Mei Misaki

Mei Misaki is the female protagonist of Another anime and light novels.

She is a student of Class 3-3 at Yomiyama North Middle School in 1998. She was labeled by her classmates as "the one that does not exist."

Appearance
Mei is a very beautiful young Japanese girl who has short, black, chin-length hair with long bangs, a ghostly complexion and wears the school's standard uniform. Her left eye is covered by a medical white eye patch.

The reason behind her mismatched irises is that her left eye is prosthetic; a doll's eye which, as Mei describes it and can see things best left unseen. The eye was a gift from her mother, who made her the glass eye after Mei lost her real eye due to a disease when she was four; the eyes are a different color because Yukiyo Misaki felt matching eyes were boring. However, Mei dislikes the dual shade and hides it behind her eye patch.

Personality
Initially, Mei is an enigmatic, gloomy, very withdrawn, solitary and antisocial girl who doesn't see value in having a bond with someone. She is fascinated by a pair of conjoined dolls in her grandmother's shop, wondering how they can be so calm even though they are attached. When Kouichi Sakakibara suggests that is the reason, Mei claims that that's impossible. She also claims that, in the end, everyone is alone, no matter how many bonds they may have. However, despite telling Kouichi to stay away from her, as time goes on, she becomes accustomed to his presence and doesn't seem to mind having him around. She even seems to develop feelings for him, as she was deeply touched by him standing up for her when Izumi Akazawa blamed her for the Curse, despite both Naoya Teshigawara and Yuya Mochizuki standing up for her as well. This is further implied when it's revealed that she had figured out who the Extra student was some time before the school trip, but kept it a secret because she didn't want Kouichi to be sad, a decision she ultimately comes to regret.

Mei's withdrawn nature is later revealed to be the result of the death of her cousin Misaki Fujioka, as she discovered in the 5th grade, was actually her twin sister. When Misaki was alive, Mei was much happier, even wearing brighter clothes, though she was still notably shy compared to her sister. Mei and Misaki quickly became inseparable, and the two would often meet up in secret, as her adopted mother/aunt Yukiyo Misaki didn't like them meeting up with fear that Mei would return to her biological family. As a result, Mei was completely devastated by Misaki's death by leukemia (brought upon by the Curse), to the point that she initially didn't want to accept she was gone and even fulfilled her promise to give her a doll she wanted for her birthday. The sheer despair of losing her sister has apparently rendered Mei null to any other trauma, as she doesn't even flinch at Shoji Kubodera killing himself in front of the entire class.

Mei dislikes cell phones, saying that it disturbs her to be connected to other people at all times by electromagnetic waves, most likely a by-product of her solitary nature. Nevertheless, she carries one by request of her aunt. Her hobby is drawing, and she is a member of the school's art club, though she states that she doesn't enjoy creating art so much as she enjoys looking at it. Mei is also very insecure about her prosthetic eye, which is why she hides using her eyepatch. When she shows it to Kouichi for the second time, however, he says that it's beautiful and she doesn't need to hide it. Because of her eye, Mei knows that death is not a blessing, since when it happens, you are all alone.

Although she can be rather creepy at times, Mei is actually a really kind girl; she quickly befriends Kouichi after he becomes a second "sacrifice" for Class 3-3 and willingly opens up to him about the Curse, her family, Class 3-3's history and even the nature of her prosthetic eye. She is also very selfless, which is evident by the fact that she willingly "sacrificed" herself to prevent any more people from falling victim to the Curse, as she couldn't stand to see anyone else die after losing her sister, showing that she really does care despite her seemingly apathetic nature. When asked by Kouichi how she can stand being treated like she doesn't exist, Mei states she thinks it's a better alternative than having to treat someone else like they don't exist, further showing how selfless she is.

In contrast to her typically taciturn behavior, Mei also has a surprisingly childish side; when the class are on their school trip, she spends time building a sandcastle and gets scared when an octopus sticks to her hand, leading her to think that it was going to eat her. Another childish side of her is shown when she wore the flower headpiece she found in the box in the old Class 3-3 room and jokingly confirming one of the seven mysteries of the school, namely that one can hear moaning in the auxiliary library. It should be noted that these traits of her personality only appear in the anime, not in the original novel.

Trivia

 * She is ranked S (Superior; highest ranking) in the Another character rankings. This ranking was only given to her, meaning the fanbase finds her the most good-looking character from the series.
 * Her first name, Mei, is written with the same character for "to cry","to sing", and "to scream." It is also the name of a Japanese ornamental tree with fragrant white or pink blossoms and small yellow fruits.
 * Her home address is 4-4 Misakicho Yomiyama City.
 * Her name, Misaki, is the same as Misaki. But the "Misaki" in "Mei Misaki" is a surname, and the "Misaki" in "Misaki Fujioka" is a given name. This confused Takako, who knew Misaki but misremembered and thought she'd known Mei.
 * Her birth name was "Mei Fujioka" before being adopted by Yukiyo. The reason Mei was given to Yukiyo is because of her name. If Misaki Fujioka was given to the Misakis, her name would be "Misaki Misaki."
 * Mei is the shortest person of class 3-3.
 * Mei and Misaki started to see each other in the fifth years of elementary school, when Mei finds out she's actually Mitsuyo's daughter.