Sakurada Reset: Episode 3 (Review)

By: EyeSpyeAlexI was unprepared for how plot heavy this show was going to be, and for that I apologize. I thought this was going to be a classic shojo, but it’s so much more. This episode has added layers to the mythos surrounding our cast of characters. On top of boasting an intro theme and new animations for the closing theme, it was an extremely exciting episode! Missed my last review? Catch it here!Kei and Haruki meet at a café to enjoy some downtime from their busy school and service club lives. While there, Yoka Murase meets them, looking for help. Their service club has taken off, and she was referred to their service club by Tsushima. She wants them to revive her dead cat, Mike. Haruki and Kei are surprised that The Bureau wants them involved in a non-ability related case. The two get help from on their investigation from cat fanatic Seika Nono. Nono’s special ability is to see inside a cat’s mind and feel the senses as they feel them. This can only be accomplished after she sleeps though, when her mind is at its clearest. After resetting (and bringing Nono-san her favorite food), she tells them the cat they’re looking for is a stray.The pair wonder if this is a set up by Murase, but can’t determine why she would do that. Kei tries calling Hitsuchi from The Bureau to get more information, but every other question he asks is classified. Feeling defeated, he heads up and receives a call from Nono-san. She tells Kei that the cat has been abducted, and that she can see he’s in a room that contains a framed picture of a young man. She confirms he’s alive and has Kei talk to her so she grows sleepy enough to nap. The next day Nono joins Kei and Haruki at the bakery when she “hears” Mike and runs towards his “voice”. Kei and Haruki catch up with Nono just as Mike jumps out of Murase’s arms. She turns to leave and flies away, leaving them with more questions than answers.Things become even more confusing as Tsushima tells Kei not to reset until after the three days have passed. Kei falls asleep wondering why Tsushima would assign them this case and then bar them from resetting. As he wakes up on July 15^th for the second time, he sees classmate Mirai Minami floating above his bed.There was a big focus on MacGuffins in this episode. For those that don’t know, a MacGuffin is a theater term used to describe an object that serves merely to trigger the plot. In terms of Sakurada Reset, I think the resets in each episode are the MacGuffins. In the grand scheme of the reset they occur at random and insignificant times, and always trigger the plot.As we can see now, they also have major repercussions for the world once it rejoins the main timeline. Each planned reset we’ve seen has resulted in the death of someone in Kei’s life. The first was Soma, who passed away during an accident during a reset. Now it’s Mirai; a seemingly insignificant classmate of Kei’s whose only claim to fame is Haruki noticing Kei puts a lot of thought into the conversations he has with her Even conversations that have already occurred. The wording was intentional and it was to get us wondering what the overall MacGuffin for the show is. It will be interesting to see if my theory holds any truth.[yasr_multiset setid=11]