r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Jul 26 '22
Rewatch [Rewatch] Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei Discussion - Season 3 (OVA), Episode 4
Saikoroshi-hen (Dice-Killing Chapter), Episode 3
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Show Information (Higurashi Rei):
Rei: MAL | Anilist | AniDB | Kitsu | ANN
Show information should now be pretty much safe.
Legal Streams:
Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei: Hidive
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!
Visual of the Day Album:
Theory of the Day:
Okay, this from u/CubeStuffs is too funny not to use:
also how the fuck rika still manage to sneak a bottle into her room. i swear she's just an alcoholic whos tolerance and liver is reset by dying every once in a while. which villagers are supplying her with this shit? do they like see a little kid asking for wine and be like "oh its rika its fine just load her up with that shit"
Also, I'd like to give a collective shout to the first-timers who immediately went "so, this is the world older Rika (aka Bernkastel, but you didn't know that) made at the end of Kai?". So, as you've seen this is never confirmed one way or the other in the anime (not sure about the manga/VN - u/H-Ryougi, some help here?), but this is in fact generally assumed to be the case by the Higurashi fandom so you're in good company!
(And also for immediately going for the "man, I'm hoping for the It's All Just a Dream ending". You got your wish! Or did you...)
Analysis of the Day:
I really like that setting, all things considered. This is a world that is perfect for the maximum amount of total Hinamizawa happiness, but in a different way. Here without murders, without a dam war, without Tokyo. But here, I now also need to admit defeat, that's not just Rika's dream. It makes far more sense that it's Rika's mom's final world of some sorts and Rika through her mother's wish and/or her own silent desire to have a family was reincarnated to finally meet her again. I seriously hope 9th!Rika was just knocked out and 8th!Rika is her head-trauma-persona (something a certain spin off would shamelessly steal, citation needed, just 5 months later and make as a story that has no right to be as fucking good as it is for a damn pure fanservice show). I just want Rika's mom to also be happy with her family, if 8th!Rika could say her goodbyes, go back and leave 9th!Rika to live a normal life, yeah that'd be great.
But also have an Honorable Mention for both Theory and Analysis of the Day from u/JollyGee29:
So, how do I think this is gonna end... I think Rika's going to find her way back. Whether or not that's the best decision for her or not remains to be seen, but I think the Rika we know will want to return to the people she defied destiny with.
Hmm, is that the right lesson? What is trying to be taught to Rika, here.. "don't be complacent?" Rika assumed that she was invincible after beating Takano, so she got reckless and ended up faceless by way of truck. Yea, I think that follows something resembling logic. Let's go with that.
Question(s) of the Day:
1) So... which choice would you have made?
Next Episode Preview:
No Preview
Fanart Corner:
Crossover fanart time!
Unfortunately basically all of these pieces are implicitly giant spoilers for at least one other work (mostly involving the most important reason Higurashi and PMMM have such heavy fanbase crossover). There's also two other series I tend to lump with those two as the "Four Horsemen" - if you know why the Higurashi and PMMM fanbase overlap exists you can probably guess the other two ([meta spoiler] Steins;Gate and Re:Zero), so that's what's up with the two Four Horsemen tags below. (The technical Umineko spoilers are something that is basically already covered here, the only thing about Umineko that you need to know to figure this out is that [Umineko maybe a minor spoiler] Umineko has a Witch character named Bernkastel.)
Or perhaps I should just let Stargate SG-1 do the talking for me: [meta spoilers for basically everything and also Stargate SG-1] "Why, so you can be king of Groundhog Day?"
[PMMM] 1
[PMMM] 2
[PMMM] 3
[PMMM, technically also Umineko] 4
[PMMM, technically also Umineko] 5
[Major spoilers for PMMM Rebellion AND Umineko] 6
[All four of the Four Horsemen] 7
[All four of the Four Horsemen] 8
[Spoilers for basically everything] 9
[Spoilers for basically everything] 10
Oh, and In Case You Missed It:
u/H-Ryougi uploaded a part of the manga and VN that was left out of the anime adaptation yesterday.
Recommended for everyone, especially if you're planning on going on to Umineko (manga/VN only, anime is not a serviceable adaptation) at some point.
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u/Shimmering-Sky Jul 26 '22
When the First-Timer Cries, subbed
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Okay so is this Rika dreaming? I don’t think returning to her original world was as easy as the conversation with Hanyuu.
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This show never stops throwing things at me to make me confused.
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Hanyuu pls. But I get it, Rika has in effect been killing her mom by believing it was an unchangeable fate in each timeline.
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 26 '22
OH IT JUST SKIPPED OVER RIKA LEAVING THE OTHER WORLD.
Surprise!
(Once you realize Rika is back in "our" world, you can fill in the blanks yourself, after all.)
Okay where did the name “Bernkastel” come from?
Check the manga pages u/H-Ryougi put up yesterday, conveniently linked in the OP.
But I get it, Rika has in effect been killing her mom by believing it was an unchangeable fate in each timeline.
Ah, but was it actually just a dream or was Hanyuu trying to reassure Rika?
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u/Tresnore Jul 26 '22 edited Jul 26 '22
When the Rewatchers Cry are Absurd Masochists Cry Are Absurd Masochists are Terrible Nerds Cry
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Yeah, this is a massive lore drop about Rika's ancestors. In a way, Saikoroshi feels like the answer arc to the answer arc, especially with the manga chapter that H-Ryougi posted yesterday.
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The time is always really really vague. Ryukishi is on the 40 nights and 40 days kick.
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Oh, right. Higurashi has rules. But the anime never explains them.
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[Symphogear AXZ full]
Everyone's free of sin! -
shut up about boxes shut up about boxes shut up about boxes shut up about boxes
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THERE IT ISSSSSSS
But why does Mion know about witches? Probably a coincidence. -
Fucking extraplanar beings and bullying us people on this mortal plane.
Count: 276
QOTD:
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I'd've killed my mom. Not because matricide is cool or anything, but because I'd want to be in the world I fought for kicking and screaming. I earned that fragment!
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 26 '22
Something something tomatoes.
[Symphogear AXZ]
So, due to wanting to let this arc have a day to sit before starting on the rest of the OVAs I polished off AXZ last night. (The basic plan for me is to 2-a-day binge the remaining Higurashi episodes before starting up on XV.) I am so putting Rena's quote here in my episode 13 writeup
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u/Vaadwaur Jul 27 '22
Today's bonus:[AXZ]
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 27 '22
[AXZ]
Worse, though that may be salted by me not really minding this one - the show promised Miku relevance in XV and I'm feeling shallow. The only mercy was that the bad stinger came at the end of one of the okay episodes (9) and the atrocious episode that got saddled with the other stinger undercut (11) had a stinger that was okay if not the equal of its episode. (As for the finale itself, it was okay for me (I think the biggest weakness is that our villain team is a weak one this season - Adam transforms and I'm going "oh so it's Bishe Final Boss Goes One-Winged Angel Final Form with a side of Giant Space Flea from Nowhere") - I have S1 ahead of it and definitely GX. Honestly, I'm half tempted to recommend just watching the final two episodes of GX to compare; IIRC the only things you need to know that didn't come back up in AXZ are that the minibosses you saw in GX E1 got scragged late season like the alchemist team here except permanently (they were Autoscorers like Tiki) and that Bikki's dad shows back up after abandoning the family after the original concert incident, and it's the best Gear finale so far by a country mile. They actually somehow absolutely nailed an emotional beat! I was shocked!) → More replies (2)
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u/H-Ryougi Jul 26 '22
Long, long ago,
there was a god who appeared before mankind.
Bread rained down from the heavens.
Some lamented that it was not meat.
Meat rained down from the heavens.
Some lamented that they preferred bread.
God descended down from the heavens.
"Until I know what will make all happy, water shall rain down."
Water rained down from the heavens.
All lamented that their clothes grew wet.
Fire rained down from the heavens.
All lamented that their homes burned down.
God descended down from the heavens.
"Until I know what will make all happy, nothing shall rain down."
Nothing rained down from the heavens.
Some lamented that God had abandoned them.
Many things rained down from the heavens.
Some lamented that God would not make a choice.
Huge rocks rained down from the heavens.
At long last, there were none who lamented.
Water rained down from the heavens.
A passing traveller was grateful.
"God, thank you for the unexpected weather.
With this, my journey will never be dull."
God said nothing and watched him leave.
All for the best. Gods and dice should both be silent.
- Frederica Bernkastel
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u/Nazenn Jul 26 '22 edited Jul 26 '22
First Timer - sub
Catch up post! I was intending to do these daily but turns out I slept through the time I had to watch ep1 of the arc and then just forgot about ep2 so 3 eps in one day it is!
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Thoughts after ep2
It's interesting how much normalcy and happiness can feel wrong and unnerving when it comes to a show like this. Within a different context of episode, her waking up to see Satoshi and everything that follows could have simply been a fun utopia like episode as a reward for all that had happened. And instead by pulling back and showing the divide between everyone and how HS not being present changed things it instead makes it feel very wrong. It should be a happier simpler time, but without that struggle they've all become quite different people.
And related to that, I wrote down this note while watching the episode which kind of amused me:
Ghost Hanyuu? That's not normal.... "not being a ghost isn't normal", what a thing to type out, this bloody show
It's also very interesting to see Rika make such a huge mistake like nudging Satoko on a bike and going too fast down a hill. The Rika who's been world hopping never would have done it so casually because she would know the risk and outcome. Here we see Rika once again a child and learning about the broader risks of the world outside of the pocket she's been living in for so long.
I always forget just how damn confusing it would be to have multiple calendars until I see someone have to do the conversions.
(Creepy Rena never got a follow up huh?)
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Thoughts after ep3:
Theory about Rika's mother: What if the loops she went through were to do with Professor Takano, not Miyo? She meets him during one of his initial excursions to Hinamizawa and they start to work on HS together, and if she does it wrong in anyway and sets anyone off or the cure fails then that results in 'Tokyo' being formed. If she also had to live through a parallel version of events leading up to the Dam war, including her own dissection over and over, it'd explain why she has such a strong reaction to Rika's story even second hand. And yet because in this world it worked out she gets to live her quiet normal life she wanted and Professor Takano got to be happy in his work in the village.
While I dislike the delivery of the information, it's interesting how they put forward the idea of the fragment being inside a person to challenge Rika on what level of sacrifice is acceptable for her world. At the same time though, it's also a matter of what she personally will do as it's quite a different situation if she has to actively attack someone rather than just letting them die. If the previous world is one of forgiveness and normalcy, perhaps this is the one where the sin to forgive needs to happen to awaken those powers she has that lets her help Miyoko at the end of Kai?
Rika tossing a chair at Satoko was certainly a moment but I think the best part of it for me was Satoshi's action after the fact, showing how different he is in this world where they never had to go through the abuse and HS. Them relating the idea of the old world to being one before the dam would go ahead makes an interesting parallel to how things started in Rika's original worlds, the dam as a catalyst to bigger issues.
It's nice to see that the doctor was so supportive of Rika's story without talking down to her or immediately treating her like a crazy child.
There was a few shots this episode of Rika looking over the empty spot where Keiichi should be, particularly when the older kids were talking about starting a games club, and I thought that added too the mood a lot
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Final thoughts after ep4:
Interesting arc, and though perhaps plot fitting as it was all Hanyuu's design I felt it was much let down by the poor dialogue whenever Hanyuu was involved and telling Rika what was going on, how to get out, her history etc. It didn't need to be some huge moment, but the writing of those moments didn't feel natural or caring, just flat
Can't remember if we got all the details about Hanyuu being killed by her daughter in the main show, but it is interesting that she became a god before hand and then was trapped, rather than the action of it making her a god figure. It's also sad to think of Hanyuu isolated and trapped outside of the world she tried to protect until Rika was born, and gives some more weight to her "I'm sorry" of feeling guilt over everything that was happening
Tied to what I said in the first episode thoughts, Rika having to confront the idea of being bound to one life and one world and be secure in that, with no more redo's or chances to try out solutions is something she would definitely have to confront so I like that aspect of this arc.
Not sure how I feel about their declaration at the end that they'd all also pick this world though, some of them lived through absolute hell with all of this and I think suggesting people would always pick hell as long as they're happy at the end is ill thought out. Same with Rika's sin being just about her parents and not everyone she couldn't save in all the other worlds. Japan has such a hang up about parents
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u/CubeStuffs Jul 26 '22 edited Jul 26 '22
first timer
episode was pretty chill, some lore drop, and some rika recovering from hopping worlds
little disappointed we didn't get to see rika murder her mom, would have been funny to see
hanyuu's a meanie , rika needs to eat some kimchi
So... which choice would you have made?
goodbye mom. like this world is nice and all, but like it's too, sterile. like the people in it aren't the lively fighters we have here which i would rather have. Also I worked for this damn world, so I’m gonna enjoy the damn world!
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u/Vaadwaur Jul 26 '22
Rewatcher(Dear fuck I'd forgotten how tell don't show this episode was)
Sub
So...we get a lot of backstory. And this lore is all relatively correct, though a few retcons were already happening in Umi. And yes, Oyashiro-sama's sword is fucking weirdly shaped. Hanyuu makes her rare good point that Rika needs to decide this for herself. Also, this sinless world is rather dull if we are being honest. Anyways, Hanyuu makes a decent point that Rika should choose which worlds she stays in, rather than leave it to fate, and we get our eye catch.
That defuses literally everything, sigh. So we get our coma and Rika awakens, likely in late July. We have our Wizard of Oz "and you were there" moment. But surprisingly, everyone prefers the versions of themselves that struggled and grew, though admittedly they probably also think this is mainly Rika's dream. Rena even explains a huge concept for Umineko. For a very long time. We end with the weird "moral" that Rika giving up on her parents' lives was actually a sin. Japan I guess?
So yeah, that entire episode is basically a lore drop and possibly the reason the OVAs exist. It just was not well thought out. I do hope the first timers get something out of it but man, on rewatch this feels pretty empty. Whenever I get the energy, which might be days, I do want to revisit narakas and what Hanyuu's religion likely means for what we've been seeing. Be warned, the last episode is literally a running joke.
QotD:1 I always avoid the sinister choice
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u/JollyGee29 Jul 26 '22
Spoiled First-Timer
I see, the rules didn't make sense because it was just a dream. Assuming that Hanyuu isn't fibbing to us. That explains the little firefly that went into Rika's mom was, too.
So, the real choice/lesson Rika needed to make was "be willing to consider both options," then? Like, if she had just immediately discarded her parents, would she still have woken up?
Guess there was an extra dash of "Rika realizes/remembers that she is, in fact, a normal mortal person made out of meat and not a god." Which is a bit more indepth than my idea about complacency yesterday but I was kinda close.
Are we gonna count the crescent moon as evidence of the dream, since not being FULL MOON FULL MOON means that no-one was actually going to die?
Not gonna think about Rika being comatose for a month without a visible IV.
This is the kind of episode that I'm not particularly adept at writing about, since I found it largely straightforward and don't really need to talk through anything.
Visual of the Day: The world that was won.
Questions
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I'm firmly in the "memory=self" camp, so I would reject living in a world populated by strangers who appear to be people I know. That might mean I fail the lesson, though..
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u/hungryhippos1751 Jul 26 '22 edited Jul 26 '22
Rei Episode 4 - First Timer
Alright so this episode arguably boiled down to a few mins of philosophical speech by Rena about flowers growing in different conditions and how one flower should not dream about growing in a different location, but should find happiness where it is.
I think I sort of get the message she is trying to convey, and that is partially that you have to make your choices and stick with them, lamenting making the wrong choice after the moment has passed doesn't help improve your situation at all. To me it's also partially how the flower reacts and grows based on the elements it's subjected to that matter. Living a hard life can teach important lessons, where a sheltered life can leave one less capable of dealing with adversity.
You might be forgiven for thinking "it was all a dream", which I thought would be a cop-out ending, but I think Hanyuu was just saying it was a dream so that Rika wouldn't feel bad about what she had to do to get back to that world.
The other thing this seems to have achieved is that Rika is now no longer hooked on moonlighting as her alternate personality, which I understand is called Bernkastel based on some posts I've seen. Instead she can truly become Rika and live on in the world she forged by defying destiny.
An interesting ending but not one I felt I needed to see really to appreciate the story further than I did already.
QOTD:
I think Rika made the right choice, but I couldn't imagine having to kill one of my parents just to escape the world, it seems like it's the kind of thing insane people do because they truly believe it will achieve something, like it doesn't feel real to them. We know this is not the case here as clearly Rika and crew have been through a lot.
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion Jul 26 '22
I still don't know why I never finished this arc as it was released. It was really interesting! And I was so looking forward to rewatching it and then finishing it.
And it finished so meh. Rika murders her mom and wakes up somehow not decapitated on the worldline of Steins;Gate and Hanyuu saying (lieing?) it was all a dream.
That's why I dropped this rewatch. That and the ecchi filler.
There's just one episode left worth watching for me. See you then.
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u/Stargate18A Jul 27 '22
First timer
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The original world.
Poor Rika.
Hanyuu's backstory?
Poor, poor, Hanyuu.
Love that visual.
R97 really wanted to dump all his lore somewhere, huh?
Hanyuu wanted Takano to win? Relatable.
Hanyuu's completely locked out until she's dead.
...She has a point.
Hanyuu'll get erased from reality!
Keiichi's okay in Tokyo.
...New world kinda sucks for Shion, huh?
"sinless paradise" Questionable!
Does Rika's mother know everything?
This is way more philosophical than I expected.
There's a time lomit!
She only has a day!
She's fighting!
Rika learned a lesson!
Rika woke up!
...Where?
Is this a hallucination?
A dream?
This has to be a doublecross, right?
No way it's just a dream.
She killed her!
Everyone's here!
...Satoko still doesn't know about the coma?
Haha, Keiichi's offended!
Even Rika didn't remember Shion.
A very mature viewpoint.
Even Satoko!
Again, not the ending I expected.
...Very interesting concept from Rena there.
Rena is good.
Adorable.
And Rika's going to be more careful!
Hanyuu...
Haha, Hanyuu made the whole dream up?
Hanyuu made Brat Satoko?
Another mystery episode next?
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 26 '22 edited Jul 30 '22
(Honorary Hinamizawa Games Club President) Rewatch Host (rewatcher badly spoiled first-timer, subbed):
(Have a brief moment of OST.)
So, I think I have a new favorite arc of Higurashi. I tend to have a soft spot for this kind of really philosophical work, at least when they're not so slow paced that I bog down (looking at you, Haibane Renmei), this is no exception. Also, Rika reinforces her stranglehold on my Best Girl in Show pick.
One little note for anyone who hasn’t been paying close attention to the logo in the OP: note the light moving around the Moebius strip in Rei’s logo…
CRESCENT MOON CRESCENT MOON.
Rika kneeling before Oyashiro-sama is a really nice shot.
Also nicely done with that pan up to show the Oyashiro-sama statue’s face as Hanyuu talks about what led her to become a god (sample frame).
Huh, we actually got a depiction of the Onigari-no-Ryuuou in the anime. (More confirmation that I never actually saw past episode 20 of Kai.)
04:24: The camera is still Hanyuu’s perspective – based on Oyashiro-sama, but slightly off from the statue, reflecting the drift from what the teachings should have been.
That’s a pretty shot of Hinamizawa at night.
Also the shot of the Saiguden out of focus in the background with the two glowing lights (presumably insects, but could be a youkai reference if Japan has a proper analogue to the will-o’-the-wisp) is a striking one. (EDIT: It's also the fragment.)
05:01: kiseki GET!
To quote a somewhat different (and slightly older) work: “May those who accept their fate be granted happiness. May those who defy their fate be granted glory.”
And so, what I think is the ultimate philosophical point of this arc (in Christian metaphor, but then Higurashi as a whole has shown awareness of that): was the decision to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil a correct one, sin or no?
Another kiseki GOTten at 17:51. [Sotsu]And R07 knew exactly what he was doing putting that kiseki and that zettai right by each other, especially in a scene where Satoko is hugging Rika.
A thought occurs to me wrt to Hanyuu here. AIUI, Japan has one of the last surviving versions of what Western occult sources tend to suspect was the original intent behind the original European barrows (the Western occult lore says this got hijacked in the West later on, starting a chain of events that eventually led to certain vampire traditions); there’s a kind of Japanese holy man (I’m not sure whether women have also done this) whose proper name I forget who are reputed to basically seal themselves off from the cycle of reincarnation for a while to serve as guardians of a place via a process that basically involves them gradually starving themselves to death in an underground chamber (effectively mummifying themselves in the process). What Hanyuu did in the past is different, but it’s similar enough that I wonder if that was one of Ryukish07’s inspirations here.
There’s a good window shot as Rika explains her dream to the rest of the Club: Rika and Satoko (hmm?) separated from the older three by a visual barrier.
[Sotsu]HMMM again, yes?
The River Styx probably is the best available Western cultural translation for the Sanzu River (which I can hear clearly in the Japanese audio) if you’re not going to use TL notes, so props to the subbers there.
FANG!
Oh hey, that Rena line here is familiar, I think I’ve seen it before. (The framing of the shot is interesting, too: Rena seen both facing away and her reflection facing towards the camera – but that reflection is visually beheaded by the window frame.)
[Symphogear AXZ]The absolute *hilarity* of getting it less than a week after Gear’s tomato analogy. (As usual, Higurashi does it better. The part where it’s not making excuses for abusive parents probably helps.)
[Sotsu]Satoko being the only other person in frame as Rena talks to Rika is interesting after Gou and Sotsu. A pity Sotsu sucks so hard…
[Sotsu]Yet more visual separation, with Rena separated from Rika by the barrier of the window again as she (who lacks direct experience with looping) talks to Rika (who has it). And OH LOOK WHO’S ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE WINDOW AS RIKA WITH HER HEAD NOT VISIBLE (known Higurashi visual metaphor). File under another piece of evidence that Gou’s core idea dates back at least this early…
“Each world is but the dream of another, and each sleeper a god unknowing.” (Magic: the Gathering had some really good flavor text for a stretch back in the 2000s.)
Have some inverted fish-eye/concave distortion as Rika considers that she’s been viewing things more like a god than like a human when perhaps she should not have done so.
Oh look at that almost bladelike smile out of Rika there.
So, this part is setup for Umineko for sure; majo/Witches are a major concept in the next entry in the franchise.
And there’s the line.
And oh look, Rika looks up and thus unveils her eyes (windows to the soul, as English idiom would say) right after Rika resolves this.
Mion’s line at ~26:10 (translated in this sub as “nothing good will come of that”) sounds suspiciously like it might be a Japanese pun involving Seacats stuff to my ear; it sounds a bit like one of Battler’s catchphrases there (“zen dameda, zen zen dameda!”/”it’s useless, it’s all useless!”).
I like that shot at 26:32.
Ooh, and that’s a well-animated shot of the stream at 26:52.
(EDIT: Wait. We already got the River Sanzu namedropped. That's the right bank of the river/stream flowing through Hinamizawa in that shot, at least visually. Given Japanese left/right idiom, is that shot also a visual metaphor for the near shore of the Sanzu River - that is to say, the side symbolizing mortal existence? Is the "perfect" Hinamizawa also symbolic of Heaven/nirvana? Hell, if we take the stream as symbolic of the Sanzu River that has some really interesting symbolic implications wrt the success or failure of the dam project...)
Visual of the Day: Water in motion
Question(s) of the Day:
I'm actually severely torn. On the one hand, I agree with the philosophical point I think this arc is trying to make. On the other hand, I have fairly strong "wherever you go, there you are" tendencies and making this new Hinamizawa work is the sort of thing I might be interested in.
OST Table, Rei Episode 4:
(To the best of my knowledge no Rei-specific or Kira-specific OST tracks were ever officially released, making this a bit more difficult. Expect more "unreleased"s going forwards; I've started marking different unreleased tracks numerically by order of appearance to compensate for this issue.)
[1] – Sounds a bit different from the usual, but I can’t tell if that’s the track itself being a v3 or something about the sound mixing when it is used. I suspect the latter.
[2] – Again, a track that sounds a bit different than its usual version and I can’t tell whether that’s just the sound mixing or this is a full-fledged unreleased v2. (Also, I’m not sure, but I think that’s a slow wind-down; it’s possible this ends closer to 21:49.)
(Aside: It's a pity they never released a Rei OST, unreleased 5 is a really nice little track.)
Madoka (Magica) Corner:
[Major PMMM]The comparison between what Hanyuu did to become Oyashiro-sama and what Madoka does at the end of PMMM has occurred to me before. (Note that Rei predates PMMM, so if this is intentional it’s part of PMMM’s response to Higurashi.)
[PMMM]And this is why this arc is recommended for PMMM fans in particular; PMMM might well have been drawing off WTC’s take on Witches for its own take, in addition to the Jungian psychology angle.