Is Another the Most Horrifying Anime of all Time?

When it comes to the debate of scariest anime of all time, several shows genuinely stand out. Some fans would say that Parasyte: The Maxim is the scariest since it makes them weirdly uncomfortable, while others might argue that the Corpse Party, because of its unending gore, is the most horrifying one. There are numerous others, including Hell Girl, Serial Experiments Lain, etc. that are good candidates, but none of them has been able to match Another’s shock value, which was released back in 2012.

Koichi Sakakibara is a student who has to change his school after he is sent to live with his grandparents in Yomiyama, which is his birth town. However, before joining his new school, he ends up in a hospital where he meets Mei Misaki, a mysterious young girl who wears an eyepatch. It is revealed that one of her is the eye from her doll, which is why she wears the eyepatch to keep it a secret. She tells him that the doll eye allows her to see people who will die soon.

Mei tells Koichi the harrowing history of the class that he has joined. Class 3-3 is cursed and has a long history of paranormal activities that have been happening with its students. It all began in 1972 when one of the students died midway through the year. However, his demise was too much for others to deal with, so they pretended that he was not dead yet. Ever since then, there is a strange phenomenon that has persisted to this day. Every year, there is an extra student in the class, but he is dead and does not know it. Once the academic year ends, the extra student just vanishes with no trace, and no one remembers them. However, what is even more harrowing is that every month a student of the class dies mysteriously.

When Koichi joins the class, he finds himself in the same ugly cycle that has claimed the lives of so many innocent students for decades. It is now up to him and Mei to find out the extra student and figure out a way to end the tragic cycle of murders. But it is the uncertainty at the core of the story that makes Another so frightening. Students are fighting an unseen and unknown enemy, and once they are targeted by the curse, it is impossible to know about it until it’s too late, which makes it scarier. The show makes viewers question their perception of reality, hinting that there is a good possibility that our views of the world might be inconsistent.

Another is disturbing because there is no one to blame for the things that happen; there are only individuals acting without any awareness of the consequences of their actions in the future. The most gut-wrenching aspect of the show is the death that is usually gory and gruesome. Another avoids over-the-top fountains of blood but still manages to make the deaths look brutal. The sound effect adds a feeling of disgust that persists with the viewers for weeks; the show is certainly not for the faint of heart.

Another is so successful and probably the scariest anime because it has the unique distinction of introducing the audience to the primitive fears that the modern man usually does not recognize. It leaves one hopelessly guessing, and the fear of the unknown eventually takes the viewers in its grip just like the characters. There are indeed other animes that are good, but none of them is like Another.

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