higurashi no naku koro ni 4
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Tagged: higurashi
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Pantheon episode for emo facial distortions. And creepy killer lolis.
K1’s parents are away, and Rena comes over to make him a home cooked dinner in quite possibly the creepiest harem bending moment ever. We’ve all seen “the girl bring the lonely guy dinner” moment in Lamune, Magikano, Mahoraba, Maburaho, Hanaukyo, Pita Ten, Full Metal Panic… but… never, never quite like this. It’s not a typical feeling one gets when watching anime.
K1, of course, wants no part of Rena and lies trying to get Rena to leave… but Rena goes into Seed Mode and sees through all his lies and the two of them scream at each other through the doorway. Rena thought Reggie Bush should have gone number one overall; K1 thinks he’s overrated. K1 eventually slams the door, crushing Rena’s fingers, and guarantees that he won’t live to experience his first kiss or even, uh, next week. Looks like his mai star dreams end here.
K1 calls Oishi about what happens… and Rena is outside his window… muttering, “Gomen nasai. Gomen nasai. Gomen nasai.” like a Japanese salaryman after screwing up an ad campaign where the seiyuu’s panties end up promoting the product better than the seiyuu herself.
The next day at school, K1 decides to wear a T-shirt with a bulls-eye on the back. And front. He’s still there practicing swing his bat, and Mion begs him to stop. Instead, K1 accuses Mion of lying and whatnot, thus launching Mion into her Seed Mode. This is getting beyond playing with fire stage. Looks like K1’s life expectancy is going to be shorter than Memphis’ playoff series with Dallas.
(Mion remarks that she spared Oishi’s life. If I ever get asked to become a police snitch, please remind me of this episode. Please. Ignorance is bliss… IGNORANCE IS BLISS!!!)
I’m kinda surprised they don’t show what actually happens at school that day… can you imagine K1 trying to teach Mion and Rena fractions? Or how he tried to slip out early and avoid the Killer Loli SOS Brigade’s Game of the Day. Oh wait, the Game of the Day is The Hunt for Keiichi Maebara. My bad. Here’s Rena leading off with her machete!?!
More sinister than Lacus. She remarks that she alone rules Zaft Rena has been transferred away, and that Rena said “gomen nasai” was an indication of this.
Extremely tense moment. Rena is putting Tomoe to shame. In fact, she’s making Tomoe look like Belldandy.
Okay, I’m wrong. K1 lives long enough to enjoy his first kiss. Though it’s a kiss of death by a crazy, insane, possessed, creepy, unstable killer loli. In other words, this is what Shuffle should have been like. Asa ending my ass.
Anyway, he shoves her aside. K1, you’re not going to live long, might as well enjoy the last day of your life! I would advocate for the “Uh, since you’re going to kill me anyway, can I get laid first at least?” (I know the series is based off of a visual novel… a visual novel like F/SN‘s visual novel or the boring kind?)
Pantheon performance. I have no idea how this can be topped. Ever.
K1 runs from Rena but gets chased down by mysterious old men. I have no clue where this section of the plot came from… I’m thinking they’re actually workers at a local KFC or something. He gets knocked out…
… only to wake up with Rena next to him. Uh oh. On the list of “people whom you don’t want to wake up next to,” killer loli would rank between “any guy in prison” and “Star Jones.”
Mion joins the fun. The Hunt for Keiichi Maebara game finally ends with Mion injecting K1 with some weird psychodelic drug. Apparently, the same drug was used to induce the other people into killing themselves and the people around them. The police are also unable to trace this drug… in other words, 15 years later, this recipe would later resurface in America as “Balco.”
“You want to hit 72 home runs, don’t you, K1?”
(Even weirder, Mion was commenting on K1’s sudden perchance for baseball and how “the director” likes it. The director is either Colonel Sanders or Oyashiro. That’s my final answer.)
Very bloody and disturbing sequence as K1 goes nuts and smashes the girls to bits with his bat. I have no joke here. It’s very gruesome, and I squirmed in my seat and whinced. The complete opposite of every good-natured Dokuro beatdown.
Still in shock, disbelief, drug-induced stupor, K1 writes out everything he knows onto the note that he’s been hiding on the back of the clock. He also hides the syringe there. Unfortunately, the “director,” who dresses like Colonel Sanders from KFC, come and chase after him.
K1 reaches a pay phone and calls Oishi, the police chief, and he tells him that Oyashiro-sama is a real/not real person. He’s completely incoherent, and before an officer can reach him…
… he takes his own life. His last words? “Gomen… na… sa… i…”
The police find his note, but only the 2/3rds of it that talk about Rena and such are found. The syringe is gone. Man, those KFC guys are like MiB. The case goes down as a double murder with the murdered, K1, suiciding. That’s it… uh… wow. Fantastic four episode series… wait… there’s more? They killed off all the main characters, what else could they talk about?
I’m enjoying Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, but there’s one fundamental problem with the show. It’s not rewatchable. Even though K1 bashing Mion and Rena with his bat was a very compelling scene, I have no stomach to watch it again. And despite the A+++++ emo facial contortions, it’s not enough to get me to watch, whereas I’d rewatch something like Rumble or Haruhi or even Mahoraba. Nor is the plot interesting once you know where it ends up… the ride was fun, but like most murder mysteries, the fun is in the mystery. Once it’s pulled back and revealed, the gig, literally, is up. That’s more of weakness of the genre than the show itself.
Also, I’m not sure how they’re going to procede… to me, the story is done. Are they booting up another story like a few years in the future? If they are, how can they top this Rena and K1 storyline? Or are they doing some looney flashback thing? And I hope it’s not going to focus on a boring police investigation and turn this series into Law and Order: Loli Mass Murder Unit. Still… any good anime series gets me wanting more. And I certainly want more Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
23 Responses to “higurashi no naku koro ni 4”
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I’ve just finished watching this, and I loved it. I’m still having visions of Rena and Mion in the shadows. I think the non-rewatchable nature of the show isn’t a weakness, though – once you know what is going to happen, the mystery is gone, but the joy is in trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together yourself. If it was rewatchable, it just couldn’t have the same level of mystery.
Yea it is based off a visual novel. Not sure which part you’re inferring to be boring, if you’re talking about as in no sex, yeah this is the “boring” kind.
Anyway, in there game there were 7 scenarios. In each scenario Keiichi picks different choices like instead of taking the left road and dying, he’ll take the center road instead.
Watanagashi-hen is the next scenario.Its kind of like reloading your save game and picking the choice that won’t get you sliced each time.
You could have used a Gallagher joke with the sledge-o-matic. I remember seeing a mobsters film (Casino, I think) where two brothers are beaten to death with baseball bats then buried in a corn field. Still since Mion and Rena were killers I wonder if it would have been as gruesome if the deceased were male and innocent. In all honesty I looked with awe and we certainly did see this coming.
The story might take the point of view of an elite investigator sent to uncover the mystery of a missing child of a politician which centers on the town. At least that’s how the answer arc goes. The story can continue since the other half of the loli unit is alive and well, Mion it turns hout has a twin sister.
-So she has a twin sister wiki has now betrayed her too. If Mion can’t cover up her crime then perhaps she will…
So, Keiichi is going to end up dying 7 times in various gruesome fashions in this show?
Maybe.
And btw, you’re missing a “04/” for the full link to the wallie.
I find the first four episodes highly re-watchable because it’s still a complete mystery. Do we really know why everything happened and if everything even happened? Not really. Everytime I rewatch an episode I notice something that adds to the mystery.
And in addition to what ayyo stated, that each chapter is about choice scenario’s, we learn more to add to the previous mystery yet more questions arrise. Nothing will probably be solidly answered until more than halfway through the series.
I certainly want more Higurashi no Naku Koro ni as well.
“They killed off all the main characters, what else could they talk about?”
Ever watch Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon? Keep watching Higurashi.
if we’re doing the save point thing…
definitely just stab the old police guy and join the killing squad. sounds like a better choice for staying alive to me >_
Here is something I found on the animesuki forums which sort of reiterates what Tess and others have said:
Posted by kj1980
“…Each chapter is a different.
Think about it this way:
You’re on your way to work.
You decide to turn left.
You get to work normally.
or
You’re on your way to work
You decide to turn right.
You get hit by a dump truck and end up in the hospital.
or
For some reason the alarm clock didn’t go off and you are already late for work to begin with.
Getting the jist of it? Each of these “chapters” is an alternate world where one small decision/fate can alter the course of the game.
In Onikakushi, a certain thing happens (you decide what was the decisive factor) that lead to that ending. In the next chapter, Watanagashi, Keiichi makes a decision (which you need to decide where/what the altering factor is) that changes everything. And in the third chapter Tatarigoroshi, a certain event occurs that drags everything down the shithole. However, each of these chapters provides hints and clues that will help you in solving some of the mysteries in the previous chapter(s); while mind-blowing you with even more mysteries. In the end, it all comes down to utilizing those hints and clues to find out the larger scope of things occurring at Hinamizawa.â€
Very interesting, I too will be wanting more of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni as well.
I found out that there is an h-version of this game.
And I’m guessing that this girl is the star (?) of the next arc… (note that Keiichi and Oishi ate lunch at her cafe)
“Officially”, there’s no H-version of this game. “Officially” is used loosely, as the original game is doujinshi-based. But it was one of the few non-H games to garner a huge fan-following when it was being released a chapter at a time at Comiket for the last couple of years. If you’re finding H-pics, then they’re more likely other doujinshi or fan pics. Though I have to admit, a lot of the fan pics look so much better than the game.
Higurashi is like Touhou in many ways. They both are doujin, they both have a huge following, and they both have very terrib- , I mean, unique, original illustrations.
higurashi… most shocking anime i’ve seen in a while
and as for how the story follows, most unique/original style i’ve ever seen
I was definately thrown off by this one. At first, the innocent and bright art direction made it seem kind of like an anime PG13 horror movie. But around the third episode, I felt like I was proven wrong. This is a psychotic and downright cool anime. The door slamming scene was really good and kind of freaked me out a little. I can’t wait until episode 5 comes out…
I actually think this series has immense re-watchability factor, to be honest. I haven’t played the game, or read the manga, or what-not, but I have a strong suspicion that what we saw within these 4 episodes were not all fact, and were instead events seen through a psychological distortion of some kind…
well, if u read the manga, it’s 10x scarier than the anime..
it’s like every time the page changes, I freaked out lol
Hey!
Anyone remember when the crators of Higurashi said something about to paid attntion to the title and the “Na” in red? I think that “Na” refers to “Nana”, Seven, like the seven sins perphas? Seven arcs?
I don’t now. It looks like this is the season of # 7
Actually, there are 8 arcs. The 8th will be released this summer at Comiket, I believe.
I have not seen any of the anime, mangas, or dojin’s . But I got to see thia anime……… After reading all of the above ,I just pass it up
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um…is not 2 sure but how about this for an idea Oyashiro= Ooishi? the man does have that sort of ominouse air about him!
The psychotic Rena turns me on…