[Hakuromatsu]

Originally Posted by Yvese

Then what's your point?

You just made my point better than I could:

Originally Posted by Yvese

I didn't have a theory prior to that knowledge so how was it I was influenced by it which altered the theory I never had? I was just like everyone else; it completely never crossed my mind of the possibility of Mikami being Reiko.

I was skeptical when I first read it so I went back and investigated it which I posted in the first page of this thread.

Here's what happened. A spoiler was posted:

Originally Posted by Person A

Did you know....
That Reiko, Kouichi's aunt, is also Ms.Mikami the teacher!!! I never knew that.It seems her full name is Reiko Mikami, and Kouichi calls her Mikami at school and Reiko at home. I found this out in several places, mostly the Another wiki.

Originally Posted by Person B

That is quite interesting. I hadn't even noticed. Though I suggest people don't go to wikipedia to verify that, because as I just found out, it actually spoils a large part of the story. -_-;

At the time that was posted, episode 7 had been the last episode to air. Using critical thinking, it was obvious that this was a spoiler: 1) It hadn't been mentioned in the first seven episodes that Reiko and Mikami-sensei were the same person, or even implied in such a way that the "average" viewer would be expected to assume that they were the same person. 2) Person B made it clear that there was a clear-cut, impossible-to-mistake spoiler in Wikipedia, the same location at which he found out that Reiko and Mikami-sensei were the same person. 3) Person A found this out in "several places," one of which was the Another wiki (and another of which was possibly Wikipedia).

Don't suggest that I "believe everything I read." It was exceedingly clear to rational people like you and I that that was a spoiler. Your skepticism -- which was understandable -- was a response to something that was presented as a spoiler and should have logically been accepted as a spoiler. That spoiler became lodged in your mind whether you wanted it to or not, and your investigation of Reiko and Mikami-sensei stems from that spoiler.

(Incidentally, on top of all of that (I can't logically use this to prove my point, but it's worth mentioning) it was already clear by episode 7 that something was wrong with Reiko. At that point we had already heard the mynah's cries, Kouichi's grandfather being tired of funerals and saying "poor Reiko," the revelation that Kouichi was probably in Yomiyama in 1996 during the phone call with his dad, and several other small cues. Reading that Reiko and Mikami-sensei were the same person should have been a major red flag.)