- Alas, Poor Scrappy: As divisive as she is, a lot of Izumi's haters found her death to be quite sad.
- The fact that she gives Sou a tearful smile before pulling an honest to God Heroic Sacrifice in Another 2001 makes this even worse. Mei, of all people, tells Sou this was likely true to who Izumi really was as a person.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Is the Calamity really trying to locate and kill the Extra or is it purposefully avoiding harming the Extra and using their presence as an excuse to kill the living?
- Ass Pull: The anime's revealing that Mikami is, actually, Kouichi's aunt Reiko can come off as this, since the foreshadowing isn't as obvious as it is in the light novel. In the novel, Kouichi briefly explains that while he and Reiko are nephew and aunt, she insists that he treat her like any other teacher, and treats him like any other student. It's also mentioned that Mr. Kubodera's remark about Ms. Mikami's personal difficulties with treating Sakakibara as the second non-existent student are likely a reference to her being his aunt.
- The second Extra in Another 2001 will either come across as this or incredibly clever depending on how one feels about the story. While there are subtle hints something changed about the Calamity after the first Countermeasures meeting, the twist that it's Mei's sister is completely out of left field, since deducing it requires information not disclosed until the very end of the story.
- Audience Awareness Advantage: A common criticism of Mei (and by extension, the entire work) is that Mei can easily tell who the Extra is with her doll's eye, so the Calamity and all the deaths it causes could have been prevented if she just told everyone in her class that Ms. Mikami has the colour of death around her and is the Extra. While it is true that Mei already knows who the Extra is, proponents of this view forget that simply knowing who the Extra is and revealing the Extra won't end the Calamity. Killing the Extra stops the Calamity (temporarily), something Mei doesn't know for the majority of the story until she, Kouichi, and co. find the tape that details how the Calamity was stopped in August 1983. Said proponents also forget that killing the Extra is a decision that weighs on any sane character's mind (unlike the viewers who can distance themselves from what happens to fictional characters) because it involves killing a human being, especially Mei's friend's aunt.
- Awesome Music:
- "Anamnesis
" by Annabel, the ending theme. - The music for the show itself was composed by Kow Otani, who composed for such well-known classics as Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and Shadow of the Colossus. He also did the music for the Heisei-era Gamera films, as well as Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack; you can hear parts of "Determined to Protect the Future" from that film in some of the more desperate scenes involving the Calamity, and bits of "The Sacred Beast's Ambush" appear in Episode 11.
- The opening theme, Kyoumu Densen.
- "Anamnesis
- Base-Breaking Character: Izumi's treatment of Mei, particularly publicly shaming her and demanding an apology for her failure as the non-existent student (when in fact the killing actually started before Mei volunteered for the role) has made her fairly divisive with fans - mostly regarding whether it was justified or not. How sympathetic Takako and Tomohiko were in the last episodes also falls into this category.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The random dream sequence with Kouichi in the middle of Episode 6. The apparently kindly innkeeper Keiko going Ax-Crazy for no real reason beyond an off-hand mention of grief over her grandson's death a good month ago.
- The entirety of the ghost-driven plot of Another S falls into this, since none of it was really supernatural, Sou is just really fucked up. While the events of the novel are referenced in Another 2001, the ghost element is dropped entirely.
- Broken Base:
- Fan reception of the climax of the anime (where many characters attempt to murder Mei but end up dying in gory, outlandish ways themselves) is generally split into three groups. The first group thinks it makes the anime just as good, if not scarier, than the other adaptations. The second group thinks the quality isn't as good but is enjoyable nevertheless. The third group thinks it is terrible because it relies too much on gore rather than mystery.
- Izumi's death in the anime is either seen as heartbreaking and tragic or satisfying and deserving. Kouichi's Brutal Honesty definitely doesn't help.
- Damsel Scrappy: Mei. Oh God Mei. While some of her catatonia in all versions of the story are justified due to the recent death of her twin sister at the end of the day most of the trouble Kouichi suffers could've been averted by Mei just sitting down and fucking talking to him, but she chose not to, apparently because being aloof and mysterious was more fun. This becomes especially egregious in the anime, where Izumi demands Mei apologize for everything that's happened, the boys defend her, and then Mei agrees with Izumi that it is her fault. It's a bit hard to fault anyone who sided with Takako when she accused Mei of being the Extra and thus culpable for everyone else's deaths since Mei herself just told everyone this was the case. One of the main changes in both the manga and surprisingly, the film (but notably not the anime) is that Mei is very much an active participant in the group's investigation and willingly protects herself, something her anime counterpart doesn't do; anime Mei is a bit of The Load with poor reaction times and a predisposition to staring at impending murder with a neutral expression.
- Fan Nickname: Final Destination: The Anime.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- In Episode 3, we have Kouichi, Teshigawara, Kazami, Izumi, Yukari, and Takako all discussing their futures. With the very nature of this show, only Kouichi and Teshigawara are still alive at the end. Also, we start to see the hinting of the romantic feelings that drive Kazami and Izumi mad.
- Izumi teasing Nakao about being carsick becomes a lot less funny when his anuerysm bursts and he dies.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Minor in-universe one. In Episode 8, Class 3-3 splits into teams to catch food to eat. An octopus sticks to Mei causing her to panic. She claimed it was trying to eat her. They end up eating it on the BBQ.
- Memetic Mutation:
- Pies. Explanation (Spoilers)
- Also, the deadliness of umbrellas.
- People comparing the anime to Final Destination.
- Moral Event Horizon: Tomohiko alone among the kids murders two of his classmates on the off chance one might be the Extra, and was about to kill Kouichi, only to be stopped by Izumi. When it becomes evident neither of his first victims was the Extra (and further, that he has a very flawed understanding of how the Calamity actually works), Tomohiko expresses no remorse and attempts to continue his rampage. To put that in perspective, Yukito only attacked someone other than Mei by accident and was completely horrified by it, Takako specifically said she wasn't willing to kill Kouichi because she knew he wasn't the Extra, and Izumi was only willing to go that far when she concludes Kouichi was at best complacent in Mei's sadistic murder of Takako. Even taking sanity slippage into account, Tomohiko is the only character who has the demonstrated capacity to be a remorseless, cold-blooded murderer.
- Narm:
- For some, Sakuragi's death goes from horrifying to Black Comedy when you see her hand in the air and her foot leaning on the last step, both twitching in an almost comical manner. That was a bit too much.
- In episode 10, it's revealed that the calamity was stopped by killing the extra student. Teshigawara says, great, now we just need to figure out who the extra is! Then—he's interrupted by Kouichi and a needlessly loud background track.
- The... almost the entirety of Episode 11. It's packed to the brim with Shout-Out to other horror movies of the splatterhouse variety. The deaths are so ridiculous and the logic nonexistent that the audience can't help but laugh.
- The winner would be Yumi Ogura's death. She was among the kids who went insane and chased Mei to kill her. Tried to follow her out of a window from the 2nd or 3rd floor, tried to slash her with a knife, but slipped, fell down and cracked her neck, but her body ends bent in a totally impossible angle, that leaves you wondering if the animators were just trying to avoid an accidental panty shot. Check it here
.- Then again, the whole point of the curse is that when death itself is coming for you, not even the laws of physics, probability or logic will save you.
- In Episode 12, the chandelier falls on a group of students trying to escape. One of them is unharmed and gets out. He runs for the door... and is immediately crushed by a random falling pillar.
- What's the deal with all the explosions in Episode 12? Were the homeowners smuggling live anti-tank munitions?
- If they cook with gas, plenty of explosions are to be expected in the case of a fire. (This is the explanation given in the novel).
- Holy God, the end of Kouichi's "dead one" Catapult Nightmare. The melting seems more like something from a comedy anime. It's not aided by the fact the animators apparently forgot Junta died in the previous episode, since he's both shown with his classmates and also in the same state his body was left in when he dies.
- In the live-action adaptation, when Sakakibara introduces himself to the class, everyone stares at him coldly... except for one of the boys, who has a goofy smile on his face.
- In the original novel and anime, the class of 1972 simply pretended that Misaki was still alive and coming to class after he died, leaving his seat empty but acting like he was still sitting in it. In the live-action adaptation, they instead put an Annabelle doll in her seat, which is a bit hard to take seriously.
- A lot of the deaths in the live-action adaptation, especially the decapitation, are so poorly done (even more so than in the anime) they become laughable. This video
has a montage of them starting around 10:32.
- Paranoia Fuel: Some of the deaths seem designed to show that no matter how careful you are, there is no possible way to anticipate and defend against every one of the infinite ways you may die every single day.
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Izumi in the novel is both a very minor character and powerfully unlikable, though the fact she notably averts Face Death with Dignity does earn her some sympathy, since she responds the way anyone would having just witnessed their best friend being stabbed to death before the killer turned on them, and each subsequent adaptation (except the film) fleshes out her character and gives her several instances of kindness and positive traits the novel just doesn't feature.
- Book Izumi gets this in Another 2001, since the story is told from the perspective of her cousin Sou, whom she is very close to, rather than Kouichi, who views her through the lens of her antagonistic relationship toward Mei. If seeing the human side of Izumi isn't enough to reform her character, the fact she willingly kills herself when it's revealed she's the Extra in order to spare Sou any more trauma should be enough to complete the rehabilitation.
- The Scrappy:
- When compared to his extremely minor role, background character Kenzou Kawahori has a large amount of hatred. He does two things in the entire series: First, he calls Kouichi an asshole for not wanting to participate in a witch hunt against Mei. Second, as the Sakitani Kinenkan is burning down, Yukito, Sayuri, and San get trapped under a chandelier. He runs away without helping them. Nobody complained at all when a pillar crushed him, and the other three survived.
- Yu Yamada is apparently this to his own classmates in the film. He's a relatively minor character whose only on-screen appearances are very loudly blaming Kouichi for Yukari's death (while she's still bleeding out on the floor) and loudly taunting the Calamity before being run over by a car. His own best friend, Yuuya, bikes off and leaves him without even checking to make sure he was really dead first. The only person who seems even remotely upset is Takako, and she gets upset whenever someone dies.
- Signature Scene: Sakuragi's neck being impaled by an umbrella is one of the most well-known scenes among fans of the series.
- Special Effect Failure: In the film, Chibiki and Reiko are pulled to their deaths by what looks like a tendril of obviously computer-generated blobs.
- Values Dissonance: In-universe, Reiko tells Kouichi that unlike the city school that he went to prior to suffering from a collapsed lung, in Yomenaido, the group is considered more important than the individual, which explains why they're willing to treat one student as though s/he doesn't exist to protect the rest of the class. While this is understandable considering the existence of the curse, it's a bit surprising that Reiko's speaking as though this is news to Kouichi, considering Japanese values tend to stress duty to the group.
- The Woobie:
- Mei. She's shunned by her classmates, which she volunteered for so that someone else wouldn't get saddled with the responsibility, and when the killings do end up happening, Izumi publicly shames her and forces her to apologize for failing in her role, which wasn't actually her fault. Her family couldn't support her and her twin sister, so she got sent off to live with a relative who treats her coldly and thinks of her as little more than a replacement for her daughter. Said twin sister dies at the start of April, just as the two were connecting. During the climax of the anime, most of her surviving classmates are trying to kill her. The poor girl has it rough, to say the least. Her twin sister, Misaki, coming back as the Extra doesn't help, since Mei has to put an end to her.
- Kouichi as well. His mother and aunt are both dead, the latter of which he has to kill himself as much as he doesn't want to.
- Sou Hiratsuka is this as well. He's an orphan (partially by choice; his father died when he was young but he very deliberately cut off his mother), he suffers from major PTSD thanks to something traumatic he witnessed at 12, and to cap it all off he's been assigned to Class 3-3 in 2001. To make matters worse, the Extra this year is his cousin, Izumi, whom he's become very close to, and who ultimately chooses to kill herself rather than make him do it and traumatize himself further.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/Another
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