Another is interesting for a number of reasons, mostly because it’s made by PA Works, of Angel Beats and Hanasaku Iroha fame. Being a thriller, it tends to bend more towards the former in terms of style, but you can see very subtle details where HanaIro has influenced the art and direction. 

The interesting thing is that, as first episodes go, it’s actually pretty standard fare: Plucky Protagonist has to move, alone, to a new town, where things aren’t quite as they seem, and he meets Mysterious Teenage Girl who holds the keys to the enigma…

Yeah, this is every anime trope in the book. But it’s executed with precision and charm: our Plucky Protagonist, Kōichi, is genuinely nice, Mai’s movements are suitably, and her eyepatch is the perfect device to show the two sides of her personality, and they use it several times to great effect. None of the characters are as wonderful and compelling as HanaIro’s Ohana, the most human character I’ve seen in anime…. but that’s a high standard to judge them by. 

Another is also, no doubt out of necessity for the genre, much deeper in terms of symbolism and foreshadowing. Even during the first episode, which is of course about introducing the characters, certain establishing shots have a still of, for example, a dismembered doll for just a split second: perhaps a slightly obvious move in principle, but if you look carefully you can find that same doll in a few of the scenes… which is incredibly effective at building tension.

In the end, though, Another 01 suffers from the same problems as any other first episode; far too much has to be said in 22 minutes. The only time I’ve seen it done well is with Kamisama no Memochou… which cheated and aired the first two episodes as one, back to back. This makes Another impossible to judge so far. It could be Angel Beats, it could be BloodC, it could be something rather original. Only time can tell.