Another

Even though there are only a total of twelve episode those episodes are packed with some of the gut wrenching death scenes I have ever seen. It goes without saying that this anime is one definitely not for kids.

   

The anime starts out with students explaining how the curse began. In 1972 Misaki, popular girl died in class 3-3. One day a student says dead student is still in class. The other students and teachers go along with the student even giving a reserved seat for graduation. Alright so here is my first gripe. This whole thing could have been prevented if someone just told the student who "saw" the dead girl to sit down and shut up. What do they do instead? They go along with it.

      

Continuing on with how the curse works. There have to be a certain number of people in the classroom not one too many or too few. Every year a student is picked to be ignored. If the ignored student is acknowledged the curse is activated.

     

 A new student, Kouichi Sakakibara transfers from Tokyo. Due to a collapsed lung he is in the hospital. The student council president, head of countermeasures, and two officers from student council. Tomohiko Kazami is the stereotypical unemotional guy in glasses. Izumi Akazawa is snobbish and irritating. Yukari Sakurgari is the shy cutesy little sister type. I am already bored with the characters. 

       

 Izumi Akazawa the head of countermeasures keeps asking Kouichi if he has lived in town before. She asks him over and over and gets to the point where I just want to yell "GET TO THE POINT ALREADY".  This gets annoying quickly. Kouchi eventually gets her to back off by telling her she was born in town before moving to Tokyo. His mother died giving birth to him and they moved soon afterwards. 

    

 Remember the rule to ignore the designated student? The hospital would have been a great time to warn the main character. So when walking around the hospital he runs into Mei who he develops an interest in.The head of counter measures is really bad at her job. 

     

Mei turns out to be a student in class 3-3. The other students ignore her and so do the teachers. She frequently skips class to draw in the art room or just wander through the school. Kouichi asks other students why Mei isn't in class which they don't answer or just look frightened. By talking to Mei ,Kouchi activates the curse. Mei tries to warn him. The problem is that she did so in a vague way by telling him not to talk to her or something bad may happen. Alright so maybe she has a jealous boyfriend. Maybe she's some secret government agent. So Kouchi keeps talking to her, because uh reasons I guess.

     

 Mei turns out to be the cousin of Misaki who died in 1972. That's convenient I guess. The other students won't tell Kouchi about the curse they just tell him not to ask questions. One classmate tells him not to mess with things that don't exist. Mei tells him that she doesn't exist. If I was constantly interrogated about where I lived I'd ask questions.

      

(No everyone saw it coming a mile away)

The first death is Yukari Sakuragi the cutesy little sister from the hospital. While running in the hall she reacts to Mei and runs off with her umbrella. She trips down the stairs and gets impaled by her umbrella after she reacts to seeing Mei. Mei was the student designated to be ignored and yet the students can't seem to follow simple instructions

    

    There are other deaths throughout the anime. At this point I stopped feeling any sort of sympathy for the characters excluding Mei, Kouchi, and the nurse. The students could have solved their problem too many ways to count, but no that would make too much sense. It's never explained why they don't just learn to count before forming the class. In the end it turns out that the odd one wasn't Kouchi or Mei, but the teacher. Maybe the curse wasn't detailed in the wording.

(Class? Classroom? Oh well there's no way they'll get confused, right?)

     Kouchi and Mei try to challenge the curse by trying to get the other students to acknowledge her. They dance in class. He yells her name and they act like goofballs. These scenes seem out of place with the seriousness of the anime. I'm not complaining about them though. They're a bit of a giant F you to the curse and other students.

    I love a good ghost story. This was at the most an okay attempt. Throughout the anime there were several obvious solutions such as moving out of town, telling the student at the beginning to shut up, and knowing how to freaking count. There are way too many plot holes in this anime. It's hard to form any attachment to the characters before their deaths. I had quite a few  questions that weren't answered throughout

~Why don't they just move?
~Why don't they just keep the classroom closed?*
~What happened in those 15 years after Misaki's death?
~If a student has to be ignored why don't they just pick one and send them home?

*They changed the name, but that didn't work.