[chaos_alfa]

Originally Posted by KanonTheFurniture

Well, I've read the Umineko VN, so I had an idea of what to expect going in, but even so it's nice to see all the extra insight you just don't get from the anime and even the manga. The manga is definitely more faithful, but even then, with the exclusion of some inner monologues or the TIPs, you don't get as detailed a picture as you do from the VN. My main regret is that, going in, I already know the solution to the mystery of the Higurashi world, and I'm just reading it for fun to try and get that extra detail (mostly because I thought it'd be fun to go through Higurashi again during June, and after re-watching Season 1 decided trying the VN would be more interesting). I keep trying to think like someone who doesn't know the answers, and trying to feel what it would be like to 'solve' things going along, but...well, I guess I'm like Rika in that sense even though I'm going through past scenarios that are presenting a mysterious situation, I already have knowledge from the future in my mind, so knowing what's going to happen before it happens cheapens the effect a little. But it's still a fun experience.

I think it'll be a lot more interesting when I hit Tsumihoroboshi-hen (I just finished Himatsubushi-hen and will be starting Meakashi-hen next), because I've ONLY experienced the anime version of it (and I know they left a ton out) - Meakashi-hen is as far as I've collected the Yen Press volumes of the manga, and the scanlation project for Tsumihoroboshi-hen didn't get very far either, so I think it'll feel a lot more revealing to me from this point on (I've also yet to read more than the first chapter or two of the Minagoroshi-hen or Matsuribayashi-hen manga). Plus, coming from Umineko, I was expecting lots of epic music in Higurashi, and the question arcs were very short on that...I hear Kai really turns it around, so I'm definitely more excited to go on from here.

I read the visual novel of Higurashi, before seeing the anime. Because I liked the visual novel very much and I'm always interested in finding out how things work I started taking notes throughout the question arcs. I used those notes to create a design analysis of Higurashi. If you are interested in reading it you can find it here.

Spoiler for response:

Well, Shion is definitely 'sane' in Tatarigoroshi-hen, so I don't think she has any sinister intents either. But that's why it's all the more odd to me that she'd be pretending to be Mion, since she has no reason to at this point in the story. The only thing I can think of is that she just answered the phone because she happened to be at the house (festival preparations as you said), and before she could say 'hang on let me get sis' Keiichi started practically parroting Satoshi and she got too immersed to hang up and say she's Shion at that point.

Maybe Shion also said nothing, because she was startled that Keiichi said almost exactly the same thing as Satoshi had said before he disappeared.