Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Higurashi: When They Cry – SOTSU
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jenthehen
 Posts: 835 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
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WELL.
I think I'm going to interpret a lot of the final two episodes as being symbolic of adolescent drama / interpersonal relationships and growing pains FEELING extremely dramatic, serious, and painful - much moreso than they are in reality as well as the importance of letting go and accepting change (especially in one's friends / unrequited loves). I still think this series would have worked A LOT better if they hadn't stayed married to the question / answer arc format. We didn't need to see all of that painstaking detail / repetitiveness in the answer arcs ... they could have just sprinkled in "filling in the gaps" where needed/interesting, but focused on more of a psychological battle between Satoko and Rika ... perhaps culminating in their all out supernatural brawl (that may or may not actually have happened in reality yadda yadda). Then the ending would feel more earned IMO. There was so much in SotsuGou that I loved, but they just wasted SO. MUCH. TIME. I enjoyed the ride, but it could have been great instead of just ... I dunno, interesting? I appreciate the Umineko / Greater WTC universe connections, but still. |
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AnimeFlyz
Posts: 365 |
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I feel like I wasted way too much of my time on this series. This sequel is just 39 episodes filled with recap and terrible writing. Did Ryukishi07 just forget how to create compelling narratives? Like, there is nothing to like about this new installment. Every character is either reduced to a non factor or made worse. I dont even know why I get hyped about reboots anymore. They always fall short of expectations.
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rizuchan
 Posts: 974 Location: Kansas |
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Yeah I think I agree. This was a perfectly fine ending on its own that probably would have been much better tacked onto the end of Gou instead.
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
 Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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That ending just was just.. Okay. I'm not going to go into spoilers but I'm happy for everyone in the end. The calender at the end at dear you was also a nice touch.. Given that was higurashi outbreak's send off. With this series over I really hope R7 just shelves Higurashi for good, "unless he wants to do a setting 10-15yrs later". All said done this was a fun ride and I give both combined a 4/5..
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MCAL
Posts: 182 |
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You know I fully went in expecting to hate the final episode, but then I didn't? In fact, if most of Sotsu wasn't just repeated material, I'd even go as far to say this conclusion would have really satisfied me on SotsuGou as a whole. But sadly, that wasn't what happened in the end.
I'd give Gou an eight an Sotsu a four; and SotsuGou a 5/10 as the whole. |
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Florete
Posts: 363 |
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Satoko goes through literal millennia in order to stay with Rika and in the end is convinced by a quick pep talk.
Rika gets pulled back into her torturous time loops by Satoko and in the end is just, "Yeah, we're cool." It's not even forgiveness, she just gets over it like it was no big deal. The sad thing is that the epilogue was really good...or would have been, had the series earned it. It's such a shame, because I really liked most of this season, but these last two episodes completely ruined it. |
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Kalhiki
Posts: 57 |
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Well, that's the end of Sotsu. I can't say I hated it, but I think I would've enjoyed it a hell of a lot more if they cut out the recapping near the end. They honestly probably could've trimmed it down to a standard 12-13 episode length as opposed the the 15 it got.
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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Well they are doing a separate manga adaption.. Maybe that will help fill in some blanks.
spoiler[Also Hojo waking up and them not doing anything with is annoying me ] |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2292 |
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This captures my reaction pretty neatly. Better final episode than it'd led me to expect, but comically incongruous with earlier events and just not nearly enough to salvage things. Not that I think there was any way to do that, really. Nice for the main cast to get some closure, of sorts, at least. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5823 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Yeah, the believability factor.
Some things cannot be forgiven. |
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1204 |
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Honestly this. I'm not gonna lie, this episode made me happier than the entire rest of the season, but it still doesn't feel deserved? Within the first 5 minutes they start working out their issues like actual human beings after 20+ episodes of being stubborn/selfish to each other. I'm glad they more-or-less dropped trying to overtly connect this to Umi, and that the magic Hanyuu/Eua battle got resolved relatively quickly, allowing the rest of the running time to just chill and give us some character moments. For better or worse, this feels like a decent final, -final- ending to the story, and I'm honestly hoping it stays that way. |
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DRosencraft
Posts: 665 |
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This is another really REALLY frustrating thing about all this, because I'm usually the guy who is willing to buy into a redemption arc, an apology tour, sort of ending. This is not that. Reality dictates that few situations are cut and dry, and that forgiveness is possible, especially when circumstances lead to bad results that cause conflict. There was even some thinking after last week's episode that maybe Satoko just couldn't get out the right words... but no. The entire crux of the conflict is that we are supposed to somehow believe that Satoko is just so utterly dumb that she can spend innumerable lifetimes of studying and never get smart enough to pass high school. It was easier for her to plot and carry out an elaborate (ultimately failed) plot to kill her friends, and supposed best friend, over and over ad nauseum, in an attempt to guilt that best friend into not bettering herself, but just chilling out in the village as the two village idiots. That these two best friends so utterly lacked the ability to reconcile their differing plans for the future that it resulted in insane amounts of torture and killing, but they just said "oh well, we'll just spend a little time apart is all" and carried on from there. So you know what? Bravo. Because I now do think that apparently Satoko really is just that dumb. And now I feel dumber for having endured this ride thinking it would go somewhere better. I loved Higurashi, and I love Umineko. I may not have always agreed with where the story was heading, or the choices made for characters, but it made enough sense and was an enjoyable enough tale that I more than happily went along with it. But this entry into the franchise is terrible. A somewhat competent final episode that works with some other anime than the one shown the last half a year isn't an improvement, doesn't resolve or make up for anything. It just makes those other weeks feel that much worse. |
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grooven
Posts: 1424 Location: Canada |
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I found Sotsu to be just mostly skippable and felt we didn't need it really. But I did like that end seeing spoiler[Satoshi, but I wish he could've had more screen time and I think Satako would've visited him coma or not over the years :/] and some of the others.
From what I'm gathering, the manga has changed up some stuff so I imagine it might go a different route or it could just have changed parts. Either way sounds interesting. |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2862 |
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it was great ending this with dear you, got me a tear here.
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Kelohmello
Posts: 14 |
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I was being sad about how this season of this show just jerked me around for 13 episodes and then gave me something maybe worth talking about in its last two, and then I got to thinking about how much better this show would have been if they just took everything starting with the Satokowashi arc of Gou all the way through til the end of Sotsu and made it into a movie instead.
Just take all the recap and turn it into a montage or something. Compress all this stuff we already know + the Howdunnit(which really isn't that important, just obligatory) into a much shorter chunk of time, then spend the rest of the runtime on the characters, their development and progressing the plot. Honestly, is it possible this might have initially been planned as a series of movies? The pacing between Sotsu/Gou is so uneven, and when I look at it I feel like so many of its story beats would hit so much better in that more compressed format. It almost feels like they couldn't do it the way they wanted to, so they had to turn it into a TV anime, but they couldn't fit it all into two cours nor did they have enough for three, so they had to fill the third one out with fluff. |
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