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

[Gensou Hadou]

Okay, maybe I'm a little annoyed at the internet.

Imagine you've spent the past few years in an abusive relationship.

You watch Higurashi and realize that you kind of relate to Rika. While you haven't been in a 100-year time loop that always ends in your death, you understand spending years in a hellish situation that you haven't been able to avoid or escape no matter how hard you tried. You also relate to Satoko, an actual abuse victim who, after a few cycles of misery, is saved from her abuser by her friends. You remember the stories of Rika Furude and Satoko Hojo as you bide your time. Eventually, you garner enough support, find the right moment to strike, and finally get out of your abusive relationship.

Then, by forces outside your control, you are pulled back into this abusive relationship. Coincidentally, Higurashi Gou starts airing later this year! Will you find that light again? When you watch it, turns out it hits even closer to home. You understand how weary and broken-down Rika feels, because when you face the abuse you thought you were free from, you feel pretty similar.

You see Rika Furude give up. You see her realize that she deserves her fate, and seriously consider if you, too, deserve yours. Then, in the next episode, you see her out her new abuser... Her former best friend, Satoko. You know the cycle of abuse is real, but you also feel betrayed. When did she stop caring about the friends who saved her from her abuser? Would you do the same thing if your best friend left you in search of a better life? Are your abandonment issues as bad as Satoko's? You ponder these questions as you wait weeks for a solution, for inspiration to help you get through your new rut, only for Ryukishi to instead waste your time and give you answers you already knew.

On top of that, Sotsu airs. Teppei, Satoko's abuser, is convinced to stop abusing her just by having some nightmares. When has your abuser ever regretted mistreating you? Satoko has Teppei wrapped around her finger. You could have sworn you tried getting on your abuser's good side before-- it's never worked for you, so why is it working for Satoko?

Finally, it turns out that, out of nowhere, Satoko never wanted to do any of this. That is to say, those outside forces didn't mean to put you back together with your abuser! They, too, were influenced by outside forces! There's nobody to blame for your situation except... Well, we won't be back at the classroom gun scene for another three months, so you have no idea who's to blame.

You wonder if you even want to know the answer at this point. You think you have a pretty good idea of what it is: What you thought was a well-deserved brighter future turned out to be nothing more than a moment of fleeting happiness, and you have no choice but to stay in this abusive relationship.

How many puzzle pieces can I get? How much more can Ryukishi fuck this up?

 

[Kari Kamiya]

You wonder if you even want to know the answer at this point. You think you have a pretty good idea of what it is: What you thought was a well-deserved brighter future turned out to be nothing more than a moment of fleeting happiness, and you have no choice but to stay in this abusive relationship.

Clearly the only way out is to ram your abuser through the heart with a shattered piece of the Onigari no Ryūō you should've been holding on to this whole time.

But that'll still be a Bad End.

 

[Gensou Hadou]

Clearly the only way out is to ram your abuser through the heart with a shattered piece of the Onigari no Ryūō you should've been holding on to this whole time.

But that'll still be a Bad End.

Then you'll spend the rest of your life in jail, which is basically the same thing as your relationship except the floors are cement rather than carpet.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

What if we were all puppets for watching this play out and Ryukishi07 was using us on the world stage?

 

[R.E.O. Spedwagon]

Rika still cast out Bernkastel into the darkness or wherever she came from, so the separation happened anyway, but they no longer mingled.

That one line in Saikoroshi always felt weird to me. To my knowledge, that was the only time Rika ever referred to the witch as a separate entity, when in all prior instances, especially during Saikoroshi, she referred to herself as the witch. Of course, we as the audience are aware of the existence of the entity usually known as "Frederica", but Rika has never had any knowledge of her, and she only learnt of the Sea of Fragments during Saikoroshi, when Hanyuu explained it to her.
Though even if we assume that the witch Rika would've separated from would be the Frederica we first met during Minagoroshi, we'd still run into the issue that her character doesn't actually tie into Umineko's Bernkastel at all. Frederica is kind-of Rika, but also different, and she doesn't at all show despair at Rika being trapped in loops, while that is a fundamental aspect of Bernkastel's character. If anything she's just an outside observer who enjoys watching Rika's struggle, and later on manipulating fragments directly to see what would happen.
The only way to really tie Saikoroshi into Umineko is if Rika somehow created an entirely new kind of entity, who considers herself to be a former human whose history includes all of Rika's struggles and history, but has absolutely to do with any of the entities that were brought up in Higurashi before. The whole thing sounds ridiculous to me.
Frankly, I don't believe that Ryukishi ever planned any of this out as much as he likes to pretend he did, and instead he just retroactively decides that two vaguely similar things, even though they don't actually fit together when looking at it with any scrutiny, are linked together so he can continue to pretend he's writing some grand interconnected universe like a huge faggot.

if Ryukishi wasn't trying so damn hard to retcon Satoko into Lambdadelta

Nah, that's been going for over a decade now, with how late Umineko had Lambdadelta become associated with traps and reference the pie puzzle from Onikakushi, and even her initial design and character can be said to incorporate elements from Satoko as much as it did from Takano, what with the fangs and the "ohoho" laugh. Even her dynamic with Bernkastel could be argued to more strongly resemble Satoko and Rika's relationship than anything involving Takano, since Takano never actually cared about Rika beyond her being her primary research specimen, and later on as a tool to facilitate the Hinamiza genocide. She certainly didn't have any interest in keeping Rika trapped or whatever. Even in Matsuribayashi, Takano's conflict and rivalry was more with Hanyuu than anyone else.

while also spitting on the beaten corpse of a beautiful friendship

I'd argue that there's enough room in the original to say that maybe Rika's feelings towards Satoko weren't always all that proper, such as how she's oddly excited during '82's Watanagashi festival towards Satoko, even though Satoko is only a couple days away from the worst day of her life. Since Rika is the only person who only sees benefits from Satoshi's disappearance, as it means that Satoko is going to move in with her which benefits her own mental state, it's not impossible to believe that Rika giving up on saving Satoshi so easily under the guise of it being impossible to prevent is at least partially motivated by the fact that doing nothing and just letting it happen gives her exactly what she wants most outside of escaping her hell.
Even Saikoroshi sort-of alludes to this with Rika thinking that the reason she grew so close to Satoko was because of Satoshi's disappearance.
Of course, having questionable aspects to their relationship shouldn't be a deal-breaker, since we can assume those flaws would be addressed by Rika's development in Minagoroshi, y'know, other than the fact that Minagoroshi is the one world Rika completely forgot, in what has to be the single worst writing decision in all of Higurashi, and one that pisses me off to this very day.
I'm utterly convinced that Rika forgot her character development just because Ryukishi wanted to make Hanyuu the big heroine of the final chapter and save everyone, while lecturing Rika on her flaws, even though this shits on Rika and requires Hanyuu's character to be rewritten entirely, as it doesn't fit at all with the Hanyuu we saw during Minagoroshi. Hanyuu's new role doesn't even last, since even though Matsuribayashi makes it clear that Hanyuu is allowed to keep living on as a human, Saikoroshi put her back as a spirit again, while setting up her backstory and giving her shit for making herself into a martyr.
Ryukishi has always been like this, rewriting his story on a whim to fit his new plot, which is why he can rewrite Teppei, who was absolutely the vilest character of the original, into a caring family man all of a sudden, without missing a beat, or set up Satoko as an entirely remorseless killer, while making Rika even more retarded than she was ever in the original.
I suppose that at least Satoko's case could've been believable, as all her actions up until early Matsuri-2 are entirely in line with how you'd expect Satoko to act, and the large change in her behaviour could work given that the timespan involved is large enough for it to be believable, since it takes almost a decade before the chandelier scene, and then a century of watching Rika get wasted and talk to a dumb goat, but since the show just completely glossed over it, it just doesn't work. The execution just fucking sucks and to us as the audience, it seems like a completely sudden change.

 

[Return of the Freaker]

other than the fact that Minagoroshi is the one world Rika completely forgot

Huh? I thought she remembered Takano was her killer and all that was missing was Hanyuu being able to physically help and Akasaka returning

Hanyuu's new role doesn't even last, since even though Matsuribayashi makes it clear that Hanyuu is allowed to keep living on as a human, Saikoroshi put her back as a spirit again, while setting up her backstory and giving her shit for making herself into a martyr.

This always grinded my gears. Matsuribayashi made it clear Hanyuu is part of the world now and gets a new shot at life after her terrible life in ancient Japan. The manga does kind of a fake out in Kokoroiyashi-hen with "will-she-or-won't-she fade out", but the final bit with Rika going to visit Akasaka in 1984 makes it seem like she ultimately stays as a person.

I remember watching Rei back in high school and being utterly baffled why Hanyuu was a spirit again in Saikoroshi. Iirc, Saikoroshi wasn't post-Matsuribayashi in the VN so that wouldn't be a problem. But other than Yumeutsushi-hen in Kira, every single piece of media post-Matsuribayashi has Hanyuu go back to being a spirit. It makes no fucking sense.

Spoiler: What should've been

 

[R.E.O. Spedwagon]

Huh? I thought she remembered Takano was her killer and all that was missing was Hanyuu being able to physically help and Akasaka returning

Nope, she doesn't remember anything whatsoever. Hanyuu had to fill her in on everything.
It's even quickly covered in Gou's episode 22's when looking at Rika's Matsuri fragment where she is shown to be shocked at the notion that Takano and the Yamainu are responsible for her death.

Iirc, Saikoroshi wasn't post-Matsuribayashi in the VN so that wouldn't be a problem.

Nah, Saikoroshi always opens in July, since it's supposed to be about Rika being free of the original loops until she supposedly stupided herself to death and ended up in the Saikoroshi world.
Really, Hanyuu gaining a physical form seems like one of those things Ryukishi wrote that he regretted immediately, so in all subsequent materials he sent her back where she belongs. It feels kinda like how Satoshi's fate was left ambiguous but mostly hopeful in Matsuri but despite Saikoroshi's ending happening more than a month after Matsuri ended, he still showed no meaningful signs of recovery. And of course you get stuff like one of the Daybreak endings having Satoko talk about how her greatest wish is just to be with Rika forever, which implies that in retrospect, Ryukishi wanted to put more focus on the Satoko/Rika dynamic than he wanted to do anything with Satoshi.
As an aside, one of the discarded concepts for Higurashi would've had Irie as the mastermind, and Satoshi would've been reduced to a preserved brain in a jar so that Irie could smash it in front of Satoko, though BT ultimately ended up dissuading Ryukishi from going through with that. From that we can safely conclude that when Satoshi was created, there was never any intention for him to actually recover at any point.

 

[Return of the Freaker]

As an aside, one of the discarded concepts for Higurashi would've had Irie as the mastermind, and Satoshi would've been reduced to a preserved brain in a jar so that Irie could smash it in front of Satoko, though BT ultimately ended up dissuading Ryukishi from going through with that. From that we can safely conclude that when Satoshi was created, there was never any intention for him to actually recover at any point.

Was BT the guy who died in the middle of Umineko's production? This is starting to remind me of Mike and Brian getting all the credit for Avatar, yet when Aaron Ehasz was no longer around during Legend of Korra and it was just them, it went to shit. BT clearly had more sense. They should've had Rika fully remember shit. Maybe have her trying to plan shit with Hanyuu in the fragment world. And making Hanyuu a spirit again is one of the dumbest decisions pre-Gou

 

[R.E.O. Spedwagon]

Was BT the guy who died in the middle of Umineko's production?

Yeah, that's the guy.
It's unknown how much influence he really had on Ryukishi's storytelling prior to his passing, but it's obvious that Ryukishi cared a lot of him and as such it's frequently assumed that he served as Ryukishi's tard wrangler and kept him from indulging in his worse excesses, with various degrees of success.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

If anything she's just an outside observer who enjoys watching Rika's struggle, and later on manipulating fragments directly to see what would happen.

That's probably who the adult Rika at the bonus end of Matsuribayashi sending Miyoko on her way may be, then. But whether that happened as a result of the separation in Saikoroshi or not, we don't have an answer to that.

Frankly, I don't believe that Ryukishi ever planned any of this out as much as he likes to pretend he did, and instead he just retroactively decides that two vaguely similar things, even though they don't actually fit together when looking at it with any scrutiny, are linked together so he can continue to pretend he's writing some grand interconnected universe like a huge faggot.

Pretty much my thoughts exactly.

I'd argue that there's enough room in the original to say that maybe Rika's feelings towards Satoko weren't always all that proper, such as how she's oddly excited during '82's Watanagashi festival towards Satoko, even though Satoko is only a couple days away from the worst day of her life. Since Rika is the only person who only sees benefits from Satoshi's disappearance, as it means that Satoko is going to move in with her which benefits her own mental state, it's not impossible to believe that Rika giving up on saving Satoshi so easily under the guise of it being impossible to prevent is at least partially motivated by the fact that doing nothing and just letting it happen gives her exactly what she wants most outside of escaping her hell.
Even Saikoroshi sort-of alludes to this with Rika thinking that the reason she grew so close to Satoko was because of Satoshi's disappearance.

Thought the odd excitement was just her way of trying to cheer Satoko up that night?

But yeah, it's a real good possibility. There might've been a way to save Satoshi, but I think Rika has mentioned there were multiple times she had tried to break the cycle not just for her death but for others, and it always failed (Akasaka's wife's death was apparently the only one that could be prevented, but someone else would still get hurt in her place). So apparently Satoshi's disappearance was just fated to be or things actually got worse with interference, and in a way, Satoko having to learn to grow independent from her brother was seen as a good thing long-term (though Satoko was still always going to look forward to seeing him again, if just to show him how big she got). Rika grew to really care for her, which is why she's the saddest whenever Teppei enters the picture, and why it was Minagoroshi was such a great hope spot for her.

Of course, having questionable aspects to their relationship shouldn't be a deal-breaker, since we can assume those flaws would be addressed by Rika's development in Minagoroshi, y'know, other than the fact that Minagoroshi is the one world Rika completely forgot, in what has to be the single worst writing decision in all of Higurashi, and one that pisses me off to this very day.

Oh yeah, that was definitely such a cop-out because that was the whole reason why Rika didn't let Takano drug her so she could carve her face into her soul, practically. Probably was Ryukishi going "No, actually, Hanyuu was only useless because Rika couldn't remember this one crucial piece of information due to being drugged all the time! Rika's the reincarnation of Hanyuu, ergo they are one and the same! Tee hee~"

In which case, why wouldn't Rika, in Gou, know to keep an eye on every little thing that was going on? She was so focused on Keiichi that she didn't realize Rena had the potential to go nuts herself at the same time because her dad was seeing some hooker. Which was established in Matsuri with Tsukiotoshi.

(Fuck, why didn't we just get animated adaptations of the Matsuri arcs?)

I'm utterly convinced that Rika forgot her character development just because Ryukishi wanted to make Hanyuu the big heroine of the final chapter and save everyone, while lecturing Rika on her flaws, even though this shits on Rika and requires Hanyuu's character to be rewritten entirely, as it doesn't fit at all with the Hanyuu we saw during Minagoroshi. Hanyuu's new role doesn't even last, since even though Matsuribayashi makes it clear that Hanyuu is allowed to keep living on as a human, Saikoroshi put her back as a spirit again, while setting up her backstory and giving her shit for making herself into a martyr.

I think that was why Miotsukushi was created to give Ryukishi an out/excuse/potential explanation for why Hanyuu is no longer a human presence in Saikoroshi. Given most fans seem to prefer that ending to Matsuribayashi, it probably worked.

 

[Trombonista]

Satoko does the yandere pose and practically dry humps Rika in the latest chapter of the Gou manga. It's gross.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Satoko does the yandere pose and practically dry humps Rika in the latest chapter of the Gou manga. It's gross.

The fact the manga did that scene much better goes to further prove the anime is disgusting in its execution and pandering to the guro crowd. Fuck Kawaguchi and his shitty direction, and fuck Ryukishi for approving of it.

 

[Gensou Hadou]

The fact the manga did that scene much better goes to further prove the anime is disgusting in its execution and pandering to the guro crowd. Fuck Kawaguchi and his shitty direction, and fuck Ryukishi for approving of it.

I know I said this before, but I feel bad for the animators who had to draw that disgusting execution and guro-pandering on top of corona pandemic and lockdown stress.

Wasn't the Sonozaki nail-pulling scene done more tactfully? I could see myself growing apathetic to the Satoko-Rika rake scene for being too over-the-top after a while, but I felt uncomfortable during the entire nail scene. Higurashi has gore, but I don't think it ever had excess gore... until recently, that is.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Wasn't the Sonozaki nail-pulling scene done more tactfully? I could see myself growing apathetic to the Satoko-Rika rake scene for being too over-the-top after a while, but I felt uncomfortable during the entire nail scene. Higurashi has gore, but I don't think it ever had excess gore... until recently, that is.

Shion's distinction scene didn't overstay its welcome, that's for sure. It only lasted 100 seconds despite feeling longer, but the tension worked due to the music, excellent cinematography (you never saw the nails being clipped directly, just the aftermath), and stellar voicework. It was all about the psychological trauma, which includes phantom pains among the audience, hence leading to the sympathy/empathy the viewers would have toward Shion for what she had to go through (helped that even Mion tried to comfort her). Rika's gutting lasted, what, ten minutes or so? It took up like literally half of the episode and did nothing but gross people out who weren't already turned on over loli disembowelment, and it chose to be in your face because reasons. Rika had no one else there to comfort her, and whenever Satoko did, it was the equivalent of an abuser cradling their kill with a mantra of empty apologies and promises.

Also had no legit reasoning for existing, or why it is Satoko had to "perform" the Watanagashi directly on Rika. Least with the nail-ripping scene, it's an actual torture device the Sonozakis would use and it was meant to be performed in front of witnesses for the sole purpose of showing responsibility for one's actions. It couldn't kill anyone outside of being used as a blunt force object (remember the clattering it made? It's heavy), and at least fingernails can grow back. Intestinal lining can't.

 

[R.E.O. Spedwagon]

Thought the odd excitement was just her way of trying to cheer Satoko up that night?

But yeah, it's a real good possibility. There might've been a way to save Satoshi, but I think Rika has mentioned there were multiple times she had tried to break the cycle not just for her death but for others, and it always failed (Akasaka's wife's death was apparently the only one that could be prevented, but someone else would still get hurt in her place). So apparently Satoshi's disappearance was just fated to be or things actually got worse with interference, and in a way, Satoko having to learn to grow independent from her brother was seen as a good thing long-term (though Satoko was still always going to look forward to seeing him again, if just to show him how big she got). Rika grew to really care for her, which is why she's the saddest whenever Teppei enters the picture, and why it was Minagoroshi was such a great hope spot for her.

Given that Rika knew that Satoko wasn't going to end up in a good mood no matter what that night, given how often she would've gone through it already, pouting while going on about why Satoko isn't smiling is going to look weird no matter what given what we eventually learn about Rika.
Plus, it's hardly the only time Rika views Satoko in a somewhat dubious manner. She way she thinks about Satoko in Minagoroshi and Matsuri sometimes imply that she largely views Satoko as something cute to look at in order to encourage herself to keep going through with her loops.
Saikoroshi also has her just kinda gloss over all the mistreatment Satoko has to endure in her original world while she's talking to Yamamoto, instead only focusing on how Satoko is her "best friend", and when Yamamoto wonders why Satoko has to suffer in Rika's oh-so-wonderful chuuni fantasy world, Rika just brushes it off with "it just goes like that".
When Rena confronts everyone with their "sins" in Tsumihoroboshi, she points out that despite all the influence Rika has with the elderly villagers, Rika seemingly never tried anything to improve the position of the Houjou siblings, and Rika doesn't really disagree.

In which case, why wouldn't Rika, in Gou, know to keep an eye on every little thing that was going on? She was so focused on Keiichi that she didn't realize Rena had the potential to go nuts herself at the same time because her dad was seeing some hooker. Which was established in Matsuri with Tsukiotoshi.

Yeah, the way Rika is handled is ridiculous. She may have been pretty retarded in the original (imagine needing a hundred years to realize that the shady military group are probably the ones killing you every time), but Gou took it to a whole new level.
I personally assume that the issues with Rika in Gou are largely because of the retarded remake/sequel hybrid that was created, so even though Rika is obviously set up as the (supposed) main protagonist, Keiichi is actually the viewpoint character again, in order to facilitate the "mystery" and mirror the original, and as such Rika is barely allowed to influence to plot, even if it just introduces massive plot holes like Rika doing absolutely nothing to save Tomitake until Tataridamashi, despite her absolutely needing Tomitake to be alive to call in the Banken against the Yamainu.
Of course, even outside of the whole Takano situation, Rika's efforts feel half-baked at best, despite her posturing about how she knows the rules now and isn't the useless little meeper she was before. Her efforts in Onidamashi at least made sense, since she could reasonably believe that making Keiichi not doubt Rena could avert that particular tragedy, but in what universe would anyone think that Wata could be solved by just giving Mion the doll. It would do nothing to deal with Shion's issues, or prevent Keiichi from entering the Saiguden, and then Rika just ends up bitching at Keiichi for doing something nobody warned him against.
Tataridamashi is even worse, especially in the anime, since she just doesn't do anything whatsoever, other than follow Keiichi around. At least the manga involved her trying to stop Keiichi from going L5 and making that phone call to Satoko at CWS, which was a step in the right direction.
If Gou was actually about Rika actually trying her hardest to lead the worlds to a good ending, only to find that all her efforts are stymied and she's blindsided by situations she could never expect, this show would've been vastly improved already.
(Tsukiotoshi, while fun in its stupidity, isn't canon in the least, though, and there's not much point in bringing it up.)

I think that was why Miotsukushi was created to give Ryukishi an out/excuse/potential explanation for why Hanyuu is no longer a human presence in Saikoroshi. Given most fans seem to prefer that ending to Matsuribayashi, it probably worked.

Nah, Miotsukushi was just created to encourage people who had already read Higurashi to pick up the console port, rather than any desire to rewrite his ending. Ryukishi didn't write it himself, at any rate.
Though I'm a little surprised to see you speak positively about Miotsukushi when I usually see it being regarded as embarrassing Keiichiwank written by an obvious Mionfag whenever it comes up. The idea of trying to cover everyone's issues in the final story isn't bad, but in practice it makes the goofy parts of Matsuri look grounded by comparison.
There's some surprising parts to it when looking at it through a Gou/Sotsu lens, such as how it tries to associate Satoko and Takano's characters together, and Ryukishi may have cribbed some aspects off of it, but overall Miotsukushi isn't canon in the least (and none of the adaptations cover it, be it anime, manga, drama CDs, or whatever) and doesn't really matter to the franchise.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

but in what universe would anyone think that Wata could be solved by just giving Mion the doll. It would do nothing to deal with Shion's issues, or prevent Keiichi from entering the Saiguden,

I think it would've worked out just fine had Satoko not given Mion the jab, which is still a fucking cop-out any way you slice it. She probably was expecting it to become the Minagoroshi world if he gave her the doll, though he willingly did it in that world while in Watadamashi, she had to suggest it to him (which is actually something Rika can do in the sound novel and it'd still follow the same script regardless).

Though I'm a little surprised to see you speak positively about Miotsukushi when I usually see it being regarded as embarrassing Keiichiwank written by an obvious Mionfag whenever it comes up. The idea of trying to cover everyone's issues in the final story isn't bad, but in practice it makes the goofy parts of Matsuri look grounded by comparison.

It sounds like a mess in execution, but even if Ryukishi wasn't actually involved with it (explains so much, I suppose), the idea of it wasn't bad, and it took a different direction in the end that everyone I've seen talk about it preferred. Like one of the more confusing things about the end of Matsuribayashi was just how in the world Takano missed Hanyuu pointblank, but the anime didn't show it. Think in the sound novel it actually does (I'm not done yet) show Hanyuu had stopped time or something like when she had declared war with Takano at the start of the arc, but I'm just going off of memory, don't really know if that's what actually happened or if it was a BS explanation for why no one got shot. But that's the only other explanation I can think of as to why Hanyuu then vanished by Saikoroshi.

 

[R.E.O. Spedwagon]

I think it would've worked out just fine had Satoko not given Mion the jab, which is still a fucking cop-out any way you slice it. She probably was expecting it to become the Minagoroshi world if he gave her the doll, though he willingly did it in that world while in Watadamashi, she had to suggest it to him (which is actually something Rika can do in the sound novel and it'd still follow the same script regardless).

From what we can see, nothing would've happened without Mion getting vaxxed indeed, but that's only really the case due to plot fiat, since Shion went through her usual Watanagashi motions even though at no point does she appear to be dealing with HS in Wataakashi.
Plus, Rika's knowledge of Minagoroshi is all secondhand, and we don't know how much detail Hanyuu gave when she explained it to Rika, since she seemed to focus more on the whole Takano aspect. And even then, it should've been obvious that the reason Shion didn't go crazy was because she got closer to Satoko, which didn't happen in Wataakashi, so Rika would've had no reason to assume Shion wouldn't cause issues later on.

It sounds like a mess in execution, but even if Ryukishi wasn't actually involved with it (explains so much, I suppose), the idea of it wasn't bad, and it took a different direction in the end that everyone I've seen talk about it preferred. Like one of the more confusing things about the end of Matsuribayashi was just how in the world Takano missed Hanyuu pointblank, but the anime didn't show it. Think in the sound novel it actually does (I'm not done yet) show Hanyuu had stopped time or something like when she had declared war with Takano at the start of the arc, but I'm just going off of memory, don't really know if that's what actually happened or if it was a BS explanation for why no one got shot. But that's the only other explanation I can think of as to why Hanyuu then vanished by Saikoroshi.

Matsuribayashi is not confusing at all, though. Hanyuu's access to ZA WARUDO had been established since Minagoroshi, and isn't really out of place, given that Hanyuu was already established to have time powers. The only surprise in Matsuri was Rika being able to move within the stopped time in order to catch the bullet, which was quite clearly presented as an actual miracle, as a culmination of Higurashi's themes. DEEN being an absolutely shit adaptation that fucks up a lot of things including the bullet isn't an actual problem with Matsuribayashi.
And the time stop being performed by a goddess and her reincarnation is certainly much less ridiculous than Keiichi suddenly being able to dodge bullets in Miotsukushi so he can play the part of a ridiculous shonen protagonist.

 

[Trombonista]

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Matsuribayashi is not confusing at all, though. Hanyuu's access to ZA WARUDO had been established since Minagoroshi, and isn't really out of place, given that Hanyuu was already established to have time powers. The only surprise in Matsuri was Rika being able to move within the stopped time in order to catch the bullet, which was quite clearly presented as an actual miracle, as a culmination of Higurashi's themes.

I knew Hanyuu had some kind of time abilities that were draining over the years, but I completely forgot Rika had moved to catch the bullet when time stopped. But Hanyuu's time powers also seemed like it was nerfed intentionally or something to give the excuse she was indeed a useless god, even though hopping timelines/worlds (or at least creating another timeline via butterfly effect) I felt was a clever way to get around the "lol whoops everyone's dead, clean slate for the next arc!" formula visual novels have. Also probably is why it is the anime adaptation works simply because it didn't ever adhere to the problem of "How're we gonna incorporate all the girls' routes into one story?" practically every VN adaptation has.

Well, least until they revealed(? Or was it just unique to Saikoroshi?) that Rika was always overwriting the "Rika" of any particular world.

And the time stop being performed by a goddess and her reincarnation is certainly much less ridiculous than Keiichi suddenly being able to dodge bullets in Miotsukushi so he can play the part of a ridiculous shonen protagonist.

Keiichi was just living the dream. He has his own harem, after all. (But yeah lolwut, least with his and Rena's duel on the school rooftop, it was a rule of cool that worked with the characters' limits.)

 

[Trombonista]

As you can probably tell, I love these character songs.