Don't forget to use the spoiler title

I almost thought they were going to skip Rika's plead for help (which would've been the last straw). Turns out they just chose to show it at the very end, thank god.

To be honest, Himatsubushi-hen is a chapter with very few events, but a lot of minor details. This is why the anime can get away with a better impression this time around, because even with all the minor details gone (Akasaka's mahjong power, for example), as long as all the important events and scenes are covered, it's enough to make the game players go "yeah, that's pretty much what it's like".

Still, they skipped a few scenes that would've been nice to have. This episode, for example, skipped the scene where Oishi and Akasaka drove past all the protesters at the dam site.

Also, the phone line thing was a lot more nerve wracking and tense in the game (because of all the portrayal of Akasaka's nervousness as he ran about the village looking for phones, plus the time restraint that he was under), whereas the anime didn't really explore the fact that "someone has been cutting all the phonelines across town". It was one of the few suspense elements in the chapter, so I'm surprised they didn't bother to do anything with it.

1.They only left two bodyguards on the kid.
2. Oishi and Akasaka managed to find the house so easily.
3. Akasaka managed to make it out alive.(I know that seems wrong but come on they instead killed his wife who was pregnant. That was no accident definitely Oyashiro-sama)

yea, this is one thing they did not portray in the anime. In one of TIPs for this chapter, Oryou felt "sorry" for the kid and felt that 4 days of torment was "enough."

Also the wallet was planted. The culprits wanted the kid to be found.
It was too good to be true. First thing, Akasaka called the Tokyo Dentist Office where the patient registration card was from and confirm it was Toshiki's. Oishi however found this call troubling. The person they call answered Akasaka's questions too quickly, meaning she did not look up the information being asked. It was as if she was excepting the call. Also where the wallet was found was suspicious. Even though the place is a ghost town a portion of it still is on the way for some villagers' work place. However they travel this path by car. Meaning the person who found the wallet convienently stopped his car and noticed this small object.

Concerning the house... Oishi knows the area really well. When he saw Dr. Irie he immediately knew he was coming from a direction that was not common. After Dr. Irie left he went in that direction knowing that the only building in the area is a store house which was rarely used. oh btw the kid didn't conveniently become in pain. He faked it knowing he can use his recent surgery scar as an excuse to call someone to the area or be taken else where.

Up to now I have believed that Oyashiro-sama was some evil deity that required sacrifices to calm her anger and was behind the event that happened in Hinamizawa, I was so sure of it. But now...now after seeing this episode I’m beginning to see how I was wrong to believe this. Just seeing how Rika tried to get Akasaka to go back to Tokyo so his wife wouldn’t die and her trying to keep Akasaka from becoming sad changes my view on what kind of god Oyashiro-sama really is. I guess I should have believed when Rika said that “…………Oyashiro-sama is not an evil god.” She would be the one person that would definitely know what her own self is like, right? Theory making sure is getting hard for me now. And here I though that being in the supernatural camp would be making it easier.

I feel really sorry for Rika as well, it must be hard for her to live when she knows everything that’s going to happen and yet it's like she can do nothing to change it, just like with Akasaka’s wife. It was especially depressing for me when she says she doesn’t want to be killed and how she just wanted to live a regular life. Just like Akasaka, I don’t get how she can just acknowledge her fate like that and not even try to challange it…Poor Rika.

when did his wife die? O.o

She always went up on to the rooftop of the hospital then fell down some steps

Call me unreasonably stubborn but I will persist with believing in a non-supernatural explanation. Rika could have just heard the plan which required exactly these people to be killed every year. And she might have a great acting talent to pull off Oyashiro-sama's voice or maybe multiple personalities or whatever. Yes, I know, it's a very weak argument. :heh:
Why the hell didn't Ooishi or Akasaka shoot when the bad guys started running away? It's not as if people would have believed the criminals considering the policemen had found the kid with them. And how did Ooishi survived the disaster that killed everyone in Hinamizawa?

I found that to be peculiar as well. Reading the TIPS thread on episode 13, it is said that Oishi went missing during the investigation. However in this chapter, Oishi has "retired" and is living with his mother in Sapporo. @_@;;;;;

When I played the game, this chapter strengthen my views on the logical explanation camp. Akasaka really goofed in several places. If some things were a bit more sublte in the anime for this arc, I think more people will have a tougher time deciding (ie there was no wind controlling Rika, and I didn't imagine "Rika's" voice to be that different just quieter, more resound - although I do like it).

Here's a two facts to consider:
1) Mion's father is rumored to be a very powerful Yakuza leader and had an idea who Akasaka was

2) Akasaka goofed twice. 1st he mentions that he was on vacation yet he leaves his wife about to give birth during this time. 2nd his abet argument to do the "right" thing legally at the footsteps of the Central HQ of the Resistance.

In the game he makes a 3rd goof. He mentions that this was a planned vacation to tour the scenery around the village, yet he "forgets" to reserve a slot for this tour.

3) Rika specifically mentions Satoko's parents were "killed" but official reports say they just slipped.
Yukie, Akasaka's wife, also slip coincidentally falling at a bad angle. Was this really just by chance?
The nurse knew her habits.

--
Yes, I am messing with your minds. :)
Take or leave these facts as they may or maynot be important.
But they are what swayed my opinion at this time in the chapter. :p
--

Logical Camp Argument
(This does not contain my views or knowledge on future chapters).
Rika is obviously scared. She can't trust people in the village. Even the the people she can, her closest friends, don't have the ability to save her. Akasaka does, but will he believe in such a crazy story? Especially when Rika will not be killed for years? Maybe it was the only way that she thought he will believe her... by scaring him, deeply ingraining the Oyashiro-sama's Curse in his head, hoping he will remember this in years to come. And it worked. Akasaka was deeply stunned by this...

Question: Why did Akasaka not come back in 1983?
Reason: the Sonozaki's pressured the local government/police force to stop publicizing these bizarre incidents to protect the image of the village and its citizens from harassment from fantatical magazines (this is an established fact in the game, I believe in various TIPs upto this point). To Akasaka living in Tokyo, he only heard of the first two ~ three of the incidents if he even followed the events in that area. So you see, indirectly, the Sonozaki's stop all outside influence in the later half of these murders.

My understanding is (and I could be wrong), an officer of the law cannot fire his gun unless he is directly is threaten. If the Suspects are running, they definitely aren't threatening him. If he fired, ballistics will show he shot them from behind (not good). Oishi is looking forward to that retirement (especially important to him at this time as those murders yet to take place). Akasaka was shot in the arm, virtually making him useless in the chase. If Oishi was to chase after them, he would have to face both guys on his own. One of them, he knows can fight really well. The odds were not in his favor. Plus he's old.

How did Oishi survived? Maybe he was out of town at the time. There's no definite answer to that. But if he was in Hinamizawa at the time, he would have died.

Just like the previous chapters, this is just one of the many possibilities what could have happen in the world of Higurashi. What's important is to string the constant shared information throughout and compare them to the variable events/information to see the light in this mystery.

The second half of the episode was really interesting. It does seem as if Rika as prophetic powers of some sort and can see the future. It also seems as if Keiichi never existed in this arc since there was no mention of a survivor from the gas explosion... or maybe he died with the villagers.