Well, this episode finally concludes the main arcs that encompass the original visual novel game. Unfortunately, I think I’d be lying if I said that the second season was truly up to par with the first. Quite simply, “祭囃し編” just felt a little anticlimactic.

While the writers did a very good job with the build up and everything with the other arcs, “祭囃し編” just seemed to feel a little underwhelming. While some things did go against our protagonists, I was never really worried about them.

Still, I can’t deny that the series as a whole has been extremely enjoyable thanks to some excellent writing. The way that the story unfolds is probably not very original but it keeps you engaged and wanting more because of its clever execution and intelligent plot twists.

It seems that I have been mistaken as the story did not conclude with this episode. I don’t know how long they plan to drag this on for as there isn’t going to be a lot of time to talk about the aftermath of all of these incidents. Or do they actually not care about this at all?

It’s hard to believe that the Yamainu were defeated so easily by our young protagonists. I know they have a home court advantage and all, but you can’t seriously tell me that they are capable of outwitting trained professionals, right? I mean, shouldn’t these guys be familiar with the terrain as well?

I was surprised to find out that Satoshi was not actually dead. I would’ve thought that he had been dissected for research purposes or something or another. I’m sure they have sufficient funding to keep him alive, but what purpose does this act serve?

This episode started off quite nicely with Irie and Akasaka on the run. Although, I think we can all agree that it’s kind of hard to believe that that Yamainu operative was able to hit Irie’s car’s tire with one shot. I mean, he was using a handgun (which obviously has no scope) on a moving “platform” (the car) and he somehow managed to hit the tire of another moving car. Absolutely ridiculous. Is this the power to change fate at work?

Things got a little weird during the second half of the show after Shion and Kasai got caught. I swear, how many times do they need to mention the fact that fate can be changed or that miracles are real? I love how Rika tried to sic the blame on Hanyuu and subsequently got slapped for it. Things did get better at the end when we saw Akasaka kick some Yamainu ass.

I’m guessing that things will wrap up by the end of the next episode with some kind of an epilogue for the final episode. Whatever their battle plans may be, it surely can’t take two episodes to execute, right?

Well, contrary to what I had in mind, Takano and her men were pretty much getting destroyed in this episode. Everything has proceeded with what our protagonists had foreseen, leaving the Yamainu in complete disarray.

Thankfully, they did leave some room for humour in this episode despite its seriousness. Ooishi’s confrontation with Ootaka was particularly hilarious. With the important role that Ooishi has been playing, I couldn’t help but think how funny it would be if Ooishi was actually a bad person in this arc and how all this goodness is going to be for naught when the tables get turned around. :P

With three episodes to go, we still have a lot of time left for even more interesting developments. Besides Takano’s side, I’m curious as to whether our young heroes are going to be doing anything. Have they just been sitting at Mion’s house this whole time? Are all their screen time going to be cut short since it’s the last arc and all? Also, why isn’t Shion with them? I mean, she showed up in the last episode and all, but is she not going to partake in this charade?

It looks like everyone has started to make precautions against the coming crisis. Takano’s a smart person, so I’m hoping that we’ll actually see an interesting battle of wits in the coming episodes. It’ll be a bit of a drag if she just lost without doing anything really substantial.

And besides, everything is going way too perfectly for our young protagonists. Our writers have crafted an amazingly original story thus far, surely they can’t just suddenly fail us with some lackluster conclusion, right?

While we all know that Takano’s going to lose at the end, what exactly is going to happen to her? We can see her motive behind doing what she’s doing, so will she be spared in some way? Will she get her way, per se, with the help of Irie and other people and reveal to the world that parasites really can control the human mind?

Wow, this episode was pretty awkward what with Hanyuu showing up to class with those horns that didn’t seem to bother anyone whatsoever. I mean, come on, I know this is just a show and all, but she has freaking horns coming out of her head, how can nobody be bothered by this?

It’s good to see Akasaka return to the scene once again to team up with Ooishi. Since he bothered to believe in Rika, I guess he’ll be the one that our protagonists will approach once they’ve gotten their “plan” fleshed out? Speaking of which, the last part of this episode was quite ridiculous. Of course, it can’t compare to the ridiculousness of episode 8’s ending.

Now that the pieces have started to move to change the fate of Hinamizawa, will we also see some differences in Takano’s actions this time around? I guess that’s kind of impossible since we’ve never really seen what she does behind the scenes prior to the Watanagashi festival so there really isn’t anything we can actually compare it to.

This episode was very good as we were presented with more information about the ongoing storyline which also tied in to the story from some of the other arcs in the beginning. Namely, we find out about the exact details of Satoshi’s “transferral”.

I am also quite thrilled about the return of Rena. She’s definitely my favourite female character of this show just a little short of Shion. Of course, we shouldn’t forget about the return of Keiichi, which pretty much means that this will be the last of the “flashback” episodes.

So I take it that Rika is going to have to tell her friends the complete story a second time in the coming episodes? How will they confront Takano? And perhaps most importantly, what kind of role is Hanyuu going to play?

Well, this episode was a lot better than the last one since there were some interesting developments here. Takano’s personality is particularly noteworthy since it is kind of difficult to see that Irie never really second guessed Takano’s actions or thoughts. Does he feel that he is too indebted to her?

As expected, Takano was shot down by the higher-ups, giving a “positive” spin to her to make her seem less of an evil person and merely trying to complete the research that the professor had originally started. It’s played out quite well and you’d find yourself hard pressed to not want to pity her.

We should be back with our protagonists after Satoshi dies, which will probably happen in the next episode or two. You would think that Hanyuu would have seen how Rika’s parents were attacked (or whatever) by the Yamainu, but I guess not. However, if the opening is any sign of what’s to come, she’ll be playing a big role in good time.

Well, this episode moved along rather slowly here. I’m going to guess that it’s because there are still many more episodes to go? I mean, there’s not much you can do if Rika actually remembers what happened in the previous arc, right? What kind of conflicts will our protagonists have against Takano? Wouldn’t they just call the cops?

What does Hanyuu having faith in anything have anything to do with anything? What kind of role will she play in the upcoming episodes? I don’t find it likely that she’ll materialize to the natural world like what happens in the opening since I do not really see how that’s going to affect anything.

Given the current time line of the story, I’m guessing that they’re going to explain what really happened to the victims of the supposed “curse”. This should be pretty good and is a good way of advancing the story over simply jumping ahead to the time when Keiichi moved to Hinamizawa.

Not much really happened in this episode. I mean, really, so few things of interest actually occurred in this episode that I’d be hard pressed to really write anything meaningful about it. I will note that the bit with her father muttering the numbers was rather lame. To be honest, I can’t think of a better way for it to have been resolved myself, but man, was it cheesy or what?

Contrary to my predictions from the last episode, it seems that Koizumi really wasn’t actually a bad fellow after all. Since he was being so sorry and all in episode fourteen, I figured he was some sort of an evil person, but I guess not.

I had a quick glance at the previews and it seems that we’ll be back in modern time in the next episode. Of course, we could be getting more of this flashback with the preview for episode 16 actually acting as a preview of what is to come in episode 17. It’s quite plausible.