Thread:Shanethefilmmaker/@comment-397235-20140904033414/@comment-397235-20140905193400

She still could've played by the rules and told Kouichi to bug off, but didn't. She could've explained why she was being ignored, and she never did that either, until they started ignoring him too, at which point it was already too late. The final straw is her refusal to actually defend herself at the Inn; she leaves that to Kouichi (and in the manga it nearly kills him); instead, Mei does what she always does and meekly takes the blame for something she didn't do. Like I said, it's like she tries to be the victim. Since as far as everyone knows they both broke the rules (Mei knowingly) then they're all reasonably upset.

That's why Yumi went after Mei: "Your selfishness killed my brother, so now I'm going to kill you."

That's also why Takako beats the crap out of Kouichi: "Your obstinacy cost me one of my best friends and put us all in danger. I'm not going to kill you because it won't make things better and you didn't know any better, but I'm going to make sure you can't stop me either because I'm fresh out of sympathy." (I do think it's interesting to point out Izumi initially suggests Yukari's death was Kouichi's fault, but Takako tells her there was no way he could've known, and in any case the blame game won't fix things).

Tomohiko, of course, spells it out point blank: "If you'd played by the rules Yukari wouldn't have died." And keep in mind, by the time Tomohiko attacks Kouichi, his best friend has already pushed him out a window, where he probably suffered a concussion and isn't thinking too clearly; on top of that he's already murdered two people in cold blood, so he's already past the point moral point of no return. While on some level he is logical in suspecting Kouichi, at the same time I've always seen this as being easier than admitting he couldn't ever act on his feelings for Yukari, by telling himself he would've had she not been killed.

All of this is because Mei never told Kouichi to leave her alone. The others were somewhat justifiably afraid of telling him how the Countermeasures work for fear of breaking them by acknowledging Mei; Mei isn't bound by this because she can't exactly ignore herself.