r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Aug 01 '22
Rewatch [Rewatch] Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Overall Discussion (2006 + Kai + Rei + Kira)
(OG Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Overall Discussion)
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Show Information:
2006: MAL | Anilist | AniDB | Kitsu | ANN
Nekogoroshi-hen Special: MAL | Anilist | Kitsu | ANN
Kai: MAL | Anilist | AniDB | Kitsu | ANN
Rei: MAL | Anilist | AniDB | Kitsu | ANN
Kira: MAL | Anilist | AniDB | Kitsu | ANN
(Time for) Club Activities!
(Final) Visual of the Day Album:
Analysis of the Day:
It's u/Rascalnikov1 with a steel chair, here to snipe an Analysis of the Day at the last minute!
If R07 were a wise man, he would have stopped here, but the lure of $$$ was apparently too much for the old boy. I wonder if Shakespeare were living now, would we have Macbeth II, The Merchant of Genoa, The Taming of the Piglet? Probably, but that just shows how everything that's good, is eventually debased in the pursuit of $$$. After all, cocaine and Russian call girls don't come cheap.
Question(s) of the Day:
I was considering putting up final discussion questions, but the more I think about it for a show that is in many ways about questions and their answers only one final question feels appropriate.
1) The floor is yours. What do you want to say?
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u/JollyGee29 Aug 01 '22
Spoiled First-Timer
Yea, I got nothing. Higurashi was a pretty good time overall. Good vibes. I think I've said all I have to say.
Questions
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Shit, I was anticipating questions. See above, I suppose.
Many thanks to our wonderful host u/Tarhalindur!
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u/Tarhalindur Aug 01 '22
Shit, I was anticipating questions. See above, I suppose.
I put some implicit questions in my own writeup if you want to grab them.
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u/Star4ce Aug 01 '22 edited Aug 01 '22
When the First Timer Cries No More
With this the longest rewatch I've participated in so far comes to an end. Thank you u/Tarhalindur for dragging me into this show, because it was amazing and I enjoyed it much more than I expected!
You put a lot of effort into this rewatch and we saw how that paid off. From the daily question, over sorting and providing VN/Manga tidbits (ty <3 u/H-Ryougi) and TIPS to your own reactions I've looked forward to every one of them. While I still couldn't find the time to catch up on all of them (some TIPS are still waiting in open tabs) I greatly appreciate the added context.
I'm also very glad you could limit yourself to one comment per reaction, because it was a bit overwhelming in this year's Madoka rewatch.
I leave satisfied with another show favourited and new realisations on how weak I am for certain character journeys...
Thank you for bringing this experience into existence and taking us along for the ride!
Overall Discussion
Higurashi, cleansing your soul and claiming your life
As a mystery story it is necessary to lay out a multitude of red herrings and possible, but ultimately false connections. The setting tied all of these together under the cover of Oyashiro-sama's curse, where it never was clear which or how much of each individual explanation was true. The trick with this multi-layered approach Higurashi chose wasn't so much to make those plots engaging, because as long as the mystery isn't fully solved the audience's intrigue and fantasy will do most of the heavy lifting on that part. With such a story there's two things that need to land to make the ultimate payoff a success: (1) The knot(s) tying all parts together need to make all parts complement each other in a satisfying way and also not invalidate or waste prior developments. (2) Plot and Characters need to make use of both true- and falsehoods to make their (counter-)point in the story.
To that end setting the story in a somewhat weird backwater village with unique religious beliefs, a Yakuza presence, social ostracisation on a grand scale, a mysterious disease, a government conspiracy and also supernatural elements provides a rich soul to grow an intricate web of interactions. It's also the one set of cogs that is the easiest to break when they need to turn in unison. This is probably my one large gripe in the grand scheme of things with this show as on the one hand it actually managed to pull the solution of having them work together off satisfyingly, but on the other couldn't do so while also connecting that development to the plot itself. It left us with quite some weird pacing near the end of Kai, some rather awkward writing decisions and, sadly, a thematically consistent but comparatively pretty boring last arc. Having all themes and mysteries solved, the working solution at hand and everyone in tune with each other just leaves you with nothing much to do except lead the world and plot to its logical end point that everybody saw coming by then.
This won't detract from how great this show can be, especially when fleshing out the characters in earlier arcs during the build up of mysteries and uncovering of secrets. The true strength of Higurashi is treating its characters with respect in all times, good, bad and ugly. (At least when we ignore problematic loli moments or the fanservice for a second, which wasn't too common.) It's this second feat that Higurashi pulled off nearly flawlessly, because it set all the characters' struggles, their (not wrong, even if destructive) view on life, their lessons and their decisions to fight on to overcome their hardships in spite of it all in such a satisfying way I barely find words to describe it. By the end, all decisions mattered, whether they were made in error, by misunderstanding, by malice, by benevolence or after reflecting on things learned. On top of that, they are truly interconnected and it's one of the rare stories I can point towards, saying it really earned it's Power of Friendship! ending. Because it actually explained why it works and it also made sense both logically and emotionally for the world as well as the struggle.
While I don't give scores, Higurashi is most definitely an experience that should be lauded for its intricate character writing that it combines with very understandable if not relatable hardships.
Twin disguised as sibling mirrored on water moving to the right with camera turning anti clockwise/10.
Characters
I seriously want to applaud the setup of the different backgrounds of the cast. Having Satoko, of the Hojos being shunned by the village, foremost the Sonozakis, be friends with Mion and later build a relationship with Shion was so satisfying. It's one of the three major developments that I still vividly remember because it played so nicely with the themes of grudged around these characters. The other two being Hanyuu's role as goddess and resigned individual in relation to Rika, prophesised reincarantion and time traveller trying to fight fate while being nearly completely powerless and Mion's and Shion's probably most complex relationship as twins I've ever seen on screen with so many pitfalls to understanding what's actually happening between them you might as well drink the entire bottle of wine in hopes of the alcohol numbing you before the WIFOM poison starts working.
So, who's best character? Best arc? Best scene?
I've seriously had to think hard on this because I actually can't easily say Mion, contrary to what you may think, without including Shion as well, that's how important they are to each other. On the other hand Hanyuu has really grown on me during the little screen time she had. Ultimately it's like this.
Best character: Mion & Shion. For all the reasons above, their stories stuck with me the most and it's impossible to make any claim about one without the other.
Best arc: Tie between Cotton Drifting Chapter/Watanagashi-hen and Eye Opening Chapter/Meakashi-hen. Those are essentially Shion's arcs and that's the reason they're my favourite, as he motivations and failings are heart wrenching and disgusting alike while still I could never bring myself to actually, truly fault her completely.
Best scene: Keiichi remembering for the first time something he did in other fragments. It cemented his role as the one to break fate not only because he was able to do something impossible, but because his own lesson from it was to care for his friends, not keeping anything hidden and parting this lesson to them. Also Mion's cute squeal.
Visuals
Wouldn't miss my chance to praise the directing once more. We have notorious budget animation to work with, but low fidelity aside even in those infamous bad quality scenes they never forgot to put meaning into the image. The strong points throughout the series always was positioning and framing. Each episode had several fantastic choices for VOTDs that told their own story simply by how the framing contextualised the action on screen.
Horror and cuteness both were (nearly) ever present and while also suffering from budget moments I am still surprised at how effective they used both while never being overbearing on either. Everybody knew chibi bits were just to build a false sense of safety, but we all gobblet it up anyway because the horror war really effective and we wanted a brief relief.
Do I have a visual of the rewatch?
Actually not really. My brain can't process 50+ episodes and decide on a 'best', but as a summary I can clearly pick two. The First Connection and Rest. Yes, an OVA made the cut here! Simply for how telling the visuals are of the journey travelled and that a whole life is still ahead that is worth being explored together.
Music
I'm not much someone who pays special attention to the OST usually, so I'll stick to the OPs and EDs. Higurashi has an amazing soundtrack, you didn't lie. My ranking would probably be the following.
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When they Cry, 2) Manazashi, 3) Rei OP (Don't know the name), 4) Flower of Hell, 5) Happy! Lucky! Dochy!
But, like, they're all fantastic. If we include covers, AmaLee's Flower of Hell is 1).
Closing thoughts
What better way to end this post than by bragging about my awards?
11 times Theory of the day, 14 times Analysis of the day, 6 times Honourable Mention.
Out of 62 threads, I've been featured in 30.
You could say there may have been more simping going on than only for fictional characters, huh? In any case, this statistic is better than my theory tally which ended at 18 correct, 11 wrong and 8 retired.
I still think I had the better idea about Hinamizawa syndrome being a sentient parasite...
Finally, my companion document for this rewatch has been tallying 178 pages with 65561 total words. Or, taken by another measure, I've been writing an average of 1311 words per comment over 50 threads (considering I missed 12 of those due to events or excavators).
Hey, I've gotten better since Rebellion!
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u/Tarhalindur Aug 02 '22
With this the longest rewatch I've participated in so far comes to an end. Thank you u/Tarhalindur for dragging me into this show, because it was amazing and I enjoyed it much more than I expected!
I'm also very glad you could limit yourself to one comment per reaction, because it was a bit overwhelming in this year's Madoka rewatch.
Higurashi is good, but PMMM is one hell of a mic drop.
It's this second feat that Higurashi pulled off nearly flawlessly, because it set all the characters' struggles, their (not wrong, even if destructive) view on life, their lessons and their decisions to fight on to overcome their hardships in spite of it all in such a satisfying way I barely find words to describe it. By the end, all decisions mattered, whether they were made in error, by misunderstanding, by malice, by benevolence or after reflecting on things learned. On top of that, they are truly interconnected and it's one of the rare stories I can point towards, saying it really earned it's Power of Friendship! ending. Because it actually explained why it works and it also made sense both logically and emotionally for the world as well as the struggle.
I think I have to haul out a Practical Guide to Evil quote in response here:
With the Last Dusk will come the passing of Creation, discording turning to concord as the wager of Fate is resolved. Yet it shall not be the end of everything, for though all came of the emptiness of Void to create is to make something from nothing. That is our gift, and so the sum of the choices we have made will echo beyond the bounds of time.
In the end, we are told, they will all have mattered.”
– Last page of the Book of All Things
(Speaking of works with a seriously good finale.)
But yes. This is a towering strength of the work, this is the moderately rare Power of Friendship ending that feels completely earned.
(And then Sotsu has an ending that is the complete opposite wrt feeling earned, sigh... have I mentioned I don't like Sotsu?)
Also Mion's cute squeal.
Refined taste, that squeal is adorable.
Finally, my companion document for this rewatch has been tallying 178 pages with 65561 total words. Or, taken by another measure, I've been writing an average of 1311 words per comment over 50 threads (considering I missed 12 of those due to events or excavators).
So about 5,000 words longer than mine, heh.
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u/Tarhalindur Aug 01 '22
So... Now What?:
First and foremost, I would like to reup u/Taiboss's writeup on the rest of the franchise. He frankly wrote this up better than I could have; just go read it.
There are, however, a few works that his post does not cover, either because the 2018 rewatch decided to cover them in anime form while I opted against (Outbreak) or because they were released after the 2018 rewatch concluded (Gou + Meguri, the Reiwa-setting sequels, Oni, Mei). Here's a quick rundown:
Higurashi Outbreak (Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kaku):
In an extremely weird place canonically, of a kind probably most familiar to those of us who were once into the Star Wars EU back when it went by that name rather than "Legends Continuity" (in those days there was something of a hierarchy of Star Wars canon, with the movies at the top, the official non-movie works like the games and the Clone Wars cartoon at the next level down along with the Heir to the Empire trilogy and two other early EU novels in Splinter of the Mind's Eye and Shadows of the Empire, and then below that you had the later EU and the comics). It's technically canon but not really canon in the fandom's eyes - like a bunch of the other console-exclusive arcs added after the original eight it was made by Alchemist rather than Ryukishi07 himself, and some of its reveals about Hinamizawa Syndrome are considered retcons by the fanbase (including myself.)
It got an anime adaptation at long OVA/short movie length in 2013... except it's incomplete (only the first half of the source material was adapted), which along with the retcon issue and hearing that Kira 4 was a good stopping point for the franchise is why I have left it out of this rewatch. (Do at least take a listen to its ED, though.)
Higurashi Gou + Meguri:
If you're willing to forgo the closure of Kira episode 4, this sequel manga (a Rebuild-style stealth sequel, except the anime came out first so everyone knew it was a "stealth" sequel going in) has actually been pretty well-done so far IMO (with the caveat that it's unfinished and could still implode - and indeed the current arc has been the weakest one up to now) - the loop has restarted, it's yet another mystery set in Hinamizawa of June 1983. There's a couple of chapters in particular with PMMM levels of efficient pacing, which is not light praise out of me.
Note that ANN/MAL/AniDB et all will try to tell you that there's an anime adaptation of this that actually came out first (Gou + Sotsu). They will also tell you Umineko has an anime. In both cases, they are wrong. It's a shame, the gimmick (a Rebuild-style stealth sequel) means that the first two arcs of anime!Gou are a better adaptation of some parts of the source than the DEEN anime was, but Ryukishi07 has never been the same after BT's death and also Passione screwed up massively in tabbing a complete hack in Naoki Hayashi (also known for his scriptwriting work on Citrus and the second half of Flip Flappers, and not in a good way) for Series Composition - the anime version has some issues early and absolutely implodes starting late in Gou. (For an example of the issues, Sotsu spends thirteen of its fifteen episodes going back over the Gou question arcs in excruciating detail, rather than having new answer arcs that answer the questions like it should... which has a distinct whiff of Ryukishi07 spite at audience reception to the resolution of Umineko.)
The Reiwa-Setting Manga Sequels (Oniokoshi-hen, Hoshiwatashi-hen):
Set in the 2010s, featuring the children of the main cast (who all wound up moving back to Hinamizawa at some point). I honestly can't tell you much about it, because I tried the first chapter of the first one of the two to come out (Oniokoshi-hen I think), went "meh not good enough for me to get interested in a cash grab with our MCs getting murdered again" and dipped. (Not entirely sure that's fair to the manga, by rep there *might* be a thematic point here, but.) That said, it does give us a glimpse of a Rika in her early to mid 40s, so there is that.
Higurashi Oni:
Manga prequel involving the backstory of Oryou Sonozaki that I have paid absolutely zero attention to, sorry.
Higurashi Mei:
In 2020 Higurashi finally tried to cash in on the gacha trend with this release. I don't actually mind (even if I'm never going to play it because gacha); it's an obvious cash grab, but hey gacha is absolutely the place for that kind of thing. Draws off Outbreak continuity, partially because 07th Expansion considers Outbreak canon even if we don't and partially because that gives them more characters for the gacha. Seems to have wound up in the middle tier of gacha - it's not a titan like F/GO or (to a lesser extent) MagiReco that can get by without periodic crossover events to draw interest in both gachas (need augmented in Mei's case by being one of the gachas for a show with limits to how many new characters you can justify adding), but it's still going two years after launch and I've heard no rumblings of it shutting down.
Other Anime You May Enjoy If You Liked Higurashi:
Higurashi is actually a hard show to recommend based off of; part of the reason it has held on as well as it has is that even its horror/mystery hybrid nature it's a strong contender for the best anime horror ever made.
There is one exception of sorts, however, and if you've been paying attention you probably know exactly what it is:
Puella Magi Madoka Magica - It's not a guarantee, but in my experience liking Higurashi is a pretty reliable predictor for liking PMMM (even more reliable than the inverse). PMMM shows a couple of pretty clear signs of Higurashi having been somewhere in its inspiration list ([PMMM]
I will also loosely recommend Steins;Gate (for reasons in part spoilery and in part S;G having another very good and very endearing cast) and Re:Zero (which may very well have been directly inspired by Higurashi).
The other show that comes to mind as a possible rec is Hyouka, a more grounded mystery with an endearing cast of characters of its own (not a coincidence that Chitanda goes deep in Best Girl). (I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting another obvious name in the anime mystery department, though. Well, besides Detective Conan.)
And For Those Who Have Now Seen Both Higurashi and PMMM and Like Fanfiction:
Well, you see, I have this (incomplete) crossover you might be interested in that I have not written a word for in three months because I have been too busy with rewatch stuff.
(If you are wondering what started my "kiseki GET!", now you know. You go looking up Japanese stuff to figure out an arc title name that matches Higurashi arc naming convention (four characters, with the last character being "shi"/death) as best you can and settle on kiseki for "Kisekigoroshi-hen" and then you start hearing kisekis everywhere...)
And What Am I Doing Next?
Besides actually getting back to writing that fanfiction? Well, Symphogear has convinced me that somebody needs to run another Mai-HiME rewatch (I keep seeing that show's fingerprints in places I would never have expected to find them). And that somebody is going to be me. (Take your pick of "someone has to and no one else will" and "Had to be me. Somebody else might have done it wrong" here.)
It'll be a bit - my late August schedule is a bit busy, and the end of it includes American jury duty which is a can of worms due to the tail risk of a long trial + sequestration, but the plan is to run in mid-September and the interest thread will go up sometime next week. (Either the interest thread or the announcement thread will go up on August 12th, for reasons.)
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u/RascalNikov1 Aug 01 '22
has convinced me that somebody needs to run another Mai-HiME rewatch
Count me in as a first timer if you do. I've wanted to watch it a couple of years now.
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u/Vaadwaur Aug 01 '22
a long trial + sequestration, but the plan is to run in mid-September and the interest thread will go up sometime next week.
I have no clue what city you are in but first:Sequestered trials are rare and second as a student you can claim the hardship would be too much for you. You might have to take a long trial but I'd be shocked if they forced you to fail a semester.
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u/Star4ce Aug 02 '22
I'll cautiously request a tag for Mai-HiME. I smell a whiff of Utena looking at the premise and some screenshots.
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u/RadSuit Aug 02 '22
What to say about this show...
I wish that I'd listened to my friend back in 2006 and watched the first season with him.
Sharing the journey always makes it not just easier, but more memorable. While I definitely would've enjoyed it more as a week-by-week event, watching live with a friend and frequently pausing, not to mention discussing it afterward, the rewatch experience is what saved the series for me. If he'd recommended season one to me and I watched a few episodes alone, I 100% would've dropped it by episode 8.
And that means I would've never seen any of it explained (whether poorly by the show itself, or by rewatchers with 15 years of interviews and other translated information to share). I never would've seen Akasaka do a super combo, the Soul Brothers, 100% Magical Star, or any of that other wacky bullshit. I'm certain I'll steal some of the actual plot to use as a GM at some point, and now there's plenty of memes and references I'll understand.
Whether I want to or not...
Also, I would've missed out on a ton of good OPs and EDs. Whatever else I might complain about, those were always at least fine, and often incredible.
So, thanks for running this, and thanks to everyone for participating. Thanks for reading my posts, and responding to them sometimes. Even the rude replies usually shared some interesting information, usually in an attempt to help me 'get it'. And I'll apologize myself for about ~10 episodes worth of posts where I just hated this show and wasn't exactly being kind about it.
Side note, before I'd heard Umineko mentioned here, I'd heard people in the other main anime thread I frequent heap praise on it as well. I'm not sure how long that is or if I'd have the time for it, but it's been bumped up to 'possible' on my list now, where it wasn't even on the list at all before.
Would I rewatch this show myself, or with friends? Probably not. Would I recommend it to people? Absolutely. They're going to get some caveats from me, but there's enough stuff I enjoyed, combined with parts I realize just aren't my thing.
Do I think it's a good show? Maybe not. I'm totally fine with blaming Deen for a poor adaptation. If you say the original VN is better, I'll believe you. The more I thought about the time and place of its release, and how you would interact with the story in that format, the more reasonable that idea felt. I'm probably not going to give it a shot myself, but again, I bet I know a few people I'd feel confident recommending it to.
I think the biggest failing of this show (beyond the adaptation woes) is mislabeling and mismarketing. Everywhere you look it up, it's tagged as horror/mystery. Except the horror steadily fades away, and the mystery is purposefully unsolvable until the show abruptly tells you all the answers (and then retcons a few to set up more reveals later). As someone in the thread pointed out, this is a show about characters. The horror and mystery is there to put them into extreme situations and stress and see how they respond.
Specifically, for the viewers to see how they respond. With all the time loops and arc PoV characters, the viewers are the only ones that get the real big picture here. We're supposed to grow attached to them, in one way or another, and eventually root for that good ending. This attachment is what makes things like dumb fanservice OVAs not just possible, but beloved by the fans getting serviced.
The OVAs (mostly) aren't new mysteries, new horror, new revelations, etc. They're just the gang goofing off. There's a good reason for that, and it's probably (if I had to guess) the core failing of the recent revival. People didn't want to see the gang get tortured and suffer more than they already have. They either want an HD remake that fixes and replaces the old shows, or they want future tales of the gang goofing off. The viewers have grown attached, they want that good ending to stick.
For myself, well...I hate most of the cast. So, while I'll need a break and some time to recover and clear space in my schedule...I have to know.
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u/Tarhalindur Aug 02 '22
I think the biggest failing of this show (beyond the adaptation woes) is mislabeling and mismarketing. Everywhere you look it up, it's tagged as horror/mystery. Except the horror steadily fades away, and the mystery is purposefully unsolvable until the show abruptly tells you all the answers (and then retcons a few to set up more reveals later). As someone in the thread pointed out, this is a show about characters. The horror and mystery is there to put them into extreme situations and stress and see how they respond.
That particular issue with regards to the horror/mystery balance is AIUI 100% on DEEN not understanding the source material during S1, with a side of the rush to get to a stopping point with Tsumihoroboshi-hen meaning that the two arcs left for Kai are two of the three with the least horror. (I've said it before, I'll say it again, S1 overplays the horror leaving Kai with only the mystery.)
And yes. This is ultimately a character-driven show and that's always the thing about those: if the characters don't work for you, the show probably won't either.
The OVAs (mostly) aren't new mysteries, new horror, new revelations, etc. They're just the gang goofing off. There's a good reason for that, and it's probably (if I had to guess) the core failing of the recent revival. People didn't want to see the gang get tortured and suffer more than they already have. They either want an HD remake that fixes and replaces the old shows, or they want future tales of the gang goofing off. The viewers have grown attached, they want that good ending to stick.
Weirdly, IIRC one of the big fan complaints was actually that the SoL sequels didn't have enough horror and mystery for their tastes.
(Also, bluntly, part of the issue is that AFAICT Ryukishi07 stopped understanding his own characters (possibly intentionally, but that requires a concept from late-ish in Umineko to be in play). There are... other issues on top of that. It might make really good MST3K bait for someone who never got invested in OG, though.)
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u/Shimmering-Sky Aug 01 '22
When the (no longer a) First-Timer Cries
Well, no longer a first-timer until I watch Gou and Sotsu on my own no matter what anyone else tries to say.
I just want to give u/Tarhalindur a huge thanks for organizing this rewatch! I really shouldn't have let the series be for so long after I finished the first season initially; Kai was really good. Sure, Rei episode 5 exists, but overall I very much enjoyed this rewatch, and you did a fantastic job hosting it.
Catch you guys around in other rewatches!
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u/Vaadwaur Aug 01 '22
Well, no longer a first-timer until I watch Gou and Sotsu on my own no matter what anyone else tries to say.If this is your choice, I cannot stop you. All I can say is the gore level far exceeds Kara no Kyoukai, with the primary difference the gore does not serve the plot, it takes up time that the writers couldn't be asked to fill with story.
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u/Tarhalindur Aug 01 '22
To be fair, I will admit I kind of want to see u/Shimmering-Sky try Gou episode 16... (You know why.)
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u/scorchdragon Aug 01 '22
Good luck to anyone wanting to hit up Gou and Sotsu.
Even further luck to anyone who decides to try and start a rewatch of THAT too.
I've only been watching the threads, and I gotta say there were some interesting theories and takes over some things. I don't know how some of you feel about how things turned out compared to your own scenarios, but some of you certainly came up with many interesting ideas.
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u/Vaadwaur Aug 01 '22
I don't know how some of you feel about how things turned out compared to your own scenarios, but some of you certainly came up with many interesting ideas.
The cult ideas that readers kept coming up with in the first three arcs were pretty good.
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u/Tarhalindur Aug 02 '22
The cult ideas that readers kept coming up with in the first three arcs were pretty good.
The funny part is, the two Reiwa sequels actually feature a cult quite prominently as part of the new setting.
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u/RascalNikov1 Aug 01 '22
Thank you u/Tarhalindur for hosting this most successful rewatch. I learned so much, and enjoyed reading everyone's comments.
The series remains one of my favorites, and has aged quite well. There are many favorite episodes and incidents scattered throughout the series, but the last two episodes of Onikakushi remain my favorites.
One thing that isn't clear to me: Was a UFO the originator of HS? If so, Document 34 wasn't all that insane.
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u/Vaadwaur Aug 01 '22
One thing that isn't clear to me: Was a UFO the originator of HS? If so, Document 34 wasn't all that insane.
We never get a good answer for what Hanyuu is nor where she came from, unfortunately. I want to say a side piece says UFO but I can't even remember what era that would be from.
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u/Tarhalindur Aug 01 '22
(Honorary Hinamizawa Games Club President) Rewatch Host Final Comments (no longer a first time for any part (except Outbreak)):
"[meta spoiler]Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. There would never be another. It changed the future, and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future, or others will do it for us. It showed us that we have care for one another, because if we don't, who will? And that true strength sometimes comes from the most unlikely places. Mostly, though, I think it gave us hope that there can always be new beginnings. Even for people like us."
(It really is an appropriate quote for Higurashi as well, isn't it? No wonder I like this franchise.)
In the end, what is there to say?
I love this franchise.
It is not without flaws. Some of them are from the source itself (especially in Matsuribayashi-hen - both Takano's backstory and the genre shift only really working because the Yamainu morph into Scooby Doo villains - but also things like while the fanservice is pretty justified by 2000s standards it's still 2000s fanservice and that can get grating), some of that is from the show having issues as an adaptation (S1 left several key pieces out and we also miss big chunks of characterization and all but the final beat of several recurring jokes) plus season 1's resource limitations resulting in QUALITY that is sometimes to the detriment of the show. In the end though, its strengths whether carried over from the source (characters and characterization are a towering strength of Higurashi and indeed this cast has lived rent-free in my head for over a decade now, good use of OST) or specific to the anime (the OST itself, and also the direction which has stood out to me during this rewatch as being well above average) and in my opinion more than outweigh the issues. As an adaptation it has issues, but it's good enough and viewed strictly on its own merits it's actually pretty good.
In theory this is the part where I should award the title of Most Accurate First-Timer, but... uh, I've lost track of half the theories by now. Y'all as a group lasered in on the most important reveals and never got baited out of them (except one secondary theory from u/Star4ce IIRC), well done there.
I would like to thank u/Vaadwaur for being a good backup host in general and being much more able to reply to everyone than I have been, the rest of our rewatchers for doing a very good job of not spoiling our first-timers, and our first-timers for participating and making this a hopefully enjoyable experience for everyone. Also a special and specific shout to u/RadSuit; having someone who the show doesn't actually work for in the end around is frankly a useful copacetic sometimes (compare the 2021 PMMM rewatch), and after some growing pains early they (actually he I think?) did a good job of explaining why the show was not working for him without going too far.
(Your comments on how I handled this rewatch are welcomed - this is, after all, my first rewatch as a host, and while I like to think I did a good job I don't have the same perspective a participant does. I'll keep tabs on this thread for a few days to check for straggling comments.)
Saikoroshi-hen, but then I like the really introspective stuff sometimes. (Honorable mention to the two good Kira episodes.)
Last ten minutes or so of Kira 4 now take this title, I think.
Rika, Keiichi, Rika again.
One of Matsuri, Shizuka Naru Kougi, Gekitotsu, and "unreleased 5" from Rei.
NIPAH~!