Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei 02 Thoughts

....
The second OVA is finally out! After watching it just now.... here are some of my thoughts...

Initially, I thought that Rika was still in the world where they defeated Takano, and is now living with free from her chains of fate.
However... Rika is thrown into a completely different world, without any tragedy.

First... the Dam War didn't happen. Hinamizawa agreed and worked with the government for a dam to be constructed, without any tragedy at all.

Second... Rena never moved out from Hinamizawa to Ibaraki... resulting in the absence of her mother cheating on her dad and getting a divorce...

Thrid... Nothing bad happened to Satoko, Satoshi is still here, her parents never supported the Dam Construction because the Dam War never happened, and so nothing tragic happened.

Fifth... Irie and Takano isn't here... which means Takano Hifumi never adopted Takano, and so the chain of events streaming from there never happened.

Sixth... Oyashiro-sama's curse didn't happen...

Seventh... Hinamizawa Syndrome doesn't seem to exist... maybe it doesn't exist...

By the time Rika realises that Keiichi wasn't here, I've figured it out - this is the world where Frederica Bernkastel prevented Takano's parents from dying by telling Takano that her parents were going to the department store - the very trigger of the tragic events that will led to the 'normal' Hinamizawa.

Here is the question: what if nothing bad or tragic happened in Hinamizawa? This arc shows the very question that all fans would have asked themselves at one point or another.

But one question hasn't been answered - what happened after the truck was supposed to hit Rika? How did she get thrown into this alien Hinamizawa? An explanation is required here. Where is Hanyuu? Does she not exist in this world? But that's not very likely since she is Oyashiro-sama.

It'll be very interesting to see how this develops out. Very. Interesting.