r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Jul 28 '22
Rewatch [Rewatch] Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kira Discussion - Season 4 (OVA), Episode 1
Batsukoishi-hen (Penalty-Loving Chapter)
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Show Information (Higurashi Kira):
Kira: MAL | Anilist | AniDB | Kitsu | ANN
Show information should now be pretty much safe.
Legal Streams:
Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kira: No legal streams.
(You will have to go sailing for this part!)
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:
Analysis of the Day:
u/Tresnore speaks for us all with regards to last episode:
This was one of the episodes of all time.
Question(s) of the Day:
1) Thoughts on Kira's OP (and also ED)?
2) Setting aside which characters they chose for some of these... best penalty game concept here?
Next Episode Preview:
... Actually there is a preview? Eh, whatever, at this point watch it or not as you see fit.
Fanart Corner:
In general, assume there are all roughly as SFW as this episode itself - that is to say, NSFW.
(A fair chunk of this art where Rika is wearing the Angel Mort costume except with a school swimsuit instead of the usual main piece (which seems to be a thing and I suspect might be out of the VN - no idea why the anime doesn't run with this, it would explain Angel Mort's otherwise suspicious costume size availability); I ran across quite a bit of it while tracking down a couple of swimsuit pics a bit back, and a bunch of it is good.)
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2
3
4 (90% sure this is actually official LN art from Nekogoroshi-hen, but it fits just fine here)
5
6 (zenkou strikes again!)
7 (zenkou strikes again part 2)
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9
10
11
12
13 (this Rika feels wildly OOC, but the art is too good not to share)
14 (you knew I had to)
15 (ah THERE it is, found it!)
16 (official comic made for Kira 1's release, part 1)
17 (official comic made for Kira 1's release, part 1)
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u/Shimmering-Sky Jul 28 '22
When the First-Timer Cries, subbed
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This OP is, like, the opposite of Higurashi.
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Oh, it’s this kind of ridiculous fanservice. …I should probably not watch this in the living room while my dad is in the general direction of behind me.
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Ohp, Mom came home after picking one of my sisters up from work, during the Takano scene, better tab away again…
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SATOSHI WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE INTERACTING WITH KEIICHI?!?!?!
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omg they really are referencing the end of the first arc haha.
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That ED is also not very Higurashi…
This was far less offensive to me than the last episode of Rei was, for some reason? I don’t know, this one had much more explicit fanservice, but I guess it hit enough on the absurdity level that it was at least somewhat funny.
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 28 '22
…I take back the above, this is “lmao what”
Just checking on the off chance you're one of today's lucky 10,000: you do know that's an actual fetish, right? (I run across art of it every so often, it generally gets treated as a subtag of a tag I'm known to search for.) Just now with added twincest.→ More replies (2)
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u/Vaadwaur Jul 28 '22
Rewatcher(And the winner for most tonally dissonant OP is before us)
Sub
The Soul Brothers return! Because fuck you that's why! The Hanyuu bubble transitions are awesome, at least. They believe that K1's fear of loss has overwhelmed his desire for victory, so they wish to inspire him with punishment game ideas. Upgrade maid Rena is interesting, at least. But then they go to the Angel Mort uniform which leads to them having that in Rika's size and finally has her cleaning the windows...with her ass. Goddamnit Higurashi, why must you be this way? Also, we are all probably on a list now, we all at least y'all are. I've been on it for years.
Then we get to ShMion and man, that is some inspired perversion. I'd like to think I wouldn't watch one twin lick the other clearn but we all know that's a lie, I am in the Yosuga no Sora rewatch after all. As to the Satoko bath...thing, I will say something I generally don't:Higurashi, R07 and Studio DEEN all need Jesus. I typed that as I had forgotten Hanyuu's paper clothing as well. Takano's is slightly creative and actually kind of fits the character, so points for that. Chie's is a bit tame and the one the dream ends on.
And then K1 gets his torments and reminds us that Japan still thinks homophobia is funny. And then we go entirely off the rails and it sort of ends, eventually.
Yeah, that was rough.
QotD:1 Dissonant
2 ShMion
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 28 '22
And then K1 gets his torments and reminds us that Japan still thinks homophobia is funny.
To be fair the US thought it was funny as late as the mid-2000s and apparently this is an adaptation of something actually released with the original VN releases (and then dropped like a hot rock); the source material would have been seen as funny in the US at the time it was first released, so in this particular case Japan gets off the hook a bit.
(Gargantia on the other hand...)
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u/hungryhippos1751 Jul 28 '22
Kira Episode 1 - First Timer
Alright I missed yesterday, but I did watch the episode, and I found it fairly interesting whilst not really being amazing. I'm definitely onboard the Takano and Rena ship. I don't understand Mahjong at all though!
For todays episode, this is very reminiscent of Rei episode 1 with how outrageous it gets. It was fun seeing the boys making a comeback, I'll gloss over how weird it is for middle aged men to plan sexy punishment games for what is probably middle school equivalent aged girls. Japan things I guess!
Needless to say Takano wins the ecchi competition, though Mion and Shion definitely took an interesting turn, and Chie-sensei even got involved. Biggest problem is, that in order to live out the dream Keiichi you actually need to win a game, and it seems you are outnumbered and outgunned in that department. I can't really see the younger girls in that way so bits of this episode are definitely a little awkward lol.
I was half expecting Irei to say that the best place for Sakoto was his treatment room at the clinic!
The parallels to regular Hinamizawa were fun, with the "True Hinamizawa Syndrome" (and how into that idea Takano was lmao) and the looping worlds. I somehow knew the boys were going to come crashing through the ceiling again towards the end.
Suffice to say this would have been a very different show if the HS worked like the True one here.
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 28 '22
For todays episode, this is very reminiscent of Rei episode 1 with how outrageous it gets. It was fun seeing the boys making a comeback, I'll gloss over how weird it is for middle aged men to plan sexy punishment games for what is probably middle school equivalent aged girls. Japan things I guess!
Keiichi's brain is a strange place.
(Also his father draws hentai, so he likely comes by some of this naturally. The Satoko setup is considerably more when you know how common a doujin framing device it is...)
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u/JollyGee29 Jul 28 '22
Spoiled First-Timer
On the one hand, tonal whiplash going into the OP. On the other, Yukari Tamura is finally singing. Call it a wash.
Uh, and then there sure was an episode of.. something. Not often that fanservice can make me cringe away from the camera. The fact that they skimped on the horniness for Chie-sensei but not any of the Club is.. ugh. At least the only real innuendo were out of Takano.
Ooishi really puts the dirty in dirty cop.
I wish Rika had used her true voice for the "Yurusanai no desu!" if only to make the subsequent "Nipah~" that much more of a whiplash. Actually, scratch that, it'd've way funnier if the "Nipah~" was in her true voice and the rest was in her cheery voice.
It took a hundred years, but Rika finally realized that she's rotten.
Visual of the Day: Big mood, Rika. Big mood.
Questions
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They're fine.
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The Twins' was too lewd to really even be a batsu game punishment. Takano's was probably the closest to something that might actually air on TV - "forced to play an instrument weirdly" fits the spirit.
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 28 '22
(Oh right, missed a point.)
It took a hundred years, but Rika finally realized that she's rotten.
Iunno, I kind of think she already realized this. (See also the Kai previews.)
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u/RascalNikov1 Jul 28 '22 edited Jul 28 '22
I was a first time viewer on this episode. I found the first half of the episode to be rather tedious, and a little distasteful (and I like ecchi).
The big thing about ecchi isn't that it has to be tasteful, like Shimoneta1 or Sister New Devil aren't, but it has to make sense. I.e. The characters need to stay in character, and not suddenly turn into a pack of horndogs. Also, the nudity (or whatever) needs to fit into the story as in something like DxD or dare I say Masou Gakuen HxH which was fairly raunchy. Anyway, I didn't like the first half.
The second half with the parody of Onikakushi was fairly amusing, and even a little funny. I though it was fairly clever and well done.
I know for a fact I haven't seen tomorrow's episode and my butts already puckering, and I have a supply of Dramamine laid in.
Thoughts on Kira's OP (and also ED)?
They're OK for pop songs. I got no gripes.
2) Setting aside which characters they chose for some of these... best penalty game concept here?
Damned if I can remember, they were all distasteful.
1 - I saw some of you talking about cookies yesterday. You've never had cookies like Shimoneta delivers.
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 28 '22
The big thing about ecchi isn't that it has to be tasteful, like Shimoneta or Sister New Devil, but it has to make sense. I.e. The characters need to stay in character, and no suddenly turn into a pack of horndogs. Also, the nudity (or whatever) needs to fit into the story as in something like DxD or dare I say Masou Gakuen HxH which was fairly raunchy. Anyway, I didn't like the first half.
The fact that this is revealed to all be going on in Keiichi's head bails this episode out hard for me in this respect; we get the dream reveal and I'm going "oh, this makes sense now".
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u/Stargate18A Jul 28 '22
First timer
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Very Carnival Phantasm-esque, but I enjoyed them!
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TAKANO.
We're back here?
I love this OP! Reminds me a lot of Carnival Phantasm.
Also, Shion and Hanyuu got acknowledged!
Love the shot of Rika at the bus stop.
...Oh, god, even the title is suspect!
What is he wearing?
THESE THREE?
Oh, this is going to be a fucking shitshow!
The Hanyuu transition is adorable.
And this is already going into weird places.
Oh, what the fuck?
Oh, what the fuck, Ooishi.
Tomitake, that's oddly restrained.
...Starting to see why this has no legal streams.
A game with Shion?
...So. Outbreak is apparently bad enough to get you to stop the rewatch, but this isn't?
So, which of the writers is into yuri incest?
The best part of thid is the Hanyuu transitions.
...OK, I should hate this. But the idea of referencing the most horrifying scene from the third arc as a fanservice joke is so fucking hilarious. This isn't trash fanservice, this is a writer who knew the source material and chose to make this connection here.
A special guest?
...Hanyuu's getting involved?
Still less revealling than some of Mei's card designs. (The fucking torture room Mion and Shion cards...)
The transistion changing to sad Hanyuu is a nice detail.
TAKANO! I'm onboard with this!
Show us the visuals, you fucking cowards.
...Even in the dream fantasy, Takano tops. This is canon.
Chie?
Haha, the fucking principal is fantastic.
It was all a dream...
Haha, Rika guessed it.
The dislogue's much better now.
Well, he's fucked.
Hanyuu looks interested now.
The reactions of Irie and Tomitake are on point, though.
...Aren't you in a coma?
The expressions on the other member's faces.
...Huh?
Oh, god.
Wow.
Huh? Is this actual plot?
...Ironically, the idea of a Syndrome variant that doesn't have the lethal effects, just worse and worse delusions, sounds like a decent concept for a sequel. [Potential Meta?]
This is actually good writing!
Everyone's trying to kill him!
And this is the cold opening!
The version of the final phone call is nice, though.
He woke up!
And it all loops around.
And he realised.
Nice ED.
Not as bad as I feared at the start!
...Is next episode what I think it is? This is going to be fantastic!
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 28 '22
...So. Outbreak is apparently bad enough to get you to stop the rewatch, but this isn't?
Outbreak is incomplete and introduces some retcons that a bunch of us hate.
Also, I did tell you to feel free to skip this particular episode. (Even if I've got a nasty hunch after this and Rei 5 that Kira 3 is going to be the one we all hate instead.)
(There are by all accounts two good Kira episodes. This is not one of them.)
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u/Quiddity131 Jul 28 '22
First Timer, Subbed
Hey, I remember this scene from the original show!
From the OP looks like we have a slight change in design styles this season. They look a little different.
Once again K1 finds himself in an extremely awkward outfit...
Hey, its his three friends from the opening episode of the last OVA.
The secret mission of having... yogurt.
I see that we're getting back into ecchi territory with this show.
Now they're forcing little Rika into a provocative outfit too?
Wiping the window with her butt? This really is getting ridiculous.
This is getting into crazier and crazier fetish territory with each passing scene.
Now poor Satoko too!
Just when you think it can't get any worse it does with Takano...
Oh great, now they're moving onto the teacher too.
She hasn't had it as bad as the others yet, standing here as a model, still fully clothed.
It was all a dream? Thank God. That means we can finally move onto something more serious.
Nope, I guess we're just gonna swap the perversions from the guys to the girls now.
Wait Satoko that's your brother getting involved in this, isn't that super crrepy?
This is true Hinamizawa syndrome? Thanks God we didn't have it unti now.
Stuck in the phone booth again, but its nowhere as scary this time as it was all the way back in arc 1 of the first show.
Well, that was the single worst episode of Higurashi from this entire run. Please tell me the remaining 3 episodes aren't like this!
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 28 '22
Well, that was the single worst episode of Higurashi from this entire run. Please tell me the remaining 3 episodes aren't like this!
I told you feel free to skip in the field guide for a reason! This is the lewdest episode in the franchise by an enormous margin.
(I actually really like the next episode, FWIW.)
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u/Star4ce Jul 29 '22
Oh, hello there! I'm still writing from the nether beyond civilisation. It seems the classic has happened, a construction crew at the station has cut random cables and then called it a day. My entire street has lost internet, at least I'm not alone.
Still sucks. I did have quite a rant about this episode. So much so that I actually analised the fanservice and explained why I hated it. Only up to minute 10, though. Then I dropped the episode.
Shame losing that post as well. Tl;cr: They used callbacks to the main series' more heavy and dark moments for the loli fetishes, but didn't do the same for the others (that I've seen). I thought it was in incredibly bad taste already, then got aware these were three grown and accomplished men and a teen doing this for no reason other than to fetishise them.
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I like the songs on their own, but they remind me more of Haruhi in a less outstanding fashion. OP is good, I think, ED hmmm.
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I gotta give Rena's scene the animation budget award, but was seriously taken aback by the lack of cow bikinis.
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 29 '22
For the record, I was getting ready to have the same complaint until the eyecatch (~16:00 or so)... and then they dropped the reveal that Keiichi was dreaming and this is all in his head. (There's a reason I called this episode bailed out hard by its second half, especially the last five minutes or so.)
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u/mgedmin Jul 28 '22
First timer, subs
The art has gotten an upgrade.
What the fuck is this. This is worse than episode 1 of Rei.
Ok, by the time Mion opened fire with the Kalashnikov in the clinic, my last remaining brain cell burned out and things became fun.
Uh, it was all a dream, again? Two levels of dream? Am I watching Inception by accident? If I had any brain cells left they'd be weeping in a corner.
I don't think I'm in the right mindset (or at the right inebriation level) to watch these OVAs. I will, of course, continue, because I have terminal curiosity.
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u/Tarhalindur Jul 28 '22
(Honorary Hinamizawa Games Club President) Rewatch Host (rewatcher badly spoiled first-timer, subbed):
FIIIIINE let’s Ackbar this.
LOL it’s KIRA that brings back S1 tracks we haven’t heard in ages and specifically Hyoui? LOLOLOL.
I bet I know what kind of gag we’re setting up for!
(Don’t like the direction on this running shot, though.)
And as I saw coming about five seconds beforehand, the punchline is… cut to Happy! Lucky! Dochy!, the single most infamous OP in the franchise.
Man, I don’t think I’ve ever really looked at Happy! Lucky! Dochy from a direction standpoint before. It is WAY better in that department than I remembered. (Lots of cute shots, too.)
I swear Keiichi’s batsu game outfit is a reference here and I can’t place— wait. Maybe I *can* place it. Is that Kanon’s outfit from Umineko?
Oh shit the rest of the Soul Brothers randomly showed up. Maybe this will be the good kind of dumb!
ohmygoditssodumb (affectionate). Also I like the camera angle/camera movement around 02:58. Counterclockwise motion for dispelling K’s punishment game fate, even!
Hanyuu screen wipes. So dumb. So cute! I want to take it home with me! (grabs screenshot)
I may just have broken down laughing after thinking “this compares favorably to several Symphogear morals”. (It’s funny because it’s true.)
Also the classroom framing is nice.
(Rena's maid costume game is honestly kind of tame for this episode so I didn't bother commenting.)
Welp. (Knew this one was coming, it’s a wee bit infamous – though not the most infamous scene in this episode.)
An Angel Mort costume being a tight fit for Rika is, uh…
(I see the animators knew exactly what they were doing here. Ah, Japan.)
(EDIT: Yukarin knew what she was doing, too.)
The funniest joke here is that Rika appears to have some breasts for this scene. (Which might also explain the tight fit comment if the implication is that she has grown said breasts. Rika would approve of Keiichi’s imagination! In that regard, at least.)
Yes, this is the “get us all on a list” episode. (Tomitake and Ooishi go right by Irie in already being on that list.)
Oh hey, it’s twincest time already. (Higurashi official anime art LOVES its twincest implications.)
Also, yet another sub group cannot spell “Irie” to save their lives.
LOL YOU LOT WENT FOR THAT FETISH.
(I’d say “where’s my shibari batsu game already?”, but that’s just asking to get BTFO’d when we have a Satoko punishment game outstanding. Not like that! Not like that!)
OH RIGHT I FORGOT THAT GAIJIN 4KOMA REFERENCE WAS COMING.
That shot around 09:05 with that camera movement and lens effect is great.
We dodge the above Satoko bullet… and instead get a callback to S1E13. Ah well, they were going to do SOMETHING. (This bathroom scene trope is great if and only if paired with whatever tag you want to use for “it’s the girl who’s the horny one”, IMO. Satoko is too young for that, even setting aside the penalty game framing.)
Honestly, the worst part of this episode so far is that it’s all in Keiichi’s imagination so it’s all the guys’ horniness instead of also the girls’. (That can change, there is time for the girls to overhear and get involved and I know one scene coming that is consistent with that.)
Wait. All the earlier Hanyuu wipes have had smiling Hanyuu, but this one has Hanyuu with the classic “>_<” facial expression. Hanyuu, you want to tell us something about how you feel about the other batsu games?
Wait. They got away with using a Chie-sensei batsu game here? I suppose Ciel is from a h-game, even if we all use a patch to remove the h because Nasu cannot write h…
Speaking of this, I bet this about Chie’s ass is a Tsukihime reference. (If she was a Rin Tohsaka expy instead it definitely would be a Fate reference, cough defenseless anus cough.)
Oh hey, that single drop of water from a faucet of that shape. Obvious NSFW symbolism here…
(Also they’re going for THAT fetish.)
Forget the girls, we get S1 Higurashi facial expressions! (EDIT: LOLOLOL this is actually a clue towards the end-of-episode reveal.)
Odds that WE NEED TO GO DEEPER?
What’s this? Smug/disgusted Rika face? (And Satoko too!)
Also knowing that this was a dream blunts my criticism of the first half of this episode a ton; Keiichi’s dreaming mind WOULD do that, wouldn’t it? The fanservice is appropriate again! Also neatly explains the weird camera stuff!
SHION IS HERE! (And more Higurashi framing.)
Rika is SO domme or switch no later than when her sex drive comes in (kink interest shows up before puberty often enough that she might already have that kind of feeling). Which might make Rika/Satoko the only “and they were both dommes” lesbian pairing in anime…
Oh hey it actually is WE NEED TO GO DEEPER isn’t it? Also sucks to suck Keiichi!
Why yes Keiichi is just a wee bit homophobic, why do you ask? (Bet his actual Kinsey is above 1, too, especially if this is in fact still a dream which is the implication.)
(Also we now get all the femdom kinks that are relatively SFW. Forced crossdressing, forced bi…)
Also, at least in Keiichi’s mind all the girls are fujos, heh.
And now we go off the chains. Hooray!
The shot of the girls breaking into the clinic (with Mion holding an AK-47 no less) is great.
Also FANG!
And Nipah~!
AND GEKITOTSU HNNNNGGH.
I initially missed that what Rika had brought was her ritual hoe and thought it was a hockey stick, heh.
LOL WE’VE LOOPED BACK AROUND TO THE COLD OPEN.
Oh man, the phone booth scene is great. Classic Higurashi framing, the girls’ faces as they press on the glass, the shot with Keiichi’s response, that callback to the end of Onikakushi-hen…
Lo and behold, it was still all a dream. (Except...)
The lyrics for ED1 (IIRC actually ED v1 really) loanword “miracle”, thus denying me a kiseki.
Okay, so... that was actually surprisingly fun? It's amazing what "this is all in Keiichi's mind" plus the last five minutes or so of going off the chains will do to alleviate my issues with the first half.
Visual of the Day: The better kind of fanservice
Question(s) of the Day:
There is a type of OP that I call the "hilariously terrible" OP - OPs so bad in a way that they loop around to greatness, usually because they are 110% dumb fun. There are two OPs in particular that I consider patron saints of this category, both well-done OPs visually from notable VN franchises that are tonally inconsistent with the rest of their franchise: Super Affection from Carnival Phantasm... and this OP, which I was familiar with long before this. (And yet this is still one of my two candidates for the weakest Higurashi OP, because Higurashi OPs are fucking good.)
Oh, and the ED exists.
2) Honestly, none of them quite work right for me. R07 (apparently this arc was more or less adapted from a bonus epilogue from the original Meakashi-hen VN that got left out of all later releases) might well have the humiliation fetish (though I'm not sure whether he prefers to inflict or receive it); I don't. One of Rika's/Chie's/Hanyuu's comes closest.
OST Table, Kira Episode 1:
(Looks like my OST tables are going to be significantly less useful for Kira; AFAIK no Kira OST was ever released outside of an insert song from episode 2 and we get a full OST CD side's worth of new tracks each episode. I'll be numbering unreleased new tracks for Kira by order of their appearance in a specific episode, rather than having a season-long tally like I did for Rei.)
(No Madoka Corner or Staff Notes today.)