Another - Speculation & Theories (for first time viewers)

[Patriot's Blade]

whats next? somebody who got drowned by a toilet seat?

[Ikuko]

You've got a great theory there, DesuX2 (: (I also am a great fan of Umineko, by the way)

Spoiler for Personal Crack Theory - comments/questions:

Originally Posted by DesuX2

Misaki Mei is real. (i.e she exists in the physical world)
The "curse" existed in the past, but is currently brought to life by an unknown perpetrator for a currently unknown purpose.
Kouichi and Mei are descendants of the original pair in the "curse".

I also believe she's real (it's kind of ironic to think that one class pretended one Misaki was there when she actually wasn't and, the other, the exact opposite), but why then would Meganekko-girl-whose-name-I-always-forget be so scared when she saw Kouchi with her, in episode 3? It seemed like she actually caught sight of her (Mei) just by then - like Atrum023 said or else she wouldn't be so surprised.

Originally Posted by DesuX2

I got this idea from Epi 1 where someone said that Class 3 "associates your (Kouichi) name with death".

The descendants idea would also explain why they asked Kouchi if he hadn't lived in that town before.

Originally Posted by DesuX2

Of course, there's a gigantic monkey wrench in my theory because of the entire "doll" motif. I think I'm thinking too two-dimensionally about this, because if Mei is really a spirit, then why bother with the doll motif? And how does one explain the stiffness of Kouichi's classmates both when they visit him, and when he introduces himself to his class. There is a gigantic difference in style if you rewatch the first two times that they are presented. Their limbs are stiff and unnatural, as if they were dolls. Then there's the creepy old lady who owns the doll shop, who repeats the exact same lines twice when Kouichi visits her shop, again, the doll motif. Not one bit of human nature in them. Could it be possible that the entire town is dead, and are just dolls? Then who is controlling them? I don't get the connection between the supernatural and the doll motif at this point, so I have no idea.

I guess that this connection has something to do with what Mei says after taking off the eye patch:

Originally Posted by Episode 3

- An artificial eye?
- My left eye is a doll's. It can see things that should remain unseen, so I usually keep it covered. Do you feel ill?
- Uh..
- This might not be a good place for you, since you're not used to it.
- Not a good place?
- The dolls... Dolls are hollow, you see. Completely hollow, in body and in soul. That void connects them with death. But hollow things seek to fill their emptiness. Don't you feel this place is drawing something out of you?
- Yeah.
- We should go. It's more comfortable upstairs.

I'd guess that it's not that people are actually dolls/dead/controlled by someone, but that these dolls somehow attract/are a cause of death (to 'fill their emptiness' with others' souls, possibly). Also, I expect more about that dollmaker Kirika (?) in the next episodes.

[PzIVf3]

Originally Posted by PzIVf3

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

Originally Posted by rakusukira

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

Spoiler for My Guess:

Who would ignore her if someone made contact secretly at her desk for some purpose. She really exist and i believe she not a bad person or curse.

My guess is her left eye can tell who's the dead person around the area.

Could this mean the town is lurking with curse ghost or vampires?

[DezoPenguin]

Originally Posted by Ikuko

You've got a great theory there, DesuX2 (: (I also am a great fan of Umineko, by the way)

Spoiler for Personal Crack Theory - comments/questions:

I also believe she's real (it's kind of ironic to think that one class pretended one Misaki was there when she actually wasn't and, the other, the exact opposite), but why then would Meganekko-girl-whose-name-I-always-forget be so scared when she saw Kouchi with her, in episode 3? It seemed like she actually caught sight of her (Mei) just by then - like Atrum023 said or else she wouldn't be so surprised.

One possible suggestion...

Spoiler for A random thought:

Rushing out of the classroom, scared by the news of her mother's death, she immediately comes face-to-face with the scene of Kouichi calmly talking with Mei--an act that, we're speculating, is in direct violation of the "class rules" and would serve to attract the attention of the curse. In essence, she's just come face-to-face with the curse come to life and the reality that her own life has just been horrifically visited by it. So she panics and runs the other way.

[Kafriel]

As an AO viewer, my thoughts so far:

Spoiler for specs:

-She's your typical social recluse.
-Mei exists, but because of her name and/or looks is treated as an outcast.
-I think that the events of the 2nd and 3rd year included everyone dying in accidents when they tried to communicate with the deceased Mei (which is why the current class 3 students are doing their best to avoid her).
-As for the current events, I'll blame it on the ghosts of the dead class 3, which Mei can see through her doll eye. She had said that dolls need to fill their hollow forms with something, maybe the life that they lack?
-Connection to the doll maker? Unknown...she probably got her eye from there though.

[Sheba]

Something about Sakakibara bothers me.

Spoiler:

I think that other than the fact he is the protagonist, I believe that he have been spared by the curse so far because he foiled the plan by surviving his lung collapse against all odds. I think he was meant to die, which may explain the special attention he got from the counter-measures group.

[Dark Wing]

I have a theory as to way the curse may have began in the first place...

Okay 26 years ago the whole class pretended some dead girl was still alive and went with it for the rest of the year but what about the class the year afterwards. What if someone made a mockery of Misaki Mei somewhere down the line and thats what started all of this.

[Alucard24]

One thing (among many) that I don't understand : why Sakakibara never asked about the damaged desk among all the new ones ? Why did he never ask " do you see a girl there " ?

When he left the others to enter in the library, were they trying to stop him because the teacher in charge is scary or because they saw Mei inside ?

No one denied the existence of Mei so far : the manager of the doll shop said there was no customer but if Mei is a relative, she's not a customer. It doesn't necessary means that she doesn't exist.

[TinyRedLeaf]

The fun thing about the early stages of mystery/thrillers like Another is that almost any speculation seems plausible. To quote myself from the music thread, this particular stanza from the OP seems particularly ominous:

There is another me
who loves someone so much that it hurts

Well, which one of us
is a figment of imagination?

Originally Posted by Sheba

Something about Sakakibara bothers me.

Spoiler:

I think that other than the fact he is the protagonist, I believe that he have been spared by the curse so far because he foiled the plan by surviving his lung collapse against all odds. I think he was meant to die, which may explain the special attention he got from the counter-measures group.

Juxtaposing your thoughts against the lyrics of the OP, I wonder if we're going to get a twist straight from The Others.

"Who actually died?"

[Taynis]

I was wathing the opening and found some scenes really interesting. Spoiler tag just in case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl714VBZSfg

Spoiler for Scenes:

0:35 - The elevator of doom

0:41 - A coffin, ok. But around 0:45 a hand or something moves inside it. I just found it so creepy

0:46 - School roof?

0:50 - A gate?

0:52 - A CREEPY DOOL D:

1:00 - It shows a lake and it seems like something fell in the water

1:01 - A fast car

1:05 - A chandelier falling down

1:08 - 1:10 - Wing falling, a leg and a doll in the ground


1:12 - The most strange scene. Shadows in a television...seems to be someone...jumping?! XD

1:13 - A doll's head falling down...

I think that the ones who are going to die in the show are the ones in the opening:

Spoiler for huge image:

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Taynis

I was wathing the opening and found some scenes really interesting. Spoiler tag just in case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl714VBZSfg

Spoiler for Scenes:

0:35 - The elevator of doom

0:41 - A coffin, ok. But around 0:45 a hand or something moves inside it. I just found it so creepy

0:46 - School roof?

0:50 - A gate?

0:52 - A CREEPY DOOL D:

1:00 - It shows a lake and it seems like something fell in the water

1:01 - A fast car

1:05 - A chandelier falling down

1:08 - 1:10 - Wing falling, a leg and a doll in the ground


1:12 - The most strange scene. Shadows in a television...seems to be someone...jumping?! XD

1:13 - A doll's head falling down...

I think that the ones who are going to die in the show are the ones in the opening:

Spoiler for huge image:

Yep, there's quite a bit of interesting stuff in both the OP and the prologue. I also took the OP apart bit by bit in this post, and the prologue in post. A bit of a correction to the 'Mei's doll eye may be able to see the original Misaki' bit; I think that her eye may be able to see the true form of the ghost. Perhaps it also has some sort of.. unpleasant side effects that keep her from walking around without the eye patch? Or alternatively, she may not like the fact that some might think she has heterochromia. But if her doll eye were indeed able to see the apparition, wouldn't she have noticed that Kouichi looked different the moment she removed her eye patch for the first time? No matter how much we speculate, there're certain things that don't match up with our theories, and as a result; it leads to us only ever being partly right.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

The fun thing about the early stages of mystery/thrillers like Another is that almost any speculation seems plausible. To quote myself from the music thread, this particular stanza from the OP seems particularly ominous:

There is another me
who loves someone so much that it hurts

Well, which one of us
is a figment of imagination?

Ooh, lyrics! I love songs written specifically for an anime; the lyrics usually offer an interesting insight into the story and what may occur later down the line. But.. love? I would have never expected love to play an important role in such a story. It just feels a little off. I believe the second part is referring to who the ghost in the class is.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by Aphrah

Ooh, lyrics! I love songs written specifically for an anime; the lyrics usually offer an interesting insight into the story and what may occur later down the line. But.. love? I would have never expected love to play an important role in such a story. It just feels a little off. I believe the second part is referring to who the ghost in the class is.

As of Ep5, that seems to be the case. The class is in the curious state of not knowing who's "not real". Someone in the generic thread had once jokingly referred to Schrodinger's cat. The funny thing is, the joke has now become even more appropriate, as whoever that person is, his or her "existence" is currently in an indeterminate state.

Someone's laid a cuckoo egg in Class 3-3 of 1998. And the egg has hatched...

[MizuMikomi]

Originally Posted by Taynis

I was wathing the opening and found some scenes really interesting. Spoiler tag just in case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl714VBZSfg

Spoiler for Scenes:

I think that the ones who are going to die in the show are the ones in the opening:

Spoiler for huge image:

Just noticed that:

Spoiler for In regards to your image:

Top left is the nurse, who is also dead. Sanae Mizuno, was it? Which makes it seem more likely that those shown in the OP are the people who are going to die.

I might post a theory or two later down the line, but for now I am not really in the mood to theorize. I want a bit more to go by before I do.

[orion]

I call dibs on the homeroom teacher as the dead one. Teachers are an ignored part of the class and are a constant yearly. So if the name was changed, the class moved to another room, the homeroom teacher would still be there and the curse would still be active.

[Malkuth]

Wouldn't the obvious answer for who is dead be the protagonist? He was hospitalized before becoming the extra classmate, anyone who talks to him about the curse dies, he was ignorant of the curse, etc. etc.

There can be logical and meta-explanations of course, but the way things are presented as of ep.5 seems the most likely candidate.

Also was wondering about the class ignoring now two students, while only one could be the extra, does not really make an awful lot of sense

[orion]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

Wouldn't the obvious answer for who is dead be the protagonist? He was hospitalized before becoming the extra classmate, anyone who talks to him about the curse dies, he was ignorant of the curse, etc. etc.

There can be logical and meta-explanations of course, but the way things are presented as of ep.5 seems the most likely candidate.

Also was wondering about the class ignoring now two students, while only one could be the extra, does not really make an awful lot of sense

That would be too easy. Besides he did survive his mother getting the brunt of the curse while she was pregnant with him so he prob is resistant to the curse.

[Malkuth]

^ simple solutions are the best

That mother surviving the curse though sounds inconsistent too.

[orion]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

^ simple solutions are the best

That mother surviving the curse though sounds inconsistent too.

Her sister was also in the same class. So sis was the reason Koiuchi's mom died probably. Also a teacher is the one person in the room that they can't do anything about even if he is dead.

[Jimmy C]

Not to mention, there wouldn't have been a clue that class 3-3 was "one student too many" if the teacher was the dead one.
I wonder how many more deaths will it be before the class stops ignoring Kou and Mei and going on to plan C?
I hope plan C will be "find out who's the real dead student" and not "kill the extra," because they've already lost two students, killing any more directly will be pointless unless they got the dead one by luck.
On another note, Yomi North seems to be the type that keeps students in the same class as they advance in grade (1-3 to 2-3 to 3-3) rather than randomly reassign them each year like some other schools. If that's the case, I wonder if they've tried stop assigning students and teachers to class 1-3, then opening a new class, 1-6 or 1-7. Officially, classes 1-3 to 3-3 exist on paper, just that there's nobody in them.
I know they tried renaming class 3-3 before and failed, but that could be because the curse hit the students that were in 2-3 and should have ended up in 3-3. In this case, there will be no new students "destined" for 3-3 in two years.

[Haak]

I don't know if anyone has said this but I think we already have some foreshadowing of future classmate deaths.

Sakuragi died by tripping over and we previously saw her with an ankle injury which I can only assume she got by tripping over.

Freckles boy died of a heart attack and his heart condition was established in episode 1.

We previously saw twin tails girl off sick due to an illness which could potentially cause her death and we've also seen Reiko with some massive headaches so she could suffer from some sort of trauma/brain damage later on.