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Originally Posted by AC-Phoenix
The only death which has happened close to Reiko was the last one, all the others were, as far as we know, out of her sphere.
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As far as we know, immediately close physical proximity to the Another isn't a requirement. We know the phenomenon has limited range (Roughly the size of Yomiyama city), though we are unsure about the exact specifications, or the actual origin of said sphere of influence - is it the Yomiyama city, or is it the another him/herself?
Death in episode 8 happened outside of Yomiyama city, which basically presents us with these 3 options:
1) The origin of the "phenomenon's sphere of influence" is Yomiyama city, and they simply weren't far enough away from it.
2) The origin of the "phenomenon's sphere of influence" is the another itself, and said sphere's size is roughly that of Yomiyama city (assuming the another never left the city previously, this would have led the librarian to believe that simply moving away from the city is enough to be safe -- and it is, so long as the another stays there). The group didn't move outside of said zone of influence because the another was actually with them, thus bringing the "sphere of influence" along.
3) The death is unrelated to the phenomenon and is a true accident, meant to throw us off track.
With 4 episodes left to the end, I think option 3 would be a little too unproductive at this point, which leaves us with either 1) or 2). Either the librarian had underestimated the phenomenon's range, or he hadn't considered the possibility that the point of origin might follow Another wherever it goes.
Considering I'm leaning pretty strongly towards Reiko being Another, I'll go with option 2), and consider it another clue on top of the slowly building pile hinting towards her.
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Originally Posted by Dengar
You're... Making up all this extra circumstantial info just to justify "Reiko is the Another". Is there a particular reason why you want to be true so badly?
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I'd be willing to say that outright dismissing the possibility of Another being someone outside of class 3-3 as potentially dismissing a set of clues the show has been presenting, unless they are deliberately building a
massive red herring with Reiko, in which case they have me fallen for it. Let's leave class 3 for a bit and return to Koichi's home.
We have established that the phenomenon's range is either that of Yomiyama city centered around the Another, or slightly larger than that and centered around Another itself. In either case, Koichi's father is well beyond the range and outside his influence. Thus he has the unique position among the whole cast of being the sole source of information not susceptible to manipulation.
Considering he calls Koichi, we can rule out Koichi as Another - he wouldn't suddenly develop the urge to call his dead son, unless he has gone nuts
With this in mind, it has been roughly ~1.5 years since Koichi last visited Yomiyama. But Koichi doesn't remember this. Koichi normally lives in Tokyo, yet had a reason to visit Yomiyama 1.5 years ago. This memory got erased altogether. The phenomenon alters people's memories in a way to make sure no one can recognize the Another for the corpse that it actually is. So the question is: why is the deletion of Koichi's memory of him visiting Yomiyama 1.5 years ago necessary for the preservation of Another's identity ? What about said visit puts the identity of Another in danger ? Not just bits or pieces of it, but the whole fact he visited the city altogether?
Second bit - a couple of times his father has told Koichi to say hi to grandpa and grandma from him, but he has never mentioned Reiko, who should be living in the same house. Why? Is this a hint, or a harmless oversight ?
Why did the grandpa mutter "Poor Ritsuko ... poor Reiko as well..." ? A hint, or him simply going senile ? (Remember that people apparently can preserve a sense of deja-vu despite their memory alteration ... like Akazawa feeling she has shaken Koichi's hand before, and Reiko's classmate feeling he has seen her recently, while she insists they haven't met for years).
For that matter, why is removing the memory of Reiko's classmate of him having seen her more recently important for preservation of Another's identity?
Why is the bird constantly going "Why, Rei-chan, why?"
Think what you will of Reiko being shown through a distorted glass in episode 8 while talking to Koichi. A harmless, if weird, choice of camera perspective, or alluding to something?
So ... why all of the above ? A big coincidence, a red herring, or a trail of hints left behind as the story moves on?
Assuming the show is being deliberately being misleading here and I have taken the bait like a sucker (which might be the case at the end of it
), and the Another is indeed someone in class 3 ... who do you think it might be ? And why ?
And why is the countermeasure of ignoring someone in class effective only half the time ? I don't think this part can be merely waved away because it's inconvenient. Rather, it's one of the few pieces of information that we can be certain about, as it isn't based on assumptions.
All of the above might be an elaborate troll indeed, but until that gets proven to be the case, I'm going to consider Reiko the most likely suspect, and I don't really see anyone else being hinted towards. For now, I'd rather believe the show has been slowly feeding us hints (some more obscure than others) all along, rather than Reiko being a massive bait.