Another - Episode 5

Things seem to be turning into quite a mess within Another's world as Kouichi continues to poke his nose deeper into the mystery of class three - a proclivity which lead to another tragedy to close off the show's previous episode.

Of course, the death of Mizuno soon reverberates around class three given that her brother is a member of said class, and panic well and truly begins to set in amongst its inhabitants as they try to figure out how to stop whatever's going on.  Of course, the person who bears the brunt of their decision is Kouich, as he finds himself being left out of the classes decision-making, much to his frustration.  You can imagine his relief, then, when classmate Takabayashi offers to step up and tell him whatever he wants to know - an offer which proves to be the final words to come from his mouth.

With this third death racked up to the "curse" in question, Kouichi now finds himself isolated entirely from his classmates as they refuse to talk to or even acknowledge him - that is, save for one small note left for him, telling him to ask "Misaki".  So, it's back to the creepy doll's shop, where we find what is supposedly the truth about Misaki (she's no ghost) and the full story about the curse which plagues class three - a curse begun by the appearance of an extra class member who nobody can discern, leading to monthly deaths from then on.  The only way to prevent this from coming to pass is to pick one class member and pretend they don't exist - welcome to the world of Mei Misaki.

Having leveraged its creepy aura and complemented it with the occasional spectre of horrible, violent death, Another seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place here somewhat.  On the one hand, as I mentioned last week I'd hate to see it become some kind of "gruesome death of the week" series, but on the other simply playing with an unsettling atmosphere and doing nothing with it will soon fall flat.  The revelations made in this week's episode don't really have the strength to create an atmosphere or tension or particular concern, which leaves me wondering where it can go from here.  It remains visually stunning and its audio is top-notch, but to move beyond simply that Another requires... well, another hook to avoid drifting off into the ether of mediocre horror anime.