Despite how unfun watching Sotsu was, collabing on this video *was* pretty fun! It helped that we had a lot of similar opinions on it. I should really get back to making videos...
i’m also mad that satoko put the ENTIRE BLAME on rika for wanting to move out of a place where she suffered for 100 years being killed by her friends or being gutted open... can you BLAME HER????
Satoko was never a great person or an extremely kind character because of all that she's been through which is understandable, but damn. sotsu made her more unlikable in so many ways, how did they mess up this bad..? I still like satoko just wish they had handles her character better.
@@mysticxjuice Mess her up? Last time I've checked anybody can be pushed off the deep end by circumstances out of their control. Analyzing her character a bit would show that the sequence of events that transpired during gou/sotsu would've pushed her to the extreme. Keep in mind she *never* asked or wanted to live in loops in the first place. She was force too
@@amyamyalex They didn't show her mental state declining? Did you not watch the GOU episodes where they went with st. Lucia!? Besides, she never wanted the power she was given and was forced into a gameboard.
@@amyamyalex Your lack of the English language is apparent. How does her worsening mental state they showed not make any sense? Plus, she didn't reset any timeline as there isn't time travel in higurashi
To be fair I would agree with you if it was in the original, Kai, Gou or Sotsu. However Rei and Kira are sorta there own thing on the side....to be expected from an OVA series. Kira was ultimately a "let just have some non-sensical story's that turn the original on its head." and should be seen as nothing otherwise.
@Hamas Harabi It has also been confirmed that it is only as the series progresses that you realize that Rika Furude is the real main character. The 2006 version
@@dogsoldier123 Takano did not do worse. For one she only lived "once", she is no looper. She puts her own life in danger, does not have a full understanding of the situation, everything Satoko was shielded from like a God. For two, this is huge, she UNDERSTANDS she did wrong at the end. Ultimately Higurashi, as written by the old Ryukishi, is a story about recognizing and atoning for your sins. A notion Sotsu spits on. For three, it isn't her best friend she's betraying. For four, her GOAL was at least noble, the goal of proving her grandfather's research. The goal destroying Rika so bad she forgets her ambitions and loses her free will is true evil.
Keiichi more like KeiiCHAD: "Rika maybe you need to be more proactive in your methods let me show you" SOLVES HIGURASHI "Satoko maybe you don't need to stick to Rika 24/7" SOLVES HIGURASHI AGAIN anyone who doesn't rely on Keiichi are dumb nuts
Speaking of Shion, why did they have Satoko holding her ribbon in one of the promotional art for Gou? I remember there was speculation that Shion probably ends up on Satoko's side, or Satoko does something to Shion... nope! Ended up being nothing at all.
Yeah I remember that and in the same picture, Rena is holding Rika's hands as if she's gonna play a huge role during the final arc and be on Rika's side.
@@dogsoldier123 dude, you can't just do stuff and expect people not to make theories about it. Satoko holding Shion's ribbon was something too specific.. the worst part is that Shion did NOTHING in this season. Rena holding Rika's hand was specific too, because Keiichi is the one who makes things change and seeing Rena being with Rika was different. In a franchise like Higurashi you can't just throw up stuff and expect people to not notice and inagine things.
I've said this before, but Sotsu's greatest sins were its wasted potential and the blandness of its resolutions. As a result, it wasn't even an anime that I could watch for shits and giggles (a so bad it's good type of series), it just left me feeling absolutely nothing throughout the series and couldn't really empathize with the characters. Given that this is one of my favorite parts of the original higurashi (and many other people's too), I would have just preferred the animation of some of the sidestories such as Miotsukushi rather than this mess.
Here's an inconsistency that really bothered me: If Rika has to be dead *before* Satoko in order for Satoko to follow Rika into another loop....then why did Satoko throw herself in front of a moving vehicle, killing herself in front of Rika in Higurashi Gou?! Also, what about the hundreds of times that Satoko cheated her way through a card game and unlocking a box, snapping her fingers every time she got something wrong? Doesn't she have to die in order to go back into a loop, or was it established that she could simply time jump with just a snap of her fingers?! Like, did she just run up to Rika mid-game to kill her, then kill herself, and start the next loop over at the start of the game? It makes no sense. And finally, my biggest issue with the show: Teppei's redemption. The thought of him getting a redemption arc was already a hard pill for me to swallow, given all of the things he did to Satoko. BUT I was fine with it...until I realized how this redemption arc was going to end. It left a *really* bad taste in my mouth. It was cheap and manipulative writing. I hate it, hate it, HATE IT.
Satoko didn't start to follow Rika's loop until she devised her plan and told eua about it. The whole finger snapping thing is just metaphorical, it's not literally that, that's why the background is void-ish like. This whole season just felt underwhelming compared to the mystery and suspense I was used to from the other seasons, plus the amount of things they just left there without answer like the teppei redemption.
Look at the reply above for the first two questions. I know Ryukishi07 didn't want characters to be *only* antagonistic, so I guess he made sure Teppei was shown with an ounce of good.
@@zarkamaddy6368 I don't buy that it was metaphorical. That's purely speculation since the rules were not established at that time. To me, it came off like the writers needed to have a rule in place to give Satoko a disadvantage. Otherwise, she would be overpowered. Also, my issue isn't with Teppei becoming a good guy. My issue is that he became a good guy just for Satoko to exploit him and his kindness, only for him to be killed in the end. And it was done to give Satoko a moment to battle with her "witch" persona, which was very poorly executed. The same thing could've been done with literally any one of her friends and it would hold just as much weight, if not more because, unlike Teppei, they didn't treat her like crap. Teppei can be a good and complex character, but the fact that the writers did this just so Satoko can hurt him feels needlessly mean-spirited.
Agree with everything. Especially the Teppei part. The redemption itself would’ve been fine, but then it was used to paint Satoko in such a terrible light. Great, you successfully redeemed a character, and then you immediately you use it to damage another character? And it’s still a hard pill for me to personally swallow 😔
I had the expectation that the follow-up to Gou would a thriller, "we need to outwit Satoko" type story. I was thinking something like the crew struggling to survive each loop and trying to take her down in different ways
Exactly! Because Satoko is a "traps master", she would be able to change up her strategies constantly, this'd create some amazing horror/gore/suspense as you'd literally never know when she'd strike next or from where. Each of them would be relying on recovered memories to try to outsmart her, whereas Satoko would be having to continuously upgrade her traps/plans since she'd have limited knowledge on how much the others remembered in each loop. A literal game of cat and mouse, that would've been so cool to see!
yes like, eventually their memories from past fragments start lining up and they start to understand the full picture while satoko and rika are off doing their lil thing being very distracted for obvious reasons, and together they try to form a plan to take satoko down without her suspecting them. that's why i figured it's shown so much that they remember past fragments and such, eventually they'd remember enough to know what's going on behind the scenes... they'd be stuck for a while trying to outsmart satoko while she tries to outsmart them back, eventually they'd take her down, and maybe have the usual Friendship is Magic moment or something which then leads to satoko and rika still learning the same thing in the end (that sometimes, even besties need to go their separate ways for a while to fulfill their own separate dreams, but that doesn't mean their friendship is over. they don't need to be glued to each others side to be friends. ... and they seriously need to learn how to communicate) but no i guess not 😭
@@JammyJess You're thinking too much into it, far more than Studio Passione ever did at their brainstorming meetings. Ryuukishi didn't write this story. If he did, then it would have been genius.
Yeah, I really didn't like how the rest of the crew ultimately did nothing in terms of helping Rika get free? It felt like the others were just shoved to the side kinda, like... I get the story this time is focused on Rika, Satoko, and to some degree, Hanyuu, but it feels like the rest of the cast just... Doesn't get to do much other than go L5 or be the victim of L5. They just don't feel utilized entirely well...
Personally I have a MAJOR issue with what they turn Satoko into. I just don't see the original Satoko EVER going down this path of unjustified cruelty, maybe if the Hinamizawa Syndrome was somehow involved I would been able to accept that explanation since it's symptoms are well documented and we've seen how far it pushes people off the deep end. The problem is that that's not what's causing this, Satoko according to the new anime: not only saw all the tragedies and cruel fates that happened in the original series and saw for herself what not only Rika but EVERYONE had to go through to just to move on with their lives. Old Satoko has been shown multiple times to be a fairly mature girl when things get serious, I can't picture THAT Satoko doing the things New Satoko has done out of her own free will. Not to mention since New Satoko lives in the timeline that Rika finally escaped her fate then doesn't that mean she's the same Satoko who helped save Rika from a well organized mercenary group? Shouldn't she of all people have an idea of what Rika had to go through just to be ALIVE? I just can't see Satoko ever being THIS cruel with not just Rika but with all her friends, especially not since Satoko in the original seemed totally against any sort of killing, the only time there was an exception was when she was influenced by the Hinamizawa Syndrome and was willing to drop Keichi down a bridge but even then it took several days of abuse by her uncle, finding out about the sudden death of her doctor friend, witnessing Rika's dead body and seeing an armed Keichi basically confessing that he probably had something to do with it (he didn't) in order for her to be pushed that far and EVEN THEN she still didn't really believe Keichi actually did it, she found it more believable that he was possessed or something rather than the Keichi she knew being capable of all the horrible deaths that happened that fragment.
And another thing that's bad about Gou & Sotsu is that turning Satoko into Lambdadelta directly contradicts Umineko, as Lambdadelta "blessed" Takano, which would be impossible to do before Gou and & Sotsu if Satoko = Lambdadelta.
I still don’t acknowledge Satoko=Lambda. It’s absurd. They are both solid characters on their own why chain them together, retconning their uniqueness?
This. I just cannot saw gou sotsu Satoko as this monster... And the same is true for Rika... I just cannot see Rika going to St. Lucia (that was already a crazy decision) bringing/forcing Satoko and ignoring her after that... It's just so out of character.
Satoko: (Reasoning for making Rika suffer knowing damn well what she had to go through, starting the entirety of Gou) "Studying's bad" Rika: (Very out of character, forcing Satoko into going to high school with her only to pretty much not acknowledge her later on) "I don't care go to school with me." They had a DBZ fight and all is forgiven. My god this story's a mess.
Sotsu was my worst fear for how the series would continue after Gou, that everything will be rehashed from Satoko's perspective. By the end of Gou we already had the answer to who dunnit, how dunnit, and why dunnit, even as a first time viewer i think they would be intelligent enough to determine themselves how Satoko played everything out instead of spoon feeding it to the audience. For the story they tried to tell i think i would have preferred a down to earth drama between Rika and Satoko in St. Lucia and resolving their differences when they return to Hinamizawa after meeting with the rest of the gang, maybe ending in a non-magical fist fight by the river idk.
It feels painful watching Gou/Sotsu as you could feel the energy in the whole community just *drain*. As an inspiring writer, I feel so frustrated seeing all the botched mysteries, missing punishments for actions, and useless characters who just DONT DO ANYTHING! And at the final episode, I felt myself almost sleeping through it, which is not a good thing.
Yeah it was depressing. Every episode of Sotsu, it feels like more and more of the community lost hope in it. It definitely hit its peak in Tatari and towards the ending. I feel you, I write screenplays and concepts in my free time because I want to make movies, so Sotsu was a headache to watch. It feels like they ignored almost everything that makes good writing
@@Zeronichi Honestly, I find the fact that H!Satoko vs W!Satoko being one of the best things to be legitimately laughable. It shouldn’t be the peak of the series, that should honestly be a footnote when compared to the bigger mysteries at hand - mysteries that ended up being super shallow.
I'm a big horror fan and hardly ever have difficulty watching scenes... but episode 18 of Satoko doing Watanagashi was horrifying. Despite the HUGE downfalls, I have to give props to the Japanese voice actors. They've always delivered such emotional performances, and all of their voices are recognizable in other series'
This shit ended with Rei. They broke the curse, saved the village and caught the real killer. There was no reason to bring it back REGARDLESS of unused chapters.
There was a reason. Ryukishi is going broke. Higurashi was a hit and Umineko had a good start, but writing got to bad in Chiru and the japanese all dropped it and complained, causing the writing to get even worse due to backlash and "muh dumb goats can't see love and misunderstood my masterpiece" which earned him the seething ire of japanese fans which sent him into a permanent exile of sorts despite being one of the biggest names in the anime writing sphere at that time. Dude hasn't written anything good since and proceeded to destroy his """magnum opus""" (Higurashi) a decade later and alienate fans, via a garbage retcon yuri bait sequel anime, All just to shill his multiverse mobage for moneys and tie Higurashi to Umineko, to spite his Japanese fans who adore Higu and hate Umi. If it wasn't so pathetic, I'd laugh at how absurd this was.
The same way Tolkien didn't really need to write The Lord of the Rings, but he did regardless (extreme example, but the reason is the same). Read the Gou/Meguri manga to see a more competent take on the story. With a lot of changes in the back half (Meguri).
@@tsurugi5The worse part is you could say Higurashi was loosely connected to Umineko so there would basically be no need for gou and sotsu if he just wanted to connect the two works together.
@@user-mo8li The actual worst part is that Gou and Sotsu creates contradictions. It has been heavily implied that Takano Miyu was "blessed" by Lambdadelta (Umineko character) in regards to the killings in Hinamizawa, which is kinda... Well, completely impossible if Satoko is Lambdadelta. So in a sense, Gou and Sotsu actually made Umineko and Higurashi even further apart as there is now a contradiction if the two really are connected.
Sotsu was all filler, no killer. Besides the points you already made, probably the worst is the central hook, the mystery of Hinamizawa Syndrome, is missing from Go and Sotsu, so there's nothing left to fill the void. Its just marking time until Satoko gives up, and we knew that was eventually happening from the first episode of Sotsu.
That's because the Hinamizawa Syndrome, the political and espionage mystery stuff was so beautifully wrapped up in the original already.. Oishi, Takano, Akasaka, Irie and Tomitake served no purpose. It was impressive how much depth was given to the adult characters before and I will forever cherish that. I loved how in the original the story was less focused on the fantasy side of things like time-looping and kept things ground in a sense, but here in Gou/Sotsu it's really diving in. Not a bad thing, it's a good step conceptually but I don't feel good about it. Also the theme (if there ever was one) of growing up and moving on is so poor to me, the departing of Rika and Satoko felt strangely empty along with the ending. It hurts more because all the other characters DID change for the better. Assassination Classroom does this theme better tbh
Personally it felt like Sotsu was splashing around in a dirty rain puddle for like 12 episodes until they realized "SHIT, we gotta conclude the series!" and they did that in such a half assed and rushed manner that even I lost my drive for the series around the last couple of episodes. I will forever love the first arc for the performance of Rena's VA and the scene at the Junkyard, but other than that it just snuffed out my excitement for the storyline... Which is such a shame because we came in from Gou with all the possibilities and all the hype in the world. Overall just a huge disappointment I'd rather put into the realm of non-canon side stories. But at least we got Good Guy Teppei out of it EDIT: there was a version of Dear You that played during the credits of the Higurashi Kaku OVA
Really just everything sucked: the other characters play no significant role such as not even reacting to Satoko pulling out a gun on Rika and doing absolutely _nothing_ to keep her from shooting. After scenes where the characters were starting to remember the other loops, you'd think it would go somewhere...but NOPE! Not even that whole speech Keiichi made about friendship amounts to anything because it is the most basic of advice to give, and he was out of the loop about what was really going on. The anime gave people hoping for it to connect with Umineko blue balls because at best, there were tiny references instead of fully committing to connecting the two. Eua was a pointless character who after all that speculation was more or less just a plot device to restart the cycle, and Satoko not only gets away with everything but there is no serious talk about the repercussions of her actions.
The problems I had stem from the fragment loops they can see. Also, TL;DR they handled a lot more wrong from what I saw. Episode 1 was fine as it was just a introduction, but after that we should had seen more. Like, Rena was basically used in that ark, but she was never given her own fragment to remember. Also, since Rena already went crazy once, Rika should had known to be careful and watch BOTH of them. They basically wrote themselves into a corner because they replaced Rika with Satako watching Rena almost kill Keichi at the junkyard. In Mion's crazy ark, other than the stupid way Satako injected Mion, we are led to believe Mion thinks someone is out to kill Keichi. Why would she (if she is level headed) go through the process of killing everyone? She even kills Rika in the middle of the day with no one seeing her. The reasoning behind why Mion is doing it isn't 100% clear. She tortures so many people with no thought, while Shion was at least a bit more easy to understand. If anything, Rika should had known that due to Keichi's actions there is still time to keep things from getting much worse in this loop. And, am I the only one who thought the dual personality was either never made clear, or is just stupid in general? So, Satako never had any hesitation when sticking Rena or Mion with something that will slowly kill them, as well as spead chaos, but she had trouble killing her uncle? She doesn't feel a drop of guilt that in the ONE ark where loop fragments not only changed Teppei, but also Keichi from killing Teppei to just doing the normal thing and doing all he can to help her she doesn't feel regret. Instead, we see her good personality be shot and theoretically killed. Whether this means she's suppressed or put into stasis, I don't know. All I know is after this she has no remorse when murdering. And, this was never resolved. Evil Satako says she will hand her mind back over to the good Satako, but we never see any change. We don't feel the difference. If this were true, the good Satako would had run to Keichi, Mion, and Rena crying and apologizing (while they would be confused). Also, another big retcon is Satako grew to be able to study at the end of GOU. She was able to study and pass a test to get into the school with Rika. Then, after gaining her powers, all we see her do is ask for Rika to 'stay by her side' no matter what. Its after this we skip back to the same scene where Satako is mortified outside a window watching Rika. Did the same events happen again, meaning did Satako not confront Rika at all when she had a full semester's chance? Did Satako again not take the time to pay attention in class in this second loop and try on the tests and other work? The first loop, I can blame Rika, but this second time Satako has way more opportunities. Then, in the last episode, Rika asks if Satako tried confronting the past Rika or studying (can't remember) and she says she did many times. No, we were only shown maybe 1 time before Satako snapped and tried to stop Rika from taking the exam, to later trying to scar her from leaving the town. It's again here we see Satako relive the hundreds of loops Rika went through to learn her story, and then come out of it saying, "Wow, I can definitely convince my friend to stay in this place if I scar her bad enough through trauma." Which is a hypocrite thing to do, when she doesn't live in her old house and had trouble reconciling with Teppei. And the dumbest thing is... it works! Seriously, Rika decides to stay in the town. And, this is the only time Satako ever slips up. Not when going and injecting Rena with a sickness. Not when doing Mion in the middle of the street. Not when she bought a gun. Not when Rena went missing.
@@rewt3406 The thing about Satoko looping and ending up in St Lucia again: Rika said she DID ask Satoko if she needed help, many times too, but Satoko kept rejecting her, with Satoko herself making some BS excuse on how what Rika did was not what she wanted. It's confirmed it is what Rika did, but Satoko just says no because it's not what she wants. The problem with Satoko is that she doesn't make sense. She wants Rika to stay and help her when she's troubled? No, she wants Rika to not help her and do things as Satoko wants in Satoko's way. Satoko thinks Rika going to St Lucia is wrong? More so if Satoko mentally break her in the name of Oyashiro-sama and gaslight her! Satoko wants Rika by her side? Nah, more like Satoko just hates studying and it stupidly ended with that as the main motive on why all this happened to begin with. Satoko...just lost a lot of potential character from what Sotsu did to her honestly.
Playing devil's advocate here: the reason why kei and the others didn't do anything to stop satoko was clearly reacting with both shock and confusion and I don't see how that isn't a proper reaction. Keis speech is just as basic as the originals "trust your friends" that Rika had learned to stop the loops the first time. I don't feel about eua being a pointless character since the author clearly wants to keep things ambiguous since not only was umineko mentioned but cicona as well as part 2 has yet to come out. Didn't takano get away with everything with no repercussions? As bad as satoko did she at least didn't murder the entire town and get to go with a love interest. In a way, her and rikas relationship is forever changed and not for the better
@@dogsoldier123 If they were unable to react or do anything because of the witch thing, it does a poor job at displaying that. Honestly, this all reads like throwing Ryukishi a bone rather than just accepting the fact that Sotsu and Gou were unneeded. Besides, you're kind of just speculating there on why they did not react when there is not much in the actual show to explain it. Keep in mind with Takano...the reason I do not have the same response with her is several factors: she lost her parents and was driven insane because of the abuse she suffered in the orphanage. She legitimately cared for her grandfather figure and part of her motivation is wanting his research acknowledged even if it meant sacrificing the village. And she then contracted the HS herself. Satoko, on the other hand, is supposed to be Rika's best friend, and yet she wanted Rika to stay with her at first over selfish reasons. Takano at the least was unaware of the loops and that Rika would go to another fragment after her death. Satoko frickin' knew why Rika was trying to escape Hinamizawa after watching hundreds of loops, but she did not care anyway. That level of betrayal to me is markedly worse than what Takano did.
I believe that Tomato in the Meguri manga will do everything much better, the first chapter of the manga Satokowashi is already better than the anime Satokowashi
If there are 4 answer arcs in Meguri then what could be this arcs 1)Satakowashi-hen 2)-akashi-hen (I don't think they are gonna have this arc) 3)Kagurashi-hen 4)A new arc? I'll still not be so optimistic about manga, I just hope that it gives better conclusion than Sotsu
What really screws up L5 Mion is that she has far less reason to act like this than Shion. Shion is a family outcast only just learning about the annual “curses” who has a crush on a pariah and believes that she’s set to die for setting foot in the Saiguden. Mion is in a position to know just as much, if not more, than the people she’s interrogating and killing. The scene where she interrogates Shion about the culprit, someone she thinks is going to kill Shion herself, is utterly nonsensical. If someone’s out for Shion, why would they reveal their identity and motives for her to share?
@@soul6733 I mean Shion in the VN is also extremely paranoid but her reasoning is still intact. Mion even knows that the Three Families aren't the one who caused the curse, it doesn't make sense why she thought they were out to kill Keiichi.
The injections put in the victim in the terminal phase, they just get crazy and paranoid, Shion was slowly getting crazy, but Mion was insane for one day to another, is not that interesting? Maybe, but works for Satoko's plans
It honestly made no sense that Keichi,Reina and Mion didnt remember anything from past fragments.I thought that when they introduced this in Gou it would have been a big plot point in Sotsu . Instead conviently the only two people that seemed to be affected by their past memories were Teppei and Rina and not Keichi and the rest altough they were the closest to Satoko.They could have done so much with this as i thought the concept was quite interesting but it seems they only implemented it in order to explain the changes in Teppeis and Rinas personalities
Honestly, as a higurashi-obsessed person, sotsu was such a huge letdown for me and I'm glad I'm not alone. Since the first UK release of the first manga volume, I've followed this series, and sotsu just...no. Gou built up so much potential, so much possibility, but Sotsu just abuses it all and throws it away. I felt so cheated when the magical girl parts started towards the end, I had to sit there staring at the screen like...what? When did Higurashi get any of THAT kind of content? It doesn't fit in at all! AT ALL! I LOVE Higurashi so much but they've done the Higurashi universe dirty with this one.
@@armyOfHero yeah, Umineko is a great series in its own right, and I love how there's implications of tie-ins like rika and frederika and all that. Magic fits in well because that's the story it has built up. I just don't think that magic works in Higurashi, not when they only introduced it in the, what, fifth season? At the very end? Even without the magic being an issue the plot of Sotsu doesn't feel like a "solution" plot to Gou in the way that Kai is to the original season.
I finally started Higurashi around January or February 2021 in order with a friend who was an old fan of it.. but I couldn't enjoy Sotsu so much because I only got angry and angry at Satoko for being so shitty towards her friends.. she saw Rika's loops.. every single one.. even the ones where they saved her from her uncle, all of that didn't matter to her, I don't know how fucked up and toxic you must be to do all of that just to keep your best friend trapped with you in a place where they have a huge trauma. I hated how her reasons became a "I hate studying" shit.. because there was a lot more in St. Lucia that made Satoko regret going, like the other girls being mean to her, being alone, not seeing her old friends, etc. Rika also turned out to be shitty out of nowhere because we don't actually see her forcing Satoko to go with her she just says she wants to share her dream with her best friend.. it didn't make any sense to me to see Rika not mentioning her past loops and how tired she was. I hated how in the end they made Rika and Satoko equally evil wich IS NOT THE CASE, Rika never murdered her friends and tortured Satoko, the way everything ended dissapointed me so much because they took it like a friend's little fight when it was a lot more than that. Rika being friends with Satoko again didn't make any sense to me.. and then Ryukishi saying "plz don't hate Satoko" is UGH.. WE SHOULD FORGIVE HER EVEN WHEN SHE KILLED PEOPLE TO TORTURE HER FRIEND SO SHE DOESN'T LEAVE????? I seriously don't get why they did this seasons, it was awful and it ruined the entire franchise for me.. IN ONE YEAR EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SERIES WENT TO SHIT. Satoshi waking up without an scene with Shion and Satoko seeing him was like they were mocking us. I really wanted eveyone to remember something from past loops so they could do something useful to help instead of "freinds are friends no matter how far they are".. even Shion who literally went to St. Lucia could help a lot but nooo, Satoko did a perfect run. Fuck this seasons, I'll stick to Kai and think this was just a stupid fanfic with a dumb villian from another universe who dissapeared out of nowhere.
Higurashi GouSotsu seems like it was written by someone who was told about Higurashi and Umineko while blackout drunk, didn’t get the message of either, and thought they were the same thing.
The thing that annoyed me most about Sotsu was how overpowered Satoko was. While she’s mentally older, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s in the body of a young girl yet manages to consistently overpower people much bigger and stronger then her with little effort, like the scene where Mion’s mother comes at her with a god damn sword, with series lore stating she is actually quite skilled with and that she even once beat Oryo in a Kendo match. Yet Satoko manages to effortlessly dodge every single one of her strikes, then quickly pull out a gun and shoot her. That scene was beyond ridiculous.
I don't understand why the injections were necessary at all. From what we see in the original series once you get hit with the injection you will instantly hit stage 5 and either kill yourself or people around you, but this show plays the long game with the injections. If you're gonna have a build-up to them going crazy why do you even need the injections?
R07 only wrote the outline of sotsu and everything else was handled by passione. Maybe sotsu would have turned out better if R07 gave more materials to work with. I hope that the gou and sotsu manga will fill the void in my heart.
The back to back let downs of AOT and Sotsu have burnt me out of watching anime and reading manga. One massive plus for Gou/Sotsu is that it has created a boom in fan content. Never would I have expected to find so many new channels dedicated to make making 07th Expansions memes. It’s because if this that I’m glad that it exists, even if it was painful to watch.
We're entering the dark ages as far as entertainment is concerned. I don't think Ryu cares that much about Higu anymore and it's just a cash cow for him. Love the memes and the connections to other WTC series, but if he was going to do that he shouldn't be so vague anymore, but I suspect he probably doesn't know what he is doing himself and doesn't want to create a ton of plot holes.
Man I’m so glad someone feels the same exact same way. Between AOT and other anime’s and mangas letting me down like Higurashu, I’m finding it hard to have any excitement for new anime / manga anymore. Abs the worst part is how much the anime community accepts and defends such mediocre writing. Why would writers bother putting more effort in when the majority of the audience are fine with writers lapping up the bare minimum
I suspected that Gou was particularly hurt by the Writers trying to appeal to both old and new fans. It worked for Gou so let's do it again also we might have to think to hard if we try anything new. Doesn't help that from the start this to me felt as if it was an add-on story like outbreak. Stretched out way too much. BTW why the Satoshi hate? He's clearly been working hard in Gou and Sotsu.
The worst part for me was the glimmers of something good that would shine through. There were a few interesting ideas that were overshadowed by the overall narrative.
These things for me: -Too much reused content -Not enough new material -Most of the maincast was forgotten -Bad antagonist, really really bad. Stupid motivations and no development. Fuck me, they could have justified all the Satoko shitshow if there was enough new material, but instead decided to play everything in the last 2 episodes. -FORCING UMINEKO CONNECTIONS. This is what makes me mad the most and its the thing that ruined all Higurashi for me, yes even the old one. Sure, you could say that the old one still exists... but goddammit I just cant forget all the shitshow with Satoko It just feels.... it gives me a similar feeling that the new star wars trilogy gave me. All the interesting potential and buildup of the first part, and then say fuck it
I agree.. specially with the last one I loved Satoko, she was a girl who went through too much but still being happy and had so much fun doing whatever she likes.. After Gou and Sotsu I can't see her the same way.. I want to like her again but my head keeps saying "she fucked up the entire show and her character" and I hate it.. I hate how Kai's finale doesn't mean anything anymore because to the other characters it didn't happen.. all the effort it's just gone thanks to Gou and Sotsu
22:01 When I saw the title "Shion" I've never felt his happy about a review of Higurashi. Shion was clearly not enough present in the anime, and for once someone talks about it. Her ribbon was mentionned in a previous video with the Irregular Entropy cover and I was so hyped because I though that Shion was finally going to be here after being absent for almost the whole Gou series. As a Shion's fan, it was really deceiving to see her like it was described here, but thanks for having a bit of attention for this amazing character.
I think the problem began in Gou, and Sotsu is just a symptom. Gou made it seem more about Satoko not wanting to study, and Sotsu reinforced this idea in the Rika vs Satoko fight (despite the fans claiming that it wasn't just about studying), so I didn't have high hopes from the moment we were shown her reasons for trapping Rika in an endless loop. I think it'd have been better if Gou focused more on their codependant relationship (how they're obsessed with the other and why it's toxic so that they could both develop better as characters and etc) and less on the whole St. Lucia thing. But that was never happening, because Gou wasn't sure whether it was a remake or not until halfway through it, otherwise I see no reason why the fuck we were forced to go through retellings of the original arcs. The problem of the first two arcs (both Oni and Wata) is that they were nothing but filler that doesn't have a purpose (with Gou/Sotsu version of Wata being the worst offender of the two because it's a shitty version of the original Watanagashi/Meakashi arc, devoid of development or even a message like in the original). Everyone that isn't Rika or Satoko is also...just there for the sake of being there instead of having an important role in the story (like how it was necessary in Kai to rally up everyone in order to have a shot against Takano). Eua is just a "why do you even exist" character, being nothing but a plot device so that Satoko could trap Rika in a loop. Speaking of Satoko, the whole thing of her witch side taking over and killing her human side meant nothing in the end, but then again so did the whole "people are remembering stuff from previous loops" too. She was reduced to a yandere psycho lesbian who's a lot less sympathetic than Teppei (speaking of Teppei, they funnily tried to redeem him even though in the tips of the VN it's implied that he or his friends might have sexually abused Satoko and it's also implied in her shot with him in God's Syndrome). I don't know why Ryukishi needed to establish an explicit connection between Higurashi and Umineko (and probably Ciconia but I haven't read that one) when it was clear how they were connected. At this point he's just beating a dead horse by going through stories that are already finished. If it isn't a strategy to sell more merchandise because his series is sinking, then I don't know why he did this.
@@misakitakazaki8951 That's my main problem with Satoko's reasons. She says she doesn't want to study, yet she's willing to kill herself (off screen) over and over to guess a code lock and to memorize a card's game. There's no way you can redeem a character that acts like that.
@@loren5432 But it's obviously just not that when you look at it. The other problem is that Satoko just can't fit in such a strict school with her rebellious attitude.
@@soul6733 The main problem is that she doesn't even try to do shit. She's willing to kill herself for a stupid memory card game, yet she isn't willing to kill herself to memorize the tests? She is willing to trap Rika in a time loop, but she isn't willing to come up with plans to keep Rika away from the other girls? (by asking her to hang out, help her with her studies and etc). She literally gives up after telling Rika like 2 times that she doesn't want to go to St. Lucia before going psycho on her. Hell, she could've manipulated/sabotaged Rika's chances of getting in (which is still bad but better than what we have), but nah, she'd rather cross the line even more and kill her over and over again. You can analyze Satoko all you want, but it won't make the anime any less shitty. I shouldn't be looking so hard to find a reason to understand her.
Keichis memory thing reminds me of what happened during heavy rain with Ethan blacking out and holding a origami paper It's there as a red herring but if you remove it from the story it honestly wouldn't matter and all it does is piss off the audience or make them cringe/laugh at that scene when going back to it
funny thing about that. those scenes originally served a purpose in the original script since there was going to be a supernatural connection between Ethan and Scott... but later on all supernatural elements were removed from the story, making the black out scenes pointless.
If you havent already read it, the Meguri manga does alot to seperate itself from Sotsu, and fixes a bunch if issues with the resolution and continuity of the story.
@@velconx15 I have a few chapters left to read cus I've been busy, but I read basically everything leading up to the finale, basically comparable to everything but the last 2 episodes of the anime. It spends far less of its time rehashing stuff we have already seen, and Satoko is far more sympathetic. The story pans out differently, Satoko's feels far more pushed into a corner, and Rika puts more effort into trying to understand her. Satoko is also sneakier.
Imagine being killed by your friend over and over again all because you want a better life for yourself.... And due to the fact your friend doesn't want to study...
As much as I can appreciate Higurashi Gou/Sotsu for reinventing my interest in the series that I had from years back when I watched parts of the original DEEN anime, as well as getting me into reading the amazing story that was Umineko, I will say that this entry of the series had a *lot* of missed opportunities. Looking back at it weeks after it concluded, I see many flaws in its writing and story that could've easily been fixed with a bit more revisions. One of my biggest complaints was how they seemingly foreshadowed *something* that would happen with the main cast, as the promotional poster *and* the opening presented Keiichi & company with strangely intimidating auras. My initial prediction was that Keiichi & company would start remembering those loops and team up with Rika to face against Satoko-Matsuribayasi-style-and reinvent the meaning of their friendship. This was not the case however, and the ending we got just left me feeling disappointed, especially with how rushed and unrewarding it felt. Now that we know Ryukishi07 will be writing the crossover between Higurashi and Umineko via the Higurashi mobile game, I really wonder if his writing might continue to fall down a slippery slope. I know the man's capable of excellent writing, so I have faith that he could potentially redeem his writing in the upcoming crossover-as well as the new manga arcs.
FYI R07 did not write the full script for GouSotsu, he literally just gave a plot outline in the form of some dot points and handed it off to Passione and the Mangaka to fill in all the blanks. This is why the GouSotsu manga is currently taking a different direction from the now finished anime. I'm not sure about the extent of his input in the Gatcha game though.
I'm not the only one who thinks Satoko injected that needle while Mion was bent over am I? I just found it funny Also how does no one react to a big needle going in them?
Hot take. Ever since hanyuu was i troduced i learned not to care. I really didn't want higurashi to be spirit stuff. But I liked it enough to ignore it
You absolutely should read Umineko. It's hands down the best thing I have ever read and it is superior to Higurashi. That being said, the ones telling you to read Umineko to understand Sotsu are kinda wrong imo. Sotsu is a mess, and Umineko has nothing to do with it except "Eua" looks similar to the Umineko character Featherine, and the creators of Gou / Sotsu clearly want the shows to be the origin story of Bernkastel and Lambdadelta (also Umineko characters), which kinda causes contradictions... Sotsu also directly contradicts the original Higurashi, as Rika in OG Higurashi said she wanted to stay in the village. Umineko is logical, Sotsu has the girls suddenly transform to magical girls. So, don't lump Sotsu in with Umineko. TL;DR: Umineko is a masterpiece, Gou and Sotsu are incomprehensible trash imo that causes contradictions both with Umineko AND the original Higurashi.
@@teubert2 wym it has nothing to do with it? Higurashi has always been a chessboard within the meta level of umineko between bern and lambda from the start, they literally confirm as much in the teatimes/??? in the VN. hanyu/eua looking like featherine makes perfect sense because it literally is featherine from when her memory device was broken.
@@myusernamewasinuse Yes, Bernkastel and Lambdadelta battle it out in Hinamizawa (with Bernkastel on the board, Lambdadelta from "above"). Bernkastel won. That I do not necessarily disagree with. What I was trying to say is that Umineko is only loosely connected to Higurashi; you can read Umineko first and you wouldn't lose much other than not understanding a few references. Umineko takes place in the same universe as Higurashi, but is not really meant as a sequel to it. However, Umineko and Higurashi can't be completely connected anymore due to a contradiction caused by Gou & Sotsu. It is pretty much confirmed in Umineko to be Lambdadelta that "blessed" Takano with her plans, but if Lambdadelta = Satoko, then there is a contradiction because Takano's plans (and thus Lambdadelta's "blessing") took place long before Gou & Sotsu (where Lambdadelta is supposed to be "born"). As for Hanyuu = Featherine, after I looked it up there does seem to be some truth to it. It's not completely Featherine herself, but rather a different version of her when her memory device was broken. At least that's what I could find. It's a bit vague imo but yeah they do seem connected somehow. Another thing I want to say is that Umineko is logical and really good, Gou & Sotsu are not. TL;DR: My point is that while it may technically take place in the same universe, Umineko is not really meant as a sequel to Higurashi. It is only loosely connected (if even that considering the pretty big contradiction caused by Gou and Sotsu). And Umineko actually makes sense.
Oh ya keichi remembering past loops.....I genuinely forgot that existed 😂 Honestly, I think 2 reasons killed Gou+soutsu 1) gou:-They tried to market it as a remake, it would have been sooo much better if instead of remaking the original loops in a slightly different way they would have made the loops completely different from the beginning. 2) soutsu:- it's literally is just a recap of gou... In the original series there where only 2 answer arcs told from a different perspective. In sotsu all of the answer arcs are told from a different Perspective which adds nothing new to the table Also I can't believe they did my girl shion dirty
It's sad how Higurashi is by far the piece of fiction I love the most due to how deep it hits me emotionally. (I adore Umineko but less since it's just an amazing work but not emotional to me). Sotsu was so disappointing because I felt no emotions watching it. Stone faced all the way through. The only thing that it changed is that now I see Teen Satoko as a completely new character. Otherwise all my opinions are as they were when I finished the VN.
I just stumbled across this video and was quite surprised to find out that people didn't like Sotsu. I myself never played Higurashi, but really loved Umineko, and I've been a fan of Higurashi ever since the anime released in 2006, starting from me being so disgusted by the murders, to angry about how it's just all resetted in the next arc, to absolutely falling in love with the deeper story about Rika's looping and trying to break out of it. I feel like Sotsu, while not strong in some aspects thorough the show, did feel like we were getting close to the end of a series that until then for me had been left open to be explored, with me happy about how Higurashi ended with a happy note, to me being even more happy to see there is still more to explore. But something that I thoroughly loved was the finale of the season, and the series as a whole, while it might seem weird for some how Satoko and Rika acted, to me it was more like two obsessed friends becoming more and more deranged with their twisted love for one another, and then as the fight across time and space happened (aka the Magical girl fight) it felt to me like two people finally breaking completely and giving in to their desires. I also really loved the ending of the Series where we see Lambda and Bern finally depart from this abused world with its abused characters, giving them a well deserved happy ending in the process. Mind you, this comes from a person that generally enjoys happy endings over any other type, the first Higurashi finale did have a happy ending, BUT it didn't fully explore just why Rika was looping, just that she was looping, so that was part of why I never felt that it was a conclusive end of a series. But yeah, for someone who wasn't thinking too deep into the whole thing, I really enjoyed everything, even if I did dislike Satoko in some aspects, that little shit lol
A large part of me is convinced Ryu didn’t have too much involvement in SOTSU. I refuse to believe he wrote such a shitter of a story right after having so much success and great storytelling with his past projects. This guy is legendary but this work looks as if a 5 year old wrote it. Fucking disgusting. There were some fun scenes with like Mion stomping Rika down the toilet or whenever Satoko was being a savage. But that’s all they were, one off few second scenes that added nothing to the horrendous story that we were presented in SOTSU. GOU was good in my eyes but SOTSU was god awful.
I think the same way that r07 did not involve much in sotsu. Even I believe the answer and ending were altered by passione. That would be the reason why the manga change the name to meguri. I think the writer and r07 could not tell the true that” the ending is not written by me”. They can only voice out by writing another answer arc in manga.
I feel the same way! Plus, they only got 15 episodes to do everything. Even if Ryu wrote lots more, it had to all be squeezed together and rushed. Even with the magical girl element, if it had more time to develop, it would have been more satisfying if we arrived at that ending with more answers leading to it.
@@soul6733 do you really trust that he gave a vague script for an 39episodes anime especially the ending? I mean he just mean that he didn’t fking care about the ending. And he could seamlessly say that the illusion was caused by ooishi imagination and also the ding-ding sound was an umineko reference? Passione just followed exactly the same he said? Isn’t he just say a vague script? How about the manga? Keiichi not even went to the fking house. Where is the ding ding sound? Is that mean he gave a completely different script for the manga?
I know it doesnt change the series as a whole but i liked one of the subtles references to umineko which is the sword itself, Satoko(Lambdadelta) getting the sword because she knows its certainly there , takes it so Rika would certainly didn't have it but a miracle occurs and a small piece is let there , Rika(Bernkastel) doesnt find the sword but as watching closer the piece shines like a miracle (like Satoko with the sword representing the 99.99% and Rika with the piece representing the miracle with the 0.01%) like the symbolism was there ( as of the story goes...)
Hanyuu's quote " I expected nothing from the world, because expectations lead to disappointment." Is the zip folder of my feelings towards especially Sotsu. You owe us a Hamlet, you goddamn monkies !!!
Honestly, the Rena arc wasn’t too bad in Sotsu; it showed us something brand new and that wasn’t in Gou. Things went horrible once it came to Shion and Mion’s arc. It became wasted potential, reused footage and things that just didn’t make sense and seemed impractical. Also, WASTED POTENTIAL!!!!! There should have been 24 episodes for the second season. Gou was so fun to watch; all the potential theories and mysteries, only for most answers to come out being lacklustre and unimpressive. Also like NO development for so many of the characters unless you’re Satoko and Rika. Soundtracks, openings and endings were phenomenal. The script itself was surprisingly disappointing. How we got to the ending of Sotsu was horrible. Also, HOW DID RIKA EVEN KNOW ABOUT ST LUCIA IF THE RIKA THAT SATOKO STARTED CHASING NEVER WENT TO OR THOUGHT ABOUT LUCIA.
I wish the theory of Keichi being the 3rd looper or at least some how keeping his memories every loop to stop Rika and Satoko fighting was what we got instead of the actual ending
@@saxor96 But it wasn’t though. It was only after that scene that Satoko started looping continuously and tried stopped Rika from going to Lucia, which led to Eua giving Rika the power to loop again. The Rika that was given the power to loop never went to Lucia, nor should she have even experienced Matsuribayashi yet.
@@SimpleSpectator You seem to have things muddled. Matsuribayashi-hen was already the looper Rika we see attend St Lucia in Satokowashi-hen. There's some cloudiness about why that fragment seems to have two versions, but it's quite possible that Satoko is the one from an off-shoot fragment to Matsuribayashi-hen who then chases after alpha Rika. Certainly Rika planned to go to St Lucia long before any diversions, and with certainty before Satoko had anything to do with the equation.
My biggest issue is the fact that Satoko could have just told Rika the truth about how she was feeling in the beginning. Even when they first went to St Lucia together, Satoko didn't even try to get along with the girls at that school. Rika also shouldn't have forced Satoko into doing something that she didn't even want to do. By the end of everything I am still so upset that Rika just shrugged off the fact that Satoko tortured her and all of their friends just because she didn't want to go to St Lucia. You would think after watching some of the fragments Rika went through, Satoko would have been more compassionate to the pain her best friend endured, but no????
So for tomitake’s H173 injection, he was actually being injected periodically by TOKYO, under the guise that it was a vaccine. Takano decided to move forward with her plan and injected him with a bigger dose of the virus to make him go L5 much quicker. So it still makes sense that those Satoko injected reacted in a slower time frame. This was explained in the VN but I don’t remember if it was explained in the DEEN anime
Yeah, i had similar feelings about Sotsu. I was hyped up on Gou and then Sotsu was pretty disappointing but mostly boring in the end. Also thank y'all for bringing up the cast and they could've done stuff. I thought they were going to be the mediators or something. Especially after seeing Satoko holding Shion's ribbon and Rena on the album covers. I do like the lesson that Sotsu was trying to make. Where friends don't always have to do everything together. That and follow to the same school to be together when it's not a fit for one of them. I don't like how it was just resolved in a very short awkward car ride. I feel like they could've done more with the resolution you know. Since R07 was writing this, I'm more disappointed in him since this is usually not what we usually expect of his stories and writing. It starts to seem more like Gou and Sotsu is just cash grabs (especially with the gacha games). But since Passione was reusing a lot of scenes, I thought they were doing the same thing with the Endless Eight thing. Pad out for time for time to work on The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie. Was hoping an announcement for some Umineko reboot or When they Cry movie or something. Still nothing. At least there's the manga to look forward to
the whole last season made me sad not just cuz ii know it was the last season but because after last episode i had so many questions and a new season would not be something i would enjoy
They need a new ending. I was hoping either rika would make the choice to finally kill satoko with the sword or if they were all going to live the club shouldve had more to do with it
I’m so glad to finally see your video on Sotsu after waiting for it! This vid was very well thought out and said, I completely agree with everything you both said. Sotsu is an utter failure and honestly a stain to 007’s legacy. The entire season could have been wrapped up in 4-6 episodes and we could have gotten an ending we deserve if the ending focused on including the original cast to help Rika and Satoko work out their issues and get Satoko the proper help she needs because she has serious mental health issues. It honestly felt so cheap and gross to make Satoko the villain these past two seasons when she’s the known abused and abandoned character in the series. To use her history of abuse and mental health to turn her into a mindless abuser/serial killer was not a good look, especially with the shitty attempts given at a “redemption scene” because she wasn’t even given an arc! Out of the countless Higurashi characters to pick from, Satoko was the worst option to have been picked and this only ruined her legacy and likeableness that has been built up the past 15+ years. I feel bad for everyone who made videos and Reddit threads going on about intricate theories surrounding Sotsu only for the most plain and boring answers to be given this season. Don’t get me started on how unsatisfying of a villain Satoko was. Her background aside, it was so boring to see everything just be handed to her as a villain and none of her plans fall through despite her getting lazy and cocky towards the end. As I’ve said in other comments I’m really just gonna hold out until the manga comes out to claim that as the true Sotsu ending and hope we get better anime seasons or a movie in the future.
I want to also add that other than the casts being forgotten for the sake of Rika and Satoko's DBZ fight, I want to also add HANYUU is also poorly written for Sotsu. If people remember, Hanyuu said she's but a fragment of what was left of the original Hanyuu and couldn't do anything but wait outside the Fragments and pray Rika will survive. She couldn't even SEE what was happening in whatever Fragment Rika was in. Yet at the end of the series, she's back in Hinamizawa and happily watching over everyone in it. What happened to her not able to enter Fragments? Isn't she just a Fragment of the original Hanyuu? Is this Hanyuu as a whole or still a fragment of her? Just how is she here??? Also Hanyuu does nothing. NOTHING. Her role in Sotsu/Gou is become somehow linked to Eua: being a plot device. Hanyuu miraculously allowed Rika to remember EVERYTHING after Tataridamashi/Tatariakushi-Arc and teach her about the sword. Would have been helpful to remember everything from now on when Hanyuu had more power to loop back more and let Rika have a mercy kill if she's given up (granted Hanyuu didn't want to be alone, so the sword option can be left out anyway). Then she just...spews "The Power of Miracles will defeat you!" What miracle? Satoko's cockiness on spewing how Rika must die before her is the miracle? The sword miraculously appeared in Hanyuu's hand to defeat Eua is the miracle? Combining the power of everyone who was not involved in Sotsu at all like they did in Kai is the miracle??? Satoko and Rika suddenly making up is the miracle???????? I didn't feel any miracle, let alone the same feeling, I felt after watching/reading the original Higurashi Arcs. Hanyuu did learn how a miracle can occur, but the way she blabbed about how miracles can fix everything yet still get punched and stabbed by Eua in a BDSM play felt super cheesy and frustrating to watch...like how annoyingly caring characters always cry "Never give up hope in this despair!" If Hanyuu played a bigger role other than crying out how miracles can defeat Eua before """miraculously""" getting the sword to defeat her, I would say Hanyuu was written just right. Sotsu's Hanyuu tho? I feel like no one knows how to write her at all other than "Oh she's the key because miracles." Hanyuu also deserved better.
I actually thought the 1st arc of Sotsu was pretty strong. It was easily the best exploration of Rena's character that any of the adaptations had attempted up to this point, and I didn't mind that the answer was simplistic, because it was still the 1st arc after all. I can also buy that Rena would suddenly start feeling tired because she was feeling particularly stressed due to everything going on with her dad at that moment. Everything after that was garbage. Best part of Sotsu was putting Hanyuu in bondage I should also mention Ryukishi only provided the outline of the story, and wasn't the scriptwriter. But he also seemingly approved of every step of the plot, so he also likely shares some of the blame
I'm personally ok with Sotsu because I went in expecting a full season about Rika vs Satoko. I honestly didn't care about anyone else except Rika and Satoko (Teppei was a nice surprise). Everyone else was just pawns in this boardgame. Now just to wait for the manga.
Both Rika and Satoko had reasonable grievances against one another, I feel like Satoko is getting to much blame. Satoko wen't way too far and became evil, however, her initial animosity towards Rika was justified. Satoko felt strung along and then abandoned. Satoko however didn't do enough to change things, reach out more to Rika, transfer to another school after the first semester, or reach out to Mion or Keiichi.
My thing is that I can’t see Satoko being this heartless and cold. I feel like the Satoko in the original wouldn’t do the things she did in this new series. Yes, Satoko was a brat and annoying sometimes, but she wasn’t this manipulative and cold hearted to where she’d try to mentally break Rika
Long, long LONG time WTC fan. Umineko being one of my favourite things of all time. I enjoyed Sotsu. It had its problems, but I truly enjoyed the conclusion. Kinda funny to me how I see people generalise "anyone who wanted it to link to Umineko was disappointed", but, I wasn't. It did what I hoped it would. Left the girls (or ateast Satoko) to themselves to live in their perfect fragment while very obviously alluding to LD and Bern leaving to be reunited one day.
i really wish it hadn't... and it doesn't surprise me that the one time umineko "references" (pretty much direct connections at this point) are really pushed like this within higurashi is in a season that is generally seen as disappointing and a waste of time. im sure umineko fans thought this was cool or whatever, but i hate the ties between the two stories. the way higurashi is explained through umineko just feels like a giant middle finger, undermining everything higurashi characters have to go through. i'd much rather have had these two as separate series (with the only references being meaningless easter eggs), but then it probably wouldn't have sold as well. meh.
@@autocorrect5456 Agree on the middle finger. That whole line as a reference thing felt like throwing the Umineko fans a bone as saying "Here's an Umineko linking to Higurashi thing you all hyped over!" I can take the DBZ fight as a reference to Bernkastel and Lambdadelta battle because it is that crazy. But at they same time, the whole fight over the sword felt like two girls fighting over a toy to win a game they started from an argument. I am a fan of Umineko and Higurashi, and was super hyped to see how Bernkastel came to be because of "her master leaving her to solve a logic error" and whatever hell Lambdadelta went through after losing, because it lead to that so much! The references on Witches. Eua looking like Featherine. Satoko spewing "I'm certain to win" and obsessive love for Rika. Because all that thrown in, it lead to nowhere, conclusion half-assed and just got "Oh no victory nor confirmation on Rika is Bernkastel and Satoko is Lambdadelta, but have a line to say they are for the sake of making you guys think it's confirmation to be happy." And I will say, I'm not happy to be given something like after all the hype. We fans don't owe the series anything or should felt owed, but the way Sotsu played out felt cheap and put off a lot of Umineko fans, but also Higurashi fans for the story with a half-baked conclusion told.
Well, I had an idea that the reason why other characters play no important role in Sotsu is the fact that Rika and Satoko are slowly becoming witches and hence from their perspective all the people from the loops are nothing. But it's still strange. It looks like Gou/Sotsu were just "glued" to Higurashi series ingnoring all the previous arcs. Rika and Satoko learned so much during 2006 and 2007 seasons, and in Gou/Sotsu they again do the same mistakes they did in 2006 season, Kai and Rei - they don't trust their friends, they don't talk to each other bout their issues, think of themselves as gods (the mistake from Rei) etc. Gou/Sotsu just... threw all the previous characher evolvement to the garbage. (I was typing this while watching the video, so sorry if I repeated something you said).
And well, the bond between Lambda and Bern is toxic, but these two are not really Rika and Satoko, and we didn't get any episode revealing how Satoko and Rika became Lambda and Bern. Speaking of whitches problem, I can see no logic in Sotsu. The original series said that Bern was born after Rika's 100 years of suffering. So why would she even appear in Gou/Sotsu, which take place AFTER she was born and parted from Rika? And if she is the one in Rika's body in the very end of Sotsu, where is original Rika? So many questions and contradictions...
@@linterna9032 We already know from Eva Ushiromia that a witch stemming from that person, and the person themselves can live at the same time. Also Rika's suffering was 1000 years, end of sotsu explains what happened with Lambda and the fact that Rika dies up to high school tells us that she still loops after the end of sotsu because Furudo Erika stems from a part of Rika that was never reached within what we saw. As for the whole Lambdelta situation, We know that a witch can manifest themselves as a player on a pre-existent game board, so whats not to say that Takano being the origin and the funny multipersonality thing we saw being lambda becoming the player weren't the same thing? Now the big question you should be asking yourself, is why does Augustus know the events of Ciconia even though at that time, a cold war should be resulting in WWIII?
As someone who has never read the umineko VN or seen anything umineko related, or read the higurashi VNs but did watch the original higurashi series and enjoyed it, from my less informed perspective what struck me the most that was bad about the whole "Evil Satoko doppelganger" thing is that it removed most of any actual agency or responsibility Satoko had for her actions. Like, yeah it was her fault it got to that point to begin with, but the moment she got "shot dead" in the goddess dimension when literally fighting "herself" before killing her ex-abuser may as well have also put a bullet in any interest I had in the actual character. At least with the injection shot the characters are still mostly themselves but with near zero impulse control or rationale, outright possession is just the removal of any actual agency because a character even says themselves even through the crazed haze of a L5 attack "Yeah you look like satoko but you're not actually satoko". It also by extension makes Eua less interesting to me because instead of her being an asshole demon that finds it highly amusing that Satoko thinks she even deserves redemption after what she did on her own accord to Rika over a fucking school experience, she instead directly just manipulates satoko until her soul doppelganger kills the old satoko in spirit which is like if you were to have fun gambling by rigging a slot machine so that it gave you a jackpot every time, which just seems like a thing that would bore the absolute shit out of a character like Eua. And I actually laughed when at the end evil satoko just said "alright you can have your body back now bye" like she was doing the Nileseyy Niles Disappears meme and this has zero impact on Satoko's real self, who realistically would have had a sort of similar scene to when she fakes a PTSD reaction to her uncle's alleged abuse, except it would have been real that time since she presumably watched all this shit with her evil self happen presumably as a passenger in her own body.
It's 2023. Biggest confusion for me is Eua's existence now (Without the Umineko references/evidence). Decided to watch the Hanyuu timeline video (And the Kotohogushi gameplay). How did Eua get involved? What is "Hai-Ryun" now with Eua existing? Yes, the Onigari-no-Ryuuou is back, but what ties does Eua have to Hanyuu? Why call her a "failure"? The biggest web confusion is how the Kotohogushi arc now connects to Hanyuu in Sotsu and the Gou. *_Ryukishi-sama will still not dare explain. He might not be writing for Gou and Sotsu, but... I still don't know where Eua plays here._*
(Spoilers) You know when we were learn that the whole problem in wonderland in the 2 “Alice in wonderland” Disney live action remake was all because of a tart 21:15 That is what Satoko’s goal is like except it’s different and kinda even worse than in the 2 Disney live action movies of Alice in wonderland
I think Sotsu being “bad” is a combination of the anime not adapting Ryukishi’s story very well and also Ryukishi’s writing style taking a different direction in recent years. I personally still love most of his work (including Sotsu) but after Umineko his storytelling definitely changed and the people who loved his older works are pretty split on his newer works. I think Sotsu had some amazing ideas (and the 2nd to last episode was amazing) but the lazy character writing compared to og Higurashi and the anime seemingly adapting the script badly kinda ruined it. I just don’t think it’s the worst thing to ever happen to anime like some people make it out to be.
Wait...I thought Satoko didn't even inject Mion directly. She put in in her drink. Didn't she even ask if the result was gonna be the same if it got in another way?
I wonder if a similar analysis can be done for Meguri manga, which retcons a bunch of stuff with Sotsu, most of which is what people complained about and has been fixed.
For me, the Ending was really easy to make. Just make the plans from Satoko Backfire, the Club Members remembers the other timelines and helped Rika solve the mistery. But nope, shounen scene resolves everything.
So are we not gonna talk about how rika was able to remember the loop where she gets bonk a bunch by oiishi but than somehow remember that satoko shot her as well even though it was stated by rika herself that she was killed by oiishi it would have made more sense that rena remember that part since she was there at that time
Considering that Rika was able to survive several minutes with her guts ripped out, then a couple more after being bisected, and remain conscious the whole time, I've just come to the conclusion that characters in this series, or at least Rika, are just built different.
I can tell you as a huge Umineko & Lambdadelta fan, the entirety of Sotsu left a bad taste in my mouth. I really wish I could go back to the end of Gou when I found the prospect of new Higurashi-Umineko references exciting and not disappointing. (Tbf, Shion and Takano were my Higurashi favourites so I was both disappointed they got no Sotsu screen time and happy they were spared from its writing…)
I have been reading the Meguri manga and while it's not perfect and has a lot of sins of the father (so to speak), I feel it's way better than Sotsu. For instance Mion's similar breakdown to Shion is explained that she had a meltdown over whether she really is Shion or Mion, over what it means to be a twin, what it's like looking at a twin, etc., and you're even left confused as to which twin killed which for a few pages. I feel Mion having a meltdown over her identity and then deciding she must be both is a much better explanation. Also in Meguri, Satoko does actually get to see Satoshi again - multiple times. But Satoshi repeatedly dies, which gets to Satoko. Satoko realises she cannot wait for Satoshi because he will die. Also Shion tried to encourage Satoko and Rika not to go to the school since Shion knows what it is like, and Shion is very desperate about it. Satoko is also forced to watch all 100 years of Rika's fragments without asking to or even consenting, not something Satoko actively asked for, so it is entirely possible that between her treatment at the school and witnessing those 100 years broke Satoko's mind. I could go on but Meguri just tends to fix the major flaws. Again it has a lot of flaws, but I feel it is way better.
This show is what people think actual Higurashi is, just cheap loli murder porn. The scene in Kai where Takano-san guns down the entire cast was bone chilling and it made me feel horrified. The sorrow and loss of that scene really had the atmosphere and momentum of the series riding on it. Nothing senseless about it. And then Rika-chan gets gutted while she's still awake because she's brave and didn't give up. SG, on the other hand, is just cheap loli torture and murder porn. I watched my friends sit through the pain as SG ended and I was curious about what Higurashi is so I started the original series. After that and hearing their warnings about not to waste my time watching SG I decided to judge it by the death compilation. The part where Rika-chan is stabbed in half by Satoko-chan with her guts spilling everywhere was fucking ridiculous. She sits there crying WHY DO YOU WANT TO GO TO GIRL SCHOOL while she just shows the writer's gore fetish. It was repulsive and made me feel terribly uncomfortable. All the other shit where the characters explode into one billion gallons of blood or someone gets shot so their fall into pieces. And THEN the plot to every fucking arc is Satoko-chan gave someone Hinamizawa (I kill you you kill me) AIDS. Then a DBZ fight happens. I feel horrible for anyone who picked this up without reading or watching actual Higurashi. It's irredeemable garbage and the writer's are gore fetishists that have dementia because of the one thousand times they show the full dance. Not nippah~☆ at all
You know what, what I liked wasn’t seeing how Satoko pulling the strings with Reina. It was seeing how paranoid Keiki actually was in contrast to Rena’s paranoia. It was actually so moving to me that I plan to incorporate different perspectives of the same event in my writing because it can provide such a different experience. Satoko was a good villain. I liked her. But I hate how her plans reduced from actually smart and planned out to “I planned it and it’s so convoluted no one can understand, even the viewer”
Oh wow, well done on coming up with 2 pros! I hated Sotsu, I don't know if I've made that apparent in your youtube community comments lol. This video was nicely cathartic for me, although bit surprised to learn there are people who liked the ending. Don't really know what to make of that.
People that like the ending are pretty abundant, and if they do then that’s fine. I’m glad they managed to get some enjoyment out of it. We struggled to find two pros tbh loo
Despite how unfun watching Sotsu was, collabing on this video *was* pretty fun! It helped that we had a lot of similar opinions on it.
I should really get back to making videos...
The disrespect of the male audience pissed me off
@@westernharo74822 What on earth do you mean?
@@westernharo74822what the hell are you on??
i’m also mad that satoko put the ENTIRE BLAME on rika for wanting to move out of a place where she suffered for 100 years being killed by her friends or being gutted open... can you BLAME HER????
Satoko was never a great person or an extremely kind character because of all that she's been through which is understandable, but damn. sotsu made her more unlikable in so many ways, how did they mess up this bad..? I still like satoko just wish they had handles her character better.
@@mysticxjuice Mess her up? Last time I've checked anybody can be pushed off the deep end by circumstances out of their control.
Analyzing her character a bit would show that the sequence of events that transpired during gou/sotsu would've pushed her to the extreme. Keep in mind she *never* asked or wanted to live in loops in the first place. She was force too
@@amyamyalex They didn't show her mental state declining? Did you not watch the GOU episodes where they went with st. Lucia!? Besides, she never wanted the power she was given and was forced into a gameboard.
@@amyamyalex Your lack of the English language is apparent. How does her worsening mental state they showed not make any sense? Plus, she didn't reset any timeline as there isn't time travel in higurashi
@@amyamyalex What a great counter argument 🙄
When Rika and Satoko transformed into magical girls that’s when I had to stop lying to myself and pretending it was gonna get better…
I enjoyed them throwing shit on the wall to see if it’d stick. I enjoyed it for the trash it was
To be fair I would agree with you if it was in the original, Kai, Gou or Sotsu. However Rei and Kira are sorta there own thing on the side....to be expected from an OVA series.
Kira was ultimately a "let just have some non-sensical story's that turn the original on its head." and should be seen as nothing otherwise.
one word: umineko
@Hamas Harabi Keiichi never was a MAIN charakter neither in the Old 2006 Higurashi. Rika was always the true Main Character
@Hamas Harabi It has also been confirmed that it is only as the series progresses that you realize that Rika Furude is the real main character. The 2006 version
One of my biggest complaints is that Satoko gets away with killing and torturing her friends scott free, and that Rika just forgives her???
Rika forgave Takano who is the reason she died horribly for 100 years.
@@soul6733 It's not even the same Takano.
@@soul6733 She didn't. Rika just stare at her as she was leaving.
Takano did arguably worse and nobody complained...
@@dogsoldier123 Takano did not do worse.
For one she only lived "once", she is no looper. She puts her own life in danger, does not have a full understanding of the situation, everything Satoko was shielded from like a God.
For two, this is huge, she UNDERSTANDS she did wrong at the end. Ultimately Higurashi, as written by the old Ryukishi, is a story about recognizing and atoning for your sins. A notion Sotsu spits on.
For three, it isn't her best friend she's betraying.
For four, her GOAL was at least noble, the goal of proving her grandfather's research. The goal destroying Rika so bad she forgets her ambitions and loses her free will is true evil.
I'm actually glad Shion was underused
She avoided the retcon (unlike her friends)
That’s fair
Yess thank you Jesus for sparing best girl of this tragedy🙇♀️
@@ayanevonriegan Not Jesus, but Oyashiro-sama*
@@qye_67 ahh yes, thank Oyashiro for for allowing our waifu to stay far away from the travesty that is ひぐらしのなく頃に Sotsu.
@@ayanevonriegan thank god 🙏
I completely cut Sotsu off story wise for myself, honestly for me almost everything that happens after the classic is one big alternate universe
Yes sotsu is just scp34
Keiichi more like KeiiCHAD:
"Rika maybe you need to be more proactive in your methods let me show you" SOLVES HIGURASHI
"Satoko maybe you don't need to stick to Rika 24/7" SOLVES HIGURASHI AGAIN
anyone who doesn't rely on Keiichi are dumb nuts
Speaking of Shion, why did they have Satoko holding her ribbon in one of the promotional art for Gou? I remember there was speculation that Shion probably ends up on Satoko's side, or Satoko does something to Shion... nope! Ended up being nothing at all.
OHHH I forgot about that
Red Herring?
Yeah I remember that and in the same picture, Rena is holding Rika's hands as if she's gonna play a huge role during the final arc and be on Rika's side.
Ever considered the fact you ppl just over thought and assumed things?
@@dogsoldier123 dude, you can't just do stuff and expect people not to make theories about it. Satoko holding Shion's ribbon was something too specific.. the worst part is that Shion did NOTHING in this season.
Rena holding Rika's hand was specific too, because Keiichi is the one who makes things change and seeing Rena being with Rika was different.
In a franchise like Higurashi you can't just throw up stuff and expect people to not notice and inagine things.
I've said this before, but Sotsu's greatest sins were its wasted potential and the blandness of its resolutions. As a result, it wasn't even an anime that I could watch for shits and giggles (a so bad it's good type of series), it just left me feeling absolutely nothing throughout the series and couldn't really empathize with the characters. Given that this is one of my favorite parts of the original higurashi (and many other people's too), I would have just preferred the animation of some of the sidestories such as Miotsukushi rather than this mess.
I agree with this completely. What's the point in making a new story if you're not going to resolve things?
@@MrHunteru The only thing Sotsu did is make me more skeptical of future original releases in the series because of this exact reason.
@@MrHunteru
I'm glad you love the opening
The opening is so cool
Here's an inconsistency that really bothered me:
If Rika has to be dead *before* Satoko in order for Satoko to follow Rika into another loop....then why did Satoko throw herself in front of a moving vehicle, killing herself in front of Rika in Higurashi Gou?!
Also, what about the hundreds of times that Satoko cheated her way through a card game and unlocking a box, snapping her fingers every time she got something wrong? Doesn't she have to die in order to go back into a loop, or was it established that she could simply time jump with just a snap of her fingers?! Like, did she just run up to Rika mid-game to kill her, then kill herself, and start the next loop over at the start of the game? It makes no sense.
And finally, my biggest issue with the show: Teppei's redemption. The thought of him getting a redemption arc was already a hard pill for me to swallow, given all of the things he did to Satoko. BUT I was fine with it...until I realized how this redemption arc was going to end. It left a *really* bad taste in my mouth. It was cheap and manipulative writing. I hate it, hate it, HATE IT.
Satoko didn't start to follow Rika's loop until she devised her plan and told eua about it. The whole finger snapping thing is just metaphorical, it's not literally that, that's why the background is void-ish like.
This whole season just felt underwhelming compared to the mystery and suspense I was used to from the other seasons, plus the amount of things they just left there without answer like the teppei redemption.
Look at the reply above for the first two questions.
I know Ryukishi07 didn't want characters to be *only* antagonistic, so I guess he made sure Teppei was shown with an ounce of good.
@@zarkamaddy6368 I don't buy that it was metaphorical. That's purely speculation since the rules were not established at that time. To me, it came off like the writers needed to have a rule in place to give Satoko a disadvantage. Otherwise, she would be overpowered.
Also, my issue isn't with Teppei becoming a good guy. My issue is that he became a good guy just for Satoko to exploit him and his kindness, only for him to be killed in the end. And it was done to give Satoko a moment to battle with her "witch" persona, which was very poorly executed. The same thing could've been done with literally any one of her friends and it would hold just as much weight, if not more because, unlike Teppei, they didn't treat her like crap.
Teppei can be a good and complex character, but the fact that the writers did this just so Satoko can hurt him feels needlessly mean-spirited.
Good comment. I despise Teppei's awfully written redemption.
Agree with everything. Especially the Teppei part.
The redemption itself would’ve been fine, but then it was used to paint Satoko in such a terrible light. Great, you successfully redeemed a character, and then you immediately you use it to damage another character?
And it’s still a hard pill for me to personally swallow 😔
I had the expectation that the follow-up to Gou would a thriller, "we need to outwit Satoko" type story. I was thinking something like the crew struggling to survive each loop and trying to take her down in different ways
Me too! I would've loved to see that
Exactly!
Because Satoko is a "traps master", she would be able to change up her strategies constantly, this'd create some amazing horror/gore/suspense as you'd literally never know when she'd strike next or from where.
Each of them would be relying on recovered memories to try to outsmart her, whereas Satoko would be having to continuously upgrade her traps/plans since she'd have limited knowledge on how much the others remembered in each loop.
A literal game of cat and mouse, that would've been so cool to see!
yes like, eventually their memories from past fragments start lining up and they start to understand the full picture while satoko and rika are off doing their lil thing being very distracted for obvious reasons, and together they try to form a plan to take satoko down without her suspecting them. that's why i figured it's shown so much that they remember past fragments and such, eventually they'd remember enough to know what's going on behind the scenes... they'd be stuck for a while trying to outsmart satoko while she tries to outsmart them back, eventually they'd take her down, and maybe have the usual Friendship is Magic moment or something which then leads to satoko and rika still learning the same thing in the end (that sometimes, even besties need to go their separate ways for a while to fulfill their own separate dreams, but that doesn't mean their friendship is over. they don't need to be glued to each others side to be friends. ... and they seriously need to learn how to communicate) but no i guess not 😭
@@JammyJess You're thinking too much into it, far more than Studio Passione ever did at their brainstorming meetings. Ryuukishi didn't write this story. If he did, then it would have been genius.
Yeah, I really didn't like how the rest of the crew ultimately did nothing in terms of helping Rika get free?
It felt like the others were just shoved to the side kinda, like... I get the story this time is focused on Rika, Satoko, and to some degree, Hanyuu, but it feels like the rest of the cast just... Doesn't get to do much other than go L5 or be the victim of L5.
They just don't feel utilized entirely well...
Personally I have a MAJOR issue with what they turn Satoko into. I just don't see the original Satoko EVER going down this path of unjustified cruelty, maybe if the Hinamizawa Syndrome was somehow involved I would been able to accept that explanation since it's symptoms are well documented and we've seen how far it pushes people off the deep end. The problem is that that's not what's causing this, Satoko according to the new anime: not only saw all the tragedies and cruel fates that happened in the original series and saw for herself what not only Rika but EVERYONE had to go through to just to move on with their lives.
Old Satoko has been shown multiple times to be a fairly mature girl when things get serious, I can't picture THAT Satoko doing the things New Satoko has done out of her own free will. Not to mention since New Satoko lives in the timeline that Rika finally escaped her fate then doesn't that mean she's the same Satoko who helped save Rika from a well organized mercenary group?
Shouldn't she of all people have an idea of what Rika had to go through just to be ALIVE? I just can't see Satoko ever being THIS cruel with not just Rika but with all her friends, especially not since Satoko in the original seemed totally against any sort of killing, the only time there was an exception was when she was influenced by the Hinamizawa Syndrome and was willing to drop Keichi down a bridge but even then it took several days of abuse by her uncle, finding out about the sudden death of her doctor friend, witnessing Rika's dead body and seeing an armed Keichi basically confessing that he probably had something to do with it (he didn't) in order for her to be pushed that far and EVEN THEN she still didn't really believe Keichi actually did it, she found it more believable that he was possessed or something rather than the Keichi she knew being capable of all the horrible deaths that happened that fragment.
I totally agree with that, and that's just one of the many issues I found with this as well
And another thing that's bad about Gou & Sotsu is that turning Satoko into Lambdadelta directly contradicts Umineko, as Lambdadelta "blessed" Takano, which would be impossible to do before Gou and & Sotsu if Satoko = Lambdadelta.
I still don’t acknowledge Satoko=Lambda. It’s absurd. They are both solid characters on their own why chain them together, retconning their uniqueness?
This. I just cannot saw gou sotsu Satoko as this monster... And the same is true for Rika... I just cannot see Rika going to St. Lucia (that was already a crazy decision) bringing/forcing Satoko and ignoring her after that... It's just so out of character.
Ngl i wished it showed less of satoko and more of keiichi, rena, shion, and mion. They shouldve had more to do with the ending.
But i did like the last episode and probably will read the book.
I agree, and I go on a giant rant about that for like maybe 7 or 8 minutes
Sotsu in a a nutshell: Hey guys remember that Satoko's evil?! Look! her eyes are glowing red and she smiles!
Satoko: (Reasoning for making Rika suffer knowing damn well what she had to go through, starting the entirety of Gou) "Studying's bad"
Rika: (Very out of character, forcing Satoko into going to high school with her only to pretty much not acknowledge her later on) "I don't care go to school with me."
They had a DBZ fight and all is forgiven.
My god this story's a mess.
It goes deeper than that (regarding Satoko).
@@MetaKnight964 That... isn't saying much really.
Their very petty argument gave me 2nd hand embarrassment. Like watching actual middle schoolers making a fool of themselves in a Starbucks.
I agree that studying is bad :(
what about Rika is out of character?
Sotsu was my worst fear for how the series would continue after Gou, that everything will be rehashed from Satoko's perspective. By the end of Gou we already had the answer to who dunnit, how dunnit, and why dunnit, even as a first time viewer i think they would be intelligent enough to determine themselves how Satoko played everything out instead of spoon feeding it to the audience.
For the story they tried to tell i think i would have preferred a down to earth drama between Rika and Satoko in St. Lucia and resolving their differences when they return to Hinamizawa after meeting with the rest of the gang, maybe ending in a non-magical fist fight by the river idk.
Haven’t seen it yet but the rating of sotsu dropping from an 8 to a high 6 on mal was definitely a massive red flag for me
Yeaaah, and its still dropping everyday
Has Sotsu also effected gous score as well
@@ImmaLittlePip tbh anything higher than 4 to sotsu is a shame in my eyes
@@bernkasteler7190 Exxagerated.
@@ImmaLittlePip Yea Sotsu ruined Gou, which sucks because Gou was a really interesting setup and had potential.
It feels painful watching Gou/Sotsu as you could feel the energy in the whole community just *drain*. As an inspiring writer, I feel so frustrated seeing all the botched mysteries, missing punishments for actions, and useless characters who just DONT DO ANYTHING! And at the final episode, I felt myself almost sleeping through it, which is not a good thing.
Yeah it was depressing. Every episode of Sotsu, it feels like more and more of the community lost hope in it. It definitely hit its peak in Tatari and towards the ending. I feel you, I write screenplays and concepts in my free time because I want to make movies, so Sotsu was a headache to watch. It feels like they ignored almost everything that makes good writing
@@MrHunteru And that peak only lasted minutes (the whole Witch!Satoko vs Human!Satoko thing)
I legit fell asleep during the last episode. So i agree on that one.
@@Zeronichi Honestly, I find the fact that H!Satoko vs W!Satoko being one of the best things to be legitimately laughable. It shouldn’t be the peak of the series, that should honestly be a footnote when compared to the bigger mysteries at hand - mysteries that ended up being super shallow.
Just go through the Original Sound Novels and the Original anime (despite some of its failings) etc and just pretend this mistake wasnt thought of
I'm a big horror fan and hardly ever have difficulty watching scenes... but episode 18 of Satoko doing Watanagashi was horrifying. Despite the HUGE downfalls, I have to give props to the Japanese voice actors. They've always delivered such emotional performances, and all of their voices are recognizable in other series'
This shit ended with Rei. They broke the curse, saved the village and caught the real killer. There was no reason to bring it back REGARDLESS of unused chapters.
this is my headcanon tbh. they could've just remastered it with the unused content and details in the manga and vn would've loved that.
There was a reason. Ryukishi is going broke. Higurashi was a hit and Umineko had a good start, but writing got to bad in Chiru and the japanese all dropped it and complained, causing the writing to get even worse due to backlash and "muh dumb goats can't see love and misunderstood my masterpiece" which earned him the seething ire of japanese fans which sent him into a permanent exile of sorts despite being one of the biggest names in the anime writing sphere at that time.
Dude hasn't written anything good since and proceeded to destroy his """magnum opus""" (Higurashi) a decade later and alienate fans, via a garbage retcon yuri bait sequel anime, All just to shill his multiverse mobage for moneys and tie Higurashi to Umineko, to spite his Japanese fans who adore Higu and hate Umi. If it wasn't so pathetic, I'd laugh at how absurd this was.
The same way Tolkien didn't really need to write The Lord of the Rings, but he did regardless (extreme example, but the reason is the same). Read the Gou/Meguri manga to see a more competent take on the story. With a lot of changes in the back half (Meguri).
@@tsurugi5The worse part is you could say Higurashi was loosely connected to Umineko so there would basically be no need for gou and sotsu if he just wanted to connect the two works together.
@@user-mo8li The actual worst part is that Gou and Sotsu creates contradictions. It has been heavily implied that Takano Miyu was "blessed" by Lambdadelta (Umineko character) in regards to the killings in Hinamizawa, which is kinda... Well, completely impossible if Satoko is Lambdadelta. So in a sense, Gou and Sotsu actually made Umineko and Higurashi even further apart as there is now a contradiction if the two really are connected.
Sotsu was all filler, no killer. Besides the points you already made, probably the worst is the central hook, the mystery of Hinamizawa Syndrome, is missing from Go and Sotsu, so there's nothing left to fill the void. Its just marking time until Satoko gives up, and we knew that was eventually happening from the first episode of Sotsu.
That's because the Hinamizawa Syndrome, the political and espionage mystery stuff was so beautifully wrapped up in the original already.. Oishi, Takano, Akasaka, Irie and Tomitake served no purpose. It was impressive how much depth was given to the adult characters before and I will forever cherish that.
I loved how in the original the story was less focused on the fantasy side of things like time-looping and kept things ground in a sense, but here in Gou/Sotsu it's really diving in. Not a bad thing, it's a good step conceptually but I don't feel good about it.
Also the theme (if there ever was one) of growing up and moving on is so poor to me, the departing of Rika and Satoko felt strangely empty along with the ending. It hurts more because all the other characters DID change for the better. Assassination Classroom does this theme better tbh
Personally it felt like Sotsu was splashing around in a dirty rain puddle for like 12 episodes until they realized "SHIT, we gotta conclude the series!" and they did that in such a half assed and rushed manner that even I lost my drive for the series around the last couple of episodes. I will forever love the first arc for the performance of Rena's VA and the scene at the Junkyard, but other than that it just snuffed out my excitement for the storyline... Which is such a shame because we came in from Gou with all the possibilities and all the hype in the world. Overall just a huge disappointment I'd rather put into the realm of non-canon side stories.
But at least we got Good Guy Teppei out of it
EDIT: there was a version of Dear You that played during the credits of the Higurashi Kaku OVA
Really just everything sucked: the other characters play no significant role such as not even reacting to Satoko pulling out a gun on Rika and doing absolutely _nothing_ to keep her from shooting. After scenes where the characters were starting to remember the other loops, you'd think it would go somewhere...but NOPE! Not even that whole speech Keiichi made about friendship amounts to anything because it is the most basic of advice to give, and he was out of the loop about what was really going on.
The anime gave people hoping for it to connect with Umineko blue balls because at best, there were tiny references instead of fully committing to connecting the two. Eua was a pointless character who after all that speculation was more or less just a plot device to restart the cycle, and Satoko not only gets away with everything but there is no serious talk about the repercussions of her actions.
The problems I had stem from the fragment loops they can see. Also, TL;DR they handled a lot more wrong from what I saw.
Episode 1 was fine as it was just a introduction, but after that we should had seen more. Like, Rena was basically used in that ark, but she was never given her own fragment to remember. Also, since Rena already went crazy once, Rika should had known to be careful and watch BOTH of them. They basically wrote themselves into a corner because they replaced Rika with Satako watching Rena almost kill Keichi at the junkyard.
In Mion's crazy ark, other than the stupid way Satako injected Mion, we are led to believe Mion thinks someone is out to kill Keichi. Why would she (if she is level headed) go through the process of killing everyone? She even kills Rika in the middle of the day with no one seeing her. The reasoning behind why Mion is doing it isn't 100% clear. She tortures so many people with no thought, while Shion was at least a bit more easy to understand. If anything, Rika should had known that due to Keichi's actions there is still time to keep things from getting much worse in this loop.
And, am I the only one who thought the dual personality was either never made clear, or is just stupid in general? So, Satako never had any hesitation when sticking Rena or Mion with something that will slowly kill them, as well as spead chaos, but she had trouble killing her uncle? She doesn't feel a drop of guilt that in the ONE ark where loop fragments not only changed Teppei, but also Keichi from killing Teppei to just doing the normal thing and doing all he can to help her she doesn't feel regret. Instead, we see her good personality be shot and theoretically killed. Whether this means she's suppressed or put into stasis, I don't know. All I know is after this she has no remorse when murdering. And, this was never resolved. Evil Satako says she will hand her mind back over to the good Satako, but we never see any change. We don't feel the difference.
If this were true, the good Satako would had run to Keichi, Mion, and Rena crying and apologizing (while they would be confused).
Also, another big retcon is Satako grew to be able to study at the end of GOU. She was able to study and pass a test to get into the school with Rika. Then, after gaining her powers, all we see her do is ask for Rika to 'stay by her side' no matter what. Its after this we skip back to the same scene where Satako is mortified outside a window watching Rika. Did the same events happen again, meaning did Satako not confront Rika at all when she had a full semester's chance? Did Satako again not take the time to pay attention in class in this second loop and try on the tests and other work? The first loop, I can blame Rika, but this second time Satako has way more opportunities. Then, in the last episode, Rika asks if Satako tried confronting the past Rika or studying (can't remember) and she says she did many times. No, we were only shown maybe 1 time before Satako snapped and tried to stop Rika from taking the exam, to later trying to scar her from leaving the town.
It's again here we see Satako relive the hundreds of loops Rika went through to learn her story, and then come out of it saying, "Wow, I can definitely convince my friend to stay in this place if I scar her bad enough through trauma." Which is a hypocrite thing to do, when she doesn't live in her old house and had trouble reconciling with Teppei.
And the dumbest thing is... it works! Seriously, Rika decides to stay in the town. And, this is the only time Satako ever slips up. Not when going and injecting Rena with a sickness. Not when doing Mion in the middle of the street. Not when she bought a gun. Not when Rena went missing.
@@rewt3406 The thing about Satoko looping and ending up in St Lucia again: Rika said she DID ask Satoko if she needed help, many times too, but Satoko kept rejecting her, with Satoko herself making some BS excuse on how what Rika did was not what she wanted. It's confirmed it is what Rika did, but Satoko just says no because it's not what she wants.
The problem with Satoko is that she doesn't make sense. She wants Rika to stay and help her when she's troubled? No, she wants Rika to not help her and do things as Satoko wants in Satoko's way. Satoko thinks Rika going to St Lucia is wrong? More so if Satoko mentally break her in the name of Oyashiro-sama and gaslight her! Satoko wants Rika by her side? Nah, more like Satoko just hates studying and it stupidly ended with that as the main motive on why all this happened to begin with.
Satoko...just lost a lot of potential character from what Sotsu did to her honestly.
@@rewt3406 umineko moment make higurashi fan brain go, why series now bad?!?
Playing devil's advocate here: the reason why kei and the others didn't do anything to stop satoko was clearly reacting with both shock and confusion and I don't see how that isn't a proper reaction.
Keis speech is just as basic as the originals "trust your friends" that Rika had learned to stop the loops the first time. I don't feel about eua being a pointless character since the author clearly wants to keep things ambiguous since not only was umineko mentioned but cicona as well as part 2 has yet to come out.
Didn't takano get away with everything with no repercussions? As bad as satoko did she at least didn't murder the entire town and get to go with a love interest. In a way, her and rikas relationship is forever changed and not for the better
@@dogsoldier123 If they were unable to react or do anything because of the witch thing, it does a poor job at displaying that. Honestly, this all reads like throwing Ryukishi a bone rather than just accepting the fact that Sotsu and Gou were unneeded. Besides, you're kind of just speculating there on why they did not react when there is not much in the actual show to explain it.
Keep in mind with Takano...the reason I do not have the same response with her is several factors: she lost her parents and was driven insane because of the abuse she suffered in the orphanage. She legitimately cared for her grandfather figure and part of her motivation is wanting his research acknowledged even if it meant sacrificing the village. And she then contracted the HS herself. Satoko, on the other hand, is supposed to be Rika's best friend, and yet she wanted Rika to stay with her at first over selfish reasons. Takano at the least was unaware of the loops and that Rika would go to another fragment after her death. Satoko frickin' knew why Rika was trying to escape Hinamizawa after watching hundreds of loops, but she did not care anyway. That level of betrayal to me is markedly worse than what Takano did.
I believe that Tomato in the Meguri manga will do everything much better, the first chapter of the manga Satokowashi is already better than the anime Satokowashi
Were can I read meguri
@@danielasarmiento3101 i use manga bird
@@luxtwo8776 thanks
How so?
If there are 4 answer arcs in Meguri then what could be this arcs
1)Satakowashi-hen
2)-akashi-hen (I don't think they are gonna have this arc)
3)Kagurashi-hen
4)A new arc?
I'll still not be so optimistic about manga, I just hope that it gives better conclusion than Sotsu
What really screws up L5 Mion is that she has far less reason to act like this than Shion.
Shion is a family outcast only just learning about the annual “curses” who has a crush on a pariah and believes that she’s set to die for setting foot in the Saiguden.
Mion is in a position to know just as much, if not more, than the people she’s interrogating and killing. The scene where she interrogates Shion about the culprit, someone she thinks is going to kill Shion herself, is utterly nonsensical. If someone’s out for Shion, why would they reveal their identity and motives for her to share?
Did you miss the point where she was completely crazy? She didn't even realize she was killing Shion.
@@soul6733 I mean Shion in the VN is also extremely paranoid but her reasoning is still intact. Mion even knows that the Three Families aren't the one who caused the curse, it doesn't make sense why she thought they were out to kill Keiichi.
The injections put in the victim in the terminal phase, they just get crazy and paranoid, Shion was slowly getting crazy, but Mion was insane for one day to another, is not that interesting? Maybe, but works for Satoko's plans
It honestly made no sense that Keichi,Reina and Mion didnt remember anything from past fragments.I thought that when they introduced this in Gou it would have been a big plot point in Sotsu . Instead conviently the only two people that seemed to be affected by their past memories were Teppei and Rina and not Keichi and the rest altough they were the closest to Satoko.They could have done so much with this as i thought the concept was quite interesting but it seems they only implemented it in order to explain the changes in Teppeis and Rinas personalities
Rina wasn't affected by the memories. She just was less of a bitch because there was no bad Teppei influencing her.
Honestly, as a higurashi-obsessed person, sotsu was such a huge letdown for me and I'm glad I'm not alone. Since the first UK release of the first manga volume, I've followed this series, and sotsu just...no. Gou built up so much potential, so much possibility, but Sotsu just abuses it all and throws it away. I felt so cheated when the magical girl parts started towards the end, I had to sit there staring at the screen like...what? When did Higurashi get any of THAT kind of content? It doesn't fit in at all! AT ALL! I LOVE Higurashi so much but they've done the Higurashi universe dirty with this one.
Mahou shoujo Rika seems pretty nice in comparision with Sotsu right now.
You see, you have to see it with love then every criticism fades away :) - umineko stans, probably
I think you should try watching umineko. Im sure it would give you a whole new perspective to the ending of sotsu
@@armyOfHero yeah, Umineko is a great series in its own right, and I love how there's implications of tie-ins like rika and frederika and all that. Magic fits in well because that's the story it has built up. I just don't think that magic works in Higurashi, not when they only introduced it in the, what, fifth season? At the very end? Even without the magic being an issue the plot of Sotsu doesn't feel like a "solution" plot to Gou in the way that Kai is to the original season.
I finally started Higurashi around January or February 2021 in order with a friend who was an old fan of it.. but I couldn't enjoy Sotsu so much because I only got angry and angry at Satoko for being so shitty towards her friends.. she saw Rika's loops.. every single one.. even the ones where they saved her from her uncle, all of that didn't matter to her, I don't know how fucked up and toxic you must be to do all of that just to keep your best friend trapped with you in a place where they have a huge trauma. I hated how her reasons became a "I hate studying" shit.. because there was a lot more in St. Lucia that made Satoko regret going, like the other girls being mean to her, being alone, not seeing her old friends, etc.
Rika also turned out to be shitty out of nowhere because we don't actually see her forcing Satoko to go with her she just says she wants to share her dream with her best friend.. it didn't make any sense to me to see Rika not mentioning her past loops and how tired she was. I hated how in the end they made Rika and Satoko equally evil wich IS NOT THE CASE, Rika never murdered her friends and tortured Satoko, the way everything ended dissapointed me so much because they took it like a friend's little fight when it was a lot more than that. Rika being friends with Satoko again didn't make any sense to me.. and then Ryukishi saying "plz don't hate Satoko" is UGH.. WE SHOULD FORGIVE HER EVEN WHEN SHE KILLED PEOPLE TO TORTURE HER FRIEND SO SHE DOESN'T LEAVE?????
I seriously don't get why they did this seasons, it was awful and it ruined the entire franchise for me.. IN ONE YEAR EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SERIES WENT TO SHIT. Satoshi waking up without an scene with Shion and Satoko seeing him was like they were mocking us. I really wanted eveyone to remember something from past loops so they could do something useful to help instead of "freinds are friends no matter how far they are".. even Shion who literally went to St. Lucia could help a lot but nooo, Satoko did a perfect run. Fuck this seasons, I'll stick to Kai and think this was just a stupid fanfic with a dumb villian from another universe who dissapeared out of nowhere.
Amen!
Higurashi GouSotsu seems like it was written by someone who was told about Higurashi and Umineko while blackout drunk, didn’t get the message of either, and thought they were the same thing.
The thing that annoyed me most about Sotsu was how overpowered Satoko was. While she’s mentally older, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s in the body of a young girl yet manages to consistently overpower people much bigger and stronger then her with little effort, like the scene where Mion’s mother comes at her with a god damn sword, with series lore stating she is actually quite skilled with and that she even once beat Oryo in a Kendo match. Yet Satoko manages to effortlessly dodge every single one of her strikes, then quickly pull out a gun and shoot her. That scene was beyond ridiculous.
I don't understand why the injections were necessary at all. From what we see in the original series once you get hit with the injection you will instantly hit stage 5 and either kill yourself or people around you, but this show plays the long game with the injections. If you're gonna have a build-up to them going crazy why do you even need the injections?
I never seen a series with such promise nose dive so fast.
Now I know how berserk fans feel about that 3d reboot
R07 only wrote the outline of sotsu and everything else was handled by passione. Maybe sotsu would have turned out better if R07 gave more materials to work with. I hope that the gou and sotsu manga will fill the void in my heart.
So they literally game of throned this show to the ground...
@@desubysnusnu I belong to that 1% population who has never watched game of thrones.
@@youarebeautiful9876 read the books they're great
@@Revealingstorm. ok 😊
I wish this were true.
The back to back let downs of AOT and Sotsu have burnt me out of watching anime and reading manga. One massive plus for Gou/Sotsu is that it has created a boom in fan content. Never would I have expected to find so many new channels dedicated to make making 07th Expansions memes. It’s because if this that I’m glad that it exists, even if it was painful to watch.
Yeah AoT murdered my spirit for this year, but the community for Higu is amazing. They make me want to make more stuff
We're entering the dark ages as far as entertainment is concerned. I don't think Ryu cares that much about Higu anymore and it's just a cash cow for him. Love the memes and the connections to other WTC series, but if he was going to do that he shouldn't be so vague anymore, but I suspect he probably doesn't know what he is doing himself and doesn't want to create a ton of plot holes.
Man I’m so glad someone feels the same exact same way. Between AOT and other anime’s and mangas letting me down like Higurashu, I’m finding it hard to have any excitement for new anime / manga anymore. Abs the worst part is how much the anime community accepts and defends such mediocre writing. Why would writers bother putting more effort in when the majority of the audience are fine with writers lapping up the bare minimum
I suspected that Gou was particularly hurt by the Writers trying to appeal to both old and new fans. It worked for Gou so let's do it again also we might have to think to hard if we try anything new. Doesn't help that from the start this to me felt as if it was an add-on story like outbreak. Stretched out way too much.
BTW why the Satoshi hate? He's clearly been working hard in Gou and Sotsu.
He’s been sleeping on the job man, could be putting in more effort
@@MrHunteru He sets up the whole character arc for both Shion and Satoko and set up the after school games club
He has done his job.
@@battlerushiromiya651 I know right? He deserves a quick nap.
@@DragoonBB He should have awakened before his sister became a witch though
How is Satoshi working hard? He was just sleeping and at the end of Sotsu, he finally woke up but fell off the bed.
The worst part for me was the glimmers of something good that would shine through. There were a few interesting ideas that were overshadowed by the overall narrative.
My favorite part of sotsu is the opening and ending 😭
They were both pretty bangin
These things for me:
-Too much reused content
-Not enough new material
-Most of the maincast was forgotten
-Bad antagonist, really really bad. Stupid motivations and no development. Fuck me, they could have justified all the Satoko shitshow if there was enough new material, but instead decided to play everything in the last 2 episodes.
-FORCING UMINEKO CONNECTIONS. This is what makes me mad the most and its the thing that ruined all Higurashi for me, yes even the old one. Sure, you could say that the old one still exists... but goddammit I just cant forget all the shitshow with Satoko
It just feels.... it gives me a similar feeling that the new star wars trilogy gave me. All the interesting potential and buildup of the first part, and then say fuck it
I agree.. specially with the last one
I loved Satoko, she was a girl who went through too much but still being happy and had so much fun doing whatever she likes..
After Gou and Sotsu I can't see her the same way.. I want to like her again but my head keeps saying "she fucked up the entire show and her character" and I hate it.. I hate how Kai's finale doesn't mean anything anymore because to the other characters it didn't happen.. all the effort it's just gone thanks to Gou and Sotsu
@@alieneko_nyo At least with stories like this with multiple timelines, you can just ignore the new stuff that ruins the old.
22:01 When I saw the title "Shion" I've never felt his happy about a review of Higurashi.
Shion was clearly not enough present in the anime, and for once someone talks about it. Her ribbon was mentionned in a previous video with the Irregular Entropy cover and I was so hyped because I though that Shion was finally going to be here after being absent for almost the whole Gou series. As a Shion's fan, it was really deceiving to see her like it was described here, but thanks for having a bit of attention for this amazing character.
I think the problem began in Gou, and Sotsu is just a symptom. Gou made it seem more about Satoko not wanting to study, and Sotsu reinforced this idea in the Rika vs Satoko fight (despite the fans claiming that it wasn't just about studying), so I didn't have high hopes from the moment we were shown her reasons for trapping Rika in an endless loop. I think it'd have been better if Gou focused more on their codependant relationship (how they're obsessed with the other and why it's toxic so that they could both develop better as characters and etc) and less on the whole St. Lucia thing. But that was never happening, because Gou wasn't sure whether it was a remake or not until halfway through it, otherwise I see no reason why the fuck we were forced to go through retellings of the original arcs.
The problem of the first two arcs (both Oni and Wata) is that they were nothing but filler that doesn't have a purpose (with Gou/Sotsu version of Wata being the worst offender of the two because it's a shitty version of the original Watanagashi/Meakashi arc, devoid of development or even a message like in the original). Everyone that isn't Rika or Satoko is also...just there for the sake of being there instead of having an important role in the story (like how it was necessary in Kai to rally up everyone in order to have a shot against Takano). Eua is just a "why do you even exist" character, being nothing but a plot device so that Satoko could trap Rika in a loop.
Speaking of Satoko, the whole thing of her witch side taking over and killing her human side meant nothing in the end, but then again so did the whole "people are remembering stuff from previous loops" too. She was reduced to a yandere psycho lesbian who's a lot less sympathetic than Teppei (speaking of Teppei, they funnily tried to redeem him even though in the tips of the VN it's implied that he or his friends might have sexually abused Satoko and it's also implied in her shot with him in God's Syndrome).
I don't know why Ryukishi needed to establish an explicit connection between Higurashi and Umineko (and probably Ciconia but I haven't read that one) when it was clear how they were connected. At this point he's just beating a dead horse by going through stories that are already finished. If it isn't a strategy to sell more merchandise because his series is sinking, then I don't know why he did this.
If Satoko doesn't even need to study. She can look all the answers in the test, snap her fingers and get the perfect score.
@@misakitakazaki8951 That's my main problem with Satoko's reasons. She says she doesn't want to study, yet she's willing to kill herself (off screen) over and over to guess a code lock and to memorize a card's game. There's no way you can redeem a character that acts like that.
@@loren5432 But it's obviously just not that when you look at it. The other problem is that Satoko just can't fit in such a strict school with her rebellious attitude.
@@soul6733 The main problem is that she doesn't even try to do shit. She's willing to kill herself for a stupid memory card game, yet she isn't willing to kill herself to memorize the tests? She is willing to trap Rika in a time loop, but she isn't willing to come up with plans to keep Rika away from the other girls? (by asking her to hang out, help her with her studies and etc). She literally gives up after telling Rika like 2 times that she doesn't want to go to St. Lucia before going psycho on her. Hell, she could've manipulated/sabotaged Rika's chances of getting in (which is still bad but better than what we have), but nah, she'd rather cross the line even more and kill her over and over again.
You can analyze Satoko all you want, but it won't make the anime any less shitty. I shouldn't be looking so hard to find a reason to understand her.
@@loren5432 She did try multiple times in ep 22 to try making Rika desist from going there and didn't work.
Somewhat ironically, Sotsu very much fits the idea of “violating the game board and bringing it to ruin” that appears in Umineko.
Except this fucking isn’t Umineko and didn’t deserve to be ruined just to serve the stupid fan theories about the connection between the two.
In the process of this video getting made, Jun's title was changed to Meguri before people start spam commenting that
It’s gonna happen anyways. These comments are doomed ;) .
Keichis memory thing reminds me of what happened during heavy rain with Ethan blacking out and holding a origami paper
It's there as a red herring but if you remove it from the story it honestly wouldn't matter and all it does is piss off the audience or make them cringe/laugh at that scene when going back to it
Lmao that’s a perfect comparison
funny thing about that. those scenes originally served a purpose in the original script since there was going to be a supernatural connection between Ethan and Scott... but later on all supernatural elements were removed from the story, making the black out scenes pointless.
If you havent already read it, the Meguri manga does alot to seperate itself from Sotsu, and fixes a bunch if issues with the resolution and continuity of the story.
This sounds promising, I hope you're not lying
@@velconx15 I have a few chapters left to read cus I've been busy, but I read basically everything leading up to the finale, basically comparable to everything but the last 2 episodes of the anime. It spends far less of its time rehashing stuff we have already seen, and Satoko is far more sympathetic. The story pans out differently, Satoko's feels far more pushed into a corner, and Rika puts more effort into trying to understand her. Satoko is also sneakier.
Imagine being killed by your friend over and over again all because you want a better life for yourself....
And due to the fact your friend doesn't want to study...
As much as I can appreciate Higurashi Gou/Sotsu for reinventing my interest in the series that I had from years back when I watched parts of the original DEEN anime, as well as getting me into reading the amazing story that was Umineko, I will say that this entry of the series had a *lot* of missed opportunities. Looking back at it weeks after it concluded, I see many flaws in its writing and story that could've easily been fixed with a bit more revisions. One of my biggest complaints was how they seemingly foreshadowed *something* that would happen with the main cast, as the promotional poster *and* the opening presented Keiichi & company with strangely intimidating auras. My initial prediction was that Keiichi & company would start remembering those loops and team up with Rika to face against Satoko-Matsuribayasi-style-and reinvent the meaning of their friendship. This was not the case however, and the ending we got just left me feeling disappointed, especially with how rushed and unrewarding it felt.
Now that we know Ryukishi07 will be writing the crossover between Higurashi and Umineko via the Higurashi mobile game, I really wonder if his writing might continue to fall down a slippery slope. I know the man's capable of excellent writing, so I have faith that he could potentially redeem his writing in the upcoming crossover-as well as the new manga arcs.
Ryukishi just gave a rough outline it is Naomi Hayashi who wrote the plot for the anime
That is why the manga is so different, and better
FYI R07 did not write the full script for GouSotsu, he literally just gave a plot outline in the form of some dot points and handed it off to Passione and the Mangaka to fill in all the blanks. This is why the GouSotsu manga is currently taking a different direction from the now finished anime. I'm not sure about the extent of his input in the Gatcha game though.
I'm not the only one who thinks Satoko injected that needle while Mion was bent over am I? I just found it funny
Also how does no one react to a big needle going in them?
because reasons, ya know?
@@MrHunteru well least it gave us Satoko rolling on the floor laughing memes
I thought she put it in her drink
@@incomplet3535 drink or in her bum either way both are just ridiculous and don't make any sense
the "sorry I pinched your ass desu wa" meme comes to mind
What went wrong?
Every thing sadly lol.
Maybe a Sotsu Part 1 and 2 would've made the story better and less rushed without dissappointing the fans.
For anyone who tells me to read Umineko to understand Sotsu:
“I hate studying.”
Hot take. Ever since hanyuu was i troduced i learned not to care. I really didn't want higurashi to be spirit stuff. But I liked it enough to ignore it
You absolutely should read Umineko. It's hands down the best thing I have ever read and it is superior to Higurashi.
That being said, the ones telling you to read Umineko to understand Sotsu are kinda wrong imo. Sotsu is a mess, and Umineko has nothing to do with it except "Eua" looks similar to the Umineko character Featherine, and the creators of Gou / Sotsu clearly want the shows to be the origin story of Bernkastel and Lambdadelta (also Umineko characters), which kinda causes contradictions... Sotsu also directly contradicts the original Higurashi, as Rika in OG Higurashi said she wanted to stay in the village. Umineko is logical, Sotsu has the girls suddenly transform to magical girls. So, don't lump Sotsu in with Umineko.
TL;DR: Umineko is a masterpiece, Gou and Sotsu are incomprehensible trash imo that causes contradictions both with Umineko AND the original Higurashi.
@@teubert2 wym it has nothing to do with it? Higurashi has always been a chessboard within the meta level of umineko between bern and lambda from the start, they literally confirm as much in the teatimes/??? in the VN. hanyu/eua looking like featherine makes perfect sense because it literally is featherine from when her memory device was broken.
@@myusernamewasinuse Yes, Bernkastel and Lambdadelta battle it out in Hinamizawa (with Bernkastel on the board, Lambdadelta from "above"). Bernkastel won. That I do not necessarily disagree with. What I was trying to say is that Umineko is only loosely connected to Higurashi; you can read Umineko first and you wouldn't lose much other than not understanding a few references. Umineko takes place in the same universe as Higurashi, but is not really meant as a sequel to it. However, Umineko and Higurashi can't be completely connected anymore due to a contradiction caused by Gou & Sotsu. It is pretty much confirmed in Umineko to be Lambdadelta that "blessed" Takano with her plans, but if Lambdadelta = Satoko, then there is a contradiction because Takano's plans (and thus Lambdadelta's "blessing") took place long before Gou & Sotsu (where Lambdadelta is supposed to be "born"). As for Hanyuu = Featherine, after I looked it up there does seem to be some truth to it. It's not completely Featherine herself, but rather a different version of her when her memory device was broken. At least that's what I could find. It's a bit vague imo but yeah they do seem connected somehow. Another thing I want to say is that Umineko is logical and really good, Gou & Sotsu are not.
TL;DR: My point is that while it may technically take place in the same universe, Umineko is not really meant as a sequel to Higurashi. It is only loosely connected (if even that considering the pretty big contradiction caused by Gou and Sotsu). And Umineko actually makes sense.
Oh ya keichi remembering past loops.....I genuinely forgot that existed 😂
Honestly, I think 2 reasons killed Gou+soutsu
1) gou:-They tried to market it as a remake, it would have been sooo much better if instead of remaking the original loops in a slightly different way they would have made the loops completely different from the beginning.
2) soutsu:- it's literally is just a recap of gou...
In the original series there where only 2 answer arcs told from a different perspective.
In sotsu all of the answer arcs are told from a different Perspective which adds nothing new to the table
Also I can't believe they did my girl shion dirty
I lost it when they got super powers and started fighting in mid air.
It's sad how Higurashi is by far the piece of fiction I love the most due to how deep it hits me emotionally. (I adore Umineko but less since it's just an amazing work but not emotional to me). Sotsu was so disappointing because I felt no emotions watching it. Stone faced all the way through. The only thing that it changed is that now I see Teen Satoko as a completely new character. Otherwise all my opinions are as they were when I finished the VN.
Sotsu just reminded me why I love the original 2006 Higurashi so much better
I just stumbled across this video and was quite surprised to find out that people didn't like Sotsu. I myself never played Higurashi, but really loved Umineko, and I've been a fan of Higurashi ever since the anime released in 2006, starting from me being so disgusted by the murders, to angry about how it's just all resetted in the next arc, to absolutely falling in love with the deeper story about Rika's looping and trying to break out of it.
I feel like Sotsu, while not strong in some aspects thorough the show, did feel like we were getting close to the end of a series that until then for me had been left open to be explored, with me happy about how Higurashi ended with a happy note, to me being even more happy to see there is still more to explore. But something that I thoroughly loved was the finale of the season, and the series as a whole, while it might seem weird for some how Satoko and Rika acted, to me it was more like two obsessed friends becoming more and more deranged with their twisted love for one another, and then as the fight across time and space happened (aka the Magical girl fight) it felt to me like two people finally breaking completely and giving in to their desires. I also really loved the ending of the Series where we see Lambda and Bern finally depart from this abused world with its abused characters, giving them a well deserved happy ending in the process.
Mind you, this comes from a person that generally enjoys happy endings over any other type, the first Higurashi finale did have a happy ending, BUT it didn't fully explore just why Rika was looping, just that she was looping, so that was part of why I never felt that it was a conclusive end of a series. But yeah, for someone who wasn't thinking too deep into the whole thing, I really enjoyed everything, even if I did dislike Satoko in some aspects, that little shit lol
I was upset for sure. Betrayed to say the least. As a keichi, shion, akasaka fanboy. I was betrayed. Idk why they thought we loathed those guys.
A large part of me is convinced Ryu didn’t have too much involvement in SOTSU. I refuse to believe he wrote such a shitter of a story right after having so much success and great storytelling with his past projects. This guy is legendary but this work looks as if a 5 year old wrote it. Fucking disgusting. There were some fun scenes with like Mion stomping Rika down the toilet or whenever Satoko was being a savage. But that’s all they were, one off few second scenes that added nothing to the horrendous story that we were presented in SOTSU. GOU was good in my eyes but SOTSU was god awful.
I think the same way that r07 did not involve much in sotsu. Even I believe the answer and ending were altered by passione. That would be the reason why the manga change the name to meguri. I think the writer and r07 could not tell the true that” the ending is not written by me”. They can only voice out by writing another answer arc in manga.
I feel the same way! Plus, they only got 15 episodes to do everything. Even if Ryu wrote lots more, it had to all be squeezed together and rushed. Even with the magical girl element, if it had more time to develop, it would have been more satisfying if we arrived at that ending with more answers leading to it.
According to the interview, the problem is that Ryuukishi gave a too vague script for the anime to follow.
@@soul6733 do you really trust that he gave a vague script for an 39episodes anime especially the ending? I mean he just mean that he didn’t fking care about the ending. And he could seamlessly say that the illusion was caused by ooishi imagination and also the ding-ding sound was an umineko reference? Passione just followed exactly the same he said? Isn’t he just say a vague script? How about the manga? Keiichi not even went to the fking house. Where is the ding ding sound? Is that mean he gave a completely different script for the manga?
@@soul6733 That would explain a LOT actually! I've just started Meguri and I have some hope for it.
I know it doesnt change the series as a whole but i liked one of the subtles references to umineko which is the sword itself, Satoko(Lambdadelta) getting the sword because she knows its certainly there , takes it so Rika would certainly didn't have it but a miracle occurs and a small piece is let there , Rika(Bernkastel) doesnt find the sword but as watching closer the piece shines like a miracle (like Satoko with the sword representing the 99.99% and Rika with the piece representing the miracle with the 0.01%) like the symbolism was there ( as of the story goes...)
Higurashi Mortal Kombat Z. An anime for the whole family.
It was so trash they ruined all my favorite guys and girls. Satoko is already more hated than before for me now
@@derekgandlofini8058 I've heard that a lot, it seems that this anime served for Satoko to earn much more hate.
Hanyuu's quote " I expected nothing from the world, because expectations lead to disappointment." Is the zip folder of my feelings towards especially Sotsu.
You owe us a Hamlet, you goddamn monkies !!!
Honestly, the Rena arc wasn’t too bad in Sotsu; it showed us something brand new and that wasn’t in Gou. Things went horrible once it came to Shion and Mion’s arc. It became wasted potential, reused footage and things that just didn’t make sense and seemed impractical. Also, WASTED POTENTIAL!!!!!
There should have been 24 episodes for the second season.
Gou was so fun to watch; all the potential theories and mysteries, only for most answers to come out being lacklustre and unimpressive. Also like NO development for so many of the characters unless you’re Satoko and Rika.
Soundtracks, openings and endings were phenomenal. The script itself was surprisingly disappointing. How we got to the ending of Sotsu was horrible. Also, HOW DID RIKA EVEN KNOW ABOUT ST LUCIA IF THE RIKA THAT SATOKO STARTED CHASING NEVER WENT TO OR THOUGHT ABOUT LUCIA.
I wish the theory of Keichi being the 3rd looper or at least some how keeping his memories every loop to stop Rika and Satoko fighting was what we got instead of the actual ending
Don't get the thing about how Rika knew about St Lucia. She didn't start looking for it because of the loops, she looked for it after Matsuribayashi.
The Rika that was chased by Satoko was killed by a giant Chandelier *in* St. Lucia.
@@saxor96 But it wasn’t though. It was only after that scene that Satoko started looping continuously and tried stopped Rika from going to Lucia, which led to Eua giving Rika the power to loop again. The Rika that was given the power to loop never went to Lucia, nor should she have even experienced Matsuribayashi yet.
@@SimpleSpectator You seem to have things muddled. Matsuribayashi-hen was already the looper Rika we see attend St Lucia in Satokowashi-hen. There's some cloudiness about why that fragment seems to have two versions, but it's quite possible that Satoko is the one from an off-shoot fragment to Matsuribayashi-hen who then chases after alpha Rika. Certainly Rika planned to go to St Lucia long before any diversions, and with certainty before Satoko had anything to do with the equation.
My biggest issue is the fact that Satoko could have just told Rika the truth about how she was feeling in the beginning. Even when they first went to St Lucia together, Satoko didn't even try to get along with the girls at that school. Rika also shouldn't have forced Satoko into doing something that she didn't even want to do. By the end of everything I am still so upset that Rika just shrugged off the fact that Satoko tortured her and all of their friends just because she didn't want to go to St Lucia. You would think after watching some of the fragments Rika went through, Satoko would have been more compassionate to the pain her best friend endured, but no????
They lack communication so much after attending St.Lucia that i was going insane watching them NOT communicate and tell whats bothering them
So for tomitake’s H173 injection, he was actually being injected periodically by TOKYO, under the guise that it was a vaccine. Takano decided to move forward with her plan and injected him with a bigger dose of the virus to make him go L5 much quicker. So it still makes sense that those Satoko injected reacted in a slower time frame. This was explained in the VN but I don’t remember if it was explained in the DEEN anime
Mama Shion and Mion through her would do their damnest to prevent Rika from going to St Lucia’s of all places.
I think the most frustrating part about it was that literally the entire season could have been avoided by a single bit of communication between them.
Its both rika and stakos fault. Which is how i prefer my friend drama storys
eua/featherine having her memory device damaged is the only umineko reference that made me actually a little excited
Yeah, i had similar feelings about Sotsu. I was hyped up on Gou and then Sotsu was pretty disappointing but mostly boring in the end.
Also thank y'all for bringing up the cast and they could've done stuff. I thought they were going to be the mediators or something. Especially after seeing Satoko holding Shion's ribbon and Rena on the album covers.
I do like the lesson that Sotsu was trying to make. Where friends don't always have to do everything together. That and follow to the same school to be together when it's not a fit for one of them. I don't like how it was just resolved in a very short awkward car ride. I feel like they could've done more with the resolution you know.
Since R07 was writing this, I'm more disappointed in him since this is usually not what we usually expect of his stories and writing.
It starts to seem more like Gou and Sotsu is just cash grabs (especially with the gacha games). But since Passione was reusing a lot of scenes, I thought they were doing the same thing with the Endless Eight thing. Pad out for time for time to work on The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie. Was hoping an announcement for some Umineko reboot or When they Cry movie or something. Still nothing. At least there's the manga to look forward to
the whole last season made me sad not just cuz ii know it was the last season but because after last episode i had so many questions and a new season would not be something i would enjoy
They need a new ending. I was hoping either rika would make the choice to finally kill satoko with the sword or if they were all going to live the club shouldve had more to do with it
I’m so glad to finally see your video on Sotsu after waiting for it! This vid was very well thought out and said, I completely agree with everything you both said. Sotsu is an utter failure and honestly a stain to 007’s legacy. The entire season could have been wrapped up in 4-6 episodes and we could have gotten an ending we deserve if the ending focused on including the original cast to help Rika and Satoko work out their issues and get Satoko the proper help she needs because she has serious mental health issues. It honestly felt so cheap and gross to make Satoko the villain these past two seasons when she’s the known abused and abandoned character in the series. To use her history of abuse and mental health to turn her into a mindless abuser/serial killer was not a good look, especially with the shitty attempts given at a “redemption scene” because she wasn’t even given an arc! Out of the countless Higurashi characters to pick from, Satoko was the worst option to have been picked and this only ruined her legacy and likeableness that has been built up the past 15+ years. I feel bad for everyone who made videos and Reddit threads going on about intricate theories surrounding Sotsu only for the most plain and boring answers to be given this season. Don’t get me started on how unsatisfying of a villain Satoko was. Her background aside, it was so boring to see everything just be handed to her as a villain and none of her plans fall through despite her getting lazy and cocky towards the end. As I’ve said in other comments I’m really just gonna hold out until the manga comes out to claim that as the true Sotsu ending and hope we get better anime seasons or a movie in the future.
I want to also add that other than the casts being forgotten for the sake of Rika and Satoko's DBZ fight, I want to also add HANYUU is also poorly written for Sotsu.
If people remember, Hanyuu said she's but a fragment of what was left of the original Hanyuu and couldn't do anything but wait outside the Fragments and pray Rika will survive. She couldn't even SEE what was happening in whatever Fragment Rika was in. Yet at the end of the series, she's back in Hinamizawa and happily watching over everyone in it. What happened to her not able to enter Fragments? Isn't she just a Fragment of the original Hanyuu? Is this Hanyuu as a whole or still a fragment of her? Just how is she here???
Also Hanyuu does nothing. NOTHING. Her role in Sotsu/Gou is become somehow linked to Eua: being a plot device. Hanyuu miraculously allowed Rika to remember EVERYTHING after Tataridamashi/Tatariakushi-Arc and teach her about the sword. Would have been helpful to remember everything from now on when Hanyuu had more power to loop back more and let Rika have a mercy kill if she's given up (granted Hanyuu didn't want to be alone, so the sword option can be left out anyway). Then she just...spews "The Power of Miracles will defeat you!" What miracle? Satoko's cockiness on spewing how Rika must die before her is the miracle? The sword miraculously appeared in Hanyuu's hand to defeat Eua is the miracle? Combining the power of everyone who was not involved in Sotsu at all like they did in Kai is the miracle??? Satoko and Rika suddenly making up is the miracle???????? I didn't feel any miracle, let alone the same feeling, I felt after watching/reading the original Higurashi Arcs. Hanyuu did learn how a miracle can occur, but the way she blabbed about how miracles can fix everything yet still get punched and stabbed by Eua in a BDSM play felt super cheesy and frustrating to watch...like how annoyingly caring characters always cry "Never give up hope in this despair!"
If Hanyuu played a bigger role other than crying out how miracles can defeat Eua before """miraculously""" getting the sword to defeat her, I would say Hanyuu was written just right. Sotsu's Hanyuu tho? I feel like no one knows how to write her at all other than "Oh she's the key because miracles."
Hanyuu also deserved better.
I actually thought the 1st arc of Sotsu was pretty strong. It was easily the best exploration of Rena's character that any of the adaptations had attempted up to this point, and I didn't mind that the answer was simplistic, because it was still the 1st arc after all. I can also buy that Rena would suddenly start feeling tired because she was feeling particularly stressed due to everything going on with her dad at that moment.
Everything after that was garbage. Best part of Sotsu was putting Hanyuu in bondage
I should also mention Ryukishi only provided the outline of the story, and wasn't the scriptwriter. But he also seemingly approved of every step of the plot, so he also likely shares some of the blame
the most fuckup series always have the most wholesome community i wonder why????
I'm personally ok with Sotsu because I went in expecting a full season about Rika vs Satoko.
I honestly didn't care about anyone else except Rika and Satoko (Teppei was a nice surprise). Everyone else was just pawns in this boardgame.
Now just to wait for the manga.
Both Rika and Satoko had reasonable grievances against one another, I feel like Satoko is getting to much blame. Satoko wen't way too far and became evil, however, her initial animosity towards Rika was justified. Satoko felt strung along and then abandoned. Satoko however didn't do enough to change things, reach out more to Rika, transfer to another school after the first semester, or reach out to Mion or Keiichi.
My thing is that I can’t see Satoko being this heartless and cold. I feel like the Satoko in the original wouldn’t do the things she did in this new series. Yes, Satoko was a brat and annoying sometimes, but she wasn’t this manipulative and cold hearted to where she’d try to mentally break Rika
Long, long LONG time WTC fan. Umineko being one of my favourite things of all time. I enjoyed Sotsu. It had its problems, but I truly enjoyed the conclusion. Kinda funny to me how I see people generalise "anyone who wanted it to link to Umineko was disappointed", but, I wasn't. It did what I hoped it would. Left the girls (or ateast Satoko) to themselves to live in their perfect fragment while very obviously alluding to LD and Bern leaving to be reunited one day.
i really wish it hadn't... and it doesn't surprise me that the one time umineko "references" (pretty much direct connections at this point) are really pushed like this within higurashi is in a season that is generally seen as disappointing and a waste of time. im sure umineko fans thought this was cool or whatever, but i hate the ties between the two stories. the way higurashi is explained through umineko just feels like a giant middle finger, undermining everything higurashi characters have to go through. i'd much rather have had these two as separate series (with the only references being meaningless easter eggs), but then it probably wouldn't have sold as well. meh.
@@autocorrect5456 Agree on the middle finger. That whole line as a reference thing felt like throwing the Umineko fans a bone as saying "Here's an Umineko linking to Higurashi thing you all hyped over!" I can take the DBZ fight as a reference to Bernkastel and Lambdadelta battle because it is that crazy. But at they same time, the whole fight over the sword felt like two girls fighting over a toy to win a game they started from an argument. I am a fan of Umineko and Higurashi, and was super hyped to see how Bernkastel came to be because of "her master leaving her to solve a logic error" and whatever hell Lambdadelta went through after losing, because it lead to that so much! The references on Witches. Eua looking like Featherine. Satoko spewing "I'm certain to win" and obsessive love for Rika. Because all that thrown in, it lead to nowhere, conclusion half-assed and just got "Oh no victory nor confirmation on Rika is Bernkastel and Satoko is Lambdadelta, but have a line to say they are for the sake of making you guys think it's confirmation to be happy."
And I will say, I'm not happy to be given something like after all the hype. We fans don't owe the series anything or should felt owed, but the way Sotsu played out felt cheap and put off a lot of Umineko fans, but also Higurashi fans for the story with a half-baked conclusion told.
god i wish i had low standards too
"Don't neglect the heart" - Williard
And gousotsu neglect the heart
This series was just mad to cash in on the fans nostalgia and was needed at all. New viewers are better off just watching the OG version
Well, I had an idea that the reason why other characters play no important role in Sotsu is the fact that Rika and Satoko are slowly becoming witches and hence from their perspective all the people from the loops are nothing. But it's still strange. It looks like Gou/Sotsu were just "glued" to Higurashi series ingnoring all the previous arcs. Rika and Satoko learned so much during 2006 and 2007 seasons, and in Gou/Sotsu they again do the same mistakes they did in 2006 season, Kai and Rei - they don't trust their friends, they don't talk to each other bout their issues, think of themselves as gods (the mistake from Rei) etc. Gou/Sotsu just... threw all the previous characher evolvement to the garbage. (I was typing this while watching the video, so sorry if I repeated something you said).
And well, the bond between Lambda and Bern is toxic, but these two are not really Rika and Satoko, and we didn't get any episode revealing how Satoko and Rika became Lambda and Bern. Speaking of whitches problem, I can see no logic in Sotsu. The original series said that Bern was born after Rika's 100 years of suffering. So why would she even appear in Gou/Sotsu, which take place AFTER she was born and parted from Rika? And if she is the one in Rika's body in the very end of Sotsu, where is original Rika? So many questions and contradictions...
@@linterna9032 We already know from Eva Ushiromia that a witch stemming from that person, and the person themselves can live at the same time. Also Rika's suffering was 1000 years, end of sotsu explains what happened with Lambda and the fact that Rika dies up to high school tells us that she still loops after the end of sotsu because Furudo Erika stems from a part of Rika that was never reached within what we saw. As for the whole Lambdelta situation, We know that a witch can manifest themselves as a player on a pre-existent game board, so whats not to say that Takano being the origin and the funny multipersonality thing we saw being lambda becoming the player weren't the same thing? Now the big question you should be asking yourself, is why does Augustus know the events of Ciconia even though at that time, a cold war should be resulting in WWIII?
As someone who has never read the umineko VN or seen anything umineko related, or read the higurashi VNs but did watch the original higurashi series and enjoyed it, from my less informed perspective what struck me the most that was bad about the whole "Evil Satoko doppelganger" thing is that it removed most of any actual agency or responsibility Satoko had for her actions. Like, yeah it was her fault it got to that point to begin with, but the moment she got "shot dead" in the goddess dimension when literally fighting "herself" before killing her ex-abuser may as well have also put a bullet in any interest I had in the actual character.
At least with the injection shot the characters are still mostly themselves but with near zero impulse control or rationale, outright possession is just the removal of any actual agency because a character even says themselves even through the crazed haze of a L5 attack "Yeah you look like satoko but you're not actually satoko".
It also by extension makes Eua less interesting to me because instead of her being an asshole demon that finds it highly amusing that Satoko thinks she even deserves redemption after what she did on her own accord to Rika over a fucking school experience, she instead directly just manipulates satoko until her soul doppelganger kills the old satoko in spirit which is like if you were to have fun gambling by rigging a slot machine so that it gave you a jackpot every time, which just seems like a thing that would bore the absolute shit out of a character like Eua.
And I actually laughed when at the end evil satoko just said "alright you can have your body back now bye" like she was doing the Nileseyy Niles Disappears meme and this has zero impact on Satoko's real self, who realistically would have had a sort of similar scene to when she fakes a PTSD reaction to her uncle's alleged abuse, except it would have been real that time since she presumably watched all this shit with her evil self happen presumably as a passenger in her own body.
Have not see all the video but I know it’s gonna be a good one 💯
It's 2023.
Biggest confusion for me is Eua's existence now (Without the Umineko references/evidence).
Decided to watch the Hanyuu timeline video (And the Kotohogushi gameplay). How did Eua get involved? What is "Hai-Ryun" now with Eua existing? Yes, the Onigari-no-Ryuuou is back, but what ties does Eua have to Hanyuu? Why call her a "failure"? The biggest web confusion is how the Kotohogushi arc now connects to Hanyuu in Sotsu and the Gou.
*_Ryukishi-sama will still not dare explain. He might not be writing for Gou and Sotsu, but... I still don't know where Eua plays here._*
After the disappointment that is Sotsu, I have high hopes for Higurashi Meguri ever since the first chapter released
(Spoilers)
You know when we were learn that the whole problem in wonderland in the 2 “Alice in wonderland” Disney live action remake was all because of a tart
21:15
That is what Satoko’s goal is like except it’s different and kinda even worse than in the 2 Disney live action movies of Alice in wonderland
4:55
I wouldn't call Dear You "infamous". Back in the day it was big and well-received.
Well it's tainted now. every time I hear of You now it reminded me of this dumster fire of Sotsu.
I think Sotsu being “bad” is a combination of the anime not adapting Ryukishi’s story very well and also Ryukishi’s writing style taking a different direction in recent years. I personally still love most of his work (including Sotsu) but after Umineko his storytelling definitely changed and the people who loved his older works are pretty split on his newer works.
I think Sotsu had some amazing ideas (and the 2nd to last episode was amazing) but the lazy character writing compared to og Higurashi and the anime seemingly adapting the script badly kinda ruined it. I just don’t think it’s the worst thing to ever happen to anime like some people make it out to be.
Wait...I thought Satoko didn't even inject Mion directly. She put in in her drink. Didn't she even ask if the result was gonna be the same if it got in another way?
No, that's never shown. We actually don't see the injection or what happened at all, its happens completely off screen
Apparently satoko acted like she fell over, pushed mion and injected her..
Its such a dissapointment the amount of potential sotsu had
I hate that sotsu and gou undermind the whole point of the original vn and anime - if you trust your friends, a miracle will happen.
I wonder if a similar analysis can be done for Meguri manga, which retcons a bunch of stuff with Sotsu, most of which is what people complained about and has been fixed.
Rika vs Satoko was just Naruto vs. Sasuke from Shippuden with some DBZ mixed in.
For me, the Ending was really easy to make. Just make the plans from Satoko Backfire, the Club Members remembers the other timelines and helped Rika solve the mistery. But nope, shounen scene resolves everything.
I like this show because of the magic and the flying.
So are we not gonna talk about how rika was able to remember the loop where she gets bonk a bunch by oiishi but than somehow remember that satoko shot her as well even though it was stated by rika herself that she was killed by oiishi it would have made more sense that rena remember that part since she was there at that time
Considering that Rika was able to survive several minutes with her guts ripped out, then a couple more after being bisected, and remain conscious the whole time, I've just come to the conclusion that characters in this series, or at least Rika, are just built different.
@@Zarastro54 you do have a point
I can tell you as a huge Umineko & Lambdadelta fan, the entirety of Sotsu left a bad taste in my mouth. I really wish I could go back to the end of Gou when I found the prospect of new Higurashi-Umineko references exciting and not disappointing.
(Tbf, Shion and Takano were my Higurashi favourites so I was both disappointed they got no Sotsu screen time and happy they were spared from its writing…)
Leaving this here, the gou and meguri mangas have done a really good job at working on the story issues from the gou and sotsu anime
I have been reading the Meguri manga and while it's not perfect and has a lot of sins of the father (so to speak), I feel it's way better than Sotsu. For instance Mion's similar breakdown to Shion is explained that she had a meltdown over whether she really is Shion or Mion, over what it means to be a twin, what it's like looking at a twin, etc., and you're even left confused as to which twin killed which for a few pages. I feel Mion having a meltdown over her identity and then deciding she must be both is a much better explanation.
Also in Meguri, Satoko does actually get to see Satoshi again - multiple times. But Satoshi repeatedly dies, which gets to Satoko. Satoko realises she cannot wait for Satoshi because he will die.
Also Shion tried to encourage Satoko and Rika not to go to the school since Shion knows what it is like, and Shion is very desperate about it.
Satoko is also forced to watch all 100 years of Rika's fragments without asking to or even consenting, not something Satoko actively asked for, so it is entirely possible that between her treatment at the school and witnessing those 100 years broke Satoko's mind.
I could go on but Meguri just tends to fix the major flaws. Again it has a lot of flaws, but I feel it is way better.
You have just sold me on the Meguri manga, I'll be checking it out now
The good thing about Higurashi Gou and Sotsu was the opening and ending songs.
This show is what people think actual Higurashi is, just cheap loli murder porn. The scene in Kai where Takano-san guns down the entire cast was bone chilling and it made me feel horrified. The sorrow and loss of that scene really had the atmosphere and momentum of the series riding on it. Nothing senseless about it. And then Rika-chan gets gutted while she's still awake because she's brave and didn't give up.
SG, on the other hand, is just cheap loli torture and murder porn. I watched my friends sit through the pain as SG ended and I was curious about what Higurashi is so I started the original series. After that and hearing their warnings about not to waste my time watching SG I decided to judge it by the death compilation. The part where Rika-chan is stabbed in half by Satoko-chan with her guts spilling everywhere was fucking ridiculous. She sits there crying WHY DO YOU WANT TO GO TO GIRL SCHOOL while she just shows the writer's gore fetish. It was repulsive and made me feel terribly uncomfortable. All the other shit where the characters explode into one billion gallons of blood or someone gets shot so their fall into pieces. And THEN the plot to every fucking arc is Satoko-chan gave someone Hinamizawa (I kill you you kill me) AIDS. Then a DBZ fight happens.
I feel horrible for anyone who picked this up without reading or watching actual Higurashi. It's irredeemable garbage and the writer's are gore fetishists that have dementia because of the one thousand times they show the full dance. Not nippah~☆ at all
You know what, what I liked wasn’t seeing how Satoko pulling the strings with Reina. It was seeing how paranoid Keiki actually was in contrast to Rena’s paranoia. It was actually so moving to me that I plan to incorporate different perspectives of the same event in my writing because it can provide such a different experience.
Satoko was a good villain. I liked her. But I hate how her plans reduced from actually smart and planned out to “I planned it and it’s so convoluted no one can understand, even the viewer”
Oh wow, well done on coming up with 2 pros! I hated Sotsu, I don't know if I've made that apparent in your youtube community comments lol. This video was nicely cathartic for me, although bit surprised to learn there are people who liked the ending. Don't really know what to make of that.
People that like the ending are pretty abundant, and if they do then that’s fine. I’m glad they managed to get some enjoyment out of it. We struggled to find two pros tbh loo
Absolutely banger of an outro song son! Tiny Little Adiantum ❤