Episode 2 –
Warning: Spoiler!The story of the kidnapping is revealed and how it differed from others at about the same time. It also seems that Makoto's father might have been involved, but the case was never solved. I like how they showed a knife cutting a fried egg yolk right when Masayuki said that Makoto's father was found with his throat slit. But I wonder why Masayuki is so interested in the details of the kidnapping. I don't blame Taro for feeling harassed.
Taro visits the shrine he saw during his OBE to find everything he saw was real, including the trail to the dam. Does this prove he dreamed correctly or did he really have an OBE? He begins to walk on the trail, but is quickly engulfed by a spooky fog. He thinks he sees his sister, but she turns into a spirit. He also comes across the giant spirit that represents his kidnapper in his nightmares. I can see why he sees this as a giant spirit. Not only was his kidnapping terrifying, but a three year old does perceive adults as giants. He also encounters a blue face as he stumbles back to the shrine. Again, was he only dreaming?
Taro meets Miyako sweeping up and she tells him that the shrine isn't a place for children to play, which annoys him. He then asks her if she saw him the other day as he was flying overhead. She just looks at him and just gives him a mysterious “maybe” as she walks away, which makes him even more annoyed because he knows that she did see him. This part was amusing. Miyako acts so much older and wiser than Taro, leaving Taro looking like a child.
Later, Taro re-lives some of his nightmare with Dr. Hirata and the giant black spirit almost forms a face. The face is the one from the police reports, but I'm not sure if Taro is really remembering the face or if it's just something he remembers from his exposure to the media and he superimposes it onto the spirit.
Meanwhile, Masayuki is still snooping about the kidnapping and gets some more details from Michio, while standing on a bridge. He also gets an inkling of “rumors” about the abandoned hospital where Taro was found. But as he looks off the bridge, it looks like he might have a fear of heights. In fact, all the boys seem to have issues so far. Besides Taro and Masayuki, Makoto seems anti-social and it was also shown that he was the one that found his dead father. That must be really hard for a child to deal with – no wonder he's anti-social.
I like how the episode ended with the shot of the old hospital building and the weird sound effects. I think the first time I watched this, the subtitles may have distracted me. With the dub, the story seems so much more creepy than the last time. And I'm really enjoying the dub itself too, although I agree with Cody that the original cast was excellent.