girls win against a guy in a game, and have the guy crossdress as a punishment, you’re telling our brains that, “Hey, we don’t take ourselves seriously, so why should you take us seriously?”
So when the time comes that you put in some horror, our brains are waiting for you to finish the joke off by saying that the horror was done for comedic effect and was making fun of horror, rather than being actual horror.
Hey, if Higurashi actually parodied horror, I’d be pretty invested. But it was really serious about this whole combination of two opposite emotions.
This is like Berserk trying to be a magical girls show that’s PG-13, while simultaneously being a dark fantasy that has gore, rape, and torture.
It just doesn’t work.
I cannot take Higurashi seriously.
The finger being stuck by the door was hilarious, and again, I was waiting for the punchline of the joke, but there was none, unfortunately.
One scene that kind of creeped me, though, was the telebooth scene where, spoilers, Maebara dies. That scene was well-done, but at the same time, very sloppy.
Five minutes before that death, Maebara was walking home from school. Yeah, no joke, he was walking home. Again, there is no build-up whatsoever to the death.
The reason it was well-done though, is because the voice actor did a pretty good job at conveying the emotion of being terrified, and the music was kind of creepy, and that’s it — the only scene that ever made me semi-creeped out in Higurashi, is this scene.
What I loved at the time I first watched this episode, though, is that, um… The protagonist actually died.
Brilliant! I’ve never in my life seen an anime where the protagonist dies at the fourth episode. And then they’ll have to switch perspectives between the characters one by one, and we’ll watch how everyone tries to this survive this so-called “curse” or “evil”. A brilliant ending would be if none survived and everyone lost hope, or a single person was able to escape and—
Nope, we’re just going to reset time...
You didn’t like these four episodes of cute girls being killed by rough things, well, here! Experience it again and again for 24 freaking episodes.
Why…?
The first four episodes of Higurashi were actually not that bad, because if it tried to only have these comedic moments at the beginning, and then completely change the tone from comedy to horror with a solid build-up, and never have any comedic moments again, that would’ve been brilliant.
I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but the time-reset thing ruined everything.
From the looks of it, it was obvious that they were going to go by what every clichè story does: a group of kids versus evil, where, of course, the kids win at the end with the power of friendship! What a surprise—not really. Because they are going to reset time over and over again to have the kids win, it’s super obvious.
This is what most stories have become, a bunch of clichè stories that are nothing but a waste of time. Think of most of these modern stories as the shounen and shoujo of the novel community, because that’s what they’ve become: full of clichè tropes.
A group of kids winning against evil is impossible, especially for losers like Maebara and the lot, and that’s the only reason they introduced the time-reset, because they want Rika to have more experience with beating evil after having their friends killed repeatedly.
And here’s the problem: because of the time resetting, the characters barely even develop. Mion, Shion, Rena, Maebara, and Satoko are all characters that stay the same from the start of the show up until the last episode of the second season.
There no notable difference whatsoever in their personalities or interactions with one another.
A lot of people like the cast of characters and actually think they develop… No, they don’t develop. The only reason it feels like they did is because the characters act a bit differently in some arcs.
Like, Satoko might get braver and not scream when Shion tortured her, and if you consider that development, then fair enough. But as soon as that arc ends, everything resets, and even the development is back to square one.
It’s like To Love-Ru, where the protagonist accidentally falls on a girl and strips their skirts to see their underwear, and the girl screams and smashes the protagonist, and starts developing hatred for him. But, nope, next episode comes, and let’s forget everything that’s happened and start life from scratch. “I love you mr. protagonist.”
Same with Higurashi. Even if the characters develop inside the arcs, it doesn’t matter, because that development is gone in the later arcs. And you might say, “Oh, but In each arc, they go in-depth about some of the characters’ past and their development.”
Yes… They do that. But I’m still going to shit on the fact that the time-reset ruined everything because they could’ve easily manifested character arcs without the time resetting.
And then you might mention that they got development later on in the second season because they recalled these things that happened in the former arcs, so they avoid doing things that they did in their paranoid state.
Um… The time resets in the second season... Again… It never stops resetting.
The only chance of development is the last time reset; the time they beat the villain. (That villain, by the way, sucked)
There is a problem with this, because the characters are so annoying and unlikeable, that I don’t even care about them after episode four.
The first death, to be honest, was shocking and sad, and I did feel bad for Maebara, but if you make the same characters die over and over again, and then reset time after each death, the viewers don’t even care about the deaths anymore.
Everyone’s like, “Oh, he died”, and, “Oh, she died. Cool. I wonder how they’re going to die next. Is it going to be the toe-nail scene instead?”
The characters are cardboard cutouts that have one or two personality traits, and are characters that don’t have any goals or growth throughout the series. Except for like, Rikka and Hanyuu, and also some of the other characters who remember the killings they did in the former arcs, so they act in the opposite way to avoid making what happened before, happen. Like, who did Maebara give the doll to, or the fact that Shion is acting kind towards Satoko, even though she tortured her in the former arcs.
That’s okay and all, but the fact that they remember stuff from former arcs is there just for bullshit reasons, apparently.
And Higurashi is supposed to be a character-driven story, not plot-driven. And again, it does give us the characters’ backstories in each arc and what their development would look like if the time didn’t reset.
Replace Maebara with any harem protagonist, and the story is just going to be okay. Heck, replace any of the characters with some characters from other harems and the story would still be okay.
Higurashi fans, here’s a fun game, if Mion and Shion had the same hairstyle and same dresses, and they stood next to each other doing their everyday things, would you actually be able to distinguish between them?
You wouldn’t, because the characters don’t have their own, unique voice and they don’t shine in their own, unique way.
A practice that’s done by many writers is to write dialogue from many different characters, and not use a dialogue tag, to see if they can notice which character said what.
If they were able to distinguish between them, that means the characters have their own voice and aren’t bland.
Higurashi doesn’t have that.
And you might say that you can distinguish between the Higurashi characters by some dialogue, and I can see that you’re referring to things like Rika saying “desu” at the end of every sentence.
Let me tell you, that’s the most lazy thing a writer can do to distinguish between the characters.
A sign of a good character isn’t just by recognizing them for their catchphrases or by a single word they use commonly, but also by normal sentences. Like, you can recognize that a dialogue belongs to Okabe just from looking at it faraway because he has his own way of speaking — for example, putting in some Engrish words here and there, and being ironically egotistic. And same with every other character from Steins;Gate.
But Higurashi doesn’t have that. Even the biggest fans can’t distinguish between Mion and Shion if they dress up the same way.
They have the same personality as each other, and are only different in some minor aspects.
Also, I started hating this show when they introduced a yandere. What the hell, a yandere?
Like, Shion was in danger, Satoshi saved him once, and suddenly, Shion is willing to betray her sister and family for this guy whom she has met less than a month ago? There was no build-up to Shion’s crush on him whatsoever.
And the arc where Shion goes around torturing everyone was an arc that relied too much on shock value. It does what many anime like Akame ga Kill did, and that is killing off characters for the sake of it.
The first arc was good in portraying the mind of someone who’s paranoid, but this arc just doesn’t make any sense.
And the last arc with Rena was so anticlimactic, because will they ever explain why the characters can recall what happened in some other arcs. It was just convenient in my opinion. If you can explain why, then please tell me. I need to know.
If you still think Higurashi has good characters, then here’s something to consider.
Higurashi has what every ecchi, harem, slice-of-life, comedy has, and that is —
one: a bland protagonist (Maebara).
Two: a cute girl with a weird habit (Rena).
Three: a yandere (Shion).
Four: a loli (Rika).
Five: a girl that’s just there for moe (Hanyuu).
Six: a sadistic girl that always speaks in a horny tone (Miyo Takano).
Seven: that one wild person in the group who also is for some reason born in a rich family (Mion).
Eight: and of course we cannot forget, the one and only: That one helpful guy(Irie Kyosuke)...
I swear to God, I’m tired of these types of characters, and isn’t it unsurprising that most of them are nurses…?
Enough about the characters, here’s the biggest turn-off of the whole series: it’s misleading as hell with its horror.
Raise your hand if you thought it was a supernatural horror at first… That’s a lot of hands. What Higurashi does is that it uses the myth of “Oyashiro-sama” as a way to keep you excited, because like, who doesn’t get excited for supernatural horror?
But later in the series, you get clues here and there that makes you think: “Hey, is it a murder or a curse?”
It’s so unbelievably mind-boggling to me that people actually rated Higurashi a 10/10 even after finding out that we’re being made fun of. Guys, they literally trolled us to think that it’s supernatural horror, when it’s clearly a psychological horror.
I would’ve at least spared Higurashi if it was a supernatural horror at heart, or if it didn’t trick us and just introduced itself as a psychological horror.
Because I don’t mind psychological horror at all — in fact, I love it. Shiki began and ended as a psychological horror. Another began and ended as a supernatural horror.
But Higurashi? It’s trying to mislead you to think it’s supernatural.
Guys, can you please explain why you ignored that when you started the second season? Did you actually accept that and finish the second season, which feels nothing; absolutely nothing like the first season?
This show went downhill as soon as they introduced that it wasn’t a curse, but a local disease that the most disappointing villain of all time tried to prove the existence of after the death of her grandparent, the one who discovered that a parasite is dwelling inside the brain that make people go insane. Then she tried using the disease for her evil intentions and other cool stuff.
To be honest, as much as I’d hate to admit it, Takano is actually the best character from the series because I could sympathize with her in some way and the show did manage to make me care for her when looking at her backstory. But I didn’t care that much as to cry for her loss.
In any case, before talking about the second season, can I just talk about the art and animation for a second here.
This show looks like a potato — a potato put in photoshop, where someone warped the photo out of proportion and then took the saturation tool, and took the saturation bar all the way up because someone wanted an ugly vibrant potato, because that certain someone had nothing better to do in a very boring day in summer.
This show looks like Calliou and The Bananas of Pajamas because of its vibrant colors and the cheerful-toned art style.
Look at this scene — it looks like the driver’s seat is so faraway back from the steering wheel, it looks not like a car, but a submarine.
And the animation is so sloppy and out of proportion most of the time, and what’s worse is that they tried to, quote end quote, “Use Sakuga” in some arcs, and let me tell you, it’s even worse than the original animation. Please, never do sakuga animation ever again.
Look at this… Look at it.
I don’t normally judge an anime by its art, but this is just way too bad. You might tell me that it’s not fair to judge this show by its art because it was made in 2006, but um… One, there were so many good-looking shows from 2006, and two, some of the Higurashi sequels were able to make it into the 2010s, and let me tell you… It still looks trashy, if not, trashier.
So yeah… Higurashi, aesthetically… Horrible.

Onto the second season, and I must say, if you thought I was going to like the second season more than the first season (because that’s how most people feel) then I’m sorry, but season two is even worse than season one.
Season one was only a slice-of-life moe comedy, while the second season is still a slice-of-life moe comedy, but added on by shounen themes, like, “By the power of friendship, we can overcome anything — even a military, even a world war, even hell!”
Do you remember that time when the characters died one-by-one because — while the enemy was chasing them — some of the characters stayed behind to delay the enemy attack and save Rika.
Umm, that’s so Naruto. Higurashi Kai is Naruto 2.0.
No, really. This happened in Naruto. And… Want to hear a fun fact…? Naruto did it better.
Why you ask… Because Higurashi doing this type of stuff is so out of place and ridiculous, that it made me laugh out loud. And what's even funnier is that people actually say that the message of friendship was actually well-done, and it’s better than most anime at it—
Um, excuse me, Kiznaiver, Clannad, Kyoukai no Kanata, K-On, and even Naruto are way better at presenting what friendship means because they aren’t cheesy about it and the way they presented it was believable, unlike Higurashi, which claims that friendship is magic that can even change fate.

And as I thought this whole friendship theme was cheesy, there’s even worse.
This show’s main message is — get this — “Fate can be twisted and broken, if you believe it.”
…What…? This has to be a troll.
I thought the time being reset was just so that the kids could beat the root of all evil, but its main purpose was initially to say that what ever happens to you isn’t fixed, and that you can beat fate. F*** fate, amiright?
This is, no joke, the most pretentious theme I have ever seen in my entire life of watching, not only anime, but any show. Ever.
Let me give you a bit of a lesson here.
Let’s say someone faces a very life-threatening situation in which he has 97% chance of dying from it.
What Higurashi says is that if that person doesn’t die in this situation, you broke fate.
Umm, no?
You didn’t break or alter your fate, it was your fate to survive from that.
So the fact that Rika was able to figure out an idea on how to beat the enemy, and the fact that Maebara recalled somethings that happened in other arcs, was not them breaking fate or altering them as Mr. Maebara thinks.
If you change an unavoidable situation, it was your fate to change that unavoidable situation, and not that you changed fate yourself. Do you get what I mean?
If you change fate, it was your fate to change fate. My God, this is stupid.
This was definitely the biggest turn-off of the whole show, and it what makes the second season ten times worse than the first one.
Basically, Rikka and Hanyuu are the only characters that ever have development in the show because they still have memories from things that happened in the former arcs.
So what this show did is trap Rikka in this never-ending cycle of death and despair because Rikka never tried to tell her friends about this whole situation. So what she did in the second season is try to open up to her friends, and ended up telling everyone in the group about the situation, and then the Naruto arc comes in. Where did Oruchimaru take my Sasuke?
They could’ve at least dropped the fate thing because that’s dumbass argument.
I feel like Higurashi is insulting me as a person by throwing these cheesy and pseudo-intellectual arguments, such as altering fate, or friendship is gem or whatever the hell it wants to portray.
The first season is a masterpiece compared to the second one.
They tried to build this cool, dark backstory for Takano — the most disappointing villain of all-time — and then they made her lose the battle, and guess how the kids won against her…
Of course it was with the power of friendship. I mean, like, who would’ve thought?!
Can someone please give me an anime where the villain wins for once… Please…?
I swear to God, even after all these flaws I pointed out from Higurashi, if they made Takano win the battle at the end, I would’ve been so happy, because they wouldn’t take the cliche route that every story that has a protagonist and antagonist goes.
But no, of course the kids won at the end.
So here is my ideal version of what Higurashi should’ve been like if it wanted to succeed at being a horror:
1-Remove the entire concept of the time-reset.
2-Start the story off looking like a moe, slice-of-life comedy for about two to three episodes, showcasing each of the characters’ personalities and hobbies — and then slowly and properly, shift the tone from comedy to horror. It shouldn’t be a sudden shift and should take about two to three episodes to fully shift. After it’s shifted, you shouldn’t put anymore of slice-of-life comedy. That’s in the past.
3-Introduce the first death right up front, without even mentioning what Oyashiro’s curse is. That shit doesn’t even exist. Just right off the bat start with being a psychological horror and end the series being a psychological horror. No supernatural bullshit that misleads the audiences’ focus.
4-Have the characters' daily fun lives turn into hell, and then one-by-one showcase their character arcs.
5-Kill the main characters off only when necessary, and leave the protagonist, Maebara, at the end to fight against Takano, and in-between that, show the backstory of Takano, and, right at the end, kill off the protagonist and leave some of the other main characters, and boom, Takano won.
6-Remove Hanyuu completely from the story.
7-Don’t even have those vibrant colors and shit animation, darken the colors to actually look like a horror.
And that’s it, the ideal horror. Or, you know, never even introduce horror and keep being a moe slice-of-life comedy… I would’ve at least enjoyed it more.

I know this is off-topic, but I must say, Hanyuu as a character sucks every corner of a sewer to have ever existed. This character is the Tsumugi of Higurashi (Those two characters suck…)
I wish she just disappeared once and for all. Higurashi Kai is bad from the start, but the part it got worse was when they introduced this piece of garbage character: Hanyuu.
The only reason she’s there is to please moe fanboys, and I can’t see how anyone can argue against this.
No, I take that back. Every character from this show is made to please the fanboys, and I can’t see how anyone can argue against this.
Maebara is a loser, so it’s easy for guys watching to put themselves in Maebara’s stead, because they want to be a part of the harem.
Rena is a cute girl doing edgy things with cleavers… I have no idea why that turns people on.
Mion is for tomboy lovers, and Shion is for Yuno Gasai 2.0, and Rika is for — you get what I mean. It’s all fetishized like every ecchi harem ever.
Here’s the thing: Higurashi is To Love-Ru, but with some horror aspects and a kind of a dark setting. That’s it.
Higurashi is a moe show that tries to be a horror show, and it falls flat on its face very early on in the series.
I know this will trigger a lot of people, but Higurashi Kira is a better version of Higurashi, because it doesn’t try to be something else, it shows its true form.
If you don’t know already, Higurashi Kira completely removes any horror and is full of fan service and moe. It’s as if Higurashi kept being a moe and never initially added the horror aspects. And that’s what I love about Higurashi Kira, it stays true to itself. It’s Higurashi’s true form, while the original Higurashi is just a game of pretending to be something else that doesn’t even suit its themes and tone.

If you want a horror anime that’s set in a village, watch Shiki.
If you want actual supernatural horror, watch Another.
If you want a good psychological horror, again, watch Shiki.
If you want a creepy dystopia, watch Shinsekai Yori, a much better show than Higurashi. Not to mention the fact that Shinsekai Yori isn’t even a horror at heart, it only has horror elements, but it creeped me out more than Higurashi has ever done.
If you want a good cute girls show that’s also very dark, watch Madoka Magica and Gakkougurashi.
If you want a good show with a time-reset, to be honest, Re:Zero and Steins;Gate did it much better.
Re:Zero isn’t even a horror anime, but that Petelguese torturing Rem scene was scarier than Higurashi has ever been, personally speaking.
Also, that scene in MHA where Stain scared the shit out of those heroes… That was scarier than Higurashi ever has been.
I’m going to finish this analysis up by saying that, no, Higurashi is not a good anime — and as always, thanks for reading.

I’ve constantly seen people shit on Re:Zero, and it’s finally my time to step in and say that everyone should stop over-exaggerating the hate on this show.
I know this might sound plebeian to say, but Re:Zero is amazing.
For what it is, people should appreciate it more.
Sure, sure, everyone hyped it up because of the whole Rem situation, but please hear me out for a second.
Re:Zero has done exactly what The Monogatari Series has done, but instead of deconstructing harem/ecchi shows, Re:Zero deconstructs isekais.
At first sight, the characters seem generic, but they actually develop depth throughout the show.

To begin with, Subaru ... seems like your everyday light novel protagonist with the generic design and whatever.
But the level of characterization done for Subaru in the first episode is quite surprisingly overlooked by so many people (including me). Credit goes to the Youtuber, Lowart, for eliminating my ignorance. Watch his videos on Re:Zero for more information—
But basically, in the first episode, Subaru was inside the store, and then a couple passes by, resulting in Subaru sighing while simultaneously holding a manga/light novel. What this scene shows, is that Subaru is lonely and is in need of the presence of a person who can eliminate his loneliness.
As soon as he leaves the store, his vision gets all fuzzy, and suddenly, he is transported into another world.
At the realization of this, he thinks he’s gained magical powers, so he tried doing some magical moves, but ends up failing — this shows that he’s not fully happy with himself and thinks he isn’t complete, that’s why he wants a girlfriend and, in this case, magical powers.
We’ve all seen those characters in isekai, like Kirito and Sora, who are very overpowered protagonists. The reason Re:Zero is refreshing is because Subaru is a normal guy.
Sure, he’s whiny and weak at the beginning of the show, but some of the decisions he made throughout the show is what saved some characters’ lives from death.
Without his willingness to protect Rem, Ram, Emilia and the lot, many of the characters would’ve died.
Heck, he even commits suicide by throwing himself off the cliff to reset the world to fix his mistakes. This is the depth of his character: he’s a stupid, whiny, nerdish otaku, but on the other side, he’s also very kind and compassionate, and then other times he’s traumatized to death.

Subaru’s journey is a journey of life or death — while many other protagonists from isekai are just going through things that don’t really involve deaths. Sora’s journey was the journey of tits and chess, while Momonga’s journey is the journey of being too overpowered for no reason, and Kirito’s journey was the journey of, “How much plot armor can one have”, and how many waifus you can introduce just to kill them off later.

Subaru’s journey is automatically more compelling to the viewers, because there’s no telling whether there are infinite respawns for Subaru, or a limited number of respawns.
You might argue that death isn’t the only way you can make a viewer invested in a show, and I absolutely agree with that.
But here’s where Subaru’s character takes advantage: Subaru is a normal otaku who was living his mundane day-to-day life… Guess who he’s similar to… You.
If you’re reading this and are a hater of Subaru, let me just remind you that people also shat all over Shinji Ikari for being a bitch and the whole, “Get in the robot” meme. But here’s the thing: Subaru and Shinji are the manifestations of how a real person would react in traumatic situations, and NOT badly-written characters.
Sure, they can get annoying now and then, but if you were in the stead of Subaru, wouldn’t you scream with all the power you have when people beloved to you die over, and over, and over again, and not to mention the fact that you’re repeatedly being murdered.
The worst thing here for Subaru is not the bloodshed that he had to go through, but the fact that NO ONE understands his pain.
Let’s admit it, every single one of us has at least some pain to bear in life, and you either can’t explain it to someone, or you do explain it to someone, but they don’t understand your pain — this is actually what Re:Zero is trying to portray: the mental condition of someone who’s all alone; the mental condition of someone who’s misunderstood by all; the mental condition of someone who had to go through so much pain to the point of going insane.
And then the “best waifu”, Rem, comes in at the point where Subaru has lost all hope in life and has basically lost sanity, and what does she do? She kisses Subaru on the forehead and hugs him, giving him the sympathy he’s needed in the entirety of the show.
I’ve heard so many people shit on Subaru, and honestly, I’ve lost faith in the anime community for judging his character so irrationally and illogically.
Subaru is a great character. He’s a normal dude (unlike Kirito), and a whiny character (unlike Momonga), and a character whose journey is very investing because no one understand his pain, (unlike Sora). He is a three-dimensional character, and a very underrated character, at that.
Now that we put the controversial topic aside, let’s talk about the side characters for a second here, because that’s the second thing people point at to say the show is bad.
If you’re talking about a character like Rooswal, then sure, I agree. He isn’t a great character, but many people don’t know how many characters a show is trying to develop and flesh out.
The show, Parasyte, developed only Shinichi, Migi, and a very few other characters, and many critics automatically assumed every character is bad because they didn’t develop and flesh out the side characters, and my response is that the show doesn’t focus on them because they do NOT need to. They don’t intend to flesh them out in the first place, and that’s why people automatically assume that the characters are bad, when in reality, the complex main characters are enough to make up for the underdeveloped side characters. That’s exactly how it is for Re:Zero.
Rem and Subaru are fantastic characters. I’ve already explained Subaru’s character, so it’s time to move on to Rem. It actually triggers me that the only thing fans say of Rem is that she’s cute. I mean, I don’t disagree, but there’s so much more to her character other than “she’s cute”.

Not only does Rem have a backstory that makes you feel bad for the twins, but the way she develops is genius. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch Lowart’s “Why Re:Zero is an amazing anime” part one and two, because he precisely points out her character and breaks it down to multiple parts.
But the things I want to add on, is that Rem is the embodiment of someone who understands you as a person because you don’t share your pain with her by words, but by your heart. Even without Subaru telling her how much he’s went through, she understands.
Re:Zero portrays the fact that social connections are very essential in someone’s heart and that only by making someone understand your pain, can you actually be a bit relieved of your pain.

This is another reason Re:Zero beats every other isekai for me: its good grasp of human psychology.
Seriously, tell me the name of one isekai that’s a psychological horror. At the time Re:Zero came out, no show had done what Re:Zero has done. Overlord is kind of dark, but the plot armor of Momonga prevents anyone from actually thinking any of the characters will die. At least, that’s how I felt when watching Overlord.
No Game No Life’s fan-service — even though it was used for good reasons — distracted me from what was happening in the show, which blocked any type of investment on my side. No Game No Life is not a bad isekai though. I’d put it in the second place of isekai anime.

Conclusion: I think we should stop over-exaggerating the hate on Re:Zero. It’s very good.

So I’m writing this review just to clear up my thoughts on this series. Otona Joshi no Anime Time is a collection of four stories, each bearing a different message and each presenting new characters. The show was mesmerizing for the reason that it was done by studio Bones, a studio you should rely on when it comes to aesthetics. As soon as I saw it, I put it in my plan-to-watch list — it’s been there for quite a while now. So I finally decided to check it out, and here are my thoughts.

I will list all four stories and what I thought about ... each.

Episode one:

My first impression with this episode was that studio Bones lived up to my expectations and did a pretty job with the visuals.
Now, going into the story, we are greeted by Noriko, the protagonist. She has a child — but that’s not what’s interesting about her. What’s interesting is the fact that the story goes back and forth between the present and the past, putting a contrast between young Noriko, and old Noriko.

There may be a lot of shows that do this — going back and forth between the past and present — but I haven’t seen it done in anime frequently (again, I know it has been done before, just not very commonly). Even something like Naruto with its filler episodes doesn’t count as what I’m describing. Because with Otona Joshi, it very frequently goes back and forth — which was the main thing that made this show engaging. “Great. A show that’s done something not commonly done,” I thought.
Going to the main story though, this show isn’t really special with its storytelling. It wasn’t really bad though — I actually prefer this episode/story over any other episode of this show (except for episode two). But this was pretty much your everyday, “I slept with a guy, and then many years later, I got married with another one. Then I beget a child, and that child isn’t my husband’s, but the guy I slept with.”
Even though I’ve seen this many times before, I still pretty much liked this episode.

6/10.

Episode two:

Unpopular opinion: this is the best episode of this show. Well, aside from the fact that the guy compared the girl to a freaking — I’m not joking — a bird, cat, or whatever. This was the most “WTF” moment of the whole show. Actually, I take that back. Read episode three to discover something more “WTF-y”.
In any case, this is an odd story about a woman who falls in love with a waste collector/dustman, because she can. That’s literally the only reason. That’s why this story is more “odd” unlike the last one.
Because Mimi’s reason for existence is not that relatable, unless you are a housewife of something. Her reason for existence is to cook for his lover, have intercourse, sleep — that’s it. This is basically a slice-of-life episode. But that’s why I liked it.
As for the visuals, I’m highly disappointed. No one has a nose.

I have nothing more to say for this episode aside from WHO THE HELL CALLS HIS LOVER A FREAKING ANIMAL?

6.5/10

Moving on to episode three:

The worst episode by far. One thing that I hate, which is commonly used in fiction and self-help books, etc., is this: “I was a child and thought of the future as though I’d get married at 20 and have children at 30 and have white hair at 50 — but that’s not what happened. I ended up having such a depressing life and I became addicted to alcohol and became depressed, and addicted to alcohol, and became depressed, and did I mention the fact that I became addicted to alcohol?”

I hate this trope so much. That’s not how life is at all. Life is actually pretty mediocre and not as depressing as they make it out to be. 95% of the time, life IS just graduating from college, getting married, having children, and growing old. What else is it otherwise? Such a misrepresentation, so commonly used... so incorrect.
Anyway, I mentioned the fact that episode two had a “WTF” moment, but episode three had worse. What exactly is more ridiculous that calling your girlfriend an animal, you ask? A random guy suddenly appearing and cosplaying as your old crush back in school and having intercourse with you in a hotel, and then you finding out the fact that he wasn’t actually your old crush, but a stranger you haven’t met before. How did he know her name and for what reason he did that and how much of a chance is there for a doppelgänger to appear, I don’t freaking know.
Such a meaningless episode. I hated it. Visual-wise, it was meh.

2/10

Last but not least, episode four:

Umm, what...? I’m not trolling right here, what happened? I can’t, and probably can‘t ever comprehend what happened in this episode. Maybe because I’m not a parent? (Also, why is every protagonist from this show a female? Not to be sexist or anything, just wondering)

Visual-wise: meh.

4/10

The end.

Don’t look into this review much. It’s as mediocre as any review on MyAnimeList can get. I just wanted to clear my thoughts.

I hope you enjoyed the read :)

I know this might sound exaggerated — “2/10? Are you insane?” — but please just hear me out for a second...

Spoilers ahead:
Protecting people in the face of adversity; even in the means of sacrificing yourself, using unique strength only found in the hearts of some people for good, being brave and standing up for the people you love… this is what it means to be a hero. A hero isn’t something you strive to be, nor is it something to be viewed as a career. To be qualified as a hero in the first place, is to be selfless. By devoting all your life trying ... to become a hero by wearing a cape and a superhero outfit made by plastic is, in and of itself, a selfish and childish dream. By dreaming so only results in a messiah complex.

To be running around and jumping from building to building wearing goofy clothes only defeats the purpose of being a hero. Only people who are looking for attention do this; narcissism at its best.
Having a girl wear a suit that reveals most of her cleavage, and a skirt so short to the point where it should be called a belt, only makes me wonder why she didn’t become a prostitutional entertainer instead. And also having a character wearing a cape whilst stepping on the bad guy they just beat up whilst laughing like a maniac and shouting, “Don’t worry, your savior’s here.” only makes me wonder why he didn’t become an exhibitionist.

Every character in My Hero Academia only have a single goal in mind: to become a hero that everyone looks up to. That’s really it. There’s no other character in the series that has a different ambition — even if they do have a bit of a different ambition, it’s still completely connected to being an admirable hero. Being a show about heroes, it’s okay for everyone wishing to become a hero. But if that’s the only primary goal in their mind, then that’s just a writing excuse — all of these characters have a goal, thus, all of these characters are three-dimensional — or so the author thinks. The characters are like a group of Flamingos who have chain reactions. If you can’t handle writing a very large cast of characters — especially by trying to flesh out all of them — then don’t try to do it in the first place.

Characters are indeed hard to write. It’s definitely okay to have a large cast of characters, but do so at your own risk. The writer, in this case, tried to give some personality to other side characters. But what resulted in was underdevelopment of main characters — not to mention failing at even making the side characters decent.
Deku is the underdog of the world. He’s also shy and not so good socializing with girls; in other word, he is us. This isn’t supposed to be an ecchi-harem show, Kohei Horikoshi.
Trying to make us experience everything through Deku’s body only admits that he’s flat as a character. Normally, we’re supposed to put ourselves in the protagonist’s shoes, but to actually become the protagonist is lazy writing. This is just an excuse trying to make the character “relatable”. A character can still be flat even if they have an ambition, backstory, and development. Because execution is what matters.
Deku’s ambition and backstory are quite simple. He wants to be a hero like All Might, but he doesn’t have a quirk, unlike most people. He then gains powers from All Might by eating a single piece of his hair. This is all fine and all, but what about his development? He pretty much stays the same and has the same mentality throughout the whole two seasons. Being stronger and being able to control your powers better isn’t character development. What Kohei Horikoshi tries to do is make Deku break his bones over and over again just for the sake of looking “cool”. And then he breaks more bones in the second season, which tricks you into thinking that he developed as a character. But he has the same ideology and personality intact; only being able to control his powers, or rather All Might’s powers better.
I doubt the possibility that Deku will ever improve as a character throughout the whole show; he’ll stay the same; crying, speaking, thinking, and acting the same exact way he did at the start. The reason is simple: there is no room for improvement. Deku is, at first, actually what he should have developed into, not start with it. Only if he develops into an evil character — developing an ideology about heroes the opposite of the one he had before — can he be able to improve, or develop as a character. But the spoiler which Deku gave us at the beginning, and also looking at the genre of this show, there’s zero percent possibility. Having better powers, or controlling a power better, or creating your own proper power is often confused with character development. But it’s not.

Deku is known as a rare protagonist because he’s smart and analytical. But he’s stereotypically so. Putting your hand on your chin and thinking aloud while having words flying out of your head isn’t identified as being smart; it’s just an attempt at being one. It’s very easy to make other characters point at him calling him “smart”, when in reality, he’s only slightly above average. He actually reminds me of Sakamoto from Sakamoto desu ga — due to the fact that every character looks up to him, for the exception of some characters who hate him and want to surpass him, but end up giving up and acknowledging the main character’s superiority. But let’s not forget that Sakamoto was loved due to him being cool, meanwhile, Deku is liked for no justified reason whatsoever. Sure, he is strong. But don’t forget that he was a loser who was being bullied at first and viewed negatively by almost everyone. So there’s no way people’s view on him would change in such a short span of time just because he got stronger.

What about the girl he saved once which automatically made them very close friends — Uraraka? She’s very poorly written. She reminds me of Tenten from Naruto when she kissed Neji’s ass in the Chunin exam. Her main purpose is to be cute and support the main character. She shouldn’t be one of the main characters of the show, especially considering how weak her character arc was. Her backstory is basically having bad family circumstances, so she wants to become a “hero” for financial gain. She has about two or three personality traits. And that’s it. I can’t help but think that this show would’ve been fine without having her even appear in the show. There’s nothing to add on to her character because I feel like she’s even more underdeveloped than other side characters.

Avenger stories are, at best, fine. Iida’s whole drama about avenging his brother was executed poorly, and was extended way longer than it should have. The best way to realize if a character is three-dimensional and has depth, is to have the character pursue a certain motivation, but doesn’t see the need in explaining his or her actions to other people. Iida’s long monologue explained all of his motivations to Stain; his enemy. This is the best example of how you should be showing instead of telling. If a story tries to flesh out their characters by having them tell their ideology, instead of showing their ideology through their actions just shows the lack of the author’s writing ability to do so. Iida’s motivation is in and of itself fine, just done very poorly.
Another example of a fine character with a fine backstory, yet terrible execution — Todoroki’s whole character development is eventually decided by mister psychiatrist, Deku. Todoroki is a decent character, but was very inconsistent throughout the whole show. His personality changed through dialogue — meaning that he’s Todoroki in one scene, but a totally different person in another. His ideology, personality and perspective change in a very short amount of time, making him inconsistent. He started as a very promising character, but is slowly evolving into another one of Boku no Hero’s ordinary characters.

If you can remove a particular character from a story and can still have the story function as well as it did before means that the character should either not be there entirely, or write them differently so that he/she has a purpose in the story. If the author of Boku no Hero did this, then he would be left with a total of four-five characters that can actually function as an independent character. For a show praised by the way it handles its characters very well, it’s actually very subpar when it comes to characters.
The author wrote a character for the sole reason of being hated — Minoru Mineta, the pervert. Why? Was this used so that we hate a character so much that other characters feel like decent people compared to him? There is no doubt that the author wrote this character this way intentionally. Was he expecting people to like him? I doubt it, hence why I think my reasoning is correct. If the author himself doesn’t care about his own characters then why should we?
The characters in Boku no Hero remind me of IDubbbz; dressing in a very weird costume, and dancing around here and there, shouting, “I wannabe gay!” — If this analogy isn’t true, then I don’t know what is.
If the writer is eagerly trying to make me like the characters by using very cheap techniques, then I might as well admit the absurd fact that my, and also many other people’s emotions are being toyed by. I don’t see any positivity from this show — if the character’s are merely “simple”, then why use tricks such as melodramatic character arcs to further our bond with the characters? Doesn’t this contradict the simplicity of the characters?

The characters’ existence is for a sole reason: comedy. Whenever a comedic scene comes by — which is very frequent — I’m reminded of Black Clover because of the amount of screeching thrown at the screen. Characters are eventually used as a remark-factory in this case, as in remarks are the only things side characters ever say. Not only does this make for very cheesy comedy, but it also confuses my emotions. This show is ultimately a comedy, so when a serious and “emotional” moment comes up, I laugh, wondering why the characters are all of a sudden taking everything seriously. I’ve laughed more at sad and emotional scenes than I did in the actual comedy scenes.
When Deku finds out that he doesn’t have a quirk and goes home and plays the video about All Might on his computer, I was smiling, because that’s what this show wants me to do, right? I mean, look at Deku’s crying face. He’s crying with a hysterical smile. I automatically take this as the show trying to tell me not to take this seriously. If the show wanted me to take it seriously, then why have him smile instead of frown? I know a lot of people try to hide their actual emotions by smiling, but kids are straightforward with their emotions.

Uraraka’s character arc wasn’t supposed to be emotional at all, yet they somehow tried to make it emotional. Same with Momo losing her confidence. As I came upon this particular episode, I tried to watch the previous episode thinking that there was something I missed. But there was nothing. I was very confused as to why she’s even acting like that. It was apparently because she lost her battle in the tournament, but they went way over the top with her drama. The show can’t draw a clear line between comedy and drama. E.g. Showing a character’s breasts in the middle of a “horrifying” battle, Mineta gripping another character’s breasts while another character is on the verge of death, etc… And so when I come upon these overdramatic scenes, I no longer care what happens to the characters, since you can’t take something seriously when it doesn’t even care to take itself seriously to begin with.


People like to point fingers at other shows like Anohana and Kiznaiver and call them overdramatic. Yet Boku no Hero has as much, if not twice as much overdramatic events — a shounen having more drama than some other slice of life-drama show is very weird. What part of Boku no Hero is overdramatic, exactly? All of it, probably. As I said before, this anime is a comedy; a pure one in that matter. So when the show throws in these overdramatic emotional moments, I laugh off — not considering the possibility that the characters are on the verge of dying.

Since we’re talking about death, let’s talk about plot armour. I’ve heard many times from many people comparing Boku no Hero with Naruto, calling it superior. Even though Naruto had immense amount of plot armour with its main characters, Boku no Hero goes beyond the limit as to give every single character in the series plot armour. Plot armour is okay as long as it has the right amount of it.
Naruto is tragic, and had a lot of characters die. Meanwhile, Boku no Hero is a very carefree and a childish series. The kids were beating up the villians in ease. It’s like they’re so experienced in their first try. None of them even had any major injuries. If Naruto was Boku no Hero Academia, then Naruto would’ve become Hokage in episode four.
I would’ve fallen in love with Boku no Hero Academia had I been an eight year old, because that’s what children want: a fun series about heroes saving the day, which has no development or tragedy; something you watch on Saturday mornings.

I’ve got nothing against simplistic shows. In fact, I love a lot of shows which are very simplistic, and in some cases, generic. But that’s not how I view Boku no Hero; rather than finding it simplistic, I thought of it as bland and subpar.

Boku no Hero Academia isn’t generic. It’s actually subpar. This show is praised for having simple characters. But that’s my down point, because they aren’t even simple; they are so much simpler than simple. They are flat cardboard characters that are very hard to connect to. To begin with, one of the most important point of a story is to connect with the characters. Sure, there are shows and stories I’ve enjoyed and loved without liking the characters, but the possibility of that happening could be because of the superb storytelling. Does Boku no Hero Academia have that? No. The story is, at best, average. The world building is underexplored (Using my knowledge upon completing the first two seasons).
At the very least, I remember the names of about four or five characters from the series. As for other characters, I don’t even remember them in general, let alone their names. As I said before, the characters are dealt with simultaneously; like a chain reaction. Making all of them have the same personality traits and reactions to particular events. They speak, eat, fight, and react in the exact same way. E.g. when everyone in the class talks simultaneously.
The characters don’t each stand on their own because they aren’t even a fully fleshed out character to begin with. Characters are indeed the weakest part of the series — but the ideology is not only poor, but horrible.
Back to heroism, I don’t like the way heroes are viewed and treated in Boku no Hero Academia. Some of the most memorable heroes of anime aren’t characters that wear capes and acknowledge their heroicness, they’re rather the complete opposite. Okabe from Steins;Gate is, in my opinion, the most memorable hero of all anime. He went through more than a thousand wordlines, experiencing so much adversity, pain, and death just to save his friends. This is what it truly means to be a hero. (Not shounen, but still profits my point) Never did Okabe say, “This is a story of how I became the greatest hero of all time.” Admitting your own heroicness, no matter how good of a hero you are, defeats your title as a hero.

I can also say the name of a lot of characters from other series that can absurdly be considered better heroes than the characters of Boku no Hero ever were.
Put any hero in Boku no Hero in a situation where they have to choose between two options — those options being: Would you rather save humanity from a disaster that could potentially kill billions of people, but be considered evil by everyone, or save a single person, but be considered the greatest hero of all time; being admired all over the world, forever — most, if not all characters would definitely choose the second option. Basically, it’s Boku no Pride Academia, not Boku no Hero.

Now ideology aside, the underlying issue of this series is that, I don’t see this anime going anywhere. I don’t see any meaning for its existence. At the beginning, Deku says, “This is a story of how I became the greatest hero.” I, and many other people, know that the main character is going to be the best; prevailing over any other character in the series. But we still have a feeling of uncertainty at times. Deku confessing the future on screen, in the very beginning frame of the first episode, just removes the whole point of this show. At the very least, I wanted to experience the journey that Deku went through without knowing what’s to come in the future. There’s no point in watching this series anymore because I’ve basically watched the whole show now. And the problems of Deku’s character, as I talked about before, removes the potential of me caring for his journey.

I despise this show in all of its being. There’s a barricade wall between me and the characters; distancing us from each other and preventing any further connection other than merely knowing two bland personality traits of each character. Additionally, the thought of having my emotions toyed with by cheap tricks makes me feel disgust, combined with the fact that the second season was two-cour even though there wasn’t any strong necessity; not to mention how the dullness of the show made it feel like a sixty-four episode series.

The only thing preventing me from rating it a one out of ten is the superb visuals by Studio Bones. I respect this show as a piece of art, but no more fabric of the show do I admire.
I’m open to any criticism I’d get upon closing this review off saying this is one of my least favorite show of all time.

Another is a masterpiece. Of course, not many people would agree with me, but the people who hated this show or didn’t think it was amazing, misunderstand the message that Another is trying to tell the viewers. No, even some people who loved this show don’t actually know the deepness and how genius of an anime Another is.
I will now proceed and explain what many people overlooked in this series and prove that this series is a masterpiece. Let’s start.
... At the beginning of this anime two people were talking about Misaki, from the 9th grade-class 3.
they talk about the incident that happened 26 years ago.
Misaki yomiyama. he has been popular ever since the 7th grade. He was smart, handsome and had a great personality. So, he was liked by students and teachers alike.
But, shortly after starting the ninth grade, he died from an accident. Everyone was was shocked, until, suddenly, someone pointed at Misaki’s desk and said “Misaki is right there. He’s not dead”.
Class 3 continued to behave as though Misaki was still alive.They kept up the act right up until graduation.The principal even arranged to have Misaki’s seat included at their graduation ceremony.
When they took the class photo, they could actually see Misaki in the photo.He was deathly pale, but he also smiled like the other students.
This is what triggered the curse.Since they acted like some dead person is still alive, the class invited the dead in.Which in turn, drew class 3-3 closer and closer to death.It basically became a place for the dead to live.
This is really sad. What this anime shows by this is that Humans can not accept death. They would do anything to bring the dead back to life. And since even the dead couldn’t accept their own death, they would do absolutely anything to live again — even killing other people. I don’t know if you believe in ghosts or spirits, but in the universe of Another, they exist.
This anime geniusly showed how humans can’t accept the truth and how they live their lives delusionally, in this case, they acted like death doesn’t even exist. This anime showed that acting like some dead person is still alive, is going to keep inviting the dead in, and this would cause a bad curse.(meaning if you don’t accept the truth, you’ll regret it)
The message behind this, is that humans build illusions in their lives, just to try to live happy life and run away from the cruel reality.
Let’s say If you face a really terrible trauma in your life; like losing someone close. Your subconscious mind tries to save your mental health by making illusions in your life. Let me give you an example.
You are a really quiet person, that doesn’t socialize often and doesn’t make any jokes or have any sense of humor, you are basically a shut in who gets emotional really fast. You’ve lost the only person that ever cared about you, Your family always gets in fights, you always have misfortune, you’re always bored and you have nothing to do.you have no purpose in life.
If you continue like this, it might cause depression. You will be very mentally ill. So the job of your subconscious is to save you from getting ill and tries to make you forget about traumatic events that has happened in your life.By building illusions. This is sort of like a Defense mechanism.
In this case, your subconscious will change your whole personality in a way that you could survive from your cruel reality.
You would first change from being solitary and unsocial, to being a really sociable and approachable person.
You’re changed from hating jokes and being serious all the time to being really sarcastic and having a really good sense of humor. You will try to act happy, even though your heart is in complete pain. Because you have lost the most precious person to you.......the only one that cared about you and made you happy. After that person dies, how could you be happy? Exactly. To bare with this sadness, you will make the most necessary personality and environmental changes in order for you to be as much happy as you was when that person that you’ve lost was alive. So you act like that person never even died. It’s all an illusion.

“It’s sad when people die”-Misaki Mei.

The lives of us humans are full of illusions.
Friendships, love, kindness...........
that’s what the curse is about.

Also, many people say that the characters were just killed off for no reason whatsoever.
But the matter of the fact is, there is a good reason.
“Dead people would do anything to come back to life even if it meant to kill a human being” Does anything come to mind?
These dead people, or these “ghosts” or “dead spirits” or whatever you want to call them. Also wanted to be back alive.They didn’t want to accept their deaths. Thus, every month, one student would die due to class 3 inviting the dead in.
To organize all of this mess, they treated one student non-existent. If they treat one student non-existent, it would make up for that dead person, thus the “ghosts” wouldn’t kill other students to replace them. So the reason people kept dying, is because the charm didn’t work, not because Sakakibara treated Misaki like she exists. But because the curse now happens automatically even without the students treating as though the dead are alive. This happens because they kept acting this way for many years. So, you people who say all of this is Misaki’s fault because she kept speaking with Sakakibara, you’re wrong. Because the curse started way before Sakakibara came to school. The curse started in April even though Sakakibara wasn’t there. So you have to use your brain first before blaming Misaki for this disaster.

Also, haven’t you ever wondered why Kouichi was so drawn to being near Misaki? Why did he keep approaching her? This is a theory, but i think that these “ghosts” kept drawing Sakakibara near Misaki. Either that, or Sakakibara really is one hell of a protagonist That’s basically the message behind the curse in Another.
Let’s now go more in depth about the other deep subjects that were shown in another

Let’s first talk about Misaki Mei. Misaki is a very withdrawn, solitary and anti-social girl that sees no value in having a bond with someone.She is fascinated by a pair of conjoined dolls in her grandmother's shop, wondering how they can be so calm even though they are attached. When Kouichi suggests that is the reason, Mei claims that that's impossible. She also claims that, in the end, everyone is alone, no matter how many bonds they may have.
However, Misaki was much more cheerful and happier and much more sociable and wore bright clothes. She even had a childish side. But after the death of her sister Misaki Fujioka, due to the curse, Misaki changed completely. She avoided socializing and having bonds, she even became null to any other trauma, as she didn’t even flinch when their teacher commit suicide right in front of the entire class. Misaki was alone, she had no one that truly cared about her, not even her parents. Her mother only thinks of her as a doll.
And that’s the reason I love Misaki. Because I can relate to her so much.
Fortunately, I’ve never experienced the death of someone close to me. But I’m also really lonely. No one cares about me. All of my friends became my friends for the sole purpose of using me for their own benefits and then backstab me when I’m no more in need. I have experienced this more than 30 times. It’s easy to move on from your old fake friends, but my best friends have also abandon me many times, they left me all alone. I thought they were the kindest human beings before, but they showed their dark sides, and left me all alone. Friends weren’t the only issue I had, I also experienced getting bullied by many peopls, that I became this person who shows no emotion, and doesn’t believe that there is any value in having bonds with someone.

On Episode 6 Misaki says, “Death is not Kind. It’s dark and black as far as you....as far as you can see, you are all alone. There’s no one else. But it’s no different when you are alive. No matter how many relationships we seem to have, we are all alone.”
This quote is actually really deep. It’s in fact the deepest quote that I’ve heard of. But it’s the truth. What Misaki means is that there may be many people around us whom we have strong bonds with but still at the end of the day all we have is ourselves trying to figure out our problems, finding solutions, solving those unending puzzles of our brain and crying silently with that heart wrenching pain. People may support us, motivate us, stand by our side but ultimately no one can or will experience the exact feelings or exact struggles we have been through. There is no need to be connected to people, after all, love is just an illusion.
Love as we understand it doesn’t exist. People treat others well or become attached to people only when they are able to provide something for them, whether this is material benefits or emotional support. Those who argue against this are simply not self conscious enough to deeply evaluate what they truly feel.
Your friends love you because you give them time, you entertain them by having fun with them and you listen when they need to rant or cry. You make them feel good. They love you, but only because they are able to use you to maximize their own emotional satisfaction.
Your parents love you in a deeper way, but this is probably more out of habit than anything. They don’t truly love YOU. They could have given birth to any other baby and loved them just as much. Even if they love you, they are loving the idea of you, The idea of a child who loves them and will treat them well. I guarantee you, if you went full psychopath mode and told them you wanted to kill them, even your parents will stop loving you.
Therefore, true love does not exist and everything we do is a barter. Even something seemingly altruistic is done in order to make a person “feel good”. So in this case, we engage in altruism in exchange for a pleasant personal sensation. So it’s still selfish in the end.
“Love” is a manufactured concept that was generated to tie communities together in order to further survival.
And you might be saying. What has this got to do with Another? Isn’t this just a quote by Misaki, and how she thinks? Well, don’t you remember what happened at the last two episodes of another?
Everyone went insane when they figured out how to stop the calamity; killing the extra student for survival. They thought that the extra student this year was Misaki Mei, they tried to kill her in order to stop the calamity. Nobody could think critically and lost their sanity just to kill Misaki. To save their selfish lives, they tried to murder a fellow classmate who’s completely innocent. So the last episode showed the true feeling, and the true side to humans. Humans always hide behind a mask; trying to hide their true feelings. But when faced with true terror, their real feelings are released.
Of course, Misaki wasn’t the only one targeted. The students killed other students; but also tried to kill their teacher. But, they even tried to kill their best friend to survive and live on with their selfish lives.

What does this imply? Exactly what Misaki said — No matter how many relationships we seem to have, we’re all alone. This is exactly what this anime is about, Loneliness. But as we said, this doesn’t only happen in the Another, this is also true for real life.
No matter how many friends you have. There will come one day when they show you their dark side and betray you for their own selfish desires. No matter how kind someone is, they also have a dark side, this is the sad truth about life.
We only make friends not actually for the sake of helping your friends or making them happy or being with THEM specifically. But it’s just a method used to cope with loneliness.

“We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone.
Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.”
Humans are terrified of being alone. Let’s say you wake up one day and every human on earth, has disappeared. You would go absolutely crazy, right? Indeed, There are some people in this world that enjoy being alone. Like introverts.
But time to time, they like to socialize and have fun with some friends for a change.
Did you know that people can actually go insane, from isolation? It’s actually true, there are many experiments and articles on the internet talking about the effects of loneliness and isolation to your brain. So we being connected to other people is nothing but a selfish way of living.

Anyway. Enough of this part.

Next, let’s go over Another one of Mei’s quotes.

Misaki says “If you’re here, can you prove you’re really here?”

Yet, another deep quote by Misaki.

First of all, what if you are actually the only one that exists in this world? What if all the other humans are not real, but only you are real? What if you’re the protagonist of this world? What if the humans you are talking to aren’t actual humans? What if they are ghosts or demons?
Second, is this world actually real? Do we really exist? Is this whole thing just a dream?
What happens after you “die”? It’s turning really philosophical here.

But one other thing this quote could mean, is that, there are some people who do not exist. Everything they say, every joke they try to tell, every opinion they share, they all get ignored by other people. It’s just like they don’t even exist. They’re not there.
This happens to me a lot. We’re just having a casual conversation in the group, everyone says what they say. But when I try to say something, it gets ignored, or when someone tells a really bad and unfunny joke, everyone laughs at it. But when I tell a funny joke to them, they don’t even giggle. It’s just like I’m not even there. They even asked for everyone’s opinions but mine. This is from my experience. Why do we even waste time working hard in this world? Everything you say, every opinion you give, every action you make, every talent you have, every good things you do.........will all be forgotten, someday.

If you die, will the world be in a crisis? Absolutely not. Sure. It might cause a shock, or sadness. Your parents and family may cry and can’t accept your death. But after a while, you are forgotten. They have all already moved on with their lives, they accepted your death and they can already smile normally again after they’ve accepted what happened to you.
Another, showed being non-existent really well. No, really AMAZING that it’s really relatable.I am sure there are plenty of people that can relate to this.
Misaki, who had no one that cared for her, it’s just like she doesn’t exist from the start. So, when she was picked to be the non-existent student, it was a really easy task for her. After all, all she had to do was live her life like she has always lived. After the charm failed to stop the calamity, Teshigawara said “What does it feel like to finally have the weights lifted?”(Meaning, how does it feel being existent again?) But Misaki replies “Hard to say. I didn’t really feel any weight to begin with.”
...............How sad. It actually made me cry while writing this. It just shows how much Misaki means to me as a character. It also just shows how messed up this world can be. Poor Misaki.

“How does it feel not to exist?”-Misaki Mei.....

Now, let’s go over the people that hated Misaki and thought she was very selfish.
Loneliness, pain, sadness, being hated, losing the closest person to her.......
Even after having Misaki go through all of that, she still isn’t completely cold. She actually has a really soft side. As shown when Misaki says”I’m the most suited to be the extra student .Because if another student was to be picked. I would’ve acted like all the other students, and acted like someone doesn’t exist.” But we also see the really soft side of Misaki at the last episode of Another. When Misaki knew that Reiko/Mikami sensei was the dead one, since she could see the color of death with her left eye. But, She couldn’t get herself to tell Sakakibara, because she didn’t want Kouichi to be sad. Sakakibara was the only one that cared about her, and was with her all the time.
At first Misaki told Sakakibara that he should stay away from her.But after a while, she actually gets used to the presence of Sakakibara, and they become really close friends...
Even though she went through hell in her life. She still is sane, and she didn’t even lose her kindness.She could still give a really bright smile.........
If we experience pain, we get stronger.
The more trauma you experience, the stronger you get and the more null you get to trauma.
But to call Misaki selfish for “caring only about her self and not caring about other people” is just absurd.
When did “People” ever care about her so that she would care about them? Everyone just thought that Misaki is weird and would even kill her if it means the calamity would stop.
Now, can’t we call everyone “selfish”?
At the last episode everyone cared about them selves only and they literally MURDERED every other student and yet Misaki who has killed NO ONE and hasn’t lost her sanity gets called “selfish”? What the fuck?
It’s really sad that people call Misaki selfish and that she cares about no one but herself. Yes. She could’ve just used her left eye from the start to know who the extra student is.
But you should also know the feelings of Misaki.
She is very scared of seeing the color of death. She doesn’t want to see it anymore because of the incident with her sister Misaki fujioka. Also, even if she said who the extra student is, nobody would believe her.And it might even cause problems.
Since, if she said (insert name here) is the extra student, that extra student’s best friend would never ever accept it and would never believe Misaki. So, There would be no point for her to do that at all.....
Many people also call her selfish for not seeming to care about other people’s deaths, or not caring about what’s happening at all.
If you actually think about it for a second, Misaki has every right to be like that. When has the world ever cared about so she would care about the world? Nobody would care if she dies and yet she HAS to care if others die? That’s like finding a very rare diamond after searching for years and just giving it to a random stranger without having anything in return.
She has every right to not give a fuck about this messed up world or it’s messed up people. Misaki had such a tragic life and when she finally found out about her sister and starts to hang out with her, she started to get really happy and finally experience having a connection with someone.
But then, what happened? You guessed it. The world stole that happiness away from her.
After she knew that this world won’t provide her happiness. She didn’t give a damn anymore.
This is exactly what every one should do. You shouldn’t care about this world, it’s people and it’s events.
No matter what happens, it’s never permanent. Yes, if you have a serious injury, it will cause so much pain. But after a while, you will get used to that pain and live with it. If you experience the death of a close one, you will get used to living without them. If you have an embarrassing moment. It doesn’t matter. It will be forgotten anyway.
So many people have also called me “emotionless” or someone who doesn’t care about anything. Well then, let me ask this.........Is that a bad thing? Not caring about anything is much better than caring about everything.
If you don’t care about anything, then pain and loneliness won’t affect you as much.
But if you care about everything, then pain and loneliness would drive you crazy.
Plus, being emotionless is impossible.
Unless you have brain problems.
If you’re a normal human, then you have emotions.
Even if some people don’t display their emotions, that doesn’t mean they don’t have them.
They are just reserved and like to keep everything to themselves.

Misaki is best girl.


Also, Many people said that Misaki’s left eye is a plot hole and wasn’t explained why she could see the color of death.....I’m going to ask this just in case but ummm............did you pay attention while watching the show? If you don’t know why Misaki can see the color of death, then you are either stupid, or have a really short attention span.
Misaki clearly said this in the anime “Dolls are hollow, you see? Completely hollow in body and soul. The void connects them with death. But hollow things seek to fill their emptiness.”
She also said “Don’t you feel like this dolls are sucking or draining something out of you?”
(She clearly means your soul.)
Mei can see the color of death because the void connects the dolls with death. That’s why her eye is called “The Voids Eye” Even if you don’t believe this in the real world. It’s true in the universe of Another. Do you get it now? It’s not a plot hole. It’s just a big hole in your brain that made you unable to calculate what’s happening.
Also, Misaki Mei is best girl and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees with me.
The darkness and deepness of Another isn’t the only amazing thing about this anime.
The story of Another is really good and actually very unique. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before.
Story: 10/10
Uniqueness 10/10


The animation is absolutely fantastic. I mean, P.A works has some amazing anime out there.
Animation: 10/10
The art style is also very good. Again. P.A works


Art style: 10/10
The music is just top notch! The osts in this anime are just fantastic. Also, many people hated the opening to Another. But I absolutely loved it. It suits this series really really well.
If you can’t believe me.Then go and listen to the english cover of the Another’s opening.
Like, just Right after you finished reading this, just go and listen to the whole english cover of the Opening, while thinking that Misaki is the one singing the lyrics. After you’ve listened to it, you’ll know how much it makes sense.
The opening is really catchy and has absolute meaning in every single word.

So I give the Music: 10/10

The voice actors also absolutely nailed it.
Misaki’s voice is basically eargasm to me.
Voice acting:10/10

But the only problem this anime had was the characters. they weren’t explored that much. We didn’t know anything about some of them, they were just there.Many people have big problems over the characters. But I actually don’t mind this problem with Another. Since, even if the other characters weren’t covered that much, they actually have really important roles in the anime.
So I rate the characters a:9.5/10.

Enjoyment: Something that can’t be meaured by numbers/10. Best. Overall rating: 10/10

I could’ve went more in depth of the review of Another. But I think I’ve said enough about how amazing and how much of a genius Another is, but since I’ve never reviewed anime, I can’t make good reviews. But I’m sure there are plenty of reviews you can read of this anime. But don’t read them on myanimelist, because they are bad. Another is the best horror anime ever made and I would fight anyone who disagrees with me.
(Not really. I wouldn’t fight for such thing, but you know. I say this for exclamation)
The tension and the creepiness that you feel watching Another is just really incredible.
every episode left me on the edge of my seat.
Every episode, I wanted to know more and more about, what’s behind the mystery of this cursed class? Who’s Misaki Mei? Why can no one see her?
When watching Another, you’re just like “just one more episode, then I’ll sleep” After watching that episode, you say “just one more, I swear” But then before you realize it, it’s already 5 o’clock in the morning, and you watched every episode of Another. Magic? No. It’s just the genius work of Another.
At the end of each episode, something really intriguing happens, that you just can’t help but watch the next episode to know more about what happened.
So the episode starts off with explaining what happened at the end of the last episode, and then at the end of this last episode, there is yet another mystery(pun unintended) that needs to be explained in the next episode. This anime is basically something you can only watch in one sitting.
Also, this anime ended really geniusly.
Why?
Because at the end, it ends somewhere where you definitely didn’t want it to end. So you are like “You can’t just end it there. I need more! ” If there is any anime like this. Then it’s just a sign of how amazing it was.

This anime knows exactly when to add gore. Also, the death of the characters in this anime has really good reasons, unlike corpse party. That was just an anime that had no good story whatsoever and just added gore everywhere to make people think that it’s a good horror anime.well, let me tell you. It’s not. Unlike corpse party, Another has a pretty excellent story. Also, have i mentioned the dialogue in this anime?
Kouichi and Misaki are just talking when suddenly, everything goes silent.......What will happen?! Where there be a death?
*BREATHING REALLY INTENSELY**........
...........
.......
.......
.....
....
Ow.
She just continues talking.....
Thank god nothing happened.
I thought one of them would’ve died for sure.
An example of the dialogue would be something like this:

Misaki: Sakakibara-kun.....
Sakakibara:Looks at her................
*eerie music starts to kick in*
*the atmosphere is really silent*....
....
....
.......
...........
..............
....................
........................
.............................
Misaki: You should be going home now.

This just shows the amazing atmosphere that Another has. This is how horror anime should be.
This anime relies on it’s story and atmosphere to scare people, and not jumpscares or unnessecary gore.
People said that the ending was very bad and “comedic”.
And that they killed off every character for no reason. And they also ask why did everyone go crazy.
Let me start by saying. The ending of this anime makes so much sense. The students were basically in a class, where the eead were having fun in.
They were in a cursed class....... A place where the students die each month.
You are basically coming to a place where you have a 98% chance of dying. Now tell me, if these emotionally unstable students found out how to stop the curse, wouldn’t it make sense for them to go absolutely insane? To stop the curse, they HAD to KILL another student. These students want to escape from this curse by any means necessary.
How the hell are you expecting them to be sane after trying to kill other human beings??
These insane students would also kill their best friends to escape from the curse.Even if those students weren’t actually the extra ones. So it all makes god damn sense.
The psychological aspects of this anime is very genius. It shows exactly what would happen to your brain, when you face trauma.


As regards to those who are wondering why I rated Another’s OVA as a masterpiece. Let me explain. You might say I love it because of the shower scene. Well. You aren’t entirely wrong.
But the main reason I love it is because This OVA is really important. Not only does it show Misaki’s backstory but, It also shows the transformation and the drastic change of Misaki’s personality — From someone who was very cheerful and laughed after finishing every sentence, to someone who displays no emotion or interest at all. Also, I get to finally see my waifu laugh....


As for Another’s music track “Shizukani-Misaki Mei” Just go and listen to it with english subtitles. It makes SO much sense.
So after you read this, go and listen to Another’s opening(english version)
But also listen to shizuka ni- Misaki Mei
with english subtitles and i dare you to say it doesn’t make any sense.
Specially shizuka ni. Misaki basically puts her suffering into words.It’s an absolute masterpiece.



This anime is a masterpiece in my opinion.
But of course, this anime isn’t for everyone.
if you are a big action fan that can’t stand watching a whole anime about amazing indirect character development and slow world building. And you just want fight scenes everywhere.
Then Another is not the anime for you.

Of course, every anime has its flaws, and Another definitely did have a lot of flaws everywhere. But I personally didn’t mind or care about those problems in Another at all.


Because I absolutely loved every single second of this show. It’s simply a masterpiece.