#toujirou had a similar effect on me

[nbmahoushoujo]

this one shot in the ciconia op is so funny for a higurashi fan when you watch it for the first time

look at all these higurashis!

like ok, there’s okonogi. he’s in basically every ryukishi work so it’s just a thing now. okonogi is the constant across all universes, i’d be more surprised if he wasn’t in this story

and then there’s takano. thanks to higurashi gou i was vaguely aware of vier’s existence, although that was just her name and the fact that she looks like this. but it was when i actually stopped to look at her design that i realised just how much she is literally takano. at least other lookalikes have the decency to wear different clothing to their interdimensional counterparts, like bern clearly looking like rika but having a totally different outfit. vier has takano’s exact same pink shirt with the white collar and buttons

and more obviously the same green ribbon. the only difference is the lab coat instead of her jacket. of course her name being 34 in german as opposed to 34 in japanese is the cherry on top

last of all, jirou tomitake. toujirou mitake. shuffling his name around in peak ryukishi fashion

i simply can’t get over how the op shows us all these cool new characters and then all at once it’s Higurashi Time™️

[randomavatarfan]

Rereading Ciconia Phase 1 - Chapters 1-7: Basic concepts and Conflict

I hope to come up with some solid testable theories and predictions before phase 2. This second readthrough has brought some extra things that I had failed to pay enough attention to the first time around. It's funny that things you see in the beginning of a story this long are forgotten and dropped by the time you finish, but I think some of those were more important than I had believed the first time around. Feel free to interact and discuss.

The simulation theory really seems to work the most. It explains the weird scenes (that I haven't gotten to yet in this playthrough) with the people on the chains as something outside the simulation. I believe it has to do with Seshat, Toujirou, Jestress, inner Miyao, and Vier. I'm not sure if the 3 Kings understand it. They might.

The Kings exist. At least, their order exist as people that exist as much as the gauntlet knights do. I don't suspect this to be a repeat of Umineko where you're only shown an "interpretation" but rather, we have a simulation running that, for all intents and purposes is real life. The fact that "real life" is a simulation, however, may serve as the basis of the conflict.

If anyone doesn't exist as they appear, it would be Seshat. My interpretation of how she appears is that she also exists outside the simulation. She knows the secrets and can manipulate it.

Vier exists in a glitch space, a minus level. Outside map boundaries. I don't think she fully understand the implications of her position, but she's determined to find out. Imagine clipping through a wall and finding dummied out items, or triggers that were never meant to be hit. You hit a button, see what the effects are, and use that for your next run. I think that's the nature of Vier's lab.

---

The first scenes with Seshat and Toujirou I think did a great job at establishing some key concepts.

We have a rock paper scissors type play of "Kennedys powder keg " An imbalance isn't necessarily caused by a stronger opponent but a weakness from within. It's an interesting take because it means the final push is being caused by the "moles" from the inside. A weakness rather than the direct attack we'll eventually see at Christmas. Someone could have stopped it, but did not have the strength.

We see the talk of pendulums swinging between two extremes, and then some hints at a simulation theory, speaking of people as 1s and 0s and can only go towards a path already set.

We see that again with the three kings and we see that again with inner Miyao's talk about being a program. It really does point to something like a programmed simulation.

---

CPPs

These split personality types, featured in previous Ryukishi07 works, and seems to operate similarly. Miyao wants to be Miyao, and Meow wants to be Meow. There seems to be more harmony within Miyao and discordance comes from how outsiders treat them. I have a feeling however that Miyao and Meow are the only ones with individual sprites, at least outside Kizuna avatars. Jayden seems to be in minority, so he very well might be the only one out of the Public Bath Order. At the very least, Chloe and Naima are.

I think it's possible for a personality to be knowingly working for a secret order and still be kept secret from the dominate personality, such as Inner Miyao was unknown to Miyao. But I think we should treat this as: 4 of the 24 main kids are pawns of the three kings, whether it's their dominate personality or not.

----

The nature of the central conflict

There's a lot. The simulation theory can lie at the center of it. Vier's lab exists outside time. She and her organization definitely understand the nature of the simulation.

The Kings' plan is a little odd: If they're aware of the simulation, then their goal is to prolong it. They want to "reset" to square one. Upon a discussion that maybe their plan might at best "only" set civilization back "a few centuries" they found that to be acceptable as it "places distance between them and the end." as they said in the their second appearance. I can't tell if they know they're in a simulation and are hoping to prolong it for whatever motive or if they have a more... altruistic reason. That's probably not the best word to describe them, but like, it's almost as if their plans, if succeed, will allow humanity as a whole to survive longer.

We haven't seen much of Seshat at this point. I'm not sure if she and Toujirou are completely on the same page. I had this idea that maybe they do each have their own goal, but I'm gonna need to get farther into this reading to develop that. She's definitely against the Kings' final plans, but she seems to agree to a point about the necessity of rewinding the clock of civilization. She thinks ww4 would be much more humane than the hell of the end of civilization, but I think she might want that hell.

However it is a bit more clear that the Jestress isn't completely in league with the Kings. Her manner of speech with them for example creates a sense that she sees herself as above them. She wants to see the Kings' plan work but only so far to suit her own needs. If the Kings buy into the idea that they're the saviors of humanity, it might be an idea that the Jestress planted.

The implication near the end of the story seems to be that Jestress and Toujirou were married and Jestress could be Miyao's mother. I will need to work my way back up to that point to maybe understand the implication. That brings me to my last point, which is inner Miyao.

I believe he was born of someone able to manipulate the simulation. That's how his "inner self" seems to be able to make certain prophecies. I also believe the inner Miyao is the looper of this story. His parents aware of the loop happens but unable to retain data, Miyao however could be a repository for the data before the clear and wipes.

Inner Miyao appears in two forms: One form appears just like Miyao, and the other appears as a blue gauntlet child like Vier's guards. The first form appears once and then the second becomes the norm. They both seem to have some scary words of prophecy, but I noticed they're different. At this point in my playthrough, inner Miyao only appears twice.

The first time we see him, he tells Miyao that he himself is the cause of the misfortune about to occur, simply by existing, and the only way to end the tragedy is to "will yourself to disappear."

The second time, he's using the blue guard sprite, and while his speech is similar, I think there's a noticeable "tic". He addresses Miyao as "My adorable Miyao" in a similar manner as his father does. At this point, Toujirou and Miyao have never interacted in the story, but I remember this was the way Toujirou addressed his child. However, the conditions for a successful ending had also changed. In order to prevent the tragedy, instead of "willing yourself to disappear" it is now "find and kill the three kings."

Because of Inner Miyao's manner of speech, I get the sense that Miyao was created and programmed by Toujirou. However I don't think "will yourself to disappear" and "kill the 3 kings" are compatible goals. Who are we rooting for anyway?

---

Geroy, I'm going to need to get further along and re-read the data fragments. The idea of people being treated as "equipment" has a lot of similarities with Umineko's "furniture" but ultimately, it seems like the equipment is treated with higher regards than individual soldiers.

I'm not completely sure what was going on with the scene with Keshka. We have so few scenes of Geroy, and I definitely need to keep playing through to see those scenes again. I wonder how much they'll play out in the future- they have the means to be culpable, but the facility itself may just be the means.

I'll post more later. Break down some of the GK squads.