In typical CLAMP fashion, the second episode makes it obvious that this show is going to spend its time setting up the character relationships and the backdrop of the town before the plot begins to move.
This episode takes the same format as the first, spending about two-thirds of the time on Saya's uneventful school life and then wraps up with a monster fight. While it's not the most compelling of episodes, it's clear that all of this setup is meant to take us somewhere. The dog is obviously not a dog, Mr. Tall-dark-and-brooding knows something, and the emphasis on how small the town is point to something bigger happening than just Saya's fight with the Elder Bairns. What that "something" is exactly is anyone's guess at this point, but the ripples are starting to show from beneath the surface.
However, the show is toeing a fine line between setup and too much setup; the suspense can only be carried for so long before it becomes stale. Its all well and good to establish Saya's relationships and show how the town's small size makes it a good target for supernatural attack, but hopefully something significant will happen soon, however small it might be. Also building on what I mentioned last week about Saya's possible split personality, this episode states that she fights to protect the people who matter to her, which comes down to her friends at school and her father. It also possible that she's fighting a little bit out of revenge as well, since it's mentioned that her mother was killed fighting Elder Bairns. There's a slight feeling that her father is withholding some information, but that is something to be resolved in future episodes, like a lot of underlying elements in this series so far.
Images from NicoNico.com.
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