Another (2012)

Another, known as Anaza (アナザー Anaza), is a Japanese Horror film who released on August 4, 2012. The film is directed by Takeshi Furusawa, and is produced by Kadokawa Pictures. The film is a retelling of the original novel.

A teaser for the film was released on March 2, 2012.

Plot
April 19, 1998, Kouichi Sakakibara is taken to the emergency room at Yomiyama Hospital due to his heart condition which was referred to as a pneumothorax attack. He then begins to narrate on his situation, stating that after he was put to sleep by anesthesia he begins to have a strange dream where he sees a mysterious girl and soon sees his deceased mother Ritsuko. Before he could walk further he was stopped by the mysterious girl with the a doll's eye. Kouichi wakes and the doctor tells him that he must stay for an extra 10 days until he can leave. After taking a walk around the hospital, Kouichi meets the same girl from his dream and asks her what is she looking for in the basement, but she does not answer and conitues to walk with a doll in hand.

May 6, 1998, Kouichi starts class at Yomiyama North High. As he introduces himself to his new classmates, he then notices the girl from the hospital in the back of the classroom. Throughout the first day Kouichi continues his concern on the girl and seemingly empty desk until Kazamyo gives him a seating chart and Teshigawara asks if he is smart and if he believes in abnormality which he denies. He quickly asks about the girl in the back to which they quickly state that the desk is empty causing Kouichi to question the situation from dream to reality.

Back at his grandparents' house, Kouichi sees a picture of his mother while unpacking, after which he notices his aunt Reiko walking towards to house. The share a brief bonding moment as Reiko states that she will become his teacher and tells him of the four school precautions: 1. "If you hear a crow on the rooftop, you must take your left step first when you leave", 2. "3rd Grade students cannot tumble at the ramp outside the back gate", 3. "You must obey the class rules" and 4. "You must make clear separation between the school and home lives."

The next day, during P.E. Kouichi has a small talk with Yukari about the second precaution, until he suddenly looks up and sees the girl on the rooftop. Yukari tells him that no one is there, but Kouichi believes that she is and runs straight up to the roof where he once meets the girl. He reads her nametag which says "Misaki" and asks for her first name. She said her name is Mei. Kouichi then begins to have another pneumothorax attack to which Mei tells him to "be careful, it may have begun."

Kouichi goes to hospital for a checkup to which the results states as normal. He was unsure of what causes this. The next day, Kouichi continues to notice Mei until he sees Chibiki in the next window and Mochizuki states that librarian is creepy. As Kouichi heads to class with Teshigawara and Kazamyo, he decides to check out the library and finds a sketch book with a drawing of a doll, the one Mei was carrying, but Chibiki suddenly appears and tells him to go to class. Teshigawara and Kazamyo tells Kouichi about the student named Misaki who suddenly died in 1972 and how the students couldn't accept her death and pretended that she was still alive until graduation. After learning this, Kouichi begins to yet another attack while remembering Mei's warning. He returns to the hospital for another checkup and runs into his ward, Sanae Mizuno, and asks her if she knows about a girl named Misaki. She asks why he wants to know which he replies that he had heard that a girl passed away in the hospital on April and wonders if it was real or not.

The next day, Kouichi takes a stroll through the town and finds a doll shop. Once he made his way inside and looking at all the human sized dolls, Mei suddenly appears asking if he likes the doll. She then asks why is he in the shop which she then takes off her eyepatch and shows him her doll's eye. A bit shocked, Kouichi asks who is she and she is really a student in Class 3.

The next day, Kouichi decides to investigate the empty desk, but Teshigawara calls and tells him too stop talking to a non-existant student or there will be consequences. He was still a bit confused, but then asks about the incident twenty-six years ago, but they did not answer, further confusing Kouichi. Back at his house, he tells Reiko that everyone in his class is acting strange, but she states that the truth will be revealed when the time comes.

May 28, 1998, Kouichi finishes his examination early and leaves the classroom to find Mei. Yukari, being concerned and frightened for what he might do, decides to follow him. She begs him to stop looking into the matter or someone will die, but he left to find Mei. Mei tells him that he musn't talk to her, but Kouichi was not convinced and holds Mei's arm to see if she is real or not. When Yukari notices him with Mei, she immediately becomes terrified and backs away slowly until a soda can exploded, crashing through the window causing her to slip on the wet floor and fall back onto the umbrella, impaling her neck. Yukari looks toward Kouichi and wheezingly, but eeriely blames him for what happened and dies. Mei looks toward Yukari with her doll's eye and sees the "color of death pouring out of her, annoucing that she is dead. The school staff and the students rush to the scene and found a corpse. The students are terrified and blamed Kouichi for violating the rule, to which he questions.

The next day, Kouichi goes for another checkup and asks Sanae if knows anything about Mei Misaki. Back in class, Sanae's younger brother Takeru Mizuno, tells him to stop asking her crazy things. Teshigawara calls and tells him meet him by the pond, where told Kouichi to stop asking questions and start following the class rules.

He goes to hospital once again hoping to get info from Sanae, but decides not to. Sanae enters an elevator which stops moving and starts vibrating causing her to become a bit scared, the vibration within the elevator causes the small mirror to shatter and a large shard pierces her forehead killing her. Kouichi heard the commotion and rushed to the scene where he sees Sanae dead. During her memorial, Kouichi notices his classmates glaring at him.

June 8, 1998, Kouichi wonders what happened in the morning, but all of the students are ignoring him. He looks at the seating chart and sees that his name as well as Mei's had been crossed out and a note that says to ask Misaki for more details. After school, he meets with Mei in her home and asks her about the situation to which she tells him that student must become non-existant for one year in order prevent a phenomenon and that all students must obey this rule or else someone will die. Kouichi is still very confused about the matter and questions the phenomenon. Mei's aunt, Kirika Misaki, suddenly appears and questions why Mei brought a friend and tells her that they will misunderstand her, but Mei decides to take a walk outside with Kouichi. Mei states that her relationship with her aunt is complex, but quickly demands questions not focusing on her to which he asks if had rejected being a non-existing student.

Flashback to April 27, 1998, a few days before Kouichi started class, Class 3 drew lots to decide who will become the non-existing student and the unfortunate one was Sakurako Wakui who became shocked and saddened by the turnout. Mei suddenly said that she will volunteer to become the non-existing student and claimed that she doesn't mind.

Kouichi and Mei continue to have their talk and Mei states that she accepted being non-existed because she was always alone and never thought that he would become non-existing like her. He asks why he became non-existing to which Mei replies that he broke the rule by talking to her, though felt quite relieved to know that she is real. She then smiles and reintroducing herself to him and asking him to refer to her as Misaki, welcoming him as a fellow non-existing student.

The next day, the two non-existing students run out classroom and up to the roof where they eat lunch together. The two share a bonding talk to Kouichi asks Mei why she always covers her eye and says that her eye is beautiful, but she doesn't think so because her aunt made it for her and it alone allows Mei to "see things that should not be seen." Afterwards, Kouichi wants to know the truth behind the phenomenom and Mei takes him to the librarian's office where the walls show records of the people who died in the past twenty-six years until Chibiki appears and asks why Kouichi is in his office, but Mei tells that he is the second non-existing student, shocking him. He tells the two of what happened twenty-six years ago that a student named Yomiyama died.

Flashback to May 8, 1972, Chibiki was told that one his students suddenly died in the auditorium from being tangled by metal wires. Horrified, he later realized that it was just the beginning and more and more people died, students and thier relatives. After that, Chibiki states that he had noticed something abnormal, the desk in the very back had an unknown person who was possibly the dead one. The info from him was quite disturbing and that Kouichi and Mei decide to research more on this matter.

Kouichi begins to wonder and imagine who the dead one is, which led him to assume that he himself is the dead one. Mei assures him that he isn't dead by using her doll's eye which she states that she is able to see a strange color whenever she sees a dead person, called the "color of death." She then asks Kouichi if he is afraid of her, but he claims that he is not and that Mei is the one who should be afraid of her own powers which made think of that as weird.

July 6, 1998, Kubodera is home taking care of his elderly mother who complains about the heat. He then opens a window to cool the room, but the wind blows the some papers onto the floor and the electricity suddenly went out. Kubodera is about fix the problem, but he slips from the papers and falls forward and when he stood up his mother notices the spoon impaling his left eye. Wondering what it was, Kubodera starts to panic as is his mother and he accidently hits the wall causing the spoon to push further into his head killing him.

The next morning, Mochizuki and Yamada were planning to leave Yomiyama so they can escape death, but while they were riding their bikes on the intersection, a car is driving by and Yamada's breaks were stuck causing him to get struck by the car and died. Mochizuki was terrified and rode away leaving Yamada behind. Back at the class, the students are in a panic realizing that if they follow the rule they are still not safe. Kouichi plans to investigate this phenomenon further by taking some of Chibiki's records from his office and he and Mei went to private room where they search through for some leads until Kouichi discovers his aunt Reiko as a former student of the class.

Kouichi meets with Reiko at his mother's grave and asks her if she knows about the phenomenon or if she was somehow connected to it. A bit disturbed, Reiko looks back on her school days and feels confused and conflicted by her not remembering much of her past. The next day, Kouichi notices someone in the abandoned schoolhouse and he and Mei decide to check it out. The man they saw was searching for something he had left in a classroom of the abandoned schoolhouse and talking himself on how he is scared that "it" has not ended.

Kouichi and Mei begin to search the abandoned classrooms for whatever it was the man was looking for. Kouichi slips back a bit causing his cellphone fall under a bookshelf, as kneels to retrieve it he discovers something taped to bottom of the shelf. The item appears to what the man was looking for which was a casette tape. The two play tape and listened to the message that was left and had tracked down the man who recorded the message. The man's name is Katsumi Matsunaga and he had murdered another student at the age of 13 during a fight, but after which had stopped the phenomenon at that time as no one remembers the student. He then tells the two that he remembers murdering someone and being terrified on the feeling of killing which caused him cut off three of his own fingers as desperate attempt to forget, but was unable to.

The next day, Kouichi and Mei came to the conclusion that they must kill the dead one as it is the only way to stop the phenomenon, but Mei claims that does not want to see anymore people dying. Mikami suddenly appears tells the two to head back to class for she is announcing that class will take training trip in August for 3 days and 2 nights to possibly ensure the students' safety. After school, Mei notices how Mikami resembles Kouichi in terms of personality which he tells her that Mikami is actually his aunt Reiko and when they started school she had told him not tell anyone else.

August 8, 1998, the class takes their trip to the memorial hall where the boys and girls separate rooms. Kouichi unpacks and notices the casette player he left in his bag and Mizuno, who is in the same room as him, notices it as well. Night begins to fall and the students went to cafeteria for dinner. Kouichi and Mei were eating alone due to the other students avoiding them especially Izumi and Sakurako, but only Teshigawara and Kazamyo decided to sit with them since they are no longer non-existing students and even complemented Mei for her bravery in becoming the non-existing student. Izumi stares contemptly at her and walks up to Mei blaming her for everything that has happened, demanding an apology for the class. Kouichi defends her from the accusations, but Mei decides to apologize for what happened.

After dinner, Kouichi and Mei share a brief bonding conversation and he notices her cellphone. She was forced to take it and actually dislikes cellphones, but he tries assure her that having cellphone makes a person feel safe and even asks for number. As the two exchange numbers, Mizuno watches and decides to find what is Kouichi hiding from the rest of class. He and Teshigawara find the casette player in Kouichi's bag and listens to the massage. He then passes on the message to Teshigawara and Kazamyo, greatly confusing them and Mochizuki ran to them until a few logs fell between them causing Teshigawara to suspect Mochizuki. Kazamyo went to pass on the information to Izumi and Sakurako causing them to question the very idea of killing someone. Sakurako is against the idea of killing, but Izumi plans to kill the students she deems as suspects. After they enter a room and locked the door, the lights suddenly broke out scaring them, however, Izumi begins to suspect Sakurako as the dead one.

As Mei walks towards Kouichi's room, her aunt Kirika calls and asks if she is okay, replying that she is just fine and that there is another person who cares for and worries about her. She then hangs up and removes her eyepatch and looks around when Reiko suddenly appeared. As she looks at her she seems a bit concerned after Reiko tells her that the lights are about to turn off. In Kouichi's room, they decide to tell the others about the casette tape, but it is missing and Teshigawara storms in and tells them that they listened to the tape leading Teshigawara to suspect Mochizuki as the dead one and tried to kill him. They start running to Mochizuki, but Kouichi slows down due to his heart condition and someone calls out his name.

As Kouichi searches for whoever called him in the kitchen, Mizuno suddenly appears shouting and trying to slash Kouichi with a knife. During the initial struggle, the gas began to leak. Teshigawara and Mei continue running until they ran into Izumi, who is holding a knife suspecting Mei as the dead one. They look behind Izumi and Kazamyo, seeing Sakurako alive, but bleeding from her neck. Izumi tries to attack Mei, but Teshigawara stops her which Kazamyo said that he witnessed him killing Mochizuki causing him to try and escape from the window. As Teshigawara tries to escape, he gets caught by a live wire entangling and electrocuting him. Terrified, Mei makes her escape with Izumi pursuing her into the woods. While predator was chasing prey, a strong wind blew the docked boat into the river causing the wire holding the boat to stretch out. Mei ran across the wire just in time, but the wire stretched out completely and cuts Izumi's head off as she ran right through it. Terrified, Mei runs back to the hall to find Kouichi.

Back in the kitchen, Mizuno contiues to attack Kouichi and slashes his face. Mizuno suspects that Kouichi is the dead one, but Mei arrives just in time and strikes Mizuno in the head with a pan, giving them the chance to escape. As the two ran off, Mizuno stood up and picking up the pan and became enraged, taking his anger out on the kitchen itself accidently igniting the gas causing an explosion, killing him in the process. Kouichi and Mei frantically rush to warn everyone about the fire causing the students to run out of hall in a panic. Mei notices Reiko running the other way and decides to follow her. Mochizuki wakes up from being knocked down by Teshigawara and sees a sharp log swaying back and forth over his face and barely escapes from it. Chibiki comes to the aid of Kazamyo and Sakurako who were barely making their way out of the hall alive. Kouichi searches for Mei in the crowd, but she is nowhere to be seen, so he decides to call her cellphone. She picks up assuring that she is fine, but tells Kouichi not to look for her. Feeling conflicted, he decides run inside and find Mei with Chibiki following him.

As the two search for Mei, the other students were still trying escape. They found her, but holding a fire axe preparing to kill the person in front of her to which she announces that this person is the dead one. They see that she was referring to Reiko Mikami and thought she is lying, but Mei insists that he trusts her. As she prepares to execute her, she is stopped by Chibiki forcing her to let go and fall down the steps. During the struggle, Reiko makes her escape with Chibiki chasing after her demanding an explaination. Kouichi wakes Mei after she had passed out and insists that they run, but she states that they must end it now. The two make their way up the stairs, they arrive just in time to witness Chibiki slowly dying due to Reiko's color of death slithering onto his body. The cage window suddenly falls open causing Chibiki to fall into the fire while Reiko holds onto the ledge. Kouichi tries to save her, but Mei begs him to stop, to which Reiko decides to let go and falls into the fire and dies. Kouichi and Mei quickly run out of the hall in time, but he suddenly collaspes with Mei frantically trying to wake him up.

The class returns to Yomiyama and Kouichi was hospitalized. By the time he woke up, Mei was right beside him and when they were released from the hospital the two decide to leave a message and a warning for the sake of the juniors who happen to be a part of Class 3. By the end of the school year, Koichi and his grandmother decide to leave Yomiyama for a better life and packed all they needed for the move, including Reiko's painting. Before their departure, Mei happens to walk by just in time to see him off. The two share a shy silence until he asks if he can call her once in a while and she happily replies yes. The two say their goodbyes and Kouichi leaves with his grandmother with Mei waving goodbye to him.

April, 2012, new students appearing for their third year at Yomiyama North, one of the students is holding a casette player and says that a stranger downstairs gave it to her, but they quickly run to class. Outside, is the stranger who happens to be Kouichi looking towards to school and walking away. Inside the classroom, the teacher finally walks in tells the students to take their seats and introduces himself as Chibiki. The student in the back looks on and the tape suddenly plays and Mei's voice only says, "Be careful..."