Another (novel)

Kōichi Sakakibara (榊原 恒一, Sakakibara Kōichi)

Voiced by: Atsushi Abe[4] (Japanese); Greg Ayres[5] (English)

Played by: Kento Yamazaki[6] (live-action film)

A 15-year-old boy who transferred to Yomiyama North Middle's Class 3-3 from Tokyo in 1998, but was hospitalized due to pneumothorax before the school year began. Kōichi stays with his grandparents and aunt Reiko, while his father conducts research in India. He befriends Mei Misaki despite warnings against doing so, and works with his classmates to uncover the truth behind the curse of Class 3-3.^[ch. 1]

Mei Misaki (見崎 鳴, Misaki Mei)

Voiced by: Natsumi Takamori[4] (Japanese); Monica Rial[5] (English)

Played by: Ai Hashimoto[6] (live-action film)

An unusual girl who wears a white eyepatch over her left eye,^[ch. 1] Kōichi first meets her on the elevator of Yūmigaoka Hospital, as she is going to deliver a doll to her "poor other half" in the second basement (it comes out in bits that her other half is deceased, her cousin, and later is revealed to be her twin sister in episode 0).^[ch. 1] At school, she is completely ignored by her classmates. When Kōichi goes out of his way to try to interact with her, she warns him not to, but relents and gradually opens up to him about her situation after Kōichi is also ignored by the class.^[ch. 8] She reveals to Kōichi that her left eye is a doll's eye, and that she has a special ability,^[ch. 3] noting later in the story that she is able to see the "color of death", that is, identify people who are dead and those close to death.^[ch. 17]

Yōsuke Sakakibara (榊原 陽介, Sakakibara Yōsuke)

Voiced by: Takurō Kitagawa (Japanese); Christopher Ayres (English)

Kōichi's father and Reiko's brother-in-law, is a college professor who is doing research in India. He regularly calls his son to chat, but does not give much detail about their family background, opting instead to complain about the heat.[7] The phone connection typically becomes filled with static and drops just as Yōsuke might say something informative.

Ritsuko Sakakibara (榊原 理津子, Sakakibara Ritsuko)

Kōichi's mother and Reiko's older sister, she died 15 years ago right after giving birth to him. She was a student in Yomiyama Middle School's Class 3-3 back in 1972, and was thus one of Misaki Yomiyama's classmates.^[ch. 1] It is later revealed that she died while Reiko was in Class 3-3; and was therefore a victim of the curse that year. Her maiden name was Ritsuko Mikami (三神 理津子, Mikami Ritsuko).[8]

Reiko Mikami (三神 怜子, Mikami Reiko)[8]

Voiced by: Naoko Sakakibara (Reiko),[4] Misayo Miyamaki (Ms. Mikami)[9][lower-alpha 1] (Japanese); Molly Searcy[5] (English)

Played by: Ai Kato (live-action film)

Kōichi's aunt, Yousuke's sister-in-law and Ritsuko's younger sister.[8] She has been hanging out with Kōichi at the grandparents home while Kōichi's dad has been away. At the beginning of the story, she gives him advice about Yomiyama Middle School through a series of "rules".^[ch. 1] She usually returns home exhausted after work.^[ch. 4,6] She was in class 3-3 15 years ago when Kōichi's mother died.^[ch. 6] It is later revealed that she and Koichi's current teacher are the same person. Chibiki tells Mei and Kouichi that Ms. Mikami was the Class 3-3 homeroom teacher in 1996, the last year the calamity happened, and that making her assistant homeroom teacher this year put a burden on her. In the anime, it is revealed that Ms. Mikami is the extra person, having been murdered in 1996.

Kirika (霧果)

Voiced by: Hitomi Harada (Japanese); Tiffany Grant (English)

She is an artist and the owner of "Blue Eyes Empty to All, In the Twilight of Yomi", a ball-jointed doll store and museum.^[ch. 3] Kōichi later confirms she is Mei Misaki's adoptive mother,^[ch. 8] but they have a somewhat distant relationship where they talk to each other like strangers.^[ch. 9] Mei reveals that her mother had a stillbirth 12 years ago, which made her obsessed with dolls; this hobby has led to her and Mei treating each other as strangers.^[ch. 17] Her real name is Yukiyo Misaki (見崎 ユキヨ, Misaki Yukiyo).^[ch. 17]

Misaki Fujioka (藤岡 未咲, Fujioka Misaki)

Voiced by: Hiromi Igarashi

First introduced as Mei's "other half"^[ch. 1] and later as her cousin,^[ch. 3] she was the person whom Mei was delivering a present to at the basement of Yūmigaoka Hospital,^[ch. 1] where Kōichi learns houses the memorial chapel.^[ch. 2] In reality, she is Mei's twin sister, raised separately after birth, though they occasionally met each other. Has a more cheerful personality than Mei. Misaki and Mei's biological mother is named Mitsuyo.^[ch. 17] Misaki died in the hospital from leukemia in April.[10]

Amane (天根, Amane)

Voiced by: Sayuri Sadaoka (Japanese); Vicki Barosh (English)

The receptionist at the doll shop and museum.^[ch. 3] Whenever she sees Kōichi, she offers him a student-discounted admission to their museum.^[ch. 3,5] Mei later reveals that she is her grand-aunt.^[ch. 8]

Tomohiko Kazami (風見 智彦, Kazami Tomohiko)

Voiced by: Mitsuhiro Ichiki (Japanese); Josh Grelle[5] (English), Takashi Waka (live-action film)

He's one of the class delegates and a glasses-wearing honor student.^[ch. 1] He and Teshigawara are childhood friends.^[ch. 1]

Yukari Sakuragi (桜木 ゆかり, Sakuragi Yukari)

Voiced by: Ai Nonaka[4] (Japanese); Brittney Karbowski[5] (English), Maya Okano (live-action film)

The class 3-3 representative for the girls side.^[ch. 1,5] Her appearance is friendly. In May, when she learns that her mother died in a car accident, she ends up falling down the stairs and impaling her neck on the sharp end of her umbrella.[11]^[ch. 4]

Naoya Teshigawara (敕使河原直哉, Teshigawara Naoya)

Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno[4] (Japanese); Chris Patton[5] (English), Kiyotaka Uji (live-action film)

A classmate who befriends Kōichi, whom he nicknames "Sakaki".^[ch. 1] His appearance is a little taller than other boys and cheery. A sports lover with a superficial personality, he was asked to explain the situation to Kōichi but has trouble going through with it.^[vol. 1]

Yūya Mochizuki (望月 優矢, Mochizuki Yūya)

Voiced by: Kazutomi Yamamoto[4] (Japanese); Clint Bickham (English), Kai Inowaki (live-action film)

A schoolmate and member of the Art Club.^[ch. 3] He along with Teshigawara help Kōichi unravel the 3-3 calamity. Kōichi thinks he has a crush on Ms. Mikami the assistant homeroom teacher as he often inquires as to her health and whereabouts.^[ch. 3]

Yumi Ogura (小椋 由美, Ogura Yumi)

Voiced by: Iori Nomizu[4] (Japanese); Tiffany Grant (English), Ayana (live-action film)

One of the students of 9 Grade Class 3 in 1998. She is friends with Takako Sugiura and Izumi Akazawa in her duties as the head of countermeasures, acting as her right and left hands. She is a kind and shy person. The deaths of her brother Atsushi and Aya makes her lose her mind and sanity. In the anime she tries to kill Mei believing her to be an extra student but she falls down from the second floor and breaks her neck. In the manga she briefly appears talking with Mei and in the noval she always stays in the company of Izumi's group she survives the curse in these adaptions. In the live-action film she appears in some scenes and doesn't speak a lot and later she survives the Inn incident.

Izumi Akazawa (赤沢 泉美, Akazawa Izumi)

Voiced by: Madoka Yonezawa[4] (Japanese); Jessica Boone[5] (English), Mika Akizuki (live-action film)

A student in charge of countermeasures, she devises and upholds means to deal with the calamity of Class 3-3.^[ch. 3,6,7] She replaces her friend Yukari as the class representative on the girls side in June.^[ch. 7] She resents Mei and Kōichi for breaking the class rule of not interacting with the person who is "not there", feeling that their actions have undermined the countermeasures and have caused the deaths to continue.^[ch. 6,11][12] In the novel, during the summer trip, she is pursued by Mineko Numata, and dies from falling off a veranda and breaking her neck.[13] In the manga and anime, her hair is styled in bunches. In the afterword of the manga series, Ayatsuji wrote that Akazawa was a supporting character in the novels, but that manga artist Kiyohara give her a bigger role, which worked well for the climax and the big twist in the adaptation.^{[vol. Omnibus:afterword]}

Takako Sugiura (杉浦 多佳子, Sugiura Takako)

Voiced by: Misato Fukuen[4] (Japanese); Emily Neves[5] (English), Mana Konno (live-action film)

A student of 9th Grade Class 3 in 1998. She is friends with Yumi Ogura and Izumi Akazawa as the countermeasures's personal right-arm. She is a young girl and cares deeply about her friends she has a crush on Junta in the anime. She used to attend the same school with Mei's twin sister which made her believe that Mei is the extra student. Junta's death made her loses her mind she tries to kill Mei but gets stuck in the cables and dies. In the manga she dies in the fire and in the novel she is killed by Keiko. In the live-action film she survives these encounters and is protected by Tomohiko.

Ikuo Takabayashi (高林郁夫, Takabayashi Ikuo)

Voiced by: Shou Takano (Japanese); Blake Shepard[5] (English)

A classmate who is noted to occasionally miss school because of his weak heart condition. His appearance is thin and a bit smaller than other boys. He is usually seen sitting at the sidelines during P.E.. In June, he suffers a fatal heart attack.[14]^[ch. 7]

Shōji Kubodera (久保寺紹二, Kubodera Shōji)

Voiced by: Kōzō Mito (Japanese); David Matranga[5] (English)

Class 3-3 homeroom teacher.^[ch. 1] In July, after realizing that the countermeasures to the Class 3-3 calamity are not working, he kills his bedridden mother by smothering her with a pillow the night before stabbing himself in the neck in front of the class.^[ch. 11,12]

Tatsuji Chibiki (千曳 辰治, Chibiki Tatsuji)

Voiced by: Hiroaki Hirata[4] (Japanese); David Wald (English), Yoshihiko Hakamaka (live-action film)

Reiko describes him as the "ruler" of the secondary library. He typically dresses in all black.^[ch. 3] He was the teacher for Class 3-3 in 1972, the year Misaki Yomiyama died. Some years later, he resigned as a teacher but stayed on as librarian, claiming that he was "running away [from the curse]" but, staying nearby out of guilt. Since then, he's kept a record of the phenomena, the deceased and their connections; and shares his findings with Kōichi and Mei.^[ch. 10]

Misaki Yomiyama (夜見山 岬, Yomiyama Misaki)

The honor student from Yomiyama Middle School's Class 3-3 in 1972. He was extremely popular and well-liked by his peers and teacher. He died in a house fire that also claimed the lives of his brother and both his parents.[15] His classmates were so heartbroken by his untimely death and could not accept it, that at school they pretended as if he were still alive, which led to a mysterious photo with the supposedly dead Misaki in it.[16]^[ch. 1,15]

Sanae Mizuno (水野 沙苗, Mizuno Sanae)

Voiced by: Seiko Yoshida (Japanese); Carli Mosier[5] (English), Hiroko Sato (live-action film)

A nurse at Yūmigaoka Hospital who befriends Koichi. A running gag is that she is accident-prone.^[ch. 1,2,5] She has a younger brother named Takeru in Class 3-3.^[ch. 4] She tries to assist Kōichi in unraveling the mystery of Yomiyama North by giving him information she gleans from discussions with her colleagues and her brother.^[ch. 3,5] In June, she is killed when the elevator she was riding on breaks its cable and falls down the shaft; the impact causes the ceiling beam to fall on her.^[ch. 6,7]

Katsumi Matsunaga (松永 克己, Matsunaga Katsumi)

Voiced by: Shinya Takahashi (Japanese); Illich Guardiola (English)

A former Yomiyama North Middle School student from Class 3-3 of 1983, and one of Reiko's classmates. During their summer trip, when he had killed a classmate, he discovers that the other people in the class suddenly have no knowledge of that classmate. He realizes he had killed the Casualty, making this the only known case of the phenomenon stopping halfway through the year.^[ch. 14,15] He recorded his theories and confession on an audio cassette and hid it in the school for future students to find.^[ch. 15] After graduation, he moved to Tokyo to pursue his studies. He became a banker, but quit after a few years, returning to Yomiyama to help with the family business. He is a regular at Inoya Cafė, where Tomoka Inose works.^[ch. 13]

Tomoka Inose (猪瀬 知香, Inose Tomoka)

Voiced by: Mahiro Inoue (Japanese); Maggie Flecknoe (English)

Yūya's older half-sister. A waitress at Inoya Cafė, she attended Yomiyama North Middle School during 1983, though she was not part of Class 3-3. Although aware of the rumors about said class, she did not believe them until Yūya, fearing for his life, explained the situation to her. Katsumi Matsunaga is a regular at the cafe where she works.^[ch. 13][17]

Mineko Numata (沼田 峯子, Numata Mineko)

Voiced by: Rie Takahashi (Japanese); Vicki Barosh (English)

Ikuo Takabayashi's grandmother. A gentle warm-hearted grandmother, though she proved to be an insane crone murderer due to Ikuo's death. In the novel, she is responsible for the murder of Manabu Maejima, Izumi Akazawa, Takako Sugiura, Junta Nakao, Shigeki Yonemura, and her husband Kensaku during the summer trip. She then proceeded to commit suicide by biting off her tongue, making her along with her husband one of the seven "Deaths of August". In the anime, she is not directly responsible for Sugiura's or Akazawa's death, and she was killed with a frying pan by Izumi, saving Yūya Mochizuki and Naoya Teshigawara.

Another is a 487-page novel written by Yukito Ayatsuji. The novel was originally serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's literary magazine Yasai Jidai in intermittent periods between the August 2006 and May 2009 issues. A compiled tankōbon volume was published on October 29, 2009[18] and a two-volume bunkobon edition was released on September 25, 2011.[19][20] A re-release of the bunkobon edition featuring illustrations by Noizi Ito was released under the imprint Sneaker Bunko on March 1, 2012.[21][22] A spin-off novel titled Another: Episode S/0 was released on July 31, 2013.[23] It is two novels in one binding. Another S is a side novel set in the same time period, an adventure of Mei Misaki during summer vacation. Another 0 is set during Aunt Reiko's year in class 3-3, in 1983. Yen Press has licensed the novels in North America.[24] The English translation is by Karen McGillicuddy.[25]

A sequel,[26] titled Another 2001, was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Shosetsu Yasei Jidai magazine from the November 2014 issue[27] to the February 2020 issue,[28] and as its name implies, takes place in 2001.

A manga adaptation illustrated by Hiro Kiyohara was serialized between the May 2010 and January 2012 issues of Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace magazine. Four tankōbon volumes were released between October 4, 2010 and December 29, 2011.[29][30] A "0th" volume of the manga was released on May 26, 2012. Yen Press has licensed the original four-volume manga in North America and released it as an omnibus.[24]

A 12-episode anime television series adaptation produced by P.A.Works and directed by Tsutomu Mizushima[31] aired in Japan between January 10 and March 27, 2012. The screenplay was written by Ryō Higaki, and the chief animation director Yuriko Ishii based the character design used in the anime on Noizi Ito's original concept art.[31][32] The music was produced by Kow Otani, and the sound director is Yoshikazu Iwanami.[32] The anime has two theme songs: the opening theme "Kyōmu Densen" (凶夢伝染, "Nightmare Contagion") by the band Ali Project, and the ending theme "Anamnesis" by Annabel. Sentai Filmworks licensed the series in North America, releasing it on BD/DVD on July 30, 2013.[33] An original video animation (OVA) episode set before the beginning of the series was released on May 26, 2012 with a "0th" volume of the manga.[34] MVM Films released the series, including the OVA, in the United Kingdom and Ireland in late 2013.[35]

A live-action film adaptation of the same name, directed by Takeshi Furusawa[36] and produced by Kadokawa Pictures was released in Japanese theaters on August 4, 2012.[37] The theme song is "Rakuen" (楽園, "Paradise") by Miliyah Kato.