Another (Anime)

PLOT

In 1972, popular honors student Misaki died partway through the school year in Yomiyama North Middle School's Class 3-3. The rest of the students and teachers, devastated by the unexpected loss, decided to carry on as if Misaki were still alive, going so far as to keep the desk in the classroom and bringing it to the graduation ceremony. Yet no one could explain why Misaki was present on the graduation photo, deathly pale yet smiling with the rest.

In spring 1998, 15-year-old Kōichi Sakakibara arrives in Yomiyama from Tokyo, to stay with his grandparents while his father works inIndia. He transfers into Class 3-3, but misses the first few weeks by a pneumothorax of his left lung. While in the hospital, he receives a visit from some of his new classmates, though they all act strangely and ask him personal questions. Later, he meets a mysterious girl wearing the school uniform and an eyepatch, named Mei Misaki, who seems to be visiting the morgue.

Once recovered, Kōichi goes to school and tries to adapt. His aunt Reiko, a teacher at Yomiyama North, gives him a few pointers, but, like his peers, remains evasive when it comes to their behavior towards Mei, whom they treat as if she doesn't exist. Kōichi is further confounded by the air of mystery around Class 3-3 and its isolation from other classes, even practicing P.E. separately.

Tensions suddenly rise when one of Kōichi's classmates, Yukari Sakuragi, slips while running down the stairs and dies, impaled on the sharp end of her umbrella. This is one of many deaths related to class 3-3 which have Kōichi and his friends Mei, Naoya Teshigawara, Tomohiko Kazami, and Yūya Mochizuki, trying to unravel the mystery of 1972's Misaki and the senseless "Curse of Class 3-3".

Koichi Sakakibara

A 15-year-old boy who transferred to Yomiyama North Middle School into class 3-3, but had to be hospitalized because of apneumothorax right before the beginning of the school year. He stays with his grandparents and aunt Reiko, while his father conducts research in India. He befriends Mei Misaki despite warnings against doing so, and works with his classmates to uncover the truth behind the Curse of Class 3-3. He has doubts regarding his connection to the curse, going so far as to believe he may be the "dead one", though Mei lays his fears to rest.

Mei Misaki

An unusual girl in Kōichi's classmates. She is recognizable due to the eyepatch that covers her left eye, a doll's eye crafted by her adoptive mother. She claims it allows her to see the dead, as they have a different "color". At the start of the novel, she is completely ignored by her classmates and sits in a old, scratched desk at the back of the classroom. Kōichi first meets her on the elevator of Yūmigaoka Hospital and they gradually become closer. He defends her numerous times, particularly when faced with their very hostile classmates, some of whom believe her to be the "dead one" behind their year's calamity. She seems rather "doll-like" on the surface, but still has human feelings. In the novel and manga, Mei's doll eye is blue; in the anime, it is green.