Another (generic discussion thread)

[haguruma]

Originally Posted by PreSage

I just wonder why the school doesn't shut down class 3-3 altogether? If there are no students to ever enter class 3-3, there wouldn't be these incidents or possible incidents each year. Aside from not having a show to watch , wouldn't it be the easiest solution?

Shutting down the 3-3 isn't that easy, you'd pretty much have to shut down the 3-4 and 3-5 as well, because the next one would practically be the 3-3. Regional government would probably not be happy about a state school suddenly dropping of 2/3 of their students in the final year of middle school, so unless you close the school it won't work (and even then it's a question if the curse wouldn't just travel along to the school they would have to build because of that).
Moving out of town is no small feat either, especially in 90's Japan when the economy is fairly weak. Most people wouldn't be able to afford it and would have trouble finding a new job.

And we shouldn't forget that while the deaths seem very close to us, because we know all those people, it's probably not as close to the whole population of Yomiyama.
How many people have died during the last year in your town? I assume more than 10 or 20. And probably some percentage of that will have been accidents, murder, suicide, illness in young age...in a town which has probably at least 5000 fixed inhabitants ~20 deaths per year are nothing too strange. Would you petition for a school to close down because you heard that the brother of a student in the class that your child could maybe attend in 3 years died under mysterious circumstances 5 years ago?

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by haguruma

Shutting down the 3-3 isn't that easy, you'd pretty much have to shut down the 3-4 and 3-5 as well, because the next one would practically be the 3-3. Regional government would probably not be happy about a state school suddenly dropping of 2/3 of their students in the final year of middle school, so unless you close the school it won't work (and even then it's a question if the curse wouldn't just travel along to the school they would have to build because of that).
Moving out of town is no small feat either, especially in 90's Japan when the economy is fairly weak. Most people wouldn't be able to afford it and would have trouble finding a new job.

And we shouldn't forget that while the deaths seem very close to us, because we know all those people, it's probably not as close to the whole population of Yomiyama.
How many people have died during the last year in your town? I assume more than 10 or 20. And probably some percentage of that will have been accidents, murder, suicide, illness in young age...in a town which has probably at least 5000 fixed inhabitants ~20 deaths per year are nothing too strange. Would you petition for a school to close down because you heard that the brother of a student in the class that your child could maybe attend in 3 years died under mysterious circumstances 5 years ago?

They probably would, since there is a pretty obvious connection.
Well maybe japan wouldn't but both Germany and Austria would definitely close said school for at least 3 weeks if a student died on school grounds.
I still remember our school having a black flag hanging over it for at least a week when a student died(at home) due to CO2 poisoning.
I can very much imagine how they would close a school if things like this would coincidentally happen within a few months over several years.

Another option would be indeed shutting down the class and increasing the size of other classes at the same time.

I do however live in the capital so its easier for me to imagine possible solutions.

[haguruma]

Originally Posted by AC-Phoenix

They probably would, since there is a pretty obvious connection.
Well maybe japan wouldn't but both Germany and Austria would definitely close said school for at least 3 weeks if a student died on school grounds.

I'd like to disagree. I live in Germany and while I went to school (90's and early 00's) there were some instances of students or teachers dying. Most of the time it was plain sickness or accidents, but we also had at least one case of suicide. While those in the same class were excused from school if we didn't want to attend, the school didn't shut down...that's almost impossible to do.
Maybe it would also depend who that student was.

I think it really depends on what kind of case it was, but the only time schools were actually closed were cases when a student went on a rampage and killed several people...but that is because there would be several traumatized victims and maybe even the danger of copycats.

Another option would be indeed shutting down the class and increasing the size of other classes at the same time.

I do however live in the capital so its easier for me to imagine possible solutions.

Increasing the size of the otherr classes would mean having two classes with 75 students each...that's not only problematic it is simply an impossible situation. And I think even in Vienna you'd have a hard time convincing the local government that a functioning school has to be closed and a new school built because there seems to be a curse on one of the classes that might heighten the chance of people dying.
Additionaly, yes, we are talking about a smalltown that seems to have only 2 middle schools...closing one of them down is a serious deal.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by haguruma

I'd like to disagree. I live in Germany and while I went to school (90's and early 00's) there were some instances of students or teachers dying. Most of the time it was plain sickness or accidents, but we also had at least one case of suicide. While those in the same class were excused from school if we didn't want to attend, the school didn't shut down...that's almost impossible to do.
Maybe it would also depend who that student was.

I think it really depends on what kind of case it was, but the only time schools were actually closed were cases when a student went on a rampage and killed several people...but that is because there would be several traumatized victims and maybe even the danger of copycats.


Increasing the size of the otherr classes would mean having two classes with 75 students each...that's not only problematic it is simply an impossible situation. And I think even in Vienna you'd have a hard time convincing the local government that a functioning school has to be closed and a new school built because there seems to be a curse on one of the classes that might heighten the chance of people dying.
Additionaly, yes, we are talking about a smalltown that seems to have only 2 middle schools...closing one of them down is a serious deal.

Well both the german and Austrian government are not superstitious, yet I'm pretty sure that they would close at least the class if a scene like in another would occure for 26 years.
Even if its just for the sake of not creating a political issue.

And no, classes with 75 students are out of question (college and University excluded)
When i was in high school the targeted class size was a maximum of 30 students, increased by a few if absolutely necessary.
My idea of how they would do it is actually distributing the students around all available classes in available schools in an acceptable distance.
Or opening up new classes in other schools combined with above.
But yes,, ccompletely shutting down a school is almost impossible nowadays. Shutting down a single class though (namely 3-3) though is a lot easier. especially since the students can return after the end of the year.

[haguruma]

Originally Posted by AC-Phoenix

Well both the german and Austrian government are not superstitious, yet I'm pretty sure that they would close at least the class if a scene like in another would occure for 26 years.
Even if its just for the sake of not creating a political issue.

Probably yes, but it hasn't been a continuous event for 26 years, rather there has been such a huge inconsistency that not even a clear definition of how the calamity works could be found.
The novel might be a lot clearer on how inconsistent the phenomenon is but the anime as well has at least hinted that there are years when nothing happens at all, years when the countermeassures apparently worked and years when it happened late because the countermeassures were wrong.

Spoiler for phenomenon progress:

1972 - Yomiyama Misaki died
1973 - 16 people died
1974 - ~12 people died
1975 - nothing happened
1976 - 14 people died (5 students, 9 relatives)
1977 - ?
1978 - ?
1979 - ~12 people died
1980 - ?
1981 - ?
1982 - ?
1983 - 8 people died
1984 - ?
1985 - ?
1986 - ?
1987 - tragedy of '87 (last schooltrip) 7+ people died (6 students, 1 teacher, +unknown)
1988 - countermeassures worked
1989 - nothing happened
1990 - countermeassures worked
1991 - ~12 people died
1992 - nothing happened
1993 - ~12 people died
1994 - nothing happened
1995 - nothing happened
1996 - 7 people died
1997 - nothing happened
1998 - 12 deaths until now

Out of 26 years we only have about 10 years where apparently something happened, that is less than a 50/50 percentage. So there's no concrete point on which you could argue for a local schoolsystem to be restructured so heavily.
Even if there were a little over a hundred deaths in the last 26 years, as we have seen already there is a high probability that at least 50% of them (if nor more were relatives). While that might appear strange, it is not a logical argument to say, "My brother died in a car crash, close down this school or more people will die!".

My idea of how they would do it is actually distributing the students around all available classes in available schools in an acceptable distance.
Or opening up new classes in other schools combined with above.
But yes,, ccompletely shutting down a school is almost impossible nowadays. Shutting down a single class though (namely 3-3) though is a lot easier. especially since the students can return after the end of the year.

Well apparently there is only Yomi North and Yomi South middle school, at least those are the only mentioned middle schools. Acceptable distance is also a relative term, especially in mountain regions like Yomiyama appears to be.
And shutting down only the 3-3 just won't work I'm afraid, because it was already established that renaming or relocating doesn't work...and in that case the next higher class would simply be the "3rd class in the 3rd year of middle school".

[PreSage]

Originally Posted by haguruma

And shutting down only the 3-3 just won't work I'm afraid, because it was already established that renaming or relocating doesn't work...and in that case the next higher class would simply be the "3rd class in the 3rd year of middle school".

I guess that's why the class is still there. I had initially thought about just skipping the counting from 3-3 to straight to 3-4 but that was when I forgot that renaming/relocating was already stated not to have worked. So many facts and clues, I need to reorganize them into a book or something.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by haguruma

Probably yes, but it hasn't been a continuous event for 26 years, rather there has been such a huge inconsistency that not even a clear definition of how the calamity works could be found.
The novel might be a lot clearer on how inconsistent the phenomenon is but the anime as well has at least hinted that there are years when nothing happens at all, years when the countermeassures apparently worked and years when it happened late because the countermeassures were wrong.

Spoiler for phenomenon progress:

1972 - Yomiyama Misaki died
1973 - 16 people died
1974 - ~12 people died
1975 - nothing happened
1976 - 14 people died (5 students, 9 relatives)
1977 - ?
1978 - ?
1979 - ~12 people died
1980 - ?
1981 - ?
1982 - ?
1983 - 8 people died
1984 - ?
1985 - ?
1986 - ?
1987 - tragedy of '87 (last schooltrip) 7+ people died (6 students, 1 teacher, +unknown)
1988 - countermeassures worked
1989 - nothing happened
1990 - countermeassures worked
1991 - ~12 people died
1992 - nothing happened
1993 - ~12 people died
1994 - nothing happened
1995 - nothing happened
1996 - 7 people died
1997 - nothing happened
1998 - 12 deaths until now

Out of 26 years we only have about 10 years where apparently something happened, that is less than a 50/50 percentage. So there's no concrete point on which you could argue for a local schoolsystem to be restructured so heavily.
Even if there were a little over a hundred deaths in the last 26 years, as we have seen already there is a high probability that at least 50% of them (if nor more were relatives). While that might appear strange, it is not a logical argument to say, "My brother died in a car crash, close down this school or more people will die!".


Well apparently there is only Yomi North and Yomi South middle school, at least those are the only mentioned middle schools. Acceptable distance is also a relative term, especially in mountain regions like Yomiyama appears to be.
And shutting down only the 3-3 just won't work I'm afraid, because it was already established that renaming or relocating doesn't work...and in that case the next higher class would simply be the "3rd class in the 3rd year of middle school".

Yes, renaming and relocating doesn't work. not having said class at all would however.
Splitting the class and never opening 3- 3 is an entirely different thing though.
(I also think relocating refered to it being relocated to another room)

[haguruma]

Originally Posted by AC-Phoenix

Yes, renaming and relocating doesn't work. not having said class at all would however.
Splitting the class and never opening 3- 3 is an entirely different thing though.
(I also think relocating refered to it being relocated to another room)

Yes, but not having that class would require there to be also no class that is above in numeration to 3-3, or simply there could only be 3 classes. But as was discussed quite often there are 3-1 to 3-5 and not opening the 3-3 would simply make the 3-4 into the 3rd class in the 3rd year of middle school. You could basically call the place "happy-time-never-die-fun-land" and it wouldn't change what it is.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by haguruma

Yes, but not having that class would require there to be also no class that is above in numeration to 3-3, or simply there could only be 3 classes. But as was discussed quite often there are 3-1 to 3-5 and not opening the 3-3 would simply make the 3-4 into the 3rd class in the 3rd year of middle school. You could basically call the place "happy-time-never-die-fun-land" and it wouldn't change what it is.

How would not opening it make 3-4 to that class?
The calamity is bound to class 3-3; if you can actively skip that class by trick X it would no longer be 3-3.
maybe there is a misunderstanding about my 'plan'

3-3 --> distributed over other schools and classes; No class 3-3 in affected school
Term ends
Distributed students come back after having passed the class elsewhere, now being put in 3-4

So no renaming of classes or changing locations.

[PreSage]

Or they can simply finish the current 3-3 class, then newly registered students are enrolled into all other classes, leaving class 3-3 still there but empty. If the class still exists, just without occupants, shouldn't the curse be avoided?

[haguruma]

Originally Posted by AC-Phoenix

How would not opening it make 3-4 to that class?
The calamity is bound to class 3-3; if you can actively skip that class by trick X it would no longer be 3-3.
maybe there is a misunderstanding about my 'plan'

3-3 --> distributed over other schools and classes; No class 3-3 in affected school
Term ends
Distributed students come back after having passed the class elsewhere, now being put in 3-4

So no renaming of classes or changing locations.

The calamity is not bound to class 3-3 it is bound to the 3rd class of the 3rd year of one of the middle schools in Yomiyama.
Also the 3rd year is the last year of middle school, after that they go to high school and for the entry applications it's pretty important how and how good you finished your education so far. Something radical like changing school has to be explained and "there is a curse" is not actually a good idea.
The children talk about it as well. They want to get it behind them and just graduate from middle school and attend a good high school.

Originally Posted by PreSage

Or they can simply finish the current 3-3 class, then newly registered students are enrolled into all other classes, leaving class 3-3 still there but empty. If the class still exists, just without occupants, shouldn't the curse be avoided?

The question here is again, is an empty class actually a class? Just by calling it differently, does it change reality?! Calling an empty class room "class 3-3" doesn't make it the 3rd class in the 3rd year of middle school...it's simply the one make belief class that they chose to call 3-3.

[AC-Phoenix]

Arrgs forgot about the how the japanese school system is divided there...

[PreSage]

Originally Posted by haguruma

The calamity is not bound to class 3-3 it is bound to the 3rd class of the 3rd year of one of the middle schools in Yomiyama.

Okay, then that makes a big difference. Pretty much unavoidable then, I suppose. For some reason, it got stuck in my head that the calamity is bound to the actual classroom. >_<

[PzIVf3]

From official site
Glass Eye
http://www.another-anime.jp/story/#story-10

That mansion from the Op....

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by PzIVf3

That mansion from the Op....

Chandelier time?

The preview pics are very interesting.

Spoiler:

- Chibiki is in the class picture, how come?
- Another flashback, huh? Kouichi's mom was pretty hot.

[Hakuromatsu]

Huh, I can't tell what Kazami is holding there. A remote? At any rate, it's good to see him back...which may mean his time is up.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Hakuromatsu

Huh, I can't tell what Kazami is holding there. A remote? At any rate, it's good to see him back...which may mean his time is up.

Looks like a folded hankerchief

[TinyRedLeaf]

And so, after the events of Ep10, it's clear why its kanji title is "Pitch Black".

Ep	Kanji	Literal	Official	Key events
0	因果	cause and effect	the Other	Life and death of Misaki Fujioka.
1	素描	rough sketch	same	Introduction to Kouichi, Yomiyama and Mei.
2	思惑	speculation	blueprint	Is Mei a ghost?
3	骨組	skeletal framework	bone work	Hints of a curse. First death.
4	輪郭	silhouette	put flesh	Curse's effects outlined. Death at the hospital.
5	拡散	scatter	build limbs	Students start avoiding Kouichi.
6	二人	two people	face-to-face	Kouichi and Mei become a non-existent couple.
7	変調	change of tone	sphere joint	Ostracism abandoned. Active effort to probe phenomenon.
8	紺碧	deep blue	hair stand	Death at sea.
9	連鎖	chain links	body paint	Past deaths unfold in parallel to those in the present.
10	漆黑	pitch black	glass eye	Spoiler for Ep10: It likely refers to the "colour" of death, as seen through Mei's glass eye.

Meanwhile, the title of the next episode, 惨劇, literally means "tragedy". I think it's hard not to see why.

[sa547]

^
For the last two episodes, looks like we'll have to brace for the worst: '98's body count could very well rise up or even exceed to that of Class '83.

[Pellissier]

sa547, you should change image host since imagebucket is giving a "too many views" kind of message. Please switch to imgur or something, otherwise the charts will disappear after a few days. You need to repost episode 9's chart either because I didn't save a copy of it. Thanks.

So I assume that ep.10's chart is just gonna be the same of episode 9, as we don't know for sure who died at the end. I thought that we'd need to change the relation between Misaki and Fujioka, from cousins to twins, but I see that no mention of it was made in the chart to begin with.

This week I'll also include haguruma's class roster. I would have preferred a slightly different version (or at least having both versions, the registry order and the seats order), but if not possible the provided one is ok, and doesn't need changes from ep.9 to ep.10 either since for us anime watchers the person who has died is episode 10 is still uncertain.