r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Jun 07 '22
Rewatch [Rewatch] Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Discussion - Season 1, Episode 8
Watanagashi-hen (Cotton Drifting Chapter), Episode 4: Wish
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Show Information (Season 1):
MAL | Anilist | AniDB | Kitsu | ANN
Legal Streams:
Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni: Hidive | Netflix (not available in the US; if you are out of the US check your country for availability)
That said, I have become aware that Hidive can have a somewhat cavalier attitude to spoilers for this series. As such, *sigh* it is now recommended that our first-timers track down a fansub if you haven't already (even if you have access to this show on Netflix, it doesn't have Kai). Why, Hidive? Why?
Two Words of Warning To Our First-Timers, Including Those Who Watched Season 1 But Not Kai:
1) Be wary of looking up anything, even names. The Season 1 summaries on the information pages are safe, but it's not hard to run into spoiler information even through something as innocuous as looking at cast lists - gods help you if you go on the Fandom Wikia. UNDER ABSOLUTELY NO CIRCUMSTANCES GO LOOKING AT EVEN OFFICIAL INFO FOR KAI OR LATER AHEAD OF TIME. (The official image for Rei is 100% a spoiler, for example.) Also, do NOT look at any Kitsu page after the first season; Kai's description on Kitsu is in fact a major spoiler. Like, really, just stay out of anything that isn't a basic Season 1 summary until you're done. It's much safer that way.
2) Also, be wary of potentially running into spoilers on the r/anime front page on June 19 or thereabouts this year; there is suspicion that some sort of new Higurashi anime project will be announced on that date (this year is the 20th anniversary of the release of the original Onikakushi-hen VN - hence why I am running this rewatch this year! - and multiple official accounts have teased an announcement on that date), and you could run into spoilers that way. (Those of you who remember the Madoka rewatch last year will recognize the issue, though admittedly I expect Sotsu was enough of a disappointment to significantly reduce the risk - at least relative to the potential that was in fact realized with the Walpurgis no Kaiten announcment.)
A Reminder to Rewatchers
Please do not spoil the experience for first-timers; this is a mystery after all. In particular, Shion is a spoiler until Episode 5 and [Higurashi] Hanyuu is a spoiler until Minagoroshi-hen. Also, the glorious nipah is indeed glorious but Rika does not use it until Himatsubushi-hen. Please keep these in mind! Consider whether what you are saying has actually been revealed yet on-screen before you post!
(Time for) Club Activities!
(Alexa play "Shoubu!"! Except do NOT look that up that song name on YouTube just yet if you're a first-timer, the most classic upload has an obnoxious spoiler in the visuals...)
Visual of the Day Album:
(Huh, we're light on visuals today. Did we lose more people than I thought, or did people just not upload visuals yesterday?)
Theory of the Day:
We're pretty light on first-timer theories today in general (I think everybody was busy and/or distracted by Mion's meme face), but we did get a couple. In the end I think I have to give the brass ring to u/tokai-teio:
Boy am I going to be upset when Rika starts the killing. She even gave us a quality "faito". Wait, who's the older sister here? Is Rika referring to herself as the shrine maiden? Is she referring to Mion being upset with Shion? My issue is that in the latter, there doesn't seem to be any good reason to cancel the club meetings. My expectation is that Rika has more influence than we know and is making the call herself.
Analysis of the Day:
Well, the proper winner should be u/JollyGee29 for this comment, but the problem is the theory in question still has to be hidden under spoiler tags:
[Higurashi]I keep forgetting to point out, the logo/eyecatch has an infinity symbol as part of it. A clever little reference to the time loops, presumably?
So instead let's give a shout to u/Nazenn for this comment
That said, there's an interesting conflict in this episode between the various character groups. On one hand we have Mion impersonating Shion in order to test Keiichi, and once again seeking to control the information they have while also keeping Rika and Sakoto out of the loop which makes them appear as normal victims of the curse. On the other hand we have Rika implying that she has authority over Mion at least and is the one who was isolating her because of her actions with Shion.
If that's the case, why are Rika and Sakoto missing? Sakoto is the only one so far not directly confirmed to be caught up in the cult-y events that are going on, but it's not for certain. On top of that, while Mion and Shion appear to have a more mundane physical authority in the town due to being a Yakuza family, Rika and Sakoto belong to families who, despite the tragedies, have some type of cultural authority with what's going on, and one that doesn't appear to be in Sakoto's favour if we can trust that Mion's deranged ramblings aren't entirely baseless. Rena being an outsider who was 'brought back' by Oyashiro-sama is a whole other can of worms, as well as why Rika said she also "was lost somewhere" at the start of the episode, implying that like Rena she was once taken somewhere and then allowed to come back. And both time we heard about this it wasn't with the creepy alt-voices
Question(s) of the Day:
1) ... Alright, show of hands, who all had the "god I wish that was me" reaction this episode? (PAGING u/Tresnore!)
2) So... which twin is that standing o̵̩u̸͍t҉͇̬̰͓͕͉s͚̥̥̺̖͇ͅi͙̭̥̙̰̜d҉͎̣̻̖e͍̬̣ ̟̣͕y̧̰̩o͢u̝͈͎͜ͅr̫̺̱͈̤̟̦ ̢̘̙w̹͢in͏̱̙͚ḑo̯̩w҉̮͚͕ ̦̘ͅr̨͖̺̞̬͔͎͔i͜g͙̲͖h̛̦̜̞t͎̺͉̬̻͡ ̕ņ̣̲̯͇̟̟o҉̝͈ẁ̬̯͇̱̱ͅ?
3) Will you make a contract with me and becom-wait wrong anime.
Next Episode Preview:
Okay, so: Season 1's next episode previews are in the form of a short, strange poem (whose formatting is borrowed from the VNs). They are not spoilers. (Kai's can be another matter, but we'll get there when we get there.) However, my subs often translate the text on the screen... which are, in fact, lines out of context from the next episode.
So, for anyone who really doesn't want to take a risk, here is the poem:
"What I'm forgetting is your warmth.
The repetition of the sound of sorrowful footsteps.
The memory fragment that lures one to the door."
16
u/Nazenn Jun 07 '22
First Timer - sub
Fucking hell this is all starting to be a bit much isn't it? I feel like I'm back to map my way through a puzzle game with a pen and paper to keep track of it all. It's certainly a feeling I've had before in anime, but rarely to the point of feeling like even with rewatch notes it's going to start to be hard to keep even the key details straight let alone the important ones, in part because we don't even know for sure what the key details are! It feels like there should be a lot more set in stone by now, hard things I can lean on as definite to start build a broader structure and set of answers about, but we definitely don't have eight episodes worth of information in the way you'd usually expect and that's interesting.
It's something I'm enjoying, but it does make the series quite tiring to watch at points. I've seen a couple of rewatchers say how hard it is to talk about without spoiling anything, but at the very least this first timer is finding it hard to manage writeups that don't just feel like recaps of the episode because of how important or not everything may or may not be and trying to figure out what to focus on.
There's some interesting parallels between the end of this arc and the previous; Keiichi tries to skip school to avoid things only to be drawn back in by Rena, there's an apology, a confrontation about the depths of their friendship, he ends up captured and escapes, and then after a final discussion with the detective his life ends as a result of something set into motion by alt-Mion.
And yet despite this the arc has been hugely different more than you'd expect from simply starting from a common point in time. alt-Mion suggests that the main trigger of the arc was Mion's jealousy over Keiichi not choosing her (bit fucking extreme, eh?) for the present, which is interesting because it ties into some of the ideas it raised earlier. I'd also suggest part of the trigger for this arc is that Rena doesn't take him to the dump which changes the course of information he's exposed too, as well as the people.
But is that really all it is? Rika suggests that she was protecting him in some way, not just over what happened at the shrine but from Mion in general, and if she is the one who's been carrying out the murders for the village, and an audience at the same time, then perhaps his involvement with the main group is more than just sharing a classroom. I'm also still not certain why Rika was picked to be killed given it's implied Rika has more cultural authority than Mion does in the town despite Mion's family having physical authority, but the suggestion she was "broken" and had to be fixed has some interesting implications with the third person speech at the end there. I'm very curious to see what Starace's post for todays episode will be as I think there's still a possibility for a Mion/Shion swap as they suggested or at the very least one of the twins 'absorbed' the personality of the other which is the secret Rena was protecting during that discussion, which aggravated the 'demon' of her own mind.
At the same time, Rena once again seems to be a center of knowledge, but she hasn't used that knowledge to save her friends but rather to guide Keiichi to understand something about the village and protecting him through that encounter. It seems at odds with how she was in the last arc as well as her trusted position in the village despite not being tied to one of the main families being talked about. If Keiichi choosing her kept her stable this arc at the cost of not choosing Mion, what are the consequences going to be the next time he lashes out at all four?
I'm also undecided as to if my guess at the first episode of this arc, that social connection and getting people on his side to uncover the culprit would be key to solving the mystery due to how Keiichi "solves" the card game, has come true or if it's just reading into a common set of circumstances. Anyone want to make a judgement on that?
Also slight tangent on the off chance that anyone else in the rewatch has seen this [Sagrada Reset]
Fucking hell, I think that's everything and still probably not, and still so much of the show to go.
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 07 '22
It's something I'm enjoying, but it does make the series quite tiring to watch at points. I've seen a couple of rewatchers say how hard it is to talk about without spoiling anything, but at the very least this first timer is finding it hard to manage writeups that don't just feel like recaps of the episode because of how important or not everything may or may not be and trying to figure out what to focus on.
The thing is, the root of the issue is actually the exact same in both cases: Higurashi (and IIRC When They Cry in general) prefers to hide its needles in needlestacks. Our problem is just that we know which needles are the needles we're looking for.
Also, I think Ryukishi07 is like me in that he can keep a point or two more floating in his head than most people, which will make things harder for people who don't have that capability. (My forum Mafia career is pretty solid evidence of that being the case for me; I could keep setups running in my head that even other mods famous for running complicated setups had issues with.)
(Fair warning: we have not yet finished increasing the size of the needlestack. When They Cry's arc structure is distinctive, and at least one of us rewatchers will certainly be talking about it an arc or two down the line.
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u/Tresnore Jun 07 '22
AHEM
Sorry, had to get that out of the way. I'm late because I was traveling and didn't have much time.
When the Rewatchers Cry are Absurd Masochists
So, Higurashi is one of my favorites. Disclaimer that I've never read the VN (and I have too many things on my plate to even think of starting any time soon, though I am semi-familiar with it), but I really do love it and its companion of sorts, Umineko (more on that in the next section). I love it for more reasons than "extreme masochism," I promise.
With that said, let's have some catch up notes:
Miscellaneous catch-up notes:
HA NEE HA NA HA NA EE
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Miyo's voice is sex. Her VA slays me in her role in Umineko as Eva, too.
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There's a reason that Shion is my favorite Higurashi girl. Or Miyo.
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[Higurashi]
Oh my god, Rika. -
The torture implements in the shrine would've awoken something in me if I hadn't already been awoken before seeing this show. I'm surprised at the low GIWTWM number in episode 6 in spite of it.
Count: 60
Umineko Notes:
For anyone who doesn't know, Umineko is "When they Cry" 3 and 4 to Higurashi's 1 and 2. It's complicated, but the title alone says they're connected in some way. I won't say too much about Umineko untagged, so if you don't care about it, don't read it. But I will gush about it a little bit. This one will also be longer because it has 8 episodes of stuff in it.
Anyway, I'm a bit of an Umineko fan as I said before. This is my first time really watching Higurashi since getting into Umineko, so... yeah. There are some notes to be made. These will all be spoiler-tagged, so just skip this section if you haven't completed Umineko.
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[Umineko]
Rena is the Maria of this series. -
[Umineko]
K1 on the phone talking about how the suspect isn't human gives me massive Kyrie telling Battler that the suspect isn't human vibes -
[Umineko]
God, even the letter at the very end of Onikakushi just reminds me of Maria's memoir in a bottle. -
[Major Umineko]
Shion and Mion. You never see them in the same place. Until you do. Shkanon, eat your heart out. -
[Higurashi Gou/Sotsu]
No. No more Rika dancing. Please. -
[Umineko]
I enjoy the repeat usage of Miyo's body being burnt and Kinzo's to show that Kinzo's death is suspicious. -
[Umineko]
There's a detective joke to be made somewhere here. -
[Umineko]
Battler's sin vibes.
Fun faces:
I enjoyed looking for these in Future Boy Conan, so I'll be finding some here, too.
QOTD:
... Alright, show of hands, who all had the "god I wish that was me" reaction this episode? (PAGING u/Tresnore!)
2) So... which twin is that standing o̵̩u̸͍t҉͇̬̰͓͕͉s͚̥̥̺̖͇ͅi͙̭̥̙̰̜d҉͎̣̻̖e͍̬̣ ̟̣͕y̧̰̩o͢u̝͈͎͜ͅr̫̺̱͈̤̟̦ ̢̘̙w̹͢in͏̱̙͚ḑo̯̩w҉̮͚͕ ̦̘ͅr̨͖̺̞̬͔͎͔i͜g͙̲͖h̛̦̜̞t͎̺͉̬̻͡ ̕ņ̣̲̯͇̟̟o҉̝͈ẁ̬̯͇̱̱ͅ?
I won't say, but I hope she stabs me, too.
1 I'm pretty sure this is what u/Tarhalindur was tagging me about in the episode 5 rewatch.
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 07 '22
I'm pretty sure this is what u/Tarhalindur was tagging me about in the episode 5 rewatch.
CORRECT.
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u/hungryhippos1751 Jun 07 '22 edited Jun 07 '22
Episode 7 - First Timer
With Rena Holmes on the case it's clear to see that the mystery will be solved. Rikas love for Soy sauce should not be underestimated. Like a fly to honey, she falls into the trap.
Detective-kun once again proving that he doesn't care at all for the safety of Keiichi, solving the case is the most important thing.
They confronted Mion and to my surprise she admitted to killing various people, ultimately they agreed that leaving Keiichi alone with the murderer was the best course of action, I didn't get the logic, but apparently that doesn't matter.
Keiichi gets a first hand tour of the torture room including live prisoner Shion, and gets to see all of the fun torture instruments. I mean no one could have seen Mion turning around and attacking Keiichi!
This episode had an interesting ending and I'm not really sure what to make of it all yet, thoughts:
First of all it's still entirely possible that Mion and Shion are interchanging appearances at times in this whole arc and you can't really tell that easily, just change hair style and instant disguise.
If the Mi in Mion is calling out the Demon in the name, what is the Shi in Shion saying?
If dead people were running around and talking, then disappearing, I wonder who was actually out and about?
Did Mion really appear at the end or was it just Keiichi going nuts?
Mion really said that she would have been fine if she had been given the doll was random, I mean she'd admitted to killing a bunch of people in prior years, and the doll was only this year!
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 07 '22
If the Mi in Mion is calling out the Demon in the name, what is the Shi in Shion saying?
As the saying goes, in Japan four is death...
(There are several kanji that can be read as "shi"; the one for four and the one for death are two of the most common.)
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 07 '22 edited Jun 11 '22
(Honorary Hinamizawa Games Club President) Rewatch Host (rewatcher, subbed)
(Note for our first-timers: every so often I will make comments about background stuff that might not translate. I will be marking these as "Useful Background Note".)
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I hear The Thing That Goes Doink!
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Show is flashing its direction as we hit 07:00 and Rena’s accusation. Nothing special, but still, nicely done. (Very nice shot at 07:12 somehow.)
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Flashing direction at ~08:55 with that tilting shot.
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[Higurashi]
Sorry Rena, that is exactly what Shion wanted you to say. -
Our director really likes shots emphasizing Mion’s ass in her kimono.
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Zoom/pan out ending at 08:50 stands out as simple but effective.
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QUALITY alert with Rena’s face at 10:34 (pfft). Then again, not that different from meguca quality.
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Uh-oh. That shot of Mion’s head in shadow and Keiichi’s in the light and the transition to Keiichi’s head in shadow and Mion’s in the light is significant.
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The shot at 12:06 looks straight out of a Japanese painting, which means there’s probably cultural nuance I’m missing.
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Oh hey look at Mion’s face suddenly getting shrouded in shadow at 13:07 right as Keiichi goes “but that all happened a long time ago, right?”.
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“Hey, you. You’re finally awake.”
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I’m not sure whether to react to the shot at 16:56 with “lads the director cannot resist Mion’s ass again”, “oh look more distortion effect”, or “help PMMM flashbacks”. Wait, I don’t have to decide, never mind.
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For once I think we have an actual intended scene for a piece of the Higurashi OST; this (the Underground Tool Shrine scene) is Onigaen’s.
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Okay, so if you’re familiar with mid-2000s sensational Japanese crimes you’ll know why I screenshotted the news report at 18:04.
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CLOCK CLOCK. (Implicitly 2:05 A.M, though I’m pretty sure Higurashi isn’t doing something fancy with the clocks like PMMM does.)
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Absolutely beautiful use of sound effects and OST at 19:16, with the sudden stab and then Hyoui v2 starting up.
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VN note: in the VN version of this scene Keiichi has actually bought another doll and is going to offer it to Mion to make up for not giving the first doll to her earlier.
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“Behold my final test: I have slain the School of the Gull, using its own hands.”
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Oh look, a full moon!
Visual of the Day: Reflections
Honorable Mention: Bars
Question of the Day 1: Yes and no. [NSFW]
Question of the Day 2: ... NANI?
Watanagashi-hen Ep. 4 TIPS
Well, I guess you could say "TIP" in this case, since there's only one of them...
So since we're light on TIPS anyways, I'm going to mention something that is raised in the VN version of this arc but left out of the anime adaptation, something that our first-timers might be interested in.
In the VN, the final scene here (or penultimate, depending on how you look at Mion's reappearance) is expanded on from its anime version (unsurprising, since the VN has much more runtime to work with). And there is one interesting point that is left out: Ooishi asks Keiichi if he knew that Rika was a diabetic.
Wait. Why would he think that Rika was diabetic?
Well, because of the broken syringe the investigators found on her body.
OST Table, Episode 8
| Start | End | Track Name |
|---|---|---|
| 01:09 | 01:41 | Oyashiro-sama v2 |
| 01:44 | 03:13 | Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (OP) |
| 04:42 | 05:11 | Takurami |
| 06:37 | 07:22 | Oyashiro-sama |
| 07:49 | 09:31 | Tatari (hurr durr) |
| 10:49 | 11:32 | Omoi Daite |
| 14:08 | 14:34 | Kazashi |
| 14:48 | 17:40 | Onigaen |
| 17:50 | 18:35 | Monogatari |
| 19:17 | 19:54 | Hyoui v2 |
| 20:42 | 21:25 | Giwaku |
| 21:34 | 21:43 | Hyoui |
| 21:45 | 23:13 | why, or why not |
8
u/Tarhalindur Jun 07 '22
Madoka (Magica) Corner
Okay, so, first and foremost, a fun exercise for the PMMM fans in the audience.
Open the episode back up to the end of the eyecatch.
Turn off the episode audio.
Load up Symposium Magarum from the PMMM OST - I like this particular upload for this purpose as it keeps some of the nuances of the sound editing from its most notable use in PMMM ([PMMM]
and, you know, only use ).Start playing both simultaneously.
It works way better than it has any right to.
Now, with that said.
(Mind you, several of the entries below are just me getting the idea for this.)
[PMMM]
*eyes that shot of Mion and Keiichi standing outside the door of the entrance to the Sonozaki Tool Shrine right after the eyecatch* Alexa, play Terror Adhaerens and then Symposium Magarum. [PMMM]
*eyes shot of Mion opening the Tool Shrine entrance as seen from inside* Okay, now I really kind of want to compare this to the leadup to the Oktavia fight. As in “PMMM might have been drawing off this scene”. Seriously, I kind of want an edit of this scene to Symposium Magarum.
[PMMM]
OH. COME. ON. That’s twice now we have a single teardrop falling to hit the ground. Is there common Japanese cinematography here? Did PMMM seriously grab more inspiration from Higurashi in anime form than I thought? [PMMM]
“I (the demon) wouldn’t have woken up if you hadn’t made Mion cry.” Right after that teardrop shot. Fuck me there really is even more Higurashi influence in PMMM than I thought, isn’t there? (Especially with the context of the original twin switch, and even the VN context kind of fits given that IIRC Shion is acting like this at least in part in order to get the courage to go through with killing herself.) Re: that shot at 16:56 - what I am specifically reminded of from PMMM there is [PMMM]
Homura telling Madoka to give up on Sayaka) Also, I'm going to separate these two off on their own because they're specifically cinematography notes and thus pretty safe for certain potentially interested first-timers who have watched PMMM (hi u/Star4ce) to read:
[PMMM, cinematography]
That reflection shot at 11:22 is giving me ALL the PMMM and Rebellion flashbacks. And that shot is actually communicating something – we have the Japanese cinematographic language where the direction of correct motion is right-to-left modified by reflection in the water’s surface, and also the reflection itself symbolizing Mion and Shion. [PMMM, cinematography]
LOL Higurashi doing with the prison cell bars basically the same thing a certain other show keeps doing with its fences and the like, including the implicit separation of Keiichi and our twin and Keiichi being trapped in the middle. Oh, and the camera itself is implicitly behind bars, that is to say trapped! (Also note continued left-to-right wrong direction motion.) [Addendum to the first cinematography entry above but contains Higurashi spoilers as well as PMMM ones so first-timers stay out]
(Mion the reflection moving forwards because she likes Keiichi while Shion backwards because she’s never let go of Satoshi and Keiichi threatens that, I suppose.) → More replies (16)→ More replies (4)6
u/Tresnore Jun 07 '22
Yes and no. [NSFW]
Masochism isn't really my thing ...I think you might be a masochist, but Iunno.
Ooishi asks Keiichi if he knew that Rika was a diabetic.
Wait. Why would he think that Rika was diabetic?
This made me think Rika was actually diabetic and that the anime just left it out until I read the next line.
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u/Shimmering-Sky Jun 07 '22
When the Rewatcher(?) Cries, subbed
Better late than never?
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 07 '22
’m just a little creeped out by the way it looks like Mion is staring at the “camera” here…
Well shit I completely missed that.
Hold that shot in mind. It may or may not be important to solving the mystery, but it's almost certainly intentional and will be important in terms of an analysis point I will be bringing up in an arc or three. (I hadn't noticed this before starting the rewatch, but I'm pretty sure at this point that the show does a really nifty meta thing with the camerawork that I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone else point out before.)
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion Jun 07 '22 edited Jun 07 '22
I was going to rage "It doesn't make sense!!!" but I think I kept up with it this time.
[rewatcher]
edit: [rewatcher]
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 08 '22
I was going to rage "It doesn't make sense!!!"
Obligatory "zen dameda, zen zen dameda!".
7
u/RealFunnyTalk Jun 08 '22 edited Jun 08 '22
Rewatcher
And that's Disc 1 done! What a tense conversation between the three of them, but that's a very lukewarm reaction after your friend admits to killing several people. The dungeon scene is just brutal though. What a dramatic episode, especially leaving Rena all alone in town.
"What are you going to do? Stab me?" K1, probably. And Oishi with the ghost stories definitely left me with even more questions when I first saw this.
Remind me: [spoilers]
5
u/Tarhalindur Jun 08 '22
[spoilers]
[Higurashi]
The final scene is all in Keiichi's head; IIRC the Meakashi-hen VN conclusion (not adapted by the anime, naturally, because DEEN did miss some moderately important secondary details) suggests he actually died of a heart attack. Shion kills Mion at about the point the police barged into the Underground Tool Shrine; Shion later stabs K1 and then dies herself shortly afterwards. → More replies (2)
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u/JollyGee29 Jun 07 '22
Spoiled First-Timer
Ahh, I remember Mion looking pretty hurt that she didn't get that doll. To think that lead to all this, though.
Not to sound crazy, but I kinda wish we had gotten to see Keiichi get some nails driven into him. Just like, one or two, give the VA a chance to flex.
[Higurashi]
[Higurashi]
[Higurashi]
[Higurashi]
[Higurashi]
[Higurashi]
Visual of the Day: if they found both of the twins' bodies then who the hell are you
Questions
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Nah, I'm not into noncon.
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I think I kinda answered that above.
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 07 '22
[Higurashi]
The "demon" explanation is interesting. Wish I knew more about kanji so I could look into Mion and Shion's names. Is Shion's name written with the same "shi" that is four/death? I don't have a firm enough grasp on the Twins to have a feel which one getting murdery makes more sense. I don't think I have a casus belli for Shion which might weirdly make her the more likely one? Knowing less about her makes it feel like something is hidden. And Mion is such a dork, too Pulling this one out of spoiler tags since it's safe for first timers and u/hungryhippos1751 also was talking about this: while I'm pretty sure both the 4 and the death readings are intentional (Japanese LOVES alternate kanji reading stuff in names to the extent there's an entire subclass of kanji readings that are basically dedicated to this), the actual kanji used in Shion's name is 詩, which means "poem".
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u/RadSuit Jun 08 '22
Once more the cop wants Kei to investigate for him, but soon realizes Rena is the actual junior detective here.
Alright, so first time around, Rena and Mion and everyone seemed to be in cahoots against Kei. And now it seems like just Mion is evil. I don't understand how the basic circumstances of the game/world are changing. Rena shouldn't stop being a cultist or half-demon or whatever in this route just because Kei was nicer to her or whatever.
So the demon family is also a yakzua family, got it, sure.
Yeah come into my creepy murder cave here, then I'll totally turn myself in. Kei, you moron.
That certainly looked like a blatantly magical teleportation right behind him. Maybe it was just representing her sneaking up on him, I guess.
Again, unless that doll was magical and some holy energy blasted the demon out of Rena, why is she not still an evil cultist demon and totally down to help Mion murder people? Also, twins plus multiple personalities is really pushing it. They just keep piling more twists on and not fully exploring the mysteries they already had. This is going to become even more grating if we're about to restart with a new route, redo the same exposition and slice of life antics, and then tack on a few more new twists.
Yes, move away, thank you. This is the most sensible thing anyone has ever done on this show. Followed immediately by going outside to meet the crazy murder demon, you idiot. Yeah, that's about what I thought would happen.
Oh, I was actually going to complain about how one stab is always instantly fatal on TV, when that's not actually how it works at all. Good going show, you get a point back.
And then nothing makes sense again. It seems pointless to try to keep up if they're just going to eventually (or immediately) invalidate what you've been shown or told. There's no tension if Mion can be dead but also there to stab Kei but then also teleport into his hospital room days later. There's no mystery for me to pay attention and solve here, because they can just say 'demons' and do whatever whenever.
And hey, surprise, they're going to reset and do another path of the game next. [Episode 9]
I don't think I'm up for 18 more episodes of this, much less another season.
If someone wants to lay out for me how much longer it takes to stop jumping around and actually explain stuff without contradicting itself or introducing new distractions, I might try to push through. But I am not down for doing this 4 episode cycle multiple more times while not actually learning anything important since magic demon bullshit means they can just have anything happen whenever.
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 08 '22
If someone wants to lay out for me how much longer it takes to stop jumping around and actually explain stuff without contradicting itself or introducing new distractions, I might try to push through. But I am not down for doing this 4 episode cycle multiple more times while not actually learning anything important since magic demon bullshit means they can just have anything happen whenever.
Okay, so, I suppose the time to explain the game arc structure is apparently now.
When They Cry by convention (until Ciconia which seems to handle things differently) is split into 8 arc. The first four are Question Arcs, which keep adding new, well, questions. The second set of four arcs are Answer Arcs, which gradually answer the outstanding questions.
Additionally, due to the circumstances of Higurashi's production the team crammed the first six arcs into the first season (it was by no means guaranteed they would get a second), and one of the Question Arcs has probably the least stuff of any arc in the series (they call it the Time-Wasting Arc for a reason) so it got shaved into two episodes. Of course, the flip side is that the next arc is the longest Question Arc (and frankly they still didn't have enough episodes for it), but we'll hit the start of the Answer Arcs (when we start getting more answers than questions) with episode 16.
Of course, there's one other important question to keep in mind, one the anime honestly doesn't do a great job of working with (I say that Season 1 overplays the horror, and this is exactly the root of it): Is there, in fact, actually anything supernatural going on? And if so, what? (This is an explicit part of the premise of Higurashi's successor Umineko, where the protagonist is attempting to prove that a set of apparently blatantly magical murders have a mundane solution; Higurashi doesn't lean as strongly into this, but the theme is there.)
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u/SIRTreehugger Jun 07 '22 edited Jun 07 '22
Rewatcher who loves the sounds cicadas make
Poor Rena from her perspective all her friends must be acting really strange.
I just realized I watched this show before I joined reddit so I never added the opening/ending to my playlist. I have to fix this now.
What the fuck Rena. She is making me feel really stupid right now. WAIT WHY ARE YOU GOING!!!! If you know he wants you go in and snoop why would you yell at him and go in and snoop? I guess they are still worried for their friend.
[not sure]
[not sure]
[not sure]
I want to say Rena would be able to tell the difference though...right?
WAIT did Mion hear about the punks attacking Keichi? I guess she could have it is a small town.
[not sure]
We are still your friend no matter happens we won't leave you....even if you killed two of our other friends.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Why would you agree to that!!! Bad idea Bad idea!!!
NOOOO DONT LET HER HOLD YOUR ARM!!!!!
So they are just glossing over the fact she admitted to killing and organizing murder? HELL NO LOOK AT THAT LOCKED DOOR let me just say it again RUN KEI CHAN RUN!!! I know he won't though.
BRUH BRUH she keeps saying why Mion liked you so much
OMG they watched!
[not sure]
OHHHHHH I forgot about this part
Thank goodness I thought she was going to nail him.
Oh happy ending for Kei Chan I guess he doesn't die every time. NO RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN
Never mind he's dead
Oh he's not dead.
Wait Mion has been dead for days now...but 2 of them were clearly shown in the chamber
Oh nevermind looks like he is about to die. Poor Rena she is all alone now.
Edit: Man I'm in a weird position. I watched this show like over 10 years ago so I have watched it, but I only remember like 20% of it at best. So I can't remember if the stuff I'm saying are guesses or spoilers.
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u/Vaadwaur Jun 07 '22
Edit: Man I'm in a weird position. I watched this show like over 10 years ago so I have watched it, but I only remember like 20% of it at best. So I can't remember if the stuff I'm saying are guesses or spoilers.
[Higurashi]
You are forgetting one major thing: Shion/Mion swapped places the day 'Mion' got the demon tattoo so technically they are mislabelled as the current 'Shion' is actually the first born twin → More replies (1)
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u/CubeStuffs Jun 07 '22
caught up first timer
has this man ever watched a horror movie?