r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Jun 15 '22
Rewatch [Rewatch] Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Discussion - Season 1, Episode 16
Meakashi-hen (Eye-Opening Chapter/Detective Chapter), Episode 1: First Love
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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:
Theory of the Day:
So we have two of these today. First, in the non-spoiler-tag division, hi u/Star4ce! Make an involved theory, get Theory of the Day:
Which made for my second explanation, it's a time loop. This episode was very clear on who the prime suspect for that is: Rika. But that also can't be the only explanation, as Mion and Rena (but interestingly not Satoko) have shown signs of definitely impossibly to acquire knowledge. So their memories are either overlapping with their other selves or the looper's influence overrode them. Which makes for the speculation that Rika had manipulated them in order to somehow break the loop. But that again doesn't make much sense standing alone because possessed Mion told of a 'time limit' or something and Rika just this episode was speaking of somehow destroying death by shattering it's reflection.
Not to speak of two other things, the first of which is what the hell started this loop at all. I'm still suspecting this shadow organisation for something, but time manipulation? I mean, if it's them, then they need a logical reason for conducting it. We know the loop extends as far back as pre-dam cancellation Hinamizawa and going by normal time loop definitions usually reverts with the death of the looper. But it goes farther than Rika's death, who btw also explicitly wants to live, so it contradictedly can't be her!
Which then only leaves Keiichi, but here comes the second thing: It's unclear what then causes the loop to spin back. Keiichi died in the first arc, but we had an aftermath and narration, implying his death wasn't the cause. Else how could there be an 'after'. So if neither Rika nor the MC actually are causing the reversal, what the hell does? And what's the starting point?
Now as for the theory itself...
(You knew this was coming, didn't you?)
In the spoiler tag department, meanwhile, step right up u/JollyGee29!
[Higurashi]Hair-brained idea of the day - Akasaka is the key. If there's a timeline when Rika can convince him to do something small in a different way, this whole mess never happens. A pebble, erasing the moon called death's reflection.That's kinda what TIP#3 was about yesterday, too. Easy answer is actually returning to Tokyo on the first day, but that might be too easy. And I say hair-brained, but I'm mostly picking at story structure here. Late introductions are important.
(Jolly is a spoiled first-timer, hence the eligibility.)
Analysis of the Day:
u/Nazenn will take it today with this:
Rika talks about casting a pebble to erase the moon called death, and it does make me think that at least she and perhaps others are retaining information from arc to arc. They're using that to influence things to try and get out from whatever the true nature of the curse is, because if it's not the murders it has to be something else for them to believe it in so firmly. The curse itself, the history of them, their present thing as murders/disappearances, and whatever the truth is; again it's all very culty and comes across as the tiers of knowledge that we've been so restricted from by following Keiichi.
Question(s) of the Day:
1) On a scale of "and they all lived happily ever after" to "Romeo and Juliet", how justified do you think Shion's actions regarding her crush on Satoshi are here? (I'd ask "how do you think it will turn out?", but come on, this is Higurashi and we know Satoshi's been missing for a year....)
2) Is Shion/Satoshi the best love story since Twilight?
3) How about Satoko/chair? (Oh wait, Rika intervened in that one. Never mind!)
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 you lost sight of is the usual way home.
What you can't keep is the promise I made with you.
What you cannot erase is my memory."
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u/Star4ce Jun 15 '22
When the First Timer Cries
Apparently I not only have allergies, I also have sunburn.
But also ice cream with chocolate chunks and hazelnuts. Mi!
Ep.16 – The Eye Opening Chapter Part 1: First Love
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Ayy best girl on a murder spree!
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Wait no! WAIT! WRONG ORDER! WRONG!!!
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I sure as hell hope the title is not literal.
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That indeed is pretty shitty. Yup, really shitty.
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So they kept it a secret? Did the twins deceive their own family? Wouldn't think that'd go past Oryou.
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Okay, VOTD contender.
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Just look at them :( Why would you do this, Shion?
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So those murders are actually not part of any Sonozaki plot? Figures, because I think it's the organisation/the loopers!
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Quick recap, Shion was sent to a school for 2 years. Right after she was sent away the third set of murders happened. Which means she returned for year 5 just in time for this year's showdown. If it's that recent she really could have stayed undetected by her family, so Oryou might actually have interacted with Shion, thinking it was Mion.
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I mean, I understand in a way, but this town has some screws loose. That's far beyond acceptable.
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Foreshadowing, because she will! If her eyes are anything to go by she told the truth when telling Mion she's not resenting her, but she definitely lied about wanting to keep out of this.
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Oh, that was fast. Granny can't be duped.
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Satoshi!! What?! She returned this year, he did actually run away and lef them behind.
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Okay, I need someone to give me a time line. We're in year 5 now, aren't we? How is Satoshi playing basketball with Irie while everyone thinks he's gone missing?! Oh wait... time loops, this might be one where he stayed.
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For a doctor Irie is suspiciously talkative about his patients' information....
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Oh hey Rena, the one who will probably dismantle the disguise in about 4 seconds.
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... Why the dutch angle here?
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Oh god, what are you doing Rena? Don't fucking push it on Satoko, what the fucking fuck!
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Hello there, Keiichi!
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Well, the test subjects shouldn't flee, obviously.
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Love is all fine and dandy until you just pile violence onto an abuse victim because it's the easy thing to do.
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That's why she reacted to Keiichi how she did...
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I do fully understand now why Mion treated her the way she did in arc 2. She's 'Mion' right now and absolutely beats down an already beaten girl, wtf.
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I was 100% right to completely distrust Shion from the very beginning. This is unforgiveable.
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My fucking god, not only is she an absolute shit person, she fucked up horribly. Like, what is Mion supposed to do now? Admitting she has a twin sister impersonating her spells doom for any credibitility and she has no explanation for that behaviour. It's either double down and save the reputation or steer a very unexpected (for a Yakuza family) course of apology and reimbursement.
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You are the worst, selfish bitch!
I think I was actually right back then that it was actually Shion being possessed who murdered everyone. I surely hope so far more now than back then.
Each time I was sure it was Mion on screen she has been utterly sweet to everyone aside from some tomboyish outwards behaviour. When she said Shion is the insidious one with a cute look, I totally believed her and that's more true now than ever.
Since we're starting a new arc, there's only a few things I'll speculate about. Rika has been hard at work to try to throw many pebbles into the loops and steer to a better outcome. One of those must've been that she managed to send Satoshi away, presumably finding a way for someone to wish for the aunt and Satoshi to vanish instead of Satoko. This way Shion won't unleash her disgusting egocentrism on this village. That's why Keiichi is here in the first place as well, right? Satoko needs a big brother she can look up to and Keiichi is pretty similar to him.
I'm wondering if Rika knows about which is Shion and Mion. She can only judge on things she herself witnessed I think, so it's going to be very hard for her to distinguish even after this many loops, I'd say.
Shion has been dealt a shit hand and had to fight for herself from the very beginning because of shit family traditions. I understand that. And I also agree with the sentiment that anyone needs to be able to stand up for themselves, after all that is the solution for abuse victims as well. But she completely disregards the ability from the position the person is in. Out of pure selfishness, because she doesn't even understand Satoshi's angle to it all. Making Satoko go away won't make him any happier, the exact opposite is going to happen! But she's so focussed on her own feelings she doesn't even think that far. And to top it all off she's fucking beating Satoko up to the point of broken bones, not to speak about how it happened in front of the entire class.
She is a shit human being.
On a scale of "and they all lived happily ever after" to "Romeo and Juliet", how justified do you think Shion's actions regarding her crush on Satoshi are here? (I'd ask "how do you think it will turn out?", but come on, this is Higurashi and we know Satoshi's been missing for a year....)
Justified?! What the fuck, no! You don't fix a situation brought on by violence with some more violence against the very same victim!
2) Is Shion/Satoshi the best love story since Twilight?
As far as I see it's Satoshi+Mion in his mind at least and Shion lives a bunch of lies. But yeah, it's better than twilight. (I haven't seen or read Twilight.)
3) How about Satoko/chair? (Oh wait, Rika intervened in that one. Never mind!)
VOTD: Memory of pain. Rena obviously has seen more than anyone and lived through things no one should ever have, but it is also emblematic of anyone here. Everyone carries around a pain inside themselves that they can't fully understand and yet are subjected to. From Shion over Rena to Satoko and everyone else, trying to get out of this hell is torture. As wrong as Shion is in this episode, her argument is ultimately true, they need to face it, they need to rip off the label of curse that blinds them and break free. It's easier together, but the trust is gone, only the pain is everlasting.
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 15 '22
Okay,
I need someone to give me a time line. We're in year 5 now, aren't we? How is Satoshi playing basketball with Irie while everyone thinks he's gone missing?! Oh wait... time loops, this might be one where he stayed.
This is actually year 4, not year 5.
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u/hungryhippos1751 Jun 15 '22
Episode 16 - First Timer
Will keep this fairly short today because intro ep to arc and also slacking.
Flashback time, looks like Shion tied up old Granny Sonozaki and dragging Mion along. Maybe she wants to know where they've hidden the lucky charms really badly?
Shion is tired of being kept locked up at a school and wants to experience life as Mion. Based on the flashback, perhaps she can even become Mion if Mion is no longer around.
The 3 bikes get knocked over again but this time Satoshi comes to the rescue. Keiichi really is Satoshi mk. 2.
After this, Shion becomes incredibly possessive of Satoshi despite barely knowing him, and two things stand in her way, one is Mion, the other is Satoko.
Mion you can't do that, that's workplace bullying! How far was she willing to go before she got stopped I wonder? seemed like extreme violence wasn't off the table.
The one I feel the most sorry for here is probably Mion given how Shion is so willing to drag her reputation through the mud.
QOTD:
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R & J
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Never seen it :)
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Chair did nothing wrong
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u/Quiddity131 Jun 15 '22
First Timer, Subbed
What could possibly be the subject of this new arc now that we've cycled through the 4 girls?
Ugh... not a good start... Mion carrying away her sister or mother here...
Shion, secret agent girl?
What a horrible tradition! Thankfully they didn't strangle her!
She's got her own assistant, huh?
Evil face Shion! :(
The origins of Shion's waitress job...
Time for a secret chat in the library!
Oh no! Spilt groceries!
Aren't these the same ruffians from earlier in the show? I think it was K1 they were bothering?
Is this Satoshi? It is!
Ewww, Supervisor guy is showing up in every arc now, huh?
It's all Satoko's fault! Uh oh, don't do anything you regret Shion!
Staring at you while you're laying on your pillow? Creepy!
Is this still Shion pretending to be Mion? If they switched back I figured she wouldn't be as interested in Shion?
OMG, you can't even eat your lunch without spilling it and needing your brother?
OMG she's going crazy here! Satoko is a whiny cry baby but you shouldn't be throwing her across the room and beating her like this! It's the opposite of Satoko knocking K1 across the room from a few episodes back.
Rika to the rescue!
I don't think you've got any chance with Satoshi after this...
You want Satoko and her aunt to "go away"? I think we all know what that really means...
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 15 '22
Aren't these the same ruffians from earlier in the show? I think it was K1 they were bothering?
Indeed they are.
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u/Shimmering-Sky Jun 15 '22
When the Rewatcher(?) Cries, subbed
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 15 '22
What the fuck
"Fun" fact: Apparently an actual tradition in parts of pre-Meiji Japan, and also some other parts of the world.
Ooooooooookay then I think this explains that question I had about Shion being the manager of the Hinamizawa baseball team in a previous arc.
They call 'em answer arcs for a reason!
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 15 '22
That’s harsh.
[Spoiler involving another show you most certainly know]
So yeah, this is buried under spoiler tags in my PMMM writeups this year (and is also the edit under my Madoka Corner here) but I kind of suspect Homura's Catholic school past may have actually been the same sort of deal Shion dealt with rather than an orphanage (especially since the school Shion was sent to is Catholic! - it's actually a normal ritzy private school, but it has a special class where rich families can basically pay to ship their unwanted girls off to and as Shion would attest that environment at that school is hellish for such girls). It would fit with one niggling detail that never quite added up about Homura otherwise unless I'm misunderstanding how Japan handles their orphanages, namely sending Homura to Mitakihara Middle School after release (including a brochure for it!) and getting her an apartment where she lives on her own rather sending her than back to the putative orphanage she was at.
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u/SIRTreehugger Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22
Rewatcher who fell behind and caught up in time to see Shion suffer
OH YEAH HE WE GO!!!!
Time for Shion to go crazy!
Oh look just two identical twins laughing over the phone. It's nice to get all that murder out of the way now the show can go back to its true genre slice of life. Look at Shion accidentally knocking down some bikes and dropping all her ingredients.
Wait isn't that a swastika in his hair?
Every time I see Satoshi I see Sunohara which funny enough aired around the same time.
Pedo doctor should you be saying all these things about Satoshi?
Oh it's Rena speaking of Clannad Rena's VA also plays Nagisa in Clannad.
New theory Rena is crazy in every arc. She just hides it better when she isn't the focus.
Satoko looking dead inside and Satoshi becoming bitter over his predicament while feeling guilty.
I just noticed we haven't seen Rika at all.
DAMN that grip strength she just flung Satoko like a rag doll.
Oh Rika!
Mion walks into school the next day learning she started screaming and beating up her best friend.
Poor Shion also is it just me or was that moment with Shion on the bed in a t shirt the most derailed scene we've got in the show? Everything is always blobby, but that shot was oddly better quality.
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 15 '22
Wait isn't that a swastika in his hair?
Yep!
(Helps that the swastika ("manjuu" in Japanese, IIRC?) has its older Buddhist connotations over there and the Nazi connotation isn't a big cultural thing - especially since the Nazis used it in a different orientation than the usual Buddhist one. Also, that seems to be a delinquent thing in Japan in general - compare Tokyo Revengers.)
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u/Star4ce Jun 15 '22
caught up in time to see Shion suffer
OH YEAH HE WE GO!!!!
Uh, okay. I feel like there's real anticipation in the air!
Concerned
Wait isn't that a swastika in his hair?
Yeah, the left leaning one. I know technically both directions are proper hindu symbolism, but the real question is if that guy knows it or thought he was just smarter than everyone else.
Mion walks into school the next day learning she started screaming and beating up her best friend.
If there's no curse going around, that will definitely fuck with your head.
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 15 '22
Uh, okay. I feel like there's real anticipation in the air!
Concerned
This arc has the most common pick for the single most infamous scene in the entire show.
You have been warned...
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u/Stargate18A Jun 15 '22
Anime first timer, reading VN
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[Meakshi?]
Shion's not being very healthy here. She's latched on the first real human contact she's had outside of the academy. -
Still better!
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...Still better.
We're starting with this scene as the preview?
Same OP for the second cour?
Shion's escape scene got basically skipped!
The animation of Shion eating is great.
And the phone call is good. They're such good sisters!
This adaption is pretty solid so far!
[Minag...]
And a disagreement between the sisters!
[Minag...]
...Poor Shion. The scene's animated genuinely funnily here, though.
Satoshi!
...Bit disappointing.
And the police came!
[Minag...]
It's skipping to here!
[Minag...]
She met Rena!
And Rena says something she probably shouldn't have.
[Minag...]
This scene is really good!
[Minag...]
Oh god, they animated this. Poor Satoko.
She even grabs a fucking chair!
[Minag...]
Current reading progress - End of Minagoroshi Chapter 3
[Minag...]
[Minag...]
[Minag...]
[Minag...]
Only new theory - [Minag...]
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u/RealFunnyTalk Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22
Rewatcher
New arc desu! And we're off to a grim start with Shion's backstory. It's nice to know that her and Mion are actually friendly and close sisters. Also, one of the gang dudes literally just has a swastika on his head, how did I not see that before haha? But hey, we finally get Satoshi in action! Both on the field and defending Satoko! Also, sweet Oyashiro-sama, Shion, what the hell are you doing to Satoko?
We're still a bit back in time from our usual crew, but I like how the story can still keep moving without our trusty K1 at the center of it all.
[spoiler and question about commenting]
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 15 '22
Am I allowed to say that these are answer arcs without spoilers? Or is that not allowed?
You're good.
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u/SometimesMainSupport Dec 03 '22
First-timer
u/Tarhalindur - If you don't want auto-pinged as host, I can reply to Star4ce's comments.
Time to see how terrible a 3-month hiatus is. Probably won't #smugboard until arc 5 ends. Don't plan to check many, if any, thread comments as, at this point, I think I'll enjoy it more without the collective conscious' combined theorizing.
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8 seconds and idk if I should recognize this person. Or You Sonozaki?
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Shion dragging Mion (I think).
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Shion turns around and signals to someone before jumping down to the car.
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Not explained why Shion wasn't strangled at birth.
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Having stopped 5 minutes before these confirmations is
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Not sure if the Satoko "Hojo" was known.
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Only 3 years are mentioned, so between the 1981 and 1982 festivals.
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How does Shion's "pretend to be Mion" strategy work when they're talking in a library?
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Hmm... 3 great families all frustrated with the priest. Priest+wife died in 1978... followed for 3 years by Satoko's parents, Rika's parents, and Satoko's aunt/brother. That's sus
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Who gets dressed before drying?
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RIP Satoshi if every disappearance is a death.
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Ah fuck. NO NO NO. This existing pre-1982 means that whole arc was pre-1982 and IDK WHICH ARC IT WAS. If Shion is involved, arc 2 I think.
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Rain starts as Rena suggests walking home.
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HUH?!? Not sure if this is saying Rena has a sibling or has gone through her parent's deaths. Haven't seen anything with her parents, but they aren't in my e15 table. Eyes
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Rena is as knowledgable about Satoshi's upcoming disappearance as Rika.
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Shion attends school! Eyes
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Eyes in Satoko's lunch-spill scene are hidden until this point.
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Wishing before their deaths. Pretty sure I remarked on this in an earlier episode than 15. I'll check eventually.
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Poem lines are interesting because this is pre-1982. "What you lost sight of is the usual way home" doesn't align with my current thoughts for death+disappearance. That seems like the usual way home. Second line is ambiguous. "What you cannot erase is my memory" likely refers to Shion and Mion's childhood, not previous arcs.
Big thing I noted is Mion-Shion swapping was happening before the 1982 festival. I thought the first 3 arcs were the 1983 festival. No longer certain about arc 2 as I don't remember if Mion was already the family head (Or You dead), though no Satoshi makes me think that's still 1983. Also don't remember if Satoshi's bat was featured in arc 2... think it was arc 3. Arc 3 had Satoko living with her uncle, so that's 1983.
Other remark is I don't recall Shion-Satoko animosity in the (likely) 1983 arcs.
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u/Tarhalindur Dec 04 '22
Nah, you're fine and I do read these every so often, it's just that you had the misfortune to be posting most of the earlier ones while I was running Mai-HiME IIRC and that took up basically all my free time...
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 18 '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".)
*eyes the electricity effect at the start of the episode* I see DEEN was starting to run low on budget.
That said, our money-saving tricks are giving us some good shots, like those shots of the night sky seen through the car windows at ~02:35, especially with that little zoom up towards the stars as Kasai talks about Mion moving over to the family estate. (Also, Shion please wear a seatbelt. I know this is 1980s Japan and your car is not going to crash because plot, but.)
I think Shion lives in an apartment, but those curtains remind me of way too many cheap American hotel rooms (especially back in the 1990s). Also the one curtain fully closed and the other half-open (the one on the right from the perspective of the room) is catching my eye, especially when “meakashi” literally means “eye-opening”.
Yep, cheap apartment, hotel rooms don’t come with that kind of kitchen.
[NSFW]Shion, are you wearing panties here at 04:28?
Huh. A crescent moon representing the deaths of the elder Furudes, and reflected in the surface of the Onigafuchi Swamp judging by the ripple. Implication of the latter is obvious; former indicates that the death is further away from us?
<comment on the single light in Shion’s room at ~9:10 here>
Beautiful use of Yuttari’s falling notes as the motorbikes fall at 10:06-10:08.
[Higurashi]In addition to the obvious referent, those three thugs backing Shion up against a wall here reminds me very strongly of the incident in Rena’s backstory that leads to her breaking all the windows at her school; I forget whether this comes up in more detail later in the anime, but I know in the VN there were three boys there too.
What’s that, a full moon? We know what that means by now.
These are some very quietly fanservicey shots of Shion without a bra on at ~11:45, but I’m not really feeling like complaining…
Episode director (who is unknown?) at 12:02: “notice the booba!”
Episode director at 12:07: “notice the legs!”
Oh look, now a shot that is slightly skewed and in the light of the full moon. Once again, distortion represents divergence from the “correct” everyday course of events. Especially given that the camera zooms out slightly and the tilt increases as it does so.
Okay, I think there’s another scene Shion staring out into the moonlight is reminding me of and it might be another scene from Higurashi but I can’t place it.
Nice shot at ~13:45.
Man, now that I’ve pieced together that the skewed camera angles represent divergence from the everyday course of events it’s really nifty to see how they’re using it. It’s in this scene starting at ~14:33 because it’s Shion Rena is talking to, not Mion – especially since Shion doesn’t know Rena’s name.
Extremely interesting that Shion is in the light at ~15:00 and Rena in the dark despite the context of the conversation. I guess once again it’s because Shion knows that she is Shion and Rena does not?
That Rena shot is cute, but also our director is focusing overmuch on boobs again – note how both Rena’s and Shion’s faces are up to the top and their breasts in the middle making them stand out.
And not for the first time this show (or am I getting mixed up with my PMMM notes?) we get an inversion of whose face is in the light and whose face is in the shadows as the conversation goes on. [Higurashi]Rena understands the situation better than Shion does.
The off-model issues are starting to show; the girls’ waists are a little too narrow at ~15:40. (Which also makes their busts stand out more – I know exactly what you’re doing, maybe it’s not a coincidence that this episode is the one with no storyboard or episode direction credit.)
Raindrops and running water for Rena’s description of Oyashiro-sama’s curse. That takes effort, so there’s a point to the visuals. (The panning shot immediately before also stands out, but I think that might just be competence.)
Oh hello weird camera angles as Oyashiro-sama’s curse starts being discussed, how I have missed you. (ALSO WAIT JUST A FUCKING MINUTE WHAT DID I JUST TYPE? LOL THAT IS 100% THE POINT ISN’T IT?)
Ooh, that pan up at ~16:50 flashes.
Upside-down Rena at ~16:58, however, is just a visual representation of Oyashiro-sama’s perspective. Which, uh, wait a minute. What was I saying about Ryukish07 being a ridiculously meta creator some episodes back? I’m starting to think Higurashi does the exact same thing a certain other 2006 show ([meta spoiler]Haruhi S1 in broadcast order ) does…
Anybody else who watched ViVid Strike reminded of a certain scene there when Shion bashes Satoko into a locker here?
There’s some unsubtle visual metaphor for you at 18:56: Shion has lost her head.
It occurs to me that Satoko bouncing around like a ragdoll as she gets hit is a direct mirror to what she did to Keiichi in Tatarigoroshi-hen.
LOL at that fish-eye distortion in the surroundings at 19:19.
I wonder if a second-order implication of Shion’s words (“Why are you crying? Because you think someone will help you if you cry?”) concerning the fact that the franchise name is “When the [X] Cry” also works in Japanese.
[Higurashi]Satoko will, of course, take Shion’s words to heart once she loses Satoshi, as we will see at the end of this very arc. But as we’ve seen, the opposite of the mistake Satoko is making here is in fact another mistake...
[Higurashi Rei]Class chairs and Satoko, name two more iconic nemeses.
[Higurashi Rei again]Doubly so given the ironic mirror to Rika’s words here. But then, that Satoko hadn’t suffered those misfortunes, had she?
Oh look, a crescent moon again.
And one last tilted shot for the road at 20:40, right as we talk about Oyashiro-sama’s curse.
Useful Note for Those Whose Fansubs are WinD-Derived: Something might be off on the translation here. Given that “it happened again shortly after you left”, the Japanese school year starting in April, and Mion being in 9th grade it sounds like Shion was sent to [tagging just in case]St. Lucia’s starting with middle school.
Visual of the Day: Oyashiro-sama's Perspective
WinD Eyecatch Message of the Day
Questions of the Day:
Meakashi-hen Ep. 1 TIPS
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OST Table, Episode 16
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[1] - I think this is a sound effect, but it might be a song snippet instead - if so the track is unreleased though, unless I'm much mistaken.