01-25-2012, 11:13 AM | #1 |
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Another
26 years ago, in a third-year classroom of a middle school, there was a charming honors student who was good at sports and popular with her classmates. When she suddenly died, her classmates decided to carry on as if she was still alive until graduation. In spring of 1998, Kouichi Sasakibara transfers to his new school. He can sense something frightening in the atmosphere of his new class, a secret none of them will talk about. At the center of it is a beautiful girl named Mei Misaki. Kouichi is immediately drawn to her mysterious aura, but then he begins to realize that no one else in the class is aware of her presence. Summary Source: Anime News Network and MyAnimeList, with edits made by me
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01-25-2012, 11:13 AM | #2 |
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Kouichi Sakakibara: The new transfer student into Yomiyama Kita Middle School's third year's third class. Because of his father's work, he has come to city of Yomiyama, his mother's hometown. Due to a lung condition, he spends his first month there in hospital. He is 15 years old and the only son in the Sakakibara family. His mother, who also attended Yomiyama Kita Middle School, supposedly passed away 15 years ago after giving birth to him. Mei Misaki: A mysterious girl Kouichi meets while in the hospital. She is in the same class as him, a 3rd year student at Yomiyama Kita Middle School. Her left eye is always covered by an eye patch. She has a mysterious presence and is always sketching alone. Character bios and images taken from Anime News Network and MyAnimeList, with edits made by me
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01-26-2012, 03:21 PM | #3 |
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Just watched the first episode. Frustratingly confusing in the first half, but in the second half things started to pick up. Probably won't say much else before pressing onward other than that the moment I heard the first three or so notes of the OP, I was like, "This already sounds like Ali Project. Watch this be an Ali Project song." And sure enough I was right. A few other things ...
Animation: You can definitely see shadows of the Hanasaku Iroha cast's faces in these new characters. And the animations, both the foreground and the background art, are amazing. Voice Actors: Yuki told me the other day that Ibuki Fuuko (Clannad) / Yayoi (Natsu no Arashi)'s voice actress showed up here. She was right! What a cutie. Sure do hope she isn't either a villain or an early casualty. But I also noticed some other all-star voices. Couldn't place most of them, but the tight-laced leader of the boys, the one who visited the main character in the hospital, is totally Sunohara (Clannad) / Shinpachi (Gintama)'s voice actor. He's doing a good job trying to sound unlike his typecast voice but he's got a natural timbre to his voice that's so distinctive and that he just can't mask. I wonder what a high-budget project this one must have been. o.o
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01-26-2012, 07:39 PM | #6 |
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I have to admit, I already read all of your old posts and was hoping for something more in your reply. ^^; But I can see that you want your points addressed before you'll address mine, so ...
Spoiler: show There. Now it's your turn.
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01-26-2012, 08:10 PM | #7 | |||
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Spoiler: show
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01-26-2012, 08:49 PM | #8 |
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Kouichi's mother physically could not have died any sooner than fifteen years ago as we know (1) she gave birth to him and (2) he's fifteen years old. The girl in the stories, who we pretty much know has got to be Misaki Mei unless HELLO BIGGEST RED HERRING OF 2012, was said to have died twenty-six years ago. That means that she died eleven years before Kouichi's mother died. If you assume ...
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01-26-2012, 09:42 PM | #9 | ||
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a. Her personality doesn't seem to fit the description of an idol student. (Though being a ghost probably would make a person morose after a while.) b. As far as I can recall, I don't believe it's been outright stated that she is the (a) ghost yet. Only heavily implied. c. If the girl who died at the hospital was her cousin, how could she still be considered young if Mei died 26 years ago at the age of 14/15? I know there are plenty of teenagers and even adults who have three-year-old cousins or such, but this seems a bit of a stretch. d. I read one person's comment that they examined the class photo that was revealed and didn't spot anyone who appears to resemble Mei. Interesting how they didn't even zoom in on the ghost's face to confirm her presence to the viewer either. e. It just feels too obvious. Quote:
I'm banking on receiving at least some of the answers to questions regarding Kouichi's parentage when we learn how the tsuntsun knows his name and/or face from somewhere.
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01-26-2012, 09:57 PM | #10 |
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Yeah. I think these two points are connected somehow:
Now, the idea that she isn't the Misaki from the past ... that I think is the red herring this series is probably going for. As mentioned in the last post, while we watch this show we have to work under the assumption that Misaki is the Misaki of legend -- but meanwhile we ALL KNOW that this is probably a red herring which could be revealed at any point. So ... to repeat myself, I won't be surprised if/when they reveal that she's not the Misaki of legend, but for now I'm going to keep making theories as though she is, and will only change once appropriate evidence that I can't ignore presents itself. I looked at the photo too ... but your friend / the post you read got it wrong. They clearly said that the ghost showed up to the side of the group. And in all the screenshots, you never get to see the edges of the photo. It's zoomed in on the group with kids flanking the borders. See? So whoever wrote that wasn't listening properly. ^^; The ghost is supposedly to the side. She's not mixed in. So ... we totally can't see her. The screenshots we have to work with are useless, then. They're nothing more than teasers.
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01-27-2012, 05:14 PM | #11 |
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Have you gone back and rewatched the opening scenes to Episode 01 yet? I picked up a few things ...
First, they show a lot of scenes and images which probably have something to do with how the students die. I say this because: Spoiler: show Second, Reiko tells Kouichi in the hospital that she hasn't been in Yomi North since fourteen years ago. Not 100% evidence but it would seem to suggest that she's 29 years old. Third, Sakuragi (the glasses girl) was the first person to question whether this was Kouichi's first time living in Yomiyama. The way she did so was very serious and intent, too. When Kouichi says it is, she gets flustered and says that she just figured he used to live here. Why? Is his face familiar? Is his name familiar? Certainly it can't be his accent (he doesn't have one). Spoiler: show Fourth, both the glasses guy and Akazawa seem uncomfortable saying the name "Sakakibara." It makes you wonder if ...
Moving past the opening scenes and deeper into the episode ... Sixth, Kouichi chides the parrot, telling it "Your name is Rei, you know," when it keeps saying, "Good morning, Rei-chan!" I must not have caught this on the first viewing. But I'm still convinced that "Rei-chan" refers to Reiko and not the bird. Seventh, when Kouichi is talking to his grandfather -- a man whose sense of time seems to have broken after his daughter died -- he politely tells his grandpa that he's in his third year of middle school now and next year will be starting high school. To which Grandpa mysteriously replies, holding back tears, "Ritsuko, too ... if only such a [terrible] thing hadn't happened, y'know? " He doesn't exactly say what it is that Ritsuko would have done, but given Kouichi's previous line, the implication seems to be that Ritsuko would have entered high school too if only she hadn't died. Ridiculously curious since it seems so absurdly unlikely that she'd have gotten pregnant with Kouichi at 14 by Kouichi's father, died due to the curse, and that then Kouichi's father would have let him move back here. So maybe Grandpa is saying something else about Ritsuko. Who knows. (This scene ends with the first of our many "Why, Rei-chan? Why!?"s. Eighth, if Mei is alive and real, and if there were at least two open desks to pick from -- the one Kouichi takes and the one she sits at -- why would the teacher assign her to such a rundown desk? The answer, if Mei is alive, would seem to be that our assumption about the two open desks was wrong: somebody used to sit at Kouichi's desk before he showed up. Perhaps it was Fujioka Misaki, Mei's cousin. Perhaps it was some other student who recently died. I noticed that the day Kouichi joins is May 6th. In the hospital scene, he told the others that he probably wouldn't show up until after Golden Week. This suggests that his accident and Fujioka's death occurred some time last April. Spoiler: show Ninth, when Kouichi asks Sakuragi about Mei, her eyes widen in terror, she stammers, and she doesn't even choke out a reply. Why so terrified of a girl if she's real? Another reason I still say it's safer to bet on her being a ghost for now. Tenth, just to have this handy, Mei spells her name 鳴. Eleventh, Mei tells Kouichi that his classmates associate his name with death. "And not just any death. A cruel, irrational death that took place at this school." Is that because ...
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01-27-2012, 07:37 PM | #12 | ||||||||
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Spoiler: show Also, they showed the class photo here again with the extended borders. >.>; There's no one to the side of the group. Quote:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakakibara_Seito "On June 6, a letter was sent to the newspaper Kobe Shinbun, in which Sakakibara claimed responsibility for the slaying and decapitation of Jun Hase, and threatened that more killings would follow. This second letter, delivered in a brown envelope postmarked June 3, had no return address or name. Enclosed was a three-page, 1400-word letter, also written in red ink, which included a six-character name that can be pronounced as "Sakakibara Seito." The same characters, which mean alcohol, devil, rose, saint and fight, were used in the first message that was inserted into the boy's mouth." As I was trying to isolate the kanji relevant to "Sakakibara", I was led to an Another discussion where someone already pointed out how the name is famous in Japan. A manga-reader replied, saying... Spoiler: show
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01-28-2012, 02:43 AM | #13 | |||
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Yes. It's kind of weird that you'd name your daughter the same word (even if a different spelling) as the family name of your brother or brother-in-law, but still: Misaki Mei indicates that Fujioka Misaki was her cousin. Quote:
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01-30-2012, 09:40 PM | #14 |
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Having an umbrella fight on an elevator = overkill
I wonder when a shark will come out of someone's toilet and eat them? |
01-31-2012, 02:01 AM | #16 |
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"Where did you get the impression that there's a curse, Talon? I didn't get that impression."
+1 to Talon. "I wonder if there's a pattern to the deaths ..." +1 to Talon. "Pretty sure the parrot is talking about Rei." +1 to all of us because lol damn obvious. But then ... (Episode 4 spoilers) Spoiler: show Speculation time! (spoilers for Episode 4 inside) Spoiler: show This post has gotten awfully long and I sure would like it if someone read it , so ... I'll stop here. Give you guys a chance to pick things out to reply to. I look forward to it! EDIT: Just realized the sneak peek wasn't subbed. (Or at least Underwater's wasn't.) The desk says 死者は誰ー? shisha wa da~re? "Who's gonna die next?" (lit. "The dead person is who?" but context and the dash after 誰 suggest the translation given.) The chalkboard shows a class vote, two votes to twenty-four, for Akazawa Izumi (the tsuntsun). Not sure if this is a flashback showing how she was appointed to her role as the class exorcist or what. Also: I went back and watched the episode again, and Kouichi definitely confirms in a conversation with the nurse inside the hospital that Fujioka Misaki died in April. So yeah, the line in the later scene about the deaths starting in May has got to be a script error. EDIT 2: The other name on the chalkboard 綾野彩 is Ayano Aya, the girl from the Drama Club. Also, the official website has a seating chart for Class 3-3 that they update each week, it seems. This may be the original seating chart, but unfortunately it's a bit smaller than the newer ones, I got it from a fan's blog, and the official site no longer has this image up. Here's the updated version from Episode 4. As you can see, it's otherwise the same but for two differences: one, it's slightly larger, and two, Sakuragi's been grayed out and scratched out. I took the liberty of indicating my twelve picks for who I think the curse has targeted already or will target eventually. Here's another version where I crudely gray-scratched out the ones who I think the curse has already targeted. I didn't see the leader of the gaggle of girls listed (or if she's there, I didn't recognize her), so I went ahead and circled Takako instead. (The girl with the glasses and the short hair, the one who was talking to Akazawa the tsuntsun this episode.) Feel free to make your own predictions with the seating chart if you like. Also, I just realized: teachers can fall victim to the curse too, they had mentioned. So it's entirely possible that the beauty who teaches art might end up dying. Or even their homeroom teacher. If so, that'd knock a few of my predictions out of commission. In fact ... if I had to pick, I'd probably predict that the art teacher would be more likely to die than would Takako. The guy with the weak heart could also be a red herring, it's hard to say.
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01-31-2012, 03:31 PM | #17 | |||||||
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Spoiler: show But like I was discussing with Chao the other day regarding eyegore in Mirai Nikki - which I barely batted a lash at - we all have different weaknesses. Kinda interesting how the show has brought out such varying extreme reactions in each of us. Quote:
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Kinda suspicious of the zombie-like Kimura-sensei who introduced Kouichi on the first day. Jus' sayin'.
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01-31-2012, 04:22 PM | #18 |
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Voting off the island was something I'd considered before I took one look at that name on the right and recognized it for whose it was. There's no way that they'd vote the tsuntsun off of the island. First of all, they need (?) her to try and keep the curse under control, and second of all, she's too popular. You would think that they would be more likely to go after the two students they seem to resent the most: Misaki, whose existence they outright deny, and Kouichi, who not only (as far as they know) hasn't been targeted by the curse yet but who also seems to be connected to the deaths. (Sakuragi's and Mizuno's especially.) You'd think that if this was a Lord of the Flies-style vote to kill somebody that they'd vote to kill Kouichi. Right? So ... this is why I think the vote may be a flashback thing. If it's not, then what it might be is ...
Speculation: Spoiler: show Anyway, that's a lot to say about something which may not even turn out to be true. But that's my speculation if in fact it is revealed that the votes on the chalkboard are from the present and not the past.
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02-06-2012, 09:02 PM | #19 |
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Wow! I'm very grateful that they finally explained so much to us! Episode 05 is a solid one that deserves at least two viewings. It's not very exciting but what it is is chock-filled with explanations about what's going on. It's a lot to wrap one's head around so I'll go ahead and try with some of my initial impressions here. Then I'll probably rewatch it and see if things make different sense to me then than they do now.
Spoiler: show Now for some speculation on my part ... Spoiler: show EDIT: Forgot to mention one final possibility. Spoiler: show
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02-07-2012, 02:06 PM | #20 |
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LOLOLOLOLOLOL, after taking a closer look at one of the character's faces, I had a suspicion about them. On a greedy whim, I googled for that character's name. Found a wiki article for them. And voilŕ: TOTALLY CALLED IT. XD It's a spoiler, though, so click only if you want to know right now too. I'll break it down into two parts. The first layer will mention which character I'm talking about. The nested spoiler will be the spoiler information about them.
Spoiler: show At the risk of sounding too self-congratulatory, I think Doppel is right: we tend to be like razor-sharp knives when it comes to picking out subtle clues in animes. Give us an inch and we take a mile. Hunter x Hunter ("examine the silhouettes!"), Another ("look at the OP sequence!"), Kaiji ("DICE ARE CUBES!"), and so on and so forth. We are not your usual group of anime watchers, are we? EDIT: So, I guess I should update my theories since this find changes some of what I wrote last night ... Spoiler: show
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02-07-2012, 02:42 PM | #21 |
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I don't really have much to add on your theory, as Kouichi was also the first suspect that popped into my brain. Mei would still be my second guess. Didn't think to consider the tsuntsun, but I see your reasoning - mostly in favor of her being a red herring.
Just want to remark on something that confused me about the episode... Spoiler: show Agree this episode warrants a second viewing, if at least to understand exactly what transpired during that scene.
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02-07-2012, 02:59 PM | #22 | |
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02-07-2012, 03:09 PM | #23 | |
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02-07-2012, 03:36 PM | #24 | ||
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02-08-2012, 11:08 PM | #25 | |
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On that note, the real reason I came to post was to share this image my friend sent me. Safe if you've seen episode 04. Spoiler: show
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