Had I not already been spoiled, they do a decent job explaining who the dead one really was. Things seemed nicely wrapped up though I did dislike how the anime portrayed many of the subtle hints making it nearly impossible to guess who the dead one is other then dumb luck. I think that is a major failing in how this was done in the anime. Part of what makes mystery stories fun is it leaves you the possibility to guess correctly and you go back and watch previous episodes. It doesn't work when you have zero chance at guessing.
This was a super serious final episode yet I couldn't stop laughing at how some of them were dying. I was kind of hoping that purple hair girl wouldn't die, too bad. People just started dying left and right for no reason, I mean that pillar would never kill like that; Nor is students killing each other the result of the curse. They were quite clearly making the decisions themselves. The better question is, how will any of the live "normal" lives knowing they slaughtered their own classmates, or at least be arrested.
How did the glass explosion work, how was Akazawa the only one injured? She was my favourite character in this anime from the beginning, I thought she was going to survive too. In the novel, she was the one that slips off the window ledge last episode, she even survives in the manga. I was sure she was going to live! She suffered a fate worse then death in the manga though... she lost her twin tails... I really wished they could have expanded on her meeting with Sakibara though.
Then we hit the core of the episode, the dead one. How was anyone suppose to guess it was Reiko? Different hair colour, different eye colour, they even have different voice actors. They even cut out that scene that you only see in the final episode that tells you the rule about keeping personal and work separate. At least the explanation why Misaki never mentioned who the dead one was does fit well. They do a good job explaining how it links together, it was just way too vague and covered with extra things to make sure no one can tell it was the same character. Small note, in the manga they also mention the bird is named after her.
They upgraded from a casette tape to a MD disk, both outdated technology. I still have my MD player in my drawer, it has been so long. It was interesting that they replaced the tape with the new warning of the frenzy the class would go into. Truthfully, who needs a tape anymore? The ultimate counter measure is Misaki Mei. She can just see who the dead one is and end the curse every year. I still think the permanent solution is to ignore the dead one and reversing what they originally did to summon the dead. In the end, things turned out a bit better then I hoped. According to anime laws, until we see the character in a coffin, they can always come back, Akazawa isn't dead, she was just resting!
~Pearz
