Sara Talks Anime

If I had a nickel for each series that I’ve been following during the Winter 2026 season that also has writeups go up at 5:30 PM PST on their respective days that me react as “Jesus fucking Christ” to their fifth episode, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?

But seriously, I don’t know if this is a sign that I picked good shows or what, but I’m absolutely not disappointed by it at all. It’s also interesting to note that this is the first episode to have only two segments instead of three (or being one long segment like episode 1), but for the purposes of this review, I’ll count them as one long segment as the first one literally leads into the second one.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

The episode begins with Kaya’s class preparing to go on the train for a field trip. While the other teachers are busy, Chie is on the phone with Mob. Mob’s trying to talk to her, but Chie’s like “dude, I don’t have time for this, Kaya has a field trip today”, and eventually hangs up on him. After some interactions between members of Kaya’s class, the kids go with the teachers for their field trip groups and get on the train.

Then this guy who looks to be middle aged who’s standing gets mad at the kids for sitting while he has to stand. To calm things down, however, one of the other teachers gets up and has the man sit in her spot, which is unfortunately next to Chie.

Anyway, once they arrive at the proper station, everyone from the school is able to get off…except for Kaya, who’s stuck inside. Chie runs inside to get Kaya…only for the doors to close once she has Kaya in her grip. Now the only people on the train are the man, Kaya, Chie…and the several ghosts that had gotten on the train!

While service works for a while, it does cut out, likely because the signal doesn’t work in the underworld. And at the very least, you can see the ghosts even without the regular spirit sight that Kaya has within a tunnel! Just make sure not to get off on the first stop afterward…because if the episode led me the right way, that seems to be a one way ticket to death.

Kaya and Chie get off at the next stop that humans can get off at without risking getting killed by spirits, but since there are no trains that run back to the station they’d need to get to, they’d need a taxi. Mob (who had called Chie after she and Kaya got off) had heard about that, and decided to drive over and pick them up!

Of course, his purpose isn’t to deliver them to the field trip location, but to instead take them to see Kaya’s grandma! It also involves Kaya beating up another spirit, and Mob needing to get Kaya and Chie into the room of Kaya’s grandma, all while Mob gets to see Kaya’s grandma beat up more spirits. While the spirits beat up in this section are harmless to humans, we’re in a retirement home, and they can see those spirits.

However, while Kaya was in her grandma’s room, she wasn’t really acting like herself. What’s even weirder is that after she left, she doesn’t seem to remember visiting her grandma, though the rest of the field trip (at least at the point the episode ends) seems to go off without a hitch…though it seems there’s more going on that we’ll get into during the next episode.

And it’s just…aah! So much is happening! It genuinely had me realize that this show was more than just a show for me to turn on at the end of the week after a long week.

…what? Did you think I was going to do that move? I have more dignity than that!

Previous Post: Episode 4 – “Lost Kids Aren’t Scary/Dolls Aren’t Scary/Home Visits Aren’t Scary?”

Next Post: Episode 6 hasn’t aired yet. Assuming that no delays occur, it should go up on February 15th at 5:30 PM (PST).