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Rating: 7.8/10

Impressions:

Despite the unserious and lax mood in the beginning, this episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai quickly turns quite sad and dramatic when Satoko returns to school, looking like a poor kid in denial. I had been hoping that Keiichi embrace Satoko or something when he goes to pet her, though something like that may have made things worst. Things became really heart-wrenching when Satoko breaks and starts calling out ‘Nii-nii’, treating him as the closest person to her (you don’t hear her say ‘mama’ or anything do you?) I don’t think it was this impacting in the other arc concerning Satoko’s uncle.

Random point: I thought Keiichi’s school was the only one in Hinamizawa…so what’s with all the other kids in this arc? (The costume café girls, baseball guys etc). Anyway, it seems that Rika is finally catching on to what she needs to do to save everyone. She’s realised that for a miracle to occur, all her friends need to overcome the three rules (X, Y and Z), which essentially combine to mean for no one to go psycho and turn on everyone else, thus breaking the circle of trust. This is definitely the most important thing to the repeating worlds, though other factors have already taken affecting, which will cause the downfall of everyone eventually.

Firstly, as dictated by Keiichi’s dad in one of the earlier episodes, the outcome is determined by the beginning. Well, not exactly ‘only’ the beginning, but things need to go a certain way ‘from’ the beginning for the desired result. Second, Satoko’s uncle can not return, as Rika herself states that that is the worst possible situation. The reason why everyone has lasted until now is probably thanks to Rika’s friends recalling so much from past worlds. Aside from that, everyone would probably be dead by now. So if those two points are fulfilled, then ample chance is given for a miracle to happen. Hopefully, this will happen in the next arc.

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