I only just got around to watching the actual sub just now so I'll post my random thoughts
Straight off the bat
>Oryou getting crucified like Satoko was in the original
>Kimiyoshi getting the fingernail treatment like Shion did
>Satoko coming over with an empty bottle of soy sauce like Rika did
Christ, we're approaching "I clapped I clapped when I saw it" levels of unnecessary callbacks in this
-Mion literally didn't realise her granny was a corpse until she had her up on the cross. She didn't even realise she hurt her at all until she literally crucified her. How inattentive can you get? I'm sure that people who defend this will say that she didn't notice because she's L5 or something, even though she spent the whole next day totally lucid and normal.
-Back when Watadamashi aired people were joking about how Mion was the killer and she killed Rika because Rika gave herself away with that creepy red eye talk she gave to Keiichi. Turns out they were correct. Remember in Sotsugyou the dumbest answer will always be the right one.
-Mion claims that she saw suspicious people in construction uniforms. I went back and confirmed the same line was in Watadamashi. At the end of Watadamashi Keiichi sees people in construction uniforms on the monitor laying siege to the Sonozaki estate. Obviously we're meant to think the Yamainu are involved. However it turns out that it's just the cops who for no reason are disguised as construction crew and were never mentioned before now. So Mion's claim was just a complete coincidence. Is there a phrase for when a red herring becomes a flat out fucking lie?
-Reused animation, reused animation everywhere! This was barely acceptable when Fist of the North Star did it almost forty years ago, are we really supposed to be okay with this in 2021? Especially when it sometimes makes up half an episode?
-Where exactly did Mion hide Rika's body? How did she move it to the lavatory without being seen when the school was out looking for her? Maybe we'll get the answer in the same arc where they'll reveal how Satoko injected Mion in the first place.
-On that note how did she manage to kill Rika without anybody even noticing in the first place? Because she was in the shadows? Jesus Christ.
-Satoko, holding a bottle in both of her hands pulls a gun out of nowhere and shoots Mion before she can react despite the latter already holding a gun to her face. Then with one bullet shoots off three of her fingers with no bullet holes in the floor. As with the injection two episodes ago, Passione cut away because they know there is no way they can actually make this look plausible. They know what they're animating is nonsensical trash and the fans still eat it up.
-The blood pools at the end of this episode don't match up with what we saw at the end of Watadamashi. Like with the supposed Yamainu actually being cops, they had to flat out falsify clues to misdirect their audience.
Already mentioned but I made the effort to go back and check so fuck it I'm posting it again.
I'm having fun tearing this rubbish apart with other anons on /a/ but honestly I'm getting more and more disgusted with what it represents. How a series as immersive, endearing and multi-layered as the original Higurashi can be reduced to 90% repeated content with worse visuals than the low-budget SD-era adaption by DEEN but with no depth, no mystery and unlikable characters and yet people still praise it. How bad does Sotsugyou need to be before viewers put their feet down and demand some actual standards in their anime for once?
