Due to the nature of this work, this list will contain disturbing content and tons of spoilers. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance/Horror
- The set-up that equally validates both possibilities of the truly Ambiguous Ending. If Michiko truly is dead, then the ending sentence fragment is actually the last bit she wrote; the publisher attributed it to the two daughters of Fujiko "the Killer" for marketing; and Fujiko's single tear is out of grief over the daughter she barely got to know. However, if Haru's dedication "to the late Michiko Takamine" is figurative, then Michiko shedded that identity and embraced her past as Miyako Uehara/Wakamura; she chose to be credited as "Miyako Uehara" accordingly; and Fujiko tears up at Michiko's reconciliation with her past, for better or worse.
- However, who's to say that Fujiko knew one way or the other? Since the denial of her appeal, only immediate relatives could visit her, and both Michiko and Shigeko declared their final visits.
- Either way, Shigeko is almost definitely busted. After all, she kidnapped Sakiko's daughter, and Haru still knows of her guilt.
- Given The Reveal that Shigeko orchestrated the murder of Fujiko's parents to raise her a murderer and collect insurance money from her family's deaths, it is no surprise that Fujiko begins hating Shigeko.
- Furthermore, when Michiko reasons that the contrived ending of Hatsuyo and Sakiko walking away under a horizon of Mt. Fuji was a Dying Clue pointing to Shigeko, Fujiko's expression does not waver — indicating Michiko is Late to the Realization.
- If one compares when Fujiko was last shown on good terms with Shigeko and when she was first shown spiting her, one can actually pinpoint when the relationship turned sour — after the murder of her first husband, Yūya Tsujimura. It makes sense, because a now-adult Fujiko would have expected the life insurance to come to her; and it would have instead gone to Shigeko, who bought the insurance policy. However, Minami must not have been covered, considering that she confused baby Sakiko with her.
- While it's Lampshaded that Fujiko continued to buy cosmetics from Hatsuyo, despite Hatsuyo having killed Fujiko's parents for profit and rehashing her Repressed Memories of it, what's perhaps more terrifying is that Hatsuyo continued to sell to Fujiko, despite Fujiko having killed her daughter Emi. Yes, it was to turn Fujiko into a Tyke-Bomb through repeated Trauma Button–pressing, but Hatsuyo still should've felt something.
- Based on how easily Emi killed the class's pet bird, it can be conjectured that Emi grew up being abused by her mother — meaning that perhaps Hatsuyo truly did feel no sense of loss.
