Number of episodes: 2
Some info:
1) DramaWiki
2) Official Site (Japanese)
A 2 episode special for ATARU early in 2013, it continues from where the series left off in terms of timeline, though it takes place a while after the ending of the series. I thought it would be 2 episodes of new content but unfortunately the bulk of the first episode is filled with flashbacks covering some of the important cases and events during the main series. Well, it might be a good refresher course for those who have lost touch.
The 2nd episode starts on a brand new case, which brings our main lead back to Japan from the States, once again getting involved and aiding to find new leads and clues to a strange case. This time it’s not so much of an abandoned case though, and that it doesn’t really get resolved as we watch on. Even without having to read spoilers/announcements, from the way the 2nd episode developed, it is pretty obvious that there will be a continuation after the 2nd special episode and not surprisingly a movie will be heading our way (probably before this entry gets published)
I wouldn’t want to comment too much about the case this time, but it seems to me it doesn’t involve all that hardcore encyclopaedia style knowledge, though the characteristics of ATARU still gets displayed here. The things that kind of annoyed me are the technical references shown in the episode. While I can understand using “incorrect” IP addresses to represent the PCs involved in the fictitious case, at least it still looks like an address. The one involving the printf is just too much for me to take. Lol, oh well, to those who are unfamiliar it will indeed sound like some gibberish/obscure. Since they actually read out the code. Lol, it was difficult to understand what was being said (English text at that, so expect some Japanese accent) without subtitles.
Anyhow, I think there should be some continuation in the movie though it should ideally not be too dependent on the special episode since there will be some people who would have missed these episodes. For me, the 2nd special episode is still all right, but the first one really had too much flashback proportion for my liking. I hope the movie will be something interesting to catch, probably doing so quite some months later.