Higurashi Episode 7 Discussion / Poll

[Circular Logic]

Originally Posted by SpaceDrake

Am I really the only one who thinks the distorted character design during the ladder scene was a good thing? Everyone seems to dislike it... I thought it really added to the psychotic feeling of the scene.

Anyway, yeah, this episode showed, among other things, that Rena has the eyes of a hawk. That's why she noticed everything in Onikakushi-hen, she could beat Oishi at detective work.

Of course, did anyone else notice that Mion's eyes didn't go slit-like when she freaked out?

I do believe that's a hint, folks.

Yep. That scene freaked me out.

Does no slits suggest she's actually in control? Or is it just weird animation?

[Savin877]

Originally Posted by SpaceDrake

Am I really the only one who thinks the distorted character design during the ladder scene was a good thing? Everyone seems to dislike it... I thought it really added to the psychotic feeling of the scene.

Anyway, yeah, this episode showed, among other things, that Rena has the eyes of a hawk. That's why she noticed everything in Onikakushi-hen, she could beat Oishi at detective work.

Of course, did anyone else notice that Mion's eyes didn't go slit-like when she freaked out?

I do believe that's a hint, folks.

Yeah, but how do we know that it is even Mion, couldnt it be Shion lol. I hate being left alone not knowing anything.

[Sushi-Y]

Originally Posted by Beyond the Shave

Did anyone else hear this???

Spoiler for Ep7:

When Rika was talking with Keiichi in the beginning... The camera pointed towards the windows of the house, of which there was a large glare from the sun (so you couldn't see anything inside)... Turn the volume up right after Rika asks him if he did something that night. Is this of any significance? Also, what's the deal with all the telephone wires in this episode...

But who could be inside his house...

Just for the record, that's the back of the school building, not his house.

Originally Posted by kj1980

What?! No eyes!?

The "くけけけけ" didn't sound like "くけけけけ" either. The version from the drama CD actually sounded closer (well, it's pretty much impossible to pronounce in the first place, so I guess you can't be too harsh about this).

The laughter was well done in the anime too, so it's not as big a deal.

[orion]

Mion's face really did scare me alot!

Back to square 1 again for me

Spoiler for revised hypothesis. I hate twins!:

I now think that in episode 6 Shion entered the shrine. She was probably going to observe only from the outside but got caught when K1 made the noise. If the Sonazakis are in charge of the Watanagashi, then they should already know what's in the shrine warehouse. Shion confirmed this much in ep. 6. Curiosity got the best of her and she entered. She was observed by someone who spread the rumors and went into hiding.

Mion grilled K1 at the shrine and at the school the next day because the rumors were spreading. Mion met K1 at the library disguised as Shion. Oishi 1st addressed her as Mion. then said Shion because Shion was supposed to be missing. Mion heard the confession on the phone from K1. All that Mion had so far were rumors and needed to here it from one of the 2, but she can't get to her sister so K1 would have to do.

Shion, scared and in hiding, kidnapped the village elder to confess. He is probably serving as her shield. This is prob. the "evil act" that Rika is referring to. Shion is calling K1 because she has limited access to the outside since she is hiding in the area. She is now becoming full-blown by the end of the episode.

Mion's side is probably in possession of Rika and Satako for their "protection". But now that Mion is becoming full-blown, they are not protected anymore.

So how am I doing?

Do we know how far these people are living from each other? Like a village map with where the residences are in any of the TIPs.

[Blue_Mercy]

Spoiler:

The fact that Mion was dressed as Shion at the end of Episode 6 was to throw us off or so I think. Also think about it for a second there was no way for Shion to have confessed to the village chief so Mion was dressed as Shion when she talked to Keiichi about confessing, and Keiichi let it slip to Mion that he had confessed to Rika. It's not suprising that Mion took Satoko also since Rika could have told Satoko about Keiichi going in to the storage house.

Shion/Mion's reaction at the end of episode 6 caused me to consider one of two possibilities.

Either a) It was Shion and she just felt like crap for getting Keiichi targeted.

b) It was Mion and that was her look realizing Keiichi had lied to her and went into the storage house.

Normally I would think if you got someone targeted you would apologize, but that's just me. I think we can all agree that it was Mion at the end of episode 7 laughing on the phone, and given the fact that Rika stabs herself in front of Mion I'm sticking with my hypothesis that Rika and Satoko are at Mion's house.

[Shiroth]

The feeling that the viewer gets from watching episode seven's pretty amazing - gotta be the best episode so far.

At this moment i get whats going on in this chapter, but i'm gonna have to re-watch to fully understand each lil' part.

As for Rena, she looks like the normal one in this chapter, though how she knows what happened that night's interesting.

[MarmoO]

Spoiler:

It has been mentioned few times, in anime and in tips, that Mion and Shion tends to switch places with each other. We have also seen that Shion is a manipulative one (scene with tea for Keichi), few times we have heard that Mion is definitely “better” natured than Shion (that she isn’t exactly like she appear to be). We know that Mion likes Keichi (why Mion was so obsessed with Satoshi during ladder scene?). I think the one who was with Keichi during Watanagashi was Mion – but was afraid to be with him alone as “herself” (one thing, if it was Mion with him, I’m sure that she really heard something there). Shion realized somehow her sister’s plans and took her place (probably for fun). When fake Shion left, fake Mion appeared and started to tease Keichi (if he met Shion), it would explain why real Mion didn’t know that “she” asked him about Shion earlier. Later real Shion telephoned Keichi to ask him if he knew about Tomitake, Keichi said everything to her and Shion realized that it is her chance. Mion is a righteous heir of Sonozake family, it wouldn’t be hard to switch place with her, and make Mion dissapear as Shion due to Oyashiro-sama's curse. Just a thought.

[orion]

But, Mion has a tatoo on her back (in the OP). So, they can differentiate the 2.

[MarmoO]

Shion may not know about this. I assume Mion didn't have this tatoo since early childhood.

Spoiler:

Two more things: Mion appears to me as a friend of Satoko, but during a ladder scene we see that she blames and rather sincerely hates her. Also Mion is a kind who just won’t talk about some topics, yet during ladder scene she said quite a lot.

[orion]

But then...

Spoiler for for ep.6 and 7. I hate twins!:

that would mean that Shion was not "demoned away". Shion should have supposedly disappeared at the end of ep. 6, right? So Shion called to apologize to K1 who is not communicating this to anyone. Both ep. 7 phone calls could actually be done by Mion. Mion "demoned away" the village elder and confessed to him. Also Rika and Satako were "demoned away" because of K1's confession. Shion appeared as a fake Mion when Rika and Satako disappeared. But wouldn't this imply that both those girls are cooperating with each other to keep up the charade and provide an alibi for each other?

If that is so, then Shion, Mion, Rika and Satako are all at Mion's place.

So what do you think?

Also,

Spoiler:

what do you think that Mion (disguised as Shion) and Tanako saw in the shrine storehouse that K1 didn't?

[lifestorm2]

i was just wondering, doesn't mion call Rena "Rena-chan"? In episode 7, when the three meet to find out what happened to Satoko +Rika, "Mion" called the other two "Rena, Kei-chan", i thought that was weird, i just wanted to make sure if i'm correct. Considering the fact that i don't trust looking back 1-2 episodes (still in watanagashi chapter, i don't trust the twins :P) , i want to ask if anyone can go back to Demoned-away chapter and see if Mion calls Rena, just "Rena"

[FubaredByAnime]

Originally Posted by lifestorm2

i was just wondering, doesn't mion call Rena "Rena-chan"? In episode 7, when the three meet to find out what happened to Satoko +Rika, "Mion" called the other two "Rena, Kei-chan", i thought that was weird, i just wanted to make sure if i'm correct. Considering the fact that i don't trust looking back 1-2 episodes (still in watanagashi chapter, i don't trust the twins :P) , i want to ask if anyone can go back to Demoned-away chapter and see if Mion calls Rena, just "Rena"

Yes, she just calls her Rena in the first chapter. But I wouldn't put too much stock into the usage of -chan and -kun as clues to anything. In the first chapter, even K1 calls Rena plain old "Rena" and Mion is "Mion" as well. Of course, Rena calls K1 "Keiichi-kun" and Mion "Kei-chan" for what I believe are ulterior motives as most of us probably suspect, typical of the harem genre.

[aliensporebomb]

What a mindblower. Again.

Again, I'm coming up with increasingly farfetched ideas on what is behind all this:

Such as:

Spoiler:

-mind control via the use of drugs or supernatural origin
-hive mind - at key moments something/someone takes control - Oyashiro-sama controlling
an entire town for hundreds of years?
-possession by supernatural entities?
-multiple personalities / extreme mental illness.

I'm really at a loss now.

Some thoughts about this episode:

Spoiler:

-Rena the amazingly thorough detective; if she wasn't insane or ready to kill
perhaps she has future career possibilities in this line of work.

-Keiichi - does this guy have a target on his back or what? It might behoove
him to blow town. Where IS this kids parents anyway? They are rarely seen.

-Mion - (or is it Shion? Who is really who?) - going off the deep end in a
horrific manner. A ladder shaking good time.

-Oishi - he knows something, I'm convinced of it. He's using Keiichi as bait
in a trap and I think he already knows who is going to come after K1.

-Shion - really missing? or is SHE the mental one and Mion is the scapegoat?

-The next episode ought to have us screaming pretty thoroughly I'm sure.

Can't wait for the next episode.

[gaidin]

Hi all. I've been lurking since about ep3 and like many others this series has caused me to register here on animesuki. The great part of this anime is all the discussion that goes along with every ep, so here I am!

Spoiler for thoughts on Oishi/Rena:

I still need to rewatch the first 4 eps and this is a WAG but the only times Keiichi and Oishi discuss anything of substance (the murders, who he was with/when) is indoors, inside a car, or over a phone indoors. In both the first arc and watanagashi Oishi invites Keiichi into his car to talk. The first time he uses air conditioning as an excuse and then in this ep7 he just opens the car door and says that they should talk inside. I'm wondering if he's intentionally doing that or if it's just a coincidence.

In the first arc Rena knows Keiichi went in a car to talk but she doesn't seem to know exactly what they talked about and asks Keiichi before going all slit-eyed. I suppose we'll see if she asks him in the final ep for this chapter. In Keiichi's altered reality Mion says she should have killed that "old man" but showed him mercy since he was supposed to retire this year after guessing that it was Oishi who told Keiichi about the dam construction project manager's arguments wtih Mion.

I want to say it has something to do with the cicadas hearing and/or watching things around town but that seemed kind of a big stretch to make right now?

[FubaredByAnime]

Originally Posted by gaidin

Hi all. I've been lurking since about ep3 and like many others this series has caused me to register here on animesuki. The great part of this anime is all the discussion that goes along with every ep, so here I am!

I'll give my thoughts on it.

Spoiler for thoughts on Oishi/Rena:

"I still need to rewatch the first 4 eps and this is a WAG but the only times Keiichi and Oishi discuss anything of substance (the murders, who he was with/when) is indoors, inside a car, or over a phone indoors. In both the first arc and watanagashi Oishi invites Keiichi into his car to talk. The first time he uses air conditioning as an excuse and then in this ep7 he just opens the car door and says that they should talk inside. I'm wondering if he's intentionally doing that or if it's just a coincidence."

It's intentional, but probably nothing more than to make the conversation more private. Plus he can always grab crap in his car like notepads, pen, cigarettes, donuts, ... stuff like that.

"In the first arc Rena knows Keiichi went in a car to talk but she doesn't seem to know exactly what they talked about and asks Keiichi before going all slit-eyed. I suppose we'll see if she asks him in the final ep for this chapter. In Keiichi's altered reality Mion says she should have killed that "old man" but showed him mercy since he was supposed to retire this year after guessing that it was Oishi who told Keiichi about the dam construction project manager's arguments wtih Mion."

I want to say it has something to do with the cicadas hearing and/or watching things around town but that seemed kind of a big stretch to make right now?"

I do think you're over-analyzing the situation. In the first arc, the car was parked outside of the school, so it's not hard to look outside to see Keiichi sitting inside. If Rena didn't see it, someone else did and probably told the others. Even the teacher knew.

With Mion, she knew that Keiichi and Oishi did have a conversation in the restaurant. Watching the 2nd arc shows how she would know that.

So we don't need no stinking cicadas to tell us secrets.

[Hellkat672]

Originally Posted by Thewanderer

Spoiler:

At the end of ep6? but she was wearing Shion's clothes. And alone in her room on the phone. Think about that for a minute.

LOOK

Spoiler:

Think about this, If Mion dressed up as shion to trick k1 at the library. Do you think she would change her clothes when she got home?

[monir]

Originally Posted by SpaceDrake

Am I really the only one who thinks the distorted character design during the ladder scene was a good thing? Everyone seems to dislike it... I thought it really added to the psychotic feeling of the scene.

The main reason that particulal scene didn't have much of an impact had to be the sound pitch of Mion or the lack of it. The extreme emotion shown in the face would have matched a higer volume of a Mion's voice like if she had spoken in shrill. The way she was talking to Keiichi just didn't match the emotion of her face. Recall in episode 2, when Rena's face all distorted and says "USO DA" in a scream and the birds, startled, (along with me. I jumped ) flies away. Mion's scene should have been executed something like that, just that, here it would have been a lot more dialogues in a high voice. Like many, I also think the animators just messed up in the executoin of this particular scene.

[BrokenWingz]

Yes, i though that it would be weird for Mion to be dress as Shion even at her home during the phonecalls.

Rika isnt dead yet, since from the start of ep 5 and 1, you know they're gonna reshow later on .

[Vicke]

Originally Posted by Hellkat672

LOOK

Spoiler:

Think about this, If Mion dressed up as shion to trick k1 at the library. Do you think she would change her clothes when she got home?

Yes maybe not but it doesnt make sense why she then would wear Shions clothes when she makes the second phone call. To bad we dont get to see the other person on the third call.

[Beyond the Shave]

Don't forget (and correct me if I'm wrong): the first four arcs are taken from Keiichi's point of view.