Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei OVA - Episode 4 Discussion / Poll

[Rias]

Originally Posted by maximilianjenus

Normally we wait until the Episode actually airs.

When I made that comment, ep5 had already been aired on b-c.

[Cheese Ninja]

I watched the first Higurashi series over a year ago. I just now marathoned Kai and Rei over 2 days. I still have some questions.

I feel bad that Rika had to destroy the perfect world to get back to the one she and the others fought so hard to achieve, but it was the right choice. It taught her a lot of lessons she wouldn't have learned otherwise. Mainly, to deal with her parent's deaths, to value her life and this world more, and live the rest of her life as a normal human.

But now the story of the True End is over in anime form, and there were things that bothered me both about this OVA and what happens after. Why did Hanyuu switch back to a non-corporeal body in this arc? Was she lying when she said the truck had run over Rika, or did they manage to change that bit of recent past to a glancing blow?

How many years will it take before Satoshi recovers? I guess this answer is different depending on whether I use the VN or the anime's True End. I thought I saw somewhere that Miyoko escapes the clinic, what happens after? Does Keiichi end up with one of the girls, or get a harem end?

Edit: more questions: How did Akasaka get to be so badass? How long could Rika originally go back in time when she died? Was it over five years? After all, she did know about all the deaths when she talked with Akasaka. Where can I find out more about the Soul Brothers?

[Dante of the Inferno]

Spoiler time:

Spoiler for Explanation 1:

This is where I differ with some people. In Perfect World, Hanyuu says that the truck literally took off Rika's face, which we see is very much intact. Mind you, a lot could have happened in the month she was in a coma, but if Hanyuu is correct, it wouldn't matter when she brought Rika back. This further adds to my suspicion that Hanyuu merely designed a scenario where she had to choose the life she wanted, as opposed to "well what a sickeningly large coincidence of a world."

Spoiler for Explanation 2:

Hanyuu existed as a goddess for the purpose of watching over Hinamizawa and the Furude line (i.e. Rika). Now that both tasks were complete thanks to defeating Miyo, she has no other reason for maintaining her corporeal form.

Spoiler for Explanation 3:

In regards to Keiichi and company, Rei 5 should help clear the air, a least a little.

Spoiler for Explanation 4:

In the anime, Himatsubushi-hen was ridiculously short. The manga (and probably to a further extent in the VN) showed that Akasaka is quite intelligent ("Mahjong Knight") and is truly worthy of being part of the NPA. There was never any mention of Akasaka being as "strong" as in the anime, but with 5 years of altered timeline backing him up (like having his wife and child), he could have easily honed his skills by then.

Spoiler for Explanation 5:

Bernkastel serves as a sort of hard drive for Rika's experiences. To the younger forms of Rika, the experiences seem to come as flashes (visions?) to her. I liken this back to Quantum Leap, in that she can only go world-hopping in the time-span of her own lifetime. Also like Quantum Leap, Rika encounters "the swiss-cheese effect" where initially she can only remember pieces of her overall experiences (case in point, her scene talking with Akasaka in Himatsubushi-hen: "I didn't want to know these things, but against my will I end up seeing them many...many times over").

[Cavuy]

EDIT: Dante beat me to it, and his answers are better.

Originally Posted by Cheese Ninja

But now the story of the True End is over in anime form, and there were things that bothered me both about this OVA and what happens after. Why did Hanyuu switch back to a non-corporeal body in this arc? Was she lying when she said the truck had run over Rika, or did they manage to change that bit of recent past to a glancing blow?

Spoiler for possible spoilers:

Hanyuu was indeed lying when she said the truck had killed Rika, it merely put her in a coma. During this coma, Hanyuu showed Rika the perfect world, but lied so Rika would believe she had actually died, forcing her to make the decisions she need to make.

Originally Posted by Cheese Ninja

Edit: more questions: How did Akasaka get to be so badass? How long could Rika originally go back in time when she died? Was it over five years? After all, she did know about all the deaths when she talked with Akasaka. Where can I find out more about the Soul Brothers?

Spoiler for Akasaka:

In both Minagorishi-hen and Matsuryubashi-hen, Akasaka heeds Rika's advice and returns to Tokyo just in time to save Yuki. In the arcs where she did die though, Akasaka took up martial arts to help get through her passing. In Matsuryubashi-hen, he is able to retain those skills and is therefore badass.

Not sure about how far Rika could go back, but I'm guessing back to the year the dam construction was frozen, so when Akasaka first came to Hinamizawa in other words.

I'm pretty sure the Soul Brothers was just a joke for that episode and isn't mentioned anywhere else, but I could be wrong.

[Ithekro]

I was under the impression that Rika use to relive her entire life at the start, then it got shorter and shorter as Hanyuu's power wained.

And Soul Brothers....considering how everyone reacts to the Detective, that Tomake is usually out of town...yeah...outside of the joke arcs...not happening.

[rogerpepitone]

I thought "Perfect World" was supposed to be Minagoroshi-hen; "Sinless World" is Saikoroshi-hen.

[Cavuy]

Originally Posted by rogerpepitone

I thought "Perfect World" was supposed to be Minagoroshi-hen; "Sinless World" is Saikoroshi-hen.

Takano ends up killing everyone in Minagorishi-hen, Matsuryubashi-hen is what you are thinking of.

[Orophin]

About the Soul Brothers, they were in the sound novel.

Spoiler for image:

They appear during the story of the unlockable mini-games and also in Batsukoishi-hen which is part of Rei. That arc was replaced by Hajisarashi-hen (pool arc) for the anime though.

[Cheese Ninja]

Thank you all for answering my questions.

Originally Posted by Dante of the Inferno

Spoiler time:

Spoiler for Explanation 1:

This is where I differ with some people. In Perfect World, Hanyuu says that the truck literally took off Rika's face, which we see is very much intact. Mind you, a lot could have happened in the month she was in a coma, but if Hanyuu is correct, it wouldn't matter when she brought Rika back. This further adds to my suspicion that Hanyuu merely designed a scenario where she had to choose the life she wanted, as opposed to "well what a sickeningly large coincidence of a world."

You and Cavuy are agreed on this. Maybe I should be rethinking that this was ever an actual world, and not merely a dream Hanyuu created.

Originally Posted by Dante of the Inferno

Spoiler for Explanation 2:

Hanyuu existed as a goddess for the purpose of watching over Hinamizawa and the Furude line (i.e. Rika). Now that both tasks were complete thanks to defeating Miyo, she has no other reason for maintaining her corporeal form.

But wasn't she having a lot of fun playing with Keiichi and co instead of just watching? Could she have really run out of juice like someone else mentioned?

Originally Posted by Dante of the Inferno

Spoiler for Explanation 3:

In regards to Keiichi and company, Rei 5 should help clear the air, a least a little.

As to Rei 5, that's going to be another parallel world, isn't it? So that wouldn't really tell me what happens post-Matsuribayashi-hen. I suppose some of my questions might not have answers. Is there still post-Matsuribayashi-hen story coming out?

Originally Posted by Dante of the Inferno

Spoiler for Explanation 4:

In the anime, Himatsubushi-hen was ridiculously short. The manga (and probably to a further extent in the VN) showed that Akasaka is quite intelligent ("Mahjong Knight") and is truly worthy of being part of the NPA. There was never any mention of Akasaka being as "strong" as in the anime, but with 5 years of altered timeline backing him up (like having his wife and child), he could have easily honed his skills by then.

Cavuy and you answered this one well, thank you.

Originally Posted by Dante of the Inferno

Spoiler for Explanation 5:

Bernkastel serves as a sort of hard drive for Rika's experiences. To the younger forms of Rika, the experiences seem to come as flashes (visions?) to her. I liken this back to Quantum Leap, in that she can only go world-hopping in the time-span of her own lifetime. Also like Quantum Leap, Rika encounters "the swiss-cheese effect" where initially she can only remember pieces of her overall experiences (case in point, her scene talking with Akasaka in Himatsubushi-hen: "I didn't want to know these things, but against my will I end up seeing them many...many times over").

That Rika's greater consciousness had a chance to manifest briefly prior to her resurrections, but not significantly influence most of the worlds makes a lot more sense to me than my original thought that she was able to go back that far in time when she first started dying.

It seems the Soul Brothers only other appearance is as a slapsticky story similar to Rei 1, that was packaged with the Meakashi-hen VN. Both wikipedia and Orophin explained this to me.

[sora1412]

Originally Posted by Orophin

About the Soul Brothers, they were in the sound novel.

Spoiler for image:

They appear during the story of the unlockable mini-games and also in Batsukoishi-hen which is part of Rei. That arc was replaced by Hajisarashi-hen (pool arc) for the anime though.

Interestingly, Soul Brothers are heavily mentioned in Drama CD. If you have a copy of c73 special drama CD, you will understand that Soul brothers are mostly for comical relief

Originally Posted by Dante of the Inferno
Spoiler for Explanation 3:
In regards to Keiichi and company, Rei 5 should help clear the air, a least a little.
As to Rei 5, that's going to be another parallel world, isn't it? So that wouldn't really tell me what happens post-Matsuribayashi-hen. I suppose some of my questions might not have answers. Is there still post-Matsuribayashi-hen story coming out?

Episode 5 is going to be a fun episode, 'Daybreak Chapter'. Based on Higurashi Daybreak PC game.

[maximilianjenus]

I think those posts should be moved to the Q&A, I guess they will be.

Spoiler for REi 04:

Is it ever confirmed that Rika was in a coma and never died, to me it seems that by slightly altering kakera they make the probabilities of getting different kakera to improve, like, itf they finally manage to beat miyo in one kakera, now they can easily travel to more kakera in which miyoko has been defeated; same for the sinless world, by having bernkastel create many worlds in which miyoko dies in the bus accident she finally created one in which she survived, plus now hanyu can travle to those. Or following rei04, by having one kakera in which rika is hit by a truck multiple kakera in which she gets hit differently are created 8in ones she dies, in one she does not).

Spoiler for umineko Ep 04 and tanabata:

I also say this because it seems that bernkastel's main source of fun is creating new kakera, this being implied by the last tip in higurashi as well as creating ange in umineko.

[OkamiNoKaze]

Interesting wrap up to the series proper. Anyone else think that tool used to sacrifice Hanyuu looked like "The Club" the anti-theft device for cars, that goes on the steering wheel. Mostly talking this episode, but even still, it was good. as was Rena's little game with the candy.

[Dante of the Inferno]

Originally Posted by OkamiNoKaze

Interesting wrap up to the series proper. Anyone else think that tool used to sacrifice Hanyuu looked like "The Club" the anti-theft device for cars, that goes on the steering wheel. Mostly talking this episode, but even still, it was good. as was Rena's little game with the candy.

Yeah, few things in this world are better than that side-shot of Rika smiling.