Ryukishi07 megathread / griefing thread - Higurashi, Umineko, Ciconia, etc.

[Lambda 11]

I'd argue its the opposite. Sotsu fails as a set of answer arcs not because it doesn't answer anything, but because the answers to all of these arcs so far is that the arcs were played completely straight with no nuance or differences from the arcs from Gou. They are less "answer arcs" and more "reiteration arcs"

I'm still wondering what the hell the question arcs were even about here in the first place since setsou seems to be more of a continuation of Gou than any form of "answer" arc.

Especially since Ryukishi himself stated over twitter that his intention was in fact, not a lesbian yandere relationship that came out of literally nowhere between Satoko and Rika. Nowhere in the VN or spinoffs did Satoko ever become obsessed with Rika and the "together forever" cringe that most anime these days use.

The "answer arcs" are supposed to start giving answers, but I'm just as confused as before. I have no idea where this story is going, and not in a good way. What's even the point of this? What is Ryukishi trying to say here? "Your enjoyment of Higurashi is bad and you should feel bad"?

I dont see any answers here, just a part 2 to Gou. Seems more like a middle finger to anyone who even remotely cared about the original message of Higurashi.

They also just disappeared Satoshi altogether once they revealed him to be a vegetable in Gou and he ceased to exist in Setsou.

 

[Idiot Asshole]

She was freaked out in Eye-Opening when Mion caught her eavesdropping outside of Oryo's bedroom the night of Watanagashi (was like 3 AM, but it was about the time when Mion learned of Tomitake and Miyo's deaths). Mion can be scary when she gets serious, Shion is just scarier due to her yandere status and that she's more susceptible to Hinamizawa Syndrome.

Even then the reaction she had this episode was over the top. She doesn't just become anxious or scared, she instantly turns into a whimpering wreck and is too frightened to do anything. All Mion does is act a little bit menacing, Shion's reaction is disproportionate to what she's responding to.

Maybe if the scene was executed differently, if Mion actually gave off some sort of malicious vibe far beyond anything we've ever seen before, or if the confrontation was carried out in some slow-burning unnerving edge-of-your-seat way dripping with an ominous atmosphere then the danger would feel far more real, but that would be beyond anything we've seen in Sotsugyou so far since the direction has been flat and workmanlike at the best of times and the writing of the whole show feels more like they're trying to check off a whole list of story beats than actually caring about allowing the story and characters to develop naturally. Shion reacts in terror to Mion not because Mion invokes that level of fear in her, but because she needs to react like that so that their confrontation escalates and Mion kills her. The plot dictates the characters instead of the other way around, in contrast to the original Higurashi.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I'd argue its the opposite. Sotsu fails as a set of answer arcs not because it doesn't answer anything, but because the answers to all of these arcs so far is that the arcs were played completely straight with no nuance or differences from the arcs from Gou. They are less "answer arcs" and more "reiteration arcs"

I think Ryukishi thought the Satoko twist was world shattering, but not only it's a single "answer" but one that's not relevent to any of the events unfolding or the other characters, especially as the events unfolded organically anyways.
A good answer arc for a story will have a lot more revelations about characters, motivations and events that will put everything into context.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Modern problems create modern solutions.

 

[Gensou Hadou]

Well, as much as it sucks, it could be worse. It hasn't gone woke yet.

Right...?

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

God with all the repeat footage I wouldn't be surprised if they fired all the animators.
The "answer" arcs suck ass, too, Higurashi had actual fucking questions about what was happening. Now that it's been revealed this is a loli yandere doujin, it's just "how did x die? OH Satoko induced Hinamizawa Syndrome! How did Satoko and Rika die? OH THEY KILLED THEMSELVES!" Jesus fuck it's like I'M caught in a time loop!

And to think when this shit began last october I was actually hoping for some decent intriguing content...
Edit: Lul in the vein of "Big Brudder" and "kyute" when Shion says "Onee" they just translate it as her name instead of something more sensible like "sis".

 

[Gensou Hadou]

"Big Brudder"

Thanks for reminding me of that. Now I have to post this image and make Homestar Runner cry:

He wants to be a quarterback!

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Had a dream about Sotsu I just wanted to share because it's confusing but amusing to me, and while I know it'll never turn out like this, I kinda wish it'll go this route.

So supposedly the next episode is going to go as expected with showing the answer of what went on that'll lead to Rika being found drowned in the port-a-potty, and Satoko and Mion's confrontation, and it was all going as boringly planned, literally nothing interesting happening. Dr. Irie and Chie were talking for some reason, though, who really cares, and Keiichi and the other students were just kinda there doing their own thing, maybe listening in behind a row of garbage cans, when suddenly pop! Chie's head explodes for no reason. Everyone's going "Oh my Gawwwwwd what happeeeeened???" including the audience.

And while looking at the scene in horror, Satoko approaches Rika from behind and starts fisting her repeatedly against the garbage can. And I mean fisting her, she's shoving her fist into her ass repeatedly while gloating about shit, and no character notices what's going on even with the rattling garbage cans, and Rika is all like "Who's there, what're you doing? Why is this happening?" And all the viewers start going "Wtf is going on?" and even I was like "Holy shit this is so fucking bad but it was amazingly awful" and are freaking out over where the show's going to go from there. People start giving ironic 10/10s because they know it's shit, but it's some good entertainment, especially over the music even though it's literally just reusing music from the 2006 anime, but whatever.

Somehow even in my dream, everyone (the staff included) forgot the "Time-Deceiving" arc needed an answer arc, so the preview said it was to be the "Cat-Deceiving" answer arc, and the next week rolls around or something like that, I dunno. But it involved spirits from the moon needing placated, and all the monks were needing to come together for it, but Hinamizawa's staff (which is the one Featherine has, don't know the name of it) is dark, and oooooh that's spooky guys. And Hanyuu makes an appearance, but she has a dark side, suggesting a split personality like with Rika and Bernkastel, revealed in a puddle reflection. The angle was so bad I included it in my "Lol terrible Passione art" screenshots.

R&R my fanfic.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

Had a dream about Sotsu I just wanted to share because it's confusing but amusing to me, and while I know it'll never turn out like this, I kinda wish it'll go this route.

So supposedly the next episode is going to go as expected with showing the answer of what went on that'll lead to Rika being found drowned in the port-a-potty, and Satoko and Mion's confrontation, and it was all going as boringly planned, literally nothing interesting happening. Dr. Irie and Chie were talking for some reason, though, who really cares, and Keiichi and the other students were just kinda there doing their own thing, maybe listening in behind a row of garbage cans, when suddenly pop! Chie's head explodes for no reason. Everyone's going "Oh my Gawwwwwd what happeeeeened???" including the audience.

And while looking at the scene in horror, Satoko approaches Rika from behind and starts fisting her repeatedly against the garbage can. And I mean fisting her, she's shoving her fist into her ass repeatedly while gloating about shit, and no character notices what's going on even with the rattling garbage cans, and Rika is all like "Who's there, what're you doing? Why is this happening?" And all the viewers start going "Wtf is going on?" and even I was like "Holy shit this is so fucking bad but it was amazingly awful" and are freaking out over where the show's going to go from there. People start giving ironic 10/10s because they know it's shit, but it's some good entertainment, especially over the music even though it's literally just reusing music from the 2006 anime, but whatever.

Somehow even in my dream, everyone (the staff included) forgot the "Time-Deceiving" arc needed an answer arc, so the preview said it was to be the "Cat-Deceiving" answer arc, and the next week rolls around or something like that, I dunno. But it involved spirits from the moon needing placated, and all the monks were needing to come together for it, but Hinamizawa's staff (which is the one Featherine has, don't know the name of it) is dark, and oooooh that's spooky guys. And Hanyuu makes an appearance, but she has a dark side, suggesting a split personality like with Rika and Bernkastel, revealed in a puddle reflection. The angle was so bad I included it in my "Lol terrible Passione art" screenshots.

R&R my fanfic.

And I unironically believe this would be better than whatever shit Ryukishi has planned.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Came across this channel run by a pair of sisters who make English covers. The OP and EDs of Gou are good, like I've said before, and while I've known of the translations, hearing them in English really brings out the tragedy of missed opportunities due to shitty execution because they fit as themes, but the show itself doesn't reflect that.

 

[Lambda 11]

This is explains why everything is so fucked in the first 30 seconds before they say a word.

Also finally saw the legend himself, Ryukishi 27, looking like the average redditor. Fedora and All.

 

[Gensou Hadou]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3ORMatENfAE
This is so Pozzed. It explains why everything is so fucked in the first 30 seconds before they say a word.

Also finally saw the legend himself, Ryukishi 27

> Funimation
> pozzed

In other news, water is wet.

Naturally, the fanboys will take anything:

 

[Kari Kamiya]

This episode made me so mad I forgot to save my document where I was jotting down my thoughts and it ended up crashing. My bad, but pretty fitting.

Mion, you can't be this stupid.

Literally could've just kept it as Shion instead of having Mion channel Shion.

Y'know, this could've been an interesting theory to bring up, but thanks to the story being complete, it's just bullshit and everyone who knows their Higurashi lore knows this. If it was always meant to be that the Kimiyoshi family could've held a grudge against the Sonozaki or even the Furude family, this would've been brought up in some form or another with him, or with Natsumi Kimiyoshi in "Demon-Exposing". Missed opportunity, and it just took Ryukishi just now to introduce? Yeah right.

Then don't, you silly Mion. He's telling you what he knows, but you won't listen because reasons. C'mon, Mion, you're more level-headed than this.

LMAO they still had to censor it even for Ani-One Asia! Holy shit, I can't even! How was it the uncensored version of Satoko disemboweling Rika was okay, but this isn't? Hell, even THIS is okay to show, but not the act itself?

lolwut

I know Mion was trained in martial arts and can handle guns, but there's no way she has the arm-strength to hold Rika up like that.

How did Keiichi not realize the outhouse had a lock on it when he tried to open it? We didn't see Mion get a key because reasons unless, as class president, she always has it on-hand, but she had grabbed it to lock the body inside it.

kek

This is totally the face you make when your main motivation for killing the Three Great Families is to save your best friend.

Now I noticed something interesting during this scene and really is my kick in the pants to just fucking learn Japanese so that hopefully one day I can stop relying on subs due to how many different ways it can be literally translated. Here, this is from this week's episode on Ani-One Asia's channel:

This is what Gou episode 8's subs on the same channel read:

This is the fan-fixed version of Funimation's subs.

This is what the official dub says (in which Mion's dub voice doesn't fit, but maybe I'm just too used to Meghan Hollingshed's take): "They've sent someone after me. It's possible they caught on."

The line is the exact same in both seasons, so the fact we have multiple takes on the same line means this actually fucked with us gaijin in wondering what Mion was talking about in Gou before the reveal Satoko was found dead in the corridor. I wish I knew a Japanese viewer for their take on this, if this was always known with them or not.

LMAO how was Satoko faster than Mion in getting her gun to shoot her when she had her arms full? Good thing there was a convenient cutaway to the rooftop to avoid showing her lightning-fast magic skills or something.

But now here's where I have to question the police's competency, because apparently they don't know who shot who, which is why they don't know if Mion had a murder-suicide as the main suspect or not. What, did the blood dry/disappear too quickly before the police got there to investigate?

They were "clever" enough to hide Mion's right arm under her because her fingers were shot clean off, but how the hell did they not realize the bloodied gun and severed finger right there by the porch? Satoko didn't kick it nearly far enough to try to hide it.

I think I remember someone pointing out the gun looked different, but it was buried so quickly and was forgotten immediately that if someone correctly guessed Satoko did it, they weren't taken so seriously. But the fact that apparently it was joked so early that Satoko was the bad guy all along only to be proven right goes to show just how much Ryukishi doesn't trust his audience to come to their own conclusions at the end of the day. Isn't the whole point of a mystery is for the audience to piece things together with the characters? If you're giving it away so easily and so obviously so soon, you clearly don't trust your audience to be smart enough to think for themselves.

Also lol all that blood. That's why everything's soaked in red light, they're trying to make the blood look "pretty". All the more proof this is meant to satiate the gore-fetishists. The more blood they can splatter, the more they'll clap and consoom.

Whatever ending thoughts I had disappeared into the void with my notes, honestly don't know what to say about all this retarded nonsense. Next week will probably do more recycled footage just because even though it would fare better to have completely new scenes or to focus on a completely different point-of-view. It's just tiresome.

 

[HexFag]

I think I remember someone pointing out the gun looked different, but it was buried so quickly and was forgotten immediately that if someone correctly guessed Satoko did it, they weren't taken so seriously. But the fact that apparently it was joked so early that Satoko was the bad guy all along only to be proven right goes to show just how much Ryukishi doesn't trust his audience to come to their own conclusions at the end of the day. Isn't the whole point of a mystery is for the audience to piece things together with the characters? If you're giving it away so easily and so obviously so soon, you clearly don't trust your audience to be smart enough to think for themselves.

I believe it was this episode where I and many other people started to believe Satoko was up to some shit. It was a joke theory of course (because why the fuck would anyone think that she would be behind it), but it was pretty obvious from this scene as well as some others from Gou's version of this arc.

I find it extremely commendable that you are able to still pick through all of the shit in this show though. After the end of Oniakashi, I kind of checked out and resigned that Sotsu will just be the first half of Gou again where I have to wait 3 weeks just for the last five minutes of the arc to be something that isnt reused Gou footage and the only interesting (or I guess I should say different) part of Sotsu will be the ass end when some magic battle shit happens or some shit.

Now, Watakashi seems like something that (hopefully) won't just be reused Gou footage. There is a lot of unanswered questions and since it's Satoko's arc, I just hope that most if not all of it is Satoko's POV. Odds are, it'll probably just be the same as the last two arcs. It's all so tiring.

Also I don't think nip toilets are that big but I dont know.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

And Mion is just "what if Shion's insanity over Satoshi" but over Keiichi instead. Fucking lame. And of course a loli being disemboweled is okay to show in all its glory but one little fingernail or stab wound isn't. Christ who's in charge of these censors?

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I find it extremely commendable that you are able to still pick through all of the shit in this show though.

Autism is one hell of a drug, but also Higurashi is one of my favorite series. I rewatch the anime every year and will read things up on the fan wiki (one of the better-looking fan wikis if you ask me) from time to time for quick reminders, I've read the manga a few times, and I'm still in the middle of playing the sound novel. I haven't gone through Gou in a rewatch like I thought I would but that's because it has been so stupidly simple and it's being memed practically half to death. There's been no little details that have gone under the radar where a rewatch would reveal them to be there, nothing that hasn't already been spelled out to the viewer. It's frustrating how it doesn't call for an actual rewatch bonus because everyone could see it coming.

Also episode 16's disgusting nature I don't think can ever be fully desensitized at this point due to how in your face it is while being drawn out for like half of the episode. At least with the fingernail sequence, it's brief and had enough cutaways where you didn't focus on the physical aspect of it, it was instead the psychological trauma Shion was going through (which is what actually makes it hard to watch). Gou couldn't even do that because they needed to shock the audience by grossing them out, in which yeah, Higurashi does have visceral horror, but it had an actual purpose. Rika torture porn sounds like a purpose, but it makes you look like a degenerate freak who gets off to little girls being gutted. I thought you were a social worker advocating for the protection of abused children, Ryukishi? Did you get off to abused children when you were working, Ryukishi?

Also I don't think nip toilets are that big but I dont know.

A child could fall in if they weren't careful, but Rika's body had gotten stuck because her head was just a bit too big, so Mion had to stomp her down into the pit.

Also I just noticed this and wanna see if anyone else can figure this out. Ignoring that I already told you, could you actually figure out which hand this was, right or left?

Fucking lol why is the pinky finger the same length and width as the thumb?

 

[Atatata]

I thought you were a social worker advocating for the protection of abused children, Ryukishi? Did you get off to abused children when you were working, Ryukishi?

I feel like its somehow trying to get with some sort of trend found in other series that have aired since the original but failing because Higurashi never needed it, it feels so out of place.
It's almost a sort of "hello fellow kids," feeling.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Btw I'm spreading the cropped picture of Mion's butchered hand around on Discord asking to see if anyone could identify it as left or right (also asked my brothers), and it's honestly super amusing. The animators fucked up hard if no one can figure it out, though in all honesty, the light-source might be throwing them off. Still, though, regardless of a light-source, you should be able to look at someone's hand and figure it out.

 

[HexFag]

Autism is one hell of a drug, but also Higurashi is one of my favorite series. I rewatch the anime every year and will read things up on the fan wiki (one of the better-looking fan wikis if you ask me) from time to time for quick reminders, I've read the manga a few times, and I'm still in the middle of playing the sound novel. I haven't gone through Gou in a rewatch like I thought I would but that's because it has been so stupidly simple and it's being memed practically half to death. There's been no little details that have gone under the radar where a rewatch would reveal them to be there, nothing that hasn't already been spelled out to the viewer. It's frustrating how it doesn't call for an actual rewatch bonus because everyone could see it coming.

Yeah, I think the only reason why I didn't drop Sotsu/Gou a whole lot earlier is because I still really like the When They Cry series as well as most of the things Ryukishi07 has put out. Higurashi and Umineko are fantastic stories and some of my favorite in the medium as a whole and Ciconia (god whenever that will continue) is really promising so far. I just find Sotsu/Gou's existence and reason for being to be extremely perplexing. It almost seems like it's deliberately trying to be everything people who know nothing about Higurashi describe the series as with all the crazy killer yanderes and crazy laughing anime girls and crazy, comical amounts of blood and gore without any purpose and reason other than to shock the audience. It feels juvenile when these scenes happen for no emotional reason other than the fact that Higurashi is a horror show. Maybe I'm just on some military-grade copium at the fact that Ryukishi07 is a hack that fucked up bad.

I can't imagine being masochistic enough to want to rewatch Gou, especially since Sotsu is already doing that for you. The first half of Gou is boring as all sin and very predictable to boot while the second half tries as hard as possible to ruin Satoko's character. The second half would probably be a decent time if you got a group of people together to shit on/laugh at it, but I feel like your time would just be better spent doing anything else.

Also, that is one fucked up hand. It's almost impossible to discern which hand it is from that image.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Yeah, I think the only reason why I didn't drop Sotsu/Gou a whole lot earlier is because I still really like the When They Cry series as well as most of the things Ryukishi07 has put out.

I'm a completionist who was real excited about more Higurashi, but now the only pleasure I get from it is ripping it to shreds when it shouldn't be this easy to do. What made the original Higurashi so much fun was the speculations I would come up with with each new arc trying to piece together the mystery. I would reply back in threads as a newcomer while the fans who had already seen it were silently giggling to themselves over how close or how far I was from the truth.

But it was fun.

I'm not having fun. I only poke holes in something when it's boring or bad to keep myself entertained, but it's not a positive kind of fun. I think I'm only more frustrated with it because hardly anyone outside of this thread is willing to admit this is shit.

I can't imagine being masochistic enough to want to rewatch Gou, especially since Sotsu is already doing that for you.

Thank Oyashiro I didn't go through with it, then, it would've made me more pissed off.

Also, that is one fucked up hand. It's almost impossible to discern which hand it is from that image.

The only people who correctly guessed it were my boyfriend and a close friend, but that's because BF took a shot in the dark and my friend kinda did as well, but focused on the direction of the sleeve. Another friend couldn't believe it was actually someone's hand because "pinkies cannot bend that way". They were all shocked by how badly the animators fucked it up.