Higurashi Gou - Anime Episode Discussion Thread (OG/Kai spoilers OK)

[Kanon]

I don't think they're even going to get into the whole metaverse. They'll have Featherine be the one who posed as Oyashiro-sama in front of Satoko and allowed her to loop and explain her connection to Hanyu, and that's about it.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I don't think they're even going to get into the whole metaverse. They'll have Featherine be the one who posed as Oyashiro-sama in front of Satoko and allowed her to loop and explain her connection to Hanyu, and that's about it.

It can be. But then that Umineko style mansion they sneaked into the OP won't have any other explanation but them purposely misleading people into speculating the contrary.

[Klashikari]

While it looks like Kinzo's manor, it is actually St Lucia's academy.

[Marina2]

Ep.18

Oh......Anime is going to tell the story of how Satoko become a villain like how it did with Takano in Matsuribayashi-hen. I guess we won't get to see what happened after the previous ep. for a while.

Anyway, on the bright side, we finally get the true sequel of original story where the cast grow up and continue on their life. Rika and Satoko look great in their middle school uniform (And.....my yuri radar detected something from them. Not sure if it's an error or not.) K1 and Rena relationship seems to progress well. However, Mion has graduated and no longer with them. It's sad......but make sense that club members will eventually go on separate ways at some point. Hanyuu is gone too but no one mention about her???

Satoko seems to dislike all changes happening around her and want everything to stay the same forever.

Interesting that Rika invites Satoko to go study at St.Lucia with her - but I guess Satoko will fail the entrance exam and get separated from Rika or maybe they both pass the exam but something bad happened during their time at new school.

[FlareKnight]

I suppose the talk about the god going back to sleep was to cover Hanyuu. She materialized herself in order to save Rika and put an end to this. So makes sense she couldn't hang out very long past that point. Long enough to make some precious memories but that was it.

Does seem to be going down the track of Satoko deciding to start this insanity out of a hate of change. Which is a bit weird since she isn't the one that was re-living the same time. Things have constantly been changing from her perspective. The situation with her parents lead to the trouble with her Aunt and Uncle, then her brother going missing, Keiichi moving to the village, and then a crazy battle for survival. Nothing has been that consistent for her. So Mion graduating, the club changing, etc shouldn't be that devastating for her.

Regardless we're moving down the road here. I do appreciate that Rika invited Satoko to go with her. I'll just presume now that she didn't want to leave the village and tried to talk Rika out of it who goes ahead anyways.

I suppose they can explain some things with Satoko's syndrome kicking into gear again and that fuels her insane efforts to time loop in order to keep things the same. Still need to insert a supernatural being that helps Satoko with this since...dimension hoping isn't exactly a common ability. And I suppose this isn't all that crazy to begin with. Within the common timeline for all the arcs Satoko murdered her mother and step-father. Done so under the effects of a disease that warps the mind of course, but that's still something she might remember now that she's 'recovered.'

[Kanon]

I get that they didn't want to make new designs for each passing year, but Satoko and Rika sure grew up a lot in the span of one year. The uniforms fit them.

Hinamiza Syndrome is disappearing, but they made no mention whatsoever of Satoshi. Shouldn't he be on his way to recovery too? Or is the damage to his brain permanent?

Rika never had any intention of leaving Satoko behind and invited her to St Lucia. With this episode reminding us her memory is bad, I'm guessing she'll fail the exam and that's how she'll get separated from Rika.

[maximilianjenus]

that must have been their first growth spur, that was nice. and damn, i never considered that building to be st lucia, good catch.

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Indeed the fact that in the world of Umineko Okonogi is a food company president in 1986 makes it very unlikely that it's the same world of Higurashi. It sounds more like a parallel universe where Okonogi took a different path. Additionally in the world of Umineko there is a book titled "Higurashi no naku koro ni" and the protagonist even mentions a passage that proves it's even the same story of the visual novel that we know.

Spoiler for Umineko end game content:

Finally I've never seen any indication that Bernkastel in Umineko can travel among different real parallel universes (as Rika does) rather than simply being able to travel among different scenario that exist in written accounts. Otherwise it would be a very simple task for her to find what happened in Rokkenjima, instead to learn the truth she pushes Ange to find and disclose the contents of Eva's account.

In the end the connection between Umineko and Higurashi in my opinion is merely at the metaworld level.

ah, she can umineko ep07 SPOILERS

Spoiler for umineko:

she can travel to the world were yasu is brought as leon

[Jaden]

You could apply the following "anti-fantasy" interpretation to Higurashi:

There are no parallel worlds. The village was wiped out and the truth was concealed. Various conspiracy theories exist about the events of 1983, based on the incomplete account of survivors, government misinformation, and Takano's scrapbooks. Rika is dead, and her journey is purely meta-fiction.

Not very satisfying, so I don't like to think in those terms, whether it's Higurashi or Umineko. I prefer to believe that there are witches that can observe the multiverse, and gods that can sometimes reveal those parallel worlds to humans.

But there is such an interpretation anyway, and I guess it is valid.

[MeoTwister5]

Puberty really came for Rika and Satoko Like Truck-kun on an Isekai MC.

Personally I'd really like this continuation of the good end of the original story to also present how exactly HS went on decline after the events of 1983. I'd assume it's not merely because of Hanyuu going back to sleep and Irie's treatment improvements. One thing you could theorize is that Takano's exit from the village was a determining factor in the syndrome's decline.

[Liddo-kun]

episode 18:

Rika finally able to grow up a bit. :>

Takano defeated without any casualties.

Hinamizawa Syndrome being talked about in the open like a normal disease. It's good that people are now aware of it + meds to suppress it or cure it.

three families make an announcement, helps make people at ease that Oyashiro-sama is not angry anymore.

so far, mostly good things happening. But Satoko could do some evil to turn things around real quick.. looks like she does not like Rika leaving the village to go to another school.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Nice expansion from the Kai ending.

But, to this day, I still have no idea why people weren't freaked out by Hanyuu's oh-so-obvious horns. If anything, people of Hinamizawa at least should wonder if she's related to the demons of the legend the moment they saw her horns . Also, where the hell did Hanyuu go? Did her physical body simply vanish?

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by maximilianjenus

ah, she can umineko ep07 SPOILERS

Spoiler for umineko:

she can travel to the world were yasu is brought as leon

Spoiler for Umi ep.7:

I argue that that world isn't any more real than the gameboard of ep.8 where Ange attends the meeting. There's just too much stuff that doesn't make sense there, starting from the fact that Shannon and Kanon still exist in that world.

Regarding Satoko, the current main idea is that she started all this because she felt abandoned by Rika and wanted to get her back. However there might be a better reason for Satoko's actions.

It could be that some kind catastrophic event happens because of Rika leaving, or maybe some catastrophic event happens and Satoko is lead to believe that somehow that's connected with Rika leaving. That could also very well be that Rika dies after she leaves and Satoko wants to prevent that by making her decide to stay in Hinamizawa.

But still this interpretation doesn't explain why Satoko couldn't simply explain the whole situation to her friend. So there would also need to be an explanation as to why she can't.

There's then the whole issue of how the various new arcs didn't seem to have any purpose except to make Rika suffer, which arguably should make her even less likely to accept to stay in Hinamizawa.

[AC-Phoenix]

So Mion graduated to high school, meaning she was in middle school before? Certainly didn't look like she was that much older than Keiichi.

[Klashikari]

Mion was alluded to be like 1 year older than Keiichi, that's about it. Keiichi and Rena should be on their third year in middle school in 1984.

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

Satoko could do some evil to turn things around real quick.. looks like she does not like Rika leaving the village to go to another school.

Sooner or later, though, she's going to need some supernatural help. Being upset about Rika leaving can motivate a lot, but it can't bend time and space.

[Marina2]

Gou OP suggests that Satoko will manage to enter St.Lucia with Rika.



I guess that....They, however, will be put into different class (and maybe different dorm room too) Rika will be able to adapt to the society there and enjoy her new life with new friends she made. But Satoko will somehow have a lot of bad experiences there (bullied, loneliness, homesickness, etc.). As the time passed, two of them will spend less and less time together.

At one point Satoko won't be able to take it anymore and consult with Rika, asking her to return to Hinamizawa with her but the later will refuse and just tell Satoko to try harder.

[Jaden]

From Shion perspective, that school is a pretty lousy place, and difficult for any normal countryside girl to get used to.
It's only fun for Rika because of the novelty.

Next, I guess because Irie is retarded and pronounced Satoko to be cured, her syndrome creeps back in without anybody noticing and she kills Rika.

And when you've killed somebody once, might as well do it over and over again, because what's the difference right lol

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Jaden

From Shion perspective, that school is a pretty lousy place, and difficult for any normal countryside girl to get used to.
It's only fun for Rika because of the novelty.

Next, I guess because Irie is retarded and pronounced Satoko to be cured, her syndrome creeps back in without anybody noticing and she kills Rika.

And when you've killed somebody once, might as well do it over and over again, because what's the difference right lol

Hinamizawa Syndrome isn't a requirement for killing someone in higurashi, so Satoko can kill someone even after she's been cured.
The time she killed Rika with the hoe doesn't really count here as Satoko also looped back to a time before where she got cured.
The only one who is really immune against HS is Rika.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Marina2

Gou OP suggests that Satoko will manage to enter St.Lucia with Rika.

I guess that....They, however, will be put into different class (and maybe different dorm room too) Rika will be able to adapt to the society there and enjoy her new life with new friends she made. But Satoko will somehow have a lot of bad experiences there (bullied, loneliness, homesickness, etc.). As the time passed, two of them will spend less and less time together.

At one point Satoko won't be able to take it anymore and consult with Rika, asking her to return to Hinamizawa with her but the later will refuse and just tell Satoko to try harder.

Considering how fucking brutal the scenarios Satoko created for Rika in Nekodamashi were, that alone would be a really shitty motive.

[maximilianjenus]

to tie some ends, rika can get a boyfriend, get betrayed, then take a nice cruiser to relax just to die drowned

about hanyuus horns, therr is this manga where an elf joins a mercenary group, the guys think she is just a crazy american that got ear surgery to look like that.