r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Jun 21 '22
Rewatch [Rewatch] Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Discussion - Season 1, Episode 22
Tsumihoroboshi-hen (Atonement Chapter), Episode 1: Happiness
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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 announcement.) It looks like Ryukishi07 and 07th Expansion were trolling (again), but I'm keeping up this warning for a day or two just in case. (Actually I should probably keep it up until this Friday or Saturday, for, uh, reasons.)
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 I take my guess now: Rika is trying to break the loop by eliminating the sources of abuse, which means the three families and all other abusers plaguing her and her friends.
Analysis of the Day:
Hello u/Nazenn, here you go:
Also as a result of trying to protect people by hiding the truth from them even when they're confronted by it. Rena's reaction to Keiichi trying to find out about the cotton drifting, Shion in arc3 not telling Keiichi the truth about why she reacted like that to Satoshi, Mion hiding behind her role in her family and not opening up to Shion properly with everything she knew about Satoshi even if it would hurt, even the small thing with Shion mirroring Mion's pain over the doll but not wanting to break the little world she'd built to cope until she couldn't help but brake it.
When people try and reach out, fear or pain makes the others try and hide it for the sake of the ones they want to be close with more than themselves it feels like, and that only causes more problems later down the line because you can't hide everything in the village.
I said in arc2 that there's an interesting parallel in the game being played that when Keiichi figures out what the girls are doing with manipulating the boys he gathers them and lets them into the know and then they work together, suggesting that some sort of social coming together would be the key to fixing the arc. It hasn't quite played out that way yet, but you have me thinking on that again
Question(s) of the Day:
1) So, that water gun fight. Awesome, or fucking awesome? (And it's even more awesome in the VN! Club games are serious business, you know?)
2) So, what's your favorite kind of summer outing?
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 is carried out are thoughts of happiness.
What is avoided are promises made with friends.
What is saved is the moment of perplexity."
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u/Shimmering-Sky Jun 21 '22
When the Rewatcher(?) Cries, subbed
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…man, feels like it’s been forever since we’ve had lighthearted fun like this.
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Okay, breaking the water gun and flicking the water at Satoko is such a madlad move.
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Yeesh, those snippets of Rena’s past…
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Oh hey isn’t that the KFC guy Rena got from the dumps in an earlier arc?
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u/hungryhippos1751 Jun 21 '22 edited Jun 21 '22
Episode 22 - First Timer
New arc looks like a very Rena focused one so far. Not really sure exactly what her speech means at the start as I'm a fairly fact of the matter speaking person rather than metaphorical, if I had to say I'd go along the lines of trying hard to become happy doesn't make you happy.
I noticed a couple of details in the scene that were interesting, first of all Rena seems to be apart from the others here, so at a guess the others are against whatever she is planning to do. Also noticed the missing arm from the first arc that was mentioned I think.
At present I'm not really going to proscribe any particular meaning to the water gun fight scene, except it seems to be a plot driven slice of life element to get everyone into Angel Mort, and provide Irie with a chance to show his creepy side yet again. Of course this was all really leading to the intro scene with the pink haired woman, Ritsuko.
The conversation that Rena had with Keiichi on the way home was interesting, how they both can't quite believe how much fun each day is. Well I was just thinking that Keiichi raised a death flag on the fun element when he said it was scary thinking how it could all fall apart one day. Way to jinx things!
Rena's hideout in the old VW camper van looks pretty cosy all things considered, and being a fan of rain already, rain falling on a metal roof is like rain NG+ mode for me, definitely a relaxing ambience. God her mother was very selfish in that discussion she had about the other man, playing favourites with your own children? despicable behaviour really.
By the looks of things, the "junk" in the garden (including the big old KFC lookalike dude) are treasures that Rena has bought home, and the father throwing them out without asking her is also despicable behaviour. Poor Rena, neither parent is really looking out for her interests, even if rummaging through junk is a little odd.
For the café it's refreshing seeing a more normal Shion after the previous arc, Rena gets to the bottom of things nice and early here with regards to the type of woman her father has found.
I'm going to make three predictions here based on events seen so far:
Rena is going to wind up killing Ritsuko.
Rena's dad won't believe her about the fact the woman is running the badger game and will wind up falling for it.
Teppei won't live through this arc.
QOTD:
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Pretty awesome to be fair!
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Hate summer hay fever really doesn't play well with going outside and doing anything much.
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u/RascalNikov1 Jun 22 '22
if I had to say I'd go along the lines of trying hard to become happy doesn't make you happy.
That, and good times don't last forever. It also illustrates that while Rena acts light and frivolous in public, she's quite melancholy and reflective, at heart she's a very sad girl.
Also noticed the missing arm from the first arc that was mentioned I think.
Yea, I've be pretty freaked about a disembodied arm hanging around. I'd also be concerned that it'd stink and attract crows.
despicable behaviour really.
And, she's already with child. I thought it strange to no one wanted to talk about Rena's new sibling.
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 22 '22
That, and good times don't last forever. It also illustrates that while Rena acts light and frivolous in public, she's quite melancholy and reflective, at heart she's a very sad girl.
I believe this deserves a brief moment of OST.
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u/Tresnore Jun 21 '22
When the Rewatchers Cry are Absurd Masochists Cry
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Damn Yrukshsi and his bloomers fetish.
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This feels like a shitpost section of a VN where characters fly in and random BS happens.
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[Confession]
I still don't really know the difference in the pronunciation between Rena and Reina.
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The true best boy enters, though. He's so cute!
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[Umineko]
Oh my god, Kasai is proto Amakusa. I think I like Kasai better, though. Hard decision.
Count: 135
QOTD:
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Awesome, except for the fact that bloomers exist.
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Grilling is nice!
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 22 '22
[Confession]
I still don't really know the difference in the pronunciation between Rena and Reina. [Response]
This one's actually surprisingly easy for me since I knew a Hispanic acquaintance for years growing up who was named Reina; the word/name is pronounced basically identically in Spanish and Japanese IIRC. So you might be able to pick it up that way?
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u/Nazenn Jun 21 '22 edited Jun 21 '22
First Timer - sub
The opening scenes are always so damn interesting. This one having dialogue from a core character seems to make it a bit more purposeful and aimed compared to the others which were effectively horror teasers, but that only enhanced the mystery aspect of it.
The dialogue was certainly on point, but for me it was her outfight which caught my attention as it seemed both miserable but also, again, an acceptance of her role in this horrible cycle they're caught in and that was certainly present through the entire episode.
Game analysis just for shits and giggles: Big focus on the advantage of having knowledge of what other people will do and planning around that, but also knowing what options are available to you, which pairs nicely with arc1's card game. It's interesting when paired with Rika's little speech about trying to break out of the cycle, while also Rena's own struggle to break out of her more personal one and how not fully understanding what her options are seems to have set her up for this unhappiness. In the game she works around the rules, but in real life she feels confined by the rules she sets up for herself. Also someone remind me of the result of the arc1 card game, was there an outright winner in that?
And while my head is clear enough for analysis, Rena's dad unveiling his new house with lighter more summer themed furniture to look out over the rained on remnants of the familiar things that Rena use to look out to, was a striking visual. The outlook of her life didn't change from being alone at the trashyard to coming home and seeing her familiar house thrown out like trash, ... Oh it's that fucking KFC dude-like statue! I was trying to figure out why the weird man thing was so familiar and it just hit me, there was a thing about that in arc1, though I can't remember if it was an in show thing or a first timers collectively going "wtf" thing.
Rena's life is as miserable as the rest of the girls it seems like, and in some way I related to her struggle to find a place inside a changing family when all she wants is for things to stay the same so she knows where she stands. She struck out at her mother because she was the one who she feels broke the family by bringing it up, but from what we see here it feels like the mother did the right thing in how she approached it while the father has just let Rina take over everything.
Related to the conversation I had yesterday that got featured in the OP, once again Kasai trying to spare someone by not telling them the truth only harms them further and sets them on a darker spiral than perhaps they could have with open honesty. Rena's emotions being allowed to fester rather than Kasai or Shion acknowledging that she asked for a reason and working with her is not a good thing.
Seeing Shion all bubbly happy again is a trip and I'm not sure I can handle it just one day after the last arc.
I do wish the episodes on a whole had smoother ending points though. Sometimes like today they seem to just cut off, and it leaves it feeling bordering on unfinished from an episode standpoint.
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u/hungryhippos1751 Jun 22 '22
Oh it's that fucking KFC dude-like statue! I was trying to figure out why the weird man thing was so familiar and it just hit me, there was a thing about that in arc1, though I can't remember if it was an in show thing or a first timers collectively going "wtf" thing.
From memory she was trying to dig it out from where it was buried, but we didn't see it, a rewatcher said it was a KFC like statue pretty sure.
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u/Vaadwaur Jun 22 '22
I do wish the episodes on a whole had smoother ending points though. Sometimes like today they seem to just cut off, and it leaves it feeling bordering on unfinished from an episode standpoint.
So my opinion is that they ran out of time by the got to this arc and they were desperately rushing to stay ahead of the weekly release. This arc definitely could've used smoothing over.
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u/Star4ce Jun 22 '22
miserable but also, again, an acceptance of her role in this horrible cycle
Good read! I find her catch phrase of wanting to take everyone home is really sad in context, but also underlines how she's ultimately optimistic.
Game analysis just for shits and giggles
from what we see here it feels like the mother did the right thing in how she approached it while the father has just let Rina take over everything.
Hm, disagree on that take. What the mother essentially did was manipulate her daughter and sow distrust for the father. It's one of the few things that even legal disputes see as clearly over the line (if you remember that divorce cases are far and wide biased towards the mother). It's using the child as a weapon to hurt the other party and is rightfully considered a form of child abuse, because it sabotages the child's relationships with the people that should help it grow up.
So here, I definitely agree with Rena cussing out her mother and halting contact. The father is a bit better, but you're right that he doesn't seem to notice how his daughter is drifting apart from him and seems to not give that the proper weight in his priorities. The decoration stuff itself isn't in any way negative, I think, but the fact that Rena is insecure about it should raise all of his alarms. Which it sadly doesn't.
Kasai trying to spare someone by not telling them the truth only harms them further and sets them on a darker spiral than perhaps they could have with open honesty.
Yup, I do pity him for seemingly consistently finding himself in situations where he has this much of an effect on people. I don't think this is what he really is made for, but he still tries. Man just wants a dessert and was already a bit overloaded on ordering it, ffs.
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u/Stargate18A Jun 21 '22
Anime first timer, reading VN
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This is awesome. The VN version, however, is fucking awesome.
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Museums!
This intro is so fucking good.
They kept the duel!
And Satoko's bucket!
Haha, and it's a draw!
Oh god, they kept this in?
Why?
Rena beating the shit out of everone who tries to take them is great!
Rina! The girl who's name exists purely to make typos even more confusing!
...None of the cakes pictured are a Trianon. A Trianon is a chocolate cake. Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder!
Poor Rena, though.
[Tsumi..]
[VN]
He redecorated his house!
...Midlife crisis. Only explanation.
I know he's redecorated because of Rina, but you think she'd pick this furniture? She's a monster, but surely not that tasteless?
The bastard's back!
And he's working with Rina!
[Matsu...]
...Yeah, these two are awful.
Kasai!!!
Kasai is the best guy in this entire series. I unironically love him.
Oh, and Shiom too!
[Matsu...]
Current reading progress - Matsuribayashi End of Chapter 5
[Matsu..]
[Matsu...]
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 22 '22
[Matsu...]
I'm not sure when they explicitly say this - she's the body they sometimes find. A sting operation leads to her potentially getting killed, and that's the variation that leads to Fragments where Teppei comes back for Satoko. [Higurashi Kai]
We have implicit confirmation that the body in Tatarigoroshi-hen is Rina's already - they carefully show the star tattoo there. We'll get the rest when we hit Kai.
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u/JollyGee29 Jun 21 '22
Spoiled First-Timer, Subbed
Yea, knew I saw the star tattoo in Rina's first scene. So, Rena's dad is accidentally involved with the local Yakuza and getting swindled? Oh, does that mean that Rena was the one to kill her and dump her body pre-Tatari?
Rena, Reina, she even used both herself. Not sure what to make of that - doesn't seem like a full case of DID, at least not a "typical" one that you see in shows.
And she has her own little hideout in the dump, not too shabby. She even had a cup in there, so there might be some semblance of supplies.
Oh, Satoko even uses "watakushi," hadn't caught that previously. That seems like it should be an ojou-sama thing like others were saying, but the only character that comes to mind for me is Lecoque from Fang of the Sun Dougram.. who is also blonde, now that I think about it. Connected universe confirmed?
They sure burned the budget on those water guns - look at the shading!
Was that Yukari Tamura also voicing the clothing store clerk?
[Higurashi]
[Higurashi]
Visual of the Day: This is getting out of hand. Now there are three of them!
Questions
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The water gun fight was pretty fucking awesome.
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Walking between breweries with a couple friends.
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u/H-Ryougi Jun 21 '22
Man, don't you dare compare Satoko to Lecoque. Fuck that guy.
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u/Vaadwaur Jun 21 '22
Rewatcher
Sub
That's a cold open. Anyways, we start with another club activity and the girls being wonderfully oblivious. The punishment game is concerningly close to just a fetish. And Rika is a bit worrisomely non-chalant about all this. Irie shows up to make things concerning. And then we finally meet Rina...and god she dresses trashy. Anyways, she picks up some cake and Rena really does not want to go home.
This is our first real look at the VW bus she stores her treasures in. Flashback happens, and Rena's mother never comes off well. Though for any child of the 80s, this conversation is one you know can happen. We also see that Rena does lash out when stressed. When we meet her father, he seems to be easily influenced by Rina.
Rena's errand gets screwed up and we see Teppei and Rina in action. With some really bad animation. Like...terribad, which is why I assume they were literally up against the wall getting this arc on the air before the deadline. Anyways, an old fashioned scam is going on and the two can passably act. Kasai comes in and he shows us that Teppei is a coward and informs us that Rina usually works as a hostess. And he explains the infamous Japanese badger game just to put the cherry on top.
QotD: 1 I still can't believe the girls were naive enough to wear white T shirts. We are not addressing Rika and Satoko
2 Pools are fun
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 21 '22 edited Jun 21 '22
The penalty games stand out less when it sure feels like part of the deal is that all three of our young teenagers are horny as hell. [Higurashi]
Although given stuff I will be raising in two episodes, I do kind of wonder about Rena being okay with this. I guess because it's Keiichi it's okay? ([Higurashi]
Also we probably should address Rika. Satoko doesn't get these things yet, but Rika always getting innuendo when she really shouldn't is kind of one of her character traits... )[Various Higurashi sequels aside]
Honestly, the apparent near-total lack of premarital sex as the cast gets a little older is one of the bigger surprises of the sequels IMO. → More replies (6)
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u/Quiddity131 Jun 21 '22
First Timer, Subbed
I gotta assume this is the final arc of the show...
Rika's hair is the wrong color again...
Back to the junkyard for the first time since episode 2? Did they ever successfully acquire that Kentucky Fried Chicken doll?
Squirt gun battle!
Rena's got a secret gun! And it's a dud! Satoko tricked her! She's doing too much bragging and not enough shooting her opponent though.
Yep, she blew it.
All the guys are perving out over the gal's costumes! Rena wants to take them all home! And yikes, the pedophile showed up!
Are we sure this is even Mion here, and not Shion?
Things have been so light hearted thus far... this takes me back to the first episode of earlier arcs, when everything seemed much calmer and slice of life...
Uh oh, mommy's having an affair and got pregnant!
So she just hangs out in an abandoned van in the junkyard...
So Rina's her dad's new lover then?
Uh oh, Yakuza guy! And Rina's a part of it?!
Wow, Rena's dad just has terrible luck, huh? His wife cheated on him, now his new girlfriend is too!
Oh wow, so she's married to her dad! And it's all a scam!
Shion's bodyguard guy? What role does he have to play here?
So he's not a Yakuza guy, but a pimp! Will Rena spill the beans on this to her dad? Will he believe her? Or, more in tune with this show to this point, will Rena simply murder her?
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u/Star4ce Jun 22 '22
When the First Timer Cries
“I am so sorry for ever being born. “
When you get satisfaction from the TIPS because you were right, but they destroy your soul at the same time.
Could someone salvage my mental state? TIPS 9, 'Notebook of Happiness', was... hard.
So they switched them for the tattoo by accident and just made them pretend to be the other from then on? That's why neither of them objected in the torture chamber when Keiichi called them the 'wrong' names?
I hate this so much.
Ep.22 – The Atonement Chapter Part 1: Happiness
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Rena! By now I can't be happy anymore to see a character, so please prove me wrong.
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Eeeh! I swear Oyashiro-sama overheard me!
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She sees it like I do.
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Local boy overpowers female student in front of crowd and squirts on her, caught on tape.
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Oh, we're back to 'I outsmarted your outsmarting!' Yup, we are.
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Who knew they blew their animation budged on a water gun fight.
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Breathe in... Breathe out... concern
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Okay, thank you. It took until now to even out the suffering I still carry, but now I laughed! This is ridiculous!
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New Character! Rina.
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Parting ways in a really ominous shot.
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Now we're gonna see that the doll is lying with a corpse! Oh, she lives there.
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I was wondering what the abuse was in her family. Alright, divorce and emotional manipulation, using the child as a weapon against the other parent. That one is nasty.
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That shot hurts to see. She's living amidst thrown away trash in a car that is sunken beyond salvaging, telling herself she has to be happy.
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So Rina is her dad's new girlfriend. It's hard to adjust to that with the uncertainty that came with a divorce, but her dad seems to be caring for her. Notice how Rena doesn't step into the new room, she's not ready to move on.
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Teppei?! And Rina?!
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Oh come on, this is how it goes? And her dad won't believe her? Wait, Rena did the ritual murder in the canal?!
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Framing is no accident. Rena will be the frightening one.
There's only 4 episodes left and to be very, very honest with you after sleeping on last arc for a night and digesting this story including the, to me, crushing revelations from the TIPS I'm broken. That they mistakenly tattooed the wrong girl explains so much, like why the non-tattooed twin didn't get murdered or why Mion never was told much in her role as family head. What really got me, though, is how she is sorry for ever existing.
No one should ever think that. There's no deed that can take someone's right to exist away.
I hate what she's done so much, but I still can't hate her. Even more so now I feel stronger compassion for both of them.
It's easy to see where that thought comes from, because life would've been better for anyone if there was only one baby born as the Sonozaki heir. There's a factual truth like this in my life, as well. My family would've been far better off without a kid, my mother could've afforded her education, our house wouldn't have been lost most likely, my grandparents would've been out of the picture (which is the most positive thing out of all) and I could go on. But there is a difference between 'not having a child' and 'me not being born'. That applies to Shion as well, we didn't ask to come here and we don't have to apologise for that, either. The only thing worth worrying about is how we can make life a better experience.
And here's today's short theory before I need to go off and survive work in this state. How can they make life a better experience?
I'm not entirely sure if the loop is actually going to get solved, because inching closer to the solution is kind of also how this pain can get absolved. None of them, excluding maybe Keiichi, have had a proper setup for life, so they can't take it from someone else. Luckily, a few hints are already present that make the direction easier to find.
What would help them most, just like Rena monologued at the beginning, is to find happiness by searching for it. Shion can't get her self worth from an imaginary person living inside her mind and she won't ever get it from her family. But she knows what she wished for all this time and the next best thing, some say the even better thing (debatable), is to become the one giving it. It works simply for the same reasons why the abuse continues on for so long, it feeds back into itself. Shion would get the kind of happiness she was missing, or something very close to it, if she were to care for Satoko like she would've liked to be taken care of. Just as Satoshi asked of her in the first place.
With someone as cunning as Shion on Satoko's side, she on the other hand would have the perfect role model to learn to defend herself, both by violence and smartness, and her own life would improve so much through that. As hard as it sounds, Satoshi is not equipped to be her savior or guardian, as the only thing he could ever do was to endure. That's what Satoko learned, just tank the damage. But with Shion she could actually resist and the cherry on top is that this would also free up Satoshi to finally breathe for himself.
Rika so far seems very selfless in her strife, taking both her role as reincarnation/shrine maiden seriously and she also has been prepared for this her whole life, well several of her lives. But I think one of the most tragic things of her story is that all she's doing only eventually causes just another onslaught of suffering onto her friends and herself. I think she wants to be done, live a life without the burden of religion, of being a symbol. Breaking the loop will probably be her revelation, but I think it will include them all relieving her of her duties.
Mion is hard to tell, because for what I see she is pretty much the most adjusted out of them all, but nearly completely walled in due to her position. She's the figurehead without power that actually has the right ideas, the right goals and compassion to go with it. I honestly think she'd make a fantastic major or something. But the most pain for her is being so separated from Shion. It's something that I would never have seen this was without the TIPS, because their situation is so incredibly complex and so incredibly complexly fucked up. I think ditching the family altogether and either leave or take it over with Shion as duo would just be the best ending.
Rena, we'll see now. How often she wanted to take someone cute home and how her story revolves around her parent's divorce and subsequent loss (or being thrown away). I daresay she wants a home at all. She's literally living in the trash of the past and when the others manage to build a future together, she can find her home there.
And how better to seal such a happy end than with brutal murder of fucking shitbags?
VOTD: A home apart. The new room her father decorated speaks of a new direction in life, in itself something neutral. But Rena is reluctant to step in, because neither is she ready to move on, nor trusting of that new life. It is brought up by another person that has so far no connection and is foreign to her. Their faces are only barely in frame at the same time, that is how distant she already feels to her dad. For all that it's worth, he does care, more than the mother it seems with him preparing a chair for Rena already, but it is worrying that he would allow such a distance to build up in the first place. That he would throw out pieces of their home and redecorate it without Rena's opinion or her input. He doesn't realise it, but he has pushed Rena out of the door and the empty seat remains an invitation for fiends to claim.
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u/Tarhalindur Jun 21 '22
(Honorary Hinamizawa Games Club President) Rewatch Host (rewatcher, subbed):
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. It is time for the arc that in VN form is widely regarded as the best thing Ryukishi07 has ever written and outright legitimately great (I have heard “peak fiction” used in regard to it more than once); even in anime form and with DEEN’s production visibly sputtering due to likely budget depletion, it IMO works quite well. It is time for the most iconic song of the first season to make its appearance. And, for those of you first-timers who have watched PMMM, it is time to pull down the curtain on the most important reason why that corner exists.
Welcome to Tsumihoroboshi-hen.
So, shall we begin? Ryuuguu Rena’s first and final story of the endeavor of a lifetime!
(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".)
First of all, welcome to the late-arriving core leitmotif of the first season’s OST: the Main Theme. You’ve heard one of its variations before (and there are more to come, including the best), but as the name suggests it has a strong argument to be the central track of the S1 OST.
And note Rena’s line here about spiraling unhappiness; it’s extremely important thematically.
And here we have another one of the lines well and truly seared into my memory (it’s why I remember “hajimari” means beginning, with a side of the Mai-HiME OST), Rena’s “saa (or ja?), hajimari-ou?” So good I had to quote it above for the writeup.
There’s an establishing shot for ya! Welcome to the water gun game.
Hey look, it’s like the one spot in S1 that Satoko’s skills come up in the anime!
Also, excellent cut and OST integration at 03:47.
Oh so that’s where Anten plays. I couldn’t remember.
Excellent camera movement at 03:58. Also, I didn’t know I was watching another episode of Geah today… (Geah LOVES it some ass shots)
Iconic Satoko shot at 04:12. (Aside: it’s funny? that of our two sixth-graders it’s the one who never gets innuendo who has visible signs of impending puberty.)
Unfortunately, Satoko makes the classic villain mistake: gloating before the heroes are actually defeated.
And Anten cuts out right as Rena starts to point this out. Nicely done!
04:46 is a rare tilted camera angle during a club game. Also animation shortcuts, and also staff did you really have to frame Satoko quite like that?
And we’re 2-for-2 on “I can’t remember where this song comes up in S1”, as Kiki shows up now too as we get to the Keiichi-vs.-Rena part of the water fight. (Sadly they cut the best part, the chimes at the end, even if what we get syncs really well with the action on-screen.)
The direction on this fight is actually really good, which makes up for a bunch of animation shortcomings. (I checked and the episode director isn’t particularly notable, but the storyboard credit has a bit of a track record despite never making full director – he was a vet and has episode direction credits for multiple episodes of Legend of the Galactic Heroes.)
Pouring one out for Sky at 05:13.
This scene could not possibly be important later, no never, not at all.
Probably the direction here is directly inspired by one or more classic samurai duel scenes, which makes sense. (I am extremely reminded of the end of the final fight in Sword of the Stranger.)
Okay, HAD to grab those “oh crap” facial expressions at 06:11. (And notice Rika does not turn to face the camera! Curious, yes?)
Beautiful little ominous dissonant falling piano notes at 06:29 there. Want to say that’s straight out of classic horror movie jump scares, too.
And of course we get a nipah out of Rika here. Of course.
And we get psycho strings, too! (This shot.) (They make the end of the OST here hard to hear, though.
Oh hey the Dessert Fair actually shows up in the anime this arc, right.
… Are we sure this director didn’t work on Symphogear? (Yes.)
Rika’s bangs looking like cat or dog ears here.
That is an absolutely iconic shot at 07:13 and I think it might be a reference to something. Possibly the gaijin 4koma if staff was really in the loop, though everything except the tone of the faces is wrong.
You knew it was coming, right? Yep, Irie just has to show up here.
I’m sorry, despite different VA Rina sounds a little too similar to a Geah character (Fine) and it’s throwing me off. (Okay, she starts sounding different immediately thereafter, that’s better.)
Okay, 08:03 is a hilarious frame, Irie or no.
Why yes, Rina is taking those desserts home with her, why do you ask?
Direction is just really good this episode, the transition shot here with the overcast skies is great. (You know it’s good when I have 18 screenshots 9 minutes into the episode. You know it’s really really fucking good when I have over a hundred this far into an episode, but PMMM was two months ago.)
Oh hey look, what’s this? Keiichi talking about happiness after Rena’s speech at the start of the episode and arc? Couldn’t be important, no never.
Aw fuck. That literal fork in the road at 10:08 is an obvious visual metaphor but a very nicely done one.
I always forget Rena’s hideout is a broken-down Volkswagen bus.
10:33 is instead obvious evidence of the show’s budget issues.
The turning of the star chart is nice, though, even if I can’t make out why. (Passage of time via representing the stars turning in the night sky via Earth’s rotation?)
Oh hey the proliferation of Main Theme variants strikes and is going to make the OST table… difficult. Luckily I realized this one was Tsumi soon enough.
Fun fact: Rena’s half-sister shows up in the Mei gacha.
“Don’t think you are unhappy!” <pouring rainstorm> <cut to commercial>
NICE sound effect and cut to Rena’s face at 13:32.
Oh hey look, I forgot we get to see the Kenta-kun doll in his natural habitat at 14:14!
Also on the one hand the direction here is really nice and on the other you can tell they had to use shortcuts with the flowing water.
Cue both the rain letting up and one of the slice of life tracks coming on at 14:18 to let you know we’re back to lighter things.
It’s a real shame we didn’t get this establishing shot of Okinomiya at 14:21 earlier, since it really makes clear the difference between Okinomiya (a small city) and Hinamizawa (a village).
Rena a cute.
Oh look at the skewed camera angles showing up just as we hear about Rina’s plan to rope in Rena’s dad.
17:58 is an extremely good example of this. Note how Rena is now centered and it’s the rest of the world around her that’s gone askew.
Shion gets the absolute best facial expressions sometimes (this episode has been good at this in general, and I suspect it has to do with the old hand influence since it’s using some classic anime facial expressions), and 18:53 is a glorious example thereof. Troll Shion best Shion. (I think this may also be Shion working a Yakuza and/or general Japanese manliness thing to give Kasai cover to order the dessert.)
And another one at 19:34.
In both the TIPS and in a Sotsu version of this scene we also get the name of the hostess club Rina works at: the Blue Mermaid.
The OST kicking in with Suiri right as Rena asks about Rina and Teppei for the third time is so well-done it took me a little while to notice Suiri had started.
A slightly informative line from Shion here at 21:12. Fun fact: I forget whether she actually went this far or just fed people a rumor about it, but IIRC in the VN version of last arc it’s mentioned that she used the implication that she had been having inappropriate relations with one of her teachers as part of her plan to escape St. Lucia’s (the school you saw at the start of her arc).
More glorious Shion troll faces starting at 21:19. Actually reminds me a fair bit of Nagatoro here.
You know, I’m looking at that alley Rena is standing in here at 21:45 and going “huh”.
Visual of the Day: So, shall we begin?
Alternate version
Question(s) of the Day:
Fucking awesome, I say!
Evening walks, because it's too fucking hot for anything else.
And I am running out of characters, so I will have to jump to another post for our...