I thought this was the best episode so far, although that isn’t saying much.
The Big Reveal
The mystery surround Misaki isn’t working for me— yet. So far it’s been way too predictable. Her eye? Called it. And the fact that no one else could see her? It was too obvious to even bother calling it. They shouldn’t have bothered acting like this was a big mystery.
Alternatively, they should have taken a play from the book of Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. In that show, there were hints that he was dead (you know who I’m talking about if you’ve seen it), but it wasn’t obvious. It took a few episodes before you really latched onto the idea that he had died. In Another, it was fairly clear from the first episode that she was dead. So I wasn’t surprised at all when it was revealed. The hints were too heavy handed.
I will admit, I wasn’t expecting the girl who died in the hospital to be Misaki’s cousin. I’m guessing that the spirits of the dead are trapped in dolls or something. Hence the doll that looks like Misaki whose eye she has (I assume it’s that doll’s eye) and the doll she brought with her to the morgue.
The Rest
They sure aren’t skimping on the gore! What a terrible way to die. Although I suppose most ways to die are pretty terrible.
She did trip a lot of death flags though, with that shared umbrella scene. Was her blush and unrequited crush on the blue haired guy or on the main character? I thought it was the blue haired guy, but I wasn’t sure after she offered her umbrella.
Speaking of the blue haired kid, I’m guessing he will be the next to go. It’s either him or the cheerful guy, after they made such a big deal of how they’ve been together since second grade. I’m going with the blue haired guy since idiots in anime are immortal.
What this show needs though is more of the class president!
I’d bet they get offed in order of the ED sequence, so it would knock both of them out consecutively.
Good point. Goodbye childhood friends.
So you’re guess is that she is dead? Sorry but to me it does not look as cut and dried as you say. But i’ll leave it for a few episodes so in case i’m right, i hope you won’t be saying “i guessed XYZ”
The part I meant that seemed obvious was just that the classmates couldn’t see her. This could either be because she’s dead, or she’s in some state of not being fully alive, or because the class has been brainwashed somehow. I am guessing she’s dead, or alive in a doll or something like that.
Anyway, I just wasn’t surprised when they revealed that the class couldn’t see her. Not much shock factor for me.
I don’t know if others can’t see her though. Some of the reactions by the other characters seem to suggest that they can see Misaki, which is why I don’t think the obvious signs were that boring. Whether they see Misaki the same way the protagonist sees her? That’s a different story.
To me it seemed only like they realized that Kouichi was either looking at her or talking to her, and whenever they saw this they became upset. I’m probably missing something though. The girl who got impaled by the umbrella seemed surprised to see her (for the first time?) and took it as a bad sign.
Right before Sakuragi died from the fall, she ran into Kouichi and turned away. At that time, it seems like she was able to see Misaki. I am guessing Misaki might be a harbinger of death, and if you see her, your time is up (not sure why Kouichi is still alive then). I do hope it is more of a mystery than this though.
That’s exactly my take on it too. The other commenters seem to think there’s more to it though, so hopefully they’re right.
You say it’s obvious that Mei is dead, but in this episode there were some moments where it looked like people were seeing her. Namely Sakuragi, just before she died–but it looked like Kazami had seen her (or seen *something*) on the roof as well. Plus Mei’s cousin just barely died, and this seems to imply the two had been hanging out together some time recently.
I’m not convinced Mei is telling the truth when she says she doesn’t exist–or at least, I’m thinking there’s some deeper meaning to this. (I’m just speculating, of course. But I’m rather sure there’s a lot more to all this than meets the eye.)
“What this show needs though is more of the class president!”
Akazawa, the “head of countermeasures,” right? I imagine we’ll be seeing much more of her next episode, what with someone dying on her watch. I’m curious if she’ll become antagonistic toward Kouichi now. His last name “Sakakibara” apparently is an ill omen to the class, which will definitely hold weight now that a girl died near him.
My guess is that seeing her is is a bad omen and means you will die. But you could be right. I do like tokwa’s idea that she could be “not there” because they are ignoring her, not because she’s a ghost.
Yeah, the head of countermeasures, that’s who I meant. And antagonistic is the way I want her!
Umbrella death! Was like something out of final destination…if you have seen those movies… I guess you could say she got the point? *shot*
Anyway yeah Mei as a ghost I saw a mile away! Like the library scene the teacher never really makes eye contact with Mei! The whole eye patch thing was like what did we really expect to see? My money was on another eye patch…xD
I guess I can’t ever take “horror” anime serious, maybe I should watch in the dark alone? LOL
HAHAHAHA
Another eye patch would have been hilarious too. I don’t think watching it in the dark will help much, either.
I have to admit that my initial enthusiasm for this show has waned a little. Death by impalement on your own umbrella imo is just hilarious! The dead girl being Misaki Mei’s lookalike cousin was also hard to believe. This show might end up as an unintended satire of a horror show. There is also very little actual animation, although the level of detail and the backgrounds are still excellent.
The revelation in Tokyo Magnitue 8.0 took me completely by surprise. Until that ep. I had found that show not too exciting and followed it to learn a bit about earthquakes in Japan and b/c it was noitaminA. So I guess I wasn’t too attentive until then and that moment was quite a shock (I even cried a bit.)
Btw, I thought the blue-haired guy introduced himself as the class president in ep. 1. If you are referring to Izumi in your last sentence, I understood she’s the one in charge of “countermeasures”.
Being impaled by your own umbrella is an amusing way to die. The animation is underwhelming too. It kind of took me by surprise when the stairway scene actually had some motion.
And you’re right, I meant Izumi, the one in charge of countermeasures, not the president! Oops!
I love the music in this series!!!! (especially in the end…) Dying via umbrella seems pretty hilarious considering the umbrella opened on it’s own or it’s QUALITY animation.
Well, they told him she is something “that doesn’t exist”. Not existing can be described either she is not really there albeit a ghost, or she’s really there but they’re pretending that she’s not there… I mean why give a paper to a ghost?
I like that idea! The language was ambiguous. They’ll need to explain why everyone is such a good actor though.
Maricón el que lo lea. PD: muñecas diabólicas everywhere…