The class trip is underway and nobody is safe there either.
What They Say:
Kouichi and his friends found the tape Matsunaga left in the old school building, but the casualty count continued to rise. So class 3, led by Ms. Mikami and Chibiki, begin their class trip, where Kouichi, Mei, and Teshigawara meet in Mochizuki’s room to listen to the rest of Matsunaga’s tape. Through it Matsunaga tells them what he did to stop the calamity…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the discovery of the tape in the previous episode, Another certainly ramped up the intensity of what had come before and the impact on those in the present. Finding out about the dead from then, the things people did to try and survive it and the history ever since of the class certainly would be more than enough to cast a pall on the class. With everyone out on their class trip now, something that just adds a whole lot more dread since avoiding things isn’t allowed, the layer of depression over everyone is rather oppressive. Understandably so as several more people have died now in new accidents as they tried to stay away from the school or get out of town outright.
To make matters worse, the class trip is to a really elegant looking place out in the mountains where it just adds to the oppressive feel a great deal. The students look out of place and would even if it was with them being all happy and smiling. With things in their minds about what they’ve seen and experienced and the smaller group that has learned of things from the past with the cassette tape, there’s a feeling of inevitability about what’s happening. To make matters worse, Mei is getting accusations from the class rep now about what’s happened since Mei had failed in her duties as the ignored extra student that she was designated to be. Kouchi isn’t keen on hearing this, but it’s something that Mei has to deal with even if it pains him.
While the tape offers them some ideas about how to deal with the situation, the episode spends a good bit of time focused on Mei herself as she talks with Kouchi. There are things from her past that are influencing her in the present with how she’s tackling this situation because of upbringing and family connections. With the two of them talking quietly in a sparsely decorated room, keeping things simple and straightforward, it’s a rather chilling piece as Mei recites these things about her past and her special friend. What she’s putting together between those events with her friend and Kouichi’s arrival in the school and the class and the way the balance was upset with how he interacted with her has her approaching the situation in a new way.
In Summary:
Another doesn’t avoid the body count here but it’s not the driving force like it was at times in the previous couple of episodes, or as graphic. What it wants to do here is two fold and it does each very well. The first is to move the class into its own place through the class trip, which has them in the decidedly awkward mountain area where they’re surrounded by ornate designs that are really out of place regardless of their mood. The second is to work through the character drama a bit more, notably with a focus on the back and forth between Mei and Kouichi that goes a long way towards her getting him to understand his place. But it also deals with the class at large and what they’re all going through in a few ways as well. It covers a lot of ground and is once more a very slowly paced but methodical series that has a lot going on. It’s a thick episode that doesn’t feel like it.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
