AnimeSuki Forum - Another - Speculation & Theories (for first time viewers)

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This thread is aimed at first time viewers of Another and its purpose is to allow spoiler free speculation and theories to be aired. Having them in a central location may help focus the discussion instead of spreading speculation over the various episode discussion threads. If you are knowledgeable of the manga and wish to speculate or discuss theories, then please do not post in this thread (use the $$spoiler-speculation-thread-id$$) and do not give away any spoilers in this thread!

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Spoiler for It appear someone made a message in the chair. This could be a link to the past:

Can anyone pls. translate what it said?

It's the same quote that can be found on the official site's front page. "Who is the deceased?"

"Who is the dead one?" ...
the tagline for this show

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kakkou (Post 3979399)

It's the same quote that can be found on the official site's front page. "Who is the deceased?"

So if it's Mei the answer is obvious.
If it isn't then I've got no idea :heh:

I was tempted by a crazy "Kouichi is in fact named Sakakibara Misaki" theory where Kouichi is the ghost and everyone is pretending he exists,but that really is too far out there.Still I see no other candidates beside Mei.

Quote:

Originally Posted by totoum (Post 3981093)

I was tempted by a crazy "Kouichi is in fact named Sakakibara Misaki" theory where Kouichi is the ghost and everyone is pretending he exists,but that really is too far out there.Still I see no other candidates beside Mei.

As much as this doesn't fit most of what happens, it's a seductive thought. I like it because it would turn certain scenes on their heads. Stuff like his brush with death, the rest of the school not being straight with him, even the class rep's inquisitive "are you sure you've haven't lived here before?"

This isn't a speculation of "What's Going to Happen?" so much as it's a speculation of what might be causing the curse.

Perhaps Mei Misaki maintains a shadowy level of existence by absorbing "life energy" from the people around her. At a "ghost-level" existence, this simply requires sapping people's energy and vitality.

But the more corporeal/"real" she becomes, the more "life energy" she needs to sustain herself. At a certain point, she has to absorb so much life energy that it kills people.

If people ignore Mei, then all that results is sickness and generally poor health. But if people start seeing Mei, she becomes more "real", which in turn puts greater demand on "life energy".

Now, why is Kouichi immune to this? That I'm not sure of. Maybe he's related to Mei somehow, which gives him a level of immunity?

Anyway, just some random speculations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triple_R (Post 3981629)

But the more corporeal/"real" she becomes, the more "life energy" she needs to sustain herself. At a certain point, she has to absorb so much life energy that it kills people.
If people ignore Mei, then all that results is sickness and generally poor health. But if people start seeing Mei, she becomes more "real", which in turn puts greater demand on "life energy".

A couple of things that can back this up.

Mei from episode 3:

"Dolls are hollow you see(...)But hollow things seek to fill their emptiness."

And I got this observation from the random curiosity blog: the episode titles "rough sketch; blueprint; bone work; put flesh; next week, build limbs." seem to imply the creation of a human/person.

Quote:

Originally Posted by totoum (Post 3981668)

A couple of things that can back this up.

Mei from episode 3:

"Dolls are hollow you see(...)But hollow things seek to fill their emptiness."

That line is a big part of what inspired my speculations yeah. :)

I'm not sure if this show will be quite as supernatural as I'm speculating right now, but even if it's not, I get the vibe of "trade off" here. That for Mei to "live", other people must die.

Quote:

And I got this observation from the random curiosity blog: the episode titles "rough sketch; blueprint; bone work; put flesh; next week, build limbs." seem to imply the creation of a human/person.

Nice pick-up!

Based on what I've seen thus far, Mei seems to either be a ghost, or everyone is denying her existence and once they do acknowledge her existence, then they're the one's going to die next. For example, Yukari died right after seeing Mei with Kouichi. The other instance would be when the nurse acknowledged the existence of Mei by researching about her.

Now Kouichi is actively acknowledging her existence might have already raised a death flag, but at the start of the series, he had already been involved in an accident. So he might have avoided being part of the deaths of April and thus became 'immune' so to speak. Since he had avoided death, he can see Mei without any fear for his well being.

The only hole I see in my theory thus far (aside from the fact if my theory should be proven wrong) is if the realization of Mei is connected to Yukari's mother's death. Does one need to acknowledge her and those related to that person who has thus acknowledged her existence would then have the chance of dying? That's something I'm not quite sure of thus yet.

I could of course be totally wrong and I'm only making crap based on what little I've seen thus far...

Hmmm now he's has no informant at the hospital and there classmates is still in silent mode until June (Wat the heck?) Looks to me May is a plague anniversary.

The only left for him to gather intelligence is the library there might be records f student files and photo graduates.

Quote:

Originally Posted by totoum (Post 3981668)

And I got this observation from the random curiosity blog: the episode titles "rough sketch; blueprint; bone work; put flesh; next week, build limbs." seem to imply the creation of a human/person.

I think it's more the steps for building a doll.

I have the feeling that Mei exists but they are pretending she doesn't... I don't know why they would do that tough :S Maybe she is related with something...

Question: When her cousin died it doesn't count as 'the curse'? I don't remember when she died or if it is mentined...

Quote:

And I got this observation from the random curiosity blog: the episode titles "rough sketch; blueprint; bone work; put flesh; next week, build limbs." seem to imply the creation of a human/person.

Ow, nice catch! It gave me chivers hehe

About Mei's deceased cousin, there are some questions. To begin with, is she really Misaki's cousin? Or did she use that line to divert Sakakibara's attention from something even worse?
Second, if she is Misaki's cousin, then why hasn't the class considered the "curse" to have begun already? Or had their countermeasures set in motion already, only to be derailed by Sakakibara and his noseyness.
Third, one way Fujioka's death won't count is if there's really no Misaki Mei in class 3-3. Therefore, her death is not related to anyone in the class.
So, once again, it all turns on, does "Misaki Mei" really exist?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimmy C (Post 3982769)

Second, if she is Misaki's cousin, then why hasn't the class considered the "curse" to have begun already? Or had their countermeasures set in motion already, only to be derailed by Sakakibara and his noseyness.

Well, we can see according to the class chart that there is no Fujioka Misaki in class 3-3. We also know that she has a different name from Misaki Mei and even if Mei is alive nobody would make a direct connection from that.
It's also mentioned that the curse is said to target dominantly class members and direct family (to be exact it said 親兄弟 (oyakyoudai), which is parents and direct siblings), so even if anybody knew about them being cousins they probably wouldn't draw a direct relation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimmy C (Post 3982769)

If Misaki Mei exists and they are just ignoring her, how would they know that her cousin died? It seems like for them she *dosn't exist* but all connected to her dose not exist aswell.
As for teachers... well, for them it's a little different. Even if they would pretend that *there is no Misaki Mei student*, she still will be in class student's list. Well, IF she really exists.

So, yes, there is one big question -- "Is Misaki Mei really exists?"

Oh wow, nice one. I agree with orion's idea that the episode titles seem to refer to the step-by-step creation of a doll or some kind of other artificial being. I skimmed through episodes 1 to 4, and I didn't notice anything that coincides with the titles except for some rather insignificant things. In episode 1, we saw Mei drawing something that she refused to show to the protagonist. It's common sense that everything starts off with a 'rough sketch'. In episode 2, we were shown Mei's drawing, and it since it was pretty neatly drawn, so I guess it could be considered a 'blueprint'. The only noteworthy things that occurred in episode 3 and 4 were the deaths of the class rep and the nurse. We haven’t heard anything about funerals or their bodies being buried; perhaps whoever is behind this used the flesh and bone from their bodies? Or maybe the episode titles should be taken figuratively and not literally?

I've been thinking if it's possible that the dolls are actually puppets? All they dolls we've seen so far seem to have movable joints. So if the dolls are puppets, then would be it be safe to assume that some of the dolls are being controlled by a puppet master from behind the scenes? And on that note, I wonder if the puppet master has control over Mei because of her doll eye? What if whatever entity is killing off the people is toying with their 'strings' of fate? It would explain the seemingly accidental deaths.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aphrah (Post 3983195)

The only noteworthy things that occurred in episode 3 and 4 were the deaths of the class rep and the nurse.

And her mom die in the car crash accident. Its seem that curse is targeting the females could it be those female vodoo dolls are connected?

Quote:

Originally Posted by PzIVf3 (Post 3983285)

And her mom die in the car crash accident. Its seem that curse is targeting the females could it be those female vodoo dolls are connected?

Ah yes, I had completely forgotten about that. I don't know; we could very see a male get killed off in the next episode.

I love Another, it reminds me very much of Higurashi, Umineko and Final Destination. That said, I have a personal theory of what is going on in the show, as of viewing of Episode 4.

Spoiler for Personal Crack Theory from Epi 1-4: