Higurashi: When They Cry / Headscratchers

Headscratchers for Higurashi: When They Cry.

Okay, so I'm well-aware of the trope in most school anime & manga series where parents either never show up or do nothing relevant to the plot. However, I still find it ludicrous that K1 never tells his parents anything or tries to get them to do something, even though he logically should in a lot of cases. In the first story, Onikakushi, for example, he never tells his parents about the extreme pain and terror he's going through by the end, even though he realistically should at least tell them a little, ignoring the whole "curse" thing. I get he's not really close to his parents (particularly his dad, who he seems to dislike,) but it still shatters my Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
- In the Visual Novel, he didn't want his parents to get hurt, fearing that they will be the next to disappear.
  - Yeah, exactly. Keiichi does not have a bad relationship with either of his parents; it's maybe just a tiny bit distant and/or strained sometimes but not bad by any stretch. In the anime it's not shown, unfortunately. But Ichirou (Kei's dad) clearly cared a lot about his son when taking the decision to move to hinamizawa so he could grow into a better man, and he and his wife took partial responsibility for not having noticed how much Keiichi was struggling with his studies. Ichirou is also incredibly supportive of Keiichi in Tsumihoroboshi and Minagoroshi, stating how proud he is of him. In Onikakushi Keiichi grew increasingly worried that his patents would be murdered and chose to protect them the only way he knew how. If anything that shows he loves them.
In Onikakushi what happens exactly to Rena when she first goes shouting 'LIAR!' to Keiichi? She's not the one being delusional, and it's unlike her. It's hard to accept she'd do something Keiichi would see this way even admitting some amount of hallucination.
- I think Rena is deliberately acting harsh, away from her usual kind manners. Keiichi was being hostile and indiscreet to her, and, like in Tatarigoroshi, she taught him a lesson by mimicking his behaviour right back to him. Little did she know he was sick and unable to see her point.
- I think that while Rena probably did do something similar to this, Keiichi's delusional mind probably intensified it and made her seem far more hostile then she actually was. Then again, the guy above me could be right.
  - Takano's research notes on the Syndrome describe milder levels that it's still possible to drift to remission from. Excitability, emotional overreaction are symptoms of even the lowest levels, which Rena and Mion would remain at. Keiichi, at a more advanced stage, would be more sensitive, and his perspective would over-dramatize it even more.
In Onikakushi why is there a car nearly running over Keiichi? In same chapter it looks like it's either the Yamainu or Irie driving. Since the car honks we can suppose there was no harm intended. Yet the rear-view hit Keiichi throwing him out of the way or Keiichi threw himself out of the way and imagined it was because he had been hit, and the car did not stop to check on him. Are we supposed to accept there was a life-or-death emergency we never hear about in the rest of the stories, that prevented whoever was driving to stop and check on a boy who jumped into mud when they passed him?
- Because of how delusional Keichii might have been at that point, the car may have actually been far away or not even there, and he just hallucinated that he was nearly run over by a car. Unless of course the Yamainu were in it, and Miyo ordered them to? They were connected with Irie, and it makes sense that they would have access to the same or similar cars.
  - The second seems the most likely, since at the end of Onikakushi-hen, it's implied after Keiichi kills Rena and Mion that the doctor/"manager" (or "coach" in the anime) in the white coat who shows up at the end is Irie, who they had likely called since Keiichi had begun "training for the baseball championships". He shows up with a group of four other adults in grey suits (Yamainu) who precede to strategically hide in the bushes around the house and arrive in a white van that Keiichi distinctly recognizes as the one from earlier.
- It might change. In the original VN, there's no certainty that the car actually passes that close to Keiichi, so he might be hallucinating that it's closer than it actually is. On the other hand, Irie knows that Keiichi is going up in levels, and is perhaps L5 by that time; Atonement seems to imply that the Mountain Hounds are after Rena, too, which given Takano's interest in dissecting L5 subjects, might imply that they're under orders to quietly, subtly bring anyone likely to be L5 in. By "subtly" they mean "giving them a light fender bump". That'd justify getting them into the clinic for a while, at least.
In Onikakushi why is Rena carrying her hatchet when finally chasing after Keiichi? Why would she think she needs it, and wouldn't anyone afraid be even more afraid that way?
- In the VN Its shown that because Rena, who is more perceptive than anyone else in the series, figured out what was going on with keiichi faster than the rest. As someone whos experienced the curse herself and seen what was going on with Satoshi she recognized the signs and due to her regret being unable to help Satoshi she tried bringing that with her to show keiichi that she is willing to help him from whatever is causing him to be afraid. Unfortunately, she did not realize that it was her and mion that was causing him to be afraid. The syndrome twisted her expression and words to increase keiichis paranoia so even her declaration of solidarity sounded like a crazed threat (with infrequent random hysterical laughter) Shes also the one who rescued him from the mountain hounds when they ambushed him before he killed her and mion.
- Maybe Rena is just too afraid to chase after Keiichi when he can attack her and she cannot block his bat. Not exactly an innocent-looking defense, but she can justify it with treasure hunting.
- Maybe she is intending to go treasure hunting as a side activity to do together with Keiichi while she convinces him to talk to her. Why did she admit she knew he would not believe that? Well, because she knew he wouldn't believe a lot of things she'd say. Due.
- Maybe Rena isn't carrying her hatchet. Keiichi is just hallucinating it. When he confronts her about it, she does not understands what he's speaking about, and he hears whatever will fuel his paranoia.
- In the original game, she explains it as having brought it to aid in treasure hunting. It's probably very innocent.
  - She also explains she knows that Keiichi is scared, and it's unlike her to be that oblivious of the message an hatchet sends, let alone the fact that he's scared notably of her.
  - The sound novel appears to confirm this. Every other instance of Rena having a weapon it's referred to as an axe. That one instance is referred to as a cleaver. It might be a translation issue, but since that damn billhook never really made sense as a woodcutting implement (especially in the first scene it's used, at the dam for the Col. Sanders doll), that might've been an important detail that's lost in subsequent adaptations. Rena giving chase might also be hallucinated.
  - Rena giving chase is obviously hallucinated. How could she walk faster than Keiichi runs?
  - It could also be that he's panicked, breathing unsteadily, frittering his breath and energy but making less progress than he thinks he should be, while she's calmly pacing after.
In the second arc Shmion says she hears a loud banging noise that no one else seems to hear, including the audience. In the Eye Opening Arc we finally get to hear it, but I still have no idea what it is or why it's happening?
- It was Oyashiro/Hanyuu. Shmion could hear Oyashiro/Hanyuu because she was suffering from Hinamizawa Syndrome. She's jumping up and down as she's annoyed at being described as a monster of some kind.
In episode 5 of Kai Rena's hat was discovered by the police along the mountain side, Satoko realized that she was trying to leave her a message. What message was that and why did it cause her to press the button on the hospital bed?
- It's answered if you watch the rest and look back on it. Rena wasn't killed by gas, but was murdered in the forest, so it sent the message that there was no gas disaster.
(In the anime) Confused about when Shmion slips going back to her apartment after stabbing Keiichi, she was wearing Mion's clothes, yet in the Watanagashi arc, she was shown dead with Shion's outfit.
- Because Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen are two different arcs. Similar things happen in them, yes, but they're two different universes.
- I think a Rashomon Plot is happening here. Notice how the biker gang that harassed the characters were intelligible in the Watanagashi while making nonsensicle grunts in Meakashi.
In Meakashi, Mion's passivity throughout the story is impossible to understand. It's true that Mion was locked up, but she never tried reasoning with Shion, nor did she attempt to divert Shion's attention by lying to her. Even when Shion was about to kill Satoko, Mion never thought to remind Shion that Satoshi wouldn't be happy if Satoko died. Granted, Mion's fear is part of the plot, but the way she goes from normal Mion to passive Mion almost as soon as she wakes up in that cell is really weird.
- It's actually her bra, since her shirt rips. It looks like Shion's nightgown.
- Remember two things: Mion was locked for days and was "witness"to the murder of some people that her sister killed. A normal person would be shocked and mentally unstable in that situation, instead of being like "Oh, okay. I'm locked up here and I saw people get killed in front of me in gruesome ways. Hm...I wonder if Shion will give me a hamburger to eat today".

Besides, she couldn't do anything at all: the prison where she was in was underground, and the only way of escaping was if someone opened it with a key (which Shion had). And it's not like she could argue with Shion either: as I said before, she was too tired and scared to think properly, and even if she could come up with something, she probably came to the conclusion that Shion was too unstable to the point that if you said something simple to her such as "Hi", she'd actually think that you said "I killed Satoshi because I hate you".

In the Curse-killing chapter, Mion claimed that Satoshi called her a year ago before Watanagashi, yet in the Detective chapter, it is revealed that he called Shion pretending to be Mion. The one year old past is not supposed to be different in the chapters, so it can't be true, but it can't be Shion impersonating Mion again, as in the Curse-killing chapter she has no reason to do so at all.
- Shion isn't supposed to know anything about the Sonozaki family's "legitimate business activities", so they switch so that Shion can participate. In the manga version of that scene at least, she mentions she got drunk from having just been at a village meeting.
- Shion may have told Mion about what Satoshi asked her to do. She never went to the festival with Satoko, Mion did.
Watanagashi hen just bugs me:
- "Yes, Keiichi, I am the insane serial killer. Now would you come down to my torture chamber where no one can hear you scream?" And let's not even mention the next one under the window. Did Keiichi have ANY reason AT ALL to trust her, or did he just catch the Grandmother of All Idiot Balls?
  - In the manga and sound novel he was bringing her a doll, to replace the one he had given to Rena.
  - One of the major themes of the series is trusting each other. It's how the series ends, after all. Every single episode of the anime ends with a "will you trust?" (usually mistranslated as "will you believe?). Rena, at least, is stated to have done the same for Keiichi in Onikakushi, standing still as he went at her with a bat. It's an integral part of the themes of the story!
- Who was the Shmion on the stretcher when the police raided the chamber? Shion was supposed to be on the run, and Mion was dead in the well, that the police didn't find but only at the end of the episode.
  - Mion was thought to be on the run and later found dead in the well; Shion was on the stretcher, responsible for the whole thing yet pretending to have been the victim of Mion (having previously pretended to be her).
In the first arc Keiichi writes a letter explaining what was going on, which he then hides behind his clock. At the end it's shown that parts of the letter are missing, who took out the parts? The Yamainu?
- It's possible that the Yamainu took it to hide something, but more likely that Ooishi took it to cover up the likelihood of Hinamizawa Syndrome.
- Ooishi most likely, but it's not impossible it could've been Keiichi himself. he wrote that they used "a syringe" on him, when it was just a marker. If he attaches a marker on the back of the clock, he'd look significantly more insane than he already seemed.
- The Yamainu, first to the crime scene, seem very plausible. The missing part of the note suggests Tomitake died as a result of something given to him in a syringe, which was accidentally true. There is no evidence Ooishi knew about the disease and was covering it up. They probably took away the marker which Keiichi believed was a syringe, just in case something was hidden inside.
The first episode of Kai: Taking place years after the final chapter (Atonement) of series one, Rena has apparently survived the disaster. However, she definitely had succumbed to Level 5 Hinamizawa Syndrome in the Atonement Chapter, meaning she sooner or later would have uncontrollably clawed out her own throat, with no chance of recovery, unless she were sedated. How come she's still alive after all this time?
- Thinking about it however, it is possible she was sedated after the hostage incident in Atonement and sometime after that a cure was finally developed. This is pure speculation however, and I don't know if this came up in the games either since I've never played them.
- No, Rena got over the Syndrome on her own. Don't you remember Keiichi's whole congratulation speech at the end of the first season?
  - No, that was another 'world'. The first episode of Kai is similar, but not the same, of the Atonement Chapter, think on it as the 'Bad End' of that chapter, as how it would be if Keiichi had failed (Rika mentioned it happened before). Anyway, Rena might have just be treated after that, there were already medicines for that. What bugs me, however, is why she wasn't killed, since not only she was a citizen of Hinamizawa but she was also obviously a host of the virus and knows too much (she was mostly wrong, but still awfully close). Why Takano hadn't killed her?
  - Guys, remember the injection Rena was given at the end of Atonement by Rika? Most likely a cure that she stole from Takano. If you look at it closely she had a chance to take it, which she probably did.
  - The end of Atonement Chapter just meant that none of the main characters went on a killing spree, save for Rina and Teppei's deaths. The Great Hinamizawa Disaster still would have happened regardless. The first episode of Kai is a direct epilogue to the Atonement Chapter. And Rena had apparently been at the police station when the Great Hinamizawa Disaster occurred, thus keeping her away from the mass murders Takano caused. Takano probably didn't know Rena was absent at that time.
  - In the VN it is clear that everybody, Rena included, died after that. Many fans assumed it is the same in the anime, hence the confusion. Given the whole multi-worlds premise it don't make much difference. That episode can be either a direct follow up from the Atonement or another world. Either way the end of the first season was not as happy as initially seemed to.
  - Also of note, Rena does not appear in that segment of the VN.
Rika has some pretty selective memory loss between deaths. She can remember herself dying, everything there is to know about Hinamizawa Syndrome, and Tokyo, but not that Takano is the one who killed her?
- Not selective. Rika simply can't remember anything that happens near the time when she is killed. And she does not know about Tokyo - remember when her friends were explaining to her what the situation probably was?
- mainly because she was always drugged before which is why Hanyuu also does not know who is killing Rika.
- Also, if Yakusamashi-hen is something to go by, it's very likely that Rika is never killed by Takano personally until Minagoroshi-hen, probably because that was the first 'world' where the crew was actively trying to screw up the plot. requiring her direct interference.
  - Basically, think of it this way: Suppose you're sleeping in your bed at night when someone shoots you in head. Chances are the room is still dark and you can't see them, and that's assuming you even woke up at hearing someone in your room,
Just what is up with the ending? Did Rika take revenge on Takano for having caused her so much grief all this time? Or did she try to avert Takano's sad history? Either way, from what I can tell it seems Rika was ultimately responsible for her own suffering.
- That wasn't Rika.
  - Then who was it?
  - A woman by the name of Frederica Bernkastel. In the first chapter of the Minagoroshi manga, she tells Rika that they are like alternate personalities. It is still undetermined whether they are the same or subtly different.
  - The most common interpretation is that Frederica Bernkastel is something like a higher level being created as a result of Rika's multiple dimension hopping adventures, sort of like an imprint she left behind that became a separate entity. She's a witch and is probably the same Bernkastel as the one from Umineko. Bernkastel says that she and Rika are not the same person, which is technically true, but at the very least Rika is Bernkastel's origin. The fact that she looks like an adult version of Rika and has the same voice makes that much impossible to deny.
- It was a lead-in to Higurashi Rei/Saikoroshi-hen. Bernkastel convincing Miyoko not to go with her friends, but to go with her parents instead, prevents her parents' death. Miyo is never adopted by Hifumi Takano and never becomes obsessed with the Hinamizawa Syndrome. She grows up normally and never makes contact with the organization Tokyo. The result is the "sinless world" portrayed in Saikoroshi-hen, where the dam project is resolved peacefully, Keiichi never moves to Hinamizawa, Satoshi never dies, Rika's parents aren't killed and various other bad things never end up happening.
  - I thought the bus still crashed and killed them all, sparing Takano a lifetime of misery and suffering? Maybe the scene at the bus stop is showing that there weren't enough seats (now that they needed 3 instead of 2) so they had to skip the bus that ultimately crashed?
  - What was with the phrasing "Do you want to live or want to die?" it just seems a strange way of approaching a young child. Any significance, to those who played the game?
  - Satoshi never dies, he is kept in the Irie clinic, where he is comatose from Level 5 Hinamizawa Syndrome.
  - He isn't comatose from Hinamizawa Syndrome, he is sedated, because they've yet to bring him back from L5, and he would randomly attack most everyone he sees.
What was in the syringe Rika tried to use on Shmion in the Police Detective chapter?
- Rika has easy access to anti-Syndrome medication, since Satoko gets a shot with it every day.
- Okay so— different troper here— if that was anti-Syndrome medication and it backfired on Rika when she tried to inject it, how the hell did it turn out to be a live enough version of the Syndrome that it shot her up to level 5 or whichever, causing her to take the suicide route? Vaccines and medication don't work that way.
  - You're right, it doesn't. Rika knew what would be up by now when Shmion would go insane. She didn't feel like getting tortured to death, so she thought she'd kill herself now, why not.
  - The manga actually shows Rika clawing at her throat after stabbing herself in the neck several times, similar to the way Tomitake claws at his throat after being injected by Takano's medicine.
  - It's likely that the vaccine reacts differently with Rika than other Syndrome victims since she's the Queen carrier, explaining her violent reaction, whereas others like Satoko have no such reaction.
  - Or it might be a mistake of the manga. In the anime, she doesn't show any symptoms that couldn't be caused by getting shocked with a taser and repeatedly kicked in the ribs.
  - Actually, I don't know if you could call it a vaccine, but at last the game made clear that if used in a healthy person it would cause that person to hallucinate, have fever and some other symptoms. It is also stated it is temporary, but Rika didn't lived enough to tell us. Anyway, it is true that Rika killed herself so she wouldn't be tortured and that she wasn't in her perfect state of mind at time.
  - You're mistaken, the drug that acts as a vaccine and the drug that accelerates the progress of Hinamizawa syndrome are different. In fact the only reason the later worked at all is because the victim had been tricked into taking a placebo instead of the actual vaccine.
  - Yes. Hmmm, I believe we are talking about 3 things here. The vaccine, that Tomitake was using, the medication that Rika has and the the drug that accelerates the progress of Hinamizawa syndrome. Since, Tomitake was originally healthy, the first one is safe. The second one, however, was said to not be used into a healthy person, or it would cause some nasty side effects (not the Hinamizawa syndrome, tough, just something similar).
  - Not quite. Tomitake's vaccine, as revealed by Takano, keeps the recipient at a carefully monitored Level 3, so it's really not so safe after all.
  - I had just gotten passed that point in the Visual Novel and I believe the syringe was the LV 5. I don't think the above tropers were talking about the placebo vaccine Tokitake took, I believe they mean the medication Satoko took when they said vaccine. And for the record, vaccines in general do not cure a person.^why The medication used to fight the syndrome would not give a person LV 5 and make them claw out their throat if they did not have the syndrome. In the Visual Novel, after Rika stabbed herself in the neck, she clawed at her neck to speed up her death, just like those with LV 5. However, Rika could have just wanted to die in a way other than being drugged in her sleep and killed. In the tips in Himatsubushi-hen, one can infer that Rika loathed anything that was the same in every arc, including the weather. She could have easily gotten bored of how she died and when confronted by the "torture maniac," she chose to kill herself LV 5 style for kicks. Or am I over thinking this and falls under Our Diseases Are Different?
  - There's also an element of Red Herring. Until Massacre, we know nothing about what's in those syringes toted around. This being a simple false flag is very much possible.
It's stated somewhere that Frederica Bernkastel later tried to fix a bunch of other worlds, including one where Takano was never orphaned, right? Thing is, the way I see it, that would kill Satoko. You see, if you make it so that Takano isn't orphaned, that doesn't do anything to stop the dam war. Because of that, Satoko's parents are still hated by the village, and so on the second year's Watanagashi, they still go on that outing to that river. Satoko still contracts Hinamizawa Syndrome and reaches L5. However, because Miyoko was never orphaned, she never meets Prof. Takano and never goes to Hinamizawa. If she doesn't go there to start her project, then there's no reason for Irie to. Irie was the one who helped cure Satoko, and so if he doesn't come to Hinamizawa, she's in effect left to die, either in the typical fashion or some other one.
- Actually, it was due to Yamainu's influence that the dam project was resolved the way it was. Hence the kidnapping. Since Takano's project never existed, the dam project has no way to be truly opposed, and goes through. Thus, the village ultimately accepts the dam project, and Satoko's family is never outcast, and she never reaches L5.
  - Wouldn't that still be a Downer Ending? If the Dam Project went through, they'd all have to move away from Hinamizawa, so everyone dies of Hinamizawa Syndrome. ...Oops?
  - No, Hinamizawa Syndrome isn't nearly as easily triggered as Miyo makes it out to be — she deliberately exaggerates the danger to get Tokyo to approve Plan 34. The Onisarashi-hen manga shows that latent carriers of the parasite can live outside of Hinamizawa without automatically developing the symptoms.
  - However, although not as dramatic as it was made to seem, the same manga also proved that people from Hinamizawa has a great chance to go crazy out there. Also, the stress of being kicked out of home may be as strong (if not more) that seeing the same home being destroyed. So, all the shit thing that happened in Onisarashi would happen in that scenario as well. But with more people.
  - the main reason the town is not wiped out in 2 arcs is because Rika's body is not found for almost a week after her death proving that the queen carrier theory holds little water since it was said everyone would be level 5 in 48 hours.
  - Thanks for clearing that up! Yeah, I guess I should've realized, given that Rena survived so long in Ibaraki. And even so, it would be just fine in a similar climate with Rika, wouldn't it?
- If Frederica noticed this (which she probably did) she could have made a replacement person, someone nice and not insane who would accomplish the same stuff. We just weren't shown.
Deen just...Deen. Why do they leave out so many important details in the first season?
- Time and budget constraints.
  - Does that really cut it? Higurashi is split into question and answer arcs. All logic suggests that the first season should have been the question arcs. (Though it probably would have taken two seasons to do the answer arcs then, which would have left them extra room to adapt manga/PS2-only arcs or something as filler.) Considering most of the character development and huge amounts of story were cut out from Tatarigoroshi, Meakashi and Tsumihoroboshi in particular, we could have had a far better series. Most arcs were missing the beginning and ending, too. Japanese fans seem to hate the Higurashi anime as much as everyone hates the Umineko anime, for many of the same reasons (such as completely missing the point of scenes or the entire story).
  - The visual novels, all put together, are HUGE, it's taken me almost two moths to get through them, it would probably take 80~120 episodes to do a good work of animating them, and they probably weren't sure they'd get to make another season, so they wanted to fit in at least Meakashi-hen.
In the first arc why didn't Rena and Mion tell Keiichi about the murder at the dam when he asked them about it point blank, if they did he probably wouldn't have suspected that they were behind the murders and killed them.
- They really didn't want to go over the ground. They figured that if they lied, he would never know. They didn't count on Oishi and that random newspaper.
  - But he had already been told about the murders by Tomitake and the stories about the curse were pretty well known around town it would have made more sense for them to explain the situation to him like they did in later arcs.
  - Neither Rena nor Mion were present when Tomitake told him (Well, Rena was, but she was a little preoccupied with a trash heap) and the curse seems to be an elephant in the room to Hinamizawa. The only people who seem to talk about the "curse" are Takano, Tomitake and Ooishi.
The raw amount of pure stupidity it would take for Rika not to realize who killed over a freaking century. After all, there's a quite limited amount of people she meets in the village out of the presumed 2000. Her central focus should have been her 5 friends, Tomitake, Takano, and Irie. Give or take other off screen people she could have stalked by constantly rewinding back to a week before Watanagashi instead of wasting time like a dumbass, its really pretty sad that neither Hanyuu nor Rika could figure it out. I'm sure most eight-year-olds could given 100 years worth of continues. On the other hand, the ridiculous amount of terrible communication that it takes for most of the plot events to occur, even when the characters state several times across several arcs not to hide anything from their friends. Oops.
- Tomitake and Takano "died" in every one. Add in the fact that she was drugged before Takano killed her every time (except for the last) and she no longer has any memory of her deaths. You don't assume people who were dead the day before you died killed you. That would be truly stupid.
  - They "died". Because they were "killed". By the killer. That's it: For hundreds of years, Rika knew, with 100% accuracy, that the murderer, Takano, and Tomitake must be at the same place on the night of Watanagashi. And she didn't even try to follow them once or twice or a few dozen times?
  - It can be easily explained that Rika always failed to follow them. You let a little girl neither go peep on a couple, nor go wandering at night. No, not even her friends. Since she's the night's most important person, it's unlikely she could go unnoticed anywhere early enough. Looks like, however, Hanyuu should have. Though childish Hanyuu is an adult, a mother, and she can bear it if she has to peep on the couple to finally understand what's up with them. And nobody but Rika can know she's here, nor prevent her to be. Maybe a plothole here.
- I personally find it strange that after hundreds of failed Hinamizawas, to the point where Rika's memorized most of the triggers for her friends going insane, things just start falling into place basically by a miracle in the last three or four Hinamizawas. Not only do her friends start to remember their previous acts, but none of the triggers for her friends going insane even happen in the last arc, and Akasaka suddenly starts showing up and retaining the levels in badass he ground on the sequences where his wife died. It's a bit contrived isn't it? Not to mention Keiichi never happens to move somewhere other than Hinamizawa (Rika says herself there's been a few times where he never shows up, and then in Rei admits that without him she was guaranteed to lose right from there start.)
  - The reason Keiichi father decides to move his family there was because he saw two little girls Rika and Hanyuu playing in a field and considered it a good place to raise his delinquent son, so if Rika figured that out she can always have him move there by playing in a field the right day.
  - The anime version of that scene (late in Higurashi Kai) makes it pretty clear that Rika has figured out how to influence that choice and is doing so intentionally by that point.
- It does seem like Rika is the last person to realize that The Power of Friendship is the solution. Given how trivial a push it takes to set Keiichi off in Screw Destiny mode, she must not have tried all that hard to actively involve her friends in the past. With that many repetitions, you'd think she'd have gotten at least that creative.
  - The push to get Keiichi in Screw Destiny mode was Rika behaving she already knows what's going to happen. She never thought of spilling the beans until Minagoroshi chapter.
  - I think it's stated somewhere that she does try spilling the beans to the villagers early on but nobody believes her - she is just a little girl, after all. This would probably have fuelled the hopelessness of the plan that stopped it from happening earlier on.
  - The big point of most of Higurashi is that Rika didn't really try to solve the mystery because she had utterly lost all hope to save herself, her friends, and Hinamizawa. It takes really a LOT of "miracles" for her to even begin to believe in the possibility of a victory.
I understand that most of the stuff that happens is really plot oriented, and that I would have to watch both series several times in order to understand everything. But there's one thing that I just DON'T get. In Himatsubushi-hen, Rika is able to predict all of the Hinamizawa deaths 5 years in advance, including her own. How is she able to do this? Before someone answers, I know about the whole time-travel/revival/planeshifting thing going on...but it seems that from all the evidence, this only happens, at the most, one month in advance of Rika's death...so how was she able to know events from 1978 onwards since things don't start looping until 1983?
- According to comments made by Rika and Hanyuu in the second season, I assume that at the beginning of the venture, Hanyuu remade Hinamizawa as far in advance as possible. That is, whenever they traveled to a new Hinamizawa, Hanyuu would use her power to place her and Rika as far back in the timeline as possible to set up preparations for Shouwa 58. However, the abuse of this power wore Hanyuu out, and by the time Akasaka came onto the scene, Rika had probably gone through the loop quite a few times. By the end of the anime, Hanyuu is so tired that she can only give Rika a couple of weeks to prepare. Dire times indeed.
- If one looks carefully throughout the series, there are many instances of characters, most often jokingly, remembering elements of other universe. Mion casually stating that Rena could take over the school in Massacre is just one of many. It might seem like coincidences at times, or just overly clever writing, but seen in the context of the story it becomes clearer: characters remember.
I'd still like to figure out what happened in a small detail of Tatarigoroshi-hen. I am pretty certain that Keiichi just hallucinates killing Satoko's uncle, but how much of that night was real? Is the disease so powerful that he completely blotted out the memory of hanging out at the festival from his mind?
- Keiichi did kill Satoko's uncle, that was not an illusion at all. What happened is that Keiichi's friends knew what he had done and had gotten rid of the body to help him out. Same thing with stating that he was at the festival. However, they didn't get a chance to tell Keiichi, which pushed him further down the path of craziness. Also Satoko was completely crazy at the time and was just imagining a lot of the abuse which was self inflicted (exactly how much is unknown, her uncle was a scumbag). Rika, as shown elsewhere, stopped caring and intervening the moment Satoko's uncle showed up, hence why Satoko's still off her meds and no one knows what's happening.
  - I've had a hard time with this too, but I'm pretty sure that he DID kill Teppei, AND that Teppei is still alive afterwards. The whole sequence can't have been a hallucination, as it includes details that would be very strange for him to dream up, most prominently meeting Takano, who refuses to put his bike in the trunk, because she has Tomitake in there. In the visual novel, he is explicitly stated to be alive, he complains that everything smells of something, this is why he has Satoko in the bath, where Keiichi find her, though it is possible that this is a hallucination of Satoko's.
How come Satoshi asked Mion, a girl he thinks recently beat and tried to kill Satoko, to take care of his little sister (There was no way for him to know that both times it was actually Shion)? And how come Satoko became close friends with the person tried to murder her. Either they are both Horrible Judge of Character or she misinterpreted what he meant by taking care of her.
- Satoshi did figure out that "Mion" was really Shion; he said it was due to how Mion wouldn't follow what he was talking about half the time. Satoshi blamed himself for Satoko being so reliant on him, and of course there's how Shion apologized for that incident and was basically Not Herself. She also seems to have largely gotten over herself after Satoshi disappeared and left that message for her in the non-Watanagashi/Meakashi-hen-esque worlds. While there admittedly is some dissonance there by real-life standards, in an anime with The Power of Friendship and how unyielding trust and faith as a major theme it's a different story apparently.
Where was Shion during Onikakushi-hen?
- Presumably in Okinomiya, removed from the events in Hinamizawa.
- Probably at Angel Mort,she must have told Mion about Keiichi and Oishi.
- In Onikakushi, Keiichi goes mad too quickly to meet her. It might also have been budget or story economics constraints, same with the Manager, who we don't meet until the next story.
Is there a mandate that Rika has to be killed the way she is, other than Rule of Scary? Because I can think of several less conspicuous and less gory ways for a Government Conspiracy to carry it out. Or is the Big Bad just going for the What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic? angle since s/he's a complete wackjob.
- You probably just answers your own question.
- Judging by how she was willing to rather senselessly kill Tomitake and fake her own death just to keep it going, and after it had already helped her towards her goals in the past I think the villain was just absolutely in love with the idea of perpetuating the mystique of the Curse. It does make a good red herring for the police—making it look like ritual murder makes them less likely to suspect the real motives, and gives the "divine retribution" interpretation of the Great Hinamizawa Disaster more likely to catch on.
In Tsumihoroboshi, why did Takano give Rena those documents about Hinamizawa Syndrome?
- To mess with her head and drive her farther over the edge by incriminating her best friend in an alien conspiracy
  - Why would she want to do that?
  - Rena made it clear she was interested in finding the truth, so Takano gave her some of her Epileptic Trees. Some of them were accurate but most were just laughably off. She probably did it to discredit Rena in case she actually did find anything that could be incriminating. Aside from that, Takano has some pretty bad Motive Decay (Her plan is some bizarre mixture of a Freudian Excuse, A God Am I, For Science! and to prove her grandfather right, even though she managed the last one before Showa of 58 even began) so making sense of her actions isn't always an easy thing.
  - She's not so much after proving him right, as to make the men in the fancy suits take Hifumi's work seriously, she's devastated by the way they literally trampled his work, both when she was a child, and when she tried to appeal the cancellation of the research.
- Higurashi Daybreak reveals that Takano enjoys causing chaos and confusion, so likely she just did it For the Evulz.
In Onikakushi-hen, If Keiichi was the real killer and all the creepiness from Rena and Mion were delusions, why did they put a needle in the food then gave him?
- The needle was also a delusion
  - Tsumihoroboshi-hen reveals Keiichi did taste the tabasco sauce, but then he thought back to a scene from a manga about needles in food. His paranoia about it gave him the illusionary needle.
- Specifically, as detailed in the games Mion made her ohagi spicy, which Keiichi in his delusion interpreted as biting into a needle.
  - Indeed. Remember how he could never quite find the needle when Ooishi asked him to?
  - Not only that; his mom, who cleaned up the mess Keiichi left after tossing the ohagi, didn't mention a needle either. It's even stated at the end of Onikakushi in the visual novel that when they searched the Maebara house, they encountered the note on fridge written by Keiichi stating "Was there a needle?" because that is what he intended his mother to see when she came back (but it would seem very odd that someone's mom wouldn't mention to them that there was a sewing needle near the very obvious panicky mess of food tossing at the wall). They start looking for a needle just in case, and just like Keiichi, they find nothing. That's three different accounts of people not finding a non-existent needle.
Why did the Yamainu go after Keiichi in Onikakushi-hen, when normally they don't bother dealing with the other arc's different Syndrome victims?
- Seemed more like they just ran into him by chance, and when a crazed student comes at you with a baseball bat, well, knocking him out is a good way to render him harmless.
  - Since he wakes up safely at home with Rena who doesn't mention the Yamainu at all, there's a big chance that particular scene was just hallucinated and Keiichi just had a panic attack and fainted.
- No they were keeping track of him and feeding his paranoia at the beginning, they do a similar thing to Rena in Tsumihoroboshi and the infections in the other arcs were a lot less prominent. The real question seems to be why did they put him in a room with Rena and Mion
- That is because Irie noticed how Keiichi was starting to develope the Syndrome (remember, he gave him a shot at the clinic when Keiichi was faking a cold) and probably asked them to seize him and bring him back to his house, were Mion and Rena were supposed to watch him until Irie himself arrived at the scene. If he had gotten there sooner they would have carted Keiichi off like Satoshi. Too bad Irie underestimated the level of the syndrome Keiichi was already on and didn't expect him to bash his friends to death.
- I got the impression they just back off for a while since they heard Rena coming (she was following Keiichi at time). They could take care of him at night, anyway, and it is bad to be seen.
Who's corpse was it those two people found at the start of Tatarigoroshi-hen? The nails in the hands make it seem like Shion's work, but she never kills anybody in that arc.
- That was Rina, the woman that Rena kills in Tsumihoroboshi-hen, and the doers of the deed were the Yakuza, as they have access to the torture chamber. In Minagoroshi-hen we get to see her trying to flee from the mob.
  - Note, that these two chapters are also the ones where Satoko's uncle decides return to the village, so probably it was shown both of these times, because her death is the catalyst for that plot.
Why don't the twins live with their parents, they are apparently both alive and still married but so not want anything to do with the girls. I guess it can kind of be explained with Mion as her Yakuza boss grandmother wants to raise her heir herself, but what is there excuse for having Shion live with a former hitman in the city and not with her mom and dad.
- Shion was sent Off to Boarding School, so she wasn't even supposed to be around. Other than that, Akane (the twin's mother) was estranged from the family for marrying their father (the Sonozaki elders didn't approve of him), which is why Mion is the heir to the position of Sonozaki head rather than Akane. Most likely, Oryou doesn't want Mion to be raised by either of her parents, and in any case she was preparing Mion for her responsibilities during the storyline anyway, which is why Mion lives with her.
- Furthermore, Akane told a young Mion that her estrangement is mostly for the sake of appearances and that she and Oryou are very close in private, so Akane is presumably involved in the twins' lives.
- Actually I believe Shion does live with her parents in the naighboring town. In one chapter of the eye opening arc she is seen running off from the house as her father starts yelling at her for skipping school again. Earlier she did live on her own in an apartment but this is because she's just escaped boarding school and is hiding from her family. She still stays at this apartment after she is caught by the family but this may have been because her parents figured she could use some time away from her family after the whole nail ripping incident. After this she is apparently living with her parents full time with the exception of the conclusion to the eye opening and cotten drifting arcs where she hides out the apartment after comitting her crimes and framing Mion as the villan.
Is it clear that the alternate Hinamizawas are alternate universes or is it just time being reversed (a redo of sorts) in a single universe? Maybe the latter interpretation is ruled out somewhere (I've only seen the anime), but it seems to fit better with the small changes having large consequences theme of the story if all the changes are due to Hanyuu and Rika's influence.
- Sorta a alternate universe through starting over type thing. The other worlds still exist as far as I can tell.
- Some theories for time travel in general state that by going back in time, you create an alternate universe, so technically you can never just redo one universe.
- They are explicitly called "worlds", and in Minagoroshi, things were already different when Rika came along (like Akasaka returning to Tokyo), which means worlds are unlikely to be born as a consequence of time travel.
  - However it is implied that Hanyuu is creating these new worlds and they aren't just randomly hopping between pre-existing dimensions. The things Rika has done further back in the past, such as warning Akira and convincing Keiichi's dad to move to Hinamizawa, are still present in the other worlds even after they become limited to only going back two weeks or so.
This may come off as an odd question, but I don't think they cover it. Who would be head of the family if Mion married Keiichi? I thought the thing with Akane is she married someone who was from outside Hinamizawa, Keiichi is from outside Hinamizawa! I mean can Oryou last long enough to train a great-grandchild?
- I was under the impression Oryou actually intends for them to be wed. This seems suggested by the whole "clearing the air" speech. I believe Akane's husband never lived in Hinamizawa and that's how they define an outsider. Keiichi would be "new blood", but still a member of the village.
- Indeed, Oryou seems to have changed her mind since Akane was married. While she still doesn't like outsiders, she's come to the conclusion that having some new faces in the village would be a good thing, so she's willing to put aside her personal feelings on the matter. It's also implied that Keiichi made a good impression on her for his part in rallying the village against the conspiracies, which is most obvious in Minagoroshi-hen, where she explicitly tells Akane to look after Keiichi should she happen die in the near future.
Why doesn't Rena simply tell Mion or Shion that her father is the victim of a badger game? The twins could simply instruct their yakuza families to put pressure on Rina and her pimp to make them stop—especially Mion, being the heir and all.
- Shion already knew about it, she was there when Kasai told Rena about Rina. Rena probably didn't tell Mion because she knew that Mion didn't yet have power like that in the family.
  - But Shion didn't know that Rina's current victim was Rena's father. In any case, the Sonozaki family would likely have been all too happy to help Rena, as evidenced by what happens later. I consider this quite a serious plot hole.
  - Rina hasn't done anything for the Sonozaki family to care about in that arc, though. Dialogue in the various arcs indicate that she only gets in trouble with them if the badger game falls through. There's also the fact that, even though Rena has no way of knowing, the badger game falling through is the direct cause of Teppei returning and terrorizing Satoko. It's entirely possible that Rena has had the Sonozaki family take care of Rina in the past, it just doesn't lead anywhere good.
  - Rena couldn't have known that the Yakuza would actually do anything about it, since Kasai didn't imply anything of the sort.
  - Forget the Sonozaki family and the Yakuza — Rena probably could have avoided having to murder anyone just by having Keiichi and Mion with her when she confronted Rina in the junkyard. (Or, y'know, telling her dad, and the cops, everything once Teppei escalated to actually beating him.) Unfortunately, when Rena gets Hinamizawa Syndrome, the idea of relying on other people is the first thing to go.
  - Exactly this. The whole point is that H-Syndrome makes you paranoid and untrusting of even your best friends, and that when they all start to trust each other and work together, they take a major level in badass as long as they stick together.
  - The manga also points out that Rena doesn't see much reason to trust her friends simply going by what happened to Satoshi.
  - In the manga, Rena attempts to contact Kasai to help her, but doesn't make it in time and has to "deal with it" herself.
Why doesn't Keiichi take Rena's hatchet away before he leaves Rika behind with Rena and heads off to the roof?
- People aren't often at their cognitive best when they're in a panic, and the fact that the school was about to go up in flames is a good reason to panic.
The Disaster took place in the middle of the night. So how could Satoko see the bodies of her classmates when she returns to the school building after climbing out of the river? That's some odd class schedule.
- The villagers were all rounded up and gassed inside the school. It's shown at the end of Minagoroshi-hen.
In Tatarigoroshi how much was Satokos uncle Teppei actually physically abusing her? Satoshi mentioned that there aunt was the abusive one and that's why he killed her and Satoko had a history of self abuse when she was off her medication. The guy was a scumbag but was he also an abuser
- The aunt abused them on a more mental level which took it's toll on both Satoshi and Satoko, while Teppei was hardly at home so they weren't abused by him (much). When Teppei returns to Hinamizawa he's being watched by both the Yakuza and the Police so he has to keep it low and stay at home until he found the house savings. He makes Satoko his personal slave and let's his bad mood off on her. It's also hinted in the VN and Manga that he sexually abused her once (which is the last straw to make Keiichi want to murder him).
Why doesn't anybody her horns?
- Most people think it's a cute accessory or something.
  - Actually, there's a video floating around YouTube that shows what the class really sees. She doesn't have horns to and she has short hair. Still got purple hair though. Which raises the question, why does anime have such abstract hair colors in the first place?
  - Actually, everybody can see her horns. This is pretty clear in the VN. Most of people, however, thinks it is just a cute accessory. Keiichi even mention it is better she to took it off while playing outside and Miyo says it doesn't suit her, since it make her look like a monster (which has bad effects on Hanyuu). Those who knows they are real (the club members, after Keiichi mention it the first time) avoid mentioning it out of courtesy (Hanyuu have a complex over it). Hanyuu apparently have then even when she was still human and people did noticed then. And treated her badly because of it.
Forget her horns, why doesn't anyone her gun? Not even the police are worried in the slightest about it. Even if it's airsoft (which it does not have the markings of, but Japanese laws might be different), one would see Ooishi at least be annoyed at her toting a gun everywhere, even in town, and even while she's managing a shop.
- Also, there not being a single mention of that gun in either the Higurashi or Kai VNs, not in the tips nor in the main story, doesn't help. The manga shows it in action a little, but still doesn't seem to explain it. Do people just think that is some kind of cute accessory?!
- Well, considering how her family has connections to yakuza, which the villagers are aware of, it's not that surprising that no one complains about it.
  - It is shown to be an airsoft gun in the manga, and a weak one at that. Hinamizawa is VERY small, and Mion is well-known. Everyone would already know it is an airsoft gun. It is really probably about half affectation and half stealth- status symbol/ reference to her status and authority as next leader of the family.
  - It's [[WMG not canon]], but she would need that gun to pass in and out of her estate. They keep the grass around fence high specifically for snakes to lurk, as an extra security measure. They may occasionally slither out to lay in the road, especially in the summer, and an airsoft would be enough to scare them off.
- It's 1983. The inevitable consequences of realistic toy guns are about a decade or so off (remember the Megatron P38?). In addition, handguns are illegal in Japan, so it's not like anyone's going to mistake it for a real one, Mafia Princess or not.
So, in Matsuribayashi-hen Hanyuu is a physical person, of sorts, and it's shown that Keiichi's father meeting the two is what convinced him to move to Hinamizawa. Okay, but that world was the only one where she was a physical entity, since it was said that she couldn't directly do anything since she had given up. So basically, what went down in all the other worlds where Keiichi moved to Hinamizawa? Did Rika pick up the slack herself to get Ichiro to settle on the village or what?
- Hanyuu wasn't a physical entity at that point anyway. She doesn't enter the world properly until she joins the class in June 1983. This doesn't mean she can't make herself seen if she really really wants to be seen.
- Most likely. Rika memorized a lot of the triggers for things in Hinamizawa, so she probably also learned over time where Ichiro would be when he came to check out Hinamizawa.
Exactly how old are Rika and Satoko (physically) supposed to be? I have read there ages are everything from 9 to 13 but the only thing I know for sure about there ages is that they are a few years younger then the older kids who are 15 and 16. Was there exacted age ever given
- I'm not exactly sure either, but given that Rika appears in the Himatsubushi-hen arc, which takes place 5 years before most of the other arcs, and can speak intelligibly without freaking anyone out, it would appear that she is at least 4 or 5 at that time, making her about 9 or 10 during the rest of the story, by my reckoning, anyway...
- They're only confirmed to be between the ages of 9 - 13. However, by their looks, and behavior, they seem to be nine.
- In the game when Satoko doesn't show up at school Mion says that 'girls this age will often feel ill, nothing to worry about,' which I take as a not-too-subtle reference to the hardships of the first years of menstruation. Rena's reaction seems to show she thinks likewise and Mion isn't joking. Which doesn't reliably narrow down the 9 - 13 age range, but averages point to around 12-13.
- In the official character pages, the characters' ages are not completely shown, but are shown somewhat. For example, Keichii's age is 1x. On both Satoko and Rika's profiles, their ages are labeled as "x", meaning that they are younger than 10 years old. Since it's unlikely that either Satoko or Rika are much younger than 10, their ages are most likely 9.
- 9 year old girls don't have visible breasts, unless Satoko is really precocious…
The last arc makes very little sense. There are very many things that can only be explained by Deus ex Machina and the Power of Friendship. Compared to how methodical (or not) the other arcs were, I was completely disappointed that a bunch of teenagers could defeat armed soldiers by luck and plot devices. There was no miracle, just many, many, many idiot balls on the opposing side.
- Seconded, but extended across the entire series. I only watched the anime and so might be missing crucial material from the games, but what kind of dumb-ass rules do these worlds follow? A children's aid society that directly asks an abused child over the phone if they are abused, with the reported abuser within earshot of the phone? After repeated complaints from the entire community about said abuse? (Surely no cultural Values Dissonance is THAT vast and/or senseless, bureaucratic politicking be damned!) Would (as the above troper mentioned) the gang really be able to cope so well against hordes of trained assassins? Would the Power of Friendship actually be enough to make friends immediately gloss over the fact that a mentally unstable companion had killed and dismembered a person and happily hide the body? Wouldn't someone who was knowingly caught in a time loop be willing and able to exploit the benefits which that caused instead of clamming up into alcoholism and depression? Rule of Drama be damned, a common sense wouldn't hurt the tension or believability now, would it? It's an absurd plot, with outstanding Nightmare Fuel and Paranoia Fuel garnishes to keep it interesting!
  - If you haven't played the games, Don't call Adaptation Decay Yet! The rules of The '80s! Do not complain about shows you may not understand! 30 Tactical Units vs. 7 kids and the mafia, the police and a federal agent Who wins?
  - It's probably worth pointing out that the Yamainu aren't soldiers or "trained assassins"—we don't see Tokyo's actual paramilitary forces until they're called in to exterminate the town, and again near the end of the last arc. The Yamainu are glorified thugs, who're effective mainly because they disguise themselves as workmen and the like. They definitely aren't used to any sort of real opposition.
  - In fact, I recall the paramilitary forces actually scaring the Yamainu into backing down near the end of the arc.
  - Also — as the anime takes care to point out — the kids had a tremendous advantage in their knowledge of the terrain.
  - If you're willing to accept a Warhammer 40,000 or Dawn Of War analogy, think of the comparison of the Yaminu (the thugs) to the Banyu (the elite forces) being like comparing a Chaos Cultist to a Kasarkin. The former are weak stealthy glorified thug types that can easily be defeated by well prepared civilians.
  - As far as incoherency goes, the last arc doesn't hold a candle to the third, for two huge reasons. I'm honestly willing to excuse them hiding the body- absolutely nobody is going to miss Teppei Hojo, and at that point pretty much everybody knew (or thought that they knew, depending on your interpretation of the nature of Satoko's injuries prior to Teppei's death) that Satoko's uncle was abusing her viciously, but couldn't do a damn thing about it. Murder might be seen as an unfortunate necessity by Satoko's best friends. The whole issue with child services absolutely doesn't make sense, as previously pointed out. But if anybody thinks they can explain the last scene in the VN (and Manga) to me, given The Reveal, please be my guest. You either have to argue that it's the biggest series of coincidences known to man, that reality simply gave up (in which case the entire end of that arc is one huge unfair cheat, particularly given how prior to Hinamizawa's extermination pretty much all the events do actually have a logical explanation), or that it's a hallucination. If it's a hallucination... who is hallucinating, exactly? The VN explicitly told the reader that this wasn't from Keiichi's point of view.
Who did Takano kill and burn in a barrel to fake her death? You would have thought they would have noticed someone else mysteriously disappearing.
- I believe in that one of the TIPs says that she just had the Yamainu find a freshly dead body to pass off as hers from a morgue or something like that, and I'm sure that if anyone noticed or took issue with that, they would be dealt with.
- Also, it happened in another prefecture. If someone did noticed, it wasn't related to the cast nor was it important to the story.
What was that puddle Shion was standing in after she murdered Satoko, I have read that it is both urine and cum, and what made hear leak from between her legs.
- She was batshit insane at that point, had recently developed a taste for sadism, and was in a state of extreme emotional upheaval. It's not that unreasonable she'd wet herself and get off on Satoko's rather brutal murder simultaneously.
- Uh, she wet herself. Women don't ejaculate.
  - I'm sorry, they don't?
  - Not enough to make a puddle that big.
Thinking about it again, how on earth did Satoko manage to push Keiichi off of that bridge in Tatarigoroshi-hen? Maybe in the games it was more rickety, but in the anime that thing's guard rails were set roughly at the height of his head, in addition to having a slightly lower set. So unless Keiichi somehow either slipped through that small gap between the rails, or Hinamizawa Syndrome gives you Super-Strength and he was heaved over them, it should have been impossible for him to have fallen off of that thing.
- Look at the scene in slowmo - Keiichi is pushed through the rails. For the longest time I thought Satoko was telekinetic or had some sort of teleportation ability, but somebody who played the games said the rails were just a mistake.
- Well, she certainly pushed BOTH of her parents THROUGH the guard rail at once. I'll say Super-Strength.
So, why exactly is this show called Higurashi no naku koro ni?
- It's a theme naming thing. The entire series is referred to as "When They Cry," and the different situations are named after animals connected to them. "Higurashi no naku koro ni" means "When the Cicadas Cry," and indeed, if you listen closely, you can hear cicadas in the background. I'm guessing the title is supposed to evoke the ever-present summer during which all the scenarios play out, as cicadas are summer creatures. Similarly, the spiritual successor to the series, "Umineko no naku koro ni" (When the Seagulls Cry) evokes the island setting in which the repeated murders play out.
  - Also, in mythology, the cicada is considered a sacred animal symbol of resurrection and rebirth.
- In the first episode Keiichi says something to the extent of "Looking back, it seems like the cicadas were trying to warn me. "
  - It's a pun. The word 'Higurashi' is similar to the word 'murder' in japanese. So the title can be misread as 'When The Murders Cry'.
Why exactly does Takano want to kill Rika and everyone else in Hinamizawa? I get the part where she's upset that Tokyo will stop paying for her project, but how would slaughtering virtually all of her (potential?) test subjects secure her more funds?
- The woman's basically insane. Making sense of her actions is a pointless effort.
- By the end she didn't care so much about studying Hinamizawa Syndrome as "becoming a god" by making her name live on in infamy forever (her screwed up childhood and some poorly-worded comments from grandfather made her conclude that she would be a god if her name was remembered forever, and that the things that people remember most are big horrible disasters).
- Because that means that the world accepted her theory. Remember, it all started when some official looking people laughed at her (adopted) grandfather's theories about the queen carrier. She was desperate to proof this as correct. By approving the plan because Rika dies they pretty much accepted this theory as fact. And that was the plan to overcome her: Pretend Rika had been dead for a week without anybody going crazy. This is a (fake) proof that the theory is wrong and gets the plan cancelled. Btw, the theory is really wrong, as the arcs where Rika died early have shown.
  - The theory Takano wanted to prove isn't the Queen Carrier theory, but the theory that human thought could be controlled by a parasite.
  - Yes, but she failed at it. In the novel we see she is about to give it all up, but then a dissident faction of Tokyo sees an opportunity and manipulates her into thinking she wants the world to accept that part of the theory. Or, actually, pretty much anything that would make big suits read her grandfather's work seriously, getting livid and wetting their pants. It's a revenge thing. Takano is manipulated into believing that having everyone in Hinamizawa killed this way will restore her grandfather's honour and make his and her names immortal.
I didn't find out Higurashi was a series of visual novels until the middle of the first season. I haven't played any of them and continued watching the anime. I thought the first season was fine on its own and I didn't have any problems understanding, at least ones that didn't get answered by the rest of the series. However, I keep hearing about how Studio Deen cut out many parts when they were making it. What important information was cut out from the first season? I'm only aware of the poems being cut out and I have read those. Is any of the information vital to understanding Umineko when I go through it?
- The only major plot element that I can think of that was omitted completely was the story of the Sonozaki tattoo, which can be seen on Mion's back in the first season opening, and how she became the one to bare it. Some other bits of information that were cut out of the first season were worked into the beginning of Kai. I don't really think there's anything that'll cause problems for you in Umineko that I can think of.
  - Actually, DEEN cut out a lot of important things. All the TI Ps, Frederica, important details, etc. Especially during the first season. The manga isn't much better when it comes to cutting out stuff, but it has more stuff in it then the anime.
  - Please elaborate. Just saying "important details, etc.", isn't a very good description.
  - Mostly details. The main plot points were all covered. Looking only the big picture, it seems nothing important was cut, however, the emotional part of the novel is mostly lost in the anime (specially the first season). Also, some minor changes caused a few inconsistence. A good example is the Doll at Watanagashi/Meakashi, both the Sound Novel and the manga made a big deal about it, while the anime got only a passing mention (it wasn't even there in the end of the arcs). Also, the reason Mion was so hurt make a bit less sense in the anime. There only Keiichi got the doll, so it is not really weird he deciding give it to Rena. IT would upset Mion, sure, but not that much. In the original, however, everyone but Mion got one, and Keiichi still gave his to Rena. No wonder Mion was so hurt.
The chair beating scenes in the first season and especially Rei. Rika just beats Satoko over the head after throwing a previous chair across the classroom and all the teacher does is make them say sorry to each other? Do Rika's and Shion's family status apply that far or should I just apply the rules of The '80s?
- If it's not that, it might be an extreme example of Values Dissonance.
It may just be a poor or inconsistent fansub, but it would appear that in The '80s, they have medical technology which borders on magic. Specifically, in Rei, Furude Rika is hit by a truck, and, though the sub was inconsistent in the wording, the words "decapitated" and "crushed head" were used. Not to mention all that blood that pools up on the road. Yet, somehow she survives? Explain that...
- It's meant to be a Mindscrew - but remember Rika didn't see it, it was Hanyuu narrating. I personally take it as Hanyuu was lying.
- Hanyuu Did It!
our words: Frederica Bernkastel and Bernkastel. What the hell is up with that? Is Ryukishi 07 MindScrewing the fanbase on purpose?
- I noticed the difference as well. Hopefully this question will be answered when Umineko: When They Cry finishes.
- From what I have seen (All of Higurashi and just the first arc of Umineko), I would guess that she was the one orchestrating the set of circumstances leading to Rika's death in every time loop (Beatrice explicitly states that one of Bernkastel's powers is causing "miracles" which are possible, but infinitely improbable). In the end, the gang didn't win because of The Power of Friendship; they won because Bernkastel got bored and let them win.
  - From what I understand, it was Lambdadelta, not Bernkastel, who created Rika's "fate" using Miyo as a proxy, and Hanyuu who tried to save her by creating the Groundhog Day Loops. Further attempts at escaping the loop ran into Lambda's fate again, but while Rika was moving through the loops over and over again, fragments of her spirit or memories or something from the dead end loops came together to form Frederica Bernkastel. Since she's composed of Rika's memories, Bern isn't able to discover who the killer is on her own, so she uses her power over miracles to alter the timelines in certain ways, experimenting with what works and what doesn't to try to find a way out of the loops, but because she's effectively a non-human entity, little things like the Power of Friendship don't make sense to her until she's seen them in action in the timelines. This is why characters like Keiichi or Akasaka occasionally pick up their memories from other arcs seemingly out of nowhere and why everything comes together so neatly in the last arc; Bern's working her magic in the background to create the optimal conditions for the characters to escape the loops. Granted, even with Bern's miracles it almost doesn't work a few times; it took The Power of Friendship to smash Lambda's fate and destroy Miyo's plans once and for all. The connection between Frederica Bernkastel and Umineko's Bitchkastel is harder to discern, though this has a fair bit to do with the fact that I've only made it halfway through Umineko's second arc and Bern's... actions later on in Umineko came to me from various spoilers around these parts. I'm inclined to think that the two Berns aren't directly related, if only because I can't imagine a creature spawned from Rika's essence being so monstrous (though it's possible that Umi-Bern really is a good guy and Ryukushi is just invoking Blue-and-Orange Morality to mindscrew the readers even further). That and Bernkastel as we see her in the Higurashi anime (not sure if she's shown physically in the games) appears much older than Umi-Bern. Granted, that may just be Deen taking liberties with the characters, but if it's not something Deen came up with, then it's probably Ryukushi's design, and if that's the case, then there's a very good chance that it's important somehow. If there's anything this series has taught me, it's that you can't afford to ignore even the smallest of clues.
How the hell does Rei fit into all this? From what I can tell, the beginning of "Dice-Killing" implies that "Embarrassment" is in fact part of the final timeline (presumably sometime when Takano has been sufficiently cured). However, at the end of the anime's "Festival Accompaniment," Hanyu is shown to have stayed as a physical being; she's exclusively in Rika's head in "Dice-Killing." Did the anime just cock up "Festival Accompaniment" or something?
- It helps that all of Rei of Anime-only stuff.
  - Rei was an extra game disc before it was an anime OVA.
- "Embarrassment was a non-canon episode, but if you look at the subtitles closely enough, it implies a different event with a similar outcome happened - an embarrassing punishment game. With "Dice-Killing", I believe Hanyuu can switch back and forth between physical and non-physical. I assume the Visual Novel clears this up.
  - The first Rei arc was in another world, most likely. Since Rika, most likely, died in the second Rei arc, Hanyuu had to transform into a ghost again to bring her back to life.
- I am confused as well. At the end of Kai it appears that Bernkastel is setting up the perfect world that Rika goes to in the Dice Killing arc. However at the end of Dice Killing Hanyuu states that it was only dream that [Hanyuu] made so Rika can also be atoned for her own sin.
- The only thing we know for sure is that the Dice Killing chapter did happen and is tied in with the main Higurashi/Umineko storyline; if it weren't, Umineko-Bernkastel wouldn't exist. Moreover, in the later Dream Appearing chapter, Hanyuu is once again in physical form. Either she really can change between physical and ethereal at will, the animators/illustrators dropped the ball, or it was a deliberate fauxpax to mess with us all (probably that last one).
  - This troper prefers to think that Hanyuu can "broadcast" herself to Rika from a distance, and was in fact doing this in Dice Killing while she tends to the shrine in her absence. Hanyuu is a Physical God, so it's not impossible, even if just a theory.
This is more so a fandom issue, but why does everyone call it "Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni", when it's "When They Cry - Higurashi"? HNNKN is for merchandise purposes.
- ...um, because that's the name of the series in Japanese? And is the title put in all of the openings? And all of the episode previews?
- "When They Cry: Higurashi" is the official DUBBED TITLE.
- "When They Cry" is the name of the franchise currently containing this and Umineko: When They Cry, actually.
  - Indeed. I recall reading somewhere that that the manga and anime were called "When They Cry" at the request of Ryukishi 07 himself.
- Higurashi: When They Cry is more fun to say once you get the hang of it.
- Incidentally, I don't think there has been a more awkward title for an English dub than "When They Cry: Higurashi" in the history of anime. They really couldn't come up with a more natural-sounding translation than that?
  - This especially mind boggling given that the literal translation of the title ("When The Cicadas Cry") sounds far more natural than what they chose. I guess Western audiences are just too stupid to be able to tell that "When The Cicadas Cry" and "When The Seagulls Cry" might just be part of the same franchise...
How come Satoko douse not fell any guilt about killing her parents? She blames herself for her brother disappearing and fells guilty about that, but she had a much bigger role in her parent's death and because of it she had to live with an abusive aunt and uncle but even when she is sane she douse not seem to care about being a Self Made Orphen
- I got the impression that she had suppressed the memories of that event.
  - Wasn't Rika shown saying something that expressly implied this, if not outright stated it? I seem to remember one point(I don't know which arc), where it seems that Satoko is about to snap, and seems to be remembering the incident. Rika walks over and hugs her, telling her, "It's not time for you to remember yet", or something similar.
In Nekogoroshi-Hen, Mion is playing with a group of kids her age in the flashbacks. Where are these kids in the other arcs? It seems like Mion, Keiichi, and Rena are the oldest in the school and Mion's never shown with another group.
- Mion is a high school senior and is already applying to colleges, it would have been so the kids might have been a year or two older then her. Also keep in mind that in a small rural town like Hinamizawa several kids might have dropped out early to get jobs. Finally the visual novel mentions that several kids from the village go to school in the nearby city.
The Atonement Chapter being given as the answer to Onikakushi-hen, at least the anime version. (I have not read the relevant portion of the manga.) The Reveal that Keiichi was crazy was awesome, granted. However, we never 'see' the nuts and bolts of how the insanity went to work aside from a few snapshots like the syringe shifting into a marker. We don't 'see' the heartbreak of someone's dear friend starts acting afraid of you. Hell, we don't even get to understand why Keiichi's words were able to pull Rena back from the brink. I, somewhat sullenly perhaps, wish that the author of Higurashi had just shown Onikakushi from Rena's perspective. Hell, this still-image video does the second half of what I asked for and portions of the first. It also had a much greater connection to Demoning Away than Tsumihoroshi-Hen did and, quite frankly, was more satisfying to watch.
- Wow, that really was an amazing video... I'm a Mion shipper, and I think that video was perfect. Thanks for the link!
- *Commence bawling*
- I re-watched Onikakushi-hen thinking about things in Rena's point of view, and it brought another round of holy shit to me. True, Re-watching Onikakushi-hen doesn't answer everything or give the emotional impact of Rena experiencing it, but it can explain quite a bit. Some things, like the Yamianu, I can only guess are because Irie (Or as Mion and Rena only told Keichii at the end, "The manager") sent them to take Keichii so he could be treated. As for the still image video, *joins previous troper in bawling*
For the sake of plot I'll buy most of Rika's Idiot Ball if I must, and that maybe after the first dozen or two failures it's plausible that she'd start to give up hope, and all that jazz. She was just a kid when it started and any development beyond "just a kid" you'd expect during the time loop could easily be pretty stunted by the circumstances of that time period. But I cannot, for the life of me, accept that despite knowing about the Queen Carrier thing presumably from world one, she did not once in a hundred years ask Irie or anyone else what would happen to the villagers if she died. Personally, I would've done that during round three or four, as soon as it became obvious that my premature death was not a freak accident but was likely to repeat itself. Why wouldn't you at least be curious? It's not like there was reason to believe that he wouldn't tell her, since he owed her a bajillion favors for helping with the research, is extremely helpful whenever possible and it was a fair question and not something she shouldn't be allowed to know. If she had asked that early on she wouldn't have had any reason to hide things from her friends "for their protection" since she'd know that they couldn't get in any worse trouble knowing than not knowing, and probably would've solved things long before Hanyuu started running low on steam (and saved an awful lot of alternate universes from their fates).
Am I the only one bugged by the fact that the only worlds in which Akasaka returns to Hinamizawa are the ones in which his wife was saved? Even if he failed to save her (if not especially if he failed to do so), Rika more than proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she knew what she was talking about and her predictions would come true. And even if she died, Rika still tried to warn him. Every chapter in the series which shows any events after the Hinamizawa Disaster feature an Akasaka who's cursing himself for not having intervened, regretting it with every fiber of his being. Shouldn't there be at least a few universes where his wife died but he decided to intervene anyways?
- It's explained in the VNs that all the Hinamizawa murder incidents are kept top-secret within the Shishibone city area by the police specifically so the incidents don't leak to the media (since the first incident was discovered by the media, which caused the villagers to complain about their presence.). Akasaka simply didn't know that her predictions had come true in those worlds until it was too late (the Hinamizawa Disaster.). The reason he does returns in the worlds his wife does survive is because he's grateful to Rika.
Where did Hanyuu's sweet tooth come from? Was it noted in the sound novels?
In Minagoroshi Rena referred to The Atonement Chapter, the scene where everyone found her with the bodies and made a promise with her. However she couldn't recall Keiichi's face, only his words and body. Why not? Even if so, it was obviously him from his clothing, and probably voice.
- In the sound novel she just remembered 'someone' said it. But not how, when or why. Actually, she noted that it was probably when she was a small child and that is why she don't remember. She remembering the body and the voice is an anime thing and it is probably just playing with visuals. Not to be taken as it was how she remembered it.
Rei and Hanyuu. Weren't the last two arcs of Rei post-Kai? Then why did she permanently transform back? Or are these arcs before the good ending, in another world?
- Yukiwatashi-hen reveals that Hanyuu chose to loop the lives of several Rika's. Given this, I assume that the Rika in the last two arcs of Rei is not the same Rika as the last arc of Kai. Furthermore, I assume that Rei!Rika was able to escape her fate without Hanyuu taking physical form thus explaining why she doesn't have a physical form during Rei.
  - So..Some random Rika helped fix the worlds? Or did Hanyuu go to another world, that Fredrica hadn't been to, post-Kai for some reason?
  - The later, from what I understand Hanyuu basically decided that saving one Rika from her fate wasn't enough, and thus decided to save as many Rikas as possible. The actual plot of Yukiwatashi-hen is that Yukiwatashi!Rika is about to give up, so Hanyuu incarnates her into Matsuribayashi!Rika's(after the events of Matsuribayashi-hen have already taken place and with Matsuribayashi!Rika's permission) body for a week as a "punishment game" to show her what she'll get if she manages to escape her fate. After which Yukiwatashi!Rika regains the will to fight.
So Satoko is colorblind. Okay. But from this fact alone, trying to infer that she can't tell cauliflower from broccoli doesn't work. Instead, this implies that she can't tell the different shades between them. Just put photos of them into black and white. (Note that the one time the anime refers to this makes an inference the other way around, asking which one is green; also, the type of broccoli that's more common is the one with the dark-green buds on top).
The Mahjong game. Why exactly is it based on the anime? If it's not, then why are Keiichi's eyes purple? Everything except for the anime has them some shade of blue.
In episode 15, season 1, of the anime, Irie tells Mamoru that the bullet he was shot with went clean through his shoulder. That's medically plausible (and, depending on the gun, probable)... except for the fact that there was a guy standing behind him. Not more than nine feet away. Who was totally unharmed.
- Just because it went through doesn't mean it took a perfectly straight path, and depending on what it hit, it may have lost most of its penetrating power. Or it was a goof.
In Minagoroshi, why didn't Irie just go and inform the authorities that Satoko was deprived of her medication? As a doctor he would be taken seriously.
- Probably because it was a secret research. He can't just go telling anyone about it. The police would probably ask questions.
The "fixes" made to the later chapters really don't make sense, unless you assume that Hanyuu and Rika actually had the power to transfer memories from one world to the next by choice. The change from the Sonozaki old guard still hating/disdaining the Houjou family, to them accepting them, makes perfect sense in Minagoroshi-hen, but then is taken as fiat in Matsuribayashi-hen (where the older generation is (a) eager to bring in new 'air' to help cleanse that hatred, and are very quick to want to help Satako, even without the extenuating circumstances of Minagoroshi. Same thing with Shion's relationship with Satako; what would cause the change in her personality from "Satako ruined Satoshi's life" to "I must protect Satako for Satoshi"? If it's just random luck, then they really did just draw a royal flush, about four times in a row. Think about all the individual chance elements had to exist
- Shion had to be a staunch defender of Satoko, a change which isn't just "she isn't paranoid/delusional", but which massively alters her relationship to both Satoshi and Satako
  - Satashi asked her to take care of Satako. In most other scenarios (with an small exception, in the anime) she ignored this to pity herself for her own loss. However, it is not impossible she actually listened to him (even if she disliked Satako at first, she would grow attached after a while)).
- The matron of the Sonozaki clan (and the rest of the old alliance) accepting Satako as being a legitimate part of the village, and showing Ooishi that they aren't the bad guys
  - The demon grandmother always was whiling to accept Satoko (as she confidences to Mion). She was just being stubborn. In Matsuribayashi she didn't have to act herself, as in Minagoroshi, so it is a bit easier for her.
- All of the individual games club members remembering their past 'lives' at once
- Akasaka having listened to Rika years earlier, and gone home to save his wife
- Given the theme of "we need everyone for a miracle to happen", if any one of these things didn't happen in Matsuribayashi-hen, they'd have been screwed. Either Rika and/or Hanyuu have more power over people's retained memories and beliefs (which also should massively alter the backstory), in which case they should have solved it decades ago, or they lucked out in a way that strains the mind.
  - Rika and Hanyuu were just lucky. In Rika's words, they rolled six in a die many times in a roll. The whole situation is unlikely, but still possible. If it is possible there is a Fragment (Kakera) for it, and if there is a Fragment Rika and Hanyuu could have landed in there.
  - There's a WMG on the bottom of the WMG page that attempts to explain this arc.
How exactly is it legal for two 8 - 12 year olds to live alone (they're currently 9 - 13 but they've been living together for a few months)?
- Remember: The story takes place in countryside. And the village approves them living together, so somebody might be pulling string to keep them living together.
  - Technically, the strings might be rather trivial. In the VN it is explained that after Rika's parents' deaths, Kimiyoshi and his wife became her legal guardian. Officially she lives at their house, but nobody's preventing her to go and play in that little shack. Also, she likes to invite her friend there, and they like to play cooks and staying overnight. On paper, no problem. As for Satoko, I don't think it is said anywhere, but her legal guardian probably remains her uncle Teppei, a person the authorities consider alive, with an address. Sure he's neglecting the child he's responsible of, but somehow nobody feels like reporting it.
Will Hanyuu age post-Kai? She's been that same physical age for who knows when. Now that she's human again, can she age? But she's technically dead..Right? Why is Hanyuu in child form anyway? If I recall correctly, she can change between adult and child.
- Well, Hanyuu is actually a much older woman. She even have children. If she could become a child (to become closer to Rika, I suppose?) she can probably age as well.
  - She's a woman but she's currently in a child form. She can change between both apparently..
- Because moe, that's why.
Does anyone else find Rena oddly physical? When she's being silly she tends to hit her friends when they're doing something silly. She's slapped her friends, mostly Keiichi, on more then one occasion to slap some sense into them or when they've done something stupid. She's thrown, or kicked, tables a few times. Not to mention her antics when she becomes paranoid or delusional. On a lighter note, she likes to touch her friends a lot.
- It's not really odd, there are people in real life and way more in fiction who tend to whack people (And in anime most, hitting boys is culturally accepted) and this series being what it is, tables probably get the same treatment for the sake of narrative on what/who/how she is and acts (Sorry, don't know the proper phrasing there).
Why was tricking the misbehaving customers at Angel Mort treated as such a victory by the club and, more important, the staff of the restaurant? If they just kicked them out for their behavior, I can't imagine their reputation suffering any, but what the club did to force them out could have horribly affected it since they could then justifiably spread the word that the place allows violence between the customers, has food that gives you diarrhea, doesn't maintain their restrooms very well, and tries to cheat their customers out of things they won. Also, it sounds like there were a bunch of other people besides those three that had to go to the bathroom, and thus probably had to lose their spot at the place as well.
- The costumers were not getting kicked out. The staff that rejoiced were the waitresses, not the actual owner. Apparently the waitresses are supposed to endure (specially since it was a promotional day). For the other people, they could just wait a little, since they were not drugged. Also, most of the costumers were perverted anyway (since it was a promotional day).
How can simply turning off the burner (in the anime) stop what appears to be a MASSIVE grease fire? In the manga at least (haven't gotten that far in the VN), they covered it, which is what you're supposed to do.
Can Rika get HS? Her relatives? What happened to her when she took a HS shot?
- That shot was not the HS. It is not clear in the anime, but the VN describe that the cure (like the one Satoko takes every day) cause some nasty side effects. It would not kill her though, but if she hadn't killed herself Shion would torture her (and she knew it)
Why neither Mion nor Shion told the family about their switch? They could go back to their real personalities then. They all had to know about their tendency to pull switches, so they'd probably believe them...
- They were probably too afraid of their grandmother, I suppose. They were still a child at time, after all (and the old woman is scary even to adults). The most time they let pass more harder it gets to tell the truth. By the time the story happen it is likely nothing would change anyway, the family would just pretend they were always like that and be with it.
  - Also, is there really a personality to get back? The more submissive/assertive ones stayed in their respective bodies. One getting her position back would mean the other loosing it.
- Mion got the tatoo at the same time they were separated, speaking up after that point could have ment a lot of trouble. Also, none of them were really keen on being the head of the Sonozaki family.
During the big fight scene between Keiichi and Rena on the roof of the school during the first season's finale, why the hell did the police not intervene? They were just standing there watching. Seriously, Keiichi could've been killed.
- This is a bit more explained in the novel. The police were planning to kill Rena (the only why to intervene is to snipe her, since they can't enter the building), and Mion got them to stop because she noticed Keiichi's conversation was working.
  - What bothers me more is the police's inaction before Keiichi defused the bomb. They didn't even try to talk to Rena, or to pretend they were accepting her demands so as to gain more time. With fourteen innocent lives at stake, they were willing to gamble everything on Keiichi's ability to defuse the bomb in time (which he managed only by one second).
  - It was 26 children. And the police resolving the situation would compromise the plot of the entire series, as the whole point of Tsumihoroboshi-hen is that Keiichi brings Rena back.
Involving a little bit of Umineko here...from an anti-fantasy perspective, where magic and the like don't exist, that would make Bernkastel be something like the anthropomorphic personification miracles, right? Ok, good enough, that would simply mean the game between Bern and Lambda in the past was simply a miracle vs. a nearly absolute chance of death. But then how would Rika and Hanyuu's universe-hopping be explained? Furthermore, how would Hanyuu herself be explained?
- Not entirely sure if Higurashi is supposed to be seen that way but lets try. If we consider Rika's narration, then we have to assume she is crazy or is hallucinating. Maybe she got sick as well, why not? She was very paranoid and this fit with the symptoms (good thing for her it was justified). If we do not consider her narration things got easier. If memory serves me right, the whole universe-hopping was never actually voiced with the exception of Tsumihoroboshi-hen. That way we can say Rika actually deduced Miyo wanted to kill her without previous knowledge. It is a bit of a stretch, but not impossible (she had some inside information from Miyo and Tomitake). Hanyuu is exactly what she is presented in the last chapter: a relative of Rika. Not absurd, as she never really did any crazy super natural stunt (in the VN, anyway, haven't finished the anime). Nobody acts during the time freezing, so nothing really change (Takano could have just missed Hanyuu, like the other believed). Even Keiichi sudden memories in Tsumihoroboshi-Hen (as well as his conversation with Rika) can be explained as being an Imagine Spot from him and Rika just playing along. With this, I believe the only 'weird' thing is Rika would be overly mature for her age, but that it is still on the realm of 'believable'.
  - The constant premise of mystery stories is that the story itself must be seen though the eyes of God. Umineko got around this by introducing the message bottle at the end of the first game, and of course it wouldn't apply to first person narration. In other words unless the fantasy elements are only mentioned in first person narration, or we have something similar to the message bottle from Umineko to use as a basis to doubt the third person narration we have no basis for an anti-fantasy claim regarding Higurashi. That being said, Hinamizawa Syndrome already violates Knox's 4th, so the so-called fantasy elements can be explained with It was done by an alien using her alien technology.
  - The exact wording of Knox's 4th is against unknown poisons or uber complex scientific devices. Since it doesn't say anything about parasites being forbidden, its allowed. This might include Tomitake's death since it was essentially the parasite that killed him. Also in defense of it are two things. The readers got plenty of clues/foreshadowing that a Hate Plague was heavily involved. In addition, Hinimizawa Syndrome as a parasite is actually quite plausibel scientifically, and deceptively simple in its mode of attack.
  - Anti-fantasy =/= mystery, that is true in Umineko as well. It's possible for a story to be fantasy AND mystery, or for it to be neither. The op never said they looking at it from a mystery perspective, only anti-fantasy.
How did Satoko die in Yakusamashi-hen? She seemed fine. Did she get overly excited for her condition or was it an inside job?
- It was an inside job. Did you happen to miss the nurse's (very suspicious) reaction to Satoko's alarm call? Mind you, it's never explicitly stated, but it's very heavily implied.
  - I saw it, but other people say it wasn't related to i.
Satoko uses "Watakushi". Why? It seems a bit formal. Then again she does talk formally, which seems odd considering her personality.
- She probably speak like that due to her unce and aunt, then become an habit. Alternatively, she picked up from Satoshi.
- I'd say it's just her charachter, same reason she keeps saying Ohohoho.
- It's implied that she picked up a habit of speaking very formally in an effort to make herself more likeable to the villagers, and possibly get them to treat her better. Didn't end up working, but once she got in the habit, it stuck.
- It’s part of her effort to become more “responsible” after the disappearance of Satoshi and the realization that she had been a “burden” for him. Not just the first person, in fact her entire speech pattern tends to be somewhat awkwardly formal, like what a child would imagine a grown up woman should talk like. This is more evident if you compare it to the Satoko in Saikoroshi, in which her parents and Satoshi are alive and well so Satoko is just a normal (albeit somewhat bratty) kid - thus her speech pattern there is more normal.
Why doesn't Akane have a demon kanji in her name? Was it removed when she married an outsider, or was Ryukishi just not thinking when he named her?
- Pretty sure it was removed because of the marriage, yeah.
- It was removed when she married. Before that it had the demon
What's the deal with the rule of killing twins at birth? In the manga, it's both twins, and in the anime, it's only the youngest one. So, which is it?
- If memory serves me right, it is just the youngest one in the Visual Novel.
- You are mistaken, in the manga as well it says "If twin successors are born, strangle one before its first cleaning."
  - I think the main confusion comes from the TIPS, where it says that "both twins should be killed immediately." Maybe it's a translation error or something, but it then proceeds to talk about how both Mion and Shion are alive.
The orphanage people killed Eriko, right? There's no way she could have survived that. They killed the others too, right? Why? Their punishments sound horrifying, yet they used lethal methods on the escapees. Why not just beat them senseless and mentally scar them or whatnot, like usual? Plus, how did they get unnoticed? Kids going missing like that.
- They definately killed Eriko and probably the other two girls as well. As to why they moved from abuse to murder,they were probably using the deaths of the girls to send a message to the other kids at the orphange:"Don't try to run away and defy us or the same will happen to you". Infact they probably would have killed Miyo too if professor Takano hadn't shown up when he did. As to why no one outside the orphange didn't notice that three little girls went missing, the place seemed to be pretty far off the beaten path,the orphange people seem to be very good at hiding their dirty laundry so to speak(note that the orphange and the man in charge seem to be quite nice...until the person escorting Miyo leaves) and the children would likely be too scared to speak agains't them and can't leave or contact anyone. Sad as it is there may not have been anyone who cared enough to go check on a bunch of orphans and although professor Takano can tell that Miyo has been horribly abused,he has no hard evidence to back up his claim.
So Miyo's parents died and she was sent to an orphanage, but who was running it and why were the men being so inhumanely cruel to the kids living there (in the entry to the page Orphanage of Fear, it seemed to allude to all the men being ex-military)? Besides, in the anime, during the scene where Dr. Takano picked her up in his car, it almost seemed like he knew what was going on in the orphanage, but neither he nor Miyo ever mentioned the orphanage again. Maybe they didn't have evidence, but the fact that they didn't even talk about it suggested that they hadn't even thought about helping the remaining kids, or there was someone or something with a lot of power controlling the orphanage and preventing Takano from taking action.
In Nekogoroshi-hen, what's really going on in that quarry? There's a theory that the Yamainu are making the poison gas there; it fits the evidence as well as anything else, but it would be nice to know for sure. Does the light novel elaborate on this at all?
- Yes, it is the place where the Yamainu store the gas.
Also in Nekogoroshi-hen, where's Mion's tattoo?
- The artists were just too lazy to draw it, most likely. Either that or they forgot. Ditto with the first episode of Rei.
- There's a TIP in Rei that explains Mion owns waterproof skin-colored makeup for the purpose of covering it.
Speaking of the Sonozaki twins, why weren't they killed at birth in the first place?
- It was Oryou's responsibility to kill one (or two), but she didn't. Said she couldn't bring herself to, but one has to wonder whether she ever considered it. She acts tougher than she is. It's one thing pretending to be a murderous evil lord, it's one thing siding with the yakuzas and get one's own militia when needed, it's one thing educating people by making them peel their own nails. But killing her own baby granddaughter? Screw that, she can workaround her fine, thanks.
Real Life: The game cannot possibly be rated "all ages", now would it? In Japan it got rated D in their CERO, an equivalent to an M rating. Obviously due to its (why so) serious content...
- It's not an official rating of any kind. It's a rating mangagamer made up and stands in contrast to all of their other titles that are rated 18+ due to sex scenes. Not that it matters in any way because they're online and thus can't accurately check their customer ages in the first place.
- Funnily enough, in Europe the game is PEGI-rated 7yo. That because a visual novel does not qualify as a game for them, and therefore only the minigames are rated. With a very cute and lightly dressed Rena. http://hinamizawa.fr/pegi.htm (French)
Funimation's website. Ignoring the fact it's mediocre compared to their others, especially since it's becoming a Cash-Cow Franchise, and hasn't been updated in a while aside from adding box set info. Their character bios. They spoiler basically all the question arcs and some of the answers in a vague way. Plus, they say "Oyashiro-sama" when in the dub it's simply "Oyashiro".
Speaking of Funi, why haven't we gotten Kai yet? The fact that the first season isn't on the SAVE pile most likely means it didn't do that bad, so what gives?
Why is the Na in the title always in red? Is there some special significance to this?
- Probably nothing more than stated on Main with Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Na would normally be written as a kanji, but cry-as-in-animal-song and cry-as-in-weep both use different kanjis, so it is written phonetically to preserve ambiguity. It is probably red to point this out. Also, I think it points out that the reasons to weep rather than sing are quite bloody.
I'm probably not the only one, but who liked Miotsukushi-hen more then Matsuribayashi-hen? I mean, the whole series kind of shows the premise of "fight fate with determination, it's not set in stone" as how Rika would need to solve her problems, which was a core point in Minagoroshi-hen. Only, they really don't in Matsuribayashi-hen, as Hanyuu arrives and the manage to win without really trying to fix anything (they quickly find out Miyo is their enemy and all their allies assemble and win easily). However, in Miotsukushi-hen, they all need to fix the problems each club member has, and on top of that the "Fight fate with Determination" theme is more prevalent.
- I like what I've heard of it better than Matsuribayashi. A perfect happy ending just seems stupid for a series like Higurashi.
In the anime, why does Rika's hair change from purple to teal and back at random intervals? is it a coloring mistake or is it relevant to the story somehow?
- It's the lighting. Her hair appears to change colors due to the lighting.
When Keiichi was shot by Takano, Hanyuu stopped time, at least in the manga.. Was anyone able to stop the bullet? I know Hanyuu dogged a bullet in the last arc using that method, but she made that happen so I guess she has special control. If she was human then, would she have been able to grab the bullet or something?
- In the VN it's explained that nobody can move when time is stopped. The only reason Hanyuu stopped the time when Keiichi was shot was so they would have time to say goodbye. In Matsuribayashi Rika is able to move in the stopped time and remove the bullet despite this being impossible. Hence performing the actual miracle of the show.
Is it wrong of me to think Rina and Rena's dad made a cute couple? In the manga, it's so adorable at first.. Of course, Rina turns out to be a Jerkass gold-digger, but I mean if you ignore that and go by the assumption her facade was real.
- I cannot see a problem with that. Rena would probably want to take them home if they weren't already home in the first place. Of course, this romance is harsh to Rena. She thinks she'll stop being daddy's little girl and start being in the way. She starts thinking about the future and leaving home for their sake, earlier than she wanted to. In the so cheerful life she'd been enjoying since her return to Hinamizawa a year ago, it is a rather stressful line of thoughts, driving her to Hinamizawa syndrome and double, then mass, murder. Well, maybe it is not meant that way and only caused by random concerns at first. Rena is sharper than she shows, but it is not like her to think so pessimistically. First, it seems unlikely her father, however much in love, would even allow her to leave the house let alone wish it. To give them privacy she only needs staying to Mion's from times to times. Hell, those seem usually Rena X Keiichi iterations, why not staying to Keiichi's? If it gets too inappropriate I can totally picture the two "eloping" to Okinomiya.
- The sanctity of her home is a huge "trigger" for Rena's psychosis, as the "grocery list" TIPS in the relevant arc explain. All that garbage she drags home with no rhyme or reason other than "cuteness"? She's essentially marking her territory and telling outsiders to keep out. And we never see any of the club visit her house (and she tells Keiichi that her home is off-limits rather strongly).
  - I think her telling Keiichi that her home is off-limits is more due to the situation with Rina and her dad, than anything else. If her parents were still married, I'm sure she'd love to have him over.
In the Miotsukushi-hen of the Nintendo DS port of Higurashi Kizuna, what happens in Tomoe Minai's story? Also, who is Shirou Hanada, and what is his role in Miotsukushi-hen?
Is Satoko aware that she pushed her parents off a bridge? Other sufferers of the Hate Plague know what they do, and they have their memories, but Satoko seems different.
- Sort of already discussed in this page. Search "How come Satoko douse not fell any guilt". Let's add about the difference, that Satoko is a little girl, early junior high at best, the youngest sufferer. She's also portrayed way after (3 years) these events. She's been an L5 patient, and also has been abused by her aunt for a year, in the meantime. The shaky memory may be explained by her needing it, and multiple events having helped it be.
Was Mion really making death threats against Ooishi in Onikakushi, or was Keiichi just imagining that too? If that was a delusion, then what could she have really been saying?
- It's likely the tone was a delusion, but since Mion's family has a great hate for Ooishi, and she does too, it's likely that she said that she'd kill him, but she wasn't seriously going to. Really, it's never explained so that's up to the viewer.
  - It was definitely not a fabrication. If you re-watch Onikakushi-hen only paying attention to the words and not the creepy cat-eyes or the tone, a lot of things start fitting into place. Actually, upon closer viewing, Mion is crying during that scene, and there's a small window of opportunity where you can actually see her eyes return to normal. Mion was just really upset at Ooishi-san for making his friend learn all of that without her even being there, in a perfect parellel to how Rena would learn Keiichi's past from Ooishi in Tsumihoroboshi while also succumbing to the Syndrome. Remember how angry Mion was in Tatarigoroshi-hen when Keiichi got deadly-shoulder-squeezed by Ooishi? Their relationship is less than stellar...
Why didn't Dr. Irie ever tell Satoko that Satoshi put under sedation in the basement of the clinic? I know that it would have been too upsetting for her to learn that her older brother was kept in that state for so long in most arcs, but at least in the arcs where Teppei returned she likely would have realized that she didn't need to put up with his abuse in order to bring Satoshi back.
- Hinamizawa Syndrome research is top secret, and he can't share it with anyone no matter what the cause is. TOKYO would probably get mad at him, and the reason why he showed Shion is probably because she could handle it a little better and the whole thing with TOKYO was going to end due to the will to break fate, anyways.
In Musubienishi-hen, how is it that Hanyuu appears as both a spirit and a human? Does she have the ability to change at will or something?
- Most likely. The reason why she never went into her human form before was because she was scared people would think of her as a monster because of her horns. They convince her at the end of Minagoroshi-hen that they don't care and that she should join them, and that's why she's a human in Matsuribayashi-hen. She simply decided to appear. It's not really explained in the anime.
In Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen, if people went out searching for Rika (only a few hours at most after her death), then news of her going missing should have spread across town by morning (approximately 12 hours after her death). Why couldn't Takano activate manual 34 in that time? Did s/he just want to be sure Rika was dead first? Or would Tokyo not approve using it unless they were sure Rika was dead?
- A combination of both, most likely. Manual 34 is a last resort, Tokyo wouldn't risk activating it just to later discover a child was just playing too far into the mountain and got lost. And Miyo knows it.
What's with Ooishi in Tatarigoroshi-hen (Curse Killing arc)? Usually, he's not mean, just a little mysterious and creepy. But in Tatarigoroshi-hen, he does things like grab Keiichi's shoulder so tightly that he has to get it checked out by Dr. Irie. My thoughts are that that's just Unreliable Narrator and Keiichi's exaggerating how creepy Ooishi is in his own eyes, but I'm not sure.
- In most chapters Oiishi is not dealing with unrepentant cold-blooded murderers. In Tatarigoroshi-he, he is. This level of aggressiveness is no much different from what he gives to the Sonozaki.
When Keiichi kills Mion and Rena because he thought they were trying to inject him with something. Okay, so it was a marker, and the girls were just messing around. But Keiichi was hallucinating and thought they were seriously doing something terrible to him. He was clearly terrified. How could the girls possibly not see the difference between someone fake screaming/laughing at the "punishment" of being drawn on, and the very real struggling and panicking of someone who believed his life was in danger? You'd think the girls would notice and stop what they were doing before it ever got out of control.
- Even if they recognized the fact that Keiichi was scared, they probably never even considered the possibility that he would end up murdering them, of all things. Also, it's not like they have known each other that long, so they must've thought that was his way of messing around?
- As we see, Keiichi (and other club members) has a bad habit of being overdramatic and over-exaggerating the simplest things. Perfectly fine when he's taking a game super seriously and having a good time, not so fine when he's thinking a marker is a syringe and is screaming like a maniac. It's fairly likely that they thought Keiichi yelling and screaming to avoid being drawn on was just him playing up his part of the punishment game, and they didn't realize he was seriously terrified until it was too late.
So, if I remember correctly, the VN stated that Hanyuu has the habit of following around the people who have fallen to the Hinamizawa Syndrome, like we saw with Keiichi and Shion... why? I mean, the girl has seen these scenarios countless of times, can't she deduce after the first few loops that she following them around is only making WORSE the whole paranoia and madness thing on the victims? And I know she says that she follows them because she's helpless and that's the only thing she can do, but come on, if you really want to help that person DON'T follow them around and help them filling their insanity quota!
- They're trying to save their friends, after all, and the only way to that is to figure out what's going on. With Hanyuu observing them, she can figure out triggers for responses and actions the infected have habits of performing when infected to better help Rena down the line. Since her presence is only exacerbating an already present problem, not following them wouldn't do anything to make Keiichi or Shion less paranoid or less likely to do what they did, it's just one more symptom of their insanity. Even without hearing her footsteps they would still go crazy and kill people, at least this way Hanyuu can help gather information on their actions so they can avoid causing similar events down the road.
Matsuribayashi-hen is supposed to be the world where the problems of other arcs were solved; with the help of everyone a miracle managed to occur and the characters lived happily ever after... But what about Satoshi? Time after time Rika saw the same events unfold: Satoshi succumbing to the Hinamizawa Syndrome and killing his aunt, so why did she never do something to help him? Even in Tsumihoroboshi-hen Rika admitted that her sin was not helping Satoshi, even if her status as the successor of the Furude family and the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama should have helped with that cause. And she knows that, but never does anything. Seriously? I thought she was a firm believer of The Power of Friendship by the end of the series, but it seems to me that she's more concerned with her own survival.
- IINM, Rika couldn't help Satoshi because of inexorably decreasing span of the "Groundhog Day" Loop. By the time she got the courage to Screw Destiny, the time-loop was too small for Rika to interfere with Satoshi's disappearance.
At the end of Tatarigoroshi, as a Foreshadowing of the disaster, we see that all the cicadas and some plants are dead, and there is a smell of "rotten eggs" on Keiichi's way back to the village. A few arcs later we learn that this wasn't a natural disaster but that the villagers were locked up in buildings and killed with gas… so why were the cicadas and plants dead all around the village? Did they fear that the insects would have an outbreak of the syndrome? Or did the perpetual Bug Buzz just get on their nerves?
- The cicadas and plants all around the village are dead because they should be if it were a volcanic gas disaster which is the cover story for Manual 34. When the soldiers gas the civilians, they also spray insecticide and herbicide so it looks like a natural disaster. It's all part of the plan to keep people from learning the truth of what happened there.
In Rei's Saikoroshi-hen, is the implication supposed to be that Rika has Hinamizawa syndrome? Why isn't Hanyuu more disturbed by her behavior?
- She isn't implied anywhere to have the syndrome… although it is unsure whether she really killed her mother of if it was All Just a Dream…
Why do people think Hinimizawa Syndrome is in violation of Knox's 4th? Pretty much every single symptom i.e. paranoia, the hallucinations, delusions, and the heart attack ( which can be caused by intense fear, such as from ultra terrifying hallucinations) have a very simple common explanation. All of those symptoms are caused by a simple corruption of the host's brain chemistry (to be more specific, a dopamine malfunction in the limbic system). Knox's 4th says nothing about parasites being forbiddin,
- It does mention the use of unknown drugs though (which the H-173 undeniably is). But even that is largely foreshadowed, so yeah, it doesn't really pose any problem for the Fair-Play Whodunnit…
  - H-173 isn't actually a drug, but rather, Hinimizawa Syndrome, Ooishi simply thought it was, which is allowed under Knox's 9th.
  - It also mentions any supernatural elements (even if used as a Red Herring). The most glaring violation of "fair play" would probably be the whole soy sauce thing from Watanagashi-hen, where Rena basically sits there and throws exposition at the player.
  - The soy sauce thing seems to be a problem in the visual novel version. In the manga and anime versions, the viewer very clearly sees an empty soy sauce bottle and Rena inspecting the stalled/refridgerated dinner, sensing something was amiss. This is important since it is Rena that has the detective's authority in Watanagashi-hen. The hiccup here is that we don't get how Rena would know such things until the 3rd novel (her cooking talents). It should be noted that the actual "smoking gun" for the player to discern the culprit is a certain OOC moment in episode 7 of the anime (the Satoshi Psycho Rant). If memory serves, wasn't Hinimizawa Syndrome foreshadowed around the 1st and especially the 6th novel (and thus the identity of the what kills Tomitake due to the throat scratching?)
  - Watanagashi-hen contains violations for the same reason Onikakushi-hen; the plot is just a distraction, but they both end before the real mystery is posed: Who killed Hinamizawa? As self-contained arcs, neither of them have to be fair play, but they do introduce clues for fairly solving the real crime.
  - Onikakushi-hen's scenario is perfectly solvable with the clues provided (the smoking gun being the needle), so that individual scenario is fair play. Keiichi's death is arguably the first vague clue as to the existance of Hinimizawa Syndrome since he died in the same fashion as Tomitake.
- Higurashi isn't a fair play mystery (it's actually a horror story), and unlike its successor, doesn't make any pretenses towards the genre. It's like expecting a soap opera to follow the rules of a sitcom plot.
  - Horror as it is, the decalogue is still a useful tool in guiding the reader thoughts. It actually allows the viewer to rule out Onryu and Oyashiro as actual suspects (1st and 2nd respectively if overall story aspect is in play). Since overall, the story's questions can be solved before The Reveal, if treated as a horror/mystery hybrid, Higurashi is pretty much a Fair Play Who Dunnit, despite some hiccups.
I keep seeing on this wiki that there were hints in the manga, visual novel, and (sort of) the anime series that Satoko was being sexually abused by her uncle. What exactly are these "hints"? I have watched the anime and read the manga (I do not have access to the visual novel), and I haven't seen any of those implications.
- There's a very subtle hint in one of the sound novel TIPS; it's a page of statistics from the government regarding child abuse. It lists the prevalence of certain types of abuse, and when it gets to "Sexual molestation," the Scare Chord hits.
- There's also the scene with Satoko's breakdown in Tatagoroshi-hen. Note: VN and manga versions only since they're identical. The trigger for it, and Satoko/Rena's behaviour does match the profile of a sexual abuse case. There's also a TIP in Minagoroshi-hen that indicates that Teppei is NOT above raping people. All and all, the scene is most likely intentionally vague about if it was just a severe PTSD episode (Satoko does have it) or from sexual abuse. Both theories are equally valid until we get more info from R7.
- I'm more in favour of the theory that there isn't any sexual abuse, in one of the tips (I think) Teppei's internat monologue mentions that Satoko might turn out a beutiful woman in the future, with the implication that he intends to have sex with her then.
So, I know that Takano killed Rika's parents and they showed Rika's mother getting vivisected by Takano (which, by the way, EW), but how did she manage to kill Rika's father? That's the one thing that always confused me.
- Some kind of poison. He was drinking heavily at the festival, and someone probably spiked one of his drinks.
- Drugs/poisons that kill their victim in a way that it looks like a heart attack are readily availible in 1983, thus is allowed under Knox's 4th.
Assuming the Kaku OVA is an Ultimate Universe (see WMG), it probably doesn't have a time loop — this version of Hanyuu would have no reason to create one even if she could. But Rika still has an adult voice and personality. Where did they come from?
Does Shion exist in Kaku?
Why the hell did the JSDF Go along with the GHD in the first place there was no Solid evidence of what would happen if Rika dies they might have put soldiers there just in case but Gas the whole town on a theory?
How is Rika able to still act like a cute child after all those time loops despite the fact that she's clearly become cynical and depressed? I could believe she might try acting that way for her friends' sake while actively trying to save herself, but by the time we see her, she's clearly given up on trying to change things. If she's given up, why bother with the facade? The happy child act should be damn near impossible after what she's been through.
- Rika doesn't actually give up until the beginning of Minagoroshi-hen. Even there, it's more like she's on the very edge of giving up rather than giving up completely. She was just putting on a facade to avoid worrying everyone.
Rika trying to give Shion and Rena the syndrome medication single-handedly. Why didn't she ask Irie and Takano for help?
- If she knows enough, it's probably to avoid them getting a vivisection.
I'm currently in the middle of Kai (season 2), and every time we're reminded that Mion is a Sonozaki and that she is the future head of the family, I can't help but remember how she turned completely cruel and emotionless when she had Shion's nails ripped out. Is this something that only happened because of Shion's illness and paranoia? To punish Shion in such a cruel way for doing nothing wrong made me hate Mion, and I've basically despised her ever since, but Mion doesn't seem like the same twisted person that she was in the second story arc. In short, is Mion evil like most of the Sonozaki family, or was the nail-removal incident basically just a delusion that Shion's illness created?
- That wasn't a hallucination, but it's clear from later scenes that Mion hated doing it. In this case it's because she was ordered to by Oryou (their grandmother). If she had refused, there would have been even more dire consequences, for Mion as well as Shion. She may be the designated heir, but the Sonozaki family in general, and Oryou in particular, are not people to be crossed and are capable of doing some extremely nasty things (they are a Yakuza family, remember). Her "emotionless" state was most likely a result of her trying to psychologically distance herself from the act.
Am I the only one who finds it odd that there aren't compilation movies for each arc of the anime adaptation? Most people probably watch each arc in one sitting anyways (for the first half of the anime, anyways), so why not just make it easy for them by letting them watch an arc without having to sit through the opening more than once?
In the fourth episode of Onikakushi Mion makes a comment about how she should have killed someone when she had the chance, and it's inferred by her comment about retirement that she's talking about Ooishi. However, this is never addressed or brought up again in any other part of the anime as far as I remember. Is this more delusion from Keiichi's Hinamizawa Syndrome, or is this just a plot hole? Or was it addressed somewhere else?
- This scene is actually used again in the Visual Novel. From what we know, Mion comes from a family of gangsters, and we also know that everyone in the village hates the police, namely Ooishi himself. I think it's safe to assume that Mion did indeed say that, but the way she acted was all due to Keiichi's paranoia (such as when Rena confronted him about "lying" to everyone else, which lead her to shout her famous "USODA" at him. The conversation did indeed took place, but Rena's reaction, such as Mion's, are all part of Keiichi's paranoia). Hell, I don't even pay attention to whatever happens at that point in the Visual Novel, because it's clear that Keiichi is insane, and everything the reader experiences is all part of his imagination.
For those who read Kageboushi-hen (VN, but Manga also works), is it ever said who was the person that killed Tomoe Mami? Unless I skipped the part where they reveal the culprit, it's never mentioned at all. The only lead given to the reader is that the culprit had the figure of a woman. Natsumi Kimiyoshi is NOT the culprit, because it's nowhere mentioned that she was the one who did it (in fact, there was a small scene of her where she was waiting for Tomoe to show up in order to continue their "touching conversation") and I don't think Takano would expose herself like that for a random police officer who just happened to be working on her case (it's not her style, as seen in the main "scenarios").
Just re-read Watanagashi-hen (Sound Novel) and found something that's bugging me. Takano was found dead in the Gifu Mountains, and the autopsy showed that she had been dead for over 24 hours when she was found on the night of the festival, meaning that she never actually attended the festival that night. We're supposed to take this and conclude that both Keiichi and Shion were both hallucinating Takano's appearance entirely, but how in the hell does that explain how Ooishi saw her? We know that the rest of those involved in the investigation simply think Takano's death is related to Tomitake's because she was found dead on the night of Watanagashi and she works at Irie Clinic, so she lives in or adjacent to Hinamizawa, and that would explain why the two incidents would naturally be lumped together even if no one actually saw her with Tomitake at the festival that evening. However, when Ooishi confronts Keiichi, he says that he saw him and Shion specifically talking with Tomitake AND Takano on the stone path before parting ways for the night, as a way of implicating that he and Shion were the last people seen alive with them and therefore could be taken as prime suspects. Does this mean that Ooishi is also suffering from high levels of HS, as he was able to see Takano? Or is it just something the author didn't consider? Or am I missing something else regarding the nature of Takano's death in Watanagashi (again, I am re-reading these as I have not read them in quite some time, so feel free to remind me of anything that was explained in later arcs).
- Ooishi seeing Takano is pretty much fully explained way down the line in the last two chapters of Higurashi Kai, partially in Minagoroshi-hen (the VN version anyway), and fully in Matsuribayashi-hen. Takano is seen by Ooishi (and Keiichi/Shion) not because he (or they) are suffering from Hinamizawa Syndrome, but because she simply isn't dead. The body in the mountains that is found the next day was never actually Takano's. It was rather a different woman of similar build who was burnt to a crisp and could only be identified by her dental records. Takano, who was attempting to fake her own death, simply switched those dental records with her own with the help of the Yamainu (Mountain Dogs) task force, this is helped by the fact the body was recovered by police in a different prefecture than Ooishi — with a more incompetent, or rather, unsuspecting police force and the autopsy is done haphazardly with no suspicion of it being a fake or cross-examination of witnesses. This is the discrepancy noticed by Ooishi which makes him suspect of Keiichi and Shion. Takano, even knowing that this conflict could put her at risk of being discovered, chose the body specifically because the idea of being discovered to "have been dead for 24 hours" when she knows people saw her at the Watanagashi festival the night before would stir up superstition of Oyashiro-sama's curse in the village, which Takano herself idolizes and sees herself as becoming.
  - Thank you, this troper came back to say they just finished their re-read and had somehow forgotten that entire thing. Though, it's not much of a stretch to say that Ooishi may have experienced some level of HS regardless of this, as it would be more curious if he didn't, since he spends so much time in Hinamizawa, and has shown some erratic behavior consistent with the symptoms.
In the end of Tatarigoroshi-hen, there is a list of both dead and disappeared villagers from Hinamizawa. Some of the disappearances are either explained or hinted in later arcs such as Teppei's body being relocated to another grave like in Tsumihoroboshi-hen, or Ooishi being killed by the Mountain Hounds in Minagoroshi-hen, but is there any explanation to what happened to Satoko aftert she pushed Keiichi from the bridge? Additionally, why would Shion commit suicide in this chapter?
- The Yamainu’s protocol for the Hinamizawa disaster is explained more in the VN. Should anyone escape the death by gas that awaits most villagers for whatever reason, they are to be gunned down and reported as “missing”, since it really isn’t possible to present bodies with gunshot wounds as victims of natural disaster. Thus it’s likely Satoko ran into the Yamainu and got killed after leaving the bridge. As for Shion, it might be a cover-up murder by the Yamainu but it’s not impossible to believe that she did commit suicide - she lost her family and friends in just one day.
Oryou's characterization is... strange. It seems like Ryukichi can never decide if she's a heartless mobster who only cares about personal pride and family name or if there is a halfway decent human being underneath. Her posturing about the Sonozaki family being responsible for the Oyashiro's curse killings when they are not makes sense if it's about scaring outside gangs and the government with the implication that she could resort to extreme measures if the family or Hinamizawa are put at risk, but then why does she keep up the act in private? Does she care about Mion and Shion as people and more than just heirs to the family name or not? In Minagoroshi it's implied that nobody in the family even cares about the stupid grudge over the Hojos anymore, so why does she have to pretend in front of them to still hate them? And worse even, if this is all about keeping up the family's tough image why in Minagoroshi would she think that making up a story about letting herself be intimidated by a fifteen year old boy into dropping the grudge would make her look less weak than just saying that she dropped that grudge because she said so or hell, even making Keiichi or Satoko go through the whole fingernail-ripping ritual which she seems so fond of?

Headscratchers / Higurashi: When They Cry

Alternative Title(s): Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni

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Headscratchers / Higurashi: When They Cry

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Alternative Title(s): Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni

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