Watch us get another extension or the final two episodes where we see Satokowashi, but from Rika’s POV and it was all Satoko just being crazy again, seeing as that arc started out with her being cured from HS, I wouldn’t put it past them to waste more time and do something like that. All of Satoko’s issues were delusions! Oh, my! As if that matters at this point.
Oh, we're definitely getting Satokowashi flashbacks, or at least more post '83 stuff involving St. Lucia.
The promotional material and OP have been heavily leaning on that stuff, and it even went as far as to show outfits for the rest of the club that we've never seen before, but none of it came up in Sotsu before, so it's inevitable that they'll try to cover that now, since there aren't any other opportunities for it any more.
Plus, the last episode had Hanyuu go on about how Satoko is supposed to be Rika's best friend who would support Rika in all her endeavours, while clearly believing that Eua is the one who put Satoko up to all this, so she's in just the right position to be lectured by Eua on what really happened after she fucked off to the Sea of Fragments, and what all of Satoko's faith in Rika led her to. I really doubt we'll get a scenario where Rika was entirely blameless and Satoko did everything wrong at this point.
I can't say I agree. A prospective Passione Higurashi would be a more accurate adaption than DEEN, but if Gou/Sotsu are anything to go by then I have absolutely no faith in them actually being able to execute it well.
I don't doubt for a minute that it wouldn't be a perfect adaptation, and that it'd still involve a large amount of questionable direction, especially where it comes to the gore, but I feel strongly that the only reason it got
this bad was because Ryukishi just handed them a basic script and let them do whatever they wanted with it. If they were to adapt an existing complete product, that people are already familiar with, there wouldn't be nearly as much room to modify the script.
Plus, DEEN really was just
that bad. Onikakushi was a really solid adaptation, but Watanagashi and Tatarigoroshi were absolute shitshows.
Hell, the very first scene of Watanagashi involves them putting Rika's
Meakashi death just to put in another edgy opening, despite the many issues that causes. Then they fuck up the doll scene by making it only one game rewarding one prize, so Mion ends up looking really petty when Keiichi gives it to the girl who loves cute shit instead of Mion. The whole deal was that Mion was always the obvious recipient but Keiichi being uncomfortable giving it to Mion was a huge fuckup on his part, and just ended up hurting Mion's feelings. Then they fuck up the twin switches by taking the scene where Mion as Shion leads the villagers to protect Keiichi against the delinquents, and gives it to Shion because they put two scene together. As much shit as I'm willing to give Passione, at least they had the good sense not to fuck those up.
Tatarigoroshi is by all accounts even worse, given all the things they chose to cut out. The lunch competition was pretty important to establish Satoko's guilt, and they also cut out the scene where it was clear that Mion already knew about Teppei from the beginning, as well as the scene where Keiichi makes Mion cry, which was important to Mion's characterization (Mion already got a rough hand in the VN, but she was really fucking garbage in DEEN), even Shion got it worse, since the scene where Keiichi tries to call Mion but ends up reaching Shion, who has a breakdown due to how similar the conversation is to the one she had with Satoshi a year ago, was notably altered, even though it was important to set up her role in Meakashi, especially with how she realizes that she completely ignored Satoshi's last request about taking care of Satoko. There's not any real hints that it wasn't Mion there, which messes up the whole conversation.
And of course, the biggest fuckup of all is the GHD, even though it is one of the most important parts to the overall mystery. It's just a footnote in the anime, somehow, without any of the obvious hints towards the whole government conspiracy.
DEEN's Higurashi is just such a mess of an adaptation that I genuinely cannot recommend it to anyone. I have some issues with the manga, too, but at least that manages to cover all the most important parts and gets the characters right, in spite of its own bizarre decisions such as cutting out the part involving Satoko's abuse at the hands of her earlier stepfathers and how she cannot properly distinguish between their actions and that of her current stepfather, even though it hugely reframes Satoko's backstory.
