Another 10: The Color of Death

Class 3 goes on a trip. Upon their arrival, they decide to take a class picture. Mochizuki and Teshigawara take turns taking the picture. Later, after everyone has settled in, Mochizuki, Teshigawara, Kouichi and Mei listen to Matsunaga's tape some more and finally they find out how Matsunaga stopped the tragedy once it has already begun. Apparently, Matsunaga accidentally killed a classmate during the 1985 Class 3's summer trip to the shrine. However, when he asked his classmates about the dead one, they couldn't remember anyone with that guy's name. That was when Matsunaga learned that the one he killed was the extra student. All of his classmates memories had been altered. Knowing it was only a matter of time before his memories of the incident likewise fade, Matsunaga created the tape as his confession. Later that evening, everybody joins together in the dining hall to have an awkward dinner. Akazawa takes the floor to apologize for bungling up her role as Head of Countermeasures and then accuses Mei of being at least partly responsible for the deaths, for not being totally complicit in her role as the nonexistent student. She demands that Mei apologize as well. This causes a scene as Mei is defiant and Kouichi and Teshigawara rise up to her defense. However, Mei does apologize when Teshigawara almost spills the beans on what they found out in Matsunaga's tape. The whole thing is interrupted when one student collapses from an asthma attack. The auxiliary librarian, who is now the substitute classroom adviser, drives him to the hospital, leaving Mikami-sensei in charge of the students. This new development has everyone returning to their rooms. Mei, however, asks to go to Kouichi's room as she wants to see his mother's Class 3 picture, the one with Misaki Yomiyama in it. They also talk about how Reiko looks a lot like Ritsuko, Kouichi's mother. Then Mei reveals that the girl who died in the hospital that day was not her cousin but her twin sister. It turns out that Mei is not Kirika's biological daughter but that of Kirika's twin, who, suffering from financial troubles, sold Mei to her sister who is grieving from the birth of a stillborn baby. Mei finds out about it when she is in 9th grade and has secretly been meeting with her twin. But some time in April, Mei's twin dies, which leads Kouichi to believe that this is actually the first death, which also means that Kouichi's breaking of the rule couldn't have been the catalyst that jump-starts the tragedy. Mei affirms this when she also says that her glass eye can see the color of death and that she already knows who the extra is. Their conversation is interrupted when Teshigawara bursts into the room, shouting about how he may have made a huge mistake. Outside, a student lies in the mud, apparently dead.

COMMENTS:

I knew about Mei's background because of the spoilery stuff I read on Wikipedia. Still, this was pretty good to see. What is up with the talk about Ritsuko and Reiko? Although I guess it provided a nice segue into the whole bit with Mei's twin. Still, it makes me worry that the anime is really going to follow the light novels. I didn't think they would since the two characters look and act nothing alike and I just kind of assumed their two different people in the anime. The other one seems loud and brash while the other just disappears into the background. But I guess not. Anyhoo, what a revelation. So that's how you do it. Teshigawara, you idiot. This piece of information isn't something you blurt out to a classroom of scared, desperate people. One of them is going to go batshit crazy and start murdering everyone in the hopes of getting the extra student. I guess it's really happening, if the first scenes of the anime is any indication.

more screencaps from episode 10: