This episode was mainly spent ramping up the tension and horror, so I don’t have too much to say. They certainly succeeded at their intended goal. These kids have guts of steel. Slipping into the zone completely surrounded by fences, filled with weaponized queerats and likely the ethics committee— no way they’re going to get away with this.

It’s not just the physical danger. They also used Saki’s parents’ fears to elevate the horror, to great effect. Her parents are definitely in a difficult position here.

I wonder how they do it though. How do all the adults communicate effectively while keeping all of the children completely out of the loop?

I would do some speculation, but I have no clue what’s going on. What’s with this tree and the frost covering the ground? It clearly means something to Saki, but I have no idea what.

It’s also confirmed that the strange animals are indeed created by powerful Cantus users. Why do they keep them in the middle of the school though? If they don’t want people to see them, I feel like they should keep them somewhere hidden…

And I liked the scene where Maria throws open the window and jumps onto Saki.

Names

They mentioned that parents choose names reflecting their hopes for the children. Let’s look at each of them briefly. Keep in mind that I’m don’t know that much of Japanese, so this is at best a vague sense of what the names mean.

Saki Watanabe 渡辺 早季 : The first character, 早 means young / early, and the second 季 means season, so you get youngest child. Watanabe means to cross boundaries, which it seems the children of this family are prone to do, to their parents’ distress.

Shun Aonuma 青沼 瞬 : Shun’s name means blink / flicker. He does seem to shine brightly, but it feels like it could go out at any moment. Aonuma means blue lake.

Satoru Asahina 朝比奈 覚 : Satoru means to learn or remember. The characters in Asahina mean morning, compare, and what. Not sure what to make of that, if anything.

Maria Akizuki 秋月 真理亜 : The first two characters together mean “truth”, and the third character means to rank next to or come after. 秋月 (normally pronounced shyuu-getsu, but here pronounced akizuki) means the autumn moon, which I think fits Maria quite well. 

Mamoru Itou 伊東 守 : This one’s easy, Itou means to guard or protect. For the last name, the first character is mostly used for Italy / for an “i” sound, and the second means east. They’re also using a pronunciation which, from what I can make out, is quite unusual. Not sure what to make of his surname.