Another Review: Class 3-3 Has a Secret, and Students Are Dying to Keep It

Quick Take

• A transfer student discovers his middle school class has been cursed for decades — an extra, dead student appears among them each year, and elaborate precautions must be taken to stop people from dying
• J-horror mystery manga with memorable death sequences and a satisfying mystery payoff
• 4 volumes, complete — a short, intense reading experience

Who Is This Manga For?

• Readers who want J-horror with mystery structure and a clear resolution
• Fans of horror that feels like a proper puzzle — there is a solution, and finding it matters
• Anyone who wants a short, complete horror manga that commits to its premise
• Readers interested in the novel (this is a faithful manga adaptation of Yukito Ayatsuji's acclaimed horror novel)

Content Warnings & Age Rating

Age Rating: M (Mature) Content Warnings: Graphic and creative death sequences, horror atmosphere throughout, mystery around death in a school context

The death sequences are memorable and specific — not random gore, but elaborately staged events.

Yu's Rating

Category	Score
Story Depth	★★★★☆
Art Style	★★★★☆
Character Development	★★★☆☆
Accessibility for Non-Japanese Readers	★★★★★
Reread Value	★★★★★

Story Overview

Kouichi Sakakibara transfers to a middle school in a small town and finds his class, Class 3-3, behaving strangely. One student — a girl named Mei Misaki, with an eyepatch — is treated as if she does not exist by the rest of the class. No one speaks to her or acknowledges her.

The truth is revealed gradually: Class 3-3 has been under a curse since 1972. Every year, the class contains one extra person who should be dead. To prevent deaths, the class designates one student as "nonexistent" — treated as invisible, not spoken to, not acknowledged — in an attempt to balance the presence of the extra dead student.

But the countermeasure does not always work. People connected to the class die in elaborate, specific ways. The mystery: who is the dead extra student this year?

Characters

Kouichi Sakakibara — The transfer student whose outside perspective allows the reader to learn the rules alongside him. His determination to acknowledge Mei when the rest of the class will not is the human choice that sets the mystery in motion.

Mei Misaki — The girl being treated as nonexistent; her eeriness is cultivated carefully by Kiyohara, and her actual nature and role in the mystery are the key to the resolution. Her heterochromia (one glass eye, one real eye) is the manga's most memorable visual element.

Art Style

Kiyohara's art creates effective atmosphere — the small-town school environment is drawn with a quiet unease that suits J-horror aesthetics, and the death sequences are staged with theatrical specificity. Mei's design is iconic in horror manga circles.

Cultural Context

Another draws on a specific Japanese horror tradition — the cursed classroom, the supernatural bound to institutional spaces, the group obligation that forces individuals to comply with collective rules that seem monstrous from outside. The novel by Ayatsuji is one of Japan's most successful mystery-horror crossovers, and the manga captures its essential qualities.

What I Love About It

The reread. Once you know the answer to the mystery, everything in the early chapters reads differently. The signs are there. The manga is designed for second readings in the way the best mysteries are — not as a trick, but as an invitation to see what you missed when you were too focused on the surface.

Mei's glass eye. Kiyohara's visual choice to give her one mechanical eye that "sees what should not be seen" is one of horror manga's most effective design elements, fully integrated with the story's logic.

What English-Speaking Fans Say

Another has significant Western recognition from the anime adaptation, which is considered one of the better horror anime. Western readers who move to the manga find it faithful and effective. The novel is also available in English translation and provides more interiority than the manga allows. The reread value is consistently praised — the mystery is constructed fairly.

Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning

The umbrella scene — one of the manga's most discussed death sequences — is the moment the horror becomes formally creative rather than simply dark. It is elaborately staged and establishes that the curse's kills follow a logic that is nightmarish in its specificity.

Similar Manga

• Uzumaki — Isolated community horror with a spiral structure
• The Promised Neverland — School horror with mystery structure
• Shiki — Supernatural deaths in isolated community
• Higurashi When They Cry — Village curse, repeating deaths

Reading Order / Where to Start

Volume 1. Four volumes is a single-sitting experience if you have the time.

Official English Translation Status

Yen Press published the complete 4-volume series. All volumes available.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Four volumes — complete horror mystery with genuine resolution
• Exceptional reread value once the mystery is solved
• Mei Misaki is one of horror manga's most memorable characters
• The death sequences are memorably staged

Cons

• Character development is subordinated to mystery structure
• The resolution requires some suspension of disbelief
• Short enough that the character investment is limited

Format Comparison

Format	Notes
Individual Volumes	Standard Yen Press release; 4 volumes total
Digital	Works well for this length
Physical	Recommended

Where to Buy

Get Another Vol. 1 on Amazon →

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