ひぐらしのなく頃に解 Ep. 01
I was a little bit caught off guard by this episode since I was expecting it to start off with “皆殺し編”…but that didn’t happen. From what I’ve gathered, this episode somewhat acts as a recap episode in addition to revealing further information that may not have been obvious from the first season. Note that the first actual arc isn’t going to be “皆殺し編” either because they’re apparently going to be adding a new original arc, “厄醒し編”, before moving on to the last two arcs.
So, this episode essentially builds on top of the information that was revealed to the first season’s viewers during the phone conversation that Rena and Keiichi had about what Takano had written in her scrapbooks. It’s kind of surprising how I didn’t make the connections about some of the revelations, but really, they all do fit together. I wouldn’t say that there were any plot holes or anything of that matter. I really don’t recall Rena mentioning anything about biological weapons when she took the students hostage, so it was a bit of a surprise to me when they mentioned that it was all (”probably”) a hoax.
For the clueless people like me, this was a rather good episode as it revealed more information that helps put us further back into context of the plot at hand. For those that already got the plot, spoiled themselves, or even played the game, I guess this wasn’t that great (like all “recap” episodes). If nothing else, I guess you at least got a chance to see the great opening and ending animation sequences and hear the new songs. Both songs are very good in my opinion and I’m really looking forward to listening to their full versions. The next episode is going to truly kick off the second season season with the first chapter of the “厄醒し編”. With a projected length of twenty-four episodes, I just hope they don’t screw up the pacing.
