Another - Episode 8

Best girl of the series.

Not even Another could resist the need to put in the all-important "Obligatory Beach Episode". For the first time in a while, the students of Class 3 are able to free themselves from the strain of the curse after leaving Yomiyama. The result? Fun times at the beach for them, and plenty of fanservice for the audience. "Coincidentally" Mei's summer house is near the beach they all went to so she ends up joining them in their activities. It's all fun and games for the majority of the episode. Both Izumi and Mei were really moe in this episode, with the former still being my preference. However, knowing Another, there was bound to be trouble brewing. And I was right...

The appearance of Matsunaga signalled the start of trouble for the group. I think I can now confirm the fact that when the students of Class 3 graduate, they will slowly lose all memories of what happened that year. This claim is backed up by how both Reiko and Matsunaga seem to only remember the curse, but not the details. I can imagine how frustrating it is trying to remember something that may not even exist inside your head. The predictability of the death was extremely high seeing; it kind of makes you want to scream at the carsick guy (whose name I still don't know) to not go retrieve the beach ball. In addition, I knew that he wouldn't die by just drowning since that wouldn't be gory enough. The motorboat delivering the final blow made the death more fitting for the show. While on the topic of the death, I'm surprised that it did happen though since beach was supposedly outside of Yomiyama, where the curse could not reach. Also, Matsunaga's reaction to the death made me suspect that the curse is able to bring back the lost memories of former Class 3 students temporarily. With this in mind, the death could be thought of as a sacrifice in order to get information that would normally be unattainable.

Despite it being short, the next episode preview was packed with content (possibly spoilers). There looks to be lots of death and/or supernatural occurrences coming up. The creepiest shot was of a bloody Yukari (the one whose neck got pierced by an umbrella in Episode 3) since the question of whether she actually died or not arises. Personally, I think it's just another one of Kōichi's weird dreams/hallucinations. If not, then it'll be interesting to see how that's explained. I'm impressed at how Another was able to turn a generic beach episode into something interesting. Looking forward to the rest of the episodes.