Rika Furude, the shrine maiden of Hinamizawa, has been living through the same few weeks over and over, each time watching her friends descend into paranoia and violence, each time dying before she can stop it. In this second season Rika's awareness of the time loops moves to the foreground. With her companion Hanyu, she searches for the root cause of the village's recurring tragedies through the answer arcs that resolve the mysteries the first season posed.