Once something has been spoiled, I think people 
start to stop noticing it. . . And sometimes it 
takes a reminder from someone who hasn't seen the 
show to make everyone remember a given plot point 
is a spoiler. That's just my guess.

For me, it's also in how much I was interested in 
the actual anime. I remember what was a great 
twist or plot change by the "wow factor" it had 
over me. By the time this scene came around, most 
of the wow Fushigi Yuugi had (for me) was over.

(Possible spoiler below!)
It kind of struck me more as: "Let's take a few 
episodes to build up the chracters more so people 
will care when we kill them." Because, if I 
remember right, preceeding each character's 
death, you had a couple episodes dealing just 
with them. Nuriko was the first, but it didn't 
take twice for me to notice the pattern.

Of course, I could be misremembering. . . I saw 
Fushigi Yuugi only once -- never caring enough to 
rewatch any of it -- and that was a while ago.

The point is, when I see this spoiler now, I 
don't think much about it because I already know.

Many Sharp Smiles,
--Drac