The first of the “answer” arcs is supposedly retelling the Watanagashi story from a significantly-different perspective. We originally saw this story from the perspective of Keiichi in episodes 5-8. This time, it is from the perspective of Shion Sonozaki, who is in a far better position to know what’s going on. The story again resets to before Keiichi arrives in Hinamizawa, this time approximately one year before.

I was planning on covering the rest of this series on a post-per-arc basis, but the introduction of the Detective Chapter, which will be five episodes long, merits a little special treatment, it seems.

First, its nature as an “answer arc” is somewhat perplexing. The previous two episodes, the Time Wasting Chapter, provided a nice segue to episode 16, filling a little bit of background in for us and illuminating a rather strong possibility that multiple plot arcs may actually co-exist in the plotline. The Time Wasting Chapter didn’t raise so many questions with me as it seemed to answer. This leaves me wondering what the original creators meant by labeling these stories as questions and answers in the first place.

Second, we find that Shion and Mion have actively participated in taking each others’ places, specifically with Shion attending shool incognito as Mion. Previous episodes imply that some of the Hinamizawa residents (specifically Rena) were unaware of Shion’s existence, which would tend to dispell notions that Rena and Mion were in some kind of psycho-killer cahoots with each other.

Third, we find that Satoko’s abuse at the hands of her aunt was not unique to the premise of the third plot arc. In the Curse Killing Chapter, we had learned that Satoshi had apparently murdered his aunt in an attempt to protect his younger sister, Satoko.

Fourth, we learn that Keiichi’s descriptions of his condition leading up to the culmination of events in the first, second, and third plot arcs have been experienced by others. Specifically, Rena reports being stalked by an unseen force, hearing echoes of her own footsteps just behind her, and so forth. This matches up pretty well. Rena thinks that Satoko is succumbing to this affliction now, but I suspect it’ll actually hit Shion instead.

Anybody that has been reading the TIPS for each episode (I recommend doing so after viewing the episode in question, never before; it may ruin your appetite), it appears that the Sonozaki family takes its line of succession so seriously that the birth of twins was to result in double-infanticide. Mion and Shion’s existence is ill-fated to say the least, but their grandmother took pity on them, choosing to effectively exile the younger twin (Shion) to a boarding school rather than kill the two of them. What caused the sparing of their lives is unknown, as pity seems an unlikely motivation for these people.

Mion had previously claimed that Shion was her evil sister. At the time, this seemed ironic, as we figured Mion was the one directly involved in previous murders, as well as the criminal enterprizes of her family. The events of episode 16 lend some credibility to the claim, as Shion (I’m pretty sure it was Shion) seriously contemplates the elimination of Satoko and her aunt.

Over the course of the next few episodes, I’m strongly curious to see where this goes. Will this chapter cover the murder of Satoko and Satoshi’s aunt? Will it progress all the way to the events of the Watanagashi Chapter? Did Satoshi actually kill his aunt, or was it one of the Sonozaki girls? Will any of these questions actually get answered or will things remain debatable after the fact? Hmm…