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「Build limbs -拡散-」 (Kakusan)
It was frankly amazing how many questions were answered this episode. But that doesn’t mean all the answers Misaki Mei gave were necessarily the right ones…
I’ll get the fanboy stuff out of the way quickly, so we can move on the fun part and speculate: Another is outstanding, and this was a fantastic episode. I love the way this mystery has been laid out – I think questions and answers are being doled out at just the right pace. And the direction of this show is stellar – such beautiful use of silence and body language and expression. PA Works may not have an equal right now in terms of pure visual quality – I could see a case being made for ufotable or I.G. or KyoAni at their high end – but to look at what PA Works consistently produces in terms of background art and animation, I have to give them the nod.
Now on to the speculative stuff, and there’s a lot of it – I took notes again, and I almost ran out of ink. While there are parts of Misaki’s explanation to Kouichi that I question, I think the parts I don’t pretty much confirm two central tenets of my working hypothesis. One, that she’s not a ghost, and two, that she – and someone every year – is chosen as a sacrifice. Someone to be “dead” to counterbalance the error that was made in keeping the dead Misaki “alive” in the class 26 years ago. If indeed Kouichi triggered the current incarnation of the curse by acknowledging Mei, and the class is trying to countermeasure this by adding Kouichi to the “ignore list” – aren’t he and Mei voiding their action by acknowledging each other? If this act of “killing” a student really does counteract the curse – and I’m not convinced it does – I would assume it needs to apply to every student in Class 3, including Kouichi and Mei.
There are obviously some tenuous assumptions elsewhere in her explanation, which I’ll get to in a minute. But there are also more fundamental questions, such as how the class chooses a sacrifice at the beginning of the year. Poor Takabayashi’s death almost seems to preclude a non-supernatural explanation or at least a comprehensive one, since it’s hard to imagine his death by heart attack could be so timely as a matter of coincidence (it disproves the ED death order theory as well). I was struck by a few lines of dialogue here, the first being Kouchi’s grandfather saying “I’m so very tired of funerals.” I also think the teacher’s “personification” lecture – assigning human characteristics to non-human objects – is symbolically important at the very least.
As for the rest of Misaki’s explanation, I must confess elements of it don’t make sense to me. The notion is that the dead were “invited” into the class by the actions of the class of ‘72. Ever since, “Another” – an extra student actually a dead person connected to the class who had died as a result of the curse – joins every year, but somehow the memories and records are altered so that no one knows who it is (thus the “Who is dead?” scribble on Mei’s desk). This dead person – not a ghost but a physical presence – doesn’t like being ignored, so eventually someone figured out that if a live person were ignored to balance out the numbers, death could be held at bay. As a mid-year transfer, Kouichi threw off the numbers – thus necessitating that he be ignored as well – and triggered the curse by not ignoring Mei. But if that were the case, why did a student (Mei’s cousin) die before Kouichi arrived? She also mentions “one per month” but then says “6 students plus 10 family members” died the first year of the curse. As well, if her story is correct, I have a hard time believing anyone could have figured it out at in the first place.
The most obvious explanation is that Kouichi is the “extra” person. A little too obvious, and I think we’re being intentionally led to believe it – just as we were led to think Mei was a ghost. It does make a certain amount of sense – in fact, a case could be made that not only is Kouichi dead, but that he’s in fact his mother’s ghost in corporeal form, as I believe that fits the chronology. I don’t buy it but I very much think Kouichi’s mother is a key to all this. The librarian’s reaction when Kouichi told him his mother had died 15 years earlier when he was born – “So that’s what happened!” – combined with the very conspicuous fact that Koichi asked if he remembered his mother, and Kubodera affirmed that he did (though he sounded almost surprised that he did) is a serious clue that something is off with the timing and the memory. And I think a skillful troll by the author, but we’ll see.
I don’t think there’s any question that we know much more than we did last week, but as the old saying goes “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. I think there’s enough falsehood in Misaki’s theory that knowing the elements that are true isn’t enough to protect us from being led down dead ends by the parts that are false. Mei’s mother, the doll designer Kirika, is certainly going to play a vital role going forward though we obviously don’t know what yet. In any event the nature of the series has certainly changed now that Mei is established as corporeal, and she and Kou-kun have each other for support and confidence as they search for answers. But I’ll leave you with this thought – since no one in the class ever knows who the “Another” is, what happens if they choose the dead person as the one to ignore? I can’t think that would go over well – and if Mei were not a ghost but was in fact the “extra” student all along, that would constitute one heck of a clever misdirection. And one more: if the class decided that a symbolic death is proving insufficient as a countermeasure, what would be their next logical step?
Preview
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Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria.
Show Spoiler ▼
So now the quest is to figure out who is the actual ghost/undead?
I really like this show, I wasn’t expecting this kind of plot twist, but isnt it stupid that the class didn’t give him heads up? Like how are you suppose to uphold class rules without freaking knowing the rules?!
Heads up? For that Misaki Mei must be explained. How do you explain what you are not supposed to talk about?
Just to reiterate my spoiler policy:
If I find major spoilers, I’ll delete them. Please be considerate and don’t ruin the whole series for someone else, even in spoiler tags. Minor spoilers are OK, but please tag them.
all in a days work eh?
Did someone spoil it for you, Enzo? Since this series has been laid out perfectly so far, I’d be pissed. As such, I must offer my thanks for keeping the comments section clean!
Deleting spoilers selectively w/o reading them is a bitch, believe me. I’ve dodged most of the bullets but I’ve been grazed a time or two. What puzzles me is why some people take such pleasure in trying to ruin a series for others. I’ll never understand it.
Speculation spoilers are still fine right?
Yup! Only two qualifiers:
1. Make sure I know it’s speculation
2. Don’t try and BS by passing off something you know is true and pretending it’s a good guess. No one’s fooled.
MAJOR SPOILERS: Rosebud was his sled!
Oh man… Misaki’s not a ghost? I lost? But wait… there’s still a chance that it might be Misaki, right? She’s still part of the class after all. Actually, the same goes for Kouichi. Maybe Kouichi is the ghost! Like that guy in Six Sense. Or… Maybe there are two ghosts this time! Can’t wait for the final episode!
Maybe I’m looking into this too much (maybe the subs didn’t convey it), but did Misaki ever actually say she was real or did she merely let Kouichi go on and convince himself of it?
She did say she was real, or at least something very close to it. “But you doubts are gone now, right? Now that you know I exist, as a living person.” If you think that still sounds misleading, the japanese original was clear on it. “I exist here, as a living person”
Of course, if the “Another” doesn’t know that he/she is dead, that still doesn’t say much.
On an unrelated note, am I the only one who noticed that Mei behaves much more, well, cute? Not that I mind…
@Logeres: yeah, Mei might’ve even been accused of flirting this episode. The walls are slowly coming down, especially now that Kouichi is like her. I definitely want to see where this is going!!
Ohai US :P.
The fact she had her name crossed out should more or less affirm it imo.
Not sure if this would be considered a spoiler or not. Just my guess on what may be going on with what we know from the anime so far and the none spoilers from this blog.
Show Spoiler ▼
i think its the twin tails girl…misaki was just damn curious like kouichi and ended up being ignored but it would be even easier for kouchi to be the “another” than mei
I know who is the extra person. But GE, this looks a lot like MN posts all over again if you start another mass hysteria due to spoilers.
And I can tell you have read the novel too. Any chance you’ll blog the Live Action movie?
I haven’t read the novel – as far as I know it’s not even translated. If someone subs the live-action, I might cover it – though my experience with LA adaptations of anime and manga I love has usually been massive disappointment.
I did a bit of research, and it does seem that’s the case. I found a quite from an interview (can’t find it now though :/) from the publisher saying they have no intention to release it overseas, but I guess that’s to be expected with light novels. Baka Tsuki does at least have the prologue on their site as a teaser, but it’s not an active project. So probably the only way we’ll ever see it is when some translator there has spare time and finds it interesting enough to pick up. A shame, since I really wanted to read it before the anime gets too far in. I’m really enjoying it.
There are answers in this episode… what?!
I was wondering about Mei and Kouichi talking to each other too. I assume that the class is assuming that since they are both “non-existant” now they’re free to do whatever they want together, which is cool with me. But if more deaths happen, they’ll probably think Kouichi (and Mei too now) are still breaking the rules. As for the “one per month thing”, in the manga it was “at least one per month”, so I’m calling shenanigans on CR’s translation.
If even the “dead” person’s memories are altered, it’s gonna be hard to track this undead bastard down, but didn’t they say it was always someone who died because of the curse? To the school library!!
So what did we learn from this episode? Don’t invite a dead person into your class, they might tell their friends.
Oh boy, oh boy! Misaki exists! Yay! Hopefully romance will now ensue!
I’ll start it. Mei x Kouichi boat. All aboard. Trip begins in…the next episode.
Yeah, I’m on board with that. Anchors aweigh.
I’ll hitch a ride: VIP Suite for me.
I’ve been on board since before I was sure she wasn’t a ghost! XD
Let’s set sail.
Hopefully we’re not setting out on a ‘Nice Boat’
Count me in as well. Rooftop lunch date? Rooftop lunch date.
The last two pics for the preview shows romance potential.
But what if the MC dies? Or that they both die horribly in the end? Final Destination much?
The Fates have been most pleasant in the romance sector at least.
Where off to lads?
Ooh, might I run the engine room?
Yeah, I’m in, providing they end up together happily ever after. Whether as living human beings or undead in the nether world, I’m fine either way. 😉
I guess I’m along for the ride too… I’ll keep track of the shortest route to the Life Boats though, gotta remember this is a ghost ship(ing) I’m boarding
Save room for one more guys, either way this is going to end I´m sure it´ll one hell of a ride, I´m just hoping this boat´s name is the Titanic. They sure look very cute together, I saw them as a couple since the very moment they met. Just remember happily ever after doesn´t necesarily mean alive.
let me in too! im not a fan of girls who dont talk (nagato yuki) but misaki mei is the only exception!
hmm…capt’, may I suggest using this finger licking pic as our sail?:D my shipping goggles say Mei is ogling Kouichi in a naughty way^^
Sure she mentioned that she exists, but she did not mention if she exists as a human. I haven’t read the novel, but I’ll be seeing an eye on her still.
Pls. dun let the “death one” board this ship(?)
I am amazed how Koichi is able to keep asking the same questions even after witnessing all those stuff first hand. I mean, normally you get the idea that after the first two incidents; you are dragging people to death. And yet he keeps doing it after the third death.
Another thing is that if they ignore one person, the numbers would be balanced. Since they are ignoring two people, the numbers are unbalanced again. So the curse should be going on right?
P.S.> Is it just me or i am curious how the red haired twin tail will fall on the curse?
Um. Please don’t separate the deaths. It’s better to group the deaths, by month since they all happen within one family per month. Example: Glasses girl and HER MOM. Then the nurse and her brother. My guess that the deaths got something to do with you if anyone from your family is once in Class 3(and you don’t have to be in it specifically).
Mizuno Sanae and Takabayashi aren’t brother and sister. Just saying.
Huh? If that is then who is the other person linked to Class 3 who died with Takabayashi, it should be a relative. I swear that according to what I have read so far, if we ignore this, its consistent of the family-deaths-per-month theory.
The nurse’s brother was a soccer player with colored hair. The died guy has a heart condition. Soccer is not possible for him. Different people. Perhaps one of them is really an accidental death? or it is not one family per month. or not siblings but cousins?
An accidental death when a curse is around? Not likely.
Ohoho how wrong you are!
There was this book I read some time ago about a cursed chain letter that kills of the reader if he/she reads it. In the midst of the supernatural incident was a accidental poisoned tap water caused by a facility in town and a serial killer who recently escaped from jail which makes all the deaths seem impossible to figure out. It was the job of the unwilling protagonist of the story to sort which deaths had occurred.
Not telling the title of the book 😛
Was the title “Another”?
XD
I also think Kouichi seems weirdly detached from the whole “everybody dying around him” thing. Maybe it’s just because we never see the full extent of his reaction, but you’d think someone who had not one, not two, but three people dying close to him (and in two cases, actually seeing them die) would leave the town or at least undergo therapy.
But then again, if he did that, there wouldn’t be much of a story left.
He does seem strangely detached… My friends father recently passed away, just seeing at which level she was sad left me in shock for a whole day. In this episode, he ask ppl whats wrong and finds out that Takabayashi died, his #1 concern was STILL y r ppl ignoring him and about the whole mystery. The only human trait he seems to have is curiosity. I mean i don’t want him emo all the time, but not caring AT ALL is a scary part of him.
The key is the “Transfer”. Originally was ignored and everything was going to turn out okay. But since sakibara, that messed up the numbers by increasing it back up to one, the original number, making the countermeasure useless. Now they are thinking, lets ignore another person…
If the deaths don’t stop, maybe they will have to kill one of them two for real
What I really am waiting to learn about is Misaki Mei s doll eye.
Now that is a truly scary thought. How far will the others in class 3 go to protect themselves?
Mei’s actually endearing in this episode and draws herself sweetly to Kouichi.
What I’m fascinated by is people (in general) have died when they try to reveal info
to Kouichi, are pressed by Kouichi for an answer, or are close to him – except for Mei…
(Is Mei safe because she’s the class sacrifice for this class 3?)
You know, we’re trolled a little, too. The answers were fair assumptions that were
threaded fragments through the Anime up ’till now. So, IMHO, nothing earth shaking was
revealed, but all of the points were consolidated in this episode. Excellent trolling by
the writers to not have us think about:
1. In any year, has the sacrifice died?
2. How did Mei loose her eye – is it really a dolls eye like she said.
3. WTF are the “class rules”?
But I did feel my eyes glazing over at the explanation that it’s caused by an extra student
to the class (who’s dead). I mean, they would have a home to go to, right? Too much infrastructure
in my mind to be plausible. Too, Mei’s answers were too quick – as though she was repeating the
story from memory – the boiler-plate answer.
I agree – I think his mother is some key – but I’m not sure how…
Once again, the sound support is so well done!
The sacrifice has never died. Because once the sacrifice system came up no one died. But the deaths are happening because of the extra student Kou. So Kou should either change class or change school
Wait wait wait. So the school has convinced his own AUNT to ignore him? Dick move on her part but I guess I wouldn’t want to die either. But seriously as a teacher/guardian she has the power to transfer him out of the class and possibly end the entire curse. (thus saving her own life). I like his aunt though despite these actions, so I will be sad when she dies.
Note! I haven’t read the manga so I don’t “know” she is going to die. Her headache and other actions lately just seems like a deathflag waving.
Never been a fan of his aunt anyways. She could’ve told him the class rules at least, just as easily as anyone else. That just might’ve helped >.<
She did tell him the class rules. Although the rules were all seen in flashbacks in different episodes to break them up and for impact
No, in the NOVEL Reiko is also homeroom teacher, but, in the ANIME, the teacher is called Mikami sensei and Reiko is just Kouichi’s aunt, they are two different characters in the anime (Y)
http://www.animecharactersdatabase.com/source.php?id=101700
No they are not. The different VAs are used to further elude non-novel readers. But I’m sticking with Reiko/Mikami being the same person even though I don’t read the novels or whatever.
Honestly speaking, not saying that the other bloggers aren’t good because they are, but you’re writing is the best on this site. I love you’re coverage of Another and only wish you’d cover Hunter X Hunter here like you do on lostinanime. That show needs more love.
Dad said to never refuse a compliment, so thanks Ben – awfully nice of you to say. H x H is indeed deserving of love, but not every show has to be on every site. RC has multiple writers, so there’s already a huge amount of shows being covered here – I’m always happy to have readers, be they here or at LiA, so I hope H x H fans will follow me over there.
Speaking of his aunt, seems odd that class 3 has two teachers, vice and main homeroom. Are they the only class to have an extra teacher?
Pretty sure the librarian’s “So thats what happened” moment was more in reference to something Kouichi hasn’t seemed to have noticed yet even though all the information has been layed out for him in the previous few episodes.
His mom died giving birth to him 15 years ago and his aunt was in class 3 15 years ago, his “So that’s what happened” was in reference to Kouichi’s mother being one of the victims of the curse.
oops, replied in the wrong place
I’m still amused that we have a death of the week as apposed to a monster of the week.
Ep. 1 – Misaki Mei’s Cousin
Ep. 2 – None(?)
Ep. 3 – Yukari
Ep. 4 – Sanae
Ep. 5 – Takabayashi
I honestly have no idea, but I’m going to guess the ‘Another’ is the…
Show Spoiler ▼
LOOK HARDER: There is a super spoiler there(no it’s not about how to deal with the curse) that had me reading the other adaptation.
The only reason I found that spoiler was because I was looking up a name. I don’t plan on looking up spoilers on purpose nor encouraging people to look for them. :/
@Enzo: So now guessing becomes a spoiler??
Meh, its fine. It was a theory based around a legitimate spoiler, even if I considered it a minor one. No point in arguing about it on the internet. :/
Avalanche, it wasn’t clear to me that it was a guess – the way I read your post was that it was a factual spoiler. If it’s really a guess and you say so, it’s fine.
Sorry about the
awkward ramblingbad wording, I was intentionally trying to make it seem like I was saying more than I actually was.All that was actually said was that fact I was annoyed at myself for accidentally finding a spoiler while trying to look who I thought that person was without giving away said person.
The only spoiler that I put in there was just confirming a theory already going around and then my thoughts on how that theory could be expanded with what we learned from this episode.
I’m not expert on the Japanese school system, but shouldn’t most of the people who are in class 3 know the other people from elementary schools? Being that this is a small town there shouldn’t be many schools to draw from so almost all of them should have prior knowledge of their classmates. It doesn’t seem like the dead person ‘exists’ in corporeal form until they enter class 3.
If there is someone that NOBODY knows you would imagine that was the ‘Another’ Am I missing something obvious here or does that theory hold water?
Actually there shouldn’t be a Class 3. Anything deemed cursed are either burned(cursed photos), demolished(cursed building) or disbanded(cursed clubs). At least that’s how I hear it from a friend of mine.
So why is his mother picture is there? The librarian is bad?
LOL, if someone’s dead mom is in a picture, that doesn’t mean the picture is cursed.
A picture is cursed if someone who shouldn’t be there is… well, there.
Misaki explained it this episode, records and possible “memories” are altered in order to disguise the “another one”. So even if a death one is in the class, it will appear in the students lists, and will be in the memory of everyone (and since its also a previous death from the class, nobody remembers he already died).
No-one knows Kouchi ;p
They did say their memories get altered so they wouldn’t be able to find out who the “extra” is. I agree with Moondoggie the whole class 3 should just be removed and divide students between class 1 & 2 😉
Since Kouichi is new and *wouldn’t* know anyone, he wouldn’t have that handicap and have a shot of determining who the 5th wheel is. Don’t know if that’s the route they are going down, but it is a potential possibility.
…my brain hurts…
Looking back at the first minute and 30 seconds of episode one, the imagery presented seems to be a bit of a foreshadowing into how the deaths will happen. So far, we’re seen umbrella stabbing, elevators falling, and heart attacks. There’s also a boat (someone falls and drowns?), fire, blood being spilt, a “do not enter” sign, the bird, what appears to be Kouichi with an evil grin, and several of shots with Mei having both of her eyes intact.
Other images: body in the water (by the dam?), bloody knife, a mansion (also seen in the opening song), car at night, school bag, rushing waters of the dam (shown twice), storage room with blood splatter, classroom where a vote was taken (can’t quite make out the names on the blackboard). And that damn bird. I can’t help but think that what the bird says, れいちゃん、どうして。”Why, Rei-chan? We’re assuming Rei refers to Reiko, Kouichi’s aunt. How long do these birds live for? Could it be repeating something that his mother said to his aunt before her death 15 years ago? Despite being given a lot of answers, I’m with GE that they’re not necessarily the correct answers or the whole truth. There’s a lot more going on.
The subs I watched for episode 1 had Kouichi say “Rei is your name” or something along those lines.
Gah, I must’ve rushed that sequence hard because I only picked out the obvious ones I could name.
But I think we already have the answer: Bag + Boat.
In short, Mei’s gonna murder everyone, then decapitate Kouichi, stuff his head in a bag, then go on a nice boat and cuddle with it. It’s School Days all over again. O_O
After watch this show, see http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.nhn?titleId=350217&no=30&weekday=tue and http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.nhn?titleId=350217&no=31&weekday=tue, if you dare.
Holy shit man. That second one just shaved years off my life. Didn’t even continue anymore. >_>
LOL I remember seeing that last year. And for anyone scared,
Show Spoiler ▼
Another is way scarier than the train station one… it’s not even an umbrella or an elevator!
Show Spoiler ▼
holy… that was some…
Man, I was EXPECTING it on the second one and it still just about gave me a freaking heart attack. The first one was pretty mild.
Noting differences with the novel in this episode:
*After being interrogated by the police, when Kouichi returns to the classroom, only the name of Akazawa is on the blackboard. In the anime there was also “Ayano Aya”, the (anime original) girl of the window glass accident. I’m really looking forward to see her die georgeously.
*Akazawa didn’t say “sorry” or anything to Kouichi. I can see the anime giving her more lines and prescense (in the manga version too), so I’m really courious how this will end. In the novel, Akazawa is just named, seldomly, and has only two-three scenes and one dialog in all the novel.
*Takabayashi was merely named as another student that was absent the first day of school (just like Akazawa). He was bad of heart and was a spectator during P.E. just as Kouichi, but never talked. When Kouichi confronts Mochizuki, he is alone. And after requesting him the students lists, Mochizuki receives a call from Kazami (I think) and he tells him Takabayashi died. In the anime they made them talk each other and die just before Kouichi’s eyes. Shock effect?
>But if that were the case, why did a student (Mei’s cousin) die before Kouichi arrived? She also mentions “one per month” but then says “6 students plus 10 family members” died the first year of the curse.
I don’t know if it will come later or have been just skipped by the subbers, but that “rule” is limited to the 2nd line, so cousins are “safe” from the deaths. Because of that, Mei’s cousin death doesn’t bring any suspicion to Kouichi.
And also, nobody ever said that “one por month” O_o. They said “hitori ijou” (one or more) or like Misaki in minute 19, “hito ga shinu” (people dies). You must’ve got that from a translation error.
If I was Kouichi, I would take advantage of being “dead.”
Time to go to the girl’s PE locker room. HAHAH !
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You read my mind perfectly or rather…
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U can’t do that on some members.. cause u know that they are still on “I dun know what is right or wrong thinking” :p
Though 100% u can harass Izumi Akazawa ;3
Maybe I’ll make a H-doujin out of that Kuhuhuhu. Thanks for the idea.
Same thing crossed my mind~
I would definitely annoy / harass Izumi~
I also found the personification lecture intriguing. Everything I notice and want to discuss or am thinking about you almost ALWAYS write up in your own post! So has our protagonist made the mistake of making something out of nothing by treating “it” human? Also the athletic happy go lucky guy was saying something like that. Not to mess around with things that don’t exist? There’s something there… This is one good mystery. I thought this show had the best art, OP ED voice work, plot, pacing but now romance?! The aptheosis of Anime!
The thing that is killing everyone is BOOM
Show Spoiler ▼
Well the, cat’s out of the bag and we are revealed that Misaki Mei is alive. Glad my speculation about the whole you’re the only customer thing came true. That was pretty terrifying to see someone get a heart attack from mentioning Misaki Mei. Anyways, hoping next episodes leads to more answers, especially on who this mysterious assailant is. For all I could know, perhaps this is all super natural and we’re being messed with. Either way, the doll maker, and that librarian seem to be significant people in this tale. Also, we’re given the statement, that it doesn’t necessarily mean, one person dies per month, it could be multiple. The thing that doesn’t match up however is the fact that it started in April the first time around, and this time, it started in May? Something seems in consistent, and now because Misaki Mei is confirmed to exist, I believe that whoever she was visiting during that April month is related biologically to her in some way.
Guardian Enzo have you already read the source material, because all your predictions are coming true.
Nope – if it’s even been translated I was unaware of it. I may have gotten lucky a couple of times, but I whiffed on that ED theory and I’m sure it won’t be the last time!
OK. Then why did you got the identity of the Another in your AnimeSuki posts?
http://memegenerator.net/instance/14241690
I’m not sure what you’re talking about specifically because your link isn’t working, and I’ve tossed off about 40 theories between here, AF and LiA. Some of them are bound to be right…
Huh? The memegenerator link is working. I didn’t post any other link or the specific link to the post because it will be a spoiler if I affirmed it.
You got the identity of the Another right. That’s what I was talking about.
I don’t even remember guessing who the Another is, except my guess here at the end of the blog post for this ep: Show Spoiler ▼
Except it wasn’t so much a guess as a comment about what an irony that would be. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if that guess turns out to be right but it’s be a classic troll if it is.
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Huh? That was in response to a question about which character is most likely to know more than they’re letting on.
You’ve pretty well spoiled me now, though. Thanks for that.
Dang it. Sorry, I thought it was a question on who is the most possible candidate for an Another since the MC’s mom died and he had punctured his lungs.
there are spoilers here
Yay I was right, woohoo. My money goes to Sakakibara or Mikami-sensei being the dead one. 😐
https://randomc.net/2012/01/31/another-04/comment-page-1/#comment-777026
I have no explanation about Takabayashi’s dead
but…but…Battler inside me is refused to believe!!
THERE MUST BE A LOGICAL EXPLANATION!!
IT MUST BE A TRICK!!
He’s dead, believe it.
THEY NEVER SAID IT IN THE RED TEXT.
But they wrote it in gold. Gold beats Red when red can mean two things Gold is “what you read is what it means”.
So they removed the curtain of standard horror stuff (frighteningly similar dolls, coming out from nowhere, etc) by simply showing the place as her home. Good show that. And then they dropped more hints with the 15 years sentence and i’m guessing she was the non-existent one in her year.
The perfect timing of the heart attack makes it difficult to say its a killer unless there was a dart shot we did not see, but inducing the heart attack is not difficult.
One of the things Mei did not realise is that you can reverse it. What if everything is the correct but someone removed one desk instead. There would not need to be some sort of memory change and no one would ever be able to find out who the extra person is because there is no extra person. Of course the one doing this would have to be obsessed (perhaps killed?) with the original Misaki since he/she would be forcing the class to accept the “invisible” person or die.
On the supernatural side, it could be said that the one killing the students is actually the anger and hatred of all those ignored and treated as non-existant. Perhaps it is a combination of the 2, with the original being a insane killer but the consolidated hate taking over. One information missing is which year did they find out this method of solving the spirit problem.
Mei being treated as non-existent only recently is interesting. Does this mean her cousin was the initial non-existent person but Mei broke the rule? That would make it understandable why she was chosen to be the next non-existent one.
If we treat Mei as largely correct, perhaps Mei got it slightly wrong in who comes back. The extra one is not from those killed but from those ignored?
I cannot help but feel the author’s methods is actually to invoke horror but show it was simple non-supernatural reasons, especially from this episode of Mei’s house visit.
Why not take out the whole 3-3 class off the class sections in the school if this curse continues to haunt down the entire class?
I considered this as well. What is likely is that, first the teachers dn’t believe it. Once the teachers believe it, the principal doesn’t believe it. Once the principal believes it, the japanese Ministry of Education won’t believe it.
Basically they are stuck because the ministry won’t allow you to abandon a full class. Renaming is within the power of the principal but not abandoning it. In fact i think its likely the ministry would blame the prinicpal for incompetence ancd change the fella which may be the reason why Kouichi got thrown into class 3 as the dialogue hints that the prinicpal is new
I’m guessing that wouldn’t matter at all. For example, changing it to class 3-6 would produce the same result as when they tried to change it to class C (no change at all), and it would be silly to just remove an entire class from the school, unless you’re willing to remove their respective 7th and 8th grade classes as well. (You can’t have 5 1st and 2nd year classes but only 4 third year classes. Sounds stupid.)
It is not difficult to remove an entire class yet maintain the student numbers by simply enlarging the class size of the remaining classes. However, the authorities will not allow you to do this without good reason and the students of those classes not under the curse effects would not be welcoming of such a move which may transfer the curse to them
Even in that case, who’s to say that one of those classes won’t just be a new location for the dead to gather, as you seem to imply? Class 3 was close to death because they treated a dead person as if they were alive. Remove class 3, the next class closest to death would have to be 2 and 4. It’s not like each class is completely isolated from each other.
Nothing actually prevents the curse from moving just like nothing would help the curse to move as far as we know. What dokupe asked was a common sense step so i am looking at what could possibly prevent such a step from being taken, which your post led to me thinking how a class could be subsumed into another.
Kouichi, poor bastard. He loses three friends to this ‘curse.’ (Two which died in front of him and the other was on the phone with him during there final moments.) Now being ignored because he asked too many questions and befriended the quiet girl in the corner. Dude needs a hug and some words of self assurance. Was kinda expecting Mei to do this, when she actually some emotion towards Kouichi. When he filled her in on what happened.
Unforchinatly, we didn’t get the prior, but we did get the latter. Even if it was Mei just telling Kouichi that he’s not alone on the classes ‘ignore list.’ Still the fact that Mei expressed anything at all is something. Considering how distant she was with Kouichi until now.
Not going to get into speculating here,On what’s going to happen next. Since what was speculated has already been posted. So early rephrasing it would be futile. So it would be better to as the saying goes; ‘take it as it comes’.
BTW: Is it too late to by tickets for the Mei x Kouichi boat?
A-hoy there, mate. Nope, plenty of room here. Come on aboard!
For a 15-year-old kid, Kouichi is actually taking his being ignored by everyone else quite well.
Then again, he’s now aware of the curse even though he doesn’t yet know the details, he sort of guessed that they’re doing so out of fear of the curse rather than any actual ill-will towards him, and to be fair to the classmates, Akazaka and the home room teacher also gave him the “no hard feelings” heads-up prior to his “quarantine”.
Mei is no doubt fully briefed about the curse before Kouichi’s transfer and so seems to be fine with it as a result.
i got this feeling that maybe kouichi is the ghost, just this itchy feeling thats telling me so =O
They have dug their own graves since the very beginning, poor bastards. The random curiosity of man will not be hindered, and now that he has been driven in to a corner, there is only a single path he can go. Their faith’s are sealed.
You really enjoyed those death scenes, didn’t you?
I enjoy the terror that shadows the lives of those who have poor grasp in their reasoning to avoid them, and the horror that is inevitable.
So, yes I do enjoy their deaths. Except the nurse though, she was not part of the class (and I liked her), but since this episode has given us valuable insight and information, then so be it.
Show Spoiler ▼
This blog is called Random Curiosity ^^
>Implying GE, Divine and everyone here will meet the same sticky end like the three did.
I’ll be using the stairs…
It was my intent.
RC killed the cat…
http://www.youtube.com/user/DetectiveKidd?feature=mhee <— can someone comment to me who the extra dead person is, spoilers etc. I'm not really the type of person to think "oh the series is ruined" by reading spoilers, infact I want to watch the scene happen even more. Any who dooloo can some please tell there?
Check the wikipedia article. Free spoilers there.
And then keep them to yourself, please!
I am guessing that Kouichi’s mom was the ‘extra’ person. Now he is, as well.
That doesn’t make any sense unless you’re telling me the Another can give birth then it’s plausible.
It doesn’t need to make sense.
This is a mystery series; one of the main reasons to watch this is the turnout of unexpected events.
Show Spoiler ▼
Quote:And one more: if the class decided that a symbolic death is proving insufficient as a countermeasure, what would be their next logical step?
One thing has sounded to me in my minds ears, mockingly as the bird in cage…
“But how do you kill that which has no life?”
Other than that we can assume if the “extra student being dead person” theory is right, then anybody can be that person, ironically including the very people planning and executing “countermeasures”.
Oh and I have another theory – namely that possibly Kouichi’s mom was either the dead person from 26 years ago, or the one that “saw” the dead person first and started the “curse”, and Kouichi has inherited her paranrmal abilities.
So, lets sum up some possibilities:
1.Misaki is dead, and Kouichi has paranormal sight allowing him to see her, but this also triggers the curse.
2.Misaki is alive, and Kouichi is the dead person, possibly as his mother’s reincarnation.
3.Both Misaki and Kouichi are alive and the dead person, if any exists, is somene ANOTHER.
4.Both Misaki and Kouichi are dead and since there are 2 dead persons now in the class countermeasures stopped working.
I’ll take a #3. Misaki’s cousin dying seems to suggest that Kouichi isn’t the “dead person”, and other people can see Mei otherwise they probably wouldn’t have bothered to tell Kouichi to go talk to her to finally get some answers. There’s also the question of if the “dead person” lasts after graduation or just makes room for the next-year’s “dead person”, which means that the current one would disappear, or probably at least keep haunting class 3.
Perosnally, my money’s on Mochizuki. No evidence at all, he just weirds me out for some reason and seems a bit too attached to Mikami-sensei.
2 and 4 are invalid because at the beginning of episode 1 kouchi tell the story of this curse incident(1998) to someone (female) that probably happened after this incident
D: #4 cannot be since the curse allows for only one Another. That’s why it’s called “Another” (single person) in the first place.
Another is good if u dun really read the manga nor the LN
But since I read the manga(All vol)
It’s kinda sad that I can’t speculate who is the deatho person :/
You can speculate with “who will die next and how?”.
The manga changed about 5 deaths and the relation of other 2 or 3. The biggest change in the manga was all around Akazawa, in the novel she is less than a background character, and you’ve already seen how it turned in the manga.
Plus, already have new characters like that Ayano Aya, so the best you can hope is join me and wait some gruesome gore deaths.
Read the written description of Yukari’s death gave me shivers, the manga the shock effect, but the sound and animation of Yukari’s hand was truly wonderful.
So if his mother died 15 years ago as a result of the curse, when her sister, reiko was in class 3, doesn’t that make it likely that reiko also died back then? As she’s also a teacher in class 3 now as ms mikami i reckon shes the most likely dead person.
Am I a bad guy because I found it amusing that the guy with the weak heart died because he wasn’t hard-hearted enough? >_<
This might be far-fetched but…. has anyone else considered that the so called extra might be the main protagonist?
Its not as far fetched as it seems as Enzo already noted this possibility in his review as did suff and ewok40k in the comments.
Sry i skimmed throught the review. Reading it more carefully now.
Mei actually showed emotion?! What?!?
I guess I won’t be making anything from this show anymore cause my hands can’t stop moving.
I guess if someone talks about Mei Misaki, they’ll have an heart attack!
Just as planned, right Light Yagami? HHHNNNGGG!!!
Much like how a virus spreads, I think the class has deemed Kouichi to be “contaminated” by “death” and thus proceeded to “quarantine” him as well, much like how they have done with Mei – the Annual Designated Sacrifice. So Mei is now at ease to speak with Kouichi.
So this becomes a game to find out who is the Undead classmate huh?* I very much like the “Sixth Sense” theory that it’s actually Kouichi himself all along, but we’ll see.
( *Yet rather than the usual horror movies and games, for some reason in my head I’m comparing this to Battlestar Galatica, where the survivors try to figure out who amongst themselves is the Cylon sent to destroy them. 🙂 )
Oh BTW:
https://randomc.net/image/Another/Another%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2031.jpg
Assuming she’s an Undead, she is cute for one. Perhaps due to Itou Noiji being the character designer, Mei reminds me of Nagato Yuki a lot. And we all know how devastatingly moe a quiet girl like Yuki can get if allowed to show emotions.
Once presented with a logical solution to the supernatural – it’s hard to go back and believe that Misaki is in fact – a ghost. What makes me question the idea she’s alive is the similarity between Misaki and the doll in the shop – that was made by her mother. I can see a situation in which Misaki has died and the mother wanted to make a doll in her image in order to honor her naturally doll-like deceased child. Calling the studio after her dead daughter seems reasonable too. If Koichi happens to talk to Kirika about Misaki (and i’m guessing he will) – She could talk about her as a living person, but that could be a madness caused by grief. In that case there would be inconsistency between Koichi’s interaction with Misaki and what Kirika says, and that’s what i’m going to look for if Kirika treats her girl as alive and well.
Another thing that bothers me is Misaki’s eye color. Green isn’t a very common eye color – but still a natural one. Red on the other hand isn’t. Yeah I know – Anime doesn’t always use normal eye and hair colors, but in the “Another” universe – it seems that people have pretty normal color to their eyes and hair. What if Misaki used to look like the doll? Two GREEN eyes? Why is her other eye red? Why does she cover her “normal” eye? I know Misaki treats her green eye as un-natural (“doll’s eye”, “It can see things that shouldn’t be seen”) but it still irks me.. Just speculating, haha ^^”
Why does the girl that died long ago and the girl with the eye patch have the same name? I’m still confused at that as I have only seen each episode once.
Sheer coincidence? I don’t think there’s been an explanation in the show.
Creepy yaaa
This episode reminded me of a phrase from my favorite author, Isabel Allende, that goes:
“What is not said or told is the same as it did not exist at all”
You can aply this to the counter-mesure they are using to keep the curse from becoming active, never underestimate the power of the human mind when it come to self preservation. Some filosophers state that the proof of our existance is the interacttions with society, if you aisolate you can be sure if you exist at all.
As for why the cousin died, perhaps she couldn’t stand treating Misaki as a nonexistance as Misaki said they used to be inseparable. I think they said that it usually starts in April and we know Misaki’s cousin died in May. So perhaps someone died in April (that we didnt know about) and the ghost stories that they didn’t believe before became real and countermeasures started to be taken seriously thus starting to treat Misaki as a non-existence. Her cousin failed at some point unable to bear it and she died.
Generally it seems as soon as someone acknowledges Mei’s existence they instantly suffer misfortune and possibly die. Apparently the pattern is once a month so perhaps it just puts them at the most risk. The only exception seems to be Kouichi. For some reason I don’t think hes the dead guy cause that would be too simple and people died before he came over. Perhaps his mother having something important to do with the original class conveys some protection to him (perhaps the dead one is his mother or someone who thought of his mother as important).
So who is this Another? I must say I am confused as it seems that it would probably be someone nearby like Kouichi that learns people acknowledge Mei’s existence. I assume that they are unconsciously jealous or resentful of Misaki. I don’t really think the deaths will stop because Kouichi and Misaki acknowledge each other (and it would kinda kill the horror if it ended as simply as that).
I just realized…what if they choose the dead guy to be ignored. This seems like it would piss them off even more, so perhaps the dead one really is Misaki and Kouichi really didn’t affect anything by transferring. Perhaps she is the original Misaki as shes quite cute and seems intelligent. With fake memories of her “cousin” perhaps it was a betrayal that she was ignored by her cousin and resented and killed her off.
Does anyone know how Misaki is possibly related to the original. It seems Kouichi and Misaki’s relations with the prior class makes them close to death and thus immune to the deaths because the dead guy is more jealous of the living.
Hmm, so ignoring one as “sacrifice” to balance class… that way death will be avoided. But wouldn’t ignoring Kouichi unbalances the class? So that’s two students they are ignoring…
Or is Kouchi is the undead or so called “extra”?
“Another” shocking scenes? Click it.
http://www.susya.ru/flash/fvp.swf
this should be a horror or some kind of suspense anime but why do I always feel a romantic vibe :}
Because there’s been some “tension” between Kouichi and Mei since day one? XD
I approve!!
and then, they’re gonna’ solve this case until they develop and deeply attached to each other… this was always in my mind since day one.. :]
I was a bit confused with Mei’s explanation but after reading the manga, it finally made sense. I am still confused though… about the fact that they want to balance the class by ignoring a classmate but then, they added another “non-existent”. Doesn’t that cause another imbalance to the class? Or is it because Koichi decided to befriend the ignored classmate thus, creating a violation to the class rules, whatever those rules are?
Setting those mindbogglers aside, the genre suspense and horror is being lightened up by this romantic vibe I am feeling from Mei and Koichi. I mean, the background music became softer, more harmonious and less scary when Koichi acknowledged Mei’s existence and he was kinda happy that Mei really does exist(and we can see that Mei is kinda happy too).
Then again, I am not on the theory that Koichi nor Mei is the real dead one. No evidences, just plain guessing. It could be someone like Mochikuzi or… or some random classmate that we don’t really know. And yet again, this anime likes to lead us to the wrong answer(like when we all presumed that Mei was a ghost).
And above anything else, can I have a ticket to the Mei x Koichi ship/boat? The journey is going to begin next week right? Count me aboard!
For the imbalance, assuming there have never been two “non-existent” people before, the class is probably just winging it and hoping that making room for the “dead” person my axing two people is just as good as making room with one. It’s easy to see how they would prefer that risk over Kouichi talking to Mei and the fools tripping over themselves and failing miserably again and again to tell him what’s actually going on. Personally I think the class knows now that they’re in over their heads, and now they’re just scrambling to breath.
The whole class pissed me off in this episode for not telling Kouichi about the incident properly, and they got what they deserved so far which is the loss of their classmates. I have a strong feeling that the twin tail girl might be that ghost or entity.
Twin tail girl buck me. I am sure that The bad guy is a girl and this story are not full fantasy but + science cuz of Signal blocking. but there are the possibility that Mei is the dead one cuz she has a cousin ( maybe their face is the same ) I will wait for mor clue.
I’m not sure if anyone else noticed something like this, but looking at the titles of each episode starting at one, doesn’t it remind you of the process of ,say, building a doll? Just a thought.
I wonder if Kouichi is simply a doll himself or so who keeps forgetting. Iirc, one of their classmates was sure they met before whereas he couldn’t remember it happening. With there also being what we believe can be key events 15 and 2 years ago, I wonder if he relates to what happened 2 years ago.
Looks like my guess that Mei is real but being ignored to counter a curse is correct but the one thing that really puzzles me is… why didn’t they tell him about the rules from the start… Even Mei said so herself in this episode that it was a wrong move… it’s pretty obvious you need to tell these things if it’s really that important to them <_<
yay misaki exists! time for sum misaki x kouichi next ep
lawl.
This is definitely one hell of an infodump episode.
Did anyone else notice the opening is changing every episode when someone dies. Sakuragi is replaced by that friend of Akazawa and Mizuno is replaced by the teacher. So can this mean that everyone in the opening will be one the dead list?
I don’t think it’s possible to choose the “another” as a sacrifice. They choose the person to ignore at the beginning of the school year. They said the point at which the “another” appears happens sometime during the school year, therefore, they are not there at the start of it.
Also, if you think about it mathematically, they should have ignored Kouichi in the first place. They ignore someone so that when the “another” appears, the amount of students equals a certain number (I think it was 30, but don’t quite remember so I’m just going to go with that for my example). They were already ignoring Mei when Kouichi transferred. If ignoring Mei put them at 29 for a count, adding Kouichi would have put them back at 30, thus throwing off the balance they were trying to create in the first place. Ignoring him is actually what they should’ve done in the first place. They’re not ignoring an extra student, they’re putting the numbers back where they should be.