Another - Episode 5 Discussion / Poll

[White Manju Bun]

Originally Posted by LKK

If I had to pick someone who is likely to know everything, I pick the librarian.

Yeah I pick him and Mikami-sensei.

I know the class did try to stop Kouichi from acknowledging Mei at the beginning but they probably should have just flat out told him instead of beating around the bush. Weird thing is Nurse was finding out stuff about Mei, she's dead. Heart Boy was about to tell Kouichi the truth, he's dead. As far as I know Yukari was the only one who wasnt going to tell him anything about Mei, weird that she died.

[boomerangnizorro]

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

Yes, if Mei's cousin is the 'trigger', then the curse was triggered before they started ignoring her. It actually makes you wonder, why was Mei originally chosen to be ignored? Her cousin died in late April, then Mei started getting ignored on May 1st. This implies that the class's decision may have been motivated by this, maybe they felt that the best person to ignore was the person whose family member died, possibly triggering the curse?

I always thought that the countermeasure is done to prevent the curse from triggering in the first place. If it is indeed true that Mei's cousin marks the start of the curse, then it doesn't matter what they do after that (except maybe to deal with the Another itself). The class of that year is pretty much fucked up.

Looking back at episode 4 though, Akazawa has this line (talking about how Sakakibara is messing up their plans)

Akazawa: This is a lot like the situation the class was in two years ago. Does that mean we need new countermeasures?

This could indicate that performing the countermeasure while the curse is happening can prevent it, OR the curse never happened and the class was wise enough to prevent it. Knowing the events of two years ago should provide us with some new insights.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

Yeah I pick him and Mikami-sensei.

I pick Aunt Rei.

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

Ok Mei's explanation left me asking one thing, if she was the "ignored" this year because of the class going up by one, why wasnt Kouichi ignored from the beginning? From what I got they ignore someone to set off the dead person in the class. But Kouichi now increased the class by 1 again. How would ignoring 2 people reset the curse?

I think the problem is they can ignore Mei without having to explain everything to her. As an outsider, that won't work with Kouichi - and they're caught in a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" (literally) situation with him. By explaining what's happening, they acknowledge him.

[Random32]

If countermeasures could stop the curse while it is happening, then they could just openly tell Sakakibara to ignore Misaki. I would guess that at least the class believes that countermeasures cannot stop the curse once started, but rather just prevent it from starting.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Random32

If countermeasures could stop the curse while it is happening, then they could just openly tell Sakakibara to ignore Misaki. I would guess that at least the class believes that countermeasures cannot stop the curse once started, but rather just prevent it from starting.

Also, don't forget that at least according to orthodox Class 3 mythology, you can't tell Kouichi (or anyone) to "ignore Misaki". You'll notice, all anyone ever said was "don't acknowledge things (remember the "Personification" lecture this week) that don't exist."

This also poses obvious problems with simply ignoring Kouichi immediately on arrival if they decide to do that. As a new student who has no idea why he's being shunned, he's likely to force the issue and ask lots of questions.

[ThereminVox]

The personification lecture was a nice backdrop to the action.

The series is going in the direction I was hoping to see, but we've gone over that already.

I'm glad we now have new insight into the creepy visit from the class reps to Sakakibara's hospital room in episode 1. Asking him if he'd ever "lived" there before, and getting antsy at his uncertain answers. He was suspected from the very start. I wonder if that's why they were reluctant to speak with him, or if it's just that they couldn't give him countermeasure orders without acknowledging Mei.

Sakakibara's mother is the through line, as expected, and it begins with the first class to "invite" the dead into the class.

[warita]

Originally Posted by Random32

If countermeasures could stop the curse while it is happening, then they could just openly tell Sakakibara to ignore Misaki. I would guess that at least the class believes that countermeasures cannot stop the curse once started, but rather just prevent it from starting.

There are a bunch of inconsistencies..... this is not the only one.

My guess is, thay dont really know, if it will stop the curse or not, its more like they cant lose anything by trying.

[Silvance]

Spoiler for ep 5:

Now that he knows, I sure hope Koichi at least reflects back on what he did. He may not have been aware of it, but he was still the one that made things worse, no? I guess now that he's pretty much non-existent to the eyes of his classmates, he'll be spending even more time with Mei. More bonding moment ensues.

[Nochgo]

A love between two people who are the only ones that recognize the presence of each other... rather romantic

The show's horror factor just went plop when I found out that Mei existed. I was hoping that she was a ghost, an existence close to what Mei herself explained about the extra person. By the way, maybe the protagonist is the dead person who joined Class 3. Hes gonna end up killing everyone, including Mei . And finally, we know whats going on. Took only half a season.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Nochgo

And finally, we know whats going on. Took only half a season.

You think you know what's going on,that's a big difference.

[White Manju Bun]

The issue is still, they ignored Mei to prevent the curse since the class increase by 1 way back when. Kouichi now increases it by 2 so it was bound to happen even if they didn't ignore Mei.

No wonder countermeasures girl kept asking about his past and where he lived.

[rakusukira]

the reason they didn't ignore Koichi at first is because he was an outsider and ignoring him would MAKE him more curios e.g ask a lot of questions and all those other stuff. asking Koichi to ignore Mei would mean that they would have to acknowledge she exists and that would be a breech in the rules.

the class was clueless what to do with the arrival of Koichi.. i'm thinking Mei's cousin was the first death of that year.

well, at least Koichi is a little happy that Mei ACTUALLY exists.. he must have had an eye for her. she is pretty and cute, after all. Well, Mei and Koichi can accompany eachother while they are being ignored.

the pacing of the anime is making me think this will span 24 episodes. (I hope.)

[Goggen]

Originally Posted by Silvance

Now that he knows, I sure hope Koichi at least reflects back on what he did. He may not have been aware of it, but he was still the one that made things worse, no?

No. It's all on his classmates for failing to inform him in time.

Originally Posted by White Manju Bun

The issue is still, they ignored Mei to prevent the curse since the class increase by 1 way back when. Kouichi now increases it by 2 so it was bound to happen even if they didn't ignore Mei.

We don't really know if it works that way. The actual number of students in the class may not matter as long as they subtract (ignore) one to make up for the dead person who shouldn't be there. I mean, the "extra" student in the class shouldn't be there because (s)he's dead, but there's nothing supernatural or out of the ordinary about a transfer student, right?

[DezoPenguin]

Man, one day late watching ep. 5 and wow, amazing stuff happens. Actual explanations in clean, concise language! And an answer to the Mei question as well. And an actual good reason why Kouichi's been kept in the dark all along! Even an oblique wink at the lack of elevator safety devices (if you count "it's an old building that has undergone many recent renovations" as "lots of corners have been cut in the construction and we're lucky the elevator had cables at all.")

...which leads to the next question, namely, what the heck are they going to do for the next seven episodes? Try to thwart/lift the ongoing curse in some way? Catch a human murderer if some of the "extra" deaths weren't supernatural/accidental?

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Two wild ideas:

One: if the class decided that a symbolic death is proving insufficient as a countermeasure, what would be their next logical step?

Two: What if Mei is "real" but in fact turns out to have been the "Another" all along? If the class never knows who the extra person is, who's to say they can't choose to ignore the dead one by mistake?

That's what I was wondering when she started explaining about how the dead student didn't actually know that she was dead. Until we see Mei's mom come in and start talking to them both, she's not off the hook.

...I hate myself, however, for not immediately going, "Oh, that's where the name of the series comes from!"until I read your post.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

The answer:


Sakakibara's sudden addition to the class made everything troublesome from the get-go. His classmates couldn't treat him as persona non grata right away, because doing so would immediately mean that they recognised him as the "extra person". The school year started with 29 students, including Mei Misaki. Misaki was "volunteered" as the non-existent person for the year, so once the dead one comes in, Class 3-3 would still stay, in their minds, at 29.

The magic/cursed number is 30. The moment Sakakibara came to the class, the equation was thrown out of whack, hence the initial confusion over what to do next. Like Akazawa said, the explanation itself would have been difficult, since simply trying to explain things to Sakakibara might trigger the curse.

Exactly! Because the school year starts in April, it would void the countermeasures if any of the students says to Kouichi, "Hey, new kid, there's a curse on the classroom and you need to pretend like the hottie with the eye patch doesn't exist or people--including you or your family--might start dropping like flies for the rest of the year" because that would start the curse running immediately--the one who said that would be acknowledging the existence of Mei.

Originally Posted by leeo268

That guy dying from Heart attack is too funny and ridiculous. Total Death Note moment there. Almost make me believe that a shinigami is trolling the class for 26 years. Where is L when you need him.

Yeah, that was...kind of weird. He starts to explain and drops like a stone. The curse as stated doesn't do that (unless, well, it does and only Mei could explain because she was "outside" the class already). On the other hand, he had a weak heart. Maybe the stress of the moment and the fear of death brought on a perfectly natural heart attack (after all, we already had one June death).

Anyway, Quite a few plot hole,
2. The "dead" change people memory of the class roster. ok.. well write it down or tell someone in Europe to record the roster or post it online for thousands of ppl to see. I bet this "dead' can't teleport around the world to change ppl memory and give thousand of ppl heart attack. hmmm.. maybe it can if it got a death note.

4. kinda offtopic but I got to say these student are seriously dedicated to their education. Back in highschool, I often find ways to ditch my class. But these guys, they go to their classes even though there is a 1/28 chance of dying each month. I am surprise if even one person go to class if this is true in real life. With that kind of odd, you can't even pay people to go to class. You probably have better chance of surviving fighting the Vietnam

2. wouldn't work; someone might post the list but since the dead can mess with the minds of Class 3, if someone from the class looked at the list they wouldn't be able to see that a name was missing.

As for 4., since the curse hits family members it isn't confined physically to the school. You could stay home every day and still end up dead.

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Actually wouldn't that mean he could go around now beating people up, stealing their money etc etc

and get away with it? Perks of being the invisible class voodoo charm.

Originally Posted by kimpleng

Even if they do that only in their class, there is probability after graduation they will get some payback/revenge.

Yeah, they may have to take it and like it for a year...but I'm guessing come next April once everybody's moved on to 10th grade that payback would be a bitch.

Originally Posted by Kakkou

I don't think the staff had much of a choice cause IIRC it was mentioned Kouichi was put in that class by the principal who was new and didn't believe in their 'tradition'.

Correct; they specifically mentioned that in Ep. 2, I believe it was.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Remember I said, "There is a supernatural element". Saul isn't about explaining everything away to mundane causes, but while there is an otherworldly factor at play the true horror is committed by the humans. That feels right to me here.

I rather wonder if some or all of the deaths are caused by a human killer or killers. Or if the supernatural force is inciting humans to act, instead of just causing random supernatural deaths.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Also, don't forget that at least according to orthodox Class 3 mythology, you can't tell Kouichi (or anyone) to "ignore Misaki". You'll notice, all anyone ever said was "don't acknowledge things (remember the "Personification" lecture this week) that don't exist."

This also poses obvious problems with simply ignoring Kouichi immediately on arrival if they decide to do that. As a new student who has no idea why he's being shunned, he's likely to force the issue and ask lots of questions.

And what if he immediately gravitates to Mei because he notices that the same thing is happening to her?

Truthfully, the situation was headed for disaster the instant Kouichi was added in as a new transfer student. Everybody (including his aunt) kept saying, "follow the class rules," but nobody would or could actually explain them to him. It would take a lot of very careful phrasing to be able to explain, obliquely, to him what to do without being able to actually say it.

(This also explains "I'll tell you next month"...if Class 3 got through May alive, it would mean that the curse didn't trigger through Sakakibara, and therefore they could give him the straight facts.)

Originally Posted by Goggen

No. It's all on his classmates for failing to inform him in time.

We don't really know if it works that way. The actual number of students in the class may not matter as long as they subtract (ignore) one to make up for the dead person who shouldn't be there. I mean, the "extra" student in the class shouldn't be there because (s)he's dead, but there's nothing supernatural or out of the ordinary about a transfer student, right?

No, as noted above, if Mei's story of the curse is true, there's virtually no way they could inform him without themselves breaking the rules.

So basically, if the curse story as Mei explains it is correct, then it's all on the principal for transferring the new student into Class 3. If he'd gone into any other class, there would be no problem (and indeed, he'd be free to talk to or about Mei like anyone else in the school--it's only class 3 that's affected).

Plus, he came in a month late. The dead student should have been there since April 1 (unless it was scheduled with the school from before April 1 that Kouichi would come in later).

[Random32]

Originally Posted by warita

My guess is, thay dont really know, if it will stop the curse or not, its more like they cant lose anything by trying.

They can lose something. They are forced to acknowledge Misaki to tell Sakakibara to ignore her, thus breaking their rules for avoiding the curse.

Also, the only classmate to speak up about Misaki openly to Sakakibara had a heart attack before he could say anything and died.

[Kaoru Chujo]

I've made a characters/seiyuus page for this show, with pics of characters and of their seiyuus, and a bit of info about each seiyuu.

This is an interesting cast. Not many famous names. Takamori Natsumi (Misaki Mei) was Akari in Jewelpet Tinkle and Subaru in Houkago no Pleiades, but is a late starter, at 25. Her voice is working for me.

They have filled the lesser roles with a number of seiyuu who do more film/TV dubbing than anime. I think they tend to be capable actors.

[Random32]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Two: What if Mei is "real" but in fact turns out to have been the "Another" all along? If the class never knows who the extra person is, who's to say they can't choose to ignore the dead one by mistake?

They can't choose to ignore the dead one by mistake.

The person who is ignored must be chosen beforehand, because they have to decide to ignore someone and that act acknowledges them, thus has to happen before the dead person is added. Since the person that is being ignored must be chosen before the dead person is added, the person being ignored is guaranteed to not be the dead person because they were chosen out of a pool of people that are all not dead.

[Malkuth]

^ spoilers are a very baaaaaaad thing

[AbZeroNow]

I was glad that this time, the death shown in this episode wasn't something that made me fear something(like sharp-tipped umbrellas or elevators).

The OP started almost right away so there wasn't a problem with transition from a teaser this episode, which helped keep up the atmosphere in this episode. And the episode also did a fantastic job keeping up the atmosphere as it laid little hints and gave some much needed information.

Mei was especially moe in this episode, and it helped that we, the audience, now know that she's alive and not a ghost. And it seems like Mei and Kouichi are going to try and piece together the truth about Class 3.

Knowing that this is the 5th episode in a 1 cour series, I have to say that I have no complains with the pacing as we are getting some answers, some assumptions are proved wrong and we still have some unanswered questions.

Episode got a "Perfect 10" from me(or around a 9.5 rounded up). This is one of the best series this season(although I suspect it may do better here in America than in Japan).

[djmaca]

Funny, The manga is set at 4 volumes(or so I heard). This episode seems like in Volume 2. So this show is 12 episodes only?