[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by Malkuth

@Grey: The kids erroneously thought Kiromaru was going to hand them over to the adults, ignoring the fact that it would mean that he would also get punished, as he explained later in the episode...

Wait, wait - the kids thought that Kiroumaru was going to kill them at the orders of the village elders (since a human can't kill another human it must be the bakenezumi who do the actual killing). Kiroumaru ends up helping them, most likely out of gratitude for Satoru saving his life, but asks them not to tell anyone because he would be executed for it. Which means he most likely does have some sort of orders in place, either specifically regarding Saki, Satoru & Co, or just general orders regarding children on his territory.

Originally Posted by Malkuth

which in turn doesn't make all that sense, since according to the anime the monster rats are not supposed to make contact with kids unable to use psychokinesis... I guess there must have been another reason, which was again skipped in the anime.

TBH I don't remember the part about bakenezumi and kids who can't use their powers, but Satoru can use his powers, and as far as the bakenezumi are concerned Saki may be able to use them as well.

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

Well the way I understood it Saki did find that it was strange thats why she brought it up to her friends in episode one but none of them wanted to give her any response.

This tells me that they know something isn't right about all this however they can't do anything about it.

But even in ep 1 Saki was speaking about it as if it was just a rumor, people never graduating but vanishing instead. Didn't she notice children disappearing from her class? She even says in the same ep that she wasn't the last one to graduate, and that's when everyone is giving her a look.

ETA: I rewatched the scene and it's Shun who tells her it's just a rumor. Saki has been concerned about the whole thing since she saw the nekodamashi, but the others are like "lol just stupid rumors." Maybe Saki is special because she was too close to "disappearing" herself, and overhearing her parents, but the others... Still, it's weird that she never really noticed other kids disappearing from around her.

Originally Posted by Solace

I think it was that prior to the librarian, they couldn't afford to focus on it. Kids left all the time. It's not like the village was doing anything overtly sinister and the educational system was focused on the importance of social order.

It's still pretty weird, though. It's not like someone can just disappear from a community without anyone wondering where they'd gone. Reiko was their friend, how come they never wondered why she was out of school for so long? You'd think someone like Saki would want to visit her or something to see how she's doing.