[haguruma]

Originally Posted by DesuX2

I find it eerie that Kouichi Sakakibara has so many similarities with the protagonist of Higurashi.
[...]
I kind of wonder if Kouichi was semi-based off Keiichi.

I doubt that Ayatsuji actually took Ryûkishi's work as an inspiration. Kouichi is not really an exceptional character and the events sorrounding him are only slightly similar to those of Higurashi's protagonist Keiichi.
I think most around here aren't really used to Japanese horror and mystery stories, therefore everytime one comes along it seems very novel and innovative. While I don't want to put Another or Higurashi down (I like both of them in their own way) they aren't the only ones like that in this genre by far. The secluded village (inaka) has become as much a trope as the backwoods in American horror and of course an unknowing protagonist goes back to archetypes of Poe's gothic horror which laid groundworks for much that is done today.

Drawing parallels between cotemporary works can be very enlightening, but I think that these two characters are only so vaguely similar on a trope level that we can't really say anything about possible inspiration ... even though of course I wouldn't rule it out, but normally (as seen even in the anime) Ayatsuji is very outspoken about his inspirations (King, Saul, Poe, old movies, etc.).

Originally Posted by totoum

What?on the contrary the novel reader said

Just to clear up any remaining misunderstandings, here is an excerpt from this part of the novel. It happens pretty early in the story (chapter 2, p. 79-82) and was partly included in episode 1 of the anime...only that the whole scene is much longer in the novel than just a few sentences. I think the anime did a pretty good job of capturing that scene, but not having experienced the Sakakibara scare during the late 90's many viewers in the Western world wouldn't capture on to the hint towards it (Japanese media are still going on about the case when it comes to juvenile crimes).

Spoiler for mild novel spoiler:

So just you know, you won't spoil yourself for the anime, but still I wanna give you the option if you don't want to read anything from the source material at all.

Spoiler for Another novel, chapter 2, p.79-82:

Misaki Mei opened her mouth.
"Your name is Sakakibara Kôichi. Really?"
"Ehm, yeah."
"Quite interesting."
"Ye...what?!"
Wait just a minute. Why are we talking about that old story all of a sudden?
"Wh...why is that?"
I tried not to let my uneasiness show as Mei calmly watched me.
"It happened almost exactly one year ago, didn't it?! Not even one year ago all of Japan was in fear."
"......"
"Sakakibara...you can really be happy that you're not called 'Seito' as well."
A faint smile was on her lips while she uttered that sentence.
She is really straightforward.
She...Misaki Mei said it right out. That which nobody dared to speak of, not even in school today.
"What is it?"
Mei tilted her head mysteriously.
"Do you feel uncomortable when I talk about this?"
I tried answering, "As if I care!", with a face that said exactly that, but I didn't even bring out a full sentence. And even before I could think about what to do or say next,
"I made some bad experiences about it.",
I started a full-out confession.
"It happened last year, at my old school. When that incident happened in Kobe and Sakakibara Seito became a topic and when it also came out that he was a 14 year old middle-schooler..."
"Were you mobbed or maybe even more?"
"There wasn't anything harsher than some mobbing, but..."
That's true...there weren't any really serious events. It was never actually intentional or malicious behaviour. Most of them were doing it half for the fun of it...
They tried writing my name differetly, so that it looked like how Sakakibara wrote his, or maybe sometimes calling me Seito...one could say that it was limited to children just being cruel and never thinking about others or consequences. But still...
[...]
"It didn't happen around here so far?", asked Mei.
"You're the first to mention it."
[...]
"I think the others are just cautious.", said Mei.
"Maybe..."
"But I don't really think that they do it to go easy on you."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Sakakibara is a name that is directly associated with death. But ot just any kind of death. A gruesome, unnatural death which had a school as its setting."

I cut some parts of it because the whole scene is rather long and I focused on those parts which are actually important to the question of Kouichi's name. The one thing maybe that the anime kind of looses by dropping this background information is his reason to feel bad for Mei and his motivation to be so much against mobbing of any kind.