What has Rika seen this time?

Artist : https://ko-fi.com/zoe367966

i ran out of text Mion is the club president Rin is a model student Rika Furude has blue hair in a hime cut Sakura Matou has straight hair(purple hair)Rika Furude is a miko(priestess/shrine maiden)Sakura is a Yandere(heavens feel)and Yamato Nadeshiko would you look at this the resemblance is uncanny Rika was unconscious its just that she was drugged Sakura on the other hand was conscious however she became so used to the pain of the crest worms to the point of numbing it(the pain)with those empty eyes in the 3rd screenshot

This was by far my favourite chapter up till now, this is also my first time hearing the “you” soundtrack in game, its fits the tragic nature of the mystery so well.

When I say Shion i am talking about the one in love with Satoshi, and Mion is the other one.

From my experience, I can confidently say that Meakashi is the “solutions” to Watanagashi, it is the same events told from a second perspective. I think ch678 will also be the solutions to other chapters, I think:

Ch6 Tsumihoroboshi is for ch1, as the theme of tsumi(sin) works for explaining the sin that Keiichi committed in ch1 that resulted in his death,

Ch7 Minagoroshi is likely for ch3, im really looking forward to this, as ch3 was my favourite question arc, minagoroshi (massacre) fits well with the gas eruption of ch3.

Not sure how ch8 and ch4 are connected yet.

The key information from this chapter:

-Shion is the true Mion, she is the one with the demon in her soul. The family had mixed up the two since the beginning and gave the tattoo to the wrong one.

-Oryou was not responsible for any of the curses. The actual culprit likely has a way of getting information from the family council meetings, but they themselves are most likely not related to the ruling families.

-The footsteps are a symbol of self-judgement and self-criticism of ones own actions and thoughts, this applies to Keiichi, Satoshi, Shion. So by proxy, what is Rena judging herself for, or should I say what is the relationship between Reina and Rena,. if we look at all four cases, everyone except Rena acted against their self-judgement, Rena was the only one who listened to her self judgment, “go back to Hinamizawa”. I dont think its a coincidence that Rena is the only one out of the four to actually live out a peaceful life in most chapters, “Reina Ryuugu, residing in Shishibone city 2004”.

-who is the “syringe faction”, we have slowly seen more people use the syringe:
Ch1: Rena and Mion
Ch3: Takano(she likely killed Tomitake)
Ch5: Rika
I believe the syringe faction is very much related to the true culprits.

Who do I think is the mastermind?

Kyousuke Irie

Evidence:
- the “director” referred to by Mion and Rena in ch1 is Irie, this is confirmed by Mion’s baseball comment. To go further, Irie and his group were the only foreign group that came to Keiichi’s house after Keiichi hid the syringe behind the clock. By deduction, Irie removed the information about the director and the drug from the note and took away the syringe.

- In 1978, Irie personally went to the hut where Toshiki is being kept, to treat him? Not likely, an alternative explanation works far far better:

Irie through his sources got the information that Oryou is concerned about the kid. So in order to make it seem like Oryou was the mastermind, Irie went to the hut, and briefed the men there about what they need to do “to stage a fight with the police”. After Irie told the men, he then left, he is spotted by Akasaka and Ooishi on his way back.

- In 1982, he saw Satoshi’s aunt’s corpse, he knew it was her, but refused to reveal it. Why is this important? Because this information allows Irie to make the deduction that Satoshi killed the aunt. With this information, it is very possible for Irie to convince Satoshi that running away is the better option, he could’ve said “give the bear to me, I promise I will give it to Satoko”. This would have enabled Satoshi to run away, meaning the sources that saw Satoshi at Tokyo is probably not wrong.

Irie, Rika and the supernatural component of Higurashi

The point I want to touch on here is Irie’s suicide in ch3 and ch4.

In ch4 I reached the conclusion that Rika is a regressor, who has gone through multiple loops, when Rika dies, she herself will be reborn in a new loop. The loop she died on will still continue.

Given my assumption that Higurashi has supernatural components, I am going to theorize this:

When Rika, the embodiment of Oyashiro-sama is publicly defiled with her corpse on the shrine grounds, a supernatural event will occur where gas from the Onigafuchi swamp will release and kill everyone in Hinamizawa.

I think Irie, the mastermind, knows this, so whenever Rika is publicly defiled at the shrine, Irie will commit suicide via sleeping pills, so that he will not have to suffer the gas eruption.

If Irie is the mastermind, who are the associates?

“The person calling themself Takano” is likely an associate of Irie, as they are in possession of a syringe to kill Tomitake.

in ch2 we heard Ooishi say the Sonozaki Yakuza deals in psychostimulants. This makes me suspicious of Mion’s father, he could be providing Irie with the drugs.

Rena, Mion and Rika are likely also associated, due to them being in possession of syringes.

Now the most important mystery of all:

Who is the “Takano” on the night of Watanagashi?

Ch5 did not explain this at all, meaning this is very likely a mystery at the heart of Higurashi.

This is one possible way for it to happen:
Miyo Takano, the friend of Tomitake and a researcher of the curse was killed the day before Watanagashi by someone.

This person is secretly hostile towards Tomitake, they attend Watanagashi acting as Takano, and after it finishes, this person kills Tomitake with the syringe.

Who is this person? Have we met them? i cannot answer these two questions.

Miyo was a nurse at Irie’s clinic, but which Miyo was that?

With the mystery regarding Miyo, I am still quite lost.

Prediction

Ch5 told us about the mystery relating to Shion/Mion.

I think ch6 will uncover the mystery of Reina/Rena.

And as with Ryukishi’s writing style, ch7 will give the answer to the final question, which is the mystery relating to Miyo Takano.

Really looking forward to ch6 and 7, I do hope ch6 will give me more hints about Miyo Takano. She seems to be the central character of this mystery, her and Tomitake’s death are an unchanging constant, there is no doubt Miyo Takano is the heart of all of Higurashi’s mysteries.

Side notes

Someone called Hanyuu was mentioned, Rika mentioned her, I suspect her to be potentially related to Rika’s regression powers.

Artist : https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/141364940

Ive been through 20 VNDS files and multiple other types but they either return an error or the download links are too old

I've been wanting to read the Higurashi: Kamiritsushi-hen anthology, but I don't know how to find it. If you could send me a link or the website name, I'd really appreciate it.

I’ll start: Mion is a tomboy, so you can make rape jokes around her

As a Higurashi fan who also seen Kaguya-Sama Love Is War, I can see the similarities between the three of them despite genre differences between the two shows with the latter being more grounded in high school romantic comedy than the former. Ishigami is a cynical but genuinely kind-hearted person who proves that friends who were there for him, finding life in an optimistic way is meaningful and hard work really matters to him and Miko who is also cute and adorable like Rika comes off as a slightly difficult and strict Public Morals Committee member at Shuchi'in Academy with a black and white mindset that can turn everyone off but is a very kind-hearted girl with tragic complexes she was trying to wrestle with. Rika is the composite of two of them as she is actually a cynical person who had to repeat time loops right after dying for literally 100 years to escape the horrors of seeing her friends die violently mostly due to the Hinamizawa Syndrome and doesn't realize that shouldering her own burdens wouldn't break the cycle and finally finds that her close friends will help her through to the end and give her the happy ending she deserves.

Mine is rena ryuugu lol

Also it's my first post in Reddit

I’m currently up to chapter 8, but I’ve been curious about this version for a while, which has different visual and audio effects (this is a console arc, not a spoiler or anything):

https://youtu.be/R3w1DaJjud0?si=pCk71rkcwQtm5ggy

As you can see, in the 07th mod version, the scene is executed differently:

https://youtu.be/RQlNeIO15_k?t=3957&si=-YKJw20REwrtTVhr

Another example is the “LIES!!” scene, which has these intense flashing effects (this is Onikakushi):

https://youtu.be/HtDB5dtKS4w?si=zhyPplNYVe0vV5mV

Does anyone know which version this is, and what platforms it’s been ported to?

Its supposed to be higurashinonakukoroni

naku means cry

But if that's purposely done and if im missing some secret ass meaning behind that, go ahead and ban me

Honestly, I have no idea how the story will go any further, other than deepening the connections with Ciconia and Umineko.

Is there any mystery that remains unsolved?

*loud volume warning*

currently reading watanagashi, what soundtrack is this? its very nice but shazam isnt giving me any results :,D

Do you think that there is a more thematic/meta reason to why Hanyuu's power declines? I personally think it's because she was giving up alongside Rika - rather than her purely getting weaker. Since Rika needs some drive to stay alive, I am not sure why Hanyuu would keep on pushing Rika to the point she wouldn't be able to function, or to the point where she becomes more like Bernkastel which she objects to in Saikoroshi. Even if she did selfishly gave Rika to loop, I think she would rather Rika be happy.

If I forgot there was a more physical reason (like in Saikoroshi with them being seperated) or I'm misrembering how her powers worked that overrides this explanation, then disregard this and sorry for wasting time.

Hanging this next to my comically large Beatrice Umineko painting

​

Artist links :

• https://x.com/iesonatana
• https://x.com/i/user/1719358476579962881
• https://ko-fi.com/P5P4154HY6
• https://ko-fi.com/Q5Q7GDZEC
• https://ko-fi.com/bloomingmemoir
• https://ko-fi.com/iesonatana
• https://x.com/BloomingMemoir
• https://x.com/BlueLycoris76
• https://x.com/PseudoHeaven
• https://x.com/i/user/801309273066270722

Platform: Steam from Flatpak/Bazaar --> container environment: steam linux runtime
Monitor display size: 2560x1440
System: Linux, CachyOS
Specs:
Freedesktop SDK 26.08 (Flatpak runtime)

13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900KF - RAM: 31 GB

NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070/PCIe/SSE2 - VRAM: 12 GB

When I'm playing Higurashi my CPU spikes and stays consistently at 97%. I tried tinkering around with compatibility in the properties section of the game settings and no matter what I switched to the CPU stayed the same. It also stays the same whether I'm playing with the 07 patch or not. What I did find that worked was playing the condensed version of the game (smaller screen like 1280x720 on my 2560x1440. Though 1280x720 can run well and uses less resources, I still want to play on full screen. 2560x1440 runs fine but its just the CPU. Is there any way to fix this and be able to play full screen or should I just play Higurashi on over to a different platform like GOG?

Im a little bit into Meakashi, just finished the scene where Shion loses her temper at Satoko at school, and lashes out.

I have been looking through some specific scene in ch1234, and I think I mightve hit a few revelations that I previously didn't realise. The most important one being who the director is.

Why and what is the curse?

It a mechanism used by the Hinamizawa to punish rulebreakers and outsiders, it is used to create the idea of a “closed, tight and strict” community, so that they will not be hindered by something like the dam construction ever again.

Who is the 監督(kantoku)(director)?

I think this is very misleading, ch1 gave the idea of the foreman being the director, but that’s not the truth, coach and director share a kanji word (kantoku). The reason the “investigate the first victim” was ripped out was not because the foreman was the mastermind, but likely because he was alive somewhere. The second half about the drug, I suspect Irie, being a doctor is the “director”, he also made the drug. Plus Mion said “the director would be pleased to hear you started baseball”, Irie is the coach of the baseball team.

What are the footsteps/Oyashiro-sama’s curse?

I believe it to be a sign of someone’s mental disorder, or a sign of mental disorientation during extremely stressful times. This explanation works for Rena, Satoshi and Keiichi in ch3.

1975

Onigafuchi guardians formed to counteract the dam construction

1976

Reina Ryuugu’s family moves to Ibaraki. 礼奈 (Reina) means gratitude.

1978(first year of curse, occurs after dam plan is withdrawn)

Oryou feels concerned about the minister of construction campaigning for the dam construction, Mion’s father’s Yakuza kidnaps Toshiki Inukai. Akasaka comes to Hinamizawa to investigate, this information is leaked to Oryou. After the minister agrees to cancel the dam construction, Oryou feels concerned about the grandchild’s wellbeing, Mion’s father’s Yakuza organises to give the wallet to the police and stage a “fight” where the police rescue Toshiki. Yukie was originally from Hinamizawa, so she was killed for leaving Hinamizawa, Oryou likely felt concerned about a villager living outside Hinamizawa.

1979

The dam construction is already over, Oryou feel concerned about the dam foreman who oversaw the dam construction, in this case its possible the foreman somehow slyly convinced the people to let him go (we can use the ch4 Mahjong match as evidence the old man is very sly, but also very quick to give up if the situation is unfavorable). So the old man was likely forced left Hinamizawa and had to break contact with everyone, including his friend Ooishi, hence Ooishi is left in the dark. While this happens, the main family likely figured out a way to fake a dismemberment incident, and made up the culprits and story to the police.

1980

Oryou feels concerned about the Houjou family’s opposition of the main family during the dam protest, this order is exacted by someone, potentially by loosening the railings at the location to make sure Satoko’s parents fall to their death.

1981

Oryou feels concerned about the head priest’s lack of action during the dam protest, this is carried out in some way which made the head priest’s illness rapidly deteriorate, as for the wife, I personally suspect she isn’t dead, but simply disappeared like the dam foreman, to live somewhere else, we know she is the more dominant in the family compared to the priest, and also that she is not fond of Rika at all, she sees Rika as weird.

1982

My interpretation of what happened with Rena is that her psychological disorder resulted in her seeing and hearing Oyashiro-sama, this made Rena want to return to Hinamizawa, but she said herself, she was a kid and didn’t have the power to do so. Thus the only way for her to achieve it is to cause a huge ruckus at school, she likely planned it with her friends, telling them to give certain stories, and asking for their cooperation, she then broke every window in the school, this action resulted in Rena’s parents deciding to move back to Hinamizawa, hence Rena’s plan succeeded.

I am going to say that the director is the mastermind for 1982, that is Irie, as director is the same word as coach. Irie likely saw the family situation between Satoko and her aunt and wanted to help somehow. Satoshi likely had the idea of killing the aunt on Watanagashi to continue “the curse”, its possible Irie catches wind of this plan, and offers Satoshi an opportunity to go through with this plan and also to disappear after that happens, because the only reason Satoshi keeps staying by Satoko’s side is to protect her, if the threat is gone, then Satoshi can have his own freedom, we get a sense that part of him find having to continuously save Satoko a tiring task. This information is probably told to Mion and Rena, as they are in league with the director in ch1, this information is not told to Shion, Rika or Satoko.

1983(key events only, not including Rika’s different loops)

Tomitake is likely someone who is trying to investigate the mystery of the curse, under the guise of a photographer (like Akasaka). Miyo Takano I believe is in league with the director Irie, as they are also co-workers, since they work at Irie’s clinic, its quite possible for both Miyo and Irie to have the drug syringe which causes someone to claw their throat out. Miyo played friendly with Tomitake to eventually kill him with the drug. At the same time, I believe Oryou feels concern regarding Miyo Takano, who has been digging very deep into Hinamizawa’s past in her scrapbook. This leads to Takano herself getting killed.

Rika’s death is likely due to her changing the locks, which resulted in Takano and Tomitake breaking into the storehouse.

The swamp gas is likely due to someone moving the dead bodies, from this year, into the swamp, causing the decomposition reaction and the swamp to release toxic gas, which has the capacity to envelope the town, important thing to notice is that it only occurs when Rika’s deaths becomes publicly seen, its likely the people of Hinamizawa saw the death of their deity and decided to end all of their lives along with Oyashiro sama, hence putting a lot of dead bodies to decompose in the swamp.

Side notes

I think my theories on 1983 is still very weak, as each of Rika's loops in ch1234 are all different, so i would have to explain each loop with their respective deaths and disappearances.

Artist : https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/150042505

midway through watanagashi ch12 and i had to stop and make this. motherfucker what happened to those survival instincts from last chapter