Ooh boy this is absolutely going to be an emotional roller-coaster. Although it didn’t appear like much had happened in this episode, we were dumped with a ton of world building information, so let’s quickly walk through what we learned, starting with the story’s premise.
The world’s myth goes like this.
In the beginning, the world only knew of one season: Winter.
Winter, unable to bear the solitude made Spring.
Spring adored winter, and winter, spring in a loving cycle.
Winter then made Summer and Autumn. Spring pursued Winter, and Summer and Autumn followed.
The four seasons settled into their cycle, but as result, Spring and Winter’s ‘honeymoon’ (where the “seasons” solely consisted only two of them) was over.
Then Summer and Autumn had an idea, why not entrust their roles to those who lived on the land.
The four seasons (Gods) came to bestow that power on certain humans.
By doing so, Winter gained time to love Spring forever.
Those who have received the Gods’ power and duties are known as “Agents of Seasons”.
Their job is to travel the land throughout the year, to give the seasons blessings of all things.
Additionally, season has inherited a song that they use to as an offering for the rite. I’m very eager to see the lyrics of the other Seasons’ songs. Spring’s rite really does convey the apparent romance between Winter and Spring. Keywords like yearning, pining for the wintry lord, and chasing (their) back for eternity. Winter is probably going to be the most interesting one of the lot, especially given it’s history of suffering from solitude.
Based on what we know so far, it appears their jobs as the God’s proxies aren’t as simple as it may seem. Something terrible had happened caused Hinagiku Kayo (Agent of Spring) to suddenly disappear for ten years By the sounds of it, she may have been forced into hiding due to dangerous circumstances, or was kidnapped as she had been rumoured to have been spirited away.
Not only that, but I do find it interesting that Hinagiku refers to herself as third person, especially since she made a point to describe herself as “the present Hinagiku” is with her. So either she means who she is in the present day, or she’s actually referring to someone else who held the role before her. There’s also trying to figure out where the opening scene fits in the timeline. Was it past or future? I’m presuming it’s something that’ll happen in the future if we’re taking their ages into consideration (Sakura being 19). The scene also included the guard of presumably the Agent of Winter (black haired guy) and one other whom we yet to meet, holding Hinagiku as they were trying to flee from the onslaught, and Sakura seemed to have been grievously wounded. We’ll have to wait for more information to get clarity on that matter going forward.
Needles to say, whatever had happened, it was serious enough that Sakura (Agent of Spring’s guard) clearly suffers trauma from it. She can’t forgive herself for failing to protect Hinagiku (to the point she wishes she could kill her past self), who if I may add, appears to have used her power to potentially protect Sakura when she was younger (she would’ve been nine at the time of Hinagiku’s disappearance). So naturally Hinagiku makes a suggestion to leave her alone even for a little bit, she’ll have a full blown meltdown.
Today, marked Hinagiku return back into the scene, she and Sakura has come to the town of Ryugu, a place that is supposed to be the tropics, a warm place has been trapped in a cycle of autumn, winter, summer— with no spring for the past ten years (throwing the seasons out of whack). Since it’s been so long, Hinagiku seems to be burdened by the guilt of having been absent from the scene for the past ten years, and lack confidence in herself to do a good job. We saw that much when she even thinks her ceremonial rite wasn’t the best either. In a way, it appears she may be selling herself short of what she may truly be capable of. Though it could also be that yes, she is weaker than average. She did mention losing a battle she had fought hard against, which is why she had to endure and survive for the past ten years in whatever situation she was trapped in, before she could finally strike.
We were also shown how Hinagiku understands her role as an Agent of Seasons very well. She describes her job as someone who’s simply being loaned the power of the Goddess to deliver blessings of the Seasons on their behalf, she’s no different than any other Human. For that reason, it will be interesting to see how the other Agents of Seasons treat their roles as the Gods’ proxies. Additionally, it also explains (besides the mythology correlations) why despite being the Agent of Spring, she likes the season of winter (where as Sakura has shown to absolutely loathe it).
She also can’t handle crowds, and potentially may be uncomfortable around adults too. She can’t bear the pressure of hundreds of eyes on her. That’s why Sakura took measures to ensure that nobody we know about when and where she was doing it, even if it meant defying orders from the Four Seasons Agency. They wanted to make it a special occasion by gathering an audience of five-hundred people, and Sakura and Himagiku were having none of it.
Notably, Hinagiku seems most comfortable with interacting with children, though we can see her wanting to crawl back into her shell when she gets lashed at. But at least with children, she shows more resolve and patience even if it hurts. She also had asked Sakura to make it a special exception for Nazuna, the child they encountered going up the mountain to clear the snow off their mother’s grave to perform in front of them. Manifesting the seasons is a secret rite, so typically it’s done quietly in secret. But because the child was too young to have remembered what Spring was (they were two at the time), Hinagiku wanted them to show them the beauty of it. And it did bring back a memory they didn’t even realize they had of both spring and their mother at the earliest of age.
Overall I thought this was a great premiere. With how the opening scene unfolded, I knew right away that it probably wasn’t going to be long before this show makes me cry– sure enough, it did by the end of it. Got me right me in the feels with the kid trying to take care of their mother’s grave, and the beautiful rite that brought back their earliest memory. I’m really looking forward to this one, and I’m going to have to have a tears tracker because they straight up went ahead to describe this to be a story about murder, rescue, friendship, a commonplace love story.
That being said, I had burst out laughing when they so bluntly said: “This story is about murder.” Yup, that’s a heck of a description… But I’m probably going to be bawling whenever that story comes around. Time to stock up on the tissue boxes!
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