‘Cause this show needs to be talked about.
(plus I’d already been talking up a storm in forum posts about it lately, so I might as well)

*This post assumes you’ve actually seen the first two episodes of Sagrada Reset, so obligatory spoiler warning*

**Quick Jump Links (’cause I know how to do ’em now xD)**
The Reset (mechanics of Haruki’s “reset” ability)
Souma’s Death (explanation)
Souma Sumire (speculation re: Souma Sumire’s character)

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I mean really. The show has a good amount of potential. Like real good. The only setback is the production side of it (show looks like it was pulled from ’06 to be painfully honest) and I guess it’s a tad bit slow on the stride (and the stiff dialogue could use some work…) but.. well, I like it so far ( 😀 ).

I’d been aboard the hype train since the initial adaptation announcement. Just the synopsis alone at the time made me feel like this was my type of story — mystery with reality-warping (not time-warping, key point here) shenanigans and a touch of drama.

A couple of months go by and the next announcement about it was the seiyuu casting, and by then I was all but sold on Sagrada Reset. Seriously, KanaHana, Yuuki Aoi, and Ishikawa Kaito (and and, Aida Rikako aka Rikyako from LLSS! fame). It was like I’d cast the whole thing myself.

So I have (unreasonably) high hopes for this series and I want to give it it’s fair shakes. And, well, what better way to do that then some good ‘ol theorizing! Sagrada Reset is at its very core a mystery anime, so it’s only right that we try to delve a little deeper into it’s interestingly mysterious world .

A world that implores one of my personal favorite mechanics; rules. I love it when a story (be it in anime, manga, novels, or what have you) presents a set of clearly defined rules that directly affect the world and/or the actions of the characters involved (stuff like Mirai Nikki, Umineko no Naku koro ni, and Death Note to name a few). The reason being that traditionally, in order to progress the story, the characters need to find a way to get around these rules in the most clever way possible (less they outright break them altogether, which is also fine).

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The show starts out with Souma Sumire, a mysterious upperclass-man, arranges a meeting between Asai Kei and Misora Haruki. The reason being that she had deemed them compatible with each other. Rightfully so, as we find out about their abilities.

The Reset

Kei has perfect recollection of the past in what he attributes as his eidetic memory. He is able to remember each and every scene that has appeared before his eyes, heard with his own ears, and thought of in his own mind. Which doesn’t sound like it would be of much use for things other than simply having a really good memory, and it probably isn’t without Haruki’s ability.

Haruki’s abilitiy allows her to perform a “reset” to up to three days in the past. What this entails is a complete wipe of the events and experiences from the point where she resets up to her last save point. To put it simply, she can make it so the world reverts back to a previous state (as opposed to her just going back in time). Meaning even Haruki’s own thoughts and actions are wiped and sent back to how it was. …Which again doesn’t sound like much, considering nothing will inherently change the natural order of events in the world — until its coupled together with Kei’s ability.

You see, Kei is able to retain memories even after the wipe from Haruki’s reset.

Running their abilities in tandem makes it so that they can resolve events in the past to force a different outcome. But there’s a catch. A couple actually, in what are the “restrictions” to Haruki’s reset ability.

The first set of restrictions to Haruki’s reset is that she can only go back to what she calls “save points”. Save points are, exactly what they sound: points in time to which she can return to when doing a reset. She needs to actively declare when to set a save point. She can’t set save points after the fact (meaning she can’t set save points for yesterday, or the day before). She can only use a particular save point once. Once she goes back to one, she can no longer use it as a save point for another reset — meaning Haruki and Kei only have one shot at doing something for that particular time.

The second restriction states that she cannot set save points within 24 hours of performing a reset. This is crucial when you add the first restriction to the equation. Not being able to set a new save point within the same day as performing a reset means that they can oly go back to a certain day once and only once. Meaning if something should happen during their second time after a reset but before the day passes, they can no longer go back and attempt to fix it.

The last restriction, which had been mentioned earlier is that she can only go back as far as three days in the past — granted that she still has an unused save point from that time. Once an event has happened past 72 hours of present time, Haruki can no longer reset said event, even if she set a save point.

Souma’s Death

A lot of people (myself included) were caught off-guard by the sudden development of having supposedly a key character die off-screen in the second episode of the show. However, more than it had been surprising, it confused a lot of viewers as to why it wasn’t avoided. Haruki and Kei have the means to at least revert the events to where they might be able to do something and prevent Souma’s death.

Which is not that weird to call out. I mean, the show spent a good two whole episodes to showcase what these two were capable of. Almost as if it built up to their helplessness when they actually needed to do a reset the most, but couldn’t. Yep. If they could, they probably would have gone back and tried. But they couldn’t.

This is where Haruki’s restrictions come into play. If you guys would recall the events leading up to the day Souma Sumire died, the last save point that we know of is a period of time in that very day. She used it as per Kei’s instruction. The following day is when they find out about Souma’s death. At this point, not only were there any unused save points for that day (since they already used it), Haruki would not have been able to set new ones for that day either (see “second restriction”). Their one chance at “saving” her was the one time they went back to that day.

But, could they actually save her?

We actually see Souma Sumire fall off a bridge in the very first episode (but c’mon no one really expected her to actually die, right?). What we don’t know about this event is when it occured. The scene was a hard-cut from when Haruki and Kei were questioning Mari, but we know from the second episode that she lives past the events of that day. In Episode 2 it was revealed that the scene was a good two weeks from when the case they were handling came to a close. So why were we shown that scene?

Souma Sumire

This girl is an enigma — and I absolutely love that about her. We don’t know much about Souma other than she was the impetus for the chain of events leading up to this point. By initiating Kei and Haruki’s meeting, the potential of “fixing reality” became closer to an actual possibility. Until proven to be true/false, I would like to present this as Souma Sumire’s main goal: that is, to “complete” Haruki’s otherwise incomplete reset.

Why then does she want to get hold of this “complete reset”?

Well, I have a theory, but let me set it up first–

The second episode featured Souma Sumire’s death, along with a fair number of peculiar circumstances surrounding it.

On the afternoon of August 31 we see Souma call and subsequently visit Kei. They talk for a while until Souma leaves. The next day Haruki and Kei meet at school and somehow end up trying to express their feelings for one another, which leads to them sharing an awkward kiss. This prompts Kei to order a reset from [September 1, 3:15 PM] to [August 31, 3:15 PM] (important to note, given Haruki’s restrictions). However, in the second iteration of August 31, Souma doesn’t call Kei. The next day, September 1st they find out even before coming to school, that Souma Sumire was found dead.

The curious thing here is the change in events outside of Haruki and Kei’s interactions — primarily, Souma Sumire’s actions. Why did they change? More importantly, how could it have changed? Remember, Haruki’s ability wipes everything up to the last save point. No memory survives (that we know of) except Kei’s. Haruki restores reality the way it was while keeping the flow of events for that specific time. Nothing should change in the order of events unless Kei himself influences said change. More importantly, prior to the reset of September 1st, Souma Sumire was still alive or at the very least her body had not been found yet (as they were already at school and they seem to know nothing about it).

This doesn’t make sense (what does with this show lol), primarily because the reset shouldn’t have changed anything of note on August 31st, thereby not causing any sort of change with anyones actions for that day.

(speculations in-coming)

It could be a number of things really. For the most part I’m not entertaining theories of a third party being involved (as that would be way too cheap), and am focusing on these three characters alone. That is to say I believe Souma Sumire is definitely an active party in all this — which means she had some way of defying Haruki’s reset. The key lies in Souma Sumire’s yet-to-be-revealed ability (assuming she has one).

We’ve learned a few things about how certain abilities are affected by the reset. Kei withstands the wipe by retaining his memories. Other abilities performed prior to a reset does not get wiped so long as Kei remembers it happening (think of Kei as some sort of video recorder and it’d make much more sense). We also have the key word “memory”. All this has lead me to believe that the way of “beating” Haruki’s reset is through memory. It’s a bit ironic considering memory is what strenghens it althemore, but that’s what I believe (for now).

While it could be possible that Souma Sumire shares the same ability as Kei, well, that would be cheap xD So let’s not assume that. Instead, let’s try to dig a bit more with what little we have so far.

In their first meeting, Souma Sumire exclaims that she and Haruki are not compatible. Of course, this was a jab at Haruki’s near-robotic personality.. but maybe there’s more to what she said. More than their personalities, what if she had meant that their abilities were not compatible. It’s fair to say that most abilities wouldn’t really do much considering the very nature of Haruki’s reset, but what if Souma’s ability goes beyond the wipe of the reset. If Kei, who has perfect recollection of the past, is compatible with Haruki who can recreate the past — what ability of Souma, on par with Kei’s, would be incompatible with Haruki?

My theory is thus: Souma Sumire is a clairvoyant.
She can see events that happen in the future. To what extent, well, even I won’t venture such a wild guess. More importantly, how does this answer the above questions? Let’s go at it one by one. First; how would it be incompatible with the reset? Well, let’s look at it like this.. Haruki can only go “back” in time, not forwards. So any information about the next day is useless for someone who can only fix yesterday. Conversely, someone who sees the future should really only be concerning themselves with the present.

What does Souma being a clairvoyant have to do with her completing the reset? One possibility is that Souma knew of how it can be used for.. something (assuming she does see the future in some manner). Maybe it helps solves a whole lot of problems (if not a massive one) in Sagrada beyond their time in middle school.

I mean, on its own, Haruki’s reset is pretty much useless (given that the same string of events will happen again anyways). But coupled with Kei’s ability, it becomes a very powerful tool for resolving errors. If not for Souma Sumire’s involvement, the two wouldn’t have even met and possibly not ever over the course of their lives given Haruki’s personality. But because Souma knows that them working together would be instrumental, she outright forces an encounter between Haruki and Kei.

Why does she have to die? Well, it could be that without an event like Souma dying “because of the reset”, there would be no need for Haruki and Kei to be “monitored” by the bureau. Episode 2 has them being recruited in a service club that solve cases like they did before — and possibly a case that needs solving no matter what. Like, Souma needed to die to set things in motion for something bigger. Maybe preventing her own death (despite possibly knowing it would be coming) endangered humanity in some way.

Going with that idea, Souma may have been prodding Kei to “save” her the first time when she called him. Like maybe she wanted to force an outcome where she’d live alongside them if Kei agreed to go with her to the mountains (like some sort of weird self-gambit). But he didn’t. Not calling Kei during the second time may have been a measure to not mess up the timeline more than she already has.

Of course, the real joke at the end of all this is that all this theorizing goes to sh*t when we find it just becomes a love triangle thing xD

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So there you have it. Man it’s been a while since I’ve poured so much thought into a show. Hopefully it pays off and the show goes towards a similar direction to what I’ve been speculating. If not, well, at least I got a few good thoughts written down.

Anyone watching Sagrada Reset?
How’re you guys liking it so far?
Any theories of your own?
Drop a comment below! ‘Til then 😀