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

[Kanon]

Thanks, you guys. I had read the episode summaries of the original anime and Kai to refresh my memories, but not Rei's.

[Kakkou]

A reminder that in Rei the Rika we know later learns that the Rika she inadvertently replaced in that timeline was a bit of a queen bitch herself, so while it doesn't necessarily justify her subsequent bullying, it means that Satoko didn't just wake up one day and decide she wanted to pick on her for no reason.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Kakkou

A reminder that in Rei the Rika we know later learns that the Rika she inadvertently replaced in that timeline was a bit of a queen bitch herself, so while it doesn't necessarily justify her subsequent bullying, it means that Satoko didn't just wake up one day and decide she wanted to pick on her for no reason.

I wouldn't go that far. The Alter-Rika was just surrounded & pampered by boys all the time to the point where it made other female classmates envious (does that really make her a queen bitch?). And it still doesn't justify Alter-Satoko's behaviour. What she did was still bullying based on envy.

[The Green One]

If I recall that Rika was freshly yanked out of her Good Ending after all the pain and suffering to be stuck all over again in her own personal hell probably helped provoke the application of chair-kun.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by The Green One

If I recall that Rika was freshly yanked out of her Good Ending after all the pain and suffering to be stuck all over again in her own personal hell probably helped provoke the application of chair-kun.

Yes, but we were talking about Alter-Satoko & Alter-Rika (which Rika replaces in Rei) from an alternate reality where the dam plan was not cancelled, no Takano & Yamainu, and people didn't get killed during the festivals.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

I wouldn't go that far. The Alter-Rika was just surrounded & pampered by boys all the time to the point where it made other female classmates envious (does that really make her a queen bitch?). And it still doesn't justify Alter-Satoko's behaviour. What she did was still bullying based on envy.

Well technically she is the queen... carrier....

[maximilianjenus]

Oh bu that was the goodest end, the one where nobody dies and everybidy is happy and rika denies herself that. Which is what vives birth to been.

About the pv image, yeah ibwqs expecting shion to take action But it looks like something else is going wrong, Someone mentioned that in this timeline satoko did not break oyahsiro samas statue, SO satoko might have one less source of stress.

[Kakkou]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

I wouldn't go that far. The Alter-Rika was just surrounded & pampered by boys all the time to the point where it made other female classmates envious (does that really make her a queen bitch?). And it still doesn't justify Alter-Satoko's behaviour. What she did was still bullying based on envy.

Considering that Mion and Rena outright told her she was partly to blame for her own predicament, including not making any effort to get along with the other classmates after her posse had left, I'm inclined to believe alter Rika's pampered princess behaviour likely came with some attitude problems that only worsened matters. Can't imagine Rena and Mion taking that stance if all she did was draw envy and not provoke the others.

Again, not saying that it justifies her bullying, but that Satoko probably doesn't simply default to nasty bully in timelines where bad things don't happen.

Having said that, perhaps queen bitch might've been a little too strong a descriptor

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Kakkou

Considering that Mion and Rena outright told her she was partly to blame for her own predicament, including not making any effort to get along with the other classmates after her posse had left, I'm inclined to believe alter Rika's pampered princess behaviour likely came with some attitude problems that only worsened matters. Can't imagine Rena and Mion taking that stance if all she did was draw envy and not provoke the others.

Meh, we all know how typical Japanese teenage highschool girls are. Whenever a pretty girl stands out and attracts the attention of the boys, she'll be the target of other girls' envy. And if the girl isn't good in socializing with other girls, you can expect her to be bullied. It's a messed-up social habit in Japan anyway.

In this season alone, such garbage bullying & vain "friendship" between Japanese highschool girls are highlighted & rightly mocked by the I'm Standing on 1,000,000 Lives anime.

Originally Posted by Kakkou

Again, not saying that it justifies her bullying, but that Satoko probably doesn't simply default to nasty bully in timelines where bad things don't happen. .

Alter-Rika still didn't deserve an intentional ball-shot to the back of her head where it caused her a concussion so bad that her soul got replaced by Rika . You don't deserve that just for being unsociable.

Originally Posted by Kakkou

Having said that, perhaps queen bitch might've been a little too strong a descriptor

Indeed.

[Kanon]

Hold up, the wiki says this arc was just a dream manufactured by Hanyu to teach Rika a lesson, so the characters' behaviors in it don't matter one bit. They behaved the way Hanyu wanted them to, it doesn't reflect who they actually are.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Hold up, the wiki says this arc was just a dream manufactured by Hanyu to teach Rika a lesson, so the characters' behaviors in it don't matter one bit. They behaved the way Hanyu wanted them to, it doesn't reflect who they actually are.

Satoko's behavior there is very believable if you consider her character though...Also just because Hanyuu manufactured the dream doesn't mean that she actively controlled the characters like the witches and detectives do in umineko.

[BWTraveller]

To be clear, you're using the Satoko from a made up timeline, who has never experienced any hardship or loss, as an indicator of personality flaws in a Satoko whose life and soul have been carved from ostracization, family strife, loss of the entirety of said family, and a great deal of mental, physical and possibly sexual abuse (thought I heard some level happened)? The Satoko of the dream world doesn't know what it is to be hurt and torments others over minor feelings of inferiority, whereas the real one has built powerful bonds largely as a result of her empathy for those whose lives have also been a struggle. Frankly I find it hard to see the real Satoko being legitimately cruel for the sake of it. She plays pranks, but only to those she sees as equals able to take it or true enemies who need to be stopped.

[Marina2]

Gou ep.10

Oh, K1 remember what he did in Tatarigoroshi. At least, he won't kill Teppei I guess. But Shion also doesn't show up at all in this ep. *Hmm..*

Rika ,once again, is acting a bit too passive about the situation. I am not sure if she thought what happened in Minagoroshi won't be easy to pull off again and has given up on the world OR she is actually planning to create the Minagoroshi scenario by acting like she did back then (Like she questioned Chie what she would do to help Satoko in adult voice - not sure if she did that in original Tatarigoroshi too. I can't really remember) so K1 will eventually understand the real magnitude of Satoko problem and come up with a plan to save Satoko.

Since the story involve Irie, we should get some hints on what happened to the clinic in Gou soon. This is the last(?) question arc of Gou after all.

[maximilianjenus]

About rika, i think she is going for bigger fish, there is no point in asavong the level 5 if the yamainus will kill the whole Town anyway.

About satoko ( as reply to a previous post ) yes, sexual abuse is heavily implied, her uncle whom i assume to be either from the paternal side or not a blood uncle at all, thinks about how hot satokos Mon was and how similar satoko is to her Mom, while regretting that satoko is too young. Later , satoko is said to be crawling naked un all fours while doing house work as a form of punishment. That already qualifies for sexual abuse thoguh i don't know if that is Taken farther.
And this fucker does not seem to have any syndrome simthomps to justify his behaviour, unlike Takano.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Marina2

Gou ep.10

Oh, K1 remember what he did in Tatarigoroshi. At least, he won't kill Teppei I guess. But Shion also doesn't show up at all in this ep. *Hmm..*

Rika ,once again, is acting a bit too passive about the situation. I am not sure if she thought what happened in Minagoroshi won't be easy to pull off again and has given up on the world OR she is actually planning to create the Minagoroshi scenario by acting like she did back then.

IIRC Shion was not prominent during the Satoko arc in the OG Higurashi. She only became more involved in Kai.

Agreed. This is what Re:Zero actually did better than Higurashi: Subaru actually did his damn best to change the situation for the better (often outside his comfort zone or expertise) in every loop while Rika is more waiting than doing something. For someone who is desperately wanting to break out of the loop, Rika is a passive doll compared to Subaru, especially in the OG anime where she still had Hanyuu beside her.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/JKbEMnWwPPs

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[Kanon]

The three episodes of each arc being roughly the same as their original counterpart (although the previous arc shook things up with Mion and Shion) and having to wait until the fourth episode for major differences is getting a bit tiresome. I'd like them to drop more hints, at least.

[The Green One]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

IIRC Shion was not prominent during the Satoko arc in the OG Higurashi. She only became more involved in Kai.

Agreed. This is what Re:Zero actually did better than Higurashi: Subaru actually did his damn best to change the situation for the better (often outside his comfort zone or expertise) in every loop while Rika is more waiting than doing something. For someone who is desperately wanting to break out of the loop, Rika is a passive doll compared to Subaru, especially in the OG anime where she still had Hanyuu beside her.

You have to remember this isn't Rika's first few loops. This is a Rika who has had a 100+ years of repetitions which repeated cruel and painful deaths and tragedies have thoroughly beaten the hope and optimism out of her. She had finally gotten out into a fragment that didn't end in tragedy but now she's been dragged back into her hell after a short taste of freedom which has to be even more nightmarish.

I think she can be forgiven for not being optimistic.

[MeoTwister5]

So with Keiichi's memories coming back here, I suppose avoiding the situation where Keiichi kills Teppei is possible, and instead sway the villages against Teppei and back onto Satoko's side.

That being said I'd assume Rika would have a bit more positivity here considering that the shards where the village accepts Satoko and gets Teppei arrested had some of the comparatively better outcomes than most other shards. It's like the moment she realized she was in a Minagoroshi-hen-like shard she basically just gave up.

And again... why does it seem like she hasn't attempted to retrieve Satoshi? Well technically that would be close to impossible without the help of her friends and most of the town, but assuming nothing was changed on that regard she would know exactly where Satoshi is and how his being alive would greatly affect the outcome of these shards. In fact I'd assume getting to Satoshi would be easier once Takano is forced to leave.

Unless of course Satoshi's actual status is vastly different in these shards.

[DemonOfWrath]

There's a plausible explanation for Rika not being so proactive in the last 2 arcs. In the timeline where everyone did rally and save Satoko, it didn't help her main problem of people are out to kill her deliberately, and everyone died in that timeline.

From her point of view, it may be that once a situation like this one starts, or someone goes far down the Level 5 track, it's fixable but by the time that situation is saved it's too late to organise everyone to help herself survive.

i.e. If she has 5 days (can't remember the exact amount) to change the situation to one where she and everyone survives, but has to spend 4 of those saving someone else, she's probably doomed regardless. The timeline where she lived she had the entirety of it to devote to herself and it was still touch-and-go. Once Teppei shows up, or the village elders start disappearing, she knows she's in a timeline where she won't have the time and resources to put things in motion to avoid her own death.

[Jan-Poo]

Did Rika do something different from what she did on Tatarigoroshi? Compared to Onidamashi and Watadamashi at this point she should have already tried to change the course of the events thinking they were respectively Onikakushi and Watanagashi.