#like there was one particular scene from gou that i was like

[stellamancer]

don't perceive me okay.

willow house halloween fic inspo media

[raymoo--hackery]

I'm so fucking seishin pilled rn and I might be fucking insane but this song feels so seishincore to me

The lyrics feel like they might be too vague tho but every time I listen to this I see a whole fucking seishin animation in my brain cells like oooogh oooooogh like some ddc isc angst mayhaps liiikee grrrrr grrrrrrrr these two drive me fucking insane

[shihalyfie]

I've alluded to tri. having some very troubled production behind the scenes, and among everything that apparently went on back there, there seem to have been at least two major bottlenecks: 1) the fact that the director (who, based on his own statements about deliberately not consulting source material, most likely didn't even watch Adventure to begin with) kept asking everyone to make things more "mature" without being clear on what that actually meant, and 2) the fact they ran out of budget and had to rewrite the entire plot halfway into it. Even the most brilliant of creators probably wouldn't be able to work at their best under such conditions.

But conversely, this also means that there were some excellent people involved in production whose efforts probably haven't been as appreciated as they should be! So I want to take a moment to spotlight some people I want to give props to:

Ayana Yuniko and Nakanishi Yasuhiro: These two scriptwriters were childhood Digimon fans who were thrilled to be on the project, and their enthusiasm clearly shows in every interview they were in. Ayana even made keen observations like noticing that the Adventure kids aren't as super-tight as people tend to make them out to be (something I've pointed out myself, and something that generally only tends to crop up among fans who have studied the series closely), and Nakanishi stated that she would slip him detailed notes about the characters and their relationships.

Both of them stated they were trying to portray the Adventure characters in a character-accurate way but kept getting their scripts rejected for not being "mature" enough, leaving them unsure about what they were supposed to do. Their roles on the series were also limited; Ayana was on parts 1, 2, and 4 while Nakanishi was on part 4 only, and they were sharing the scriptwriter role with multiple others (even within a single movie). But if I were asked to pick who on the staff list I would want to see come back for another Digimon work, it would absolutely be these two.

Kakikara Yuuko: The one in charge of overall writing for the series. tri. had a total of five scriptwriters and could have up to four(!) on a given movie, so because of that, her statements on the series and its story direction have been a bit difficult to tell whether it was her idea personally or whether she was delivering the writing room's discussion result. But one of her final statements on the series basically amounted to "I'm grateful if you even came to watch it to the end at all," and she was quite humble about saying she felt things could have been done differently; considering it sounds like she had a hard time keeping everyone and everything in order, I can only imagine she went through a lot trying to make sure everything ended safely. Incidentally, her writing portfolio is also quite respectable (and even includes kids' shows).

Suzuki Takaaki: The person with the job of "setting researcher", i.e. the one with the job of looking into the lore. Sadly, it seems like most of his ideas didn't make it into the final series (possibly because of the budget loss-induced rewrite), but his one solo interview indicates that he put quite a bit of conscientious thought into how Digital World lore works, including the idea of an EMP weapon that would affect Digimon easily but not humans (an idea that doesn't pop up among fans as often as you'd think, and took up until last year to make it into actual Adventure material via Takeru's 02TB in-universe fanfic).

Sakabe Gou: The person in charge of the series BGM. We haven't heard a lot from him, but the little we have indicates that although he also had difficulty understanding what the director was asking for when he wanted "mature" music of some kind, he himself put some very thorough thought put into the composition. In particular, he went into detail regarding the music used at the beginning of part 4, which seems to be a fan-favorite track from what I've seen (it's also my favorite too!). Sakabe also has an extensive and respectable portfolio outside Digimon; in particular, he's very highly regarded in Kamen Rider circles, so if you have a friend who's a fan, it might be a good idea to ask them about it!

[pawmesan]

You know, this one particular phrase from Gou in episode 133 bothered me when I first watched the ep and it still bothers me a lot, even though I think I know why it's there now:

Hi hello I'm back with a textwall about Gou lmao. So yeah, what bothered me about this line in particular was that it came pretty much out of nowhere. Even worse, his character arc throughout the whole show had been him learning to let others in and letting them help him instead of going on ego trips all the time. So for 100+ episodes we have this slow and imo great build up to Gou learning exactly that. To communicate with his Pokémon and people, to work together with them instead of denying help because he had always been on his own when younger. Then suddenly this sentence is meant to be a new and important realisation of his and leads to a sudden 180 arc in the last few episodes of him lamenting being too reliant on Satoshi and others in general. And that's why he has to travel on his own now. You know, if there had been clear build up to that, I wouldn't have minded that conclusion at all. People first being reluctant to trust anyone and then clinging too much to someone to a point where they're scared of doing anything if they're not around is a very real thing and a nice idea for a character arc. But the issue here is that the "too dependent" sentiment suddenly happened in the last four episode of the series, with no signs whatsoever beforehand that he was over relying on his Pokémon or Satoshi. Quite the opposite, he's always been perfectly fine with doing things on his own. It's noticeable that he was still worried about having to work with others without Satoshi around, but the entire Project Mew arc took care of that. As for the Pokémon, he's often taken the role of the person the Pokémon rely on too, an obvious example being Grookey. The very episode he says this and its follow up even focus on Grookey taking the role of the protector instead of the protected for once. Also whenever Gou does rely on his Pokémon, it's in situations where he obviously would have to, unless he thinks he's a prick for having his physically stronger Cinderace battle a Pokémon instead of him himself throwing fists with idk, Mewtwo lol.

So even though him saying he's spooked of travelling alone and being too scared to tell Satoshi directly while Satoshi comforts him is a cute scene in the end, it is also a decision on Gou's end that didn't have any build up. Him saying in the episode prior that he chose this because he'd rely on Satoshi too much didn't have any build up.

Anipoke is no stranger to throwing in jarring decisions at the end to justify the existence of the next series, Game Shark user Tobias from DPP being probably the most obvious and famous example of that. But, correct me if I'm mistaken, it's never harmed an individual character's writing that much. Heck, it's never harmed a relationship between two characters as much. Satoshi and Gou had been built up as these best friends 5ever who slowly become closer and closer throughout the series. Gou says in the second to last episode that he thinks Satoshi would totally just tell him to go for it, to do the solo journey if he feels like it. It's exactly what he said too, so Gou certainly understands his buddy by now. However, this scene would have been the perfect opportunity to have Satoshi be called out on his niceness there, because sure he's a nice and supportive dude. But we know that he enjoys hanging out with Gou. We know that he misses him when he's not around. Heck, we see in the last episode, when they seperate, that he's not exactly happy to part ways with his friend. He completely puts Gou's sudden desire to travel by himself over his own desire to keep being around his friend. As if there's some outside force that forces them to separate against their will. As if they didn't have a choice but to go separate ways because what they wanted to do was impossible with the other around. But in the epilogue (and MPM) they literally do the same things they did together the 100+ episodes prior, so there clearly was no narrative reason for this.

So with all that said. Sorry for the longass text lol, I was thinking about just throwing this into my Satogou essay, but I don't think it really fits there so here we go. SO WITH ALL THAT SAID I think MPM's existence, the way the series goes, the knowledge of what the last episode seems to be about, the knowledge of the change of executive producer between JN and MPM and Yuyama's Animedia interview about MPM, I think the reason for the sudden change in character makes sense. Hear out my super kewl theory

The Yuyama interview makes it sound quite clear that MPM wasn't exactly planned ahead, unlike decisions like Satoshi winning the PWC and making way for a new series this year. It feels oddly disconnected from the series, because even though Satoshi uses old Pokémon and briefly travels with Misty and Brock again, the places they visit are deliberately nameless. And the episodes themselves, while conceptually just like any other "helping Pokémon of the day" episode prior, have little connection to stuff that happened in the actual show outside of small references like Rattata or Beedrill. While we still have to see the conclusion to the Latias plot, it feels more like a spontaneous idea to connect these 10 episodes until the last one than anything.

Oh also a relevant tidbit of information is that Yuyama equated the title of Pokémon Master to a rainbow, e.g. something you're fascinated by and try to reach without ever being actually able to. Might explain JN's heavy usage of rainbows, at least to some extend.

In conclusion, I think what has happened is that JN was written with it being Satoshi's last series in mind. And Gou has been written as the ideal counterpart to him, basically. He's essentially the Lugia to Satoshi's Ho-oh if you wanna, hence both of these mons appearing in the last JN ep. So from his conception, Gou was never meant to go separate ways with Satoshi. But then they realised they have three whole months to fill until the new series is able to premiere. And the idea of MPM was basically born, Misty and Brock as a no brainer nostalgia bait (as per Yuyama's words, the decision to have them be the companions for MPM was so certain he doesn't even remember how they got to the conclusion), episodes that fill the void until the new show etc. Of course to recreate the og trio, they'd have to get rid of anyone but Satoshi from the previous show. How do you get rid of a character that has been established as basically having no reason to leave the other main character and who's relationship with said character had been highlighted so much in both the show and promotional material? You just make up a reason lmao.

And yeah, I mean, as I said, Anipoke is no stranger to sudden decisions like that. Shudo, the chief director from OS to Johto said how he wanted to give the show a proper ending and wasn't able to because the show had to go on. The DPP series was clearly written to build up to Satoshi winning the league (and him potentially getting replaced entirely, since Gen 5 was initially meant to be a fresh new start to the franchise). XY also very clearly was building him up to win the league. Each time it was stuff that happened in the last few episodes that certainly didn't look like they were anywhere near planned ahead. And I am almost 100% certain the same happened in JN with Gou and the sudden change of heart in these last few episodes.

Had to write all this because not only did the decision itself bother me of course (don't get me wrong, I am genuinely looking forward to the new series and MPM had its neat moments so far, but the way JN, Satoshi's series and Gou ended was a wholeass mess imo) but other I've kinda been frustrated about how many people went "hahah told yall so Gou would leave XD GOne" (that pun IS funny tho). Like, no you guys, a broken clock is also right twice a day yada yada. I highly doubt yall saw MPM coming. I high doubt yall expected Satoshi's story to end. I highly doubt you could have been able to tell me what reasoning they'd come up with to have Gou and Satoshi separate. You guys' reasoning had always just been "because they always did it (except for the times they didn't)". Because the thing is, I had written them all up at some point, but all the arguments for Gou staying were based on what the series itself presented and relied 1) on Satoshi staying and 2) the producers of the show not changing their mind last moment to justify the existence of the next series. I'm gonna go ahead and assume the executive producer of JN (Tomiyasu) saw more importance in Gou and Satoshi's relationship and Gou's importance as a character, given that he's probably partially responsible for it being a thing in the first place, than the executive producer of MPM (Yuyama), who has worked on the series as it started and notably would rather stick to the traditions of the show instead of trying out new things. That's why JN's ending feels so out of nowhere and that's probably also why MPM feels so disconnected from the rest of the series, almost more like a spin-off. While Tomiyasu is much more keen on bringing new ideas and concepts into the series. You can see that, as once he started having a bigger influence on the series with Sun and Moon, there's notable changes in setting, writing of characters etc.

Now this was a really long rant fr lol oops. Uhhh... Gou best boi, I am glad the Satogou fandom is still alive and kicking, stay gold, Satogou Day is in two days and I completely forgot about it tho oops

[x0401x]

Is that Shuu's little sister on the new Tsurune PV? Why does it seem she comes from VE? I'm really happy to see that they improved the art but I'm also disappointed to see that she has a moe design. It doesn't fit with Tsurune... and she doesn't look like Shuu...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's Sae! And the guy sitting next to Ryouhei in that scene must be Toujou.

She actually reminds me of Matsuoka Gou from Free!, tbh. Originally, she really isn't supposed to look like Shuu. One of Shuu's internal struggles stems from the fact that he doesn't look like anyone from his core family, because he takes after his English grandfather. That aside, Sae was supposed to look like a zashiki-warashi, but turns out she's basically little Gou with black hair, lol. Her design is pretty generic and it doesn't feel like there was much thought put into it.

Speaking of which, I don't get what's up with the character designs for this season. It feels like KyoAni is half-hitting and half-missing (no pun intended). Overall, I think Touma and Toujou are on-point. It's hard to get them wrong. I don't know how to feel about Ken'yuu and Reiji because they look almost right but not quite. Like, the designs do capture the essence of their personalities, but on the other hand, they simply don't look like normal people, and that makes them stand out in weird ways that simply don't fit into the picture. Eisuke and Koushirou, though? I still don't understand how this happened at all. Their original looks were completely fine. I'm iffy about Koushirou in particular because it seems his personality was changed in order to fit the anime's re-design. I just hope this doesn't mean that his dynamics with Eisuke will change as well. *knocks on wood*

[newhologram]

1RKO/Hatsu KO Gachi (First KO Win)- Sheena Ringo & NOCCHi lyrics and translation

ᵁˢᵘᵃˡ ᵈᶦˢᶜˡᵃᶦᵐᵉʳ: ᴵ’ᵐ ᵃ ᴶᴾ ˢᵗᵘᵈᵉ���ᵗ, ⁿᵒᵗ ᶠˡᵘᵉⁿᵗ, ˢᵗᶦˡˡ ˡᵉᵃʳⁿᶦⁿᵍ. ᴵ ᵃˡˢᵒ ᵗʳʸ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵗᵒ ᵈᵒ ˡᶦᵗᵉʳᵃˡ ᵗʳᵃⁿˢˡᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿˢ ᵇᵉᶜᵃᵘˢᵉ ᶦᵗ ᶜᵃⁿ ᶠᵉᵉˡ ˢᵗᵃˡᵉ. ᴵᵗ’ˢ ᵐᵒʳᵉ ᶦᵐᵖᵒʳᵗᵃⁿᵗ ᵗᵒ ᵐᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵖʳᵉˢᵉʳᵛᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᶠᵉᵉˡᶦⁿᵍ ᵗʰᵃⁿ ᵗᵒ ᵍᶦᵛᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ᵃ ᵇᵒʳᶦⁿᵍ ᵈᶦʳᵉᶜᵗ ᵗʳᵃⁿˢˡᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿ. Finally! The collab that has had us screaming since its release. There's so much to say about it. Fans have long been wondering (and wishing) that Perfume's members would branch out and do other things. Because as much as we love Yasutaka Nakata's work as their producer, the truth is that he keeps them pretty limited during recording sessions to make it easier to tweak vocals for the electro/techno genre they're known for. They're each incredibly talented singers but they hardly get to actually show it as Perfume. Nocchi in particular seems to get her solo parts in songs cut more than anyone, which is a shame. So for this collab, Sheena Ringo wanted her to let loose for once. Get angry, shout, punch, jab. It's the perfect song and video to showcase all that pent up energy she must be holding on to after 20 years. And she really did KO us with it, because damn. It's so wild to hear and see this edgier side of her and I love it. Congrats to Nocchi on an amazing job! Now please, I wanna see Kashiyuka do a haunting mermaid music video (LOVE her snorkeling posts on IG) and maybe A~chan can do a heartbreaking love ballad. Wishful thinking :p Full fansub here Preview here Gifsets will be in my gifs tag More translations ⭐Like my J-Pop translations? Donate to my ko-fi or become a Patron.

Translation, romaji, and kana below 🥊💥💪🥊💥💪

My mind and body are untapped in every aspect Brain and spine all brand-new and unopened Not even a single blow taken Even the cheapest shot swiftly blocked Ever since I was born, no matter how much I ate and ate, it was always delicious Three cups of rice wolfed down in one sitting Thanks to double the metabolism ��I wanna get stronger, I wanna get faster” Such desires closely guarded Starting today, can I shed it all, strip myself bare, and feel a little proud? Mentally and physically, I’ve got no worries Brain specs all praised yet unglorified Not even a single blow of hot air spoken, nothing spoiled Not even a single flame war lost Comfort is warmer than boredom What a waste I’ve got no choice but to admit Whenever, wherever, I’ve been in a deep sleep Suspended in parasympathetic nervous system dominance I charged up 100 Percent Life “I wanna get thicker, I wanna get heavier” Give me the impact that works on anyone Just once, let me strike I wanna feel alive Fight! If the enemy gets wise to it Oh well, I’ll let loose Hitting the hidden shoulder with my right fist A goofy stance on the left (One) Jab! (Two) Jab! (Three) Jab! (Four) Straight? Right I’ll refrain from making excuses ‘Cause I only need one title in this life In this state, am I an energy conservation expert at best? No! No matter how many times I stand at the scene I realize I wanna be beaten to a pulp to the point where I’m dog-tired Ah, a critical hit! Such a precious opportunity Whether I stab or get stabbed it’s all the same if my longing is satisfied I wanna see you give it your all! I’ve still gotta set myself free and feel how my life force trembles with pleasure I wanna indulge more Whatever happens, I’m good Right now, I just wanna shake loose It’s proof that I’m alive Without being fooled I’m dancin’ My heart’s electrified My first KO win 🥊💥💪🥊💥💪

tende tsukatteinai seishin-men nikutai-men nouzuimen ni itatte all shinpin mi kaifuu tende moratteinai kensei ippatsu sae mo sendou ippatsu sae mo saitan de mimattan sai umarete kara zutto tabete mo tabete mo oishikatta san-gou taite ikkai de issai nakusu kiso taisha nara heikin no bai "tsuyoku naritai, hayaku naritai" shinobaseshi kono ganbouyo kyou kara nuide haide sukoshi PURAUDO shite ii desu ka nan mo tsukandeinai seishin-men nikutai-men nouzuimen no SUPEKKU all zessan mi kakunin nan mo itandeinai zeigen ippatsu sae mo enjou ippatsu sae mo nai nante oen yo taikutsu sa yori kaiteki sa koso ga nuruin da wa mottainai wa mitomezaru wo ennou itsu demo doko demo jukusui shiteita fuku koukanshinkei yuuidatta aida hyaku percent tamekittatta RAIFU "futoku naritai, omoku naritai" dare ni demo kiku iryoku wo choudai tada iza toiu isshun tsuite sukatto shitai desu Fight senpou ga kan tsuicha shaanai dasu ka kakushi toushiteita okugawa no kata wo touhou migi butta hidari de shita GUUFI SUTANSU (One) JABBU (Two) JABBU (Three) JABBU (Four) SUTOREETO? Right menzai fu nanzo wa enryo shimasu batten shougai tatta hitotsu shougou ga iru n desu genjou wa seizei shouene meijin desu ka No nan-ben datte genba he tatte omoishitte mettauchi ni sura atte shousui shitai hodo aa kaishin no ichigeki sonna kichouna ori ni wa sashitatte sasaretatte onaji desu sou honmou honki ga mitai! mada jibun wo tokihanateru kaikan tsuranuki touru inochi ga furueru motto fuketteitai dou nattatte kekkou tatta ima yurashitai no ikiteiru akashiyo odorasarezu odotteiru shibireteiru shin'nozou hatsu KO gachi

🥊💥💪🥊💥💪 てんで使っていない精神面肉体面 脳髄面にいたって all 新品未開封 てんで貰っていない牽制一発さえも 扇動一発さえも 最短で 見舞ったんさい 生まれてから ずっと 食べても食べてもおいしかった 三合炊いて一回で一切無くす 基礎代謝なら平均の倍 「強くなりたい 速くなりたい」 忍ばせしこの願望よ 今日から脱いで剥いで 少しプラウドしていいですか なんも悩んでいない精神面肉体面 脳髄面のスペック all 絶賛未確認 なんも傷んでいない贅言一発さえも 炎上一発さえもないなんて負えんよ 退屈さより快適さこそが温いんだわ もったいないわ 認めざるを 得んのう いつでもどこでも 熟睡していた 副交感神経優位だった間 百 percent 溜め切ったったライフ 「太くなりたい 重くなりたい」 誰にでも効く威力を頂戴 ただいざという一瞬突いて スカッとしたいです Fight 先方が勘付いちゃ しゃあない出すか 隠し通していた奥側の肩を当方右ぶった 左でしたグーフィスタンス (One) ジャブ (Two) ジャブ (Three) ジャブ (Four) ストレート？ Right 免罪符なんぞは遠慮しますばってん 生涯たった一つ称号が要るんです 現状はせいぜい省エネ名人ですか No 何遍だって現場へ立って思い知って 滅多打ちにすら遭って 憔悴したいほど あぁ 会心の一撃 そんな貴重な折りには 刺したって刺されたって 同じですそう本望 本気が観たい！ まだ自分を解き放てる 快感貫き通る命が震える もっと耽っていたい どうなったって結構 たったいま揺らしたいの 生きている証よ 踊らされず 踊っている 痺れている心の臓 初KO勝ち

[descendant-of-truth]

Y'know what maybe I'm not done talking about Journeys queercoding actually. maybe I do wanna work out my literary analysis muscles for the sake of Pokemon protagonists. why not

To clarify, this isn't about me personally enjoying the ship between Ash and Gou. I do enjoy it, but I'm making an argument for potentially deliberate queercoding in the writing, I'm not necessarily just here to gush (though that may be a side effect)

I'm also a firm believer that actions or behaviors that we typically think of as romantic are only made romantic if that's how the people involved feel about it. I don't think romance is the only possible way to interpret their relationship.

But when it comes to predicting where a story might be going next, or figuring out what the writers are intending to hint at us, I gotta pull out my textbook of Romantic Tropes first to see what fits the bill.

And I'm sorry, but even if it's not the intended interpretation, you can't include all of these scenes:

...and assume no one in your audience will think there's anything romantic happening here.

Of course, those are just the obvious visual interactions between them that can come off as romantic, to say nothing of the symbolic visual hints; the no less than four rainbows they've been under (one of which was reflected in Gou's eye), the two sets of heart-shaped pokemon that swam past them in a single episode which also had them falling under a rainbow, stuff like that.

But even all of that is pretty surface-level stuff. If the writing doesn't support a queer reading very strongly, then my argument for the queercoding being particularly intentional would fall flat.

Thankfully, the writing does support a queer interpretation, so I'm in the clear! Since breaking this part down will take a lot longer, I'm putting it under a cut.

So, right off the bat we've got the basic setup for the show. For the first time, the focus is primarily on Ash and one other person, as opposed to two or more people... despite having a third person in Chloe, who could easily make this into a trio dynamic, considering she's friends with Gou from the start. But they choose instead to make the core of the show about Ash and Gou.

This is even reflected in promotional material, where they'll often be placed closer to each other than Chloe:

Them being roommates is something I usually bring up as a joke, but it is worth noting anyway simply because it's another way the writers have decided they're going to spend almost all of their time together when they really didn't have to.

But now we gotta get into the real Writing Choices(TM) that are the meat and potatoes of this analysis, such as: making brief allusions to the idea that they might like other guys, too

One way to build up a character's orientation is to show them being attracted to people in shorter instances before giving them a main love interest. Think Luz from The Owl House; she had expressed attraction to both boys and girls before she got a girlfriend or started wearing a bi pin.

Likewise, this is Ash when he's thinking about Leon after seeing him battle for the first time:

I kid you not, he keeps up this blush and zoned-out expression for a solid minute, so caught up in thinking about how cool Leon is that he doesn't even think to eat the scones in front of him.

Now, Ash is a person frequently characterized by his love for food, and in previous episodes he had expressed a particular adoration for Galar scones, so this is pretty unusual behavior for him.

So unusual that it's. literally never happened before, to the best of my knowledge?? I don't think it takes much analyzing to realize that, even if it was brief, you could easily take this as Ash having a celebrity crush on Leon.

(There's even pink flowers in the background but that's probably less important)

Meanwhile with Gou, his "setup crush" in this scenario would be Horace. These two have a whole episode dedicated to their first meeting and the bond they forged, and how that turned bitter on Gou's end when he gets stood up right as he thought he was finally making a friend.

What sets this up for a romantic interpretation is largely the framing of things towards the end of the episode:

"Why do I keep thinking of him" is historically not the most platonic thing you could be bitterly thinking to yourself while you remember stargazing with someone, even if I do stand by my statement earlier of nothing being inherently romantic by itself

The end of the episode also implies that the feeling is mutual, if this shot is anything to go off of

(It's just a very shoujo manga-esque frame okay there's no way I wasn't going to point it out)

And the ending scene is two Celebies looking down happily at the two of them while the narrator talks about how pokemon form "many different kinds of bonds"

Many kinds of bonds, huh? Wonder what he could possibly be implying there

Okay so we've got orientation buildup, next in line is this. suspiciously consistent trend of characters who are close to Ash telling Gou to take care of him, or even going out of their way to test him to make sure he's good enough to be his rival or friend.

Gou himself even echoes the sentiment completely unprompted once, which says even more to me that they're trying to make a point out of this:

And here's the thing. None of the other companions have ever undergone this sort of treatment. Nobody questioned whether or not Ash's friends were good enough to hang out with him before, so why now? Why Gou? What makes him different?

Kiawe is relatively easy to explain because (from what I can tell) he's just Like That about rivalries, but why the addition of describing a rival as "the person closest to Ash"? Why does Gary suddenly care about the quality of Ash's buddies when that was never really a concern for him before?

Well gee I don't know about you guys but to me, this feels like the trope where someone's friends and family all start scouting out the guy they're interested in (or who is interested in them) to make sure they won't like, break their heart or something. And despite my best efforts, I'm struggling to see how this wasn't the writers' intention behind these plotlines.

Gou telling Ash's mom that he'll look after Ash on two separate occasions as opposed to the initial one also feels like an easy parallel to someone promising their love interest's parents that they'll be a good partner.

To my understanding, that isn't traditionally something friends also have to promise, even if there's more justification here as Ash and Gou are traveling around and getting into chaotic situations regularly.

So, with all this in mind, it kind of reframes the stuff I mentioned earlier, doesn't it? The blushing, the hand-holding, the spin hug that I'm never getting over, the frequent appearance of rainbows and the heart shaped Pokemon (Luvdisc if you were wondering)... it feels a lot more intentional once you take into account the bigger themes in the writing.

And once you start looking, it keeps piling up. The way Gou hurriedly says that he totally didn't want to help Ash out or anything after Scorbunny gives him a knowing look, like how most tsundere tropes tend to play out:

Or the specific way Gou is taken aback by one of Ash's compliments before trying to play it off by looking cool, only to be comically shocked when Ash gets distracted by something else:

I could go on but I'm running out of image space and I think you get the idea.

Ash's side of this whole thing is admittedly a lot more subtle than Gou's (*cough* because he's arospec) which is why I haven't gone over it much - my aim with this post was not to go too far into speculation territory - but we at least have marketing on our side for that

Gee Ash how come Animedia let you feed Gou two pastries

Anyway, in conclusion: I ran these two through the literary queerometer and the results were positive, thanks for coming to my TED talk

[eternalstargazer]

recently got back into tumblr and wanted to say i love your blog!! i found out a few months ago that gou isn't universally liked and i was like??? "why?? he's such a good boi 🥺" and so the satogou & gou-suport on your blog really makes me happy! thank you for your contribution 💛

Aww, thank you so much!! 🥺💖 This pairing and these characters (Gou/Goh in particular) really means a lot to me, so it always makes me happy to write about them and put together themed blog posts, and such. I'm glad that it makes you happy, too! 😊

I don't have an issue with Goh not being universally liked. No one has to like a character and sometimes the character just doesn't click with someone. That's fine. There are Pokémon characters that I myself don't care for, so I get it. That's not what I have a problem with. 

What bothers me is the unfair treatment and the blatant lies about Goh that are just objectively wrong because of evidence in the episodes themselves that renders the arguments invalid. Those lies spread, and people start to believe the lies without coming to their own conclusions. People start to hate Goh based on what they've heard about him and how people talk about him, not based on how he's presented in the anime.

Take episode 59, the episode Goh catches Grookey. Back when the episode aired and to this day, people called Goh a thief, equating him to Team Rocket and Pokémon poachers. This is factually wrong yet that doesn't stop websites like Gamerant from putting forward this flawed argument: "Capturing Grookey for himself even though he belonged to Jessie goes against the moral code of Pokémon training, regardless of the situation."

That's just all kinds of stupid. No, really, it just is. It makes Goh out to be this immoral, selfish character that will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal. So we're just going to argue that a Pokémon is a piece of property that belongs to someone and has to stay with that someone regardless of how that Pokémon feels or how that person treats the Pokémon. Yeah, that sounds like a perfectly moral position to take. And let's just ignore Grookey chose to leave Jessie, despite the evidence in the episode, because acknowledging that would totally detract from the disingenuous point the writer is pushing here and wants readers to believe/share on social media.

I asked this before and I'll ask it again: so if Goh is a thief, Ash is too, right? Remember Charmander? I did a comparison clip a couple months back, and I ask again, what's the difference:

So going by the logic put forth, Charmander should've stayed with Damian too, because we're holding Ash to the same "standard" here, right? No, of course not, and the whole "regardless of the situation" argument is a terrible and dangerous one because it can be used to justify almost any kind of behavior. 

The same article (and something that gets repeated ad nauseam) is that Goh treats his Pokémon as objects that are a part of a collection and that he doesn't care if his Pokémon rot in Cerise Park. Really? So I guess my photoshop skills are better than I give myself credit for since these scenes totally don't exist in any episode of the anime:

Do we really need a scene in every episode that shows Goh feeding, playing with, and just overall caring for his Pokémon? No, because a fair-minded person that isn't trying to push a false narrative would agree that the anime has given us more than enough scenes inside and outside of Cerise Park that show Goh's love for his Pokémon is just as strong as Ash's, or any of Ash's previous companions. This also extends to Pokémon that were wild at the time too. Goh loves all Pokémon, as I show here. 

On a similar note, do we really need a scene in every episode where Goh battles a Pokémon before catching it? There is nothing wrong with Goh's catching style. It's absolutely legitimate. Pokémon GO!, Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, and Pokémon: Legends Arceus all allow Pokémon to be captured without battling. It's a game mechanic that is now part of the anime, and to say that Goh doesn't work for or earn his captures when this is now common place in the mainline games and highly popular app isn't fair to his character. I guess anyone that plays one of the aforementioned games and catches a Pokémon without weakening it had it handed to them on a silver platter too, right (never mind the fact that there are factors involved like the timing/angle of the throw)?

Again though, it's a misrepresentation of his character that you'll see get tossed around online that Goh, unlike past female traveling companions, doesn't have to work toward his goal when he has everything handed to him (and gets no character development in the process). People still talk about how a legendary (Suicune) was given to him, another disingenuous take intended to get people to dislike Goh by saying how he was given a legendary ahead of Ash, the much more experienced trainer. I talk about that in detail here but I'll summarize my points:

The reason Goh was able to catch Suicune was because it was already significantly weakened. It had been purifying the polluted lake water repeatedly (on top of roaming the world and purifying other bodies of water), so logically, that in itself weakened it somewhat. Then, it endured multiple attacks by the Pokémon Hunters Pokémon. On top of that, it was poisoned. By game logic, attacking and inflicting a status ailment like poison makes a Pokémon easier to catch. Plus, it had ropes around it, causing it to deplete more of its strength as it struggled to escape, when Goh rescued (yes, rescued) Suicune with a Pokéball. 

Goh later on cares for Suicune's injuries, provides it food, and watches over it while it begins to recover. Suicune then sees Goh (and Ash) take a stand against the very people that hurt it and have been contaminating the lake, plus making the forest and water Pokémon sick. Suicune saw that Goh was willing to put his life on the line as the Houndoom came for him. Suicune could see that Goh didn't only care for it, and the forest Pokémon, but Ash as well as he shoved Ash out of the away to protect him from Houndoom.

Why is it that hard to believe Suicune saw Goh as someone with a pure heart, and as someone that only has good and noble intentions? Suicune could very easily see Goh as a force for good in the world and want him for a partner to help rid the world of people like the Pokémon Hunters. Suicune chose to go with Goh because Goh earned its trust and respect. By no means was Goh just handed it without hardship, without forming a bond with it. I thought that was a part of what Pokémon is supposed to be about. 

Sadly, that's not even all of it. Again, if a person doesn't like Goh, or any other character for that matter, that's fine. When a person engages in character assassination though, that's when they lose all credibility. It's those that hate the character that have been allowed to shape the overall perception of Goh in the eyes of many in the fandom, even those that regularly watch the anime. I think Goh would be a lot more popular if people didn't lie about his character (which they do for various reasons, but I won't go into because those would be assumptions on my part).

And while I may sound like an unapologetic 100% Goh stan, I do in fact have opinions as to how the character could've been handled better up to this point and if anyone wants to hear my thoughts on that subject, feel free to ask.

I'm happy though that my blog can be an escape from all of that for you, and for others. I'll happily continue to post and share content, and I still have hope, still believe, there's at least a decent chance that Goh will remain a part of the anime come November. It would make me truly happy to see this wonderful character be given more time to grow and shine, as well as brighten our lives. 💖

[ultraericthered]

Random Higurashi Thoughts

In spite of Higurashi Gou/Sotsu’s many, many, MANY faults, I did surprisingly like its ending and appreciated the ideas behind it. And while I think Satoshi got robbed and that they needed to make time for him, one thing I did like seeing is that after Rika and Satoko parted ways, that so easily could have been the last we saw of either girl. But Satoko gets a final scene...and it’s shared with her uncle Teppei and her “Nee-Nee” Shion. Witch!Satoko’s not feeling it with these two so she takes leave, but to human Satoko, they’re family.

There’s just something super wholesome about that considering what these two characters, in prior diverging world fragments, were quite particularly known for in terms of how they interacted with Satoko. 

Y’know? Like this:

and this:

It’s admitedly not as much a surprise with Shion, who’s not only still young (and was so when she abused and killed Satoko in those fragments) but showed her capacity for growing close, loving, and protective towards Satoko before in the original story. Teppei, on the other hand, is a full grown man who in every fragment has wasted years of his life estranged from his family and becoming this horrible person living a horrible life, being horrible to himself and to others. Think about that: years consumed by isolation, rage, petty crime, achohol, drugs, gambling, a loveless marriage, and abusing his adolescent nephew and niece whenever they were in his care. Wasted time he can never take back since his life took that course in all realities. And in most realities, he stuck to that course and was beyond all hope of salvation. So the idea that all of a sudden, first consistently across several consecutive fragments thanks to Satoko’s looping and then in the final Miracle World that Hanyuu made from all the broken fragments, Teppei had an ephiphany that wised him up, chose to turn his life around, and successfully rehabilitated himself into a model citizen of small town society to the point where he now deeply loves the family he has and would do anything for them, Satoko in particular? There’s just a certain beauty in that, a great way of sending the “sins can always be repented for and forgiven, and it should never be too late to realize your errors and make a change for the better” message that When They Cry has always stood by.

Granted, we could’ve used a little bit less of Teppei than they gave us and definitely much more of Shion. Here’s hoping that the Higurashi Meguri manga manages to find the balance that the anime missed.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep14

Do you ever wanna just watch two little girls who are actually 100+ year old witches beat the absolute SHIT out of each other for 20 minutes straight? :)

Anyway, thoughts under the cut. Plus Umineko spoilers.

Part of this might just be because I’ve been high on painkillers for a few weeks now [long story short, I’ve got a lot of dental work that needs done], but this is perhaps the most entertaining episode of anime I’ve seen all year, lol. Not even in a jokey ironic ‘so bad it’s good’ way.

I feel like this is going to be the most polarizing episode of this whole show, because for better or worse it really crosses the line between Higurashi and Umineko, so whether or not you’re a fan of that whole trajectory the story’s been taking will really change how you feel about this.

Though to be honest I think on one level people are ignoring how Higurashi has always had a lot of these things in it. For one thing, the concept of the fragment space and ‘game boards’ has been a thing since Minagoroshi, and we’ve always had stuff like Hanyuu being a literal god who can manifest in the real world, and the existence of the mythical sword was hinted at in Matsuribayashi and then expanded upon in Kotohogushi. This episode also directly referenced the over the top rooftop fight scene from Tsumihoroboshi, which was just the start of Higurashi having lots of fun and silly fight scenes, like the fights between the club members and the military in Matsuribayashi, or the whole fighting game spin-off arc thing. Even in the VN there was an intentional shift from horror and mystery to high-octane fight scenes fueled by the power of friendship and miracles.

Obviously on the other hand there’s definite Umineko stuff going on here, but in general this feels like a pretty natural progression for this series to take.

Anyway, this was absolutely worth the wait, and it goes a long way toward making up for how bad the pacing in Sotsu has been thus far, lol. I still think they could have cut this down by at least two or three episodes, but still. As a climax to this whole conflict between Rika and Satoko, it was really cool.

Sort of like how Nekodamashi had it’s rollercoaster death montage, I really loved how this whole episode transitioned between fragments in increasingly seamless and surreal ways. The use of transition cuts between scenes was honestly really cool, and made it way more dynamic and engaging than it otherwise would have been to basically have an entire episode spent on one fight scene.

I think a lot of people are hung up on the exact logistics of how the fragment-hopping worked in this episode, but I don’t really think you should read into it too much. It basically operated on dream logic and heightened emotions. In the first few fragments Satoko might have waited a bit before attacking Rika, but it very quickly became one continuous sequence of events for all intents and purposes, with how their back and forth dialogue and their exact movements transitioned from one fragment to the next.

Basically it ended up becoming a fight between voyager witches who have become totally divorced from reality and just hop from one fragment to the next whenever they please.

I was wondering how they’d follow up on the gun scene, since it created this stalemate where they both know what’s going on and thus have no reason to surrender, but I really like how they decided to take this. I know a lot of people have been wanting more of a drawn out battle of wits between them, but the whole concept of them just getting into an endless fight with each other now that everything’s out in the open is extremely entertaining to watch.

It does make me even more convinced that it was a bad idea to have Nekodamashi happen in Gou, though. The immediate resolution to the cliffhanger was more anti-climactic than most people would have wanted after so much time spent leading back up to it, and the whole tone and pacing of Nekodamashi would have flowed very seamlessly into this. It also would have fixed the issue of the last two episodes being almost entirely recaps if this was instead the first time that we saw the Nekodamashi loops.

Anyway, there’s been a lot of debate about whether or not we might get a third season or some other kind of continuation to this, and I think this episode makes me way more convinced that it’s actually just going to end here, whether people like it or not. I think I’ve already said that there’s literally nothing the story needs to do anymore except have Rika and Satoko hash things out with each other, and that’s exactly what they’re focusing on now. Maybe they could spend time recapping Satokowashi, but that’d be extremely pointless. And at this point it’s pretty clear that one way or another the other club members just aren’t going to be very important to this story. There’s a bit of a loose end with their teenage selves showing up in the OP with new outfits, but that might be as simple as an epilogue scene set back in the Matsuribayashi fragment or something, and them looking ominous might be a red herring.

Also, in a more meta sense, there’s certain stuff the staff are doing and saying that make this seem like the finale of the whole series, like how in a couple months they’re going to release a congratulatory book compiling all the official artwork and interviews for Gou/Sotsu, or how they recently released a compilation CD of all of Ayane’s Higurashi-related songs, or how [I think] the artist for the Gou manga said on Twitter that the new chapter that just came out will be the last one to come out while the anime’s airing. We’re also getting two new Higurashi manga arcs starting soon, along with the reveal that the Gou manga will diverge from the anime and go into a new answer arc called Higurashi Jun.

So in general it just comes across like everything’s being wrapped up with Sotsu. I can see why people would be disappointed if we don’t get more, but with how the story’s been going, there’s just not really much material left to work with. Also, we know from TV listings that there at least won’t be a direct continuation in the next season, so if we get anything more it wouldn’t happen until January at earliest, and at this point I’d rather things just wrap up here instead of having to wait even longer to get the actual ending, lol.

I guess we won’t know how things will end until next week, but we really seem to be barrelling headfirst into this being Bern and Lambda’s origin story. Which has been pretty obvious for ages now, but this episode in particular really cements it. This whole fight is really similar to the one they have in Episode 8, and you can see throughout the episode how they’re embracing their looper/witch personas and becoming divorced from reality. You can even see the foundation for how Bern and Lambda have a twisted love for each other based on the fact that they’re basically the only people who can actually understand each other, and they’re so detached from reality that the violence between them is more like a sign of affection.

I feel like this is also going to end up tying into the miracle that Hanyuu is waiting for. At the moment we’re in a situation where it seems like they’re stuck in an infinite stalemate because they’re in a fight where neither of them wants to lose, but neither of them wants to win if it means permanently killing the other. So it seems like there might not really be any way out of this, but if they’re able to truly forgive each other and embrace their identities as witches, then they can basically step away from this entire conflict and just enjoy being with each other. It seems impossible for this to end with either of them ‘winning’ and things going back to how they used to be, so it could certainly be called a miracle if they both decide that they’re OK with that, and they take a third option where they can both be happy in a way that neither of them would have predicted at first.

This could also lead to a situation where Rika is able to ascend to a higher level by letting go of her human side once and for all, which could give her the ability to appear in the part of the fragment space where Eua and Hanyuu are, so she can save Hanyuu from getting killed by Eua’s spear.

And on that note, the whole bit with Hanyuu at the end actually reminds me a lot of the idea of logic errors in Umineko. I think people kinda over-use that term when it comes to stuff in this series where it doesn’t really fit, but that scene was actually extremely similar to the whole set-up where Battler got stuck in a locked room that he couldn’t come up with an answer to get out of, and he had to wait for the ‘miracle’ of Beatrice awakening so that Kanon could arrive and save him. Hanyuu is in a position where she’s already committed to flying straight at Eua, but the spear is right in front of her face and about to kill her once time starts again, and she has to wait for a ‘miracle’ to happen to change her fate. Which is also a lot like how in Matsuribayashi she almost got shot by Takano, but a miracle happened and Rika was able to divert the bullet. So it’d make a lot of sense in general if in the next episode we see Rika show up there and save Hanyuu.

And considering how Featherine acts in Umineko, I could honestly see Eua sticking to her word and rewarding Hanyuu if a miracle like that actually happens and saves her. So even if it’s anti-climactic, this might end with Eua accepting her loss and backing off, and maybe not even doing anything to punish Satoko for losing in her fight against Rika. Which is part of why I think the whole lingering threat of the ‘world without Rika’ might not even lead to anything and might just be a vague threat towards Satoko that never materializes.

Other than that, I think the last episode will probably also involve us going back to Matsuribayashi and seeing what sort of ending Rika and Satoko’s ‘human selves’ get once their ‘witch selves’ leave them behind once and for all. Which will probably just be along the lines of Rika going to the Saiguden to check up on Satoko, and them heading over to the cafe where the other club members [and probably Satoshi as well] are waiting for them, and it’ll just end on the note of them presumably working things out between each other peacefully.

Along those same lines, I think that the whole story of Gou/Sotsu will also get somewhat recontextualized as being a sort of deranged power fantasy that Satoko came up with in her head while visiting the Saiguden. I don’t think that’d be intended to devalue anything that happened here, but it’d be like how Umineko presents enough narrative framework for a non-magical interpretation of everything, while at the same time still acknowledging the value of the magical interpretation.

While I remember, I’m curious to see how the manga version turns out, since it’s clearly diverging a fair bit from the anime. It might just be an alternate take on the story concept, but at this point I think it might be presented as an ‘earlier loop’ of Gou/Sotsu, with how it’s been implied that Eua and Satoko have met before without Satoko remembering it. So maybe this whole series of events has repeated over and over again, presumably with Satoko ‘losing’ each time so things get reset, and Gou/Sotsu is the final iteration of that loop where they’re finally able to achieve a miracle.

I feel like the manga version is probably gonna end up being closer to what people wanted out of Sotsu, since it seems to be going in the direction of Rika knowing everything without Satoko knowing that, so they can have more of a drawn out conflict between each other as Rika tries to figure out how to win. Which is one way to take the story, but I still like how the anime ended up doing it, even if it could have been paced a lot better. I also think that the manga isn’t exactly a straight improvement over the anime anyway. There’s stuff it does well, but there’s stuff it doesn’t do well, like how the whole Nekodamashi arc feels extremely weird in the context of Rika not remembering her deaths [or at least not being given a clear reason for why she can suddenly remember them], her not deciding to go for five more loops before killing herself, and Satoko apparently not having any idea about Rika remembering her deaths, which seems to defeat the point of Nekodamashi’s rapid-fire death loops.

Either way I’m curious to see how Jun goes. I assume that we’ll still get some version of Satokowashi out of it, but I think that unlike with Sotsu they’ll spend much less time on answering the damashi arcs, and I also think at this point that the answers to them won’t be exactly the same as they were in the anime either.

Also, we recently found out that two entirely new Higurashi manga arcs will start in November, called Oniokoshi and Hoshiwatashi, which seem to be collectively referred to as Higurashi Rei, using the kanji from ‘the Reiwa era’, since it seems like the idea of these new arcs is that they take place in the Reiwa era. Oniokoshi seems to be about Keiichi’s son and a new mysterious character, while Hoshiwatashi seems to be about two entirely new characters, so I’m really curious to see how their stories pan out. I’m particularly excited about Oniokoshi since it’s being drawn by Natsumi Kei, who’s basically the primary artist for the Umineko manga, so that kinda makes me biased towards it, lol. And even though there’s basically nothing to go off of except for one preview image, it looks like it might go in a bit of a gay direction, which would be really neat. But we’ll see how it goes.

So yeah, I guess at this point with where things are going I’m gonna be really disappointed if we don’t get something like an Umineko remake after this, lol. It wouldn’t be very satisfying if it just ends on the note of ‘go and read the Umineko VN’ or something.

[squeiky]

"Of course it would run away from a trainer like me"

He looked down at the floor, disappointed by what has happened. They where just starting to get to know eachother, if he hadn't forced sobble into battling.. Mabye it wouldn't have ran away, or perhaps, it didn't want be his freind in the first place.

Ash quickly turns around with a soft smile on his face. He lets out his arms, as if he was about to give poor gou a hug, a reassuring gesture.

"Just try harder next time then, once we find it!"

He takes a few steps towards gou and softly places his hand on gou's shoulders, slightly leaning in a little. This surprises gou, making him jump up before settling back down.

"You only just caught it, right? There's no need to be perfect right off the bat!"

Gou looks up, only to see ash is staring directly into those blue bell eyes of his.

"I guess.." He mutters softly, still gazing into ash's dark brown eyes.

They continue staring, as if nothing was going around them. It was just the two of them, standing there all alone, gazing into each others eyes for a solid minute or two.

Gou closes his eyes, and nods. Then tilting his head to the side with a big smile on his face.

"I hear you!"

Ash smiles back, his hands still on gou's shoulder. It seems that ash's quest of making gou feel better, has succeded.

-ANDDD THATS my dramatic description of what just happened in this scene. Because its just THAT uncanny.

i didn't even mention the romantic music going on in this scene either. Beacuse not only do they change the soundtrack to that "silky smooth music" and then change it right when that scene is done, but they let them stare for what is like a minute straight.

They just do that? Alone? With no one else watching them? You could continue looking for sobble, but... Staring deep into eachothers eyes for a whole minute is a better option. (Ash you didnt have to do that, you could've cheered him up from afar, like you normally do.)

i bet one day, they'll confess off-screen and they're suddenly really into each other for no reason in particular, except that.

[thewhitefluffyhat]

Featherine Augustus Aurora

What is this guide?

<< Previous (Lambdadelta)

Reading List: Highlights

Umineko Episode 6/Dawn “??? Tea Party” [ Video / Text ]

Featherine requests her old miko return to her service once more. (Everything to know about Featherine’s personality in one scene)

Umineko Episode 6/Dawn “The Witch of Theatergoing” scene

Video [Scene starts roughly 6:20 and continues to the end of the video]

Text [Search on “Amakusa ran his finger down my cheek.” Scene continues to end of the page.]

[Spoilers - this references several major twists from the previous two Episodes, though not the truth of the mystery.] Featherine ropes another human into acting as her miko. (A demonstration of the way Featherine/Hachijou blends the mundane and the magical worlds.)

Umineko Episode 8/Twilight “Magical Battle” scene

Video [Scene starts roughly 38:40, stop before 53:35]

Text [Start at top of the page and stop at the screencap of the key.]

[Spoilers - this is one of the battles at the climax of Umineko! It doesn’t involve the core mystery, but it will spoil which characters ultimately side with the protagonists.] A scene for if you’re curious what happens when Featherine gets serious.

Reading List: I want it all

(These are all repeats from the list for Bernkastel.)

”Whose Tea Party?” [ Video / Text ]

Bern gets invited to a tea party. (A simple and silly scenario, but also a window into the differences in how Featherine and Lambda think of Bern.)

”Bernkastel’s Letter” [ Video / Text ]

Bernkastel writes a letter to (maybe) Featherine, explaining what she’s discovered about the rules to Beatrice’s game. (This is a bit of a strange one - to me it feels like some details of Bern’s relationships in this early work were retconned by the time of Umineko Episodes 6-8.)

Umineko Chiru (Episode 6/Dawn, Episode 7/Requiem, Episode 8/Twilight)

Umineko Saku’s Last Note of the Golden Witch involves Featherine somewhat. Blink and you’ll miss it, but she’s in 07th Theater too.

-...And that’s it! On the plus side, it’s easy to read all there is of Featherine, since there’s so little. Unfortunately, as you can see from the Highlights, what does exist is often neck deep in spoiler territory…

Wiki Links

https://07th-expansion.fandom.com/wiki/Featherine_Augustus_Aurora [Some spoilers, though only the same as in the Highlights links above.]

Quick Facts

-As Hanyuu is in Higurashi, Featherine is the closest being to a god in Umineko.  However, while gods in Higurashi are related to Shinto concepts (plus parasites and viruses and aliens), Umineko’s godhood is based on the idea of an author being god of their story, summoning universes out of the nothingness of a blank page.

-Featherine’s unusual name is probably a reference to Hanyuu. The kanji for Hanyuu (羽入) are “羽=feather” and “入=in”. And Augustus Aurora = Hanyuu’s “Au au” catchphrase. Hachijou (八城) can also be read “yashiro,” as in Oyashiro-sama.

-Physically, Featherine appears as an elegant adult woman whose exact age is hard to place. She does not have horns, but she does have that suspiciously horn-like memory device floating around her head.

According to that Umineko Episode 8 battle scene linked above, Featherine’s memory device once was damaged, leading to Featherine having a different personality and appearance for a time.

(As it so happens, Hanyuu has a chipped horn and a very different personality from Featherine, what an intriguing coincidence...)

-Long before the events of Umineko, Featherine ascended to the realm of the gods and returned. She also goes through a cycle of sleep/death and rebirth which can last centuries.  All aspects that call to mind that ascension Hanyuu mentions in Saikoroshi.

-Outside the Meta-World, Featherine’s double is a mysterious and reclusive author who goes by many names. (Hachijou Tohya is just one of them.)

-Remember how Ooishi and Akasaka write a book called “Higurashi no naku koro ni” in-universe? Umineko does something similar, but explores the idea even further. Hachijou is the supposed in-universe author of some of Umineko’s arcs, and as such, some fans consider Featherine/Hachijou as a stand-in for Ryukishi07 himself.

Personality

-Much as Bern’s personality is similar to “dark Rika” but kicked up to eleven, Featherine’s personality is similar to Hanyuu when Hanyuu acts as a god. She’s calm, serious, and refers to humans as “child of man.”

-Lacking Hanyuu’s shy and childish mannerisms, Featherine comes across as intimidating and rather condescending. Though she’s more polite and reasonable than the average witch. (Which honestly says more about other witches than her, really...)

-Bern and Lambda are very fey-like, tricking and tempting mortals into doing what they want. Featherine, in contrast, doesn’t use tricks or threaten violence because she doesn’t need to. Asking for consent from mortals is a gesture of respect from her - you don’t have the ability to refuse.

-In almost the inverse of Hanyuu, Featherine has no problems getting other characters to perceive her; indeed, she’s subtle but often quite forceful about dragging others into conversations inside her realm.

-Also unlike Hanyuu, Featherine has no particular love of sweets (that’s Lambda), and does seem to enjoy alcohol.

-Featherine, an ancient being, suffers from the “disease” of boredom. Entertaining herself with stories is the only medicine for this ailment, and the relief it provides is only temporary.

-As such, Featherine enjoys stories as deeply and thoroughly as possible.  Meaning, she doesn’t just appreciate mysteries and characters as they’re first presented - she also likes to “tear out the guts” to see what makes them tick.

...Not with her own hands of course!  That’s Bern’s job.

What, did you think you were done with the Watanagashi imagery when you finished Higurashi?

-At several points in Umineko, Featherine a gets called a monster. While this may be yet another callback to Higurashi, unlike Hanyuu who hates that label, Featherine takes it as a compliment.

-So… is Featherine evil? Many characters, and even Ryukishi07 himself in interviews, call her such. That being said, in Umineko, Featherine can be callous, but she doesn’t revel in sadism the way other witches do. Although, presumably she was much worse in the past...

Abilities

-Featherine is the “Witch of Theatergoing” - she is primarily a spectator to the events of Umineko, rather than a player on the stage. (Just like Hanyuu.)

-Bern’s “Theatergoing Authority” may derive from her. She also has the ability to instantly promote a character to the position of Game Master.

-Featherine is an author and therefore a “Creator,” surpassing the level of even powerful witches like Bern and Lambda. Her powers function as her breaking the fourth wall and literally writing the rest of the script on a page.

-Like Hanyuu, Featherine can stop time. Though unlike Hanyuu, Featherine can act in the frozen time, including that aforementioned reality writing.

-Featherine’s home is the *deep breath*  “Great Witch of Theatergoing, Drama, and Spectating's Noble City of Carefully Selected Books” - an impossibly large magical library filled with countless stories, each a universe of their own like a Fragment.  (Everyone just calls it the “City of Books.”)

-Featherine’s servants are the main characters of these stories, now in the form of black cats.

-Featherine’s relationships with her mikos are also through the lens of an author. Featherine’s mikos are also known as “Readers” - they narrate the events of a game board to Featherine. As an author is a god, a reader is also able to put their own interpretation on the story they tell.

Featherine and Bernkastel

-As Hanyuu is to Rika, so Featherine is to Bern... more or less. They’re still a god and her miko.

-Unlike Rika and Hanyuu, Bern and Featherine do not share their senses.

-Rika and Bern have both lived beyond a normal human’s lifespan, but they both still consider themselves young in comparison to Hanyuu/Featherine’s ancient existence.

-When Rika would bully Hanyuu, Hanyuu did little but cry and complain.  Bern still backtalks and is generally disrespectful of Featherine, but the result is different - Bern’s the one acting defensive and scared while Featherine is merely amused by it.

-Bern is also distrustful yet subservient toward Featherine in a way Rika never was to Hanyuu.

-However, when Bern is in danger, she will demand that Featherine help her, much as how Rika did the same to Hanyuu once in Matsuribayashi.

Featherine and Lambdadelta

-Featherine and Lambda appear to be on amicable, if not especially close terms.

-On Featherine’s side, she primarily seems to know Lambda as Bern’s friend and playmate.

-On Lambda’s side, she knows she’s completely outclassed by Featherine, and is very afraid of crossing her.

-Lambda does know quite a bit about Featherine - including that tidbit about Featherine’s personality change in the past.

Featherine in Higurashi Gou?

Is this Featherine? And what does that mean for the rest of Higurashi Gou? 

Well, after reading this guide, what do you think?

Regardless, this is as far as I can guide you with my knowledge of Umineko. If you wish to go further, you’ll have to forge that path yourself, through the ravenous wilderness of unconfirmed theories and dangerous speculation.

Good luck!

PS: If you’d like a rough map of some popular destinations, I also have an old Bingo Card of Umineko-Gou connection theories.

PPS to folks from Reddit: If you liked this guide, I also do episode analysis/theory posts too.

[artsyjj]

So recently I decided to compare an episode of Pokémon Journeys in dub to the sub version. I chose one of most recent episode I watched which is episode 28; the one where Sobble gets starts acting like a crybaby and gets captured.

I have no problem with watching the subbed version. It’s just my preference; it’s what I’ve always been used to watching since I was little.

(Plus I can’t stand Meowth’s voice in the sub. It sounds like somebody who needs a fricking cough drop...🌝)

Anyways, I wanted to compare one scene particular.

Because I’m a Satogou shipper and seeing them act cute together gives me serotonin uwu

One person on Tumblr pointed out how in the sub version, the music was set to a more romantic tone which the dub version failed to do 😀

It pains me

I didn’t only like it for one reason alone, no no. It felt like there was an actual sense of development

Gou realized his mistake and Ash backed him up to help understand that he can’t just give up. The slower tempo of the subbed version for this scene is just a chef’s kiss.

Once I saw it I started squealing for joy cause who wouldn’t amiright? 😏

The subbed version can have mistakes but it doesn’t make it seem any less enjoyable. Not everyone is perfect. Plus I’ve been loving the series up til now.

That’s all for my little observation on this today folks. Hope you enjoyed reading if you stayed ;)

Shoutout to goldenfoxthe1st from Tumblr for the observation.

https://goldenfoxthe1st.tumblr.com/

[aion-rsa]

The Real Martial Arts Behind Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains some minor spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

In the pages of Marvel Comics, Shang-Chi is known as the “Master of Kung Fu.” So when Marvel Studios announced the character to help usher in MCU Phase 4, the one thought on every fan’s mind was that whoever gets cast in the lead role better really know Kung Fu. 

In the wake of Netflix’s Iron Fist, Marvel’s other Kung Fu master, there was a lot of skepticism. Marvel had scored with the previous Netflix series Daredevil, which delivered some of the best small screen fight choreography we’d ever seen. But Iron Fist was sorely lacking. Finn Jones just couldn’t sell a punch as Danny Rand, leaving fans of Marvel martial arts masters overwhelmingly disappointed. If there’s one thing that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had to nail, it was the Kung Fu. 

Like Jones, Simu Liu had little martial arts experience before taking on the role of Shang-Chi. However, he already had the physique, so much so that appearing shirtless was a running joke when he played Jung in Kim’s Convenience. What’s more, Liu bulked up, added 10 more pounds of muscle while training for the film. 

Unlike a character like Daredevil, Shang-Chi doesn’t wear a mask, so Liu had to quickly pick up enough cinematic Kung Fu to appear masterful on screen. Fortunately, he was backed by a top-notch team of stuntmen and surrounded with a cast of veteran film fighters including Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Star Trek: Discovery), Tony Leung (Hero, The Grandmaster), Yuen Wah (Kung Fu Hustle), Florian Munteanu (Creed II), Andy Le (The Paper Tigers), and others. Even though Liu was new to Kung Fu, he carries the action scenes with panache.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is not only a good Marvel movie, it’s a good Kung Fu movie. It has the best fight scenes seen in the MCU so far. And although the movie doesn’t get bogged down in the specifics of Kung Fu style, there are telling nods throughout the film that shows the filmmakers knew their Kung Fu too. “We knew the martial arts had to be authentic,” says Director Destin Daniel Cretton. “In order for that to feel real, we worked with people who understood Chinese Kung Fu.”

Let’s take a look at some of the Kung Fu roots and martial arts Easter Eggs underlying Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ringsdone..

The Ten Rings are Real…Kind of

Wenwu (Tony Leung) is the villain of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and he wields ten magical rings that he wears on his forearms. These are the source of his power, as well as the name of his criminal organization. The origin of these rings is a prevailing mystery in the movie; however, their inspiration is not. 

Traditional Kung Fu practitioners use rings akin to these while training, particularly in Southern Chinese styles. Such rings are called tit waan in Cantonese, which literally means “iron rings” or “iron bracelets.” Iron rings are constructed of heavy metal, typically brass or steel, and are worn loosely on the forearms when practicing solo forms and doing arm drills. 

They serve two purposes. Firstly, they are heavy, usually weighing over a pound a piece, so they act like wrist weights. Secondly, unlike Wenwu’s magical rings which conform to fit his forearms perfectly, real iron rings are looser. They must be narrow enough so that they stay on when the practitioner makes a fist, but they are far from form fitting. This gives them play to bang against the practitioner’s forearms when they are shadowboxing. The banging conditions the user’s forearms, hardening them to withstand the impact of blocking. Some iron ring practitioners have forearms that are so tough they can severely damage an adversary’s punch with their ring-hardened blocks.

Although iron rings are not conventionally considered as weapons, Kung Fu practitioners have figured out ways to weaponize just about everything. Some wield iron rings like brass knuckles, holding them in their fists for punching. 

Kung Fu Hustle

Weaponized iron rings are used in the 2004 comedy Kung Fu Hustle. The character Tailor (Chiu Chi Ling) fights with them. Chiu is a genuine master of Hung Ga Kung Fu, a southern style that uses iron ring training extensively. 

Director Destin Daniel Cretton claims that Kung Fu Hustle is one of his favorite martial arts movies so there are other nods to it in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, including when a Kung Fu Hustle poster can be seen on a bedroom wall in the background. What’s more, Yuen Wah also appears as the warrior leader of Ta Lo who oversees Katy’s (Awkwafina) archery training. Yuen played the Landlord in Kung Fu Hustle and is a veteran martial arts actor with nearly 200 film credits. He is also the Kung Fu brother of Jackie Chan. 

Yuen Qiu, who plays the Landlady in Kung Fu Hustle is a mutual Kung Fu sibling. Jackie, Yuen Wah and Yuen Qiu were all pupils of Yu Jim-Yuen, a master of Chinese opera who trained them all from childhood.  They all took stage names that included the “Yuen” part of their master’s name (Jackie Chan was known as Yuen Lau as a child). Others among that troupe were many of the movers and shakers of Hong Kong’s golden age of Kung Fu films, such as Sammo Hung (a.k.a. Yuen Lung) and famed action choreographer, Yuen Woo-Ping (The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Kill Bill). 

Tiger Head Hooks

The signature weapons of the Ten Rings are Tiger Head Hooks. These are those black glowing hooked swords that the gang members wield. They also appear on the Ten Rings banner. It’s an excellent choice because Tiger Head Hooks are one of the most distinctively Kung Fu weapons of all. 

In Chinese, these are called Hu tou shuang gou, which literally means “Tiger head paired hooks.” “Paired” because they are typically used in pairs. Sometimes they are just translated as Hook Swords. They have a sword blade with a hooked tip, a crescent-shaped blade for a knuckle guard, and a dagger blade for a pommel. Every edge is sharp. The only place they are not sharp is the handle. This makes them very difficult to wield. Consequently, Tiger Hooks are considered an advanced Kung Fu weapon. 

The reference book Ancient Chinese Weapons by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming dates Tiger Head hooks back to China’s Spring Autumn Period (771-476 BCE), however those ancient hooks likely took on a different form. The modern style of Tiger Head hooks as seen in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings rose to prominence around the 1800s. They are still practiced today, mostly by Northern schools of Kung Fu.

What Style of Kung Fu Does Shang-Chi Practice?

Kung Fu is renowned for its diverse collection of styles like Shaolin, Wing Chun, Tiger style, and countless others. There’s even Drunken style and Toad style. In the movie, Shang-Chi doesn’t adopt a particular style of Kung Fu. Some of his moves have characteristics of Wing Chun or Bajiquan, but there’s nothing in the choreography to indicate a very specific style.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The warriors of Ta Lo are different. While their style is not explicit, their peacekeeping philosophy is expressed through the soft, internal styles of Kung Fu like Tai Chi. When Ying Nan (Michelle Yeoh) schools Shang-Chi in their first match, it’s reminiscent of how airbending is depicted in Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

However, the connection is deeper than that. Despite its fantasy elements, Avatar based its martial arts sequences on authentic Kung Fu by mo-capping Sifu Kisu, a renowned martial arts master. Kisu designated specific styles for each school of bending. Airbending was based upon an internal style of Kung Fu known as Baguazhang, or Eight Diagram Palm. Like Tai Chi, it has a soft expression. It relies on circular movements and pivoting evasions. Several of Yeoh’s techniques are plucked straight out of Baguazhang.

The Masters Behind Shang-Chi’s Martial Arts

Credit for Shang-Chi’s Kung Fu authenticity falls on the film’s top notch stunt team. Two are leading graduates of the legendary Jackie Chan Stunt Team. The fight on the hi-rise scaffolding is a homage to Jackie’s parkour-inspiring choreography. Andy Cheng worked on around half a dozen of Jackie’s films including his first two Rush Hour films, Shanghai Noon, The Tuxedo, and Who Am I? where Jackie does one of his all-time greatest stunts, sliding down the Willemswerf skyscraper in Rotterdam. He was also the action director for Into the Badlands. When Jackie inevitably stepped back from doing his own stunts, Cheng stepped in for him. 

“We were very concerned [about Kung Fu] from the very beginning,” says Cretton. “Marvel was also concerned and wanted to get it right. [They] knew that Marvel fans, wouldn’t have let it slide if we did a Hollywood version of a whitewashed Kung Fu movie. To be able to, we brought in Brad Allan.” Brad Allan was the first non-Asian to make Jackie’s stunt team. He also worked on around a dozen of Jackie’s films (this is approximate because stunt work wasn’t always credited).

Who Was Brad Allan?

You can’t miss the credits in any MCU film. In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, there’s a prominent dedication to Allan at the very end. Tragically, on August 7th, 2021, Brad Allan died unexpectantly at the early age of 48, sending the martial arts world reeling from the loss of one of its brightest stars. Beyond Shang-Chi, Allan leaves behind an exemplary legacy of action films where he served as the Second Unit Director including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Cuban Fury, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the Kingsman trilogy. 

Allan was obsessed with the martial arts from childhood and rose to compete internationally in Wushu, representing Australia where he was born and raised. Through a chance encounter, he was able to demonstrate his skills to Jackie, and Jackie liked what he saw so much that he took Allan under his wing. 

In 1999, Allan played Alan, the villain in Jackie’s film Gorgeous, which coincidentally also stars Tony Leung. With Allan clad in black and Jackie in white, their finale fight is, well, it’s gorgeous. It’s two of the greatest masters of the craft delivering top notch fight choreography. Allan spent most of his career modestly behind the scenes, so Gorgeous is the outstanding example of his speed and agility. It’s heartbreaking that Allan didn’t get to see the premiere of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Allan’s final work will be seen in The King’s Man later this year.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now playing in theaters.

The post The Real Martial Arts Behind Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[tsuisou-no-despair]

Higurashi When They Cry: Gou -My “Final” Thoughts

Since we’re getting a second season - and it’s so obvious that Gou was written as the first half of the story - I find it hard to rate Gou at this point in time. Do you remember how when Avengers: Infinity War came out and a lot of critics were like “well, we need to see Endgame before we can really make our judgements”? Yeah, it’s like that - hence why “final” is in quotes.

Even so, I still have some thoughts about Gou, Higurashi as a whole, and my experiences with getting in on something’s fandom. I’ll make a post for what I want out of Sotsu later - right now, here’s what I have for Gou.

What I Liked About Gou

Most of it, honestly! I enjoyed Gou greatly and I’m glad I sat down and gave it a watch. (This may be heresy, but I honestly found it better as an experience than the last airing-weekly anime thing I sat down and watched - that being Mob Psycho 100 Season 2) But as for the stuff unique to Gou thatI particularly liked:

First off, having a new Higurashi anime that’s actually good. We needed something like this after Outbreak, Kira and (to a much lesser extent) the non-Saikoroshi parts of Rei pushed the series deeper and deeper into a trash can.

I love the new art style and the new designs for the characters. There’s a lot of good in DEEN’s adaptation, but a lot of the time the art left something to be desired. Passione’s take on Hinamizawa gave us a cast that can be cute and beautiful and terrifying all while looking good.

There’s also a lot of really good cinematography - the shot used in the GIF above left me going ‘holy shit”.

The new themes are a triple threat of bangers. In particular I loved that they brought in Ayane to really give it a deeper tie to Higurashi as a greater franchise. (The best of these, of course, is Irregular Entropy)

Episode 4′s twist. Just... *chef’s kiss*. I know that people poked it apart and called it ridiculous after the fact but I don’t know if the feeling of dread when Rena’s eyes were hidden by shadow, and I realized that this wasn’t going to end well, is something I could ever really recapture.

Speaking of violence, the ending of Episode 13. The dull red light... the ringing bell... good stuff.

In retrospect, creating Tataridamashi by bringing in Minagoroshi was smart, specifically from a character-introduction standpoint. They needed to establish the existence of Kimiyoshi, Oryou and Akane for later parts of the story and dipping into Minagoroshi’s involvement of them is probably the easiest way to do it.

In general, Gou’s really smart about its character introductions. I didn’t think they’d bring in Akasaka but I’m honestly really pleased with how they did it.

SatoRika was confirmed! And was really cute... until it extremely wasn’t! (But in a good way!)

The fact that Satoko and Rika’s conflict at St. Lucia was so nuanced, with neither of them really being 100% right or 100% wrong. (Of course, this doesn’t last)

I might be slightly conflicted about Satokowashi as an arc, but none of those conflicts are with Eua. (The “FUCK YEAH FEATHERINE TIME” from Twitter was particularly tasty)

The dub! I know a lot of people are ambivalent towards the Gou dub but I for one am happy that we’ve got some great performances, as well as a Higurashi dub that’s actually good. Maybe not great, but far better than what DEEN got in the end.

This Shion face

This is the face of someone that’s going to wreck her sister’s chances with her new boyfriend for fun.

What I Didn’t Like About Gou

Watadamashi in general. This is easily the weakest arc by a long shot, which sucks because I like Watanagashi-hen quite a bit. A lot of the time, it just felt like the animators had chose it as the place to cut costs. As good as the Takano scene in the Saiguiden is, it’s one of the things that makes the least sense in retrospect given the changes to Takano that have been established in Gou. And Episode 8 was rough both from a pacing and a what-happened standpoint. While Watadamashi had some great moments (the above Shion face as well as Rika dressing down Keiichi), overall it was clearly the weakest arc, particularly after Shion left the picture.

The pacing of Gou in general left something to be desired at times - they really should’ve shifted the extra episode in the first cour from Tataridamashi to Watadamashi, and Satokowashi could’ve probably condensed some of its episodes down and gave more room to other things, like...

Satoshi. He really shouldn’t have been as absent from the series as he was - hell, until Ep. 9 I legitimately thought that he might’ve been cut from the story altogether (and honestly, if they did that maybe the story would have been better!)

On that note, Episode 22 just kinda sucked in general.

While I’m not on the “where’s Shion” train as heavily as some meme artists are, I do think that the fact that she had to be written out of the second cour entirely to make it work is one of Gou’s story’s objective faults.

There’s a lot of little details added or addressed in Satokowashi-hen that I feel are either less than good, or are just restrictive. The big two of these is Satoko watching all of the fragments (either Eua should’ve just given her a sample platter, or we should’ve seen more of Satoko’s thoughts and reactions) and the fact that the memories returning means that eventually Hinamizawa would end up “solved” without Satoko’s intervention.

Honestly, Gou’s finale needed a bit more punch - it wasn’t bad but honestly even for a halfway point it could have ended with a bit more of a bang.

The Fandom Side Of Things

First off, I want to preface this by saying thanks for following me, taking my theories into account (it always feels cool whenever I see something I threw into the aether in one of my Theory Times getting adopted and spread by someone else as an interesting idea!) and sticking with me through Gou and hopefully through Sotsu. You are all amazing and I love you all.

After Watadamashi concluded, I decided that my Higurashi bullshit needed its own sideblog, because I recognized that nobody in my other circles was even remotely into Higurashi and I didn’t want to shout into the void. So, I made myself a sideblog, named it after one of my favorite Higurashi console openings, and started posting my thoughts. Quickly I discovered a whole world of theories (”Satoko’s suspicious? I never would have thought of that!” - me, a young and naive fool), hot takes, and a surprising number of Rena kin. (Who are all delightful, I assure you!)

One of the things that stuck out to me was the different schools of opinion that formed. While I ended up as a relatively quiet analyst who overall liked Gou despite its flaws (a camp shared by two of my favorite blogs - @tarhalindur and @thewhitefluffyhat - that you need to follow if you don’t already), there were many others who had much stronger thoughts. Some of them were loudly cheering the story’s turns, while others seemed to decide that Gou could do no right and acted accordingly. Joining a Discord run by one of the larger Higurashi blogs on Tumblr gave me a live view of the process in Satokowashi’s later half, and it made me really realize what shaped people’s views on Gou. Some particular factors that caught my eye:

Whether or not they liked Umineko over Higurashi (mostly a Twitter element - the Umineko fans really enjoyed Eua making her appearance and overall reacted really positively to Gou)

Where they hailed from - honestly I think that Tumblr overall was one of the more positive fanbases for Gou (at least of the big concrete places like it and Reddit), given how the various camps thought of Gou’s eventual villain.

How they felt about Episode 16 - there were a lot of people that seriously felt that Rika learning the “lesson” of “maybe leaving the hometown where bad things happened isn’t the right call” was far, far more abhorrent and objectionable than the part where she got her entrails ripped out!

How they feel about Satoko, naturally - particularly, how much they sympatized with her and how much they didn’t want to see her go down the path she did. Tumblr in particular had a lot of people that related with her and her life situation, and it was never not interesting to see how the sympathy and occasional projection shaped someone’s particular thoughts. (There were some strong reactions to Gou showing an abuse victim becoming an even worse abuser, let me tell you.)

I think I’ll conclude these final thoughts by quoting my IRL best friend’s tags regarding the fandom of her choice:

It really is. And I’m glad I got on this ride and saw it through with all of you.

See you in July.

[fragmentwitch]

Higurashi Gou Episode 16 transcribed scene is below. I have done my best to describe everything so you can have a gist of how the scene is unfolding, but minimal detail on the graphic imagery the best I could.

For normal viewing of the rest of the episode, skip to 15:10ish. Other than that, enjoy and read to craft interpretations as you wish.

The calendar shows Sunday June 12, 1983.

Rika seems asleep in her futon, looking sweaty with flushed red cheeks as she breaths shallowly. The sun is setting outside as the evening cicadas can be heard.

Satoko: Oh my, you're finally awake. It's almost sundown.

Satoko is crouched down close to Rika's face.

Rika: Satoko? I...

Satoko: You were tossing and turning so much. You must have had a terrible nightmare.

Rika seems out of breath and is struggling to speak. Smiling to an unsettling degree of tranquility, Satoko puts a hand on Rika's cheek and continues using a calm tone.

Satoko: My, you have quite the fever. I'll stay here by your side until you feel better, if that's alright.

Rika: Satoko... [tearing up] Why? Why is this happening to me? [The shot shifts to a side view of Rika, lying down still under her futon as she begins sobbing. Satoko's expression is unchanged.]

Satoko: Poor Rika. I don't know what you were dreaming about... [she moves to wipe the tears with a thumb, but her expression becomes serious as she sits up.] But surely you know your dreams are important.

Rika: Eh?

Satoko: your dreams are the way they are for a reason. A very important reason, Rika.

Rika: [Shocked] A reason? What kind of reasoning justifies being tortured by these horrible tragic realities?!

Satoko: You don't know why you suffer through terrible dreams night after night?

Rika: Satoko? What are you... [Rika cuts herself off and squeezes her eyes shut, seemingly in great pain] My body... everything hurts!

Satoko: these horrible dreams are torturing you and you still don't know the reason why?

[Rika doesn't seem to be listening, she throws her head back as if she wants to scream. Satoko keeps talking without batting an eye.]

Rika: what's going on?

Satoko: Rika, you've been cursed.

Rika: C-cursed? What do you mean? [She cries out in pain and begins to squirm under the futon] why?! I can't move! What's happening?!

Satoko: Oh, you mean this? [Grips the futon and lifts it up.

Rika gasps in horror before a moment of total silence. Her belly is cut open and she lets out a terrified scream. The coloring has changed from gentle orange to a bright red that increasingly saturates the color palette.

Satoko: Now, Rika... it's time for the Watanagashi ritual. [She finally smiles, and rakes her nails into the side of her neck once.]

Rika: th-the watanagashi ritual?

Satoko: you know why we perform it, yes? It's the only way to quell the wrath of Oyashiro-sama's curse.

Satoko does not move and remains seated. An odd thing to note here is that a single strand of hair on her head moves forward/downward by itself and is plainly visible.

Rika: you keep saying curse... why? [Winces in pain again]

Satoko: It seems the painkiller has completely worn off. [Stands up and presents a tray containing a vial of liquid, a syringe, 2 scalpels with different blade heads, and scissors. These are surgical-grade tools that are spotless and no blood is visible. There is blood on the underside of the white futon.] I'll give you the last of it then... wouldn't want you to be in pain.

Rika: Satoko...! [She lets out some noises upon being injected]

Satoko, smiling eerily again: Rest easy. Coach has ne injecting myself daily so I'm quite familiar with needles. [...] There, you're not in any pain now, yes?

Rika: Sa...toko... you said my nightmares are Oyashiro-sama's curse. What do you mean?

Satoko: I received a revelation from Oyashiro-sama, you see.

Rika: Revelation...?

Satoko stands up, but her face is obscured by a shadow and her mouth a flat line.

Satoko: He told me you're no longer fit to be His priestess. As such... [single scratch movement before walking off screen and returning with the ritual hoe.]

Rika looks up at her in terror.

Satoko: In Oyashiro-sama's grand revelation, He appointed me as His new priestess. [Scratch]

Rika: Satoko! [Tearing up] That Oyashiro is just a hallucination! The syndrome is making you hear things! It's all in your head!

Satoko: Rika... [raises the hoe over her head with an emotionless expression] Watch as I perform the offertory dance. You must come to terms with the truth, Rika. This nightmare was not foisted upon you on a whim.

Rika: Satoko... please stop...!

Satoko: You have sinned, Rika... and this is your eternal punishment! [Her face is still neutral here.]

With little hesitation after, Satoko brings down the hoe. Rika goes wide-eyed and cries out halfway, staring up at the ceiling and not Satoko directly as she pulls the tool back up.

Rika, whimpering as she begs: No more... please, stop... what curse? Why am I being punished? I didn't do anything to deserve this!

Satoko, frowning with her brows furrowed: No, Rika. Not only did you violate one of Oyashiro-sama's precepts, you did so as his priestess.

Rika: I did? When...?

Satoko, dropping the hoe onto the floor to crouch down again: Rika, for a long, long, long time... (her serious look shifts to an overtly angry one) you've sinfully wished to abandon Hinamizawa and get away, even while performing His sacred offertory dance!

Rika: eh?

A flashback in monochrome occurs to an unknown point in the future (or the past, for St. Lucia Rika). Rika and Satoko are wearing seifuku similar to what Rena wears, but identical in style and color. Satoko's back is turned to the camera so her face is now shown at all. Rika turns toward her with a smile on her face, holding a book as they stand in the middle of what looks to be a library or a bookstore.

Satoko: I cannot think of a more shameful act His priestess could commit!

Rika, in her deeper voice and off-screen as flashbacks to the original fragments play in monochrome, begins to speak.

Rika: Right. For the hundreds and hundreds of times I looped through 1983... I was no more than a bird trapped in a cage called Hinamizawa. I wanted to get out, fly away. That was my only wish. So when...

Another monochrome scene, except this is from the ending of Matsuribayashihen where Takano clings to Tomitake, crying as she calls to him. The club are all present, including Hanyuu in her corporeal form. We can't see their expressions as their backs are turned, but Rika is smiling here.

Takano: Jiro-san... Jiro-san...!

Tomitake: Sorry I'm late. I'm here to take you home.

Rika: when I finally broke out of that 100-year cycle of tragedy...

Rika, in her cute voice as the shot goes back to her in the bookshelves with Satoko: There's something I've secretly dreamed of doing for a long, long time. [Books on the shelf are Entrance Exam Study guides. Presumably these are high school entrance exams that determine where a student can solicit enrollment to a particular school. Rika's choice was most likely St. Lucia's. This means Rena, Shion/Mion, and K1 likely are upperclassmen in high school who have left the youngest behind in the village school.]

Older Rika: I chose to leave Hinamizawa.

The flashback ends. Rika begins crying and laughing. Satoko isn't visibly mad anymore but looks either disappointed or detached.

Rika: I've heard crazy things from people with Hinamizawa Syndrome before, but this one really hits home.

Satoko: [picks up the hoe] the oinly way to cleanse you of your sin is to perform the Watanagashi ritual.

Note: The camera pans out to show Rika laying on the floor. While the bloodstain on the futon is drawn in the usual style of liquid, the blood that splattered beyond it and onto the floor to the left side of the screen is of a more realistic detail, which we have seen before in previous scenes. Interestingly, no static flakes or vignette has been seen this entire time, and never shows up throughout. There isn't any realistic splatter on the right side even though the futon's stain exhibits a splatter pattern that would otherwise stain into the floor.

Satoko raises the hoe again, but she has her head down with her eyes shut.

S: I'm sorry... but this is the only way! I'll perform it in your stead! [Tears stream down her face. Rika stares up silently.] I'll cleanse Rika's sins by offering Him your entrails!

She swings down.

The cicadas keep singing. But the shot of their house is entirely saturated in red, with the linework in black. Satoko continues swinging down the hoe, teary-eyed and looking troubled.

Satoko: Rika, why? Why would you dream of something that would anger Oyashiro-sama? If your heart had stayed in Hinamizawa... [swing] then His curse would have never befallen you! [Swing]

Rika, still alive: My... heart...?

Satoko drops the hoe, looking heartbroken at her.

S: It's all your fault. Without you, I wouldn't have had to do this... i wouldn't have had to quell His wrath by finding everyone from club... [she scratches with both hands] and sacrificing them!

Rika: i see. This world that was to be my last, was over before it even began.

Satoko: This is all your fault Rika! You're Oyashiro reborn, aren't you?! Why would you do this?! Why?! [She scratches again, tears streaming down her face]

Rika doesn't reply, she just stares at the ceiling. Satoko finally collapses into a sobbing mess, but continues the ritual bare-handed. Rika doesn't scream but chokes out noises of evident agony.

Satoko: Why, why, why? Why would you violate his precepts? I've had to spill so much blood! [Continuing to pull while Rika's head is thrown back from the pain] What about Keiichi-san, Rena-san, Mion-san or Shion-san?

Rika starts to let out screams of agony while Satoko keeps talking.

Satoko: Didn't you enjoy your time with them here in Hinamizawa?! [She cries so much she has to choke back air.] And here I thought Rika would love it just as much as I did...

Satoko moves over Rika, before picking her upper body up into a hug.

Satoko, sobbing as she holds her: What about it wasn't to your liking?

Rika remembers many fun times here in monochrome of all her club activities with everyone, especially her smiling with Satoko and holding hands with her (there's even little circles surrounding them that you see in sparkly cute anime scenes.)

Rika, clinging to life, slowly looks over at Satoko before tearing up silently.

Satoko: What about everyone outside club? All of your classmates are friends you have fun with, too. And all the villagers are so kind to you. So why? Why? Why abandon Hinamizawa?! It's not just Oyashiro-sama who's sad about it! I'm sad too! The thought that the days in Hinamizawa I enjoyed and loved so much meant nothing to you, Rika...

The shot closes in on Rika's tearful eye that begins to close.

S: ... is so sad... too saddening to bear! (She full-on starts to wail.)

Young Rika voice: Why did I began to hate Hinamizawa in the first place?

Older Rika Voice: the answer is simple.

The shot fades to black before cutting to a young Rika standing in a black void with her hair swaying in the wind. Standing far away from her is her older self, with her St. Lucia's uniform.

Older Rika: I was trapped here for the longest time.

Younger R: Yes. That's why the moment I was released from this curse...

Older R: I wanted to get out of this hick town, enroll at a fancy wonderful school, and live a sophisticated life. Was it so wrong to dream of that?

Young Rika: 100 years. A century trapped here.

As if on cue, the void is replaced with bright colorful scenery of the Hinamizawa countryside, Rika letting out a small grunt of surprise.

Young Rika: what was it I disliked about Hinamizawa?

Older Rika: I didn't dislike it at all. The tragedies that tortured me, the series of mysterious murders, they were brought about by people plotting and clashing with each other.

Younger Rika: there were times I was having so much fun, I barely felt time passing. There were times I was lost in despair, sobbing on the floor. No matter what, Hinamizawa had me wrapped in its warm embrace.

Older Rika: Despite that, when peace returned after 100 years of grief, and Hinamizawa smiled, knowing I could finally stay here without worry...

Younger Rika wells up and cries into her hands. "I... I... I wished to be rid of this podunk village... I would I want something so stu--"

Suddenly we are cut back into the current time with a loud noise. Satoko has begun to pull out whatever is left in Rika's cavity.

Satoko: This is a curse. [Pull] Your curse.

The pulling continues until Rika is able to speak up.

Rika: I'm sorry. I was wrong.

Satoko stops in shock, and looks at her. "Rika?!"

Rika: if you'd go this far, Satoko... I finally realize...

Satoko: All I want is to live here in Hinamizawa with you, Rika. I don't need anything else.

Satoko's tone is emotive here but the camera doesn't show her expression, only Rika's as she stares off into space while crying.

Rika: Yeah. I'm sorry.

The camera finally shows Satoko crying just as much, smiling but looking sad herself.

Satoko: It's all right! I'm sure your words of repentance will grant you Oyashiro-sama's forgiveness!

Rika: I won't make that mistake again...

Her fingers press down until the last bloody finger, which closes into a fist. The scene cuts out with a snap that echoes off-screen. This is the 15:13 mark, and the rest of the episode may be viewed without concern of grotesque injury.

I hope this is of use to anyone wishing to revisit the episode for specific dialogue without having to rewatch this any further. Personally I have a strong stomach when need be but I always get queasy with such how much the gore here was drawn out... it's sort of a torture unto itself with the sound effects and voice acting.