Kouichi Sakakibara moves in with his grandparents in Yomiyama due to his father's job, but is soon hospitalized with a collapsed lung. When he joins the 9th grade's class 3 at Yomiyama North Middle School a month late, he is drawn to a girl with an eyepatch, Mei Misaki, whom he had coincidentally met in the hospital. Her mysterious air intrigues him, but though his classmates give him a warm welcome, none of them seem willing to acknowledge her... Dear anime companies: 1) Pick titles for your shows that make good search terms (searching on "Another" will clearly bring you back nothing of relevance to the show, and "another +anime" isn't much better); and 2) Don't use Ali Project for OP/ED songs. Ever. The cacophony that passes for their "music" always leaves me sorely tempted to switch off before the episode's really even begun. With that out of the way: the important part of this episode is really the prologue, where the beginning of a story is being told from what appears to be a few years into the future; of Kouichi, his insistence that the dead Misaki was really alive and beside him, and how that insistence continued even past his graduation from high school. After the opening white noise is done (sorry, couldn't resist), we skip back to his hospital room back at the beginning of the story to watch events begin to unfold. From there, there's not a hell of a lot that really happens in the episode - Kouichi being introduced to his classmates, some initial confusion over Misaki's status, and the first real conversation between the pair, and that's about it. It's all wrapped in a large dose of atmospheric visuals, though, that make it a treat to watch - although to be honest, I expect no less from a PAWorks show. THE GOOD: Visually impressive, very atmospheric, intriguing - although not really enough to go on yet to see how the potential that's clearly here is going to be worked with. THE BAD: Ali Project. Pacing seems slow, although that could equally be part of the atmosphere they're trying to build here. First impressions are good, though. I've yet to find a series the PAWorks have made a mess of, so hopes for this one are high. We'll see where it goes soon enough...
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