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In the Another anime, they show how the students discovered how to end the calamity. But as far as I remember, (or may be I missed it) they don't mention how they came to the conclusion that the calamity comes from the existence of an extra person in the classroom.

How did the students discover that the calamity comes from the existence of an extra person? Is this mention in the manga, in a prequel or something?

Pablo
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1 Answers1

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This was obvious that the calamity came from an extra person. They had sensed a pattern based on history of the class. Various countermeasures came up but they were unsure of a permanent solution.

Let's look at the timeline:

1972: A student named Misaki Yomiyama died in a house fire. The students didn't believed he was dead and put his desk in the class. Over time, their memory garbled and completely forgot about him next year.

1973: The class founds that there is an extra person and one desk short (the soul of Misaki converted into a physical being that gave a illusion of extra person). The students ignore but calamity struck in order to give space for the extra. People got killed

1983: Katsumi Matsunaga and his friends went to shrine. He got an argument with the extra and accidently killed him. Next day, he didn't found the body. Calamity ended prematurely. He come to conclusion that if you kill the extra, then the calamity will stop. He taped the conclusion in a video recording. It is to be retrieved in 1998.

1988: Over the years, the students tried many ways to prevent the calamity, nothing proved to be successful. Eventually, they came up with a plan to ignore one student as if he/she doesn't exist, in order to make up for the presence of the dead person. For a whole year, the class would not acknowledge their presence or speak about them during school hours. This measure is followed in coming years.

1998: Kouichi Sakakibara got transferred to class 3-3. Believing that he might be the extra, students ignored him. Calamity struck before he transferred, thus proving he was not extra. Finds the tape. Kouchi finds out the extra amidst chaos. Kills her. Calamity stops.

Fumikage Tokoyami
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  • Vote up but it isnt quite clear to me. How did they know the "extra person" is the cause of the calamity? When they killed the "extra person", they know it stopped the calamity because of the action-effect relation. Here any random repeating event could be the cause, also how did they know there was an "extra person" and not simply someone just removed a chair? – Pablo Sep 09 '22 at 11:39
  • Also, for example, you have 21 persons this year and 20 chairs. Wouldnt it be as easy as seeing who the 20 persons the year before were to know who the extra person is? Or would they remember 21 persons? If they remember 21 persons, wouldnt they know where all of them were sitting? If they remember 21 persons sitting in 21 chairs, wouldnt they know what the missing chair this year is and therefore the extra person? – Pablo Sep 09 '22 at 11:47
  • @Pablo if you browse some other [tag:another] questions, you might notice that the Calamity has a side-effect that made it difficult to notice who is the extra. Related: [Can someone explain about the attendance record in "Another"](https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/32453/2516), [How does Teshigawara create the recording](https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/5693/2516) – Aki Tanaka Sep 09 '22 at 13:36
  • so, when the extra appears, he already was in the class and nobody remembers him, or did I get this wrong? Why did they think the extra could be anyone and started to killing each other then? – Pablo Sep 09 '22 at 14:17
  • @Pablo 1. It is difficult to predict who was/is the extra because their memory is garbled and they themselves don't the extra but they know for a fact that there is an extra that is causing the calamity. It is not necessary that the extra will be a student. It can be a teacher who has a direct relation with class 3-3. – Fumikage Tokoyami Sep 10 '22 at 04:18
  • 2. Let's say you have 21 students and 20 desks. How will you point out who is the extra? It was a lucky coincidence that Katsumi happened to kill the extra that stopped the calamity. If you remember the chaos scene, one student pushed another student to death thinking that was an extra but the calamity didn't stopped. 3. The Extra doesn't know themselves that they are an extra unless confronted (I said the soul manifested into a physical being, so that person doesn't even know how did they ended up being an extra unless confronted) – Fumikage Tokoyami Sep 10 '22 at 04:21