Sagrada Reset Part 2 (4 Stars)

This is a direct sequel to "Sagrada Reset Part 1". It was released only two months later, which gives the impression that the two parts were originally made as a single film, but the four hour running time was deemed too long. In the film's chronology, the second film starts six days after the end of the first film.

In the first film Soma was brought back to life after her suicide was undone by her time travelling friends. That was two years previously. Ever since then she's been hiding at Haruki's house. She doesn't want anyone except for her closest friends to know she's alive, because it's important to her that events unfold the same way as they did when she was dead. Now it's time to reveal herself as the Second Priestess.

I didn't mention in my review of the last film that there's an organisation called the Bureau which watches over the people in the town with abilities. Supposedly the Bureau has been created to prevent misuse of the powers, but the Bureau's leader Urachi actually wants to remove everyone's powers and make the town normal again. I apologise, I couldn't figure out why he wants to do this. The films are too complex for me to understand everything after a single viewing. I can't help feeling that things have been cut from the comics that would have explained everything.

Soma's intention, and the reason she committed suicide, was to prevent the special powers in the town from being removed.

There was a character in the first film, Kagaya, that I considered so insignificant that I didn't mention him. He's Urachi's personal assistant, responsible for opening and shutting doors and carrying Urachi's diary. That doesn't sound like much, does it? Whatever Kagaya closes stays locked, and nothing can open it. In the second film it's explained that this is a time lock; any door he shuts is frozen in time. The second film shows that he can even freeze people in time.

51 years ago there were only three people in the town with powers; a married couple and their piano teacher. The woman could foresee the future, and the man could make the town a place where people would have powers, but only for a brief time. The man had an unspecified illness, and he would die within a year. His wife knew that if the townspeople had powers there would be a healer able to cure him. Shortly after the powers appeared in the town, they had a son: Urachi. When he was eight years old he asked his friend Kagaya to freeze them in time so that the powers in the town wouldn't disappear. I still don't understand why. Ever since then, for more than 40 years, they've been kept as prisoners. But now Urachi wants to free them.

My head hurts. The story is fascinating, but I just don't get it. As far as I can tell, the comics aren't available in English, but the animated mini-series based on the comics keeps close to the stories. Maybe I can buy them. I'll consider it.