Quote:
Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf
That's not completely true. You've ignored something important that I brought up, that while Mei could not prevent Kouichi from approaching her, she could on the other hand have worked harder to discourage him from doing it again. It's not that hard to see how that ought to have worked: Just look at how the rest of the class behaved around Kouichi the moment he was branded non-existent; they simply refused to talk to him and walked away, including Teshigawara.
That is what Izumi, and many in the class, feel: that Mei could have and should have done more. It should be remembered that the ostracism counter-measure was absurd and deeply unpleasant to begin with. At least one other person had cracked under the pressure in the past. In the eyes of many in the class, Mei seemed hardly perturbed by it, so it's not hard to understand why some would naturally feel that Mei simply wasn't bothered to try hard enough, as though their well-being didn't matter to her.
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That is wrong. Even though Mei thought the calamity might have already started, she still took her role seriously and tried to discourage Kouichi from talking to her using a number of different methods: outright telling him not to associate with her in the first episode, scare him off by playing on his belief she was a ghost, try to make him believe she did not exist, not come to school, etc... It's not her fault Kouichi was so persistent. What should she have done? Ignore him as well? It's not like putting him on her ignore list would have made him magically disappear (wouldn't that be convenient if that worked just like on the internet?). That wouldn't have stopped him from acknowledging Mei's existence, and it would have likely only increased his curiosity further. I truly think she did the best she could to keep him away.
Even from Izumi's point of view who didn't know the content of their conversations, it's still preposterous to blame Mei. Even Teshigawara and Mochizuki realized that. Keeping Kouichi away from the non-existent student was Izumi's job as the head of countermeasures, not Mei's. In order for the ignored student to be able to uphold his role properly, two conditions need to be met: the ignored student must not try to force others to acknowledge him, and the other students must ignore him. Both parties must ignore the others. As soon as one refuses too, it's all over.