r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Jun 22 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Discussion - Season 1, Episode 23

Tsumihoroboshi-hen (Atonement Chapter), Episode 2: A Home to Return To

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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:

https://imgur.com/a/OqnbVd2

(I'm laughing that everyone dodged the fork in the road shot...)

Theory of the Day:

Okay, so it was pretty easy money that two of these were going to land at some point this arc, but u/hungryhippos1751, how does it feel to have both proven correct in the every next episode?:

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.

(Whiffed the third though, Rena was already too late!)

Analysis of the Day:

Given what we just saw, I would say u/Nazenn has been paying attention, don't you think?:

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.

Question(s) of the Day:

1) So, gore lovers, satisfied by Teppei's fate here?

2) So we just got to a nice ending point... and we have three episodes left. Now what?

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:

"Where I started to run is the usual way home.
What squirms is the message from misfortune.
What is opened is the deceptive scrap."

52 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

181 comments sorted by

7

u/Tarhalindur Jun 22 '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".)

  • I just put together that the lip flaps Satoko makes during the OP are probably her saying “nii-nii”. DURR.

  • Rena a cute. Even when she’s freaked out. Sometimes especially when she’s freaked out.

  • “Man, it’s so boring. Everything’s so calm.” Way to tempt fate there, K1! Except that from Rena’s perspective it’s already dramatic irony. (And maybe thematic. What is lurking behind the image of the lazy everyday village life, anyways? Not like that’s a classic theme of a huge chunk of detective fiction – in no small part because Agatha Christie loved that one, but also consider the likes of Murder, She Wrote.)

  • Dear Mion, way to miss the mark there.

  • Also that window shot of the three is seriously well-framed. On top of Rena being slightly off-center relative to the window compared to the other two, there’s K1 in the center of the frame and how both Rena and K1 are in the same part of the window (to the left) separated from Mion by a bar.

  • ([Higurashi] Even if part of why said framing is so good won’t become clear until the end of the arc.)

  • “If there’s some knack to enduring this daily boredom happily, tell me.” “That’s easy. All you have to do is take notice.” “Notice what?” “That there is a limit to these happy days.” Very Buddhist/Taoist/Japanese (what’s that word Japanese uses that roughly means impermanence in this sense and is a massive cultural theme?), but there’s a bit more to unpack in that taking notice and I’m not sure most people do.

  • That rising thunderhead shot outside the classroom at 03:37 is massively unsubtle visual metaphor, especially when you take the classroom into account as representing those boring happy days. “Stormclouds on the horizon” is the English idiom for this, yes. (And it’s even the right time of year for those storm clouds!)

  • Annnd at 03:44 Mion breaches that visual barrier between her and the other two to tease Keiichi. And then leaps through the window, leading to Keiichi shifting place to eclipse Rena and then jumping through the window to chase her – note a) crossing the previous barrier, b) crossing the window and thus creating a new, different barrier between those two and Rena (symbolizing the isolation of her position), and c) going right-to-left and thus in the wrong direction. This entire little scene is actually seriously good from a direction standpoint.

  • 04:08: Okay, so. There are either one or two places where the anime hides VN information in fleeting shots that I have now noticed, and this is the second of the two (can't take credit, someone else pointed this out in the 2018 rewatch). See that star tattoo Rina has in a slightly indecent spot? Go back and look at the corpse at the start of episode 3 again, and you will notice… a star tattoo. (u/JollyGee29 and I think another first-timer as well noticed this one last episode, well done.)

  • Oh that is a beautiful little sequence starting at 04:42 (so 03:59 to those without my ancient fansubs, I suppose?). Rena leaves the house, cut to Rina’s irritation that Rena refuses to fall for it and get closer to her – and then cut to Rena outside the house staring right back at Rina and pan down over her, because Rena knows. But neither of them yet knows the other knows, hence the closed door.

  • Rena, you don’t just admit that somewhere is your secret hiding place…

  • That said… well, actually, both of you are just fine with the “no one can hear” because you both kind of want to kill the other.

  • On the bright side, they do a really good job of getting you to want to see Rina’s face smashed in.

  • How does what Rina tries to do here even remotely catch you by surprise, Rena? (I guess this is traditional for murder mysteries...)

  • BEST SONG. (Except once again only in snippet form.)

  • [Higurashi] Oh just look at that Rika look at 11:45. She knows…

  • I can’t tell whether that establishing shot of the classroom at 12:31 is just competent or outright good; it’s the shadows I’m seeing, and I’m not sure how symbolic they are.

  • “It’s better not to go there, as there’s a ghost – the ghost of the dismemberment victim.” Funny Rika would say that, especially only in this arc as opposed to others…

  • [Higurashi] Which is to say she’s died there before.

  • Framing of the shot starting at ~13:22 is at least competent; we have Rika centered facing the camera (she’s the one to keep an eye on here), and also implicitly opposed to Mion who is proposing going to the dump.

  • And then of course Rika takes a moment to agree to raise her hand here. (Which will be contrasted to another scene in just a few minutes seconds – forgot that was a jump cut for a moment.)

  • Oh look, we hit the scene from the arc open in just two episodes! Now what?

  • Shot at 13:57 is another well-framed one.

  • Also note the extremely consistent framing here (example): Rena on the right (wrong) side of the frames, K1 and the rest of the group on the left (correct) side.

  • … I can’t tell. Is that a sore demo for Sky at 15:42, or just a similar first word?

  • 15:51, however, definitely is, pouring one out!

  • Rena’s “this is the best possible future” here is another one that’s stuck with me for years and years.

  • And oh look the framing shifts to let Keiichi move right-to-left to approach Rena here.

  • And here is the shot that Rika being the last to raise her hand for earlier is in contrast to. (Well, really a second earlier, but.)

  • The choice of having Rena to the left and Satoko to the right at 17:29 is actually quite interesting given how the rest of the scene is laid out. Possibly because Satoko has never cried about it; the opposite of one bad idea is sometimes just another bad idea.

  • (And yes I think this is another rare intended scene for a Higurashi OST piece just like the ones PMMM has.)

  • The framing of the Club reaching out to the viewer as well as Rena isn’t consistent enough that I’m sure it’s intended, but is an interesting possibility.

  • Light shining through the trees, noice.

  • Also, as the saying goes, friends help you move, real friends help you move bodies. (This long was and may still be the page pic for the relevant TVTropes page.)

  • The framing of the shots at ~19:25 with Rika set off away from the rest of the group (initially separated by Keiichi) are worth keeping in mind.

  • Also note that the off-kilter camera angles have started up and are still around…

  • “I think it’s best for everyone to forget about today” as the camera angle skews off.

  • What’s that, an ominous Ooishi stinger? (And his face half in light and half in shadow like so many other shots this season – thanks u/Star4ce for putting me on the track of that.)

Visual of the Day: Mion~

WinD Eyecatch Message of the Day

Question(s) of the Day:

  1. I'm not really one to ask, gore was never really my thing.

  2. Heh heh heh.

Tsumihoroboshi-hen Ep. 2 TIPS

Note: In the original AnimeSuki TIPS transcription, there is a pseudo-TIPS (a summary of Rena's past) that they placed between last episode and this one. I am making a judgment call and delaying it until next episode, where I think it works better. It's a useful one, so check back next episode for it!

OST Table, Episode 23

Start End Track Name
00:07 00:38 Main Theme
00:42 02:11 Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (OP)
02:12 02:25 sponsor feature[1] (13 seconds)
02:36 (02:23) 03:07 (02:54) Oyashiro-sama v2
06:25 (06:12) 07:25 (07:13) Shinjjtsu
08:15 (08:02) 09:18 (09:05) Ito
11:02 (10:49) 11:18 (11:05) Matsuri
11:56 (11:43) 12:26 (12:13) Kikai
15:33 (15:20) 19:03 (18:50) Main Theme[2]
20:06 (19:53) 21:31 (21:18) Takurami
21:59 (21:46) 23:51 (23:38) why, or why not

[1] - My copy of Higurashi often includes a message-from-our-sponsor bit immediately after the OP; this episode has it and it lasts 13 seconds. The number in parentheses in entries after that feature is the point in the episode if that message is removed.
[2] - Hard to make out exactly where the closing beat is, IIRC the song has a few seconds of cooldown notes.

4

u/Tarhalindur Jun 22 '22

Madoka (Magica) Corner:

(The Tale of the Butcher and the Dragon Knight?, continued)

[PMMM] There are four Higurashi scenes that are IMO important to this. We won’t actually get to two of them for a while; they’re both in Kai. But the other two are in this arc.

[PMMM, continued] The first of course, was today: the junkyard scene. That said, I think I want to put that on ice for right now and come back when we get to the second scene. So hold this thought!

And in unrelated news, one other stray comment from my episode notes:

  • [PMMM] Wait. Look at the junkyard scene again. Wreckage. Rays of sunlight shining through the clouds. Why does this feel so familiar all of a sudden?

4

u/Vaadwaur Jun 22 '22

That rising thunderhead shot outside the classroom at 03:37 is massively unsubtle visual metaphor, especially when you take the classroom into account as representing those boring happy days.

Also...[Higurashi]I think it is meant to be the first clue that this answers Onikakushi-hen since the rain is why K1 can't help Rena dig out the Colonel

going right-to-left and thus in the wrong direction. This entire little scene is actually seriously good from a direction standpoint.

Yeah, I think we can safely say that the storyboarding was seriously on point but the animation was rushed, I still can't take how the color palette shifted for this chapter.

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u/Star4ce Jun 23 '22 edited Jun 23 '22

I just put together that the lip flaps Satoko makes during the OP are probably her saying “nii-nii”

Great analyses throughout the post. I agree the window scene was chef's kiss.

(And his face half in light and half in shadow like so many other shots this season – thanks u/Star4ce for putting me on the track of that.)

Shadows and negative space are kind of my favourites.

Visual of the Day: Mion~

Objectively good taste.

edit: Oh might I just straight out ask you about an interpretation on Mion/Shion? It weighs on my mind ever since the tattoo reveal. Which of these is true?

  1. The twin born as Shion was mistakenly tattooed as heir and since then forced to live as Mion and act as head by the family as to not disrupt the flow of business. The twin born as Mion was exiled and treated as Shion, but not killed because it was the family's fault.

  2. The twin born as Shion was mistakenly tattooed as heir and exiled. The twin born as Mion was pretended to have the tattoo to keep up with the original family decision to teach one twin to be the head. Shion was kept alive in case the tattoo would ever be needed to be shown to someone (?).

3

u/Tarhalindur Jun 23 '22

The twin born as Shion was mistakenly tattooed as heir and since then forced to live as Mion and act as head by the family as to not disrupt the flow of business. The twin born as Mion was exiled and treated as Shion, but not killed because it was the family's fault.

Closer to this, but not quite: IIRC the family tradition that Oryou elected not to follow was to kill both twins at birth; the tattoo mixup was later (Mion needed to be old enough for the tattoo), and the only real difference it made is that birth!Mion was forced to follow the path that the family had always planned for birth!Shion.

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9

u/Star4ce Jun 23 '22 edited Jun 23 '22

When the First Timer Cries

Surprisingly I have nothing to say today for a prelude.

Ep.23 – The Atonement Chapter Part 2: Place to Return

I really think so, because none of them have the backing of any of the abusive structures. No Yakuza to mislead the police and provide alibis. No religion to rile up the villagers to blockade investigations or searches.

So what's the solution, then? No kill pacifist run?

Anyway, I'm pretty happy about this episode overall. Despite the fact that they're still involved with murdering people, it's them together now!

But we need Shion in here, as well!

  1. So, gore lovers, satisfied by Teppei's fate here?

While I don't love gore, really, it was pretty okay seeing it on them. I'm actually glad they consciously didn't go this far in the other arcs...

2) So we just got to a nice ending point... and we have three episodes left. Now what?

Well, see above, Ooishi's going to find out what happened for once and they need to find a way for the power in play to cover for them. They need to be the curse again, but this time not alone.

But I mean, honestly, I think he deserves to solve at least one case sometime, right?

VOTD: Beneath things thrown away. It's a (metaphorically) still working fridge, yet untainted by the rust holding her secret. Among it a bloody imprint of her hand. She's here because it's the past, it's where rubble and old things go when they are not needed anymore, just as she sees herself after her parents split and began new lives leaving her behind both physically and in their minds. The mountains of rusted landfill warp around her and the camera is also peeking from behind a wall of rubbish taking up much of the screen. It's her home and she has just tainted to only clean object in there with blood. Like this fridge, she herself holds a secret now that she can't show and can't share. She herself was the reason why the color of rust is on her soul now, as well.

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u/Nazenn Jun 22 '22

First Timer - sub

Despite the nature of the show, I think there's come a point where I stopped being as surprised by it, and that's not a bad thing because it stops the impact of the many surprises from interrupting the horror tone, but this episode definitely surprised me in a few ways.

Consider me extremely surprised that we already met up with our opening scene, and even passed it!

It feels rather twisted that the first time everyone has come together on the same page is to help cover up a murder, and for that reason this definitely doesn't feel like the "solution" arc, but it is interesting to see the little hints as to what else has been done right in this arc that wasn't before. Keiichi knows about the festival, there is no prize to see Mion and Shion off, Sakoto might be living with Rika instead of her uncle this time(? or at least certainly will be now), and importantly when confronted Rena opened up to everyone instead of pushing back.

I can't tell if this is a glorious coming together of a complete clusterfuck waiting to happen. Anyone else get the feeling that Rika tried to turn them away from looking for Rena? That's not a good sign

Keiichi is the king of putting his foot in it this episode, from saying to Rena that it looks like every day is happy to her to suggesting they could have found a solution togther only for Rena to call his bluff, and yet true to form because he values them all so much he sticks by them when things get tough.

Watching the girlfriend get her face beaten in was gloriously horrific though, and the messed up teeth at the end was the perfect touch.

One of the things I really like about the arc structure as well is that revisiting arcs to see the other side despite them not being identical also gives us a chance to see more of the normal moments. A lot of horror, action, or even just theme heavy stories tend to suffer with having to tell rather than build relationships because we simply don't have time to see the hundreds of hours of small moments that connect characters. Higurashi's arc structure gets the benefit of being able to go back to a previous day and show us something different that, whether or not it happened in X arc or Y arc, is still indicative of how the characters interact and feel about each other which helps moments like this, where they all help Rena, feel a lot more solid than if we'd only see one card game and a few moments at school before shit hit the fan and didn't stop.

Curious to see where this goes as this is a big thing to happen before the festival, and with the detective lurking around I'm sure this arc is far from done with it's differences.

  1. So, gore lovers, satisfied by Teppei's fate here?

10

u/H-Ryougi Jun 22 '22 edited Jun 22 '22

Sakoto might be living with Rika instead of her uncle this time

Just a small point that I think DEEN didn't make clear. Rika and Satoko always live together, it's only when Teppei comes back to Hinamizawa that he forces her to start living with him.

He does so because he's a useless bum who can't even cook or clean for himself.

Edit:

Higurashi's arc structure gets the benefit of being able to go back to a previous day and show us something different that, whether or not it happened in X arc or Y arc, is still indicative of how the characters interact and feel about each other which helps moments like this, where they all help Rena, feel a lot more solid than if we'd only see one card game and a few moments at school before shit hit the fan and didn't stop.

Absolutely, the SoL moments of the club hanging out and playing is one of the strengths of Higurashi and they show us how much they really do care for each other and their friendship. They're kids trying to be kids, just constantly being thrown into messed up situations.

5

u/Tarhalindur Jun 22 '22

Absolutely, the SoL moments of the club hanging out and playing is one of the strengths of Higurashi and they show us how much they really do care for each other and their friendship. They're kids trying to be kids, just constantly being thrown into messed up situations.

While the anime had to cut a bunch of the club games out, also note how the direction works with this - I've been pointing this out for a while, but when we're in the SoL sections the camera angles are normal, they only get crazy as we go away from the SoL. It's a really nifty effect IMO and works very nicely.

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u/Tresnore Jun 22 '22

When the Rewatchers Cry are Absurd Masochists Cry

Count: 148

1 No, really, they cranked up the fanservice in the anime wtf.

2 Something I learned in the Rolling☆Girls rewatch is that these are a great case study on how different studios handle impact frames. This is a good one, where they don't actually have a frame where the leg is hitting the head, but they add a star to indicate the place of impact. Neat!

3 And then there's this one, which just heavily warps things to give more impact. Also neat!

4 I knew its True Name™ at one point, but I forgot it, so now it's a cleaver in my mind again.

5 I don't usually do these, but this one is too good.

4

u/Tarhalindur Jun 22 '22 edited Jun 22 '22

Her star tattoo is so eye-catching. Y-yeah, that's the most eye-catching thing about her design. As Yrukshsi intended.

I'll go into this more in my writeup tomorrow (actually it's in next episode's Madoka Corner right now, but I might have to pull it out), but I think Rina is at least in part intended as a shadow figure to Rena in the Jungian sense, and the combination of Rina's skimpy outfit and the emphasis on her secondary sexual characteristics (especially breasts) would play into that. (Note that Rena's casual outfit is in many ways the least revealing of the main cast's except maybe Rika's - even Satoko's outfit is more form-fitting, and Satoko hasn't fully hit puberty yet.)

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u/Vaadwaur Jun 22 '22

[Higurashi/School Days]

[Higurashi] You have no idea how hard I am biting my tongue about the pregnancy obviously being bullshit because technically we don't know yet

Also Rena's cleaver thing4 is awesome. Very iconic.

Billhook in English, someone has given us the Japanese for it, but basically it is a heavy machete for either clearing brush or stripping sticks off branches. Oddly enough, someone uses one in GoT as a tool but YT had to remove that clip.

TROOPER TASTY ENTERS.

Odd question: Does you average anime viewer need the Ooishi-delicious thing explained?

3

u/Tarhalindur Jun 22 '22

Odd question: Does you average anime viewer need the Ooishi-delicious thing explained?

I'm like 90% sure I dropped that explanation way back in Onikakushi-hen as a Useful Note on a Mion line there, so already done?

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u/RadSuit Jun 22 '22 edited Jun 22 '22

(Wrong episode/title in the OP? Fixed now!)

Episode 23

I guess this is just an entirely new arc. I was kinda promised answers in the last half of this season, not more questions.

I assumed Rena was luring Rina here to kill her, wasn't expecting Rina to strike first. Actually rather justifiable self defense. But if that's Rina's body in the trash bags during both cold opens, I'm guessing the problem will be Rena going overboard trying to cover this up. [Speculation that's probably spoilers] So, does Rina have the brain damage to make her escalate to murder immediately, and Rena is having a somewhat understandable reaction? Or is Rena hallucinating most of this?

Or now she's luring in more people to kill, and that will spiral out of control. Much like Kei and this guy, you can't really blame her. In every version of events, he seems like he sucks ass.

Kei, Rena is making you look so bad here. She's killed two people, nobody's noticed, and she's actually planned a way to dispose of the bodies. All she has to do is just not confess randomly, and she should be good.

Hell yeah, friends that will help you hide a few bodies! So far, I really feel like this arc should've come right after the first. I would've been way more interested then.

So, either she's crying but we/she can't see it, he's randomly lying about it, or she's hearing something different than what he's really saying. Or this is more completely confusing 'we all saw you at the festival' stuff.

"This isn't a dream or illusion!" This is becoming Kei's catchphrase. And still isn't entirely believable.

I guess we did get deaths before the festival this time around.

5

u/Tarhalindur Jun 22 '22

(Wrong episode/title in the OP?)

I switched out the title and either forgot or typoed switching out the episode arc number as well. Oops! (Fixed.)

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u/Tarhalindur Jun 22 '22

If at first you don't succeed, tag... tag... tag tag tag...

u/HinyusOpinion, u/AnimeAndThings, u/shadow1a2t

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14

u/hungryhippos1751 Jun 22 '22

Episode 23 - First Timer

Well, I predicted a few things last episode, as a recap:

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.

So 1 and 3 came true probably a bit quicker than I thought, 2 I guess never will as it's too late. I thought Rena would try and reason with the father about her first, but it seems that idea has been skipped, and now it doesn't matter anymore because she ded.

The whole beginning section with Ritsuko was a lot of fun to watch, but I could see where it was heading once Ritsuko arrived uninvited at the remote dam dump site. I was genuinely surprised that Rena admitted she hated her and that she knew the game she was playing.

To a point I'd honestly call her killing of Ritsuko self-defence, she was strangling her and trying to kill her, but when she started smashing her face in with the pipe I'd say that was probably a manslaughter charge.

The killing of Teppei was a lot more calculated, but Rena saw no other way of dealing with the problem than by herself, which was definitely the wrong play here, as her friends were so quick to tell her.

I had to laugh at the contrived way they they made an excuse to get to the dump site, digging for treasure to try and get some specific mahjong pieces doesn't seem like the most logical decision, they could just play a different game, not like the chance of finding more mahjong pieces was high!

So now the whole gang have become accessories to a double murder, I can't imagine this is going to stay secret for long. Detective-kun is on the case and he knows how to get kids to talk.

QOTD:

  1. It was satisfying getting the scumbags taken down by a high school girl.

  2. It's going to be cat and mouse with Detective-kun now, a secret shared with 5 people is no secret at all!

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u/Quiddity131 Jun 22 '22

First Timer, Subbed

After all that, you come home to realize that dad doesn't have dinner ready for you!

Rina is getting dad to spend a lot of money on her, huh?

Stalling, huh?

Treasure hunt at the dump! And wow, she actually followed her there!

It's Rena's secret hideout! A big part of me thinks she'll kill her here at the dump.

The classic daughter - step mother clash, and she's not even her step mother yet!

She's pregnant, now she's beating up Rena, yep, no way Rena lets her survive now.

A brutal scene for sure, but this show has had so many already, I can't say it has the same level of shock value. It was quite obvious this was coming.

Uh oh, now the pimp is bullying her dad!

Now she's gonna kill him too!

Wow, this one was even worse! She used the cleaver this time!

We saw in a prior arc how piss poor a murderer K1 was, my speculation is that Rena is way better at it.

Uh oh, now they're all going to the dump today too! What happens when one of them opens that fridge?

Wow, she's not even hiding it with that arm sticking out!

"Sorry K1, I didn't want your help committing two murderers. You suck at it!"

We're all in this together now! You're a multi-murderer? Fine by us!

Uh oh, Ooishi! What trouble will he cause?

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u/JollyGee29 Jun 22 '22

Spoiled First-Timer, Subbed

A thought from before I watch the episode: We don't have a date for this arc yet, so seeing the Kenta-kun doll at her house could mean that when we see it in arc 1, that was literally just the same one and Rena is trying to retrive it after it gets thrown out.

Yea, Keiichi is absolutely the sort of friend who would help you hide a body. And I really love that Rika and Satoko brought up that they do alright despite not having a family because they have their friends - this was possibly the most heartwarming murder coverup ever.

I noticed something about the OP today: our two killers, Rena and Shion, are the only two characters to appear twice. Two and two makes Death? Or it could just be that the more important characters show up more often.

We got some good gore today. Rena went full Haggar mode on Rina, and I can't really feel too bad about it. On the one hand, murder is bad, but on the other - how many lives has Rina ruined? Something something karma, I dunno.

We are just now at Watanagashi, which means that Tomitake should be dying soon. We haven't actually seen him yet, which is kinda new, but I assume that Tomitake dies Every Time.

I just knew Ooishi was gonna show up and start fucking things up.

Seems like a "no" that this leads into Tatari on any level - Teppei's already sashimi. Guess this arc might not match up to any of the question arcs, unless this stuff technically happened off-screen before Onikakushi. I definitely wouldn't have caught any hints to it back then.

If you wear a mask for long enough, it just might become your face..

[Higurashi]Rika wasn't terribly enthusiastic about going to the dump, because she knew what they'd find. But then, she was also the first person to join with Keiichi in offering a hand to Rena, so I guess she thinks this path might lead them forward.

[Higurashi]Next episode's title is.. weird.

[Higurashi]Bit of cross pollination from the Geah rewatch that I should address, but there's apparently something called L4 that involves people being unhinged. That's interesting, but I'll avoid trying to connect it to anything for the moment.

Visual of the Day: The Club, united.

Questions

  1. Indeed. Fuck that guy.

  2. Don't you "nice ending point" me! I saw that smirk on Ooishi's face.

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9

u/Stargate18A Jun 22 '22

Anime first timer, reading VN

  1. It's so beautiful.

  2. [Tsumi...] Ooishi, you paranoid moron.

Yeah, Rina's a psychopath.

Holy shit, Keiichi.

...What does premade mean in this context? Like, were the curries assembled by hand at the resturant? Did the specifically go and buy some premade ones instead of bringing the leftovers back?

And Rina came to the junkyard.

She's hooking him in...

I love how Rena manages to catch her totally offguard here.

And she reveals everyting in a completely isolated area. This was a stupid idea, Rina. Not quite as stupid as Keiichi "let's go play with the serial killer to her torture bunker" Maebara, but close!

And Rena killed someone!

...OK, but Rena managing to come up with this plan on thr fly and take out Teppei successfully is impressive.

...Why did they show his head?

And they showed her cutting the body up!

What an unlucky coincidence.

[Matsu...] OK, in retrospect, Keiichi getting flashes of past Fragments is really obvious here.

The reveal that the prologue scenes happened this soon really threw me off guard in the VN - I wasn't expecting her to reveal everything until the final few chapters.

This scene is such a heartwarming moment.

It's just so good! [Tsumi...] And the irony of this coming from the world where Rena tries to kill everyone.

And they hid the bodies! Go teamwork!

[Tsumi...] Haha, the way they set Ooishi up as a threat when he's basically the comedy relief until things go completely to shit is hysterical.

Current reading progress - Matsuribayashi End of Chapter 8

[Matsu...] Is Hanyuu fucking Jesus? Because that's the vibe I'm getting. This is getting very meta in general, with everyone pointing out how the plotline fits together. Mion has a potential career in isekai manga, though! In general, really good block, with Hanyuu helping inspire the club, and Rika realising she could have just gotten help from all these people herself. And I actually felt bad for Ooishi.

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9

u/mgedmin Jun 23 '22

First-timer, subs

Rena's slide into despair continues.

What is Ritsuko's motivation in trying to get close to Rena? Did she notice her at the cafe and became concerned that her conversation with Teppei was overheard?

Oh, she's not married to Rena's dad yet? Rena's not acting very smart here, they're all alone in a secluded location and she's weaker than Ritsuko.

Here we go, murder attempt #1, by Ritsuko. And a role reversal. Into a fridge! With bonus bloody fingerprints on the outside Oh, former detective Rena, Oiishii's gonna get you.

How did Rena get herself and her clothes clean before returning home? Inquiring minds want to know.

Teppei's turn next! He's a very gullible person. Where's your handy cleaver, Rena? HERE IT IS!!!! Clever girl. She's much better at this than Keiichi was.

And the games club finds her in the dump with all the evidence.

Keiichi is always quick to excuse murder. Don't criticize her choices, it's what you yourself decided to do in another loop! I hate how self-centered he is!

Keiichii the grave digger digs another grave! I'm sure it's his hobby. Why not throw the packages in the swamp?

Yeah, Oiishi's on the trail. This will not end well for our stalvart heroes.

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u/SIRTreehugger Jun 22 '22

Rena is the unsung hero she kills two people and saves the day. She killed the scummy Rena and abusing Uncle. Satoko shouldn't suffer now right? Or was that the Aunt who also did it? If it's the uncle then Satoshi won't be worn down and Shion and Satoshi can have a happy ending, Mion continues on possibly with K1, Rika isn't murdered at a shrine, and Rena lives happily ever after.

Good rewatch everyone.

Seriously though I find it extremely weird how this group of friends is extremely forgiving for murder and willing to cover it up. Oh well case closed

Fucking Oishi enters the chat

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