[Guido]

Late starting the fall season, but here I am.

To me this is a show that I cannot take lightly with just viewing each episode one.

Clearly, the first episode showcases and suggests that the village is not what it seems to be peaceful at first beginning with the rumors spread around the school.

Spoiler:

And Saki overhearing her parent's conversation the other day, shedding to light that her mother lost a previous child to the spirits.

Either the child had to be offered or became spirited away by the nekodamashi fiends, as the conversation twistedly suggested.

To me this anime feels like the film The Village if one pays close attention to the story from the villagers about the fiends and the nekodamashii, although I can perceive some real Higurashi tropes.
The group of childhood friends meeting up at school engaging in activities but confiding amongst themselves secret rumors that they've heard about the school and among other things happening.

Spoiler:

Saki's looming fear about the curse of the nekodamashii had she ever taken more time to manifest her powers and not graduating from Harmony School in time.

I think the children randomly getting spirited away, like with Reiko's dissappearance, may or may not be an intentional act or event to weed and cull down those children deemed as failures in regards to growing their power's potential from those who are talented geniuses with the use of their powers.