Yoshiki’s village gets turned upside down when death strikes and secrets are revealed. As Tanaka gets closer to unraveling the mystery, Yoshiki finds himself struggling to grasp that the new HIkaru is nothing close to human, despite his desperation to shove the thought aside. Here is the second episode review of The Summer Hikaru Died.
Overview
Tensions rise as Tanaka arrives in the village, and fear has struck the townsfolk to their core. As Tanaka investigates the bizarre death, a few villagers mention strange happenings around, including Hikaru’s disappearance. As Tanaka continues to search around, he finds a bag Hikaru had died with containing a shrunken head meant to ward off evil spirits. While Tanaka gathers information, Yoshiki, Hikaru, and a few classmates enter the forest on their walk home. Yoshiki notices a weird entity in the forest and Hikaru mentions that it’s no good before passing out, getting a nosebleed in the process. Hikaru wakes up and explains to Yoshiki that he swallowed the spirit, and that Yoshiki needed to focus on him until they were out of the forest. He also explains that the forest spirits are lonely, and makes a promise to let nothing take Yoshiki away from him.
Final Thoughts
This episode gave us a glimpse that the villagers know far more than they let on, as well as just how much of a dependency Yoshiki and Hikaru have to one another. Yoshiki, despite the unease and knowing that he doesn’t exactly know what Hikaru is, still keeps him around. And Hikaru is very eager to oblige, however I wonder if Hikaru’s attachment to Yoshiki will get them both caught up with other spirits. Even more so, it’s only a matter of time before the secrets of the village and Tanaka’s investigation catch up to them both.
Between the toxic co-dependency of Yoshiki and Hikaru and the introduction of the spirits making their way into the village, it seems as though the mysteries of this village are closer and closer to becoming unearthed. And it also seems like, with due time, Hikaru will be the main turning point between the villager’s secrets involving spirits and Yoshiki’s bitter acceptance that the real Hikaru he lost will never return.
The Summer Hikaru Died anime is available to stream on Netflix and the manga is available for purchase on Amazon and at Barnes and Nobles.
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