Since it was kinda mentioned in the opening, there are 9/10 extra arcs that were included in various console releases. Some of them are just alternative bad ends to different question arcs (Taraimawashi and Tsukiotoshi), there's the alternate end and manga arc. (Miotsukushi and Yoigoshi) and also a silly fun romp with the club (Hajisarashi). But probably the biggest extra thing added in the console releases is the Kizuna arcs. Higurashi Kizuna is a collection of 4 games on the DS which cover all of the main arcs, as well as a few of the ones that were mentioned before, but the biggest thing is that each game had a brand new arc, and together these 4 arcs make up the Kizuna story, where a cast of brand new characters become involved in the happenings of Hinamizawa. If you are interested in reading the "console arcs" as they are known as, I have a recommended reading order. All console arcs order: Taraimawashi Tsukiotoshi Yoigoshi Hajisarashi Police Case Files Someutsushi Kageboushi Tokihogushi Kotohogushi (I strongly recommend that if you read any version of Miotsukushi that you read this arc first, as Miotsukushi spoils this arcs ending.) Fragments Miotsukushi Ura Miotsukushi PS2
Nothing to say but I love these, like a book club. I can recommend some VNs once you're all done and not have a ton of reading on your plate - Higurashi was my entry into VNs as well (even if I didn't follow it up with more until like five years later.)
Just finished watanagashi last night and found myself liking the "chase scenes" more in onikakushi... Both are bizzare, but this, damn there must have been 10 plot twists during those last chapters lol still stoked to check chapter 3 though, hope it's as good
I haven't finished the series, so I felt compelled to give my own guess on who the "culprit" of this chapter is. I don't think this is spoilers (because I actually have no clue) but I'll put in a bunch of spaces anyways.... I think it's Mion, but specifically a demon that can possess both. The Sonozaki sister in the cell at the end calls the other one "Mion", I see no reason for the imprisoned one to play along unless the whole thing was fake, which I doubt. Afterwards, things go mostly as the game says, Mion slips and dies, Shion escapes and is all paranoid (perhaps fighting off possession by the demon). The person who stabs Keiichi I think has to do with weird doppelganger shenanigans that I don't understand yet, but I think it was Shion who stabbed Keiichi, possessed by the same demon that possessed Mion. Before you enter the cells, Mion says the relationship between her and her sister is like a dominant and non-dominant hand. This is a really weird thing to say about your sister, but kind of makes sense if the person speaking is demon that can possess both (but prefers Mion, the dominant hand). It also makes more sense to me for Mion to be the one who summons up the villagers to defend Keiichi from the bikers; it makes more sense to me for Mion to have that kind of power rather than Shion. The end is some kind of hallucination by Keiichi, I don't really have a clue for the specifics for that to be honest.
Around 1:26:00 I haven't finished the series (about to start arc 3) and coming to these discussions super late, but I also have the very similar theory that we're in a groundhog day scenario but not following the person going through the loops. I'm also preeeeeettty sure it's Rena that's going through the loops but since she's not the POV character we get to see where the loops continue even after she fails. She seems to always know a little bit more than everyone else and tries to give advice that changes what happens in the loops but because she's a child the advice isn't always the best (keep the bat close Keichi, I'll go tell everyone that it wasn't your fault Keichi, whatever ends up happening in 3 XD) If that's the case and we're not following the looping character in a timeloop, that's kind of awesome
I also think that the loopings are relatively new if that's the case, like I don't know if Rena has been going through it for too long by the time the story starts
Because of your retrospectives I've been shotgunning Higurashi and am now at the beginning of Arc 3. (I thought you were doing a LP of the series... and then I checked the previews on the YT timeline. Now I see why! These things are *fucking* long!) On Ryu07's... earlier writing habits. I do hope he learned better, and from the sound of things he has. It's unfortunate, because there are clear elements that could be exercised and nothing would be lost (unripe fruit.... specifically the comment from Keiichi; kids imitating shit they shouldn't happens and I'm mostly somewhat fine with it being depicted overall.) BUT I would say to what degree is subjective. The opening Mion/Keiichi bit about goading him into flashing his lil' Keiichi (or even the manga's Mion's comment about her breasts) do ring true to the kind of things a kid that age would do and from that perspective I see it as no harm no foul; wouldn't say I've ever been around people like that when I was that age but it's an experience that kids do have... probably. Likely. For that reason, I'm gonna grit and bear (02) level censor from the 07th mod for the entire duration of the series. There is nothing here that will shock me; I would say (sadly) that within the last 10 years or so my "tolerance" to Anime BS has steadily increased. Yay me. Woo. Totally don't feel like dying now after saying that. Used to hate that shit. Now I've watched shit like KLK and actually enjoyed it (I do think there's a lot to get out of that series despite the innate uncomfortableness of it; it's a complicated series...) Since ages are never firmly established I'm placing Mion/Shion at around 17; still bad for the work at Angel Mort but the higher the better sadly. Keiichi seems to be 15 and I'd say Rena is 16. I don't know if any media establishes that; I guess the lack of school lessons and the mixed grade setup makes obfuscating this sort of thing easy. One thing I find fascinating is how two seemingly unrelated elements could be connected. The Ship theory, that the Oni were actually foreigners in the old times and had been accepted into Hinamizawa, and the obsession with foreign imports. Specifically, the inciting incident for both Arc 1 and 2 were, if otherwise unrelated to the rest of the plot, items that were specifically from outside Japan. The Colonel Sanders (Randy!) statue that Rena wanted from the dump and the doll that was specifically an import from England for Mion. I don't know if the doll was referencing a real life product, but its nature as an import is suspect. Mion is also specifically into imported games, the board games featured were all from America and the toy shop seems to specialize in foreign imports. Normally this would be nothing, but everything has a purpose in Higurashi I suppose. I feel, on the abstract metaphorical level, this might be r07's way of hinting that the Ship theory, the one with no supernatural elements, to be closer to the truth. There may also be hints of r07's feelings on the proliferation of western concepts/media in Japan. I have like a million other thoughts but they naturally escape me at the moment.
I wouldn't call Arc 3 mixed: the parts where the character mentioned are bottom barrel, but the arc as a whole is fantastic - creepy, suspenseful, tragic.
@@247naomiI'm not sure, but since they say "not the one you're supposed to hate", my guess is that they (in the video at least) meant Irie? Tbf it's been a hot minute since I've read Higurashi, I don't even remember if he's in Tatarigoroshi, but I remember some of the jokes with him and Satoko being super tasteless
@@dihuixing thats definitely who they meant yeah, but i feel like Irie's stuff is meant to be understood as an extension of the kind of banter the kids do. i really had to stop listening to this series because of all the repetitive soapboxing about how the series is written. nobody on this show (from memory) really engages with what these jokes *do* for the novel, every episodes just interrupted sometimes with a "WAHHHH ANIME BULLSHIT" soapbox. and thats not me defending its inclusion i just think the hosts' analysis are pretty shallow (probably just bc theyre early on and the more reflexive stuff in Kai hasn't come around yet)
im not sure if they discuss this later on but one of my favorite moments in all of higurashi is during Ch5 (SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY) where during one of Shion's internal monologues, she just mentions how gross and perverted she finds the jokes the men around her make. i feel like that simple moment really recontextualizes a lot of the stuff included in here. it adds a level of self awareness that doesn't "justify" it (i dont really believe that's a thing we can quantify) but changes ones understanding of those uncomfortable aspects of the novel. i hope later on in this series they end up having more complicated discussions about the style rather than just refusing to engage lol
Since it was kinda mentioned in the opening, there are 9/10 extra arcs that were included in various console releases. Some of them are just alternative bad ends to different question arcs (Taraimawashi and Tsukiotoshi), there's the alternate end and manga arc. (Miotsukushi and Yoigoshi) and also a silly fun romp with the club (Hajisarashi). But probably the biggest extra thing added in the console releases is the Kizuna arcs. Higurashi Kizuna is a collection of 4 games on the DS which cover all of the main arcs, as well as a few of the ones that were mentioned before, but the biggest thing is that each game had a brand new arc, and together these 4 arcs make up the Kizuna story, where a cast of brand new characters become involved in the happenings of Hinamizawa. If you are interested in reading the "console arcs" as they are known as, I have a recommended reading order.
All console arcs order:
Taraimawashi
Tsukiotoshi
Yoigoshi
Hajisarashi
Police Case Files
Someutsushi
Kageboushi
Tokihogushi
Kotohogushi (I strongly recommend that if you read any version of Miotsukushi that you read this arc first, as Miotsukushi spoils this arcs ending.)
Fragments
Miotsukushi Ura
Miotsukushi PS2
Nothing to say but I love these, like a book club. I can recommend some VNs once you're all done and not have a ton of reading on your plate - Higurashi was my entry into VNs as well (even if I didn't follow it up with more until like five years later.)
Just finished watanagashi last night and found myself liking the "chase scenes" more in onikakushi... Both are bizzare, but this, damn there must have been 10 plot twists during those last chapters lol still stoked to check chapter 3 though, hope it's as good
I haven't finished the series, so I felt compelled to give my own guess on who the "culprit" of this chapter is. I don't think this is spoilers (because I actually have no clue) but I'll put in a bunch of spaces anyways....
I think it's Mion, but specifically a demon that can possess both. The Sonozaki sister in the cell at the end calls the other one "Mion", I see no reason for the imprisoned one to play along unless the whole thing was fake, which I doubt. Afterwards, things go mostly as the game says, Mion slips and dies, Shion escapes and is all paranoid (perhaps fighting off possession by the demon). The person who stabs Keiichi I think has to do with weird doppelganger shenanigans that I don't understand yet, but I think it was Shion who stabbed Keiichi, possessed by the same demon that possessed Mion. Before you enter the cells, Mion says the relationship between her and her sister is like a dominant and non-dominant hand. This is a really weird thing to say about your sister, but kind of makes sense if the person speaking is demon that can possess both (but prefers Mion, the dominant hand).
It also makes more sense to me for Mion to be the one who summons up the villagers to defend Keiichi from the bikers; it makes more sense to me for Mion to have that kind of power rather than Shion. The end is some kind of hallucination by Keiichi, I don't really have a clue for the specifics for that to be honest.
I'm in this!
Around 1:26:00 I haven't finished the series (about to start arc 3) and coming to these discussions super late, but I also have the very similar theory that we're in a groundhog day scenario but not following the person going through the loops. I'm also preeeeeettty sure it's Rena that's going through the loops but since she's not the POV character we get to see where the loops continue even after she fails. She seems to always know a little bit more than everyone else and tries to give advice that changes what happens in the loops but because she's a child the advice isn't always the best (keep the bat close Keichi, I'll go tell everyone that it wasn't your fault Keichi, whatever ends up happening in 3 XD) If that's the case and we're not following the looping character in a timeloop, that's kind of awesome
I also think that the loopings are relatively new if that's the case, like I don't know if Rena has been going through it for too long by the time the story starts
Because of your retrospectives I've been shotgunning Higurashi and am now at the beginning of Arc 3. (I thought you were doing a LP of the series... and then I checked the previews on the YT timeline. Now I see why! These things are *fucking* long!)
On Ryu07's... earlier writing habits. I do hope he learned better, and from the sound of things he has. It's unfortunate, because there are clear elements that could be exercised and nothing would be lost (unripe fruit.... specifically the comment from Keiichi; kids imitating shit they shouldn't happens and I'm mostly somewhat fine with it being depicted overall.) BUT I would say to what degree is subjective. The opening Mion/Keiichi bit about goading him into flashing his lil' Keiichi (or even the manga's Mion's comment about her breasts) do ring true to the kind of things a kid that age would do and from that perspective I see it as no harm no foul; wouldn't say I've ever been around people like that when I was that age but it's an experience that kids do have... probably. Likely. For that reason, I'm gonna grit and bear (02) level censor from the 07th mod for the entire duration of the series. There is nothing here that will shock me; I would say (sadly) that within the last 10 years or so my "tolerance" to Anime BS has steadily increased. Yay me. Woo. Totally don't feel like dying now after saying that. Used to hate that shit. Now I've watched shit like KLK and actually enjoyed it (I do think there's a lot to get out of that series despite the innate uncomfortableness of it; it's a complicated series...)
Since ages are never firmly established I'm placing Mion/Shion at around 17; still bad for the work at Angel Mort but the higher the better sadly. Keiichi seems to be 15 and I'd say Rena is 16. I don't know if any media establishes that; I guess the lack of school lessons and the mixed grade setup makes obfuscating this sort of thing easy.
One thing I find fascinating is how two seemingly unrelated elements could be connected. The Ship theory, that the Oni were actually foreigners in the old times and had been accepted into Hinamizawa, and the obsession with foreign imports. Specifically, the inciting incident for both Arc 1 and 2 were, if otherwise unrelated to the rest of the plot, items that were specifically from outside Japan. The Colonel Sanders (Randy!) statue that Rena wanted from the dump and the doll that was specifically an import from England for Mion. I don't know if the doll was referencing a real life product, but its nature as an import is suspect. Mion is also specifically into imported games, the board games featured were all from America and the toy shop seems to specialize in foreign imports. Normally this would be nothing, but everything has a purpose in Higurashi I suppose. I feel, on the abstract metaphorical level, this might be r07's way of hinting that the Ship theory, the one with no supernatural elements, to be closer to the truth. There may also be hints of r07's feelings on the proliferation of western concepts/media in Japan.
I have like a million other thoughts but they naturally escape me at the moment.
I would argue Higurashi is actually pretty tame when it comes to the problamatic stuff compared to a lot of other anime unfortunately
I wouldn't call Arc 3 mixed: the parts where the character mentioned are bottom barrel, but the arc as a whole is fantastic - creepy, suspenseful, tragic.
i dont even know what character they mean. teppei?
@@247naomiI'm not sure, but since they say "not the one you're supposed to hate", my guess is that they (in the video at least) meant Irie? Tbf it's been a hot minute since I've read Higurashi, I don't even remember if he's in Tatarigoroshi, but I remember some of the jokes with him and Satoko being super tasteless
@@dihuixing thats definitely who they meant yeah, but i feel like Irie's stuff is meant to be understood as an extension of the kind of banter the kids do. i really had to stop listening to this series because of all the repetitive soapboxing about how the series is written. nobody on this show (from memory) really engages with what these jokes *do* for the novel, every episodes just interrupted sometimes with a "WAHHHH ANIME BULLSHIT" soapbox. and thats not me defending its inclusion i just think the hosts' analysis are pretty shallow (probably just bc theyre early on and the more reflexive stuff in Kai hasn't come around yet)
im not sure if they discuss this later on but one of my favorite moments in all of higurashi is during Ch5 (SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY)
where during one of Shion's internal monologues, she just mentions how gross and perverted she finds the jokes the men around her make. i feel like that simple moment really recontextualizes a lot of the stuff included in here. it adds a level of self awareness that doesn't "justify" it (i dont really believe that's a thing we can quantify) but changes ones understanding of those uncomfortable aspects of the novel. i hope later on in this series they end up having more complicated discussions about the style rather than just refusing to engage lol
sorry to rant like that i just had thoughts about this Book Club series i dropped a month ago LOL