#higurashi gousotsu

[evangelifloss]

You know what Higu GouSotsu IS better than Meguri. For one, it wasn't mind-numbingly boring.

Us Meguri readers HAVE BEEN IN THE SCHOOL BUILDING FOR MULTIPLE MONTHS AND NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. UNLIKELY WE'LL EVER LEAVE BEFORE 2024.

[bitchoftruth]

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni GouSotsu Another End English Translation

Hello, I've been translating this over the past few months, since to my knowledge no one else did.

This is an alternate end / sequel to gousotsu written by Ryukisih07, and illustrated by Natsumi Kei. It was released for free in Japanese on 7thexpansion official site.

I'll be the first to admit it's not perfect as it's my first translation project, and neither English nor Japanese are my first language. If you spot any errors feel free to let me know.

links:

[novatoast]

Watching the anime Shinsekai Yori and got to an episode where 14 year olds at the end of the school year are expected to just pick someone to heterosexually pair up with.

It reminds me a lot of one thing I don’t see talked about for Higurashi Gou and Sotsu - that the whole plot centers around taking these two girls who mean the world to each other and concludes that on their path to maturity they absolutely cannot be together in highschool. There is no concept of trying a different school setting, no, they have to split apart or one or both of them will die if they stay together. Which was extremely disappointing to see after I recently finished reading the Umineko VN, but I guess it’s easy to see how one could give Ryukishi07 too much credit for the writing there.

It really shouldn’t have been a shock to anyone that the next Higurashi property to release after Sotsu, that one manga I forget its name set in the future, would have an older Rika and Satoko married to men. The cultural expectation of what it means to “grow up” dictates that’s how it will always turn out.

[trainflyhigh]

so i watched all of higurashi (including gousotsu)

[cherrimal]

Tatarigoroshi

This arc is very difficult for me to read and I did not have the heart to draw a sad satoko cuz she deserves all the happiness in the world

[onewholivesinloops]

those two shots from the first episode of oniakashi showing satoko's reflection as her witch self, as she observes rena spacing out because of her home problems, and the second shot where she's presumably thinking of how she's going to inject rena at the nurse office struck me. satoko is so alienated from her surroundings after looping through her trauma for so long that it feels to her like everything is a 'dream'. she's so emotionally disconnected from the people she cares about as if she were separated by a glass wall. it's a literal interpretation of depersonalization/derealization.

satoko has now entirely compartmentalized the idea that she's doing anything bad. she's completely distanced herself from the violence she's committing towards herself and others. this is no different from a club game or one of her many traps. nothing is real including her friends until she's happy. until the reality wherein she can survive is within her grasp. everything else is a delusion and her friends are just pieces on the gameboard.

still, satoko gives rena the grief and remorse she doesn't give to mion, because rena has always fought against fate - the same fate satoko believes mion has not had to suffer through before that she and rena always do. satoko makes rena much like herself, that way they can be together in this.

rena's reaction to rina and her feeling that she has to kill rina in oniakashi is a parallel to satoko's reaction to rika and st. lucia as a whole. it's this sense that no matter what nothing can get better unless you commit an absolute. a certainty. others will not change or be better if you talk things out with them. satoko sympathizes with rena because she sees much of herself in rena.

it's different with mion whom satoko injects out of curiosity, the curiosity to see something she's never seen before playing out, but that's also an expression of her resentment towards mion - resentment because mion never had to go through what she and the others did while also being complicit in her ostracization and othering as a sonozaki in her mind. there's jealousy there. a bite of biterness. it's why satoko loses all the sympathy she had for rena when she's dealing with mion. satoko feels guilt over making rena go L5, but all of this is goes out of the window when it comes to mion. that's purposeful.

every fragment satoko weaves with eua is just another duel!!!!!!

duels are all about making Duelists and Brides relive anthy and akio's problems. it validates akio's horrible solution as akio is looking for the power to reinforce his worldview that enables his abuse of women and anthy. eua is the same. eua has turned her despair + loneliness into boredom and she sees the world as a stage to relieve that, but she only counts on the cruelty of the children of man. the savagery of the loops reinforces her worldview and validates her manipulation of satoko and her perspective of people.

satoko and anthy are also making them relive their trauma in a similar way, but they're more justified. satoko and anthy are trying to escape, find love, destroy themselves and their loved one. [REDACTED] from umineko is like them too btw.

the akashis are all about the thematics and parallels. gousotsu as a whole is. very utena!

[cartyrs]

My Higurashi When They Cry collection is on Etsy! Ft. my piece from “Fragments of 1983″

| https://www.etsy.com/shop/cartyrs |

[pwnedkeiichi]

[96percentdone]

my thoughts about higurashi canon is that the original 8 vns are the only real canon and then everything else ever is like secondary canon where you can just take what you want if you feel like it. y'know. when you're in the mood.

[bitchoftruth]

If you read the gousotsu booklet, can you tell me what you think? either about the booklet itself or the translation. I saw some posts about it but its hard to search for and im curious what people think

(for context if you dont recognize the url, I translated the booklet)

[certainwill]

my gousotsu brainrot came back and is driving me up the wall...

the POTENTIAL is SO GOOD but whenever I think about the things I don't like about it I'm like. arrrrgh. pulling my hair out... i'm in love with what it could've been, but the knowledge that it's all just my headcanons i love and not the actual reality of what was intended just makes me so sad sometimes...

[whentheycryvideos]

I wasn't intending to include youtube shorts at first but this is such a good song choice for Satoko

by @katzone

[mrsmercedesbenz]

Crossposting but like I keep thinking about the tweet I saw that was like "gousotsu isn't yuri, Rika and Satoko are just friends" and proceeded to thread a bunch of bullshit about how they love each other differently than Shion and Keiichi and whatever. But like I don't care about any of that, it's fuckin yuri, betch. I will duel a mother fucker to the death,

[sammisafetypin]

btw can something in teh anime poll please kill midtena

[onewholivesinloops]

Anyway Another End is great. I’ve reread it multiple times today and I smiled all the way through everytime. I’m blown away by how substantial it ended up being for a free booklet.

It’s mainly focused on St. Lucia which makes sense because it’s doing the job of wrapping up the plotline that was left unresolved at the end of the anime, because GouSotsu’s scope as a story is way bigger than that (and I doubt GouMeguri is going to be much different in that regard), especially with Satoko understandably rejecting the idea of ever going back there in the last episode? I mean, we did have Mei doing an alternate, more wholesome take on the St. Lucia stuff but it makes sense Ryukishi wanted to do one himself. I’m glad we have multiple takes because they’re both good in their own unique way.

It’s basically a more traditionally romantic take on their high school life rather than the one rooted in betrayal and trauma that we see in the anime and manga. It’s true that Satoko is vengeful at first and her quest to become the best in St. Lucia is motivated by her desire to take Rika’s happiness away after being betrayed, but those feelings of resentment, revenge and betrayal gradually evolve into more of a friendly rivalry the more they compete because they’re both enjoying the competition and how it reminds them of the days they spent in Hinamizawa together.

It’s interesting how witch Satoko and witch Rika (or Lambda and Bern if you wanna go there) are an allegory of sorts for travelling to a world of their own making where they can be together forever. It feels very reminiscent of Revolutionary Girl Utena’s ending where Anthy and Utena leave behind the cyclical world of Ohtori Academy which is a dead end world to be together in their own one and have their desired future.

I also appreciate Ryukishi re-examining his opinion on what a person can do after being granted limitless power other than going completely crazy and abusing it. It’s good to have an alternate take on that where the witch side isn’t portrayed in a negative way?

A looper’s biggest flaw has always been that experiencing so many realities always ends up warping their mindset in such a way that they start perceiving reality in a completely different way from the average person and they become very detached as a result. The answer to this issue in Saikoroshi and Sotsu was “give up on being a witch and live as a human” and while that may be the preferable solution, Another End is all about how being a looper isn’t necessarily a lonely existence because if you manage to find a person who’s similar enough to you, you can create a universe together, where you’re not alone because it’s the two of you, and you can find happiness and fulfillment together (which is an answer that was always lingering in the background of GouSotsu and GouMeguri).

I love that we’re leaning into Satoko and Rika’s parallels as loopers. I’ve always argued that the decision to make Satoko into a looper in sequels is good because it gives Rika someone who’s capable of relating and empathizing with her experiences as one (and basically puts them both on an even field) and who’s better for that than the one character who’s always been her narrative foil.

I’m also SUPER obsessed with the stuff about two people creating a universe together. “Only the same thought shared by two people can create a universe” YES AND THAT THOUGHT IS LOVE. It legit feels like a gay marriage allegory especially with all the blessings in the last pages. The chandelier is their giant marriage crown.

Satoko has always struggled because of her queerness. It’s an issue of childhood vs adulthood, and that fear that she can’t continue her lesbian relationship with Rika because she’s expected to grow up and get married to man. Which is part of the reason her motivation is always centered on the idea of rejecting growing up altogether. It’s always been part of the subtext of GouSotsu and GouMeguri. It’s also practically spelled out in Mei. BUT SHE PRACTICALLY GETS LESBIAN MARRIED TO RIKA HERE AND THEY’RE GOING TO BE TOGETHER FOR ALL ETERNITY.

They literally hug AND nuzzle their noses together while giggling and talking about how they need to go somewhere where they can be alone. THEY’RE GOING SOMEWHERE PRIVATE TO KISS AND YOU CANNOT CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE BTW.

Also. Are we going to talk about the fact that that some of Satoko and Rika’s followers ship them. Like literally. One of them even tells Satoko her stubborness towards Rika is love and describes them as “two intertwined lilies”. Lilies are symbolic of love between two women. They are the symbol of yuri. Ryukishi definitely knew what he was doing with this. If anyone still thinks Satorika isn’t canon after reading this I’m afraid they’re beyond help.

I’d love to have a take on all this from the human side in Meguri but I’m also in love with this. GouSotsu Another End is fantastic.