Now this was an intriguing episode. It still spends its time building up, though this arc is indeed promising to become really special. Especially Rena was awesome. :)
The episode starts with Keiichi, Shion, Satoko, Rena and Rika, polishing up old rubbish, which they plan to sell during the village festival in an auction. Mion enters the room, with the message that there’s even more stuff coming in, which doesn’t fall well with Keiichi, who has been labelled as the leader of the auction.
Mion then shows a couple of Ohagi. When Rena gives one to Keiichi, he seems to believe that she’s made one before, while in fact, she never has. This triggers Rika to force Keiichi to tell about this “dream” he’s been having, about what happened in the first arc. Of course, it’s no dream at all, but parts of his memory from previous timelines.
A bit later, when they’re dusting off the furniture that Mion brought in, it’s Rena’s turn: she tels about her memories from the sixth arc, where she killed her father’s mistress. Interestingly enough, in this timeline, her father has again relationships with that woman. The same murder was avoided, though, when Rena told her story to Mion, instead of keeping it to herself. Mion managed to convince Rena to change her father’s ways.
Shion also hints that she was having the same thing, where she remembered what she did in the fifth arc. Again, she told this to Mion. That night, Rika evaluates this with Hanyuu. Everyone seems to be instinctively avoiding actions that would have caused a tragedy. Rika has become really confident because of this, though Hanyuu has her doubts.
They then discuss Rika’s recurring death; Rika seems to believe that it comes from someone outside of the village. They come with an interesting deduction: Tomitake and Takano’s death indirectly leads to Rika’s death. For Takano and her companions (Irie? Tomitake?), Rika and Satoko are valuable for research, so she will take effort to protect them. With Takano gone, the protection is also gone. Interestingly enough, they’ve got the power to do so as well. Rika reckons that if Tomitake and Takano survive, she will too.
The next day, Rika visits the hospital. According to Irie, she seems to have gone out with Tomitake. Rika just knows that they’ve gone to the equipment chamber, for making an inspection before they break in at the Watanagashi. Tomitake’s first name seems to be Jirou, by the way. Rika manages to reach the two of them while they’re still messing with the locks, and she offers them a look inside. Interestingly enough, Takano starts fangirling; something she didn’t do in the second and fifth arc. ^^;
There is just one condition: Tomitake and Takano have to increase protection, since they’ll be killed. At least, according to Rika. When Takano starts to describe the rituals that were used to praise Oyashiro-sama, Hanyuu starts getting angry at her, suggesting that a lot of the rumours about him are just urban legends.
We then switch to a very interesting conversation between Tomitake, Takano and Irie. Irie speculates that Rika may be suffering from paranoia, though Takano reckons that there was some truth in her eyes. Tomitake says that Rika wants more bodyguards around, and he can do that much, but he wonders how he’s going to explain this to Tokyo. Takano then finally describes the guys in uniform: the Yamainu.
And fair enough, when Rika tests it out on the unfortunate street punks, the Yamainu indeed come to protect her. But first we switch to the next day, where Keiichi and the others are back at the toy store, searching for more junk to sell. Oishi is there too; apparently he has a day off. He makes a small bet, promising some rare dice if Mion succeeds to throw 3 1’s, three times in a row. Mion succeeds, after Oishi tells her how to do it, and the dice are hers. Oishi suggests that she’d do well in a gambling parlour.
Rika comments on how strange it is that Oishi is getting along with everyone, when yet another unexpected guest arrives: Akasaka. Interestingly enough, in this time, he did listen to Rika, and he managed to save his wife. The reason he’s in Hinamizawa is because he’s on vacation with his wife and daughter, who are now perfectly fine. With this, Rika has gained another ally, since Akasaka really believes that Rika saved his family. Rika is now full of confidence, though Hanyuu is still pessimistic. Who will turn out to be right in the end?
Well, then. The most important scene for the plot was definitely the conversation between Tomitake, Takano and Irie. It confirmed that the three of them are indeed allied with each other, and that they’ve all got the ability to command the Yamainu, just like the head of the Sonozaki-family. I first believed that these guys worked directly under the Sonozaki-family, but they seem to be stationed in Tokyo. This scene also increases the change that it was indeed Irie who came to save Keiichi in the first arc.
Interestingly enough though, Irie doesn’t die in every arc, unlike Tomitake and Takano. We know the guy died in the third and seventh arc, and I suspect that he died in quite a few other arcs, but there were arcs in which he survived. This seems to suggest that his death is handy, but not vital for the killer to carry out its plan of capturing Rika’s intestines.
This episode also confirmed a theory I’ve been having ever since the sixth arc: with every arc, Keiichi and the other do get closer together. This episode really showed that they start to trust each other more and more, and they tell each other more and more things that they would have kept secret in the first arc. They may not remember things directly, but something tells me that indirectly, they keep getting better at avoiding tragedies that were caused by them.
I also wonder about one thing: does Rika know about the Hinamizawa-tragedy? I’d say no, because she’s been dead every time before it happened. But I wonder whether Hanyuu witnessed it and told Rika. I’m going to make a prediction about that one: what if Rika will indeed succeed in not to get killed during this arc? That does mean that she’ll witness the Hinamizawa-tragedy. Obviously, that’ll cause her mission to fail and reset for the final arc, the Matsuribayashi one, where the story can finally be resolved, since Rika will finally know the truth with it.
I also loved the emphasis on the characters that was featured in this episode. I especially loved Rena (hence why she’s one of my favourite characters ^^;) and Takano definitely surprised me when she started fangirling.
