Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Higurashi: When They Cry – SOTSU
|
Goto page Previous Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Tanteikingdomkey
 Posts: 2346 |
|
|||
I mean I am pretty sure they showed scenes of him in gou actually getting memories/feeing's from the other fragments and that is why he apologizes for abusing her. I am more curious why the review didn't mention her killing her step dad and mom because she hit level 5 of hinamizawa syndrome |
||||
|
||||
|
Zeino
Posts: 1098 |
|
|||
Thirded, I'm hating that Higurashi's positive and affirming messages that were underneath it's horror exterior are being undermined so thoroughly by GOU/SOUTSU and will be downright infuriated if the reason for all this is really just to tie into Umineko. You don't set up a story by tearing down another perfectly good one in your shared universe. |
||||
|
||||
NezumiVA
 Posts: 24 |
|
|||
|
Adding to the Teppei deets, no I don't see any implication that Teppei wasn't guilty of abuse in this timeline as well, at least in the past. His dreams that make him reconsider his behavior are about him getting killed, but this still takes place after he moved away from Hinamizawa the first time, meaning after Satoshi disappeared. This means the incidents with he and the Aunt had already taken place, which means that Teppei is very much still the guy who was a previously abusive asshole to Satoko, and it's why he's so frequently apologetic toward her now. Otherwise he wouldn't have anything in particular to feel apologetic for.
So yeah, he's still guilty of abuse in these new timelines. He just stopped doing it, unlike before where he stayed a jerk all the way until he got arrested, and up until the very last moment we saw him, he was never apologetic. |
||||
|
||||
|
Dayraven
Posts: 176 |
|
|||
|
Episode 8 felt like rather too much of a replay of scenes we’d seen in the Question arc, just with ‘but Satoko is manipulating them’ moments interspersed. All of Sotsu’s Answer arcs have had their repeated scenes, of course, but they also added more that we couldn’t have inferred.
Eua mocking Satoko’s pity ploy seems like it might be going somewhere, it’s a more negative thing than she’s ever said to Satoko directly. |
||||
|
||||
|
gsilver
Posts: 617 |
|
|||
|
I still don't really feel that we've seen anything this season that added anything to what we already knew by the end of last season. Watching the wheels of fate turn shouldn't be like playing Snowrunner.
|
||||
|
||||
Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1207 |
|
|||
The most important takeaway for me was that even the CWS dragging their feet was in fact another result of Satoko playing everyone. Also seeing Teppei and Satoko's interaction right before the teacher arrives on their doorstep was neat. The Question arc really played us into "Teppei's being a prick because Teppei is always a prick", when in fact he's defending Satoko here. But besides that, yeah, a little too heavy on the rehashes this time. I hope they don't choose this arc to stall/stretch on(I think Gou made it last longer than this arc in Kai did). I'm sorry to the folks who are into it, but the blatant drop of "She's a witch", was dumb. I would prefer the vague inklings if we're really going this direction. |
||||
|
||||
|
JoelBurger
|
|
|||
I think part of the problem is that the mysteries just weren't that difficult to figure out. People pretty much had everything right on the money before last season even ended, which begs the question of whether whole Answer arcs are even necessary (as opposed to just an abridged summation of what Satoko did). On a side note, good to see "brudder" is finally gone. Goes to show that just because something is mechanically determined to be the "most correct" choice doesn't mean it actually works well in practice. |
||||
|
Tanteikingdomkey
Posts: 2346 |
|
|||
|
Yay I am airing on the side of satatoko actually breaking down at that moment.
Satoko has proven herself to be quite the actress in this version but.......(bio lecture time) There isn't a way for her to fake the droll and the level of tears that is coming out of her thanks to the level of mental stress that a breakdown of that type causes you. the other thing is that Featherine (yes it's her from umineko) has no reason to lie to herself, and is giving a seemingly accurate description of satoko. The only thing I can think that might disprove it, is that we don't see featherine when satoko is supposedly having a headache and her eyes turn, maybe featherine can mess with satokos head somehow, and caused her to think/feel like she was in the other fragment and thus triggered the panic attack that way. In either case I don't see a situation where the breakdown for whatever reason (satoko losing control, or featherine messing with satoko) didn't actually happen. Side note YEP that scene is still one of the most horrifying scenes in anime. And we are probably going to see satoko turn on featherine after this arc is my guess based on the ending of this episode |
||||
|
||||
|
DRosencraft
Posts: 665 |
|
|||
Yeah, count me as skeptical. This series hasn't exactly been known for being that faithful with towing the line of reality when it comes to shock value, and there are numerous ways to induce these reactions covertly if need be, regardless of if they choose to show Satoko going through the effort of setting them up. And, at the end of the day, there's always "magic" as Featherine states "she's become a witch" just before that scene plays out. I disagree with the idea that it was caused by her becoming a witch. It would have to be the most incredibly fortunate timing in the world that her becoming a witch just flipped that big a switch right at the point that she's trying to amp up the sympathy play, right when Kei is about to pat her on the head. Given everything else we've seen and know about Satoko at this point, there's little reason to doubt she would have set this up too. |
||||
|
||||
KitKat1721
 Posts: 953 |
|
|||
|
So I agree with people saying this second cour is sort of stretches itself out past the point of necessity. I do think a lot of this "reveal" information (especially the first two arcs) could have been easily truncated/summarized instead of needing to match the pacing of the Gou arcs with multiple episodes each.
As far as the whole "witch" drop (and really this whole arc in general), I keep getting more spoiler[EVA-Beatrice] vibes than anything else. The whole spoiler["casting away a vulnerable piece of yourself in order to accomplish what you think needs to be done to get what you want + getting high on newfound power" is one thing, but watching Satoko's reaction at the end made me think a lot of Eva in Ep. 3.] [Umineko Ep. 3 Spoilers] spoiler[Eva often complained of headaches/having to go lie down while EVA-Beatrice (her middle school self that was super driven to succeed while pushing down any emotions holding her back and eventually earned the title of "witch") went around causing havoc.] Surely Satoko can't keep up with that mentality of emotional compartmentalizing or refusing to see her friends in each fragment as her "real" friends forever. Even if that emotional conflict can only manifest physically at this point, those cracks are finally starting to show. And to be honest, it probably wouldn't feel so long overdue if Sotsu's answer arcs weren't ultimately so superfluous. As far as Gou/Sotsu completely undercutting the themes of Higurashi proper... I can completely understand that concern, even if I'm not quite on board the train yet. I think we could be headed in that direction, but I do ultimately think Sotsu will resolve itself with Rika and Satoko being honest with each other and laying everything on the table. Might take a complete breakdown, cry for help, or fragment brawl (or uh whatever you want to call that fight in the OP haha) to get there, but I think its more likely we see their witch selves (if they go that route) cast aside as their own entities than punish Higurashi's Rika and Satoko forever. Both because Ryukishi has a track record for that specific plot element and being honest/trusting your friends is so obviously the core of Higurashi, I can't see it not playing a part in the ending. |
||||
|
||||
|
Dayraven
Posts: 176 |
|
|||
The first two arcs did provide character pieces for L5ed Rena and Mion, which didn’t advance Satoko’s plot that much but I thought were quite worthwhile in themselves. This arc isn’t doing as much of anything like that. Another reason to feel like things are dragging is that we’ve now had 15 episodes of backfill for the cliffhanger in Gou episode 17. The Satokowashi arc was pretty necessary, but there’s reason to feel a bit restive over all these other arcs. |
||||
|
||||
|
Florete
Posts: 363 |
|
|||
|
I'm really curious to know what people who were fans of Satoko prior to Gou are feeling about her now.
I don't necessarily mind the concept of this arc, but I feel like they missed a few steps. Satoko sure is lucky none of the villagers were around to see Teppei crying and hugging her, and that he's gullible enough to believe that not only her classmates, but her teacher is bullying her...even after said teacher comes to the house to check on her when she misses a day. I said this during Gou, but it bears repeating: I really hope the Umineko connections are as light as possible. I'm not familiar with Umineko and don't plan to get into it, and I'd like to be able to see Rika's story to the end without losing context due to lack of familiarity with a different story. And yeah, this episode felt like it had more repeated content than previous episodes. Repeated content in previous episodes largely felt natural, but this time I was often just thinking, "We've seen this already, move on." |
||||
|
||||
rizuchan
 Posts: 975 Location: Kansas |
|
|||
Honestly, I feel pretty much the same about her as a character. I always liked the dynamic that her and Rika had, so I'm sort of happy to see her promoted to Bern/Rika's playing field. I always had a lot of sympathy for her in the original, but seeing her pranks and traps used for evil is also really fun. That said, (and I've probably said this here before, so sorry if I'm repeating myself) I feel like Gou has really done her dirty thematically by turning the troubled-but-otherwise-good-at-heart kid who suffered abuse and neglect her entire childhood into a psychopathic villain. Is it believable? Maybe, but yeah, you'd like to believe Satoko was better than that. This episode was actually a really good example of that...what might you call it, thematic dissonance? Because if you think about it... CWS was right this time. Satoko really was faking being abused and all of her friends were just jumping to conclusions and framing her uncle for doing nothing wrong (well, recently). What kind of message is that? It feels like the statement in Tatari/Minagoroshi was "Government bureaucracy makes it too difficult to quickly help those in need", but now it's like, "Actually, maybe it's warranted sometimes". 
|
||||
|
||||
jenthehen
 Posts: 835 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
|
|||
I don't think Teppei is gullible - I think it's a reasonable thing to believe given the history of the Hojos being shunned / ostracized / bullied over the dam project disagreement. Everyone probably always says this, but you really ought to give Umineko a try (there's a great playthrough on youtube if you aren't into buying / downloading the VN ... the anime is also very incomplete and inaccurate and impossible to get into with so many characters!) |
||||
|
||||
MagicPolly
 Posts: 1577 |
|
|||
|
So I fell behind and caught up because I saw the review and thought "finally, the Umineko connection is here!"
Episodes 1-6 definitely feel like the plot was just spinning it's wheels in order to pad. We got no new information other than "oh yeah this is what Satoko was doing during Gou". The third arc I've been really disliking though. I honestly don't understand what the point of Satoko pretending to be abused is supposed to do with Rika leaving Hinamizawa. The only reason she's doing it to begin with is what Eua/Featherine mentioned about wanting to drown in pity which makes sense, but I don't know what that's supposed to mean for the overarching plot (about keeping Rika in Hinamizawa). If anything it just makes me dislike Satoko, though it could be she's going through a reverse Teppei where she becomes more cruel with more loops. I dunno, the first two eps of this arc have just left a really bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully the witch part will be expanded on later but I just hope it won't require full Umineko knowledge since I don't really have the time to speed read episodes 5-8 right now. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group