[haguruma]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

So ... yeah, when all is said and done, I don't think we will be any wiser about the phenomenon's inner workings. That's information that's simply beyond our cast's reach, unless Mei starts seeing visions with her eye as well, not only "death"

Well, we do have an idea of how the phenomenon works and I think we could work to an answer quite okay. The real problem is that the answer leaves us almost powerless against it.
Chibiki himself said that what probably startet everything was his and the students idea to deny Yomiyama Misaki's death and treat him as if he were still there. All because of their selfishness of being unable to accept death. That wish was so strong that it drew the dead Misaki back into class and even left an imprint on their graduation photo.
Now what does that tell us if we take Chibiki's analogy of the flood or natural disaster again? By denying one death and practically drawing a dead person back into class they are themselves placed nearer to death. It's like cementing in a river, which makes it easier to control but on the other hand makes it impossible for excess water to be lead into the ground.

Now what if not only the result remained but the cause as well? People are always unable to accept death and sometimes to the point of deying it happened in the first place. Now what if the dead one isn't so much chosen randomly, but is actually wished back into existence by their peers?

Thing is, the original class wouldn't be able to even tell they have an extra student in the class - that's a deduction one can only make after being aware of the phenomenon and it's basic functions. They wouldn't see it as "unaccounted student in the roster" - they would simply see it as "someone messed up and got the desk count wrong", after which they would haul in an extra desk and be done thinking about it. They have no reason to assume an anomaly of any kind at this point.

It probably went quite like this. When it first happened in '73 it was nothing more than an unlucky year...maybe some people remembered some funny business happening in the 3-3 last year, but nobody would have made a connection between those events.
Chibiki said that between '76 and '80 (when he quit) the 3-3 was already known as "the cursed class" as it had happened at least 4 times. He started making his theory in the mid 70's after teachers told him about vanishing students, but all he could do was go through different methods one after another.

And it's not like that is the only thing. Apart from that you have to explain this to every new person who comes into contact with the 3-3. The headmasters always seemed to be rather unwilling to believe in the supernatural...and isn't that just understandable? Or what if you were a student? Even if you heard from a teacher that your class is cursed, would you just believe that? It's a constant struggle against rationalism...which shows when even not all students of the current 3-3 believe in the supernatural per se.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

The students must first be aware of the anomaly, otherwise the deaths over the year would just seem like a run of very bad luck with no supernatural cause, ergo, there is nothing that needs to be "countered".

It never were the students who got this idea. How would they? They graduate out of Yomi North once they complete the third year...some of them might even leave town completely. It was always Chibiki with the help of the odd student here and there, which is why many people still believe it to be nothing more than a string of bad luck.