天下制覇

Honestly, how did Takano’s insanity go undetected for so long?

Impressions:

You know, with all the evil laughing and her gung-ho attitude towards experimenting on people… along with the fact that Hanyuu apparently hung around the clinic while Takano was crazy, you really have to wonder how she never noticed that Takano was a total lunatic since assumably, the crazed cackling didn’t start when she realized Hanyuu was angry and watching over her. Then again, I was always curious why Hanyuu didn’t just follow Takano/Irie around in one of the 8 billion repetitions of the murders to find out who killed them. I should probably just filter that under “plot holes associated with time travel” and never think about it again.

The episode was pretty decent for the most part, though no scenes really stand out. A bit of the jumping around didn’t make too much sense, but a lot of the Hinamizawa Hojo hate was more solidly defined even while making the whole “Takano is evil” revelation a little more silly. There’s nothing quite like retconning craziness into somebody to reveal them as an evil mastermind. Anyway, I’m pretty sure this is the end of the Takano backstory stuff and next episode is back to the Hinamizawa we know and love. I think. Don’t quote me on that. Hopefully we get to see schoolgirl Hanyuu next week at any rate.

Agents from the city are in a heated meeting with the Hinamizawa council. Most of the natives are not especially happy and are yelling for the Tokyo people to get the hell out of their city. Oryou speaks up, quieting everybody else and tells them in a nicer tone to get the hell out.

One man speaks up against Oryou and in support of the big city folks. The man is Hojo. He’s tired of the Sonozaki family putting down the poor working class and wants the dam project to go through. He has multiple people with him.

Oryou turns to him and angrily says that he’s betraying the city. The argument begins to get even more intense with lots of yelling on both sides. Oryou finally stands up and basically says that Hojo has doomed himself and his family and will be ostracized for this slight.

Hojo couldn’t care less though, and says that he’d kill the old bat. Some other guy takes offense to this and swings at him, but Hojo easily dodges then throws the guy by his hair. More blows are thrown and the thing turns into a massive riot. Hanyuu watches from the corner, apologiziing over and over again that she couldn’t do anything.

Satoshi slams on the hospital door with a passed out Satoko on his back. Irie brings her in and she sleeps raggedly. Takano asks him about Satoko’s symptoms, but Irie doesn’t understand how she could have relapsed this far into the disease. He thinks that the treatment may be hurting her as much as it helps. Crazy eye Takano thinks that she may have to take Satoko into her personal care, laughing as she says it. Irie gets annoyed and says that won’t happen.

Later, Satoshi and Irie walk home. Satoshi asks how his sister is doing. Irie says that she’s okay… but flashes back to her rambling crazily about her aunt. Satoshi says that she’s okalike this a lot.

He feels really bad for her. Irie comforts him a bit, but Satoshi isn’t quite so hopeful and thinks that her heart may already be dying. Irie tries again, but Satoshi really is scared to death for her. Hanyuu apologizes again for not being able to do anything for them.

Through town, the resistance to the dam builds.

Takano walks in to Irie office with a report. The Hinamizawa disease can’t be analyzed in the big labs because it decays too quickly. Crazy Takano says that they need to do their tests on a living subject.

Irie is shocked by her suggestion and says that’s totally unacceptable. Takano says that she understands that, but still leaves to place the call. Irie is totally dumbstruck.

Takano and Tomitake wait at the bus stop while it rains. Takano flirts a little bit with Tomitake while she asks him about his photography. She edges closer and asks if it’s fun for him. She pushes the camera down and leans in close to his face.

At night in the dam, six people are beating a man to death while Hanyuu apologizes over and over again.

After the beating is over, the men realize what they did. They say that it was self defense and flash back to them all sitting around drinking. They got the opportunity to slack off since the manager was missing. Then he bursts in with crazy eyes and starts attacking them with a pickaxe. His attacks are wild and miss them.

Back in the present, then men say that wasn’t the manager, but some kind of demon. They decide that since 6 of them beat a man to death with blunt objects, their self-defense theory won’t hold up in court. One of them goes a bit crazy and has a plan to make sure nobody will betray the others. He grabs a handsaw and says that they’ll divide the man into six pieces for each to deal with and starts cutting off a leg. The rest of the men are visibly disquieted.

At the clinic, Irie runs in and asks Takano if they really found ‘it.’ She leads him into a room where a man is strapped down and spasming violently while screaming about being betrayed.

Irie asks where she found him, but she tells him that it was just a coincidence. Irie doesn’t believe her for a moment. She does show him what was found with the man (while evilly giggling)… a severed arm.

Irie decides that the man must have killed him and there go his morals. Tomitake and Okonogi come in with a report on the man. Takano looks it over and concludes that he is showing all the classic symptoms. Tomitake also agrees with Takano. Irie concedes and leaves it to Takano. She laughs evilly as she walks out.

The coroner and Ooishi look over the corpse of the man beaten to death. Ooishi is pretty visibly disturbed and thinks back to a fight that he had with the guy. After that though, he had fond memories of him. The coroner asks what Ooishi thinks was the motive, and Ooishi admits that he thinks it had to do with the Sonozaki’s declaration of war against the dam.

Hanyuu stands above Satoko, apologiziing over and over again. Satoko wakes up and tells Irie that she heard someone apologizing to her.

After the ED, Rika and Mion talk about Satoko. Rika tried to give Satoko some candy she bought, but Satoko wouldn’t take it since it was given to Rika, not her. Rika asks if Satoko really is a friend to them. Mion confirms it, but says that they can’t really do anything about the villager’s attitude towards them. Somebody from the outside will have to effect the change… and that is the proper use of ‘effect,’ thank you very much.

Rika thinks for a moment and then decides that that person will surely come. A person who will change the village and show them the real future. She silently asks Hanyuu if she agrees, and Hanyuu agrees. This time, she is determined and will not fail.