Another - Episode 8

When you've recently been drenched in the blood spurting forth from the arteries of your classes teacher, what better way to wash it all away than a visit to the beach?

While a trip to the beach sounds great, it is nonetheless carried out with a serious goal in mind - to meet Matsunaga, the man who claims to have stopped the curse of Class Three fifteen years previously, while also leaving a clue for future generations to heed in the process.  But will he remember anything useful to the current year's pupils?

As frayed nerves relax once the party leaves Yomiyama (and hopefully the curse) behind, the news that Matsunaga isn't currently available gives all and sundry some downtime - an opportunity to relax on the beach and generally goof off for a while, whether it's building sandcastles, fishing or playing volleyball.  Eventually, Matsunaga gets the message Reiko and comes to find her, although sadly his memories of fifteen years ago seem as hazy as hers.  Worse still, just as he begins to recall the location of the clue he left behind for others to find, a freak gust of wind leads indirectly to disaster.  Still.... nice boat though.

I have to admit that, despite being a rather pedestrian episode for the most part (not to mention a blatant attempt to sandwich a beach episode into this series - what next, disaster at a hot springs resort?), I really rather enjoyed the way this week's instalment of Another played with the viewer's expectations, producing scenes that threatening to turn everything upside down in an instant while never doing so until its final tragic delivery at the episode's close.  Given that we've learned very little from the episode however, with the episode end again delivering a somewhat predictable violent death as its cliffhanger, much of the instalment felt more like a beautifully produced filler piece than anything more substantial.  Given its visual polish I have to admit that I'm quite happy to watch pretty much anything P.A. Works has to offer just to soak in the beauty, but despite its smart moments there's still something missing from Another, and I fear that the missing element is simply finding a reason to care about its characters and their predicament, which seems to be rather lacking at present.