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confirmation-roll · 9 months ago

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Comprehensive list of my Onikakushi theories

Onikakushi is one of the odder Higurashi episodes because the tone of the episode differs so completely from true nature of the events. Keiichi interprets the events in the worst because Ooishi roping him in as an informant gives him Hinamizawa Syndrome v1: it became a scary reality. Keiichi seems to be going through some pretty serious symptoms including minor visual hallucinations, memory loss, blackouts which culminate in ripping up his own throat.

Most of the scary eyes can be chalked up to his visual hallucinations and most importantly so can the needle in his food and the syringe. He's really cagey in the way he describes the needle, describing its features as log, slender, metallic, having a point and a loop, before calling it a needle. I can't think of a good item for what it really is, but maybe the rope from the game they played earlier. The "syringe" is a marker and Mion has pulled it out of that same pocket several times during the episode and they intend to , just as they say, "do the the same thing they did to Tomitake", and write on his shirt.

Memory loss also serves a a potent mode of aggravating his paranoia. When Keiichi gets a phone call form Ooishi while up in his room he is afterwards brought apples by his father because he let Rena inside and Keiichi thinks that that means she never came into his room and was listening to him secretly from the hallway. However he said that she came up about an hour ago, but the phone call wasn't even close to an hour long. It's possible that Rena came in and they talked and she left without his father's knowledge all before the phone call took place.

I think it's also likely that Rena was along with Keiichi when he went shopping with his parents and got cup noodles. We know from Watanagashi that Keiichi has no cup noodles in his house at least by 6/14 and we can also surmise that that he went shopping with Rena in order to get Mion shampoo as per the punishment game since, while it is never depicted in game, Mion definitely would have brought it up if they had failed to carry it out. If the four of them were together for the trip it would explain how she knew Keiichi would be eating cup noodles on 6/24

Most other things have mundane if unusual explanations. Like the call to the "manager" is clearly talking about Shion. However, the note Keiichi leaves behind is likely doctored by Ooishi as he attempts to turn the note into a tool which will allow him to justify search warrants against the Sonozakis. He leaves in the parts which implicate Mion and associated yakuza and take out obviously discrediting accusations like saying this marker is really a syringe and that the dismembered man is somehow still alive.

I'm a bit shaky about the yakuza involvement, because I'm pretty sure the white van that almost hits him are Sonozaki affiliated yakuza. I think they're there at Mion's behest because it's become pretty clear to Mion and Rena that Keiichi is going through the same things as Satoshi and they become worried he's going to disappear so Mion calls them in to make sure that doesn't happen. But I don't know why they drive so close to him, maybe they're keeping an eye on him and are just bad drivers.

Rena deals with Keiichi going through the same situation as Satoshi by trying to help him alleviate the symptoms of Hinamizawa Syndrome while keeping her own condition from flaring up. We see at the very beginning as Keiichi is traveling home from a funeral and sees someone apologizing that Keiichi, that he is already suffering from the condition. His acquisition goes by unnoticed as he fails to encounter any emotions strong enough to cause it to flare up. Throughout Rena is clearly tring to stop him disappearing like Satoshi did.

I don't know why the burnt body fails to turn up in an oil drum like the other two episodes. Maybe it's just happenstance, or maybe Keiichi meeting Tomitake and Takano by the river throws of her plans to fake her death. Or maybe Shion being there the other time prompted it.

Honestly kind of heartbreaking seeing how hard Rena and Mion tried to help him with how things ended up. Rena confronting Keiichi and saying that only she knows what he's going through and that he has to trust her only for him to end up killing her really hurts.

#the higurashi files #higurashi spoilers

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smidgen-of-hotboy · 11 months ago

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OKAY- after an incredibly long day spent in the morning with family, lazing around into the afternoon, and panicking through uhhhh- 6 assignments (half of them discussion posts) in the evening, I bring you JAY'S THOUGHTS: EXTENDED CUT!

"Even when the world got rough" = Juno's thing about the world getting bigger and meaner, and also great nod towards Orpheus because his music was all he had after winter, after Eurydice

CHILD OF A GOD!! what does it MEAN!! WHAT DOES IT MEAN!!!! but also i love this nod towards being an artist (i call us Makers), because the call is always there. it itches under your skin, and it's hard to ignore it for forever. at some point you have to acknowledge it and let it back into your life. you can't not make forever. you have to get back to making eventually. even if it's painful.

"he did not want to be thinking of him right now" = parallel to Peter in Hadestown going "i don't want to be thinking about sweet innocent Juno right now"

"Juno wishes he had a chance to dance a little longer." I am stealing this and wrapping it up tight and warm and keeping it close to my chest because I'm pretty sure I have a similar if not the Exact Same line written in my planning doc for the Vespa/Buddy&Jet backstory.... and if not, then i'm stealing it because oh baby- sweet Zeph babe, we are going to hurt so many.

We learn: 1) Sarah did have something to do with Ben's death, she made a deal of some kind (for power) and got exactly what she wanted. 2) She either held no guilt for it (likely) and/or found pleasure in Juno's suffering (interesting choice of characterization if this is the case, because we know Sarah in canon to play favorites and blame Juno for a lot of things) 3) "thinking about the scarf he had found left behind at the gate to the underworld" VERY INTERESTING DETAILA because in the Buddy pov in Out in the Cold Field she loses her scarf on the way to Hadestown and keels over and almost dies in a blizzard. 4)"can't stand to remember the way the gatekeeper's voice had rasped into an ugly laugh when Juno had asked" JACK TAKANO REF? RAMSES O'FLAHERTY REF?? call me crazy, but Ramses is perhaps my favorite character BECAUSE of his broad sweeping ideals and terrible treatment of our heroine and his eventual death leaves so much desire. he's a horrible, ugly old man with piercing blue eyes and all my homies hate him and i hate him too BUT! i've never had so much fun wrapping my brain around another character and I'm happy he's dead (i may regret this in 12 hours we'll see)

"singing songs of mourning until his throat was raw and dawn was beginning to peal over the eastern horizon" = good ref to Orpheus, in some versions of the myth he sings and sings and sings, driving everyone else away and so sick and tired of his music, until Apollo comes down and BEGS him to stfu and in return he'll show the boy how to reach Eurydice.

"Ma never apologized. Juno never forgave her." ougggghhhh- this. hits. hard. there are so many things i hold grudges for and against my parents, and they never apologized. and even if they did- I would never forgive them. (nothing as severe as trading away my sibling for power but like- ya know. this is fiction.)

"He could never really play the guitar again." which is! interesting! because we never DO see Juno play his song on anything or any other way but the guitar. we know he plays the piano for Buddy and them at requests, but he doesn't pick the guitar as far as i can recall for any other reason EXCEPT his song to bring spring back

"Lose a leg, gain a crutch. Lose an eye, gain a patch. Lose a brother, gain a song." OUCH OUCH OUCH OOF OOP OUCH OWIEEEEE!!! this line will stick with me the longest. i'll be thinking about randomly at work in a couple of days

"He glanced over at Jet's face and wondered what he must be thinking. Probably that this was a bad idea. There was an unusual tightness in his jaw, a tension at the corners of his eyes that spoke volumes of his discomfort and stress." Jet IS thinking that this is a bad idea, but probably not for the reasons you think Juno. He is thinking about everything that led him to this moment and deciding if he regrets anything (the answer is no) and trying to think if there was anything more he could have done to keep you from walking this path (the answer is also no).

RITA YOU GOTTA GO GIRLIE!! no but fr- this is equivalent to the current ep whatever its called cant think rn just typing but yeah. Juno's never abandoned her like he has in canon since season 2. he promised they would go off together, and he's upheld that promise as much as he can. crying out loud Rita was the first Aurinko he rescued and had he Not she would've EXPLODED!!

lose a brother, gain a song. lose rita, and what more do you have to gain?

Juno's resolve "he had to make it through" = promised land part 2 (beloved beloathed) where he donates blood and decides that he will live just because he's one stubborn son of a bitch.

Juno finally tells Jet why he knows the road, Jet reveals a bit about himself (which, thank you Kay, for your incredible read on Jet so early on! Zeph and I celebrate it shamelessly and it's because of you that I wanna tackle the Vespa/Buddy&Jet backstory) and Jet talks to Juno so calmly. just- how many? how many times did he do this, how long, when did he start? i mention in Out in the Cold Field that Jet "hasn't gone by the Unnatural Disaster in the last century" (i forgor the actual quote) so just for how long exactly was he that? how much did he see and hear?

at the same time he is incredibly kind and considerate to Juno during this walk, despite being stern with him about not pushing for "his tragic backstory", Jet still remains kind to Juno.

AND FRIEND! HIS FRIEND! HE'S REFERRING TO M'TENDERE!! interesting how he refers to M'tendere here as his friend and not Associate or ex-Associate like he would in Out in the Cold Field hmmmm... (i am winking and nodding to everyone else in this room, zeph only you and i know what's up) Also i wanna point out now how M'tendere calls Jet "Big Guy" and Juno also calls him "Big Guy" sighh- did i write that detail knowingly? yes yes i did, and i will not hide it anymore

smth smth- Jet is a psychopomp and he's walked this road and tracks so many times and Juno's walked it once and smth smth about depression and the road and alcoholism and that road... smth smth Jet "we may look back only to ensure we have not walked this path before" (or however the quote goes)

CHILD OF THE GODDESS OF OUTCASTS!! AND TRAVELERS!! OOOOOH OKOKOKOKOKOK- Hephaestus is considered an outsider god because he was disabled but in general he wasn't cruel, he was a victim if anything else Dionysus was a god of foreigners and i guess by extention could be a god of travelers and if you stretch it outcasts, but he's more well known for wine and drinking Pan is an aspect of Dionysus, but he's god of shepherds. Hermes was a jack of all trades kinda god including travel, and i think it would be an interesting if this is who Sarah was embodying simply because a lot of Hermes lines from the original Musical have been tossed around and given to LOTS of other characters and it's been established that Rita is the one doing this retelling (similar to how Hermes does in the Musical)

Juno and Ben's understanding of the Situation has its gaps! they both understand similar a scenario of events but do not have the full picture. And Ben not knowing could also be blamed on him forgetting with time what happened.

"'Yeah. Everyone is.'" </3 IT'S NOT PITY JUNO!!! IT'S NOT PITY!!! Jet actually means it! If it were up to him he probably would've let you through....

"tugging him forward, forward, forward" = parallel to Peter last part striking and breathing

"'I did not leave Hadestown on the best of terms [NO SHIT JET M'TENDERE STOLE FUCKING FIRE!!], and I would be very upset if I were caught.'" [meaning either he's still on the lam, or he simply does not want to go back to hadestown so soon]

"'Do not consider this a goodbye. I will see you again one way or another.'" = Canon Jet talking to Juno at the end of What Lies Beyond part 3 and his parting advice is ofc referencing Hermes from the Musical!

"a tear snaking down his cheek" oh- oh Big Guy.... Jet is someone who hardly cries and when he does he doesn't hide it very well.

"he was now well and truly alone" </3 my heart!

"Heart buzzing with song and stress, Juno Steel continued towards the grand walls of Hadestown." carry a song, carry stress. lose a lover, gain desperation.

overall: THIS WHOLE PART 12 IS A MASSIVE NOD TOWARDS MONSTER'S REFLECTION AND IT MAKES ME SO SCARED!! because it would make sense to not give juno time to reconnect with Benten, but it would also fit in with the beat of Monster's Reflection so welllll!!! ugggghhhhhh-

SONG FOR A CAGED LOVEBIRD: PART 12

sorry this one isn't as speedy as the rest have been!! i lost inspiration a little and needed some time to think it all over (shoutout to @smidgen-of-hotboy for bouncing some new ideas off me)

HAPPY EASTER AND KISSES TO YOU ALL @ceaseless-watchers-special-girl @urjover @one-joe-spoopy @waters-and-the-wilde @demonic-panini @the-private-eye

Even when the world got rough, he still had his music.

That was what Juno Steel kept telling himself as he walked down the road to hell, Jet tall and stoic at his side. Even when times got rough he could still sing.

The music wasn't so much something he learned as something he was born with, flowing in his veins as slick and easy as the blood that kept him alive. Music comes like that when you're the child of a god. It begs to be created no matter how much you try to push it down or carve it out. And oh gods above, had he tried. He wanted nothing to do with it after he lost his brother. But the music just kept coming, pouring out of every word and action until he finally had no choice but to acknowledge it and let it back into his life again.

All that to say he wasn't always a singer.

When he was younger, and his voice still as high as the wheat fields that towered above his head, he would play guitar for his brother. And stars above, he did not want to be thinking about him right now, but some topics are unavoidable on the road to hell. Some memories too poignant. Some things too inevitable.

Benten was always such a lovely dancer. He could move in a way that made you feel like you were watching sunlight sparkling on the water, glittering and waltzing like it's what he was born to do. And maybe he was.

Juno wishes he had lived to dance a little longer.

He doesn't like to think about the day he lost Benten. He doesn't like to remember the way Ma's face had twitched into an expression almost resembling pleasure when Juno asked where Ben had gone. He doesn't like thinking about the scarf that he had found left behind at the gates to the underworld, still carrying Benten's clean laundry scent. He can't stand to remember the way the gatekeeper's voice had rasped into an ugly laugh when Juno had asked, half panicking, how he could get someone back from Hadestown.

No one comes back from Hadestown, little lady.

Juno spent that sleepless night with tears pouring down his face, singing songs of mourning until his throat was raw and dawn was beginning to peak over the eastern horizon.

Ma never apologized. Juno never forgave her.

He could never really play the guitar again. It reminded him too much of his brother. But the song... the song felt good. Natural. It eased its way out of his lungs as simple as breathing, something innate and instinctive that now just made sense to him.

Juno supposed it was fitting that it should. Lose a leg, gain a crutch. Lose an eye, gain a patch. Lose a brother, gain a song.

“How are you doing, Juno? We will reach the outer walls of the city soon.”

He glanced over at Jet’s face and wondered what he must be thinking. Probably that this was a bad idea. There was an unusual tightness to his jaw, a tension at the corners of his eyes that spoke volumes of his discomfort and stress.

“I know we’re almost there, but thanks for reminding me. I’m doing alright, big guy. Just a little jittery,” Juno responded, rubbing the back of his neck.

Back where the road ended and the tracks began, Jet told Rita to turn back. She didn’t want to leave, didn’t understand, begged them to let her stay. Jet asked her again to turn back, but she had been insistent about it, clinging to Juno like a barnacle on the hull of a sailboat, but so had Jet, gently prying her away as he explained why it was too dangerous for her to go as well.

Juno had seen the flash of pain in his eyes as she walked away, faintly sniffling. He cared about her too. He didn’t want her to leave either. But they both knew it had to be done.

Juno felt odd without her presence there. Off-kilter somehow. Like he needed her to balance himself out. For as much of a human hurricane as she was, he had to admit, she brought him a lot of peace and calm. This was the first time in years he had done anything without her by his side, but he would make it through.

He had to make it through.

“How did you know we were almost there?” Jet questioned, shooting Juno a sideways look that he couldn’t quite decipher. “Most people who have walked this road do not live to tell the tale.”

Juno faltered, nearly tripping over his own feet as his words failed to escape his mouth. “I….I was here once. A long time ago.”

Jet nodded solemnly. “I assumed as much. Who did you lose?”

“......My brother. My twin. He went missing while I was away from home. I got back and Ma refused to tell me where he was and I couldn’t find him anywhere I thought to look. This was my last resort.”

“Did you ever find him again?”

“No. I wish I had. I… I miss him. A lot. Him being gone changed a lot of who I am.”

Jet nodded again, face thoughtful, and Juno silently thanked the gods that Jet wasn’t nearly as curious or pushy as he was.

A silence stretched between them, wider and darker than the grim horizon in the distance. Juno cracked the silence first.

“Well, what about you, big guy? Who did you lose? How did you get to know these backroads and tracks so well?”

“I am a psychopomp.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“A psychopomp. A spirit guide. It was my job to escort lost souls down to Hades, but there was. An incident. That forced me and my friend to leave those jobs.”

“So what kind of incident?”

“I would rather not discuss it.”

“Oh come on, you got to hear my tragic backstory, why can’t I hear yours?”

Jet stiffened slightly and his voice dropped even lower in warning. “I said, I would rather not discuss it, Juno.”

Juno huffed out a sigh. “Fine. I’m sorry.”

“You are forgiven. Although, I do have one question for you.”

“What is it, big guy?”

“How were you able to walk this road and survive to talk about it?”

Juno opened his mouth to respond, then closed it and shrugged. “You know, I’m not sure. I guess it’s one of the perks of being a child of the goddess of outcasts and travelers. I’ve never had a problem traveling on any road.”

Jet tilted his head in slight confusion. “Then why were you unable to retrieve your brother from Hadestown if you encounter no trouble while traveling?”

Juno gritted his teeth and stared at the ground as he walked. “They wouldn’t let me in. Said that even if they did, there was nothing I could do to save him. Said that he was part of some kind of bargain with Ma. His life for more power. They forced me to turn back and go home.”

“I am very sorry.”

Juno looked up at the horizon again. “Yeah. Everyone is.”

The outer wall of Hadestown was beginning to loom in the distance. Even from here, Juno could hear the rhythmic clangs and chants of the workers on the wall, moving to the steady flow of molten metal and clunking gears. It was a struggle to keep his strides from matching that beat, tugging him forward, forward, forward.

Jet stopped short. “I think this is where I must leave you. I did not leave Hadestown on the best of terms, and I would be very upset if I were caught.”

Juno stopped too, looking back at Jet over his shoulder. “Oh. Okay. I…. I don’t know what to say now. This feels a little like goodbye.”

“Do not consider this a goodbye. I will see you again one way or another. I will leave you with some advice for surviving in Hadestown: be careful of your words and who is listening. Farewell, Juno Steel. It was a pleasure to walk the road to hell with you.”

With that, Jet bowed his head to Juno, a tear snaking down his cheek, and turned and walked away.

He wasn’t sure exactly what Jet meant, but he knew one thing for certain: he was now well and truly alone. He breathed in, breathed out, shook his head a bit to clear up the emotions, and turned back to face the underground city.

Heart buzzing with song and stress, Juno Steel continued towards the grand walls of Hadestown.

#lore dumping!!#imma go pass out now and dream of sweet nothing!#thank you for your patience while i got my shit together to get to this finally!!#tpp hadestown au #song for a caged lovebird #private eye's keys go jingle jangle #talking about their writing

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redxblueihateloveyou · 3 years ago

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Am I the only one who doesn’t get why some (tw) are shitting on Haru and Rin separately just for the fact that they reciprocate each others feelings? Because it’s not the feelings they wanted them to reciprocate? Just curious because I'm new and recently entered the fandom. And since when miscommunication in between means that they don't deserve to be happy at the end? Because you're an idiot when it comes to love, doesn't mean you're a bad person. I came from chinese bl and it's weird to me.

Hehe welcome to the madness, perfect time to join! Yeah, tbh that's the thing in the fandom that always bugged me the most. The fact that some act like if you don't reciprocate someone's feelings, it makes you a bad person. I always found it incredibly cringy when ppl in real life for example make ppl feel guilty for not feeling the same way and make you feel like shit bc of it. I don't get why you have to apologize for that or feel bad, if you never ever gave him any hope or anything in the first place.

Nowdays it's thankfully a rare sight already in this fandom, bc most already grown and see perfectly what's truly healthy and unhealthy, it's just tbh only the same 3 accounts ppl keep sending me that are still on that, who also think that Haru is literally possessed in the last movie so I don't see the point of like arguing with ppl like this. It's just they're always getting extremely angry when Haru wants Rin as if it's his fault that he feels this way and always go about it like he is inconsiderate of Makoto's feelings. Implying that they're mad that he doesn't feel that way about Makoto, while Makoto does. I'm same as @tododeku-or-bust for example said here (idk what fandom brought this on, but just in general) also do not get what's appealing about this kind of relationships in the first place.

If they shipped it in terms of like it's mutual I'd get it, but they go on about how Rin or Haru are bad friends bc they're not in love with their best friends... like ?????? I didn't know you owe it to your friends to have romantic feelings for them.

In real life if you found out that your bestie feels that way for you while you don't reciprocate, it's a burden, that'll make you feel uncomfortable and at times guilty when you shouldn't technically feel that way. So putting on someone a burden of "I was pining for you all along", when you know they don't feel the same is giving me this feeling of cringe. So I personally do not get what's enjoyable at seeing it like that in Free. But to each their own kink lmao.

It's like... is Haru at fault for the fact that he was Ikuya's first love too? I do not get it really. Like he doesn't have to take responsibility for everyone who falls for him and he doesn't owe anyone to reciprocate their feelings. Even to Rin. Like if he didn't feel the same way for Rin, it wouldn't be his fault either. But since he does feel the same way for him, it's like... good, great, happy for them.

Like once again if someone believes that Makoto and Sousuke are unrequitedly in love with Rin and Haru, that's not rinharu fault. Haru literally never ever lead Makoto on EVER. He never ever did anything that would make Makoto believe that they're more than friends. He was always honest about everything. Like when Makoto thought that he went out to see him, but Haru just wanted to see the sunrise, he told him just that. He never encoraged anything, he refused to live with him and never wanted. I do not get why it's supposed to be his fault that he doesn't like his friend in that way. If Makoto has some unrequited feelings for him and decided to hang up on this, it's his own life choice in my opinion.

It's like saying that Onodera and Takano for example don't deserve to be together just because they unintentionally hurt each other and got separated for 10 years bc of misunderstanding. This argument is like typical Yokozawa life position aka "but I was there when he left you heartbroken for several years, that means you MUST pick me". As I've said before, that's just not how it fucking works. And just bc they couldn't explain things to each other normally, doesn't mean that they don't deserve be happy now. Being idiots is not a crime.

Or if you came from chinese bl, lets go "Guardian" for example. Zhu Hong also was on about how "why you love Shen Wei, not me, I always did everything for you and I was always there, I even wore heels bc you once said you liked those etc". Like he never asked her to do this, he never gave her any hope, he was beyond rude and open about the fact that he's not interested, he never did anything to make her think she had a chance since the beginning. Just bc she decided to dedicate her life to false hope that maybe one day something might change is not his fault. It was her choice. Why Yunlan should feel like shit bc of that I do not get personally.

I'm just buffled bc like Haru for example is the most caring about other ppl's pain person, but they call him selfish and rude bc of the way he is with Makoto at times, not even realising that it IS in fact what means being kind sometimes.. to not give someone a chance when you know you don't feel it. I was always saying this like since forever, being kind doesn't mean for example giving everyone second chances, loving everyone, wanting to be friends with anyone etc. In some situations it's not being kind, it's being stupid or even not being a good person. Once again... offering someone friendship after he openly dissed your friend and you see that he's not in any position to talk back is not kind. Or if someone cheats on you constantly, but you always forgive them it's also not you being kind. It's you being stupid. Sometimes you have to be harsh. It's for the greater good.

And like I saw several times stuff like someone under scenes where Rin has his eyes for Haru only, commenting like "oh great, look at Rin being inconsiderate of Sousuke's feelings again. Can't believe you guys find this romantic." I mean, if in their opinion Sousuke is in pain from being Rin's friend, he can end it, it's his choice. It's not Rin's fault that he thinks of him as just his friend. So thinking that Rin is an asshole bc each time he simply hangs out with Sousuke he's a selfish bitch is fucking insane. I'd feel extremely bad if my best friend was seeing it this way for example. It's like hella ugly.

This annoys me also bc of the fact that Rin, the person who at the age of 12 single-handedly saved his family from falling apart after his father's death, who's an amazing friend to Sousuke and did everything to make his happy after he found out about his trauma and always checks on him first and cries about his shoulder, who in the late evenings taught Rei to swim, when everyone else gave up already xD, who was looking after Nitori during his training, who pretends to walk the same road, just because he's scared to let Gou return alone in the evenings, the most amazing son and brother, is suddenly an asshole just because Haru is in love with him, but not with Makoto. I mean, thats just... huh? Like I dont mind you ship what you want to ship, it's like to each their own crayons for real. But like dissing them and call them selfish just bc they only see their friends as friends and don't want anything more is weird to me.

As for the fact that bc of the misunderstanding they don't deserve to be happy, that's just idiotic. I mean, lets punish Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan too just bc Lan Zhan couldn't voice his real feelings back then and bc WWX misunderstood him. Lets ship WWX with Wen Ning instead. Nezumi is cancelled, he doesn't deserve to be with Shion. He left him. Takano should stay with Yokozawa, Onodera is trash. Wu Xie is trash for wanting to be with Zhang Qiling too. It doesn't matter why he leaves, it only matters that he always does. I can't believe he doesn't see that Pangzi is there with him all along xD. What an ungrateful trash of a human being I can't even.

And anyways btw both Rin and Haru are not ideal human beings in any way (otherwise I wouldn't love them this much tbh xD). But their flaws are definitely not what for example mh shippers usually blame them for. You can argue about their other imperfections easily. Like being stupidly stubborn for example. I won't point fingers here, Haru lolz. Or literally anything else.

My point is you can find what to trash them for logically, if you wanna. Do it smartly tho. Otherwise you make your ship look bad.

And I once again say what wise person said about his relationships and about the fact that not being able with someone he loves hurt him and 'why is he doing this to himself' he answered: "it's not on him. my happiness and my pain is for me to handle". Everyone decides for themselves. This is why for example Haru was so broken about voicing this to Rin and didn't have any intentions to tell him that in the first place. Bc it's not right, if you're not sure that it's requited. Technically he has no right to blame Rin for making him fall in love with him and then leaving in the first place. It's not Rin's fault really, that he made him feel what he feels for him, it's ultimately Haru's problem. That's why he feels has no right to blame him in the first place. I mean, he doesn't know that Rin feels the same, that means saying to him "you break my heart each time you leave" and making him feel bad about it is technically wrong. That's why Haru to himself said "no, please, don't say such things to him". Everyone for himself decides who deserves your 5, 7, 800 or 10000 years of your pain. It's your decision. It's your life. If Haru feels like Rin is worth it, then you have no say in that matter really. The only reason we call Rin an idiot or Haru an idiot is because we know they feel the same, so we can. But blame someone else for not feeling what you're feeling is not right.

So like even if you feel like Makoto and Sousuke have feelings for their friends, blaming Haru and Rin for having feelings for each other and not for them is beyond weird. And there's nothing wrong with putting someone you love first, every bro/sis gets it. You can say bros before hoes all you want, but like Lan Zhan might just drop his bro for his hoe, if he was given a choice. Would it make him a bad person? The fact that Wu Xie chose to save Xiaoge before Pangzi makes his a bad person? My point is it's not all that easy.

I just feel like many ppl in this fandom are very weird about many things. Either because they do not get what it's like to go through some things or maybe they just do not get that no matter how cheesy this sounds love is not that simple. I mean, for example not all selfish is bad, sometimes like in Haru's case for example not being selfish is also bad. Bc if he finally asks for what he wants, he will make both himself AND Rin happy.

To be angry at Rin bc of the aftermath of his father's death and s1 I never had it in me, after knowing everything and how adults handled it. If some of Sousuke's fans bc of Yakusoku and the fact that Rin found his salvation in Haru bc he helped him to move forward after getting his family out of this hell alone and that Haru was the safe haven that made him happy in this moment of his life, want to trash Rin for the fact that he "neglected" Sousuke, its like your opinion. I personally do not get it. Rin doesn't owe Sousuke anything. It's not his fault again that Haru's existence helped him to feel better.

Just like not everyone will get why Haru in 1x12 was so happy about the fact that he could help Rin. To be that special somebody for someone who can "save" you in moments of your life like this, especially if you love them is an incredible feeling. And no, your bestie isn't always the person for this job, no. I don't see why people do not get that I guess, that's all. But we all have our own opinion on everything, so...

We same as you do not get it since forever, but its like it is what it is in this fandom. I personally just have another life position on stuff, so I'm very far from that point of view they have.

#answered #anonymous #rinharu #harurin #free!#nanase haruka #rin matsuoka

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misscorn · 4 years ago

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Day 6: Takaritsu Day/Confession

I can't believe @takaritsuweek is almost over 😭 please enjoy this one shot ❤

***

Ritsu was starting to become convinced that the universe was trying to tell him that he and Masamune shouldn't be together. Every time Ritsu attempted to confess something went wrong and prevented him from doing so.

First it was the dinner disaster (the first of many dinner disasters, in fact). Ritsu had attempted to prepare a nice dinner for he and Masamune to share, but when Masamune came over what he found was Ritsu in a complete mess of a kitchen. The two of them spent their time cleaning everything up instead of eating as Ritsu apologized profusely for the trouble. It had taken so much courage for Ritsu to even ask Masamune over and then Ritsu had gone and ruined it all. It took everything in Ritsu not to cry, but Masamune managed to distract him with the suggestion of ordering in and watching a few movies. Somehow it ended up being at least a little bit fun, but Ritsu still felt bad for messing everything up.

Then there was the flower failure. Ritsu had thought that maybe a different romantic gesture would be good. When he had left his home to go get a bouquet the sky had been an ominous gray, but he hadn't brought an umbrella. He had only just managed to avoid the rain as he rushed into the shop. After purchasing his flowers he had hung around the shop to wait for the rain to pass. Luckily it was a short, though intense burst and Ritsu didn't have to wait for too terribly long. He left hurriedly after the rain stopped, but he wasn't able to stay dry for long as a car sped past him and totally soaked him with dirty street water. And had soaked the bouquet as well. Ritsu locked himself in his apartment for the rest of the day to sulk and Masamune had never learned of Ritsu's plan to surprise him.

The list went on and on: the chocolate calamity, the botched beach day, the festival fiasco, and not to mention the repeating ringtone. The repeating ringtone, as the name suggested, was a repeat offender. Masamune and Ritsu seemed to just not know how to turn their stupid phones off and every time Ritsu is about to open his mouth and say those three little words, one of their phones ring to interrupt him.

Ritsu was at his wits end. He couldn't even think about confessing at this point without getting extremely frustrated or just wanting to cry. At this rate he would never be able to confess. Maybe it really is the world trying to tell me it's not a good idea, Ritsu lamented. How many times could his confession go wrong before Ritsu finally took it as a sign?

Ritsu's pessimism was growing with every failed confession and eventually it started to become noticeable to Masamune. It was difficult for Ritsu to look Masamune in the eye and spend time with him outside of work when it was just a reminder that he was never going to be able to properly communicate his feelings because for some reason fate had a vendetta against him.

Masamune didn't understand why Ritsu was suddenly starting to avoid him after the two of them seemed to be making progress. Why was Ritsu suddenly only speaking to him at work? Why wouldn't Ritsu maintain eye contact with him for long? Why couldn't Masamune make Ritsu blush as easily as he used to? He was becoming seriously concerned and if he had to corner Ritsu to get answers then he would.

That's why Masamune was currently standing in front of Ritsu's apartment, knocking on his door insistently. When his knocks didn't get a response he then started to call Ritsu over and over again. Masamune knew how to be annoying and damn it he would annoy the hell out of Ritsu until he couldn't possibly ignore him anymore.

It took a while, but eventually Ritsu's door slowly creaked open. Ritsu narrowed his eyes at Masamune as he rejected what must have been Masamune's twentieth call. "What do you want Takano-san?" He asked. Well, Masamune had definitely succeeded in annoying Ritsu.

"I'm coming in." Masamune said instead of answering, managing to push past Ritsu and into the apartment.

"Takano-san!" Ritsu exclaimed in protest, but Masamune ignored him as he took off his shoes. "You can't just come in here whenever you want!"

"It's cleaner than usual. Is that why you've been avoiding me? You've been spending your time cleaning instead?"

"What? A-avoiding you? I haven't been avoiding you." Ritsu said as he averted his eyes, not able to look at Masamune as he lied.

"Are you angry with me?" Masamune asked. "Did I do something?" He stepped closer to Ritsu, invading his space as he so often did.

"No-I'm not-" Ritsu backed up, pressing himself against the door as he shook his head. "You didn't do anything, but I'm a little busy, so if you could please show yourself out." He huffed, managing to get past Masamune and walk deeper into his apartment. He should've known that Masamune would follow.

"How am I supposed to apologize if you won't talk to me?" Masamune pressed.

"I already told you, you didn't do anything." Ritsu repeated. "Other than letting yourself into my apartment!" He added. "So, please, just go-"

"Ritsu, whatever I did, I'm sorr-"

"It's not you!" Ritsu insisted, his frustrations beginning to build up inside him rapidly from every push from Masamune.

"Then why won't you even look at me?" Masamune frowned, stepping closer to take Ritsu's hand, but the brunette quickly snatched it away.

"Because...because looking at you makes me think of how much I'm screwing this all up!" Ritsu covered his face with a hand, humiliated.

"What? Ritsu, what are you talking about?" Masamune asked, reaching out to put his hands on Ritsu's shoulders.

Ritsu refused to look Masamune in the face, even with Masamune attempting to coax him to do so. "Every time I try to plan something nice, it all goes wrong! How you're not sick of all this nonsense yet I'll never understand."

"Ritsu, I still don't know what you're talking about." Masamune frowned. Just what the hell was Ritsu going on about?

"I just want things to be perfect and they never go the way I plan: I either almost explode my kitchen or forget to bring sunscreen to the beach or get sick after too many festival foods or have a stupid author emergency that interrupts everything! You don't even know how many plans I've had that never even got off the ground! Everything just gets messed up every single time!" Ritsu was getting more and more worked up as his eyes started to water.

"Ritsu..." Masamune stared, feeling a little useless in this situation.

"I'm sorry." Ritsu apologized. "I'm a pretty crummy boyfriend, huh?" He laughed humorlessly.

Boyfriend? Boyfriend? Had Ritsu just willingly referred to himself as Masamune's boyfriend?!

"Are you an idiot?" Masamune squeezed his shoulders.

"H-Huh?"

"So what that things go wrong sometimes? Do you think that's what I remember?" Masamune asked. "I remember having fun at the beach because you had fun. Yeah, we got a little sunburnt, but having a red back was worth spending time together. I loved watching you get all excited at the festival, even if your excitement went a little overboard, and I always want to be there to feel that kind of excitement with you. And yes, you've probably destroyed your kitchen more times than either of us can count, but I like having an excuse to just sit on the couch and cuddle while waiting for takeout. Ritsu, I don't care what we do or what happens, what I care about is that we're doing it together." Masamune hoped he was at least helping a little bit, but it seemed his words only made Ritsu's tears spill over.

"T-Takano-san..." Ritsu managed in a wobbly voice.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Masamune and Ritsu both stared at each other for a good while as Ritsu's words sunk in.

"Wait!" Ritsu shouted, throwing his hands up and waving them frantically. "No, no! I wasn't supposed to say that! This wasn't how it was supposed to go! It was supposed to be special! Please ignore-!"

Masamune crushed Ritsu to his body, kissing him so hard that his lips would probably bruise, but he didn't care.

Ritsu tensed at first, his face flushing red at the sudden kiss. Slowly, he relaxed in Masamune's hold, wrapping his arms around his neck as he shyly started to return the affection.

"Your room, now." Masamune started to pull a stunned Ritsu in the direction of his bedroom.

"H-h-huh?"

"You didn't think you could say something like that without consequences, did you?"

"But..." Ritsu blinked a few times, slowly getting his thoughts back in order. "I told you it would be perfect." He frowned.

Masamune stared for a moment before sighing, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "You really are an idiot, aren't you?" He asked, making Ritsu frown. "It was always going to be perfect. Because it's coming from you."

Ritsu tried to stop himself from tearing up again. How can he be such an asshole but also so heartfelt? It was Ritsu's turn to kiss Masamune entirely too hard and the brunette didn't resist when Masamune led him to the bedroom.

How could he possibly think he isn't perfect? Masamune wondered as he kissed Ritsu passionately on his bed, the brunette laying on his back and clinging on to Masamune tightly.

Masamune was just about to run his hands up Ritsu's shirt when a familiar ringtone buzzed from Ritsu's pants pocket.

"Pft." Masamune was attempting (and failing) to hold back a laugh.

"Its not funny." Ritsu scowled as he fished his phone out and promptly turned it off, not even bothering to check who was calling.

Masamune smiled at the sight of Ritsu's haughty expression as he shoved his phone into his nightstand's drawer.

"Yours too." Ritsu said, holding his hand out. Masamune didn't argue, forking his phone over and letting Ritsu put it away before pouncing on him again.

"I love you." Masamune said between pressing kisses to Ritsu's neck.

Ritsu flushed, the red reaching the tips of his ears as he tightly screwed his fingers into the back of Masamune's shirt. He hoped Masamune couldn't feel his frantic pulse against his lips (Masamune definitely could as he gave that spot extra attention).

"I love you too."

#onodera ritsu #sekaiichi hatsukoi #takano masamune #takaritsuweek #fanfiction

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jaedencex · 4 years ago

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SEKAIICHI HATSUKOI ~ THE CASE OF ONODERA RITSU 29.5 ~ SUMMARY/TRANSLATION/SCANLATION

An: “Ricchan!”

A frazzled-looking An-chan is hobbling over to Ritsu, apologising for being late as she missed her train. Ritsu reassures her that it’s okay and An asks if they could stop by the convenience store.

Ritsu: “Sure. Is something wrong with your feet?”

An explains that her new shoes are a bad fit and worried, Ritsu asks if she’s alright. He noticed she’d been sort of limping her way over to him anyway, so he wondered if something was wrong. An says she’s alright, but also not really and that she’s embarrassed about the whole thing.

Ritsu: “Oh, wait here then. I’ll go buy some for you.”

An: “I’m so sorry. I’m the one who invited you on this shopping trip, after all. Thank you.”

Ritsu: “No worries.”

Ritsu’s positive and gentle attitude seems to make her extremely happy as she exclaims “I’m so glad Ricchan is back to being Ricchan~~!”. Ritsu asks An what she means by that.

Understanding what she meant, Ritsu apologizes for the worry that must have caused her, but An just says “No, it’s all good now, so don’t worry.”

After that, Ritsu complains about his current jet lag from the plane ride home and that he can’t seem to shake it off. An laughs and tells him that it will linger for a while.

His phone beeps and it’s a message from Nao, most likely asking him if he got home okay.

Ritsu’s thoughts: I’ll talk to him once I’m home.

Ritsu’s thoughts: He went to an Art School in America to learn photography.

Ritsu’s thoughts: I’m impressed that his drive has stayed so true.

With Ritsu having these newfound ambitions, he’s finally forgotten all the sad things as well as his ugly past. He’s okay now.

As the cherry blossoms bloom into view, An interrupts Ricchan from his thoughts exclaiming in awe at how pretty the blossoms look and that now is the absolute best time to enjoy them. Even though Ritsu says he’s forgotten everything, there are some triggers that he still needs to avoid. The cherry blossoms just remind him of his first love, so he distracts An by suddenly pointing to a limited-edition item that she was looking for, asking if that’s the right one.

It works.

An: “Oh! Yes, that’s it!”

In the background of the panel, we can see a dark-haired man walking with a woman on his left. On the last page (we get one of the most frustrating panels I’ve ever read in a manga. I’ll spare you the frustration if you’re not already feeling it, for now), we now see that the dark-haired man is a younger Takano, crossing paths with Ritsu. However, they don’t notice each other.

Ritsu’s thoughts: It will be a little while until we say “Nice to meet you.” for the first time.

END

Translation: jaedencex (me)

Scans: Sarah

Cleans: Sarah

Typeset: jaedencex (me)

Okay so, I’m still working on the summaries for the most recent chapter. Since the lovely Sarah had already scanned and cleaned these, all I had to do was typeset the selected panels and write the summary/translation along with them. It’s a new style I’m going to be doing to avoid such lengthy summaries like in the past, as well as making them more enjoyable for you guys.

This was something I wanted to post to keep people somewhat satisfied in the meantime, while I’m working on ONB31. It’s going to look pretty much like this, except they will be my scans and cleans. It most likely won’t be in parts either! Just one big post!

In future, I plan to get future chapter summaries and translations up much quicker. It’s just been a hard year ):

Just a note; I’ve already translated ONB31 and the full transcript is available only in my SIH/JR discord server. The full translation for ONB29.5 is also available there as well. So, DM me for the server invite if you’d like to see!

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair"

#sekaiichi hatsukoi #sih #onb #onodera no baai #onb 29.5 #onodera ritsu #takano masamune #takaritsu #kohinata an #sih summary #summary #translation

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ravenpureforever · 4 years ago

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Day 4: AU/Free Prompt

@takaritsuweek continues and has given me far too much power, so enjoy this snippet for yet another larger au I’m working on! This called the hot neighbor au and it’s basically if what if when Ritsu moved in, he & Takano met? And now we have this mess.

Also on my ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32949100/chapters/81955159#workskin

...

At this point in his life, Ritsu has accepted that the universe loves to mess with him. He is fate’s favorite punching bag; from his first love toying with his pure, innocent feelings to people whispering that he doesn’t even try at his job. As if trying to wrangle Usami Akihiko was easy when he’s had to break down the door to his apartment multiple times because the asshole was always trying to avoid his deadlines.

But this really takes the cake.

All things considered, Ritsu got along fairly well with his new neighbor, Takano. The man was also an editor, albeit for shoujo manga, and understood the working hours could be strange and what it’s like to sometimes be drowning in work.

Though shoujo seemed far more terrifying than literature could ever hope to be, no matter what Usami attempted to do.

Takano wasn’t noisy. He helped Ritsu get adjusted to the workings of his new apartments, and he occasionally invited Ritsu over for a drink. He has become in many ways over the past two months, almost a friend to Ritsu.

He was also achingly, devastatingly handsome to the point it should be completely illegal, and Ritsu isn’t sure how he’s even able to hold a proper conversation with him some days

If it weren't for the fact that Ritsu was too jaded to ever love again, he’d probably have fallen for Takano by this point, as Takano seemingly slipped into being a good part of Ritsu’s life without him even noticing

But then Ritsu was invited to come over and drink with Takano and his friend Yokazawa. And he just had to go and get drunk and start sobbing about Saga-senpai, and how his heart was completely and utterly broken at the tender age of fifteen and that he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to love ever again.

And when he woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, wishing for the sweet release of death as a result of the pain of his head and the humiliation that he dumped his relationship problems on them and proceeded to pass out for eight hours.

He was going to have to buy them both a fruit basket or something as an apology if he ever wanted to be able to look either of them in the eye again.

He’d somehow ended up in his own bedroom, so Takano must’ve been kind enough to bring him home after last night.

Ritsu stumbles into the kitchen to get some coffee and painkillers, only to find Takano there making breakfast.

Before Ritsu can get a word in, to apologize, to ask him why he’s here, to try and process what on earth could possibly be going on, Takano turns to him and gives RItsu a grin that sends shivers down his spine, in either fear or arousal.

“I’m going to make you fall in love with me again.” Takano proclaims.

“What?” Ritsu croaks out, confused.

“Back in high school, my last name was Saga, and you are going to confess your love to me again.” Takano tells him, and Ritsu feels his body go cold.

He thinks that he is perfectly justified in fainting.

…

Masamune feels a rush of shock when he learns that his cute neighbor Ritsu is his Ritsu. Oda Ritsu is Onodera Ritsu and the sweet, shy underclassmen that broke his heart apparently thought that Masamune didn’t love him, and it was just a stupid miscommunication that caused all this heartbreak and pain.

This must be fate giving him a second chance to make things right.

He and Ritsu were never able to get over each other, and this is their chance to try again and get a happy ending.

For the first time in a while, Masamune feels something akin to hope.

He won’t lose Ritsu again.

He won’t.

#sekaiichi hatsukoi #sih #takaritsu #my writing #hot neighbor au #takaritsu week #takaritsu week 2021 #2021 #takano x ritsu #takano masamune #onodera ritsu

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tsuisou-no-despair · 3 years ago

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Higurashi TEN: Rikakushi-hen - Motive-Hiding Chapter (理隠し編)

(Why yes, that is the same character as in Satoko's precious "Rika")

Time for the last of the question arcs... and like the fourth arc in canon, this one stars Akasaka. However, since Akasaka's a much more present figure in Ten, a small two-chapter story simply will not do. This one is shorter than the three before it, but not by much.

We open on Akasaka waking up in an unknown location, his hands cuffed behind his back. Most of the arc is told in flashback, with the story occasionally jumping back to the present as he reflects on his situation.

Jumping back three weeks, we see Akasaka joyfully reuniting with his daughter, Miyuki - usually, she lives with Akasaka's parents since he's busy with his work, but she's living with him for a while since they're indisposed. We view a slice of Akasaka's life - police work in Okinomiya, pinning butterflies with Miyuki, spending time with his friends Tomitake and Irie, and trying to crack the big mystery dominating his life - the truth behind Oyashiro-sama's curse. It took his wife from him, and it keeps taking from so many other people... and it's not going to end until he figures out how to stop it for good.

As the Watanagashi festival draws closer, Akasaka takes some time to interview the living next of kin of the various victims of the curse, since he has a great deal of sympathy for all of them. (Even Teppei, for complex reasons.) The interview with the Chie family is unfruitful, the meeting with Teppei (after the latter's had enough drinks to accept Akasaka's presence) is far more telling about him than of Tamae or Miyoko, his questioning of Hanyuu and a notably listless Miyoko[1] get him no more answers about their parents than before, and his attempts to talk to anyone else in Hinamizawa are quickly stonewalled. That evening, he runs into Takano in Okinomiya and the two discuss the intersection of their research into the curse. The next day, they meet at the Okinomiya library to (literally) compare notes. Takano posits that the true reason people are targeted is that they're in a grey area between Hinamizawa and the outside world, while "Oyashiro-sama" wants to make sure everyone's only in one camp or the other. Akasaka points out the theory's flaws and Takano agrees that it isn't perfect, but she still thinks it'd help narrow down the list of potential candidates to "people like us". As Takano is packing up, a note of hers catches Akasaka's eye - "Not even Rika-chan knows everything about the curse". When Akasaka asks who Rika-chan is, Takano refers to her as "someone dear to me" and tells him not to worry about it - which, naturally, makes him want to learn more about this "Rika".

We get a small flashback to multiple years before and see Akasaka, Tomitake, and Satoshi roasting Irie after his latest escapade with (Satoko) Takano predictably went awry. Satoko interrupts them and Akasaka reminisces about the Takano siblings... and how much he wishes Satoshi was still around. In the present, Akasaka vows to get a true answer about his sudden exit... once he escapes his imprisonment, of course.

Akasaka, Tomitake and Irie are playing mahjong when Akasaka asks the other two about Takano's mention of "Rika". Irie thinks he might have heard Satoshi mention her once or twice, while Tomitake frowns at the name. Before he can elaborate, an unexpected visitor drops in on them - Akasaka's old comrade, Detective Ooishi. Akasaka is surprised but delighted, while Tomitake expresses surprise that Ooishi's even daring to be in Okinomiya. Ooishi says that it's only Hinamizawa where he's forbidden, asks if he can join the game, and proceeds to absolutely destroy the rest of the table. Afterward, Akasaka asks Ooishi why he's here: Ooishi tells Akasaka that it's a matter that should wait until Hinamizawa isn't listening. As he's heading home, Akasaka bumps into Miyoko, who apologizes for not having good answers the other day despite "knowing everything". Taking a stab in the dark, Akasaka asks Miyoko what she knows about Rika. Miyoko admits that Rika is the one person in Hinamizawa that she has no answers about, as she's never met her and has only seen her name written down a few times. Miyoko tells Akasaka to leave learning about Rika to her and to focus on the important things in his life before running off - once she's gone, Akasaka muses that Rika is important since she's the first new lead he's had in months.

Akasaka combs what records he can and finds only a few references to Rika, but they point to the clinic possibly having more information. Before he can make more inroads, he's reminded that the Wataganashi festival is soon, and he promised Miyuki that he'd take her. However, Ooishi reaches out and asks to meet during the festival, when Hinamizawa's attention will be focused there. Since the meeting time is later in the night (about when Hanyuu would be dancing), Akasaka decides to go to the first part of the festival and step away early. Miyuki enjoys the festival immensely as she's taken under Miyoko's wing and roped into the Games' Club's contest as part of the "Beautiful Yoko-Yuki Duo" that eventually claims victory. However, as Akasaka prepares to leave, he's stopped by Miyoko, who thanks him for allowing Miyuki to hang out with the club and lift her spirits, before telling him that Miyuki still needs her father's presence at the festival. Akasaka hesitates but seeks out Tomitake and Takano and asks them to look after her, since there's nobody in Hinamizawa he trusts more than them. Takano eagerly agrees, noting that she hasn't had the chance to meet Miyuki until now. As he leaves, Miyoko expresses her disappointment, tells him that nothing Ooishi tells him will save anyone and that she'll make sure Miyuki won't have to see the curse take anyone's life.

Akasaka meets with Ooishi at Angel Mort and wants to know what's so important and secret that it has to be discussed during the festival. Ooishi tells him about a wide array of suicides, disappearances, and criminal cases dating back to the end of World War 2. Beyond their tendency towards being grisly or bizarre affairs, the main thread connecting them all is that they all involved people originally from Hinamizawa, and there are far too many cases tying back to a small village than there should be. The truth that Ooishi didn't want anyone from Hinamizawa hearing is that Oyashiro-sama's curse has been claiming people for far longer (and far more often) than anyone had thought. Akasaka thanks Ooishi for the information, takes the documents, and heads back to Hinamizawa.

On his way back, Akasaka comes across Tomitake's body. He immediately calls in backup to handle the crime scene before speeding back towards Hinamizawa. As he arrives, he gets a call telling him about Takano's death. Akasaka wanders the festival grounds in a daze, still processing the loss of two of his closest friends, before being broken out of his trance by Miyoko, Miyuki, and the rest of the Games Club. He turns down their offer to help take care of Miyuki and goes to take her home. Before he does, Miyoko whispers to him that he was right to put his trust in Tomitake and Takano any night except this one. Akasaka asks Miyoko if she knows what's happened to them; Miyoko sadly reminds him that she knows everything.

We have another short flashback featuring a far more brooding Satoshi, who is largely unresponsive to his friends' efforts to cheer him up. This is the last time that Akasaka had spoken to Satoshi before he disappeared, and Akasaka wonders if there's anything he could have done to make sure he stayed.

The next day, Akasaka steels himself and goes to the Takano Clinic to inquire about Satoko. He meets the new acting director - Tetsuro Okonogi. Both of them recognize each other from the kidnapping case five years prior, though they were on opposite sides of the affair. Okonogi answers some of Akasaka's questions but cuts the meeting short when Akasaka brings up a case that Ooishi mentioned. Before he leaves, Akasaka asks Okonogi if he knows who "Rika" is: Okonogi tells him that he's let Takano's nonsense resonate too heavily with him. Afterward, Akasaka runs into Irie; we cut to the two of them in an Okinomiya bar drinking (heavily) to the memory of their dear friends. Akasaka drunkenly rants about how his lost friends tie into the curse and its real scope, noting that Satoshi probably also got "demoned away". Irie tells him that's bullshit and Akasaka knows nothing, and the two of them get into a messy fistfight. The next day, Akasaka is taken off the Tomitake/Takano cases and is strongly encouraged to take some time off and tend to himself and his daughter. He does so, but Akasaka's mind is entirely on the case. The next day, Ooishi asks to meet again. Ooishi has a better (though still incomplete) answer to who Rika is; one of Ooishi's contacts found reference to a "Rika Furude" as an expert consulted in a case where someone tore out their own throat. The conversation is interrupted by Kasai knocking on the window, and she threatens to drag Ooishi back to Oryou for daring to be anywhere near the festival. Ooishi laughs, bids Kasai and Akasaka farewell, gets in his car, and drives off.

Wanting to investigate the Furude connection, Akasaka drives to Hinamizawa and tries to track down Hanyuu. Unfortunately, she isn't at home or school and his questions about her location are spurned. Akasaka then goes to Irie's house only to find that he apparently skipped town in a big hurry. Akasaka drives around town searching for someone who'd answer his questions, noting that it feels like a storm's about to roll into Hinamizawa. Upon reaching the clinic, Akasaka swears he sees Okonogi talking to a figure in black wearing a mysterious mask. However, he's interrupted when he notices something moving in the back seat of his car. It's Miyoko (who had slipped inside while Akasaka was investigating Irie's house), who tells him that Hanyuu went to a market in Okinomiya and hasn't returned. The two of them drive to Okinomiya and after some fruitless searching, Miyoko says that she lied to him in order to get him to leave Hinamizawa. Akasaka explodes and berates Miyoko for having wasted his time while he's been losing his friends and opportunities left and right, but his anger is derailed when he realizes that Miyuki had seen his outburst. Miyoko tells him that he'll get his answers tomorrow and he should take care of himself and his daughter tonight. Akasaka eventually agrees and takes Miyuki home, noticing that his daughter has a scrape on her neck that's bleeding.

There's one last flashback featuring Akasaka's wife, Yukie. As she prepares to visit Hinamizawa on the night of the festival to get some first-hand evidence for her upcoming story, Akasaka volunteers to take care of Miyuki tonight. Yukie thanks him and asks him to promise to protect Miyuki no matter what. We don't see Akasaka's response - we just know that he regrets that it was the last thing he said to her before she died.

Eventually, Akasaka's flashbacks sweep into the present and he's no closer to the truth, but he determines that he was drugged that morning, he's in the basement of his apartment complex and he's bound with his own handcuffs. Just then, someone enters - it's Miyuki. A confused but joyful Akasaka asks her to help him escape, but she refuses. After all, why would she let Papa abandon her again? Akasaka realizes with horror that the only person who could have drugged him was his own daughter - when he asks who brought him to the basement, Miyuki tells him it was Rika-san and her friends. As she picks up some nearby nails, Miyuki wonders how many pins it'll take to keep Papa from flying away...

[1] Akasaka notes that Miyoko's been like this since after her aunt died, concluding that it's probably a result of her abuse or depression caused by it. Her listlessness is really only notable to the reader/viewer in how it contrasts with her usual demeanor.

#higurashi #higurashi ten au #higurashi ten question arcs #higurashi when they cry #higurashi au #au #roleswap au #and with that the question arcs are done #hope you enjoyed them so far #also when i said 'shorter than the others' i did of course mean the original arc length #something tells me that these long synopses might be the norm going forward

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murasaki-murasame · 3 years ago

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Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep10

I’m kinda out of it due to a mix of toothache and painkillers, so bare with me on this one, lmao.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut. Also lots of Umineko spoilers, probably.

I’m genuinely kinda shocked that this arc STILL isn’t over, but at least it makes a lot more sense now why it ended up being longer than I expected, lol. I still think it probably could have been condensed by an episode or two, but still. It turns out that way more was going on with Satoko behind the scenes in this arc than I thought.

There’s also the whole possibility that Ryukishi might have intentionally laid out the script of Gou/Sotsu so that this whole sequence of Satoko definitively accepting that she’s a witch and killing her humanity happened on the cumulative 34th episode [24 from Gou and now 10 from Sotsu]. I’ve been wondering if anything could actually justify the extremely slow pacing this has had up to this point, but this might actually be dumb enough to make me think it was all worth it, lol.

Also, I’ve been trying to avoid saying it, but I looked at the whole batch of leaks from this arc when they got posted about a month ago, and it looks like we’ve officially covered everything that was in those leaks. I kinda regret looking at them, since it spoiled that Satoko would have an internal conflict that gets expressed literally in usual WTC fashion, but in a funny way I guess I ended up getting a misguided idea of what was going to happen just from looking at the leaks.

For one thing, I completely forgot about the leak of Satoko shooting Teppei until I double checked it a few days ago, so I was mostly just focused on the stuff about her two sides fighting against each other, and I guess I thought it would have made her seem a lot more redeemable than how it ended up actually working out, lol. I thought that it would basically go in the opposite direction and this would signal the start of her spiraling into regret and despair over the course of Nekodamashi, but basically the opposite happened.

I guess this probably answers the question I’ve had of what could stop Satoko from just immediately shooting Rika after the cliffhanger from Nekodamashi, since this raises the possibility of her ‘human side’ literally stopping her from doing it.

Though at this point I’m starting to seriously wonder if there’ll be some big meta twist about how Sotsu has actually been a separate set of loops to what we saw in Gou, and maybe Nekodamashi really did just end in tragedy and then everything got reset. I’ve been toying with that idea in my head for a while, mainly just as a way to try and make Sotsu feel like more than just a literal retread of Gou, but this is giving it a bit more validity as a theory.

For one thing, Eua already implied during Satokowashi that she had a history with Satoko, and going by something Ryukishi said in an interview, there’s already been a time where Satoko called her Eua, so it’s possible that Satokowashi onward is an entirely new loop where both Satoko and Rika have had their memories reset, but Eua still remembers it. Presumably the ‘Gou loop’ would have just ended with failure some way or another, and Eua decided to do it again. She’s given Satoko a pretty definitive failure state in Sotsu, but it’s possible that wasn’t always the case, and up until now she’s been willing to just do it over and over again until she gets the right outcome.

There’s also the theory some people have suggested that maybe the conflict between Satoko’s two halves represented a literal split in the timeline of some kind, with Tataridamashi maybe being a version of events where her human side won out, if only temporarily, and Teppei stayed alive to attack Keiichi at the end of the arc. That’d at least be one way to explain the weirdness of Satoko killing Teppei in this episode after we saw him attack Keiichi at the end of this arc in Gou. I’m not entirely sure I support this exact interpretation, though, even if I like the idea of these maybe being different arcs.

I think that for now my theory about the Teppei situation is that either 1: it was some kind of hallucination from Keiichi, 2: it was a fictionalized account of events that she fed to Ooishi to help trigger his L5 state, or 3: it’s the same sort of thing as the ‘Illusion of Witches’ in Umineko, and we as the audience were directly being shown a fantasy version of events by Satoko. Which is basically the same thing as the second option, but still. Considering how this seems to be barreling it’s way towards being some kind of Umineko prequel, I’ve been wondering if maybe they’d go that far with introducing narrative concepts here that get expanded upon more in Umineko. This would at least be a pretty straightforward example to use to illustrate the idea of how fantasy is used as a device in Umineko. And since there were infamously major issues with people not understanding what Ryukishi was trying to do with those scenes in Umineko ep2 which lead to him having to rewrite ep3 to explain it more clearly, I can see why he might go as far as to include an introduction to this idea in this series.

It’s possible that it’s just a hallucination, but I kinda doubt it at this point. For one thing, it’d feel kinda weird if THIS was a hallucination but not the whole fight scene between Keiichi and Rena, but it’d also just feel kinda weird since Keiichi didn’t really seem to be going L5 in this arc, so it’s kinda hard to imagine him jumping straight to that level of insanity on such short notice.

At least if we assume that this leads into the ending we saw in Tataridamashi, and not something entirely different, I think the real version of events is probably that after leading Keiichi to her house, Satoko attacks him with the bat [or she rigged some kind of trap to knock him out], and then when he wakes up he sees the aftermath of Satoko killing Teppei and he assumes he did it. Though tbh even at the end of Tataridamashi I’m not even sure if Keiichi acknowledged any memory of what happened with Teppei, so I’m not even sure if we need to explain how he’d end up convinced that that version of events happen. For all we know it might just be something that the audience alone was being shown, and from Keiichi’s POV he just gets knocked out and then wakes up in the hospital.

It’s possible that Ooishi ends up attacking him, but I kinda doubt it, at least after how this episode went. Even in the midst of HS, he seemed aware of the fact that Keiichi was at worst just being unwittingly manipulated by the villagers, and that he genuinely thought he was helping her, so I doubt that Satoko would be able to convince him to attack him. And at this point it just seems more likely that Satoko would attack Keiichi herself instead of pointlessly relying on someone else to do it for her.

We do know that he shows up at the festival with the bloody bat, but he could have just entered the house after hearing the commotion of Keiichi getting attacked, and then Satoko told her version of events to him, and he just picked up the bat from the crime scene and took it to the festival.

It’s also worth noting that apparently in the manga version of Tataridamashi, Satoko never even leads Keiichi to her house in the first place, and he just gets shot by Ooishi at the festival, which makes it seem more likely that Keiichi himself isn’t super relevant to how this arc ends. At least in the manga version of the arc, it seems like Ooishi probably just walked in on Teppei’s dead body and then picked up the bat and went on to do his killing spree.

Now I’m also wondering what’ll happen in the next episode, since it seems like they literally only have the festival left to cover before this arc ends. I guess there might just be a lot of content related to what happens with Satoko in the fragment space between this arc and Nekodamashi, but either way it feels like it shouldn’t take long at all to reach the big climax of this arc, especially since Satoko has already steeled her resolve. I mean, I doubt that human-Satoko is gone for good, but the rest of this arc is probably just gonna be witch-Satoko putting her final plans into motion, so there shouldn’t be much to cover there.

There’s a possibility that they’ll also speedrun through all of Nekodamashi from her POV in the next episode, but I kinda doubt it’d go by that fast. In spite of it mostly being a montage from Rika’s POV, and there presumably not being much worth showing about the mechanics and reasoning behind how Satoko set up the different mini-loops there, I think there’s still a fair bit to be shown from her perspective in that arc. For one thing, we’ll probably get a reveal of what was really going on behind the scenes with how Hanyuu suddenly gave Rika a new set of powers, and the whole deal with the sword. And even after the loop montage, I think that stuff will go on behind the scenes with Satoko and Takano to lead into the scene where Takano apologizes to Rika.

At this point my main question is how long it might take to get through all of that, since we only have five episodes left. At least as far as we know. There might be some kind of continuation yet to be announced, but I don’t want to bet on it.

It just feels like there’s a whole lot of stuff left to do before we end this. Like the stuff I’ve mentioned before with the OP having scenes of the club members as teenagers wearing outfits different to their ones from Satokowashi, and the scene of teenage Rika and Satoko fighting in the fragment space.

I’m also wondering at this point if we’ll get some Bernkastel origin story stuff to go with the apparent Lambda origin story. At the very least, they never really explained why she ended up being Featherine’s miko in Umineko, aside from the vague ‘Featherine is probably some version of Hanyuu’ thing. Which has been especially weird since Eua has been using Satoko as her pawn against Rika in this series. But this episode also makes it seem even more likely that Eua doesn’t even like Satoko, and is just using her as a pawn towards a greater goal of entertainment, while probably also playing both sides, so I could see this leading to a situation where she ends up working with Bernkastel instead.

There’s still the question about if this is even a Lambda origin story in the first place, but at this point I think that it’d just be a straight up waste of time if it’s not. That basically feels like the entire purpose of Gou/Sotsu’s existence right now, so if it’s all some sort of elaborate troll, then that just feels like it’d make EVERYONE pissed off. It’d obviously annoy the Umineko fans who like the idea of this being a genuine prequel or tie-in of some kind, but for the people on the opposite end who hate that idea, I don’t think they’d appreciate being told ‘I was just spending nearly 50 episodes tricking you into thinking this was something you’d hate, lol’. It just seems like the worst of both worlds.

Also, I’m pretty open to different variants of how they could pull off the specifics of this being a ‘Lambda origin story’. Like, I still think it’d count if this ends up being set after Umineko and is some kind of elaborate reenactment of how Lambda came to be, or whatever. There’s a lot of specific ways it could be executed, but it’d basically just be the same thing at the end of the day.

I know that witch Satoko right now doesn’t have the same sort of personality that Lambda had, but like with how Beatrice went through multiple design iterations that changed her personality, Satoko might just end up going through more development that makes her closer to the Lambda we know in Umineko. There’s also the fact that the end of Umineko already implied that Bernkastel was just ‘playing the villain’ for fun, so Lambda’s whole personality there might have been somewhat manufactured.

I guess at this point I just have to wonder if we’ll see Satoko come up with the name Lambdadelta for herself, lol. Even back in Higurashi we saw how Rika came up with the name Bernkastel, so if they’re really going in this direction, it’d make sense. I know Satoko is still calling herself Satoko by this point, but just a few episodes ago she denied that she was becoming a witch, and now she’s calling herself one, so these things can change, lol.

Anyway, this whole episode ended up being more Umineko-y than I expected. Even aside from the obvious stuff with them using the term witch, the whole fight between the two Satokos in the fragment space was exactly the sort of thing you’d see in Umineko, down to the fact that it was a gun fight like the love trial was. The imagery of the red cracks on the black background, and the entire screen shattering like glass, also felt like it was lifted straight out of Umineko.

Even if it might be kinda cheesy and forced, the monkey brain part of me really likes this stuff, lol.

Come to think of it, I guess this also makes it a lot more likely in hindsight that her classroom panic attack in this arc really was [at least in part] a representation of her two sides clashing. I think she always planned to do it as a recreation of that scene from Tatarigoroshi, but when it actually started her human side bled through and her genuine regret came through as well. I also assume that all the shots in this arc of her looking uncomfortable or depressed, especially around Teppei, were probably also setting up for this. Which I think is fine, but they probably should have been a little more clear about it, since it came across as her just faking everything, and this ended up feeling more sudden than it should have. I get why people would still see it as being sudden and unearned, but I don’t really think so. They probably should have included more stuff like that during the first two arcs of Sotsu, though.

I’m curious to see if I’ll end up being right about my theory that the sword will end up being used as a plot device to completely separate Satoko’s witch self, and maybe Rika’s as well, into their own beings separate from Rika and Satoko in the ‘real world’. It still feels like the only way to have this actually set up for Umineko without having things end in total tragedy for Rika and Satoko in general.

There’s probably a lot more I could say about this episode, but I think this has gone on long enough as it is, lol.

#murasaki rambles #higurashi #higurashi sotsu

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felixcloud6288 · 1 year ago

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Higurashi: Cotton Drifting Final Chapter

We've reached the end of this arc and we're given a bunch of new questions to ponder. In particular, we have to figure out where the mundane ends and the supernatural starts.

Among Mion's victims is her grandmother Oryou Sonozaki. That detail kind of throws a wrench in the entire premise that the Sonozakis as a whole are behind this series of murders cause why would Mion act as if she were still alive.

At the bare minimum, this may imply Kimiyoshi, Rika, and Satoko's murders had nothing to do with the curse itself and Mion killed them for some other reason.

Keiichi has admitted to himself why he didn't give Mion the doll. He was embarrassed to think of her as a girl.

I don't think he was worried about there being any awkward romantic feelings between him and Mion. I think it was a case that he was comfortable with his more shallow and casual relationship. He's from the city and strangers don't care to give each other the time of day. But in a small village like Hinamizawa, everyone is in everyone's business.

He's likely uncomfortable being intimately knowledgeable about his friends' personalities, likes, pasts, etc. It's much easier to interact with them if he sticks to simple stereotypes and personality tropes.

But if he didn't do this, maybe things would have been better in this arc and the last and the next.

Keiichi hurt Mion's feelings in the first chapter. And every time he tried to make things right, he screwed up and made things worse. And at the end, he tried to give Mion the doll only to get blood on it. And trying to clean the doll only made it dirtier.

Nobody likes Detective Delicious Ooishi. Keiichi's mom is utterly creeped out by his presence.

And now what is a more mundane arc ends on a supernatural note.

On the night Mion stabbed Keiichi, she also pushed Shion from a balcony, killing her.

But as it turns out, Mion has actually been dead since the day Keiichi and Shion were rescued by the police. On a similar note, Takano was apparently dead during the Cotton Drifting Festival.

I want to tie this back to something from the Abducted By Demons arc. Mion and Rena mentioned the "Director", whom Keiichi believed was the Dam project director murdered 4 years ago. He included that in his final note but it was removed by someone.

So we have two definite instances and one potential instance of the dead being brought back. Perhaps they're puppeted by demons?

And it was the living corpse of Takano who instigated everything when she got Tomitake to break into the Saiguden and invoke Oyashiro-sama's wrath.

The next pair of two-page spreads are another master-stroke in using the manga medium to it's fullest potential. Since it is read from right to left, the reader will naturally turn their attention to the right side of the page where Keiichi is sitting up in his hospital bed. When the reader decides to look at the left side of the page, they notice the hand.

The hand was always there, but because it's on the left side of the spread, the reader wouldn't notice it at first, giving the impression it appeared suddenly.

And with your eyes locked on that hand, you turn the page and a head starts to make its way up as well.

back

Spoiler Discussion

Just to add how much Keiichi keeps screwing up his apologies to Mion, every time he apologized, he apologized to Shion instead. Maybe if he actually took the time to know his friends well, he wouldn't get the twins mixed up like he did.

#higurashi no naku koro ni #higurashi when they cry #higurashi no naku koro ni reread

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abyssofdemons · 4 years ago

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-rubs my little hands together- okay time for some hot takes with gou now that it’s ended! enjoy my ramble lmao

okay my very first impression on the start of gou was... wowie this is... a little much on the gore factor. NOW, I KNOW, THIS IS HIGURASHI. but the first half of gou was much more... brutal, in my opinion. now we know it was due to direct contact with h-173 and the influence of eua and satoko but oogh. it was a lot and had made me very anxious with how the plotline was going to go. was it going to be just torture porn for funsies in a way similar to how a lot of kira and rei seemed to be with fanservice? was it going to just be a remake with some funky fresh murder and death?

but then the story picked up! and i gotta say, i really love it. higurashi has always been like... super awesome to me because of the lore, the story. anytime i recommend it to someone, i tell them that kai is a must, that it really explains everything and wraps it up in a very nice bow! and we got more of that! more story, more lore! more character development.

NOW TIME FOR SOME HOT TAKES. satoko and rika are both flawed, but ultimately good characters. now, okay, i know satoko lately has been... mmm... not good? she’s been controlling, callous, and really evil. but i’ve stayed by the opinion that this is due to hurt and trauma, and that she’s still good, and the finale proved that.

everything she’s done so far, everything she’s been doing... none of it is real. it’s a game of stubbornness on her end - her goal, her perfect ending... when that’s achieved, no suffering will have happened. we’ve seen this already. rika submitted, rika finally understood, rika proved she understood, and what happened? takano apologized. the tragedy stopped in its tracks. no one went on a murder spree, everything was perfect. satoko thought she had won - no more harm had to continue. she’d let everyone live on happily, without the horrors that she’d induced earlier - because to her, nothing she did in any other loop was real.

satoko just wants everything to stay how it is. she wants her best friend to not change, she doesn’t want to lose her, she doesn’t want to lose anyone. she’s lost her parents, her brother, everyone in her life that was meant to support and care about her. she watched rika promise to stay by her side and break that promise, over and over again. we don’t know how many loops satoko went through trying to keep rika by her side! we don’t know how long it took, how many collective years of attempts there were. we saw everything in, what, a few episodes? for satoko it took years. five years after winning to get to st. lucia, two years to get to the breaking point, and repeat. at minimum, these loops had to be, what, about 21 years collectively? (assuming satoko did at least three full loops, which i’m pretty sure we’ve seen in the show?)

that’s a lot of trauma, of restless grind and tear on someone’s psyche. of course she’d do anything to make that stop. of course she’d grow resentful of rika and just want her to understand!

and for rika... i love rika, i have a lot of personal ties with her and the character. but she does fuck up here. rika has had to pretend for hundreds of years. she’s had to pretend she hasn’t watched her friends and family die, she’s had to pretend to survive. at st lucia she has to pretend to be someone she’s not to fit in. st lucia is bad for her - she may be happy, she may think it’s good and she’s free, but rika is a master of blending in, even if the people she’s blending in with are horrible. she stopped being a good friend to satoko since the very first winning loop.

i’m eager to see how the next season goes, i’m so excited to see how all of this plays out, but, truthfully? i think there is going to be a good end - for all of them. takano is going to remember, she is going to back down. the tragedies will stop on that front. rika and satoko are going to fight, i know this, but i think... they’ll reconcile. the true enemy is eua. a cruel goddess watching mortals maim each other for fun - she’s going to be the final boss, and i think rika and satoko are going to beat her. at least, i hope.

the ending of the original series and kai... it was a good ending. it was a great ending for them! they broke free of the loops, hinamizawa syndrome was gone, it was good! satoko and rika are going to both find their way to their happy ending again - but this time, they’re going to compromise on it. kai taught us that miracles happen if everyone stands together. why would they take away that message in gou/sotsu? they aren’t.

two more points i’d like to make: teppei, i hate him, but i don’t think the ‘redemption arc’ he got was bad or put him in good light. no one looks at him and forgives him. they don’t forget what he did - the last thing that was shown before he left the screen was a memory of him harming her. a last reminder of what he did so people don’t become too sympathetic. he’s going to change, and that’s going to be good for satoko, but they don’t push a forgiveness narrative. i think the main point of that whole thing was to remind satoko that the path she’s going down is harming others. it’s a mirror to what she is doing to rika right now. now i’m not saying she’s an awful, horrid child abuser, i’m just saying that what she’s doing is wrong and that sometimes you need a reminder of that.

my last remaining thought right now is... okay first off they aren’t going to tie higurashi directly to umineko, BUT, there is, and always has been, similarities to the two.

satoko = lambdadelta. the witch of certainty. rika = bernkastel. the witch of miracles.

don’t you think, with their powers together, they’d be certain to have the miracle to have the ultimate good ending for everyone?

#txt #higurashi no naku koro ni #higurashi gou #gou spoilers #higurashi gou spoilers #ENJOY MY HOT TAKES IG I AM JUST FULL OF RAMBLES #i'm not the best at like... in depth character analysis in means of explaining things but like... i have thoughts and i do have like...#anaylsisyses for a lot of whats going on #i did not voice all of them bc my brain fried for a second in the middle but shhhh #higurashi

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randomavatarfan · 4 years ago

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Nekodamashi-hen Eps1-4

himatsubushi-hen was the turning point of the og series, or at least was supposed to be. All the pieces are finally on the board and the central mystery behind all the noise is laid out.

Please see my ramblings on Nekodamashi-hen and comment with your own theories and interpretations!

:readmore:

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Rika's resolution in Ep1 that she was only going to allow 5 more loops made me reconsider what Nekodamashi-hen's place in the plot was. This would be a longer chapter leading up to the resolution a la Matsuribayashi-hen, or maybe she would find resolve to keep fighting, which as of ep3 seems to be where it's going.

Ep1 introduces the sword that can kill loopers like Rika, and there's a little caveat with it. First is that it's missing. Second, there's the possibility of another looper.

I like to think these may be red herrings or at least not to do with the one pulling the strings. The culprit doesn't need to be a looper, as we've seen in Matsuribayashi-hen. Takano's certain victory had nothing to do with her reliving any part of her life, but rather just sheer determination to become great. The sword went missing well in advanced of the festival, at least by the time Takano and Tomitake broke into the saiguden on the festival night.

Takano's role is a puzzle however. Her MO is completely different- stealing a van alongside Tomitake instead of just injecting him and inducing L5 symptoms until he kills himself. The Yamainu are still around, but they're not creating the GHD. But Ep2 makes me think it's still her somehow involved.

Akasaka, Akane, Kimiyoshi, and even Keiichi all give their "villainous speeches" that came straight out of Document 34, which we know Miyo would use to manipulate people. Rika being at the center of the murders (Oiishi's rant) were not one that she gave in the original, but that still doesn't rule her out. Satoko's motive however and doesn't translate well if you assume every killer we saw in Nekodamashi-hen so far was a result of Takano's manipulation.

My current theory is that Document 34 was the bait used for the others but maybe another event occurred to set Satoko off. I don't think Takano is the puppet master this time even if she did play a role in rule x.

Rika's life at St Lucia's is more important than they're letting on, but what we've seen so far is red herring. I think her original death in 1988 is important but had a lot more than "oh she left Hinamizawa." I'm kinda upset that she's going through that guilt. So much trauma occurred there that she should be able to have been happy outside Hinamizawa where she suffered for so long. I'm wondering if her initial death was a call for help or at least otherwise overlooked- something that happened in 1983 caused her death in 1988. That's going to be the key.

The satoko culprit theory is what we end with on ep4, so let's turn this chessboard around:

Onidamashi-hen ends with a struggle between Rika and Satoko. The struggle between Rena and Keiichi was just filler. Original Onikakushi-hen really didn't see anything about Rika's struggle so it's a similar deal I guess.

Watadamashi-hen last saw Rika go to what appears to be Yamainu who were also planning on executing Document 34/GHD. Either Yamainu succeeded in killing Rika and the Banken prevented GHD, or potentially Satoko killed her. It's still hard to say at this point.

Whether she killed Rika or not in this chapter, Satoko's roll of the dice did play an effect in the story. Shion's focus specifically on Rika during the ladder scene rather than Satoko's cursed blood can be interpreted that at that point she was being played by Satoko. Why was she at the Sonozaki residence? Probably being confronted by Mion who saw something going on, or otherwise continued manipulation of Shion.

Tataridamashi-hen, finally, the most inexplicably strange chapter of the first three questions, is essentially a retelling of the answer arc Minagoroshi-hen rather than Tatarigoroshi-hen it was named for. What was Satoko doing in this one? She didn't have much chance to set her gameboard. But I did notice her behavior during the altercation between "Teppei" and Keiichi. It does seem rather calm. I think she induced L5 in Keiichi.

we have some sort of confirmation now that Takano is not after Rika or a GHD, but we're not sure on why: Is this a manipulation on Satoko's part, or is this something else. Memories of a past fragment does not equal a looper, as we've seen with Keiichi. Could she have woken up with a bad dream of how Matsuribayashi-hen ended? And the string of loops throughout Nekodamashi-hen, were they all a result of Satoko, or did Takano or even the Yanainu have a hand in it, as implied by the references of Document 34

I don't like invoking the Umineko witches to explain Higurashi. It's a nice metaphor though, and I'll use it here;

We're not seeing a Lambdadelta game. We don't see that certainty that we saw with Takano's game: Rika is killed by Takano, and then Hinamizawa is destroyed. Rika's deaths are always different in each game, in each loop. There is no pattern or certainty other than Rika dies.

We are seeing, however, something more like Beatrice's game. The only certainty is that everyone is dead, but the manner in which they die are so different, and the rules are much more higher level and conceptual than the og higurashi rules.

Rule X: Someone succumbs to Hinamizawa Syndrome causing the tragedy.

Rule Y: On the night of the Watanagashi, Takano and Tomitake go missing.

Rule Z: The will is strong enough to overcome the Yamainu's plan to kill Rika.

I think rule Z is the most important clue we have: Satoko is good, but is she good enough to be able to affect the actions of a town who essentially ostracized her? She has a hell of a motive but using her friends as collateral seem out of character, even if she is L5. If not her, who has the ability to overcome a certain fate so easily?

If Satoko is a looper and the culprit, how can she be stopped? Apologizing didn't do much; as it appears, she's not ready to forgive. Teppei might slow her down but not enough. Is she really possessed by Oyashiro? Why would Hanyuu do such a thing?

Please share your own thoughts. I know this was a ramble.

#higurashi #higurashi no naku koro ni #higurashi gou #satoko houjou #rika furude #Akasaka Mamorou #higurashi spoilers

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