Danica Davidson
October 31, 2013 
Yen Press has released the omnibus manga Another just in time for Halloween, and it’s the perfect timing for a strong horror title like this.
Koichi’s mother died years ago, and his father’s away with work, so the teen winds up in his mother’s village, attending a class that happens to be cursed. The curse doesn’t happen every year, but when it does, it kills off multiple students and family members close to them. This turns out to be one of the years when the curse is happening, and there’s only one way to stop the continued devastation. One of the people in the classroom is dead and doesn’t know it. The deceased person will have to be discovered and killed again.
Does this mean students are looking at one another suspiciously, wondering whom to kill? Absolutely. What if you kill the wrong person? But then, wouldn’t that still be worth the risk, because it might save lives? You can see how this quickly descends into madness.
Koichi has a horrible feeling he might be the dead student. Fellow student Mei Misaki is also suspicious, since none of the other students talk to her. And there’s that inexplicable eyepatch she’s always wearing, and the fact she says her covered eye is able to tell who’s dead.
Another has taken on multiple forms, including an anime (available through Sentai Filmworks) and a set of original novels. The novels are also published by Yen Press, and they’re digital-only, though I’m still hoping against hope that they’ll come out in print. I haven’t read the novels (the second they’re out in print, I’ll be there), but I have watched the anime, and I reviewed it in the June 2013 issue of Otaku USA. I was really impressed with the spooky vibes and overall creepy nature of the anime and thought it was a solid horror story.
At first the manga didn’t feel quite as spooky or creepy as the anime, and I think this could just be because they’re different mediums. The anime could use music and different colors to get its atmosphere across. However, the manga continues to build, and by the last fourth of it the story’s so sizzling and good you can hardly turn the pages fast enough. Yen Press is publishing the original four volumes of the manga in one volume, so this is a thick book of more than 700 pages. Even after all that reading, though, don’t be surprised if you want to check out more of the franchise.
Publisher: Yen Press
Story: Yukito Ayasuji
Art: Hiro Kiyojara
