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

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by maximilianjenus

now i am putting the blame on hanyu even more, i remember a lot of dont leave scenes in the old higurashi ( or was it its manga) so hanyu doing that to rika fits the bill, as well as rika being called a cat and a miko ( umineko info)

Who says the Hanyuu we've seen in this series is the same one we saw before...? Just a suggestion.

[The Creator]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

I mean, have you seen Rei that happened after Kai? This is the same Hanyuu who taught Rika a lesson by trapping her in a dream-reality where she had to kill her own mother (offscreen) to prove her determination to Hanyuu.

After that, Hanyuu simply apologized to Rika and brushed it off as a simple prank .

Had forgotten completely about Rei hahahaha. Though it might be within character i guess, I'd still prefer if they did not go that way.

[Jan-Poo]

Well this is Ryuukishi after all, having characters do the most despicable, immoral acts and still present them as sympathetic is just what he does, so I can't put it past him.

But if Hanyuu's motivation for all this is just that she doesn't want to be alone and be forgotten by Rika that's going to be hard for me to not see her as a villain.

[maximilianjenus]

well iirc she literally told to rika to just give up about avoiding getting killed and just spend eternity with hee in hinamisawa. i wonder if that was manga only.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

I mean, have you seen Rei that happened after Kai? This is the same Hanyuu who taught Rika a lesson by trapping her in a dream-reality where she had to kill her own mother (offscreen) to prove her determination to Hanyuu.

After that, Hanyuu simply apologized to Rika and brushed it off as a simple prank .

I've seen it. Not nearly as cruel as Gou is, but I guess you could say that's how Hanyu tests you, and this is how she punishes betrayal.

Totally plausible, though I still think it's a bit too much...

[ArrowSmith]

Originally Posted by Kanon

How come the episodes aren't censored anymore since last week? I'm not complaining, but I'm curious. In fact, I wish all simulcasts were uncensored.

I don't mind the gore, but I thought it was ridiculous Rika remained alive in such a state for this long. Suddenly, Keiichi surviving Rena's stabs doesn't seem that far-fetched. Satoko totally feels like a red herring. Even if she is the looper, she is definitely not the mastermind. Where would she get the idea that she has to ritualistically kill Rika and that she can become the new priestess if Rika dies? This and her being L5 is extremely similar to what happened to the characters last week. She probably acted differently from the rest (as in, displaying empathy) because she's had the syndrome for a long time and it might act differently on her.

Anyway, the rug is totally going to get pulled under Rika next week. This is just a trick to give her hope again in order to plunge her into even deeper despair.

Fate for Rika is Lucy with the football. She might as well accept the same fate as Winston in 1984, learn to love Big Brother forever and ever in your heart.

[BWTraveller]

Well, the Takano path seems thoroughly annihilated. That said, while I saw the suggestion coming throughout the ep, I'm still not 100% convinced about Satoko, despite the events of this episode. It just seems a little too easy, and while it certainly makes sense for Satoko to have been upset when Rika took off and left her behind, and to want to make Rika accept a happy life in Hinamizawa, for starters the earlier loops didn't really look like they were designed to convey that. Moreover, I don't see why she'd want to kill Rika now, it's not like killing her would change anything. It's true that, having received treatments for so long, she'd have some chance at getting the syringes, it still doesn't really sit all that well with me. Hopefully the Village-Destroying chapter will explain things or, if Satoko isn't the real culprit, reveal the proper truth.

[Marina2]

Ep.17

Wow.....this is the first 10/10 ep. of Gou for me. Love everything n this ep. Everything finally come together.

I am really surprised with Takano's action here. I assume she remembered something from the previous worlds and decided to stop her plan - and that was there was no disaster happened in Gou.

And.......Satoko=Looper theory has become true...(?)

Next is Village-Destroying chapter (aka Satokowashi-hen = Satoko killing chapter??). Looking forward to it.

.............

BTW, has everyone here seen the cover of new CD yet?

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

Well, the Takano path seems thoroughly annihilated. That said, while I saw the suggestion coming throughout the ep, I'm still not 100% convinced about Satoko, despite the events of this episode. It just seems a little too easy, and while it certainly makes sense for Satoko to have been upset when Rika took off and left her behind, and to want to make Rika accept a happy life in Hinamizawa, for starters the earlier loops didn't really look like they were designed to convey that. Moreover, I don't see why she'd want to kill Rika now, it's not like killing her would change anything. It's true that, having received treatments for so long, she'd have some chance at getting the syringes, it still doesn't really sit all that well with me. Hopefully the Village-Destroying chapter will explain things or, if Satoko isn't the real culprit, reveal the proper truth.

My assumption is that Satoko had to learn how the loops worked and have to condition Rika so that the latter had the impression things would go as "usual" until she is blindsided.
As far as I can tell (assuming it is the true Satoko and not someone hijicking her body), Satoko most likely tried to literally break Rika to be sure she can manipulate her into thinking "it is fine to stay in Hinamizawa". That why the loops were progressively harder then shit hits the fan with Nekodamashi where the L5 victim was more and more unpredictable and thus unlikely to be countered by Rika. The Modus Operandi was definitely to isolate Rika and make her despair to no end, which is "coincidentally" the very moment Hanyuu gave the ability to remember the ending of previous loops and a way out.

Also, it is very likely she learned something from the "present" which allowed her to find Takano's suitcase (there is one syringe missing after all). That said, it doesn't mean she is the true culprit, because she doesn't have any tie with the Furude lorewise, so someone or something had to be involved to make her loop too. In fact, it is also a bit too early to think her powers work the same as Rika, but there is definitely an entity that is behind both Rika and Satoko loop phenomenom.

[Jan-Poo]

Well we suspected there was another looper and there were some suspects about Satoko, so it turns out it really is she.

However there are a still a ton of unanswered questions. Exactly what made Satoko turn so evil? Even if somehow there was a justification for what she did, it still doesn't make sense for her to point a gun toward Rika now. She should just apologize and try explain her situation if being friend forever with Rika was the only thing she cared about.

But more importantly, exactly how Satoko could be so incredibly effective at manipulating the events? I think we can pretty much conclude that in every case so far Takano made the same choice, she abandoned her plan and escaped with Tomitake. So either Satoko (or whoever is behind her) has some incredible trump card to make Takano change her mind, or there is someone involved who can manipulate the fragments directly and only ever choose the fragment where Takano is out of the picture. Both scenario shouldn't plausibly be within Satoko's reach.

The fact that she was able to obtain the drugs also sounds very hard to pull off, that suitcase was well protected and hidden and even Irie didn't know of its existence, though I guess that if you have an "all you need is kill" power without the amnesia effect that Rika suffered from, if you loop enough times you'll eventually make it, though this would require that she looped several times before involving the current Rika, because otherwise she would have noticed.

And still that doesn't explain how suddenly everything is so perfect. There was always some unpredictable factor when hanyuu and Rika jumped into the next fragment. For example this time Teppei isn't returning to bother Satoko.

Anyway we are done with the tricks, no more "damashi", the next chapter is Satokowashi, which it sort of spells "Satoko" if you read it, but it's actually made from the Kanji of "Sato", village, and "Kowashi", destruction.

[AntonKutovoi]

Heh, it's always fun to hear your favorite voice actors, when you don't expect it. Hello there, Juurouta Kosugi.

[Kanon]

Given how long it's been theorized, Satoko being the looper wasn't a surprise (and it explains why Hanyu told Rika how to kill a looper but couldn't bring herself to tell her who it was), but I still don't buy her being the mastermind. I think she was approached by Featherine when she was at her lowest and was given a lot of tips and perhaps even the power to choose which world to go to after death. The current world is just way too ideal, there's no way something like that could be accomplished through natural means. Even Rika said she thought Takano was the kind of person who would never change her mind after a hundred years.

Rika tricking Satoko into revealing herself was the smartest thing she's done in the whole series. Incidentally... just how traumatized was Satoko by the original prank for her to cower like that?
I'm not sure what exactly Satoko is trying to accomplish by pulling a gun on Rika. I kinda think they're going to leave things on that cliffhanger and next episode will show us things from Satoko's perspective, starting five years in the future. That's how we'll get the answer to the previous arcs.

[Jaden]

Well, fuck me.

[MCAL]

Honestly it was incredible how tense the entire episode felt. I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

So we finally get an explanation for Takano and Tomitake going "missing" as well as the "renovation" going on in Irie's Clinic back in Onidamashi. I wonder if the gun Satoko pulled out was the same one that was between her and Mion back in Watadamashi?

Also, very evil pun there for the final arc Ryukishi.

[maximilianjenus]

well, at least we got amakusa. now i wonder if rika always dies by drowning in satokos loops and that is why she wants her to never leave hinamisawa.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

At this point, does Gou even still care about new viewers? I mean, I imagine noob-comers would scratch their heads during the "Tokyo reveal" in this episode. Not to mention how the show just casually showed Satoshi being secretly treated by Irie due do an illness that have never been mentioned before in Gou (HS).

Not gonna lie, I'm a bit disappointed that they just blazed through Yamainu, Banken and the greater Tokyo organization in this episode. They have always been the most interesting aspect of Higurashi to me. I like me some scientific mystery & political conflicts rather than an all-out magic mumbo-jumbo clash like in Umineko.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

At this point, does Gou even still care about new viewers? I mean, I imagine noob-comers would scratch their heads during the "Tokyo reveal" in this episode. Not to mention how the show just casually showed Satoshi being secretly treated by Irie due do an illness that have never been mentioned before in Gou (HS).

Despite them saying otherwise, the show strongly hinted it was not meant for new viewers in episode 2 (the topic even changed its spoiler policy after this), and it was made crystal clear it definitely wasn't in episode 14. So I'm not surprised the characters are casually talking about the major mysteries as if everyone know about them.

[MeoTwister5]

I suspect that the shard ends in this episode. Next episode will either be a Satoko perspective from the original "good ending" shard where Rika left Hinamizawa and Satoko became a Looper, or the next shard after Rika gets shot in this one.

[Dark Wing]

I guess they're not even trying to hide the ture antagonist here anymore. Here the cover art to the ED.

https://imgur.com/fwRL4w2

Anyway if I'm being honest. They should've had Satoko move after opening the box. Would've made it more convincing that she thought it was a trap.

[Kanon]

Satoko is an antagonist, but definitely not the true antagonist though.