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EP. REVIEW: Higurashi: When They Cry – GOU


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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2857
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 11:04 am Reply with quote
ThatGuyWhoLikesThings wrote:


Umineko does strongly imply a connection between Takano and Lambda, but not that they are the same person.


yeah , the connection between takano and lambda might be the same as the connection between eva and lambda. i an also more comfortable with satoko being lambda instead of takano because of spoiler[how gay bern and lambda are for each other].
so this being the origins of both witches is pretty nice , especially because i was always bothered because this series says that rika has only been looping for 100 years while other materials say one thousand ( or was it 10 thousand ) years.

the only problem i have with that is that this season might not be enough to work this in.
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yeehaw



Joined: 09 Sep 2018
Posts: 418
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 3:31 pm Reply with quote
Ok can someone explain Hanyu to me? All I know from this show is that she's a Horie Yui-voiced little loli miko with horns, and she and Rika were friends? or something?
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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2345
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 3:49 pm Reply with quote
@max yay the spoiler[yuri bait] scenes in umineko seemed really out of place based on it being takano, but we all just assumed it because blond looks kinda similar and they appeared antagonistic... but given what is going in higurashi gou I think we all messed up, or ryukishi is just reconing lambadeltas identity.
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 1032
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 6:59 pm Reply with quote
yeehaw wrote:
Ok can someone explain Hanyu to me? All I know from this show is that she's a Horie Yui-voiced little loli miko with horns, and she and Rika were friends? or something?

Ideally you should just start watching the original series. Watching in-between Gou episodes shouldn’t cause any new problems. Admittedly a bunch of things are already pretty thoroughly spoiled at this point though.
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 1000
PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 9:11 pm Reply with quote
yeehaw wrote:
Ok can someone explain Hanyu to me? All I know from this show is that she's a Horie Yui-voiced little loli miko with horns, and she and Rika were friends? or something?


Long story short, she's spoiler[Oyashiro-sama. The Guardian deity that everyone's always talking about? yeah, Hanyuu is them, and also Rika's very distant ancestor and the reason why Rika was able to loop at all.]

Now, there's a *lot* more going on with her than that, and if you wanna know more, then yeah, you're better off watching the original anime. or more ideally reading the manga or visual novel. But if time is not your friend, the anime is serviceable.
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KitKat1721



Joined: 03 Feb 2015
Posts: 952
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 1:50 pm Reply with quote
There's obviously more important stuff to cover in the episode this week but lol when you go in expecting more Umineko allusions, but get Ciconia (a VN that isn't even fully out yet) name drops instead... I think Ryukishi just likes messing with us. spoiler[There's essentially no point to throwing out those lines about "spinal cords" or "Vier" (aka Takano's Ciconia lookalike), other than the unexpected shoutout (Featherine is Featherine after all when it comes to fiction), so I'm just like... why?] I guess there at least was a previous Ciconia reference with some plushies in the game shop.
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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1192
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:31 pm Reply with quote
Episode 21

spoiler[Not sure about the names/references "Hanyurine" was dropping(Kitkat says above it's from Ciconia, which I have no reference level for)but this was a good episode. I felt shitty about Satoko's attempts to sabotage Rika's dream, but was happy to see her give it another chance, even if we all knew it would be a similar outcome. I would imagine that the episode 2 meeting between Rika and Hanyuu happens directly after this, since Rika didn't see herself die here.

I really liked the small change to the opening, and -loved- the new ending visuals to go with the song. I especially enjoyed the juxtaposition of the circular chandelier with the rotating camera angles; all references to cycles/looping(you even see the watermill wheel in the distance in one part). ]
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db999



Joined: 23 Dec 2017
Posts: 299
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 6:57 pm Reply with quote
I really enjoyed episode 21 spoiler[especially the revelation that Satoko didn’t intentionally start any of this. She just stumbled into the situation and then the same events ended up playing out. I wasn’t a fan of the final scene though, mostly because of how Rika was acting in it. It feels like the show is trying to justify Satoko’s actions at the expense of Rika’s character. I can believe that going through these events twice would make Satoko snap, but I still dislike how they portrayed Rika in that final scene. I don’t mind the whole I didn’t break my promise I reached out to you, but you didn’t accept my help part but it just feels completely out of character that Rika would ever say that Satoko had put herself below her.]

Also, does anyone know how many episodes this will be? I hope it’s going to be 26 episodes because 24 doesn’t seem like enough. It feels like there’s just too much going on to resolve the plot with only 3 more episodes unless they announce a season 2, but I think that would just go into overkill. Despite those complaints, this is the most I’ve been invested since the series started.
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 8:08 pm Reply with quote
I'm tempted to wonder if Rika isn't falling into the bad habits we saw of her AU self, where she never had to deal with time loops. A selfish Rika isn't a huge stretch, but it does seem like she reverts to her Hinamizawa self only when she's in Hinamizawa.

Last edited by whiskeyii on Fri Feb 26, 2021 9:13 am; edited 1 time in total
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 1032
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 8:31 pm Reply with quote
The opening lyrics were basically describing the overarching plot to us from the beginning.

whiskeyii wrote:
A selfish Rika isn't a huge stretch, but it does seem like she reverts to her Higaurashi self only when she's in Higurashi.

It could maybe be theorised that having escaped Hinamizawa she’s wanting to distance herself from and forget about a bunch of things, and she’s subconsciously associating Satoko with Hinamizawa and the various traumas that go with it?
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John the Dark Lord



Joined: 19 Jun 2020
Posts: 231
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 8:56 pm Reply with quote
Don't know how many of you are aware, but recently there was another interview with Ryukishi07 where he gives a lot of relevant info about Gou. There was a post in MAL forums about it. Here's a quick summary:

1) Oishi's outbreak is natural (not caused by H173; though when Ryu was asked to repeat the "not H173" thing in red, he refuses and says that "at the moment it's not clear" (今、わからない).)
2) It was planned for Chie-sensei to become ill too
3) There will be more scenes about Takano's change of mind
4) Satoko's vomiting is an act
5) Satoko's dull expression when Rika advised Keiichi to give the doll is intentional
6) The character from ep20 is someone who resembles spoiler[Featherine], but the name's different (about whether she is her or not, no comment. He insists Umineko knowledge is not required) *
7) Satoko thinks that Rika is the one who outed her
8) The class that Shion was in St. Lucia was for the rich, so she didn't have to worry about her grades. Rika and Satoko are in a normal class
9) When voice actors heard about Gou's ending, they didn't believe in it
10) It was planned from the start for Satoko's chest to grow
11) When it comes to romance, Rena is the closest to Keiichi. However, if they were in such relationships, they wouldn't go to the same uni as Mion. Keiichi is going to graduate his dullness pretty soon

* Since this is what most people here are focusing on, I will post the exact lines of the interview to give you guys a clearer idea:

Quote:
R: The one who appears in Gou, who's voiced by Hidaka Noriko, her name is not spoiler[Featherine-san]. Even though her face is similar.
S: Wow. I want to check staff's faces. Are you guys ok there?
*Everyone laughs*
_________

R: Some of the worldview, characters or ideas resemble Umineko, but basically it is its own thing. It doesn't have any connection to Umineko. Those who have, are having fun right now because that character looks like spoiler[Featherine], but if you don't know her, that's fine.


This being Ryukishi07 and all, you are free to choose whether you believe him or not.
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7777ale7777



Joined: 13 Nov 2017
Posts: 105
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 9:32 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
If Satoko ends up being the biological result of some kind of Takano cloning project or Lambadelta is some kind of genetic fusion of the two, I'll eat my hat.

If I'm not misremembering, in the first season (or Kai) spoiler[they never revealed Satoko's biological father so there could be room for things like that to happen.]

On another topic, if Rika could remember exactly what happened in her loops, and if we're talking about the Rika that Satoko is poiting a gun at, what would be the last thing she remembers from her time in high school? spoiler[Going to Angel Mort with Mion and the gang after leaving Satoko in Hinamizawa? Or would it be getting squashed by the chandelier?]
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Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 9:45 pm Reply with quote
John the Dark Lord wrote:
10) It was planned from the start for Satoko's chest to grow

The important details, I see.
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Zeino



Joined: 19 May 2017
Posts: 1098
PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:28 pm Reply with quote
I like Higurashi Gou, but I'm going to be a bit annoyed if it turns out to have a bad ending that completely invalidates all the work it took to get a good ending in the original series. Like, the sort of theme of the original Higurashi to me was "talk to your friends if you're starting to feel murderous or if you're getting sick of murders," and I felt like this whole time Rika and Satoko have just completely forgotten that.

Maybe if I've played Umineko this would be better since the common consensus seems to be this is a stealth prequel to that, but eh.

Also, so much for being accessible to new viewers.
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casenumber00



Joined: 05 Feb 2011
Posts: 152
PostPosted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 12:34 am Reply with quote
John the Dark Lord wrote:
Don't know how many of you are aware, but recently there was another interview with Ryukishi07 where he gives a lot of relevant info about Gou. There was a post in MAL forums about it. Here's a quick summary:

1) Oishi's outbreak is natural (not caused by H173; though when Ryu was asked to repeat the "not H173" thing in red, he refuses and says that "at the moment it's not clear" (今、わからない).)
2) It was planned for Chie-sensei to become ill too
3) There will be more scenes about Takano's change of mind
4) Satoko's vomiting is an act
5) Satoko's dull expression when Rika advised Keiichi to give the doll is intentional
6) The character from ep20 is someone who resembles spoiler[Featherine], but the name's different (about whether she is her or not, no comment. He insists Umineko knowledge is not required) *
7) Satoko thinks that Rika is the one who outed her
8) The class that Shion was in St. Lucia was for the rich, so she didn't have to worry about her grades. Rika and Satoko are in a normal class
9) When voice actors heard about Gou's ending, they didn't believe in it
10) It was planned from the start for Satoko's chest to grow
11) When it comes to romance, Rena is the closest to Keiichi. However, if they were in such relationships, they wouldn't go to the same uni as Mion. Keiichi is going to graduate his dullness pretty soon

* Since this is what most people here are focusing on, I will post the exact lines of the interview to give you guys a clearer idea:

Quote:
R: The one who appears in Gou, who's voiced by Hidaka Noriko, her name is not spoiler[Featherine-san]. Even though her face is similar.
S: Wow. I want to check staff's faces. Are you guys ok there?
*Everyone laughs*
_________

R: Some of the worldview, characters or ideas resemble Umineko, but basically it is its own thing. It doesn't have any connection to Umineko. Those who have, are having fun right now because that character looks like spoiler[Featherine], but if you don't know her, that's fine.


This being Ryukishi07 and all, you are free to choose whether you believe him or not.


Can you give the address where you got the interview in English?
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