Build Limbs
Summary
Kouichi checks the 1972 yearbook in the library and spots his mom in the Class 3 picture. The librarian recognizes her and obviously knows something he’s not saying. Akazawa tells Kouichi he’s been summoned to the faculty office and apologizes for what’s about to happen next. After the police question him about Mizuno’s death he finds the classroom deserted. From the hall the teacher tells him Akazawa has been chosen as the new class rep, and reminds him to follow the class rules.
He walks home with his classmates Mochizuki and Takabayashi. Takabayashi decides he doesn’t like Akazawa’s methods and agrees to answer Kouichi’s questions. He immediately has a heart attack and dies when Kouichi asks him if Mei Misaki exists.
The next day, no one will acknowledge Kouichi’s existence. He finds a letter in his desk from Mochizuki telling him to ask Mei about everything, and a copy of the class roster with her name crossed out. He meets her in the doll shop basement and she shows him an elevator hidden behind a curtain that takes them up to her apartment. We learn that Mei’s mother, who uses the pseudonym Kirika, makes the dolls in the shop.
Mei confirms that yes, she’s not a ghost, and is only non-existent to Class 3. The curse takes effect when the class gains an extra member. The new student is actually someone from the class who died in the past, but they have a physical body and their own memories, and all records and everyone’s’ memories change, making it impossible to tell who the extra person is. Changing classrooms, or the class name from 3 to C, didn’t work. Eventually it was determined that the only way to prevent the curse was to pretend someone didn’t exist, returning the class to the proper number of students.
Commentary
Hunh, so Mei isn’t a ghost (in all fairness, I probably should’ve thought of that when there was a pencil and eraser on her desk the day Sakuragi died). Still: pasty white, has an artificial eye that sees “things that shouldn’t be seen”, has the same name as the girl who died in 1972 – she is clearly not normal. She may not be the ghost of the 1972 Misaki, but since someone who’s dead (or undead) is in the class, either a) she’s still the 1972 Misaki, that is, her reincarnation, or b) she’s a red herring and the series really is going to pull a ‘dead all along’ (OK, ‘undead all along’) with Kouichi. The issue with the latter theory, though, is that everyone remembers him joining, so I highly doubt it; everyone’s probably ignoring him now because he’s acknowledged Mei’s existence after he wasn’t supposed to.
And on that note – seriously, why did nobody tell Kouichi about this sooner; that’s right Mei, “costly mistake” indeed. I know I’ve mentioned this already, but I thought there might reasons why, or at least why it had to be Akazawa who explained things, and so far there’s been nothing to suggest they couldn’t have told him when they visited the hospital ‘oh, by the way, if you see a girl with an eyepatch around the school, don’t talk to her – people will die if you do.’ Yeah, I’d probably assume they were actually bullying her like Kouichi did initially, but are these deaths not reported in the local paper? Wouldn’t the town library have old copies of those they could show him? Surely after a while Class 3 would’ve thought of keeping track of deaths in some way in case of situations like this so they’d have proof for newcomers, or is Kouichi the only out-of-towner in the class in 26 years? Well, maybe; last episode the conversation between Akazawa and her friends suggests that putting new people in Class 3 was avoided in the past and only happened here because the principal is new and doesn’t fully believe in the curse.
Yeah, there’s really no good reason why no one’s told him until now, and it’s really not good for the series. It doesn’t feel like there’s something unexplained going on or that there’s a race against time to find out the truth before something terrible happens – everyone’s seems to have more or less figured out everything, and already knew from Episode 1, except for why Misaki died 26 years ago, and why everyone pretended she hadn’t. No tension, just everyone refusing to tell Kouichi what they already knew from the beginning. And now four people are dead because of it. Way to go, Class 3 – those deaths are on all of you.
And wait-a-minute, doesn’t the curse claim one person a month? Because both Mizuno and Takabayashi have died in June – Mei even mentioned “the second June death.” The same thing happened with Sakuragi and her mom. A bit inconsistent there, or is one student and one friend or relative allowed to die?
In other musings, I wonder why it never occurred to anyone that at the start of the next school year there will be a new Class 7 and no Class 3. Apparently the curse affects the students in Class 3, so what if there was no Class 3? Couldn’t hurt to try, I’d say.
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