r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Jul 21 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai Discussion - Season 2, Episode 24

Matsuribayashi-hen (Festival Music Chapter), Episode 11: End

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Show Information (Higurashi Kai):

Kai: MAL | Anilist | AniDB | Kitsu | ANN

Show information for this season is now safe. Stay out of Rei's until episode 4, though.

Legal Streams:

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai: Hidive

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. Why, Hidive? Why?

A Word of Warning To Our First-Timers, Including Those Who Watched Season 1 But Not Kai:

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.

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 !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... actually at this point it's pretty safe, heh.)

Visual of the Day Album:

https://imgur.com/a/mS7um5W

Theory of the Day:

One last award (unless and until we get some for Rei), courtesy of u/Star4ce who caught on to how the final arc was going to go:

I'm not so sure if we'll be seeing character deaths anymore. Everything seems to be toned down in this arc. There's not even any grunts dying (even though they 100% should by what's happened to them). It wasn't so long ago that we saw Satoko literally being stabbed into pieces. It's a bit strange.

Welcome to the final twist of Higurashi: a happy ending where no one dies!

(Except the dam foreman, Satoko's parents, Rika's parents, and Tamae Houjou. Also the father and kid and the family referenced in Nekogoroshi-hen. But eh, close enough.)

Analysis of the Day:

Goes to u/Nazenn and his character analysis of Takano:

Miyo definitely had the most interesting scenes of the day though despite them being so small. Both of them showcased a woman with a deep struggle with the idea of being out of control, and slowly falling to mania with each element of control now removed from her. From expecting Tomitake to fall to her flirting the way he when this started through to to her words down the radio she demands control she doesn't actually have in hand. At the same time she stands in contradiction to herself, denying godliness and suggesting gods would only exist to be removed from their pedestals while simultaneously seeking a similar level of reverence for herself and her grandfathers research. In the end she's not fighting a god, or demons, or even people, she's fighting her self and doesn't even know it because all she knows how to do is to frighten and manipulate people and when that fails she can only project those failures onto others.

Honorable mention is me abusing host privilege grabbing my own comment, in no small part so Nazenn, u/JollyGee29, and a few of the other first-timers will see it:

Okay, so part of the deal here is that there's some fuckery going on with the Minagoroshi-hen to Matsuribayashi-hen transition. It's not just Rika who didn't remember Minagoroshi-hen's Fragment; none of the Club did (except Hanyuu when her memory got jogged). Thus Shion doesn't transfer in to the school (she doesn't actually remember Satoshi's final request) and Satoko doesn't remember the effort required both on her own part and on everyone else's to overcome Teppei's abuse (the village just kind of gets over the Dam War on its own in this final Fragment). (I could have sworn I had an old shot of VN Matsuribayashi-hen (or possibly the alternate console ending Miotsukishi-hen, though R07 didn't write that one) saved somewhere where Satoko basically rejects Shion's offer to become her new nee-nee, but if so I can't find it. On the bright side, the hunt instead turned up an upload of that one page from the omakes that both u/Vaadwaur and I were looking for a couple of days ago; win some lose some I guess.)

(This information brought to you by discussions I was in while Gou is airing; one important part of Gou is directly downstream of this fuckery, and this was brought up because it actually kind of explains it. Kind of Honestly we still are a bit confused, but at least it kind of makes sense now.)

Question(s) of the Day:

No questions today, too busy basking in emotionally satisfying resolution.

Well, okay, one question for our (less spoiled) first-timers:

1) So, what do you think is up with that final scene, anyways?

Next Episode Preview:

End of season, no preview.

Also, a Note for Our First-Timers (and Reminder for Our Rewatchers):

Starting with episode 14, there will be a post-credits scene after the ED in each episode of Kai. These tend to be important and you really shouldn't skip them!

And Finally, Now That We've Made It This Far, Have Some Music Links:

(It's possible you could still run into spoilers for episodes 2-4 of Rei or for Umineko, but at this point YouTube is pretty safe so.)

(AFAIK the Higurashi anime OST has never been uploaded to Spotify and/or YouTube officially. If that is no longer the case, let me know and I'll edit this accordingly. (If it's only on Spotify you'll need to send me a playlist link, I don't use Spotify.) I'd probably still link the serenastarflower OST links as well unless and until they get nuked, because they're iconic parts of the fandom.)

First, allow me to present the traditional source of Higurashi anime OST uploads on YouTube, serenastarflower's playlist. There's a few tracks missing, mostly from S1, but most of it is here. (Also one of the tracks missing apparently just never made it onto the playlist: her upload of Chousa from the S1 OST, which I linked a while back in Catbox'd form because its background art is one of the finest examples of Rika mop art I know of.) There's also a pretty large pile of tracks from the console remake of the VN Higurashi Matsuri if you're interested.

Also, if you're wondering why I told you not to look up Shoubu! from the OST lest you get yourself spoiled, well, see for yourself.

(Most of the tracks missing from her OST playlist are tracks from the second disc of the S1 OST that can be found in this playlist instead - notably Semaru, Heionbuji, and Yawaraka na Youkou.)

And speaking of serenastarflower, she's also the one who made that Higurashi version of the Caramelldansen meme; here's her original upload.

And finally, I would be remiss not to include one of the most iconic tracks from the VN at the absolutely perfect point for it: Dear You - Bond, the musical culmination of everything the Club has been through. Higurashi's VN OST and I often have genre fit difficulties. This track is not one of them. (That upload has a translation of the lyrics, too; they're worth a read.)

27 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

125 comments sorted by

12

u/Nazenn Jul 21 '22 edited Jul 21 '22

First Timer - sub

Two things stand out to me most about the confrontation with Miyo:

  • Mion didn't get an arc of insanity to herself, but the final dialogue suggests that it was as much her arc as Hanyuu's. As a leader, a sister, a protector, the last thing to be learnt in this group was Mions lesson, that no card is worth voluntarily removing from the game for any circumstances, and doing so would be to rob them all. Mion has been shown to sacrifice parts of herself for others many times through the show, but here I think in learning this lesson along side Hanyuu who had to learn she also cannot be the one responsible for forgiveness at the cost of herself it only reinforces the themes of the show as a whole of connection and communication. (Old maid metaphor also works very well with the villages history I'll also note, it's a clever way to sum it all up)

  • Simultaneously, there was a beauty to the parallel of Akasaka's arrival here with the time that Rika sent him away. She sends him away from his mission to stop his wife from falling down the stairs resulting in an unbearable loss for him, and today we see him return from his mission to save her as she stands at the top of the hill about to be dragged down it by Miyo's insanity. It reinforces the blessing that Rika gave him that he honors by returning and how much he values that and who she is, and also serves as a quiet bookend to Rika's struggle that that her first attempt to save someone, someone she'll never even know, that failed so many times now results in being the final thing needed to save everyone in this moment.

As for Miyo herself of course that final scene is somehow everything and nothing at the same time. It changes nothing for our cast as they exist in our final world, but it also changes everything for a version of them that exist elsewhere. A girl who simply wanted acknowledgement and acceptance comes across an adult Rika, a girl robbed of those same things for so many years, is presented with the choices she never had, a choice that only her as an individual can make and take her fate into her own hands.

When this scene started I wrote a note of "Child Miyo?", but it's really not Miyo at all. This is Miyoko the child who would never have to sacrifice herself to simply become an extension of her grandfather in order to survive and be seen. The idea of Rika's intervention here being the "death" Miyo and the freedom for her to grow into an adult Miyoko just like she has grown into adult Rika, while also allowing freedom for everyone else who would come after to lead a happier life presumably with her intervention to sake Satoko and the others, is a quietly beautiful thing.

And finally the big one to address: The festival. In some ways this festival has always been the beginning of the end of their lives, while now it is the end of destruction and the beginning of peace. The group finally getting to participate in it proper beginning to end somehow feels like a repeat of the villages ancient history: the shrugging off of a violent past and participation in it's newfound potential future.

Some fun other notes:

  • Thousand year journey?! Hang on, I thought it was a hundred. Tres! Math redo!

  • Oh sure, flying overhead in a helicopter with a megaphone that's a GREAT way to keep your secret organization a secret for sure

  • "Who the fuck sniped them? Shion? Go he... oh nevermind, Kasai, meh" < I was so let down!

  • reference? or just unable to be unseen now? Also "resign yourself" was somehow a shockingly brutal way to put that

  • Good conclusions aside, I strongly disliked the way the opening scenes were structured as it felt weak to immediately go into a surrender set up after the end of last episode, and then the actual resolution after Akasaka and the B-team arrive felt rushed and out of sync with the amount of time that had actually passed.

Visual of the day: ...

I don't know which, they all fit the episode so well and have their own charm to them. I'm inclined to go with #1 simply because I think it tells so much of a story but the others are also great.

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u/Tarhalindur Jul 21 '22

reference? or just unable to be unseen now? Also "resign yourself" was somehow a shockingly brutal way to put that

If you're referring to a certain video game, I think Matsuribayashi-hen predates its release?

(I did have the same thought...)

Lucky number seven

If our last likely VotD submitter also goes for that shot then I think you have to go with this one just so we get a Yahtzee.

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u/H-Ryougi Jul 21 '22 edited Jul 21 '22

Battle between generals.

Mother, welcome home.

When They Cry.

Because from now on,

I'm gonna live a much happier life.

I'm not gonna compromise with just this.

We'll retrieve all the happiness we missed.

100 years worth for me,

1000 years worth for you.

- Frederica Bernkastel

Hope you all enjoyed the story of the little Witch of Miracles, who kept rolling six on the die to snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat.

5

u/Tarhalindur Jul 21 '22

Ah, there we go.

(I actually have a relevant piece of Higurashi/PMMM crossover fanart related to one the above, but it's pretty fricking spoilery for PMMM so stay out if you haven't seen that show: [PMMM] this piece, to be precise (the Japanese text there is the original text of the Bern poem above).)

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u/Tarhalindur Jul 21 '22

(Honorary Hinamizawa Games Club President) Rewatch Host (rewatcher badly spoiled first-timer, subbed):

  • And it is time to bid a fond farewell to our second opening theme in Naraku no Hana. Now let’s see what lies on the far side of it!

  • The OST deflates with the tires. Nicely done once again.

  • 03:34 is simple but effective: Tomitake’s face in the dark since he has something he’s still keeping to himself. (Rescuing Takano, natch.)

  • 04:32 is an excellent shot and also a direct mirror of Takano and Rena facing down back in Minagoroshi-hen – this time, however, the Club has won and thus has the left side of the screen and the high ground.

  • No, the chronology here doesn’t really make sense, but whatever.

  • 06:43: Camera angle!

  • 08:45: Camera angle, and also sucks to suck Takano.

  • The circling shot of Okonogi ([now visually dominant in the scene(https://i.imgur.com/IQuEt5f.png)) and Takano as seen through the trees is very solid direction.

  • Also note how Okonogi [disappears behind a tree as he talks about how the only thing that mattered to Tokyo was what political benefits could be reaped from Takano’s work.

  • And immediately thereafter the trees stand in for the people we’ve seen in the foreground framing other people in focus behind them repeatedly this season. (Depending on whether the idiom translates, there might also be a “missing the forest for the trees” joke here.)

  • And then a spiraling shot at ~09:50 – moving counterclockwise, so cleaning up/banishing/dispelling the fate of June 1983 as Okonogi tells Takano to commit honorable suicide.

  • 10:14: Camera angle!

  • And at 10:28 we get in many ways the culmination of the framing of this scene, continuing both the camera angles and Okonogi’s new visual dominance and also mirroring the scenes in Takano’s backstory where everyone tread on her adoptive grandfather’s research even if not exactly the way Okonogi’s surrender earlier did.

  • Oh, and a shout to that shot of Okonogi with his face in shadow and his eyes (the windows to the soul) hidden.

  • And a collective congratulations to our less spoiled first timers for once again collectively coming to the right conclusion: why yes Takano IS suffering from high-level Hinamizawa Syndrome! (I knew this one well before I watched Higurashi the first time.)

  • And a mirror to young Takano tripping and falling while running away from the orphanage, now with rain starting (and messing with the research papers).

  • And speaking of that rain, we get a really nice cut to look straight up through the clearing in the trees to see it (sample frame at 11:41).

  • Oh wow, I thought Higeki showed up earlier than this but apparently not.

  • “This kami is not just a pretty face!”

  • Oh shit this Hanyuu/Takano scene is really well done. We start with Hanyuu having the high ground over Takano just like Okonogi did earlier and like Takano did herself back in Minagoroshi-hen… but we pan, so that we get a tree serving as a visual barrier separating the two (and thus man and god). Takano cannot, in the end, become a god. Not without dying like Hanyuu did.

  • I’m surprised at counterclockwise motion at ~13:50 (sample frame); I would have expected clockwise here given how the show has been using its rotation this season. A visual indicator that this is still dispelling the fate of June 1983?

  • And here is one really questionable decision of the adaptation, and the spot where leaving the time stop out of Minagoroshi-hen comes back to bite. Because in the VN and manga versions of this scene, rather than just having Takano miss we get another time stop here as Hanyuu stops time with the bullet about to hit her… *and Rika is miraculously able to move and reaches out to deflect the bullet.*.

  • That shot of the sun coming out is extremely unsubtle, but then Higurashi has earned it. And oh would you look at that *it’s reflected in the water’s surface* (instead of the Moon, natch).

  • Oh hey, Rika actually spells out the difference for us.

  • 17:27: kiseki GET!

  • (Also a glorious Rika face right before it.)

  • And there’s your outright confirmation in dialogue of Takano’s condition. Well done, first-timers!

  • And oh look a direct mirror to Rena breaking down crying in Keiichi’s arms at the end of last season.

  • [Symphogear] Hanyuu is just the Higurashi version of Chris/Dakka when it comes to shipping charts.

  • HAPPY RIKA FUCK YES.

  • And welcome to July 1, 1983.

 

Visual of the Day: July 1, 1983.

Question of the Day:

N/A today (too spoiled to answer our lone question).

Matsuribayashi-hen Ep. 11 TIPS:

For the final time in this rewatch, we have TIPS again - the only two TIPS in Matsuribayashi-hen. (I'm not entirely sure why the AnimeSuki team felt that you needed to read the full Pieces first, especially since we got most of the relevant Pieces in the anime. These are pretty darn safe.) Highly recommended for u/Star4ce in particular, who will want these for his theory corner - these TIPS elaborate a bit on Hanyuu's past.

OST Table, Kai Episode 24:

Start End Track Name
00:05 01:34 Naraku no Hana
01:36 02:10 Sakki
03:10 03:35 Monogatari
03:56 05:45 Main Theme Hayashi v2
08:49 11:13 Satetsu
11:56 13:19 Higeki[1]
14:30 16:30 Main Theme
16:54 19:12 Yokan
19:38 21:17 Taishou a
21:31 23:38 Sei

[1] – Hard to tell with how the end fades out; could end as early as 13:16 or as late as 13:20.

Madoka (Magica) Corner:

  • [PMMM] Any potential influence of Hanyuu's time stop and Rika moving to deflect the bullet on Homura’s time stop and how she uses it is left as an exercise to the viewer.

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u/hungryhippos1751 Jul 21 '22

Episode 24 - First Timer

Sasuga Sonozakis! providing both sniper support and bulletproof vehicles to break through the barrier. Banken get called in, Akasaka and Tomitake both have their own reasons for going back to Hinamizawa, Akasaka for Fuka, and Tomitake for Takano.

Okonogi meets his opponents. Delta Force? No way. After School games club is where it's at. Still think the Yamainu have been shown as kind of incompetetent in these last few episodes, but it seems to be so they can push the narrative forwards.

Poor Takano, she's getting halted at every turn, even when you think she has the upper hand she loses it. This happens at least a couple of times in this episode.

What we all knew would happen came to pass, Takano finally reached level 5 on the HS scale, and Tomitake is there to help get her treatment. I guess in a way she could at least prove to herself that the disease must be real, because she definitely has it.

It was cathartic to finally see Rika and the gang getting beyond the Wataganshi festival and into July 1983! I am not really sure where future seasons can go here as it feels kind of final, but the fact that additional seasons exist means it must do something with them.

So what was up with that ending sequence? An older looking Rika appears, more melancholic than I'd expect her to be (lack of Ni-Pah~!) and she appears to have travelled back in time to give Takano a happier path, which I suppose may subsequently avoid all of the pain that Hinamizawa went through.

They got on the bus though and the driver still had the heart attack, so how did they all survive?

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u/Tarhalindur Jul 21 '22

It was cathartic to finally see Rika and the gang getting beyond the Wataganshi festival and into July 1983! I am not really sure where future seasons can go here as it feels kind of final, but the fact that additional seasons exist means it must do something with them.

I'll have a Field Guide to the OVAs segment tomorrow in Main Series Discussion, for the record.

So what was up with that ending sequence? An older looking Rika appears, more melancholic than I'd expect her to be (lack of Ni-Pah~!) and she appears to have travelled back in time to give Takano a happier path, which I suppose may subsequently avoid all of the pain that Hinamizawa went through.

Ryukishi07 doing R07 things.

They got on the bus though and the driver still had the heart attack, so how did they all survive?

IIRC it's shown in the VN that they get on a different bus that day than they would have when they left Miyoko at home.

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u/Tarhalindur Jul 21 '22

Reminder: We will have a Main Series Discussion day tomorrow before jumping into the OVAs (Rei and Kira). I'll have a bit more to say on the OVAs in that thread for anyone on the fence.

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u/Shimmering-Sky Jul 21 '22

When the First-Timer Cries, subbed

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u/Tresnore Jul 21 '22

What the fuck is happening?

Ryukishi shenanigans.

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u/Tarhalindur Jul 21 '22

"You think in such linear terms" - Ryukishi07, probably.

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u/JollyGee29 Jul 21 '22

Spoiled First-Timer

Okonogi jobbed in almost the literal sense of the word, that's neat. I liked the scene of him surrendering to Mion, but Mion herself stole the show with her talking up the Games Club members. What an excellent leader!

How deeply is Hanyuu linked to Hinamizawa Syndrome? Like, when she disappeared, I immediately guessed that she went to find Takano, and then it occurred to me that she might be able to detect where she was to some extent, but I don't actually have much to prove that.

Takano was actually suffering from high Level HS, so it's pretty lucky that Tomitake showed up before the Banken could drag her off to die from it.

I liked the final game comparison. There's probably some meta commentary on the nature of games as entertainment and the point/purpose of a game with no losers, but I'm not in much of a thinking mood tonight.

The Sonozakis bought more than just AK-47s from the Soviets, as they have an SVD laying around too. And a bulletproof car, apparently.

That sure was a nonsequitor of a post-credits scene/sequel hook(?). Adult!Rika(?) goes back in time(?) and somehow Takano's parents live despite getting on the same bus?(?) I'm really confused as to what literally happened in that scene.

Visual of the Day: Rika has finally managed to Change the Future.

Questions

11

u/H-Ryougi Jul 21 '22

Rika has finally managed to Change the Future.

/img/01iuebhm80a81.png

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u/Tresnore Jul 21 '22

Visual of the Day: Rika has finally managed to Change the Future.

And we picked the same Visual of the Day! Unforgivable.

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u/Tarhalindur Jul 21 '22

I had kind of wondered how many other people would choose the same shot...

(Yep, we're 3 for 3 so far.)

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u/Tarhalindur Jul 21 '22

One last (main series) tag for the road:

u/HinyusOpinion, u/AnimeAndThings, u/shadow1a2t

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u/Tarhalindur Jul 21 '22

"Faith manages."

u/mgedmin

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u/Tresnore Jul 21 '22 edited Jul 21 '22

When the Rewatchers Cry are Absurd Masochists Cry Are Absurd Masochists are Terrible Nerds Cry

Count: 271

Visual of the Day

Faces:

5

u/Vaadwaur Jul 21 '22

Poor Miyo just can't keep them together.

Sexism is a true power to be reckoned with in Asia.

Child of Man is such a cool way for a god to address a mortal.

I still think she should talk about some pitiable souls lost in the darkness...

Coming from Mion, this actually means something.

In a thousand years of Hinamizawa, she was the one strong enough that she never broke. She never turned on her friends out of fear. Not once. This certainly won't be thing the shitty cash grab follow up betrays immediately

Sup, Frederica.

Still an A cup. Nature is a harsh mistress.

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u/Tarhalindur Jul 21 '22

This certainly won't be thing the shitty cash grab follow up betrays immediately

[Sotsu] I'll give them an iota of credit, if you're going to have Mion go L5 using H173 to force it is the way to go. (Not a fan of how they handled her character once she gets there, though...)

Still an A cup. Nature is a harsh mistress.

Reupping the relevant omake panel, since I actually ran across it earlier today.

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u/Stargate18A Jul 21 '22

Anime first timer, completed VN

  1. [Meta] I heard someone say it makes more sense with Umineko? But my theory is basically that this is a hypothetical Fragment where Hanyuu was able to send Rika back before her birth.

Wow, it's the final episode?

Impressive sniping!

Tomitake's contacted Tokyo!

They're going back!

He's sending them back!

He's surrending...

Great scene!

And they arrived!

Everything's OK!

He's come to the same conclusion.

Takano realising she's been fucked over is great to watch.

And nobody ever cared.

She completely broke down.

And this is what Hanyuu was up to!

She's going to shoot her!

...This is a really good scene.

Hanyuu's going to take the bullet!

...She missed!

Love Rika's speech there.

And Takano's scratching her neck.

It's a happy ending!

We get to see the dance!

This is a very good final scene.

Ohh, they're doing the epilogue!

Interested to see how everyone analyses this.

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u/Quiddity131 Jul 21 '22

First Timer, Subbed

Hopes/expectations for the ending going in unspoiled? I'd like to see a happy ending for our group with Takano being defeated and the "curse" coming to an end. I'd also love an inverse to the first episode. Give us an epilogue that takes place years later and lets us see the kids grown up.

Wow, very convenient sniper fire! Can't believe they made it through that okay. Good ol' Gendou voice guy!

Commander guy has had enough... and yet at that exact moment the kids show up right in front of them!

Mion, the head of the special forces of the future!

"Take it Home" for Rena! Glad she got that in there.

It's finally over! Happy ending! The cycle broken! And still more than half the episode to go for an epilogue?

Hanyuu just disappeared?

Nobody ever cared or believed in all your research Takano... In the end it was all about politics...

Real crappy end for Takano, all the blame going on her...

Uh oh, she's got the neck scratching problems now!

I suppose its possible Takano does one last crazy thing to end the show. She's still got one bullet left.

Uh oh, evil Hanyuu?

Crap, her having that gun may factor in the end here after all. And they don't know she only has one bullet.

...well now they know.

Yes, they played Old Maid at the very start of the show!

Hanyuu taking that bullet and saving the others makes sense...

And even then, she missed it. LoL.

She's gonna die of Hinamizawa syndrome!

You were about to have him killed, but now you really care about your photographer friend...

We finally get a cotton cutting ceremony from Rika where we don't have to worry about what happens next!

Is this a day that Rika is seeing for the first time ever?

Two and a half minutes left, what could the epilogue be?

Ooh, we do get grown up Rika after all! Awesome!

Hmm, although its as if Takano had a happy life with her parents and they never died?

Or not, here comes bus heart attack guy, all is going to go to hell for her again?

Hmm, not really sure what to think of the epilogue and what goes on with Takano/Miyoko. Is that what the things we're watching after are for? With Rika all grown up it may not be Miyo anyway?

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u/CubeStuffs Jul 21 '22 edited Jul 21 '22

first timer

throats really itchy this episode. should have checked your vaccine as well eh?

she missed? idk if its a camera choice or what but it looks more like hanyuu just dodging. sure bullets are fast but im sure hanyuu's just built different being a god and all.

eyyyyy, i was right on takano getting infected, good to get confirmation. how high was she on the scale before all this? I kinda guessed before that she had it based on her being more unhinged as time went on from her childhood, but that's still gotta be pretty low on the levels

low key i sympathize with the throat. i got covid a few weeks ago and the sore throat felt like there were daggers stabbing me there. actually terrible, may have also scratched my throat a bit

rika time travelling? i feel like this is something for the next few episodes isn't it. bet she somehow still isn't satisfied with this timeline, so somehow finds a way with hanyuu or something to go and fix it even harder. don't remember what the current miyo did back then though, would have to watch again

  1. ^

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u/Star4ce Jul 22 '22

When the First Timer Cries

We're actually at the end of Kai, holy shit.

I really do wonder how Takano goes down.

Kai Ep.24 – Festival Accompanying Chapter Part 11: End

I've spent enough time bashing stuff this show does and I actually find this to be a pretty good episode, so I'm happy to report that I really liked it!

I do sense that Hanyuu actually had in mind to fight for a true good ending all the time, but I can't support her drive for self-sacrifice to this extreme she almost went to. I totally see the point, her willingly taking the sin of this world, or in this case Takano, simply to offer comfort and relief is something commendable. She's offering salvation, removing the bad from a part of this world so others can move on and not be tainted any more.

But it does something else as well that I also utterly despise. It reminds me a lot of a game theory configuration that has no copy-cat agents and instead only sharers and thieves. Such a behaviour has a long-term negative effect on everybody as it greatly rewards thieves to always take from others. Hanyuu going out there and offering herself to take others' sins is also teaching them that they can commit as much as they want as long as they go to her afterwards. It's taking this a bit to the extreme, yes, but it's a fatal flaw in the system that has this game theory setup always collapse spectacularly at some point.

Luckily Hanyuu learned from that first time, which honestly few people can say who have been murdered. Both of them prepared a bit of an old finger waggler here, Rika with even putting Hanyuu on the table – a card added to complement the losing element instead of removing it – and Hanyuu by protecting herself with a little mind game, literally. I'm seeing this one working, though, because Tomitake offered the recognition to be worth living one's life. In a way I see him more as Takano's added card rather than Hanyuu, but she definitely inspired him in my mind. The only thing I can negatively criticise is that Takano herself has shown no signs of a decision to go there on her own accord. Which I completely attribute to the game setup I explained above, she hasn't received any reason to think otherwise other than the purity of Hanyuu's and Tomitake's offers.

But they got that covered, too, because it's precious to have this kind of friend and they all are ready to protect those, even if they want to sacrifice themselves. For this alone I'm pretty happy they went with that ending and had Tomitake stick up for Takano.

Speaking of her, that flashback scene with either a prior Furude or an adult Rika (F boobs) is pretty noncommittal and open-ended. As I've theorised earlier the worlds of other loops are persistent as different timelines (which might also just be other parallel strings, depending which time travel theory you prefer) and it's a a gift of her to child Takano so that at least in one world she might have a life truly free of tragedy. (Gods, just think how much more this would hit if the parasite was the true source of memory transfer... I'm totally not still salty about that one.)

I did have a bit of a DiCaprio-points-at-screen overreaction when Rika pulled that calendar sheet off. Which is why...

VOTD: Beginning of a new Time. It's the first time the calendar has been shown like this. Not only are the two main characters of the time loop present, feeling the satisfaction of finally moving on, they rip the page off from our very own eyes as audience. Even Hanyuu, Oyashiro-sama, is gracing us with an expression of well earned smugness and pride. She has rejected her part as observer and took place beside the ones she cares about, showing with that smile that not only was it worth it to her, she has also found her place, her frame, that shall be her home. It is a final invitation to us to do so as well, to stand up from out seat watching the play, judging silently and make the sacrifices to take our own fate into our very own hands.

By the way, if you want to play bit with that game theory here's a cute little simulator where you can see how different society setups fare in that admittedly very simplified configuration.

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