Higurashi

[ForeverFlame]

Time-Killing. The whole point is to give us the Rika plot twist on a silver platter, but it was already super obvious by that point. The manga even gives it away at the end of the first arc (I'm not sure if the sound novel does as well).

[Kutie Pie]

The manga even gives it away at the end of the first arc (I'm not sure if the sound novel does as well).

Yeah, the ending to the first arc in the manga was pretty in your face about it, but I think it made some sense for new-comers. If I remember correctly, it is mentioned in Demoned Away that Rika is believed to be the reincarnation of Oyashiro or at least a priestess (especially with the Cotton Drifting Festival scene), so her saying "we'll see them again" was probably her way of some spiritual comfort or something like that. But yeah, to someone who's aware of everything, it was obvious what she meant. So it stuck out quite a bit.

But in the sound novel, no, Rika didn't have any extra lines at the end or anything. It was kept pretty quiet. But the game was at least kind sneaky enough to drop hints from the very first arc. (Remember Keiichi saying he could hear someone breathe behind him?)

I wouldn't really say it was given to us on a silver platter (bronze maybe, but not silver), but it at least did give us more information about what was going to happen, and also so Akasaka's appearance in the Massacre arc (or heck, in the final Tip for Atonement arc) wouldn't be so sudden and out of the blue.

Still, Ryukishi07 pretty much came up with it while working on Eye-Opening, so he probably rushed it a little bit, and thus the reason why it felt too different, and somewhat flawed. Of course, I also hear complaints about the Demoned Away arc itself being really slow and boring at times, so... *shrugs*

[matt0044]

Yeah, the ending to the first arc in the manga was pretty in your face about it, but I think it made some sense for new-comers. If I remember correctly, it is mentioned in Demoned Away that Rika is believed to be the reincarnation of Oyashiro or at least a priestess (especially with the Cotton Drifting Festival scene), so her saying "we'll see them again" was probably her way of some spiritual comfort or something like that. But yeah, to someone who's aware of everything, it was obvious what she meant. So it stuck out quite a bit.

Oh yeah. At first, a newcomer to the series would believe Rika was trying to comfort Satoko, like "when we die, they'll be right there waiting for us in the afterlife." But reading future arcs puts this into a brand new context.

[Ninja Bulbasaur]

I don't know why you would make Rika's death scene silly, though... either way, Rika's face in rigor mortis is terrifying.

:U

A small topic to boost some activity around here:

Do you have a least-favorite arc?

Not yet, though the majority of the "arcs" in Higurashi Kira were the biggest WTF stuff, but hey, it was funny. Time Killing, yes, I can say that arc didn't really feel it's best, but it was still a good arc to me. I liked Rika's darker side being shown in this, and it draws into the idea that Rika might be a bigger character than we realised. After that arc is I think the Eye-Opening arc. We see     Spoiler:- Eye Opening spoiler:

Show Spoiler

 
Rika attacking Shion with the syringe
 

, which makes you want to think "wait, does Rika have more to her than meets the eye, kana kanaa?". After is the Atontment arc     Spoiler:- Atontment Arc spoiler:

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with Keichi's remembering the previous world which he kills Rena and Mion.
 

Rika has her moments in that, and you're like "goddamit, what's going on?!". Kai starts, then you're like "OH NOW I GET IT".

...How in the hell did I get all the way to that?!

Oh yeah. At first, a newcomer to the series would believe Rika was trying to comfort Satoko, like "when we die, they'll be right there waiting for us in the afterlife." But reading future arcs puts this into a brand new context.

Yup, that makes sense.

I gotta another really stupid question; When do we figure out about Ritsuko's being killed having to do with Teppei?

[Kutie Pie]

I gotta another really stupid question; When do we figure out about Ritsuko's being killed having to do with Teppei?

In the anime at least, you see her getting captured by thugs or Sonozaki goons in Massacre, and almost immediately afterwards, Teppei shows up (and the police believe he's a suspect). Savvy viewers can make the connection there.

I think this is shown in the manga and sound novels as well, but nothing's coming to mind at the moment. I don't have my manga copy on me. Just take my word for it XP.

[matt0044]

I really love Rika's desire to save her friends in the Massacre Arc. As I said before, I really wanted to give the poor girl a hug.

[Moonlight Amaryllis]

Hi guys, I'm not dead.

Well... to be honest, Kira takes place right after the tragedy was broken. Naturally, they'd want to be silly and have fun. And though fan service is a part of Higurashi, they went overboard with it in Kira. The only good thing that came from Kira was the last episode, which I liked how they touched upon Hanyuu's motherly side, because we never did get to see it in the anime--not even Rei showed it. Heck, we only got told of Hanyuu's story through her words, we never did see a flashback except for when she was consulting with her daughter, then it cuts away before anything happens. I came to like Hanyuu more because of that adorable Kira episode.

...no, I'm not defending Kira, I agree that it was a bad OVA, but come on, guys. The last episode was the only good episode from it because it was decent.

Granted, Kira did take place after everything was supposed to be happy, but honestly, the fanservice was just bleeding horrible (no pun intended). Higurashi is an anime that displays gut-wrenching situations of both friendship and insanity, so why not have more cute development on their friendship, rather than throwing all of that crud at us? Honestly, all that arc did was intensify my hatred for Ooishi, Tomitake, Irie, and Keiichi.

Although the final episode was the best out of them all, that's saying quite a bit, because even that episode had its moments. In my opinion, the only good in those episodes was Satoshi, because he got more appearances. And the yaoi

I have to snicker at Teppei's facial expressions at the end, though. The artist tried to make him look crazy and warped, but it kinda had the opposite effect. Though if I saw someone with that face in real life, I'd get creeped out, too... but damn was the abuse portrayed very tragically in the manga. It was hard to read and look at when Teppei started pushing and punching Satoko around.

Dude, when I saw those images, I almost wet myself. He looks so demented and psychotic in those images, I wasn't at all surprised that Satoko's expression was one of pure horror. I would be clutching her, sobbing, if I was right next to her. The abuse was also horrible too see ;_;

Do you have a least-favorite arc?

I would normally say it was the entire Kira, but seeing I already threw that out there...There wasn't any least favorite arcs, but I am honestly not that fond of some things in Demoned Away. The horror and creepy-level was amazing for the first arc, but I really hated the way     Spoiler:- Why is this in a spoiler tag IDK:

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Mion and Rena were displayed as bad guys and Ooishi was the apparent good guy. I mean, if you read the Atonement arc, you would realize that Keiichi wasn't the victom at all. It really makes me both upset and very sad the way the situation was warped. But I don't hate the arc, it just spurs a lot of emotion from me
 

Time-Killing. The whole point is to give us the Rika plot twist on a silver platter, but it was already super obvious by that point. The manga even gives it away at the end of the first arc (I'm not sure if the sound novel does as well).

It was just the art-style I didn't like, the rest of it was fine to me. It linked to the Curse-Killing arc, but to be honest, it just confused me even more so. What's the big idea, Ryukish07? -_-

I really love Rika's desire to save her friends in the Massacre Arc. As I said before, I really wanted to give the poor girl a hug.

You and me both. *tears up*

Rika's situations reminds me of a fanmade RPG not related to When They Cry in any way, which has something similar to the constant repeating. The game...makes me cry...all the damn time...

[DarkManager]

:U
I gotta another really stupid question; When do we figure out about Ritsuko's being killed having to do with Teppei?

Kutie Pie didn't answer, but I will.

In Killing Curse arc. They found her body on the trash and a couple time later they reveal her name. A Tips in the sound novel, someone (I think is Oiishi) said something about Teppei had some problems with money and reveal everything.

[matt0044]

When Keiichi and the others discover Rena's victims, Ritsuko and Teppei, did Satoko recognize her uncle?

[Kutie Pie]

When Keiichi and the others discover Rena's victims, Ritsuko and Teppei, did Satoko recognize her uncle?

I don't think they ever saw the bodies, just the bags.

Speaking of Atonement arc HOLY FREAKING CRAP does the sound novel go into description on how the bodies are disposed, and why she did it the way she did. That's freakin' scary, man. Even scarier in that it's through Rena's point-of-view, and the text isn't white, it's pink by this time. The Atonement arc gets really scary whenever we get into Rena's point-of-view, because we know she's going insane, and the text slowly turns blood-red over time.

Urgh, it made me shiver just going through the videos to find the exact point where she cut up the bodies...

[matt0044]

I don't think they ever saw the bodies, just the bags.

Freaky coinkidink.

[Kaiserin]

When Keiichi and the others discover Rena's victims, Ritsuko and Teppei, did Satoko recognize her uncle?

I'm not sure if this is ever touched upon, whether Satoko makes the connection between her uncle and Rina's pimp in Tsumihoroboshi or not. I wouldn't be surprised if, after the initial "OH MY GOD HE'S DEAD" shock, she wouldn't be all that heartbroken over it, though.

[matt0044]

she wouldn't be all that heartbroken over it, though.

"all that" I'd be surprised if she shed a tear over her Uncle.

[Moonlight Amaryllis]

When Keiichi and the others discover Rena's victims, Ritsuko and Teppei, did Satoko recognize her uncle?

Rena didn't destroy the bodies that badly, so I'd say that she probably did, and simply did not care. After all, her uncle was the cause of all her grief, so why should she care? Besides, the issue at the moment was Rena's apparent insanity, not her personal issues with a corpse.

Speaking of Atonement arc HOLY FREAKING CRAP does the sound novel go into description on how the bodies are disposed, and why she did it the way she did. That's freakin' scary, man. Even scarier in that it's through Rena's point-of-view, and the text isn't white, it's pink by this time. The Atonement arc gets really scary whenever we get into Rena's point-of-view, because we know she's going insane, and the text slowly turns blood-red over time.

Urgh, it made me shiver just going through the videos to find the exact point where she cut up the bodies...

The sound novels were the original form of When They Cry, so it had all of the original gruesomeness added. I'm surprised, and delighted, to hear they went as far as changing the color of the text to up the horror-level, and to make it very clear that there was some loss of sanity afoot.

"all that" I'd be surprised if she shed a tear over her Uncle.

This.

[Kutie Pie]

The sound novels were the original form of When They Cry, so it had all of the original gruesomeness added. I'm surprised, and delighted, to hear they went as far as changing the color of the text to up the horror-level, and to make it very clear that there was some loss of sanity afoot.

They only did this in Atonement arc, though. I'm not entirely sure why they did this, probably so we could decipher the differences between Rena's and Keiichi's point-of-view. Or probably because that's the arc where you pretty much get the important information about what Hinamizawa Syndrome truly is (though they tease you about it until Massacre arc). Still, it's freakin' creepy reading the blood-red text the first time as Rena basically hallucinates glowing red eyes staring at her from across the street after talking to Ooishi--AUGH CHILLS

[Moonlight Amaryllis]

They only did this in Atonement arc, though. I'm not entirely sure why they did this, probably so we could decipher the differences between Rena's and Keiichi's point-of-view. Or probably because that's the arc where you pretty much get the important information about what Hinamizawa Syndrome truly is (though they tease you about it until Massacre arc). Still, it's freakin' creepy reading the blood-red text the first time as Rena basically hallucinates glowing red eyes staring at her from across the street after talking to Ooishi--AUGH CHILLS

I believe they changed the text color to heavily emphasize as much as a sound novel can how insane Rena has become. This somewhat reminds me of the clip in the Cotton Drifting arc, when the anime subtitles turn a deep red when Sh/Mion appears from the bedside and says something around the lines of, "Well I'm taking it baaaack~!" in terms of her promise to not kill him. Though this was a hallucination, at least that's what I think, it was still frightening as crap to watch for the first time. *fearsweat*

[Kutie Pie]

This somewhat reminds me of the clip in the Cotton Drifting arc, when the anime subtitles turn a deep red when Sh/Mion appears from the bedside and says something around the lines of, "Well I'm taking it baaaack~!" in terms of her promise to not kill him. Though this was a hallucination, at least that's what I think, it was still frightening as crap to watch for the first time. *fearsweat*

Yes, Keiichi hallucinated Mion's dead body ramming a nail into his finger. He died of a heart attack.

But interesting you brought that up, I thought that was really creepy as well, so kudos to the fan-sub for choosing to do that. I honestly didn't expect it to happen, so the shock hit hard. Which is funny, my brother actually jumped when it happened when we watched the dub even though the original Japanese is so much better. But meh.

Kinda makes me wish the manga chose a different font for when Mion's body crawled its way up to Keiichi's bed and spoke. Not sure if it would've made the scene any more freaky than it already is. (Shion's hallucination is another story...) I'm just surprised that I'm immune to the creepy drawing, and am no longer freaking out every time I look at it. Before I did, once I noticed her neck was broken, I couldn't open my eyes in the darkness and look at the side of my bed for at least a month.

[ForeverFlame]

The manga was creepy enough at it was. Shmion slowly coming up from under the bed was the scariest thing I've ever read. Except maybe this.

[matt0044]

this.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...UYBMOCkfixx7m7

Thank god, it's the morning.

[Moonlight Amaryllis]

But interesting you brought that up, I thought that was really creepy as well, so kudos to the fan-sub for choosing to do that. I honestly didn't expect it to happen, so the shock hit hard. Which is funny, my brother actually jumped when it happened when we watched the dub even though the original Japanese is so much better. But meh.

Personally, I found the English dub just as frightening; "Silly boy~!"

Kinda makes me wish the manga chose a different font for when Mion's body crawled its way up to Keiichi's bed and spoke. Not sure if it would've made the scene any more freaky than it already is. (Shion's hallucination is another story...) I'm just surprised that I'm immune to the creepy drawing, and am no longer freaking out every time I look at it. Before I did, once I noticed her neck was broken, I couldn't open my eyes in the darkness and look at the side of my bed for at least a month.

I honestly didn't even notice she had a broken neck until you told me. I was too busy staring at her eyes...now I can't look my bedside at night without getting scared. Damnit KP! D:

The manga was creepy enough at it was. Shmion slowly coming up from under the bed was the scariest thing I've ever read. Except maybe this.

HOLY SH*T.

That was the worst thing to read on an iPod. EVER. O_O