Episode 1 - Rough Sketch

Rough Sketch is the first episode of Another. It aired on January 9th, 2012.

Summary
Over a montage of images foreshadowing events to come, two voices, a boy and a girl's converse over an old story: many years ago, a student from Class 3 of Yomiyama North Middle School was intelligent, good at sports, and generally loved by her fellow classmates. When the student tragically died, the school was devastated. One day, one of the students pointed at the dead student's desk and claimed that she was still there, and wasn't dead. Eventually the entire class, even the teacher, began to pretend that the student was still with them, and at their graduation the principal had an extra seat placed for the dead student for the photo. Afterward, the dead student inexpliciably appeared in the photo, sitting in the exact chair the principal had placed for them. The girl commented on how spooky the story was, only for the guy to reveal that there is more to the story.

In the local hospital, Kouichi Sakakibara, who has moved to Yomiyama to live with his grandparents, is bedridden from Pneumothorax. At his bedside, his grandmother laments that he has to spend his first month in the town in hospital, missing his first day of school in the process, despite Koichi's attempts to reassure her. Also present is Aunt Reiko, who also lives with Koichi's grandparents, and as she looks out the window she points out the junior high school where Koichi will be attending.

Due to Pneumothorax, Kouichi spends his first month in Yomiyama hospitalized, thus missing his first day of school. Some of the students visit him, but they act strange asking him several personal questions. In the hospital's elevator, Kouichi meets a strange girl carrying a doll, who introduces herself as Mei Meisaki, walking away soon after.



Fully recovered, Kouichi returns to school, and most of his class seems to be friendly with him; however, one girl seems strangely suspicious of him. During P.E class, he sat on the bench because of his lung condition, and met Ikuo Takabayashi, a boy who has a poor heart condition. He told Kouichi that he is lucky to have felt what it feels like to run, since he had never experienced it. Kouichi told him that he'll be able to run someday, causing the boy to smile. However, Ikuo Takabayashi ended up getting sick, and was sent to the nurse's office. Then Yukari met him, saying that she cannot take P.E lesson's because she sprained her ankle. When he asks Yukari where "Misaki" was, without saying her first name "Mei", she showed a shocked reaction and she pretended to not know who he was talking about. Later he sees Mei on the roof, and goes to her place. He then talked to Misaki, during his conversation with Mei, she tells him not to get too close to her, saying that their class was far closer to death, than all of the other classes. On his way home he sees Mei looking up at the sky while it was raining, but said nothing.

Trivia

 * This episodes manga chapter counterpart is Chapter One.