[Kanon]

Bringing the discussion here since it's the most appropriate thread.

Originally Posted by haguruma

I'd like to step in on that, but only because the important part, that is Misaki's desk, was only discussed very briefly during the time of episode 5-7 where it actually went into what is happening. I will explain this in spoilers (though it really isn't one) so people can keep guessing about it or find it out on their own, but it doesn't matter whether there are 18 students assigened to a 3-3 or 38. This all comes down to a technicality in timing and how schools are orgaized.

Spoiler for How are they a desk short:

The problem is not any fixed number of students in class (though anime in general seems to prefer to have students at a neat number like 20 or 30) but the fact that a desk is missing and an additional desk has to be provided for the "inexistent one". This additional desk is taken from the old school building, which is why it looks so damaged and old.
The size of a class is determined before the year actually starts so the janitor or students will provide the appropriate number of chairs and desks to each classroom before even the entrance ceremony starts. The "one person more" only seems to join from the ceremony onwards, so they go to class and notice "damn, we're a desk short".

Thanks for clearing that up for us. I was secretly hoping you'd show up yesterday

So my theory that Mikami-sensei is the extra person still works. I'll repost it here:

Another was already present in class before Kouichi transfered in, so they should have already been one desk short at the beginning of the year as usual. And yet they weren't, and in the process were fooled into thinking this would be a safe year. What could this mean? That the extra person is not a student, but a teacher. That leaves us with Chibiki and Mikami as suspects. Depending on whether Mei included Chibiki in her answer even though he had already left, he could be ruled out (that also rules Reiko out...). I think it's more likely to be Mikami, who was the homeroom teacher two years ago.

My understanding is that Kouichi was only added to the class roster after the beginning of the year. If his transfer had been decided back in March, then why wait until May to come to Yomiyama? It would have been far more convenient to start the school year there in April. So, assuming he wasn't on the class roster and no desk was prepared for him, then that means that at the beginning of the year, there were 29 students and 29 desks in the class. Everybody had a desk, so they thought they were safe this year. They only started freaking out after they were informed of Kouichi's transfer and realized they would missing a desk then, but that's completely irrelevant if Kouichi wasn't part of the class when they decided on the number of desks.

However, we know now thanks to Mei that the calamity started in April before Kouichi transfered, which means the extra person was already present at the beginning of the year. The problem is that going by what we know about the way the phenomenon works, then they should have been one desk short, since if one of the student is dead, then there shouldn't have been a desk prepared for him.

There are only two ways to explain this inconsistency: a desk had been prepared for Kouichi back in March and the extra student stole it (as I stated earlier, I don't believe that's the case), or the extra person is not a student but a teacher. If I can confirm with certainty that Kouichi's transfer was only decided in April, then my speculation is as good as correct. If the opposite is true and it had been decided he would transfer long beforehand, then it's wrong.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Can we have further clarification about how names are erased from past records? Because, as I understand it, all historical traces of the Other are removed when the phenomenon is in effect, to prevent its identification during the year.

So, like totoum pointed out:

If Ms Mikami were the Other, then, by right, people shouldn't remember that she was the assistant teacher of the Class of 96, since she would have presumably died that year and has now returned.

As somebody else pointed out, Mikami is a teacher. That makes a big difference. The reason students are erased is because it creates a discrepancy: the same student can't have been in ninth grade in both 1993 and 1996.

Obviously, that doesn't apply to teachers. Mikami doesn't need to be erased from the 1996 records, since her being the homeroom teacher in 1996 and then assistant homeroom teacher in 1998 is not peculiar at all. All the phenomenon needs to do is erase her death and not her whole existence that year, so that makes its job a lot easier.