Boku Dake ga Inai Machi Episode 2

In case you weren’t watching the first episode, let’s remind people of the synopsis!

The opening is actually the song from the end of the first episode! That’s awesome, but I can’t believe they got away with using such an old song. Also, the opening heavily features the older Satoru despite the fact that he has not shown any ability to travel forward in time yet and must theoretically wait 18 years before returning to his previous state.

I give this guy points for being a bro and not snitching, but he’s super sketchy.

Everything about this “returning home” scene is great. He’s remembering the way he used to live as a child after spending so much time as an adult. And we, the audience, know what he’s really crying about in this scene even if his mother is a bit confused. All of his reactions just seem very real. How convenient for him to have an excuse for her to not be too suspicious though…

I get that he’s having a monologue about his mission and all, but shouldn’t he be frightened? He’s changed the past at the point, so every further action he takes could be dangerous to the future he knows. Wouldn’t you be slightly worried about having changed the timing of your mother’s death? She could be dying sooner. Or does he just trust that his ability will always allow him the chance to fix things?

These guys are in grade school, right? Grade schoolers jump to this conclusion? Fair enough…

SHE KNOWS!

 

Oh sure…wait what?

The culprit is here!

Oh, so he was a crowd-pleaser back in the day and she saw through it? Makes sense.

HE KNOWS!

Also, the entire conversation Kenya has with Satoru is super creepy. What does he mean it’s really important Satoru is paying attention to Hinazuki? Still, he seemed pretty earnest when he asked Satoru what truly happened with Hinazuki, so I actually want to lower suspicion on him.

Prison/interrogation room symbolism is totally not there…right?

It’s fine that she dies in the first timeline, guys…she was totally asking for it. Also, you’re telling me that no one read this paper and got a little bit suspicious? I guess I have to cut them some slack because it’s actually 1988, right? But seriously, given the skirt Hinazuki’s wearing, she could just pretend to be clumsy and people would see the bruise pretty easy.

This scene is actually pretty cool because she’s talking to the adult Satoru. If you’re a kid and someone says this to you, you brush it off. But the adult Satoru can look back and examine his younger self and agree with her.

Quick! We must establish the fact that this girl is actually a main character too!

Seriously can’t complain about this scene. Also, Satoru accidentally saying his thoughts out loud was great. Was that actually such an embarrassing thing to say, though? I guess it sounded like a confession or something?

Yeah, these jacket pockets are just for show…

This series is definitely looking promising. I’m still very curious about where it’s planning to go, but I’d say this is a solid way to start things out. I really like the way the series feels like it’s really building up to something. It felt to me like everything in this episode could just pop at any moment. That being said, I’m still curious about the adult Satoru in the opening. They’re not going to have him periodically traveling forward to keep track of his progress with altering the past, right? Or have him loop multiple times trying to stop the same tragedy? I feel like both of those possibilities don’t fit at all with what we’ve seen so far.

As I said before, I’m really glad about Re: Re: being the opening song for this series. It’s a great song despite its age and I stated last week why I think it’s appropriate. The ending song for this series sounds pretty too. Is that Sayuri from the Ranpo Kitan ending song?