Talk:Kouichi Sakakibara/@comment-50.164.147.226-20150218163407/@comment-397235-20150219015917

In the manga, Mei explains the kids all find a negative connotation in his name (well, Mei doesn't because she's kind of a sociopath), since it concerns the senseless death of children at a school. Since that was a year before Another took place and they were extremely brutal, shocking murders, it's still very much on everyone's mind at Yomiyama North. Mei even comments it's lucky for Kouichi his first name isn't Seito, the alias the murderer went by (per Japanese law, the killer's real name has never been released).

In the anime, Reiko was murdered by someone but it's never explained who. It's heavily implied it was Kazuma Akazawa, though, Izumi's brother. That's why Izumi's so upset with him, and potentially a part of why she's so embarrassed when she accidentally hits Kouichi with the can; some part of her probably realizes "This is the nephew of the lady Kazuma killed."