#Hinamizawa curse

[trashygayspooder]

More trauma-dumping, who remembers Higurashi when they cry

imma be honest, this is (pardon my french) the most fucked up anime I've ever seen. Scratch that, one of the most fucked up shows I've ever seen. And that's saying something, because I love horror and gore, like I watch ghost hunting for fun. I don't exactly know what it is about this one, maybe it's the general cuteness it gives off at surface level, maybe it's the fact that everything repeats itself, in different creative horrific ways, but it's honestly a chilling watch. Especially the neck scratching symptom of the hinamizawa curse. I physically cannot scratch my neck anymore after watching the show 😂😭💀.

At least the gou intro is a real vibe!! Like seriously the song is epic!! But like this scene from the original was like What the fuck!!! And then there was the scene from gou with rika and satoko, cat deceiving chapter 3, I felt sick watching that. Idk, but honestly it's all just quite sickening to watch

[ilaiyayaya]

Finally Another Long Schizo-post, Been Too Long

Fuck I need to stop making everything a draft again and like actually post things, this blog exists for a fucking reason, and that reason is only partially for awawa_happy.mp4. I need to stop fucking reverting back into neet-mode every time I somewhat open up I literally made this to have an outlet to more easily prevent that.

Fuck I effectively went back into isolation again without even realizing it. In the last 6 months I have barely left my house outside of going to work and occasionally buying groceries, and I've even been buying groceries less frequently specifically because I've become afraid to go out in public most days again. Even when I do go somewhere now I more often than not spend like 30 minutes just sitting in my car trying to calm my nerves before going inside and it wasn't until today that I noticed I'd consistently been doing that again recently. Around August my car was broken for nearly 2 months and because of that I wasn't really able to go anywhere non-essential during that time, and I feel like that's probably what's started this downward spiral, before then I'd pretty consistently went somewhere fun every other weekend, and uhhh now I don't do that ever at all. It definitely didn't help that a few weeks ago I was stuck in my house for an entire week due to snow, and that was not a fun week, I think I may have actually been traumatized from being stuck in isolation for years before because within a single day of that week I was breaking. I really need to find the motivation to actually go out and do something more frequently again, it'd probably be a lot healthier than just rotting away at home.

In general I've felt a lot more anxiety-ridden recently, and the last month especially has been like, really bad. For as long as I can remember, usually my mental state fucking plummets around the holidays, but it always rebounds pretty quickly around January, that did not happen this year, very fucked up. I don't even know why exactly I've felt so shit this month, like there have been a few bad things happen but like, nothing more than like the average of most months, and a lot worse things happened in the latter months of last year than this past month. Like, my job's been even more hellish than usual recently, but like, outside of work I can't really pinpoint much, and I've literally been feeling worse on days where I'm off than when I'm at work so like, I don't think it's only that. But yea anyways anxiety bad, I've been a lot more nervous and irritable lately and that's not really fun, and I have a lot of weird, bad habits I do when I'm nervous like running my hands through my hair or biting myself that I've been doing way more recently and like, my hands hurt, I literally have a light bite mark on my wrist right now and I wasn't even conscious I was biting my wrist until I started thinking about writing this.

Lalala work bad I hate work, work fucking SUCKS right now. There's like double the people there normally are and that's gonna remain the case for the next month at least and it's too fucking loud and people are scary and it's too fucking cold. Actually I think I figured out one of the reasons I feel like shit even on my days off recently, my schedule fucking sucks right now, I'm not even working that many hours but every week I'm alternating between having to wake up at like 6 a.m. and having to be at work at like nearly midnight and it's massively fucked up my sleep schedule and now I've just been eeping in like 2 hour intervals at completely random times throughout the day and I constantly feel eepy and some days I sleep like 1 hour and other days I sleep like 15 and I feel exhausted either way and now that I'm thinking about being eepy I'm getting eepy honk shoo honk shoo hoooonk mimimi that's a lie I'm not eeping I can't eep until I finish writing this otherwise I'll forgor everything I was gonna write zzzzzzz.

Lalalalalalalalalalala bangs pans together really loudly to scare away the demons of self-consciousness (not to be confused with the angels of self-consciousness which are actually far worse). Dude being a girl is really cool and all but like whoever invented gender dysphoria is really actually not my friend (it was god, god did it, mods invert god's controls until he apologizes). Like I've always kinda hated myself in a lot of ways, and feeling dysphoric about my body especially is not at all a new thing, me being trans isn't even a new thing, but like with each passing month it just feels like it gets worse and this month was a big spike. Also I started slowly coming out to most of my friends like 6 months ago and most of them have been like relatively fine about it, but I've like kinda sorta maybe (?) sorta lost 2 friends and like 2 isn't a big number but it still feels pretty shit to have 2 people you considered friends, even if not super close friends, just stop talking to you completely. Anyways I don't know how to write about this kind of stuff without being too embarrassed or internally dying so no more gender talk BEGONE!!! maybe I'll eventually make a full post about it that I don't just keep as a roughdraft, someday.

[vapidsoup]

living in hinamizawa must be so fucking funny. its june 1983, youre hanging out with your friends in some fuckass village with zero (0) formal education institutions and being like yeah man im so hyped to go to the watanagashi festival and play the ring toss. hopefully nobody dies from the blood curse for the fifth consecutive year :/ anyways do these cicadas ever shut the fuck up or

[jadeazora]

With the talk of "curses," those Hinamizawa vibes are back. (Tho instead of getting killed/spirited away, you're stuck doing the mochi mochi chicken dance constantly instead.)

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 7 Minagoroshi pt. 1

I know I'm probably giving it way more thought than I should but I wonder why the MangaGamer release of Higurashi calls them Higurashi Hou. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Kai means answers (maybe Umineko? I don't remember), so I just wonder why the Steam/GOG releases call them Hou. According to a quick googling Hou means way or method? Then there's Hou - Rei, Hou+, I don't really want to go deep diving into it at the moment because I've still got these two chapters at least to go.

This might sound sarcastic but I genuinely like that this is how this chapter opens. I'm certain it'll go back to the formula of the club doing their usual shenanigans, then eventually the terrors, but I like how this opens with a frank discussion about Rika and the time loop.

I wonder why the universe, or whatever you want to call it decided to use Shion as the murderer twice. I want to theorize that there's some sort of importance for the fact that of the five chapters set in 1983 it used the same killer twice, but I can't really come up with a way to explain it.

I don't know why I never really thought about the fact that Ooishi is near constantly the instigator of the murders and events. It's easy to try and posture that with the explanations being given that I totally and completely called and figured this out. But the truth of the matter is while I did sort of notice that Ooishi seems to start the plot towards its eventual conclusion I never really did anything with that information. I was about to argue that he wasn't really that big of a part of chapter three I remembered that a lot of the stuff involving Teppei and Satoko's abuse never really came to the fore until he showed up to question her about Rina's death in that chapter.

The thing about Takano is I don't really know how much of her own bullshit she buys. I know that in the scrapbooks she goes out of her way to paint the Sonozakis as the central pillar of the conspiracy of the day, but how much of that is genuine belief? I don't have much to base it on but I get the vague impression that her attempts to pin it all on the Sonozaki family/Three Families is all a red herring that she's trying to mislead people into believing for some reason. The why and the what eludes me, assuming of course that's right, and it's not just she's bonkers and just writing whatever. I do get the impression that her entire reason for explaining/mentioning the Onigafuchi Swamp, the curse, all of that is entirely just for her own personal amusement. She's trolling the cast for reasons.

This I find interesting, why doesn't Rika possess any knowledge about what happens during the curse killings of 1980-1982? Is whatever's ruling over the timeline of 1983 able to suppress her memory of it? Or does it tie in to the fact she doesn't remember anything around the time of her own personal killing? I can't explain to you why I'm so much easier going with the aspects of the Hinamizawa mystery here being potentially explained away with magic bullshit than I was with the shown to be blatantly untrue parasite/aliens explanation but I am. Maybe because the mystical aspect has been established a lot longer than the sudden appearance of parasites and aliens? Maybe I myself am slightly spoiled due to having read/played Umineko first so the idea that witches are behind the fantastical crimes doesn't bother me as much. That's not idle speculation on my part, there's a screen relatively soon that mentions the idea of Rika being a witch.

So with this I think it's safe to assume that shortly after the events of Onikakushi Rika did get killed. What entity is constantly killing Rika? I doubt that it's the same person getting Tomitake and Takano. At some point around their deaths in Tsumihoroboshi I started thinking that Takano is probably behind Tomitake's death. I have no real basis for this assumption, I just think it's highly likely she would be one the one to inject him with the drug that makes you kill yourself. It feels more plausible than a group of cultists ambush him, then inject him, and then just let him go. It also makes sense if you assume that Takano's belief about the parasite is based even slightly on reality because this way she could verify the effects of the infection with her own eyes. The fact she dies almost immediately afterwards is kind of irrelevant to this, because I don't think she ever expects to be gotten on the day of Watanagashi.

[onewholivesinloops]

thinking about satoko’s suicide ideation and desire to die when she first came back to hinamizawa, hearing of how the school, which was her safe space from the village’s discrimination, is going to be demolished soon, staring at the destroyed building that she once called home with rika, and walking to the shrine completely alone which is the place of the original sin she committed by breaking oyashiro-sama’s statue and foresaking her best friend, the thing she believes made her cursed as a child, as if she’s going there to be punished. satoko becoming oyashiro-sama and choosing to enact tragedy on rika and hinamizawa once again is her choosing to embody that which she hates about herself.

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Massacre Chapter 11

Satoko has to take two shots per day to suppress her Hinamizawa Syndrome. Since this freakout was on a Thursday, she probably was in the same state on the corresponding Thursday in Curse Killing but just didn't get triggered. And she probably stopped taking her shots altogether in that timeline as well.

Not only is Satoko refusing to seek help, but Teppei is also manipulating her love for Satoshi to keep her from running away. One of the things that keeps Satoko going is the hope that one day her brother will return home. And she keeps his room clean and tidy for when that day comes. And now Teppei is holding that hope hostage.

It would be kinda funny if "Capiche" was a direct translation here. We have a yakuza who correctly used an Italian phrase. That makes me imagine Teppei likes watching The Godfather (The movie came out in 1972 so it's entirely possible Teppei could have seen it).

Teppei's return truly is the most evil of these Devil scripts. It took nothing to make Keiichi fly into a murderous rage when Rika told him about Satoko's situation.

As this sotry draws closer to an ideal solution, this Devil script is trying everything it can to break Keiichi. If he gives into despair or rage, then either he or Shion will kill Teppei and all this will end in tragedy.

After everything she's seen him do this arc, Rika has begun talking to Keiichi as her equal in her journey through these timelines. She initially was going to refer to Keiichi as "This Keiichi" before correcting herself to refer to him as "You". Keiichi doesn't know about the timeloops and the parallel worlds, nor does he have conscious access to all the memories of what he's done in them; but the Keiichi here is the accumulated growth and characterization across all the timelines. He is not the Keiichi Maebara of the Massacre arc; he is Keiichi Maebara.

They've forced the Center to go from a conference room to what I would assume is the director's office. While Harayama asked they have only three representatives speak on Satoko's behalf, the group has truly gained more ground in their fight. At this point, the director is willing to talk to them on equal terms. The Center is not going to be dismiss their concerns and they do not have to bring excessive numbers to the table to force them to listen. And the Center's demands still gave Keiichi's group the advantage because there are three representatives for Keiichi's group versus two for the Center. And I would say they did that deliberately because they had to get Rika her own chair.

This is neither a temporary room, nor a publicly-used one. All parties will have all the time necessary to get every point across to each other until they are in agreement.

For the first time in a while, we have Rika's perspective on things. Just as she's repeated several times now, she cannot do anything on her own and can only believe in the strength of others.

Keiichi asked her to be one of the representatives because he believes she has the ability to sway the situation in their favor. He picked Irie because Irie is Satoko's doctor and is someone Keiichi swore to work with to protect Satoko. And Keiichi could have picked anyone else as the third representative, but Rika is the one closest to Satoko and who has encouraged him the most to keep on this path despite all their setbacks.

At this point, I think Hanyu is a secret aspect of the Three Rules. She isn't behind any of them, nor does she have anything to do with how they interact. Instead, she is a barrier keeping the Three Rules from being tampered with. She's afraid that if Rika fully commits to a world and is utterly crushed by destiny, then Rika will give up trying and Hanyu will be alone.

Hanyu speaks of destiny as an absolute thing. The dice are pre-rolled and if they don't land in Rika's favor, she should move onto a new world and roll the dice again. Eventually, the dice must come out absolutely favorable.

If I were to choose a dice game to compare everything to, I'd choose Yahtzee. The game consists of 13 rounds. In each round you roll 5 dice. You can then reroll some or all of them two more times. After, you assign your final results to one of 13 score categories. You can only use each category once and you have to assign each roll to a category no matter how fitting or non-fitting it is.

Your final Yahtzee score is just as dependent on how you choose to categorize each roll as the rolls themselves. Maybe you roll three 6's and two 1's and you assign it as a Full House since that's the highest scoring category you can give yourself. But then you roll three 1's and two 2's and you discover you missed out on a better opportunity because you could have scored far higher if you had assigned the previous roll as a Three of a Kind.

Maybe you roll four 3's and a 4 and place it in the Threes category instead of the Four of a Kind category. You'll get fewer points now, but maybe you'll get a better Four of a Kind later and this will contribute to a score bonus in the future. Sometimes, these gambles pay off. Sometimes they don't.

The absolute worse result you can get is 1-2-3-5-6. The only category you can get any decent score for it is the Chance category which scores the sum of all the dice.

Rika's attitude toward everything is akin to rolling a 1-2-3-5-6 on the first round of Yahtzee and surrendering immediately. Sometimes you have to accept lesser outcomes and sometimes you roll what might be considered an amazing roll in other games only to be forced into it being a dud. But the end result isn't determined by the dice, but what you do with them.

It's too bad the club hasn't been shown playing any dice games. The club attitude is to use every tactic to win. They would never accept the rolls they got and would lie, cheat, and manipulate everything to their advantage.

Wow I got super sidetracked.

The point is, something just clicked in Rika's head. All eyes are on her. Believing a miracle isn't just saying it will happen. Rena said they have to combine their efforts to make a miracle happen. At this moment, everyone is putting their belief in her because she's the only one who can move things forward.

Keiichi has managed to bring a great many people together for a common cause. Together, they've brought the Consultation Center to a state where it will act as soon as Satoko asks for help. But now it's Rika's turn to make the miracle happen.

But despite this revelation, Hanyu only sees the worst possible outcome where everything still fails and Rika is too broken to try again.

Rika hasn't resigned herself to destiny like Hanyu fears. Rika has decided to fight for this world where everyone else is fighting together.

back

Spoiler Discussion

It feels weird to see Takano with the group.

At this point, she's already committed to destroying the village. Tomitake is already showing early signs of Hinamizawa Syndrome as evidenced by how he heard Hanyu stomping her foot in chapter 5.

Takano is joining Keiichi's rally while fully intent on killing him and Satoko and the entire village next week. And she's well aware that Rika is partially aware of her plan since Rika warned her about what was going to happen on the night of the festival.

So I'd like to know if she's genuinely wanting to help out, if she's doing it because she wants to figure out how Rika knows so much, or if she's simply trying to keep up appearances.

[bluejewel5535]

On Higurashi ch2 watanagashi rn and I think it's interesting that Keichi's stradegy for winning in a lot of these club games is convincing other people to be on his side.

With the board game on this chapter, telling his opponents that if he wins he'll use the club members special penalty for Sakato and Rika to go on 'dates' with the opposition.

In zombie tag weaponizing Satokos usage of other players to his advantage (this does backfire). And in Cluedo where he gets Rena to share their cards together but that plan goes awry when Ooishi appears and destabilizes his trust.

(Even in the introductory card game Old Bachelor they play Mion's tactic at the end was for Keichi to overthink her actions and trust that she would make a complicated play)

When the story derives it's conflict from the idea of outsiders vs established community it's interesting seeing the MC functioning with the community until it is ruined by the uncomfortable reality of what has happened in the past.

(I'm barely into the story so I'm not yet ready to make generalizations on the games overarching narrative but it feels like to me that if Ooishi didn't tell Keichii what was happening then he would properly acclimate to the town and not be spirited away by next year. But admittedly Keichi was already sleuthing what happened with the dam lynching so maybe that's an overoptimistic perspective)

(In fact it occurs to me now that, Tomitake had been coming to Hinamizawa for a few years now but only died after telling Keichi what the curse was.)

[clambrulee]

Okay so I haven’t read tokihogushi yet and I’m only halfway through kageboushi but I feel like the vns paint a more accurate picture of Natsumi’s personality. In the manga we don’t really see her negative personality traits as much because we’re only seeing her pov and she’s usually dissociating when she has a drastic mood change so you don’t actually know what’s going on until the final chapters.

If you’ve only read the manga she comes off as more of an innocent victim which on some level you can argue she is, but it’s complicated. The emphasis on her struggle to accept people from Hinamizawa and feeling like she has to denounce her connections to her hometown as well and conform to city life make her feel more real. She’s not perfect. She’s not completely sweet and innocent. She acts kind of horrible towards people she knows are from Hinamizawa including her grandma because she thinks their worship of Oyashiro-sama is creepy and if she so much as speaks to them she’ll be branded as a creepy person from the creepy village. She’s incredibly self-conscious to an unhealthy degree so much that it causes her to act selfish towards others solely to protect her own reputation. It’s definitely partly due to her mother’s negative influence. Her mom hates Hinamizawa and she hates how much her own mother worships Oyashiro-sama. She thinks her old traditions are creepy and that gets passed on to Natsumi, which quite honestly gives Natsumi a very ableist view of the village, but that’s also due to the way she was raised.

Natsumi’s mom is emotionally abusive which definitely plays into how heavily her daughter internalizes the narrative that Hinamizawa is a creepy village full of “crazy people.” I know at some point in the narrative we’re in Natsumi’s head and it’s not actually her mom saying certain stuff, because she’s hallucinating but what sticks out is what happens even before that. Before Natsumi starts acting violent. When I read the manga I got confused about whether or not her mother actually was that bad because of the unreliable narrator, but reading the vns make it clear that she’s kind of a terrible parent. She doesn’t try to reason with Natsumi. She just punishes and berates her repeatedly without letting her get a word in edgewise because Natsumi broke the rules and got a job “behind her back.” But the only reason she got the job was to buy her parents an anniversary gift. It’s no wonder her daughter’s so terrified to do anything considered “weird.” She can’t even have a bit of a private life without her mom breathing down her neck and telling her she’s wrong. Just for saving up some money. Natsumi doesn’t even trust her mom enough to tell her that she has a boyfriend because she knows that she’ll overreact. And her father kind of just doesn’t defend her at all because he’s scared to talk back to his wife. The woman gets into screaming matches with the grandmother just because she doesn’t want to hear her praying in a time of crisis. Of course when grandma talks about the curse, it distresses the family, but she’s just an anxious old woman struggling in a time of distress and she isn’t intentionally doing anything wrong. But no one actually tries to calm her down. And Natsumi’s mother only exacerbates the situation by yelling at her to shut up about Hinamizawa. No wonder Natsumi doesn’t want to be associated with the village, seeing her own mother’s attitude toward her grandmother.

And then Natsumi starts distrusting her friends. She acts cold and uncaring towards them. She becomes extremely possessive of Akira, believing he’s the only person who cares about her. Thinking that her friends are going behind her back and trying to keep him away from her. It’s all a misunderstanding. But it’s incredibly sad when you realize that the reason she’s so distrustful is because her own mother has her on such a tight leash that she can’t even feel comfortable enough to confide in the people she cares about.

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Higurashi Month 2024, Day 30: Optimistic

Higurashi Month prompts archive: AO3 

Young men are always viscerally convinced of their own immortality. –Reserved for the Cat, Mercedes Lackey

The thing about Keiichi and his life is this: he is fourteen years old, and he grew up –inasmuch as he is already grown– in the cold grey box of the city, where everything is regimented and everything follows a schedule.

He is only fourteen years old.

For Keiichi, such a thing as cause and consequence existed only in the thread of a mystery novel, or a math problem, or a logic puzzle. For all of his short life, adults have been telling him what to do and where to go; and when he gets there, everything is exactly as expected. His opportunity for independent action was limited.

So when he gets the airsoft gun, he doesn't think about opportunities beyond the instructions on the box or what he's looked up on the internet. Physical activity releases stress, and he wants that. He wants the numb, mindless satisfaction of shooting pellets into cardboard boxes, inflicting what little violence he can as an outlet for his frustration.

It is fun for a little bit. Then, casually, one day his eye falls on the Do Nots section of the gun's packaging.

Do not shoot at other people.

Something sparks in his dull, leaden soul at that moment. Why shouldn't he? These stupid little pellets aren't even metal; they're just plastic BB rounds. Sometimes they bounce off cardboard.

It's just another stupid rule. Just another stupid restriction laid on his shoulders.

When he sneaks out, later, to aim his gun at the kids walking home, he's planned everything out. He'll shoot the younger girls because they won't fight back, and he'll be careful and clever to make sure no one spots him or connects the shootings to him. He's just blowing off steam; the pellets will sting, briefly, and that's it. It's practically harmless.

The shootings persist despite various precautions, and fear ramps up in his district, and Keiichi carries a warm, smug glow throughout the day.

What he fails to think about –until that girl, that day, that eye– is the obvious fact that manufacturers are legally required to put disclaimers on their products for a reason. That safety warnings on packages aren't put there to stifle him, specifically, but to prevent lawsuits and injuries.

Cause and consequence.

~*~

Keiichi moves to Hinamizawa. It's a fresh start, a clean slate. He's going to become better here, become an upstanding person who would never injure people due to his own selfish frustrations.

He meets some children his age, and makes some friends. Boisterous Mion Sonozaki, cheerful Rena Ryugu, mischievous Satoko Hojo and adorable Rika Furude. They scuffle and play and draw deep breaths of the revitalizing Hinamizawa air as the year winds inexorably towards summer.

He likes these girls. They make him feel welcome, inviting him into their social group even though he's a stranger, even though their village is isolated and somewhat insular.

It's when he's at the dump site with Rena that he finds the old magazines detailing a murder. He's surprised that such a quiet village could engender such a thing –and then, later, when both Mion and Rena sharply cut off his questions with a denial, suspicious.

What are they hiding from him? Why are they hiding it?

Hinamizawa is insular, but it isn't that insular… right?

He meets Takano-san and greets Tomitake-san at the festival. They tell him more –tell him enough to chill his blood. They tell him about the five-year curse, about the murders, about the disappearances; about how everyone in the village knows and fears the consequence of this yearly festival.

The next day, they are both dead.

When the detective appears, Keiichi doesn't hesitate for even a second to ask questions, poke deeper, stir the bushes and poke around under the rock. His friends are hiding something from him, something maybe dangerous, and he will uncover it. That is the way of things.

What he fails to consider, even long after the walls of his bedroom are painted red with blood and his palms are sore from clenching the bat's grip, is that maybe his friends had a reason to hide such gruesome things from him. Maybe, because he was new and because they cared, they avoided the subject to keep from frightening him.

He was too curious to think of the consequences, and too curious to consider a cause, until it was all too late.

~*~

Keiichi moves to Hinamizawa. It's a fresh start, a clean slate. He's going to become better here, become an upstanding person who would never injure people due to his own selfish frustrations.

He meets some children his age, and makes some friends. Boisterous Mion Sonozaki, cheerful Rena Ryugu, mischievous Satoko Hojo and adorable Rika Furude. They scuffle and play and draw deep breaths of the revitalizing Hinamizawa air as the year winds inexorably towards summer.

He likes these girls. Mion, especially, makes him feel a little strange, a little new. When he finds himself competing with her, he seems to second-guess himself constantly unless he thinks strictly in terms of winning the game.

He tries to ignore it. They are friends, good friends for all that they're so new to each other, and he doesn't want to ruin anything by getting stupid ideas. Besides, Mion is a mud-spattered tomboy with an infectious grin and a deviously-scheming mind that will blush at no punishment, no matter how humiliating –hardly the type for crushes.

It is easier to think of her like that; as someone like another boy, rough and ready and perfect for rivalry. Not a girl.

So when he gets the stupid doll after the tournament, he doesn't hesitate in passing it off to Rena. Why should he? Rena goes absolutely gaga for cute things, Satoko would probably dismantle a doll for spare parts, and Rika struck him as the sort to enjoy soft stuffed toys more than hard porcelain. Rena was the obvious choice.

Sure, Mion was the only one who hadn't gotten anything, but the shop owner said it was because he didn't pass off stuff to relatives, and that made sense, right? No point in being greedy.

And Mion wouldn't care about stuff like that, anyway.

He later forgets the doll almost completely in the shock of learning that Mion has a- a secret identity, that she tells him is her twin "Shion," and uses to wait tables at Angel Mort. The alleged Shion has all of the girly personality traits that Mion seems to disdain, and he finds himself helplessly compelled, drawn in closer from sheer curiosity alone.

And then it turns out that yes, Mion does have a twin, and that twin's streak of mischief runs even broader than hers does. That is embarrassing.

But then Shion tugs him aside at the festival, and wants to show him something, and even is Keiichi is annoyed at her for her tricks, he's always been hopelessly curious –especially about forbidden things.

The Saiguden is extremely, extremely forbidden.

But it wouldn't hurt just to take a look, right? It's a glorified toolshed, and it isn't like he plans to go around touching all the old implements. He knows enough about skin oils and long-term historical preservation to know that's a bad idea. All he's going to do is step inside a dusty old building, have a look around, and then leave. Completely harmless.

Okay, sure, there's a lock on the door, but from what he knows of Hinamizawa gossip there hasn't even been a shoplifter in living local memory. The lock is more for symbolism than for security; after all, it's stupidly simple one that even ten-year-old Rika can operate.

And they're just looking around. What could be so bad about that? Takano-san is invested in the local history, which by definition is scholarly and benign, and he and Shion… well, okay, they're just cat-killingly curious, but Rika comes in here all the time, so the shrine's not forbidden forbidden. Just… strongly discouraged.

Sure enough, it's dusty and boring and dark –at least until Takano-san starts telling stories and Shion starts clinging to his arm. Then it's dusty and boring and dark and rude and weird, because Takano-san is badmouthing the village with ghoulish excitement and Shion is clutching onto him in a way that makes him wince –he can't tell if it's excitement or misjudged strength or what, but her nails dig in something awful.

Later, it gets creepy.

Later, Shion's in trouble and Mion isn't Mion, anymore.

He doesn't know what to do when the kitchen knife sinks into his stomach. Mion would never, and for Shion it wasn't even possible –so, so what is this? What is happening?

Where did it all go wrong?

What did he do to spark all this horror?

What could he have done?

The Saiguden wasn't even that important –it was just a dusty toolshed, for crying out loud! For this –for this– he'd lost his best friend? Because of a stupid abandoned building, Rika and Satoko were dead?

He didn't understand what he had done to cause this.

~*~

Keiichi moves to Hinamizawa. It's a fresh start, a clean slate. He's going to become better here, become an upstanding person who would never injure people due to his own selfish frustrations.

He meets some children his age, and makes some friends. Boisterous Mion Sonozaki, cheerful Rena Ryugu, mischievous Satoko Hojo and adorable Rika Furude. They scuffle and play and draw deep breaths of the revitalizing Hinamizawa air as the year winds inexorably towards summer.

He likes these girls. Satoko grated on him at first, until he figured out how to look beneath her rough and cheeky demeanor into the battered girl beneath. Something stirs in him when he sees that, a memory of the stupid airsoft gun in his hand and that soul-freezing shriek as the girl staggered away from him, clutching her eye as blood trickled through her fingers.

He's going to fix himself. He's going to be better than that.

He's not going to let someone trample over Satoko, like he'd trampled over that poor other girl.

For such a firm resolution, it proves surprisingly easy to carry out. All he has to do is watch out for her, and lend a helping hand when necessary –not during club games, of course, because he doesn't want to get clobbered. But other times, he's in Satoko's corner 100%.

And then her uncle comes, and Keiichi has a target for his protective fury.

He asks Irie more and more about Satoko's past, because this is important. He can help, he can prove once and for all that he isn't that kind of cruel and selfish person; and he can help one of his beloved friends, too, save her from a horrible fate. What's wrong with that?

What's wrong with digging up the past?

What's wrong with eliminating someone who's a threat to his friend?

And then the consequences hit in a cascading tidal wave of confusion and horror.

~*~

Keiichi moves to Hinamizawa. It's a fresh start, a clean slate. He's going to become better here, become an upstanding person who would never injure people due to his own selfish frustrations.

He meets some children his age, and makes some friends. Boisterous Mion Sonozaki, cheerful Rena Ryugu, mischievous Satoko Hojo and adorable Rika Furude. They scuffle and play and draw deep breaths of the revitalizing Hinamizawa air as the year winds inexorably towards summer.

He likes these girls. Rena, especially, is both restful and exciting. She makes his blood feel like it fizzes in his veins, and simultaneously quiets him like a peaceful morning shrouded in soft mist. It all depends on her mood, and he can't help but spend as much time with her as possible, trying to bask in whatever emotional high she is currently passing onto him.

When she starts acting depressed, of course he wants to help. She's his friend, his rival, his favorite person in the club. He suggests a treasure hunt at the dump site, and then-

And then.

~*~

The trouble with Keiichi is that he is fourteen years old, and fatally curious. If there is something forbidden, he wants to know; if there is something hidden, he wants to uncover it.

He never thinks of how there might be consequences for doing so.

[kapisonozaki]

meakashi thoughts, part one, slide seven (+ a bit of watanagashi for context)

Beyond just Shion revealing herself to be Shion when she was pretending to be Mion, and Mion revealing herself to be “Shion” while she was pretending to be Shion, it also reflects their stances on the truth. Shion protects Satoshi by using the “truth” of her hidden identity to her advantage, while Mion protects Keiichi by using the unison of Hinamizawa that was built around the “lies” of the Sonozakis as well as the “lies” surrounding her identity, at least to Keiichi. But at the same time, Mion is also revealing a truth in this scenario. She’s revealing how she truly wants Keiichi to see her, who she really was from the start. It shows how complicated Mion’s beliefs on who she truly is, really is. But at the same time, it shows how much more Mion has accepted all of the parts of her identity compared to Shion. Shion is just as confused about who she truly is as much as Mion, but Shion’s pride around her maturity and her ability to understand the truth as a way as grasping on to the last items she has left of her certain identity as “Mion” ironically causes her to be even more misled about herself. Like I mentioned in the library, which is SUPPOSED to be the place where both Mion and Shion can freely express themselves to each other, Shion ever shows the one side of herself that she FELT truly represented her, which is the mature, secretly older sister of Mion. She avoids showing any weakness to Mion, which if anything only goes to show how much she still covets the name of “Mion.” She avoids recognizing that there’s a side of her that would shatter her belief of her identity’s certainty, which ironically, yet tragically, reflects how Shion avoided the evidence that would point towards the Sonozaki’s innocence in terms of the curses of Oyashiro. Going back to how Mion’s protection of Keiichi came from the “lies” of Hinamizawa’s unity, it was a lie that ended up becoming the truth. It was lie that was necessary in bringing happiness to the village, and yet it brought so much tragedy to those whose would threaten that happiness. This is why fresh air, red flames of change like Keiichi are so important. They are the ones who can refine the imperfect happiness that the Sonozaki created. They are the ones who can turn the lies of happiness and unison into the truth. And in the same way, Keiichi is the one who can actualize Mion’s sense of identity into a truth. She’s the one who needs to decide whether she’s okay with Keiichi perceiving her as just the infallible old man or whether she wants Keiichi to finally realize that she’s also a teenage girl who’s just as emotionally vulnerable as the next, which is what Shion convinced Mion to decide when Keiichi didn’t give Mion the doll. I’ll revisit the whole concept of manifesting the truth at the end though, because it becomes undeniably important there. Word of Shion’s reveal reaches the Sonozaki, which is what causes Oryou to summon Shion to the Sonozaki residence and underground torture room to receive her punishment. From the very moment she got out of the car and met with Mion again, Mion assumed her leader “Mion Sonozaki” appearance, which of course frightened Shion since she never saw Mion act that cold to HER before. Mion and the rest of the men lead her to the torture room, where she’s confronted by an angry Oryou, and the entire torture scene, both before it, during it, and after it, is incredibly interesting once additional context is revealed at the end and during some other chapters. During the buildup to the torture, Mion regularly talks to Shion as her leader self. But there are also a few scenes where she breaks character to try to assure Shion. We can obviously tell that she doesn’t want this to happen to Shion, but that she has to perform her role as Mion Sonozaki flawlessly, since it’s a role that she takes incredibly seriously ever since she accidentally stole it away from Shion permanently.

[ultraericthered]

One Villainous Scene: Looking Low For Answers

Today marks a very special date....the Cotton Drifitng (WatanagashI) Festival, held in Hinamizawa village on the third Sunday of June of course! I mean, what else could you have thought I meant? And so this scene comes from the horror-mystery classic, When They Cry: Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. The video and this post contain huge spoilers for Higurashi, so if you've interest in experiencing it for yourself but don't want to get spoiled, pay this no attention!

Due to the effects of a swampland virus known as Hinamizawa Syndrome, believed by the superstitious villagers to be effects of the demon god Lord Oyashiro's curse on the village and an awakening of the "demon blood" inside all of them, many characters in the setting find themselves playing the villain in different stories of the differing world fragments of this series. But I don't think any could play the villain quite as well as Shion Sonozaki, identical twin sister of Mion Sonozaki who does so as both the antagonist of the second arc, the Cotton Drifting Chapter, and the protagonist of the fifth arc, the Eye Opening Chapter. In the latter, we are shown things from Shion's point of view and follow her descent into becoming the malicious murderer we saw in the former, and what's interesting is that this story is written so that we're not only on Shion's side as she acts to follow her suspicions about the village-wide conspiracy that might've taken her beloved Satoshi Houjo away from her, but because we have been made to have such a deep understanding of her character and have as limited information as she does, we're invited to approve of the methods she takes in taking down the supposed perpetrators. Violent, deceptive, and even cruel as she might get, to her and to us it's just paying evil unto evil. She is doing what she has to do here.

So then this scene is where you can mark the shift from justified antihero to true villain beginning to manifest. Shion has abducted village elder Kimiyoshi, leader of the Kimiyoshi Family, and has him down in the Sonozaki Family torture chamber for interrogation. She has a chain around his neck and tells him that for each of her questions that he gives an honest answer to, she'll lower the chain an inch so that he can breathe easier. But if he refuses to comply with her, she'd raise the chain an inch higher and risk total strangulation. To Kimiyoshi's great credit, because he and Shion have had a friendly relationship in the past, he remains reasonably calm and does not try to bullshit Shion on anything - he answers her questions with total sincerity. And then it turns into the most...bizarrely civilized torture and interrogation sequence as Shion goes over and crouches down right in front of Kimiyoshi for some direct eye contact and the two of them begin discussing and even theorizing about who killed Tamae Houjo, what involvement did the Great Families have in the killing and the cover-up, when and where was Satoshi spirited away, and did the Sonozaki Family have anything to do with it like they might've with the abduction of the Dam Construction Minister's grandson. The best part comes from Shion going "oooooooooo, how SCARY!" in a hilariously melodramatic, mocking way to compound the levity.

But the dark turn comes when Kimiyoshi makes Shion realize that the victims who've been "spirited away" always end up having their bodies dumped deep into the well that's on Sonozaki property, and the chasm that leads to it is right there in the underground chamber. When Shion investigates with a flashlight, she in vain calls out to Satoshi, as though he'd be down there alive rather than a corpse. And then she begins to hallucinate Satoshi actually being there, actually responding to her and telling her that she's finally found him. Because this is not actually a real person who's really present, the Satoshi in Shion's mind tells Shion what she knows in her heart the real Satoshi would tell her when she starts to cry and apologize; that nothing was her fault, as she'd not done anything wrong that led to the conditions and circumstances that took his life from him, so there's no need to apologize. Shion then proclaims she intends to jump down the pit to join him. "I'll jump, Satoshi! All you need to do is be there to catch me!" But deep down Shion knows this would be suicide, so the Satoshi in her mind tells her to instead move on from him and live her life well, in pursuit of some other happiness. To live for the future rather than continue pursuing justice and vengeance for the past (some early Ange Ushiromiya vibes there!). But to Shion, there exists nothing for her that's worth living for. She's set out to take down this conspiracy not out of a desire to right any wrongs, protect any future victims from meeting Satoshi's fate, or even to attain justice for him and personal gratification in avenging all that she'd been through - she's doing it out of the delusion that once it's all over, the hole in her heart made by Satoshi's disappearance will at last be filled and she can be together with Satoshi again one way or another, in one world or the other. Common sense and the genuine love for Satoshi she still harbors deep in her heart tells her this is wrong and should not be done, but all of her pent up resentment of her family, her hatred and rage, her envy, and her distorted, idealized vision of Satoshi as her perfect sturdy rock to cling to for love and security, magnified by the worsening Hinamizawa Syndrome, conflicts with it and drives her ever forward in criminal actions, further into darkness and madness.

When she returns to the cell she's holding her twin sister Mion captive, rather than seeing Mion's sincerest regret and setting her free with acknowledgment of how she couldn't have possibly had played any direct part in what happened to Satoshi, Shion's mind continues to cast Mion as a nefarious co-conspirator who held more power than she ever truly did and had to have known more than she actually does, to the point where she blames her for not speaking up and using her position to ensure Satoshi was spared from Oyashiro's Curse that she believes her family plus the Furude and Kimiyoshi households arrange to befall on people. She is overcome with rage, becoming violently emotional, unstable, and descending into pure raving, screaming lunacy right in front of her frightened sister. After this mental meltdown, from that point on, Shion's darker nature worsens and slips through more and more, transforming her into a much worse person willing to do much worse things not out of any truly just cause, but because she wants to overcome and overtake the "curse" that her family and the other two great families have commanded for years (or so she thinks) in order to weaponize it against anyone in the village with whom she's ever had grievances, with her being the one to decide their fates. She's unable to stop, not until she becomes a true demon and all intended victims lay dead.

Side note: I’m an unapologetic enjoyer of the Studio Deen anime adaptation despite the cut corners and shoddy animation at points, and I think it sucks that its English dub wasn’t successful enough to cover beyond the first season, especially since Megan Hollingshead killed it as both Mion and Shion. Michelle Rojas is a great voice actress, but she just wasn’t really right for the roles in the Gou/Sotsu dub, especially in comparison. Megan was the one OG dub VA who was just irreplaceable.

[neon-z]

Curse of 1983

Once again I started thinking about how Rika has been handled by Ryukishi07 in recent Higurashi, and it reminds me of how much I dislike it. My previous rant about Sotsu touched on the issue, but looking back, it goes beyond Sotsu.

Rika's entire character now exists in function of her suffering in 1983. She succeeded and managed to move away from that, but emotionally that just isn't the case. Abandoning everything said in the original story about her just wanting to live in peace alongside the people she loves, now she also wants to move away from them into an unknown world. A large part of her character basically becomes a reaction to the loops. She suffered there, so now she searches for the opposite of that. And that is framed even by Hanyuu (who the narrative pushes as the morally correct answer) as her reaching for her "freedom", with Hanyuu treating with despair a future where she fails to move away from Hinamizawa, like it were a rejection of her growth. But is this really growth?

Rika leaving Hinamizawa, especially to St.Lucia, is framed specifically as a rejection to the loops both in the narrative and even R07's interviews, where he frames it in very superficial ways, like describing Rika's desire for a "western atmosphere" (which feels like a very superficial reason to upend her entire life for something that would only last a couple of years). She ends up feeling like an empty person, whose entire dream is entirely reactive, without anything within it. I've had some people tell me this view is purely negative and I'm disregarding the heart of the story, but like I said, R07's interviews (with the architecture highlight) just seemed to push me more in the direction that this is all empty. While Satoko's loops have no weight on her final chararacter, who is pushed to mature in a "natural" way, Rika is still all about her loops with nothing framed out of that. This is extremely frustrating especially because the narrative tries to frame the conclusion as a happy ending, rather than acknowledging the hopeless state Rika is left in at the end, as someone driven entirely by an empty goal that only exists as a reaction to suffering.

But Sotsu isn't R07's most recent Higurashi work. Right around the time Sotsu was ending, R07 had revealed a series called Higurashi Rei (from Reiwa era) taking place more than 35 years after the original Higurashi. Now, Reiwa is a separate continuity that branches off from Matsuribayashi, but this is still a work with involvement from R07 that he conceptualized right after he was done with Gou and Sotsu. The way he views characters and concepts can be glimpsed and connected through this. So, we see a 48 years old Rika, and what kind of person is she? How did her growth turn out?

She doesn't like staying anywhere for long, and is always traveling around the world. Years can pass without her returning to Hinamizawa. We first see her in the story while she's in the hospital after falling from stairs. The story quickly frames her greatest happiness as meeting the very same group of friends from 1983, to "go back to those times". And, as it turns out, that's everything there is to her life. Her friends dying, even though she hadn't seen them in years, and was mostly unaware of the problems going through Hinamizawa in the last two years, immediately cause her to kill herself and loop again, even though here she only has 3 chances due to magical jewels given by Hanyuu years ago, rejecting a world without some of them.

In spite of being a traveler who has gone through the entire world, her life is still defined by 1983. Unlike the other club members that formed their own families (including Satoko who in this world got over her own relationship traumas off-screen and got hitched to a man, becoming a "lady" of the Kimiyoshi family), Rika is alone and seemingly had formed no strong bonds beyond the club, to the point the death of her friends immediately makes her jump back to looping out of her own will. So, from one side you have her with "freedom", "moving away" from Hinamizawa, in another she's still stuck in the past more than anyone else. Which goes back to what I mentioned before, Rika's freedom ends up framed as just a reaction to the loops, with her entire character existing in service of that. She didn't really grow because her "dream" is all an empty reaction, not something with actual meaning. The narrative takes pot shots at that too, with her being bothered by the children calling her "aunt", or her asking Irie for Satoko photos, poking fun at how she's pretty stuck in the past unlike the others. And yet this same narrative refuses to take any of that seriously. It's all somehow framed as a "happy ending", rather than something seen under critical eyes in spite of the scenario itself that has been written.

This issue of a forced "happy ending" becomes even more obvious when you look at her relationships beyond the club. Rika abandoned Hinamizawa and the Furude tradition, so now they bring outside priests to handle the religious ceremonies and the Watanagashi performance can actually be done by anyone. At the same time though, Rika is still respected in the village and loved by the "elders", which is a status quo that makes no sense at all once you start thinking about it. To start with, the elders that pampered Rika when she was young should be dead by now, these elders in love with her now would actually need to be the young adults from her time. The young adults from the time she left the village and led to various religious reforms. And in spite of all that she's somehow still seen with a positive view, which is weird. Even going beyond the identity of these elders, if they care about the religion and Rika's position within it, it's odd they were fine with her leaving and the Furude being replaced by outside priests. On the other hand, if they don't care about the traditions... why do they care about Rika someone who left the village and did little for them through the years? There's no reason at all. If they didn't care for the traditions, they'd just see Rika as this girl who left them years ago and would have no attachment to her. The whole situation only exists in order to frame Rika's current status quo as a happy ending, so she gets to leave the village, while still benefiting from all the love she had before.

Sotsu tries to draw a parallel between Rika and Satoko, putting them on the same level as Satoko also becomes a looper, but I feel like it falls apart in the conclusion. Satoko's conclusion is moving away from her loops, acting like they basically never happened. Her final development is meant to be basically putting it all aside and focusing on a healthy human life unrelated to all that time she spent there. On the other hand, Rika's entire character in his modern works is based on her own loops and the burden she carries from them - even abandoning Saikoroshi's conclusion where she talked like she'd put all that past behind and live like this world was her only one. Running away from Hinamizawa or searching for new experiences by traveling around the world are all reactions that exist due to her time in the loops, nothing to do with her human life, and yet her character has become defined by that. That's how Ryukishi07 could go from writing Gou/Sotsu to Reiwa - going back to a non-looper Satoko after all the focus she had just gotten doesn't contradict her character thematically, even if you'd think it'd be a huge step back after the development she just got. Meanwhile, Rika is still a looper, and once again alone - just like when she's leaving Hinamizawa at the end of Sotsu leaving everyone behind, while the other main club members are all together. Thematically, Satoko was always meant to "move away" from her loops, but Rika is eternally chained to her loops in 1983, something Ryukishi07 attempts to frame as a "happy ending", even though it obviously isn't one.

[olivereactsaboutgarbage]

Higurashi When They Cry - Watanagashi Chapter 11

New year, new schedule. I realized "posting daily until doing so is unsustainable and then taking very long breaks" isn't actually faster than the slow and steady approach. Turtles were right all along, though I'm not sure how many of them were. That's why from now on my new schedule is going to be Two Posts A Week. Yes. Yes yes.

Speaking of the weak, Keiichi and Rena. They're sleepy. Mion, meanwhile, isn't even present. Keiichi thinks Mion might not exist.

At school, everyone is taking the disappearance of some Toddlers very seriously. How strange. Unfortunately, for school to be normal, Mion would have to exist. It all sucks for everyone.

Keiichi and Rena try to have a Lunch Arc, but they flub it because of the writer's strike, so I'm not even going to dignify it with a detailed analysis.

Rena decides to shift gears and give Keiichi secondhand Women Exposition instead. Keiichi thinks the exposition sounds wrong and bad, and Rena agrees, so they decide to solidify the Watanagashi arc of Higurashi as one all about people using the wrong sinks out of an inflated sense of superiority.

the second half of this sentence is not what the first half of this sentence led me to expect

Rena reveals that the Toddlers had been in the middle of a culinary project which they left half-unfinished.

Dumb Fuck!

Seeing Rena activate Detective Mode is awesome though. She really IS like one of those young girls who can read the blue text. Now we just need Keiichi to kick his "guy whose text is often blue" quotient up a notch.

Rena says that Toddler 01 is so inferior to Toddler 02 that she even sucks more at garbage cans. Fascinating.

Wow! I'm learning so much from reading Higurashi!

Also wow, I just noticed, she is really killer at reading the blue text. Um, no pun intended I guess.

Rena reveals the final ace up her sleeve: The Toddlers didn't have any soy sauce.

i wish i lived in hinamizawa, i could get so much free soy sauce

and bread pudding, maybe

Rena does her Sherlock Holmesian monologue where she says it was all the malicious work of a soy sauce saboteur. "Who was the saboteur?" asks Keiichi. "lol idk anyways acab" says Rena, and leaves.

Keiichi also leaves, and he and Rena go to the same place, and it's a cop place. More specifically it's the location Ooishi happens to be in, which is Keiichi's house he sleeps at every day. Keiichi decides to plant some death flags and then make Rena leave.

what a fucking nightmare person

Ooishi reveals that the mayor had hemorrhoids. Wow, that reminds me of my favorite meme song!

Keiichi makes a deduction and then gets immediate amnesia. Classic Keiichi.

Keiichi is confused about where Shion's awesome mayor incident fits into the mayor's busy schedule. He's really confused and possibly about to explode.

Ooishi asks what the big deal was with the temple, and Keiichi is like "Um, literally nothing?" and then curses his own bad habit of revealing information. Yes, the bad habit which he has: revealing information.

Hmm I don't like that Ooishi keeps saying things like "Everyone who went in is being sacrificed, y'know?" and "I had no choice but to ask you, Keiichi, since you went in there, y'know?" Is there going to be a dramatic Shion death reveal?

Oh. The answer was yes, five seconds after I asked. By which I guess I just mean "Ah, Keiichi finally noticed."

Oh, the NEXT day? Like RIGHT after?

Ah, I guess all Keiichi's intimate phone conversations must not have happened then. That. Seems true. Yes.

Oh, that's an awesome trick. He could use that to acquire more piss.

Lol

Anyway I don't have the slightest inkling what's going on. THIS is the arc that's supposed to be easier to figure out than the Rena one? How messed up were the events of the Rena one, then?!

Keiichi screams so hard the scene transitions, and now he's waiting for the obligatory Shion section of this chapter.

Ah yes, the extremely real ladder incident.

Anyway, the obligatory Shion section of this chapter occurs.

Shion immediately learns that Keiichi is home alone.

Classic Keiichi.

Keiichi wants to ask Shion if the Toddlers are okay, but he gets scared that what she says will make him scared, so he asks Shion if the mayor is okay and she says "No," and he gets scared.

String music??? Is playing??? What is this, Umineko?

me when i'm listening to someone sobbing

You should probably have doubts my dude

These twerps really are two peas in a pod huh. That's scary.

Shion is scared of Keiichi again. Keiichi tells her to tell him a longer mayor story so he gets less confused and doesn't explode in the future.

Ah but Shion doesn't live in Hinamizawa. Are Shion and Mion Parent Trapping REALLY REALLY HARD with ultra commitment to the bit? That'd be extremely abnormal.

Unfortunately, Keiichi relatable moments. Um, minus the part where he's having a phone conversation with a crying person. That's categorically not a thing I do, for several reasons. Um, anyways.

Shion enters Comedy Mode and brings the obligatory Shion section of this chapter to a close.

Meanwhile, in Side Story Land...

Isn't that the backstory of that trans girl from that fighting game? I dunno, I don't play games from genres that SUCK.

Allegedly, Mion has a tattoo covering her entire back. Bah, modern media, always with the female characters whose backs are covered in tattoos. One day in the name of gender equality I'll do that to a male character. ...Actually, that might already exist and be called Yakuza. I dunno, I don't play games from series that SUCK.

It would be really fucked up if Ooishi was just completely lying his ass off about Shion having been gone for days, but actually she was just chillin' the entire time. I don't think that's what's happening but it would be fucked up. Ooishi's mahjong buddies seem to be his devout followers also, unless that's part of the rules. I dunno, I don't play games that SUCK.

[timeloopinganalysis]

My blurp opinion on Higurashi GouSotsu/Meguri

I've been inspired to write this because there were so many interesting opinions/takes/analysis on both Meguri and Sotsu. Satoko, being one of my favorite characters since the release of Sotsu, really took my interest in time loopers by storm.

I've always liked the very idea of characters trudging the fine line between good and evil, and time loopers tend to exemplify that.

Rika was very cynical in a lot of media, giving up on her friends almost immediately. All except for one person: Satoko. She could only keep going because of Satoko.

However, the exact opposite is true. Rika is, to me, a crutch for Satoko. She became Satoko's curse. Because of Rika, Satoko achieved a sort of twisted divine enlightenment by finding herself in the Sea of Fragments.

I'm not saying Rika did this on purpose, far from it, but by making Satoko her emotional support, she had attracted otherworldly forces to Satoko.

Now, the biggest difference to me between Meguri and Sotsu Satoko are the feelings behind each of her loops.

Sotsu Satoko's loops always felt angry. When she first infected Rena, she was spitting on her kindness.

Keiichi trusting Rena was Satoko's trap. Each of these loops felt like Satoko mocking and condemning each of her club members.

Something that really stood out to me was when Keiichi volunteered to be Satoko's new 'big brother'. The moment Satoko led him to her uncle's death scene was the moment I felt Satoko had essentially rejected Keiichi completely.

Now this is all conjecture, but I thought, "Satoko must be thinking, 'Who do you think you are, Keiichi-san? You can never take my big brother's place'."

Each of Sotsu Satoko's loops felt raw and angry. I loved how you could feel the emotion behind her madness.

Now, Meguri had a lot more introduction to each character. It gave each character more time rather than just giving Rika and Satoko the spotlight. This is a good thing for me.

It also tightened up a lot of loose plot points, such as the idea behind there being an original Rika in Angel Mort being left behind, or how quick Satoko was to turn evil in Eua's loops (Sotsu version). I suppose, in a way, it made Satoko more sympathetic.

However, Meguri also took away her agency. Her loops in Meguri were not driven by anger and bitterness. They were driven by hopelessness, thus making some of the Gou loops not make much sense (by an emotional perspective).

The whole uncle arc was glossed over horribly by Meguri. I know a lot of people despise the idea of reformation for Teppei. However, I think the very idea of Satoko having an actual family would be very good for her. I've made amends with people who have hurt me very very badly (I won't go into reasons because I rather not), so my perspective on this is a little different.

Because Satoko wasn't 'bitter' in Meguri, the whole uncle arc fell flat to me. I felt like Tomato-sensei didn't want to stick around with that arc for very long.

Meguri and Sotsu have great and bad points.

Sotsu had a fantastic way of showing Satoko's emotions. It showed that she's just so damn bitter about everything. Sotsu Satoko had agency that she never did in the previous arcs. Its bad points were that the club members (and every character not named Rika or Satoko) were simply relegated to side characters that have no real substance.

Meguri is pretty much the opposite. It included the club members very well. Though some other characters need a bit more fleshing out in the manga. However, it took away what I thought made Sotsu Satoko special - her emotional distress, hate, and anger towards the world, her friends, Hinamizawa, Rika, etc.

Sotsutoko is moved through anger.

Meguritoko is moved through hopelessness.

I think that Tomato should have given each of Meguritoko's loops the theme of hopelessness (sorry I keep repeating that word) in the same way Sotsutoko's loops have the theme of rage, rather than keeping manga Gou a near 1:1 copy of the anime Gou.

Those are just my thoughts. You can agree or disagree. I just like reading analysis of characters and wanted to share this for once.

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 3 Tatarigoroshi pt. Final

I'm doing things slightly different here.

The following takes place between parts 17 and 18 of my playthrough. The interview with Keiichi is a post-credits scene, but because of the amount of screenshots I took during the credits and the typing I did for some of the stuff coming up I figured to treat it as a separate thing. A nice little denouement. I really hope tumblr doesn't murder the quality of the screenshots here. Italicized words are my own interjections and not what is written on screen. I tried my best with some of the later parts.

Basically during this part and the credits I kept mashing the screenshot key.

"I made him seem like a very good person. I'll need to make him into a terrible criminal in the end."

"Apparently you're supposed to call disasters like the Great Hanshin Earthquake severe disasters. Still it's a terrifying operation plan. Though I guess sterilization operations are like this. I need to think hard so it's realistic."

"Jirou Tomitake A mysterious old man with the role of an extra yet still popular. He won't be doing much for a while.

Miyo Takano I made this character seriously suspicious. Seems kind of like the last boss. Maybe she should be to one to take the punches in the end. I need to make her so bad even coach would punch her. Maybe a full transformation in the end is in order.

Kuraudo Ooishi A Completely enigmatic man, though I'll admit he's convenient. Maybe he'll turn trustworthy in the end after clearing up the misunderstandings?

Katsuya Kumatani A completely enigmatic man, though I'll admit he's convenient. Maybe he'll turn trustworthy in the end after clearing up the misunderstandings?

Why is Kumatani and Ooishi's the same?

Kyousuke Irie I made him seem like a very good person. I'll need to make him into a terrible criminal in the end.

Rika Furude A convenient character who can't help but garner popularity. If Satoko doesn't get more popular with this, then she might not be able to make a comeback. Speaking of suffering, maybe Mion has it worse (pained laugh). A mysterious girl, in a way. The incarnation of the curse theory?????"

"Hinamizawa Village Gas Disaster In Memoriam List Apparently you're supposed to call disasters like the Great Hanshin Earthquake severe disasters. Still it's a terrifying operation plan. Though I guess sterilization operations are like this. I need to think hard so it's realistic.

Reina Ryuugu (spelling?) Passed away in the great Hinamizawa disaster. May she rest in peace.

Mion Sonozaki Passed away in the great Hinamizawa disaster. May she rest in peace.

Oryou Sonozaki Passed away in the great Hinamizawa disaster. May she rest in peace

Satoko Houjou Went missing during the great Hinamizawa disaster???

Teppei Houjou Went missing during the great Hinamizawa disaster???

Ichirou Maebara, Aiko Maebara, Daiki Tomita, Suguru Okamura, and Kiichirou Kimiyoshi Passed away in the great Hinamizawa disaster. May he rest in peace. (I didn't feel like typing it out five times)

Rumiko Chie Went missing during the great Hinamizawa disaster???

Yukikazu Kameda Went missing during the great Hinamizawa disaster??? I have no recollection of who Kameda is whatsoever."

"Tatsuyoshi Kasai I wonder if he really has a thing for Shion, that would be so cute if he did, hau u.

Shion Sonozaki The more minor of the twins always gets more popular, but to think it would still hold true. Maybe it's fate, or maybe coincidence. You're okay to think of watanagashi considering the suicide, though."

"Keiichi Maebara Did he just end up going crazy in the end? My condolences I suppose. Keiichi really never dies in a good way. Am I not allowed to laugh?

Diagnosed with a severe mental disorder… Mental disorder, what!? But with so many terrible things happening, people will break. You must never forget that feeling. We all live because we have a heart to live with. If we forget that, we are just living puppets. Remember you're alive and have a soul.

The more minor of the twins always gets more popular, but to think it would still hold true. Maybe it's fate, or maybe coincidence. You're okay to think of watanagashi considering the suicide, though."

This is the end of the story related text. The rest is credits for the episode. I think this is written from the perspective of whatever is actually behind the Hinamizawa/Oyashiro curse. The first part, about making him a villain again was shown way back at the very start of the series before the title card of Onikakushi.

""Higurashi: When They Cry" Serial Murder Novel Number 3: Tatarigoroshi A mysterious old man with the role of an extra yet still popular. He won't be doing much for a while.

I'm a little sleepy. Maybe I haven't been getting enough sleeping and gaming with all my heart. Or maybe I just want to play ragnarok online Oh, puritan, hah, hah, moe!

Scenario: Ryukishi07 Hello, I'm ryukishi07. It was a fierce battle this time, like it always is.

Partner in Crime: Yatazakura You really did a good job this time!! Let's put out the best stuff brothers can manage! (I might be wrong on this one?)

Scirpting: Yatazakura Thanks for everything again!

4U You're another one I always rely on. Thank you for everything you do."

"BT Your kind encouragement encourages me. Thank you so much.

Scripting Language: Me finding this scripting language was how it began. I wouldn't be here today without it.

Still, I'm really sleepy. The fatigue of a thousand years as they say. I may be doing this for fun, it's hard on my body. But it's nothing as long as i can get your thoughts and reactions!

4U I took so much of your time, so I'm sorry I'm late again. Gotta go debug more"

"BT You're another one i always rely on. Thank you for everything you do.

Production Yat Looks like he's got the hang of it. He was very fast on the clean up this time.

Graphics: Ryukishi07 Part of me wants a good artist, but having to trust someone else with it scares me too much (I can completely empathize with the creative idea of "only I can do this!)

Background location: Kameya Without your generous help, Higurashi would not exist. All those beautiful backgrounds are yours.

Yato Sakura Without your generous help"

"Ryukishi07 Without your generous help

Tsubaki Hey, this is totally nepotism, isn't it? Well, let's put that off as a joke

LRRP: Kameya You are a god. Sorry fo the weird abbreviation LRRP. I look foward to working with you and Daisuke in the future.

Jika Thank you as always, to hru. ab it stuc kin ro, tho ugh if brother unit e we'll be invinicible! Let's do our best!"

"Amamizu/Scarlet Thank you as always to hru.ab itstuc kin (The same thing is written for Amamizu and Scarlet here, and I admit I kind of gave up trying to figure out what's written there. "Thank you as always tohru? a bit stuck in?)

Music and SFX The Music studio Without beautiful music the world wouldn't turn. The main theme is important. It's a vital factor.

Dream Island Development Room Being able to mess with things from my house is a pretty huge plus.

Escateli~na Being able to mess with things from my house is a pretty huge plus."

no love for Koji. Awww.

"Minigames: BT Thank you so much for alwasy submitting great minigames. Give me some advice when adjusting them. Personally, I'd rather tsubaki in a ruse(?) s picture not be excessive I wonder why he doesn't understand?"

I wonder if the original release way back in the day had minigames in it? Like the club activities are playable games maybe? I'm now envisioning a significantly worse version of this game existing because it has something like the fucking awful gambling minigames from a Leisure Suit Larry just crammed in there.

"Homepage 07th Storming Party Still, I'm really sleepy. The fatigue of a thousand years as they say. I may be doing this for fun but it's hard on my body. But it's nothing as long as I can get your thoughts and reactions! Me finding this scripting language was I began. I wouldn't be here today without it.

Created by: Pride is fighting under your own flag. So I hope you understant why i don't want to "use my flag to make something weird. if you don't like it then raise a flag or two of your own." I hope this becomes a work to be proud of for life."

"Directed by: I'm ryukishi07. The path here has been a long one. But we're only midway through! The real stuff is still to come! I'll work harder than ever!"

Trying to decipher these and making sure I had them correct was a surprisingly annoying process. No one else on the entire rest of the internet seems to have bothered trying to decode what it all said. The steam forums especially were less than helpful. Just a bunch of people arguing six years ago about the veracity of what it says, and whether it counts as spoilers or MangaGamer "screwing with the plot." I do apologize for some of the attempts on my part basically just falling apart, but try as I might I just couldn't think of a way to make the letters available make any sort of coherent sense.

I mentioned it before, but I'm fairly positive that everything before the game credits is the entity behind the events of Higurashi remarking on the pawns they have available to toy with. Everything at the credits until the end title card there I'm sure was just Ryukishi07 having fun with it.

Gonna be honest with you here, I liked it, but not quite as much as chapter two. A reddit post I saw while trying to decipher the credits bits summed it up best: "Keiichi is cringe."

Gotta work towards a good ending. Can't just give it to your audience.

Let the god child drink!

Yeah, you're gonna have to address the body count of a thousand people eventually.

*sad trombone* Although I must say I do like the idea of playing as a protagonist other than Keiichi. Let the lunkhead go do something else, it's Shion's time to shine.

Keiichi aside, I liked Chapter Three: Tatarigoroshi, it was a severly depressing read at points, but it did provide some interesting mysteries towards the end. Why don't the dead stay put in Hinamizawa, what is puppeting the bodies around, and for what purpose? Why in this particular go-around was there a deadly volcanic gas that killed everyone in the town shortly after Watanagashi? Who were the twenty that disappeared? Satoko and Teppei were certainly two of them, but who were the other eighteen? Is it the masterminds of the cult? What is the importance of the woman who died at the start of the chapter, and did she really have any importance to the plot? I know there was the implication she was involved with the Sonozaki crime syndicate, but overall her entire subplot just vanished towards the middle of this chapter. Who killed Rika and why did they do it in a way similar to the murdered woman at the start of the chapter?

This chapter does however lend greater strength to the supernatural killer angle. Deliberately so, I'd say, since Chapter Two: Watanagashi leaned more hevily on the human angle to justify the killings.

Also:

"The shortest scenario," bullshit. This was just as lengthy as chapter two! It might seem shorter in my playthrough/readthrough, but that's only because I didn't want to be posting a bunch of screenshots and discussions about domestic violence. I felt it would be tonally at odds with my often lighthearted comments about the VN.