higurashi no naku koro ni 15 (himatsubishi 2)
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Most. Boring. Episode. Ever.
I’m going to fly though this episode… no killer lolis, no emo facial contortions, no melonpan… no interest. The episode begins with Dr Irie checking up on kidnapped grandson. I was hoping that he’d make a… “Bunch of grown men… wearing the same clothes… alone… in the woods… with a little boy… seems kinda gay to me” remark. But, alas.
Ooishi and Mamoru are racing to where the wallet was lost. Mamoru is still trying to convince Ooishi that a 15 year old girl is God.
On the way there, they see Rika along the road reminding them who the real God is. (I’d pay $50 for a pay-per-view fight between Oyashiro-sama and Oharuhi-sama.) Rika looks… uh… very malnurished.
They bump into Irie, who tells them of the suspicious kid alone with creepy guys scenario. I’m not about ready to stick a fork into my arm, but I’m getting there.
The kidnappers decide to try and run out the back with the kid… I can’t remember the last anime series that I watched with so much underaged kidnapping. If I made a top ten list of “signs that your anime series is sucking,” “depending on underaged kidnappings to advance the plot” would be an honorable mention. Depending on male nudity would be top five.
Mamoru and Ooishi predicted the predicatable move of trying to run out the back, and Mamoru is ready for the kidnapper. Only, do Mamoru and Ooishi look like they can take out two Oyashiro-infused kidnappers?
Didn’t think so. Ooishi seems to have gotten his butt kicked, and the kidnappers shoot Mamoru. Doesn’t Mamoru have a gun… isn’t it customary for police to show a badge and draw out a pistol in these situations? Or have I been watching too much COPS on Fox.
They’re about to go gansta on Mamoru who is thinking, “Mmm… maybe I should have packed some heat before challenging a God.” BTW, adding to the “reasons that our anime series is sucking,” “remind me of b” would also get an honorable mention. Introducing father-daughter incest would be number 1.
OMFG. Ooishi does something useful and saves Mamoru’s ass. I’m making my “Tim Thomas did not just nail a three to send game six into OT” face right now.
Question: if you just got shot in your left shoulder, could you still hold up a pistol with your left hand accurately?
The tide has turned, yet Ooishi just lets them go with a stern warning. Uh, they did kidnapped the grandson of a government minister! Don’t police in 1980 Japan carry handcuffs? Or at least 14 pound Maglites that they could use to beat them into submission?
Sigh. No one dies, and Ooishi is wrapping things up with Mamoru. Seeing how a crazed Mion isn’t going to pop out and hammer Mamoru, I just stuck a fork into my right arm. Oh… the blood! The blood! Just kidding. But I am that bored.
Mamoru wants to call home and check on his wife, but all the phones that he finds have their wires cut. He meets Rika outside that phone booth where K1 clawed himself to death, and she tells him that “I’m having pity on you by not letting you call home.” In other words, think Brad Pitt in Seven.
Rika invites him to the Watanagashi festival and “nii-pahs” a few times for good measure. I am seriously bored as there’s no emo facial contortions, impalements, or melonpan. Rika tells Mamoru that people… will die! Including… herself! Duh. Tell me something that I don’t already know… like Mikuru’s age.
(While it is interesting that Rika is predicting the future, it doesn’t really tie any of the plots together… okay, Oyashiro can predict the future… so that affects the plot… how?)
I guess we jumped to the 21st century because I know there were no Boeing 777’s back in 1983. (Shouldn’t they put gate numbers instead of plane types on these info boards?)
Ooishi picks up Mamoru from the airport, and a few years have passed… and Hinamizawa had been gassed. So this makes this arc a follow up the previous arc, which was one sucky arc. This arc isn’t doing much better. At least it’s good to see that out of all the characters to survive the tragedy, ony Ooishi made it out alive. Actually, no. Where’s that fork… ?
Mamoru’s wife died the night of the Watanagashi festival (hence why Rika cut the phones… but Rika also warned him the day before)… but at least their kid is saved. I wonder if she’s classmates wtih Aishiteruze Baby‘s Yuzuyu.
Wait, let me get this straight. Mamoru ditches his daughter… flies to Northern Japan… just to spend the night alone at some hot springs with Ooishi? I think that if I had a Best of 2006 award for “Best Killer Lolis,” Higurashi would win hands down. If I had a “Best Unintentially Gay Moment,” Higurashi would win hands down. At least with Inukami and Ouran, the moments were intential.
Mercifully, the episode and arc ends with Ooishi and Mamoru talking about how Rika predicted all the events and deaths leading up to the gassing of the village. I’m grateful that why, or why not cuts in before we see any Ooishi x Mamoru action. Never been this happy to hear Engrish before.
This was one boring episode, and the arc doesn’t do much to deepen the story of Oyashiro… basically we spent two episodes just to hear “nii-pah” and figure out that, wow, Rika can see the future. I find that this episode was absolutely abysmal… having two minor characters recap the previous arc (which wasn’t good compared to the first two) was just a bad idea. It could have been a lot better… if they tossed in some of that patented Higurashi killer loli laughter, some killing, or… anything.
I’m always disappointed when Higurashi slips up… it could have been, with a few tweaks and changes, challenged Haruhi for best series of the year. Now, I’d rank Inukami and Zero no Tsukaima over it. I miss Emo Rena and Shion… I just didn’t know that the series peaked back in episode 5. Hopefully, with the next arc, they can either (1) right the ship or (2) sink it spectacularly like Mai Otome. There’s no other hope.
33 Responses to “higurashi no naku koro ni 15 (himatsubishi 2)”
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Oyashiro-sama predicts a SPOILER …
One of your favorite characters will re-appear in the next episode and bring melon-panic enjoyment to your watching.
While this arc doesn’t have a lot of ‘cooool’ moments (killer lolis, melonpan, etc) it does, I think, tell us a HUGE amount about what’s really going on. I ended Arc 3 having some vague ideas but being generally baffled. I ended 15 being pretty damn sure I know, more or less, what the deal is and what the story is behind the murders. So in that respect it was very much worth it. (I’m not sure if airing what is basically a theory would count as a spoiler or not)
That said, I’m greatly looking forward to the next arc, which will correct the disappointing lack of Mion in the last five episodes, I hear.
I dono, this show has a lot of contradictory arcs, and its a little difficult to guess what’s going on when the chain of events is never the same twice.
Honestly, I think you failed to comprehend this entire series on a very basic level.
Whatever. You’ll like the next episode at least, lots of Shion/Mion.
>> I am seriously bored as there’s no emo facial contortions, impalements, or melonpan.
If that’s all you’re looking for, then you fail to understand this series. And come to think of it, it’s your own fault that you fail to understand this series. Instead of watching the series, you’re hoping for things that you invented yourself (“Melonpan”, “facial contortion”, etc)
>> Honestly, I think you failed to comprehend this entire series on a very basic level.
The “fun” of the series is supposed to be guessing what happens… but… based on what we’ve been shown in the first four arcs, there’s way too much contradiction unless really supernatural explainations are given. Where’s the fun in trying to guess what deus ex machina device they use to tie up the plot?
For example, the body counts for every arc do not align nor do the characters that come into play align. The only way to get them to align is to somehow clone, time warp, or revive dead characters… well, that kinda blows up everything and cheapens the murder mystery aspect of the show. You have to break conventional murder mystery rules to figure this out and once you do that, it’s no longer a murder mystery. I guess that’s my biggest complaint of the show.
(And, yes, everyone’s been telling me, “Hey, the answer arc is much better!” Of course, these were the same people telling me, “Hey, Mai Otome will be much better once Mai gets here!”)
*Sigh* It’s kind of sad that you haven’t been enjoying Higurashi lately. I mean, I guess you could watch this series only for the killer lolis, the emo contortions, and the 38DD twins, but I seriously doubt that you could fully enjoy this series when those are the only reasons that you are watching it for.
For me, I partly enjoy this series because of the mystery that it puts forward and how it doesn’t just give you the answers on a silver platter. The other part is sort of like what I already said, the series just doesn’t give you clear cut answers. Higurashi leaves it up to us, the viewers, to come up with theories and ideas for the answers of what overall is really going on in Hinamizawa. These are things that I really think make Higurashi a very likeable series and are what makes me enjoy it as much as I do. While you can still just watch the series without caring much about these things, in order to truly enjoy this series I think that you really have get involved with and care about the mystery.
>>I dono, this show has a lot of contradictory arcs, and its a little difficult to guess what’s going on when the chain of events is never the same twice.
With the contradictions, I believe that it’s our job to decide what “truths†we really want to believe. If ‘incident A’ in one arc contradict ‘incident B’ in another arc, then it’s our job to decide which one is the “truth†and which one isn’t. For example, in this episode we are told by Rika that she will be killed. This holds true in Tatarigoroshi-hen and Watanagashi-hen, but in Onikakushi-hen it contradicts what happened, because it isn’t explicitly shown or implied that she died. It’s now up to you to decide what the “truth†is.
>>The “fun†of the series is supposed to be guessing what happens
>>For example, the body counts for every arc do not align nor do the characters that come into play align.
This is the misunderstanding here. The key question you should be asking is not “what?” but “WHY?” Why don’t the body counts align? Why do different things happen? What are the Triggers that lead to one event happening in one arc and not another? What remains constant between arcs, and again, WHY does it remain constant?
It might not be apparent, but the characters are THE SAME from one arc to the other. The only thing that changes is your (and Keiichi’s) perception of each character, plus whether certain triggers have been “activated” to cause a particular reaction.
That’s the mystery component of Higurashi, in a nutshell – not guessing what’s going to happen next, or who the murderer is like a conventional murder mystery, but figuring out “where” and “why” things went wrong.
It may be difficult to do just from the anime alone, so those inclined should read up “Higurashi and the Jewel” and the TIPS at animesuki.
Well, episode 16 was good. Shion banzai~ Mion banzai~ Rena banzai~ Satoko shown to seem really annoying banzai~
But then again, I’ve enjoyed every arc very much except for most of Tatarigoroshi. >__>; I’m pretty uh… sadistic so now I have a love for crows more than I did before. Before it was because of AIR and I loved Misuzu… karasu~ But now… crows eat humans! It just makes me happy. This is why I love Tatarigoroshi. *looks away*
Ah, anyways, I’m actually pretty sure you’ll enjoy the first episode of Meakashi-hen. I mean, can you honestly go wrong with… meron pan? (though I do wish I had actual meron pan right now rather than what you like to imply with the words… meron pan wa hontou ni oishii desu wa~~~ aa~)
All four “question” arcs are over, and hence all the clues are supposedly given to us. But as least to me, I’m still quite clueless. I can’t even dispelled if supernatural elements were involved or not. I guess as a detective I’m no haruhi. :(
Well, at least the “answer” arcs are coming. Next episode begins Meakashi-hen, the answer arc to the Watanagashi-hen.
Can’t wait…
This anime has done a horrible job of trying to get the audience involved in solving the mystery of H-town. None of arcs tie together whatsoever and no clues are given to the viewer as to what we are looking for. I havent read the manga so I am only talking about the anime’s failure to tie anything together. Therefore, the only joy in watching this show comes from melonpan and emo contortions. These last two arcs have failed on a massive scale.
>> With the contradictions, I believe that it’s our job to decide what “truths†we really want to believe. If ‘incident A’ in one arc contradict ‘incident B’ in another arc, then it’s our job to decide which one is the “truth†and which one isn’t.
That’s all well and good, if there was a single continuity for the show. You can show me one story from multiple perspectives, and have one, or even all of them, so colored from a given character’s perspective that you can’t trust anything you’re being shown to be anything but a vague idea of what’s really going on. A number of shows do this, and that’s all well and good. Boogiepop Phantom is a good example.
We don’t have a single continuity here though. What we have, in theory, is a show where you start off with a fixed set of initial conditions, and see how things play out differently when you tweak one little detail, like the outcome of a coin flip. The best example I can think of when it comes to this gimmick is Run Lola Run.
The key to using either of these gimmicks is to slowly reveal “The Big Picture” to your audience a piece at a time. The more I watch, the more I can figure out. If we have a bunch of warped perspectives, we’re trying to work out what’s really going on from an objective standpoint. If we’re doing the Run Lola Run thing, we obviously can’t work out a single, “true” plot thread, because, well, not having one is the whole point. What we can do though is work out things they all have in common. Like, say, the backstory up to the point the plot starts branching, or the odd motives characters may consistently have across branches.
We can’t do either of these things with Higurashi. Branching plots are a given, so there’s no “true” plot to piece together. That just leaves us with working out backstory and motives… which we can’t do either. There’s too many conflicting explanations for the same things. Do people keep dying because Mion is running a cult that sacrifices people who support dam building plans, or do people keep dying because K1 has magical mind-killing powers, which don’t work consistently?
The answer, to have any sort of coherency, would have to be “both.” The only way you can get that though is through a really clever gimmick, which, once it’s revealed, you realize was hinted at the whole time, and makes perfect sense of everything, or a really bad gimmick, like say, K1 is actually the incarnation of Oyashiro, but nobody, especially himself realizes it, and his subconcious is ordering people killed, or somesuch.
I’m leaning towards the latter at this point, given little details like how nobody’s tossing around theories to make sense of anything (which says to me there’s no clues to cling to), and getting plot points like “I became possessed by a vengeful demon, because you gave someone else a doll!” and “I wished the whole town would die, and a sudden gas leak made it happen that night!” (which are examples of extremely bad writing).
When you see people focusing on details like the quality of artwork, and body counts, that’s because people are giving up on the notion that there’s an interesting story to be following.
As someone who completely missed the point and do not have a basic understanding of the show, the only way that everything makes sense is with some supernatural-infused explaination. I can’t think of a conventional, Sherlock Holmes-type of way to explain everything… so once I’m able to dip into my pool of sci-fi methodology, why is this still considered a mystery series?
For example, the TNG episode where the Enterprise-D finds the Enterprise-C and accidentially brings it to the future, changes the present into a perpetual war with the Klingons (since the Enterprise-C was not sacrificed in battle and thus not gaining the Klingon’s honor). Whoopie Goldberg, of all the characters, is the only one to figure this out because of Tasha Yar (who was supposed to be dead), is alive… and she convinces Picard to send the Enterprise-C back.
I’m guessing Higurashi is not much different. Rika is in the Whoopie role, knowing that she dies, and when she does, just loops back and starts over… so she tries a different tactic to avert death, failing each time. She’s also the only character to appear in all the arcs, so it makes more sense that she’s the real protagonist and not K1.
However, how am I supposed to even accept this as an answer when nothing in the series has suggested that time travel or time looping is possible? Once I’m cornered into this type of answer, “guessing” the answer lost all appeal to me. It’s just a guess. Hell, maybe they’re all on the Holodeck.
Worse yet, the anime strips a lot out of the game itself, like all the TIPS. And the game wasn’t just a murder mystery… from what I’ve been told, it was pretty funny. It had a lot of PPD-type in-jokes for the doujinshi crowd. This aspect has been completely lost inthe translation into the anime, unintentional comedy aside.
Not even a truck load of “nii-pah” could save it now…
Well, maybe some Nyuu Nyuu could…hehe.
I think the problem with Jason is… the entire thing is incomplete.
I’ve been watching it supplemented with Makenai desu wa yo’s excellent additional info on the particular chapters and he’s ranted at one time about the anime being “incomplete” with several details left out.
For those who’re already familiar with the game, they see the overall shape of it and be satisfied with the long-term pay-off – but for the normal viewer, they’ll be going for instant gratification of the “freak-out” scenes/the “money shots”.
You have to admit that story-wise, the anime seems to be a bit sparse compared to the base material which detracts to it a bit. Add the fact not to be helped by the rather weird animation quality – I would give my left hand for it to be animated to Kyoto or at least Gainax quality. Missing buttons for god’s sake!!!
You keep goin on about what a bad arc this was. They called it the TIME WASTING chapter, you couldn’t have had more of a hint if it said RECAP arc.
jason >> Worse yet, the anime strips a lot out of the game itself, like all the TIPS. And the game wasn’t just a murder mystery… from what I’ve been told, it was pretty funny
I think it’s been said that the TIPS will be included with the DVDs somewhere? But yeah, the anime shafts all the other elements to Higurashi apart from the suspense/mystery bit.
Googleshng >> That just leaves us with working out backstory and motives… which we can’t do either. There’s too many conflicting explanations for the same things.
I have to repeat this important point: the backstory and motives of characters remain consistent across ALL question arcs. They might LOOK different – but appearances are deceiving.
In Higurashi, when confronted with 2 conflicting incidents, consider 2 possibilities:
a) Only one version actually occurred. The questions you should ask are “which one is true?” and “how can the second version be explained?” e.g. someone had a distorted view of events due to being drunk, or someone lied
b) Both versions occurred. The question to ask then is “What was the trigger point in the past that made events play out differently? Why the significance of this trigger?
Then go on from the answers to these questions to work out The Big Picture.
>>“I became possessed by a vengeful demon, because you gave someone else a doll!†and “I wished the whole town would die, and a sudden gas leak made it happen that night!†(which are examples of extremely bad writing
The question is: are either of these actually true? Why or why not?
>>Worse yet, the anime strips a lot out of the game itself, like all the TIPS. And the game wasn’t just a murder mystery… from what I’ve been told, it was pretty funny. It had a lot of PPD-type in-jokes for the doujinshi crowd. This aspect has been completely lost inthe translation into the anime, unintentional comedy aside.
But for a lot of us who only watched the anime and can never play the game, it still manages to get us intrigued on how everything ties together. And like most of us who want to truly solve it, we refer to the TIPS, and a bit of help from the game players.
You started the “killer loli” phrase for this series, expecting “killer lolis” to be in it, but so far I’ve yet to see any “killer lolis”. It’s you own damn fault for expecting something that wasn’t there.
Stupid internet ate my first comment…
>But for a lot of us who only watched the anime and can >never play the game, it still manages to get us intrigued >on how everything ties together. And like most of us who >want to truly solve it, we refer to the TIPS, and a bit of >help from the game players.
But seriously, without the tips and the game players, where are you then? what would be your opinion of the series then? What if you don’t want the unavoidable spoilers that will come from delving into game info?
The consistent backstory for the game is never evident in the anime: no hints, no minor clues, no carryovers from previous arcs.
The base material is great – the anime is just flawed, like a reflection on a broken mirror.
for any frustrated viewer, I advise just taking the plunge and read the spoilers for the arcs. You’ll enjoy the show better – I know I did.
>You started the “killer loli†phrase for this series, >expecting “killer lolis†to be in it, but so far I’ve >yet to see any “killer lolisâ€. It’s you own damn fault >for expecting something that wasn’t there.
But there were “killer lolis”!!! that was the hook that got Jason blogging the series in the first place and what probably drew a part of the initial sub viewers: the fear/comedy dichotomy of seeing cute looking girls going bugfuck nuts- like that girl from Shuffle, whatshername. the show delivered that in the first 2 arcs and didn’t deliver in the 3rd and had 4th padding for 16 eps/exposition/infodump arc.
For anyone complaining about jason’s failed expectations, please do remember what kind of blog you’re reading. You know, the one which has entries for meido power ratings and ans symmetrical docking? If you haven’t twigged on to Jason’s tastes by now, you’re probably reading the wrong blog.
I don’t really expect one full explanation that solves every single arc. All I expect is a satisfactory answer to the causes of the events in each arc. I mean, this is not a warped time show; it’s just telling the story in a very non-linear way.
Don;t worry, I hear that the next arch is supposed to be the best out of all of them in the anime and that it includes everything that Higurashi is good for. Namely:
– Mion Action
– Shion Action
– Crazy Rika Action
– More Reasonable K1 Action
– Cute side-action from Rika and Satako
– More Oyashiro Mystery Death Loli Action
– And most of all, the soulution to the first two arcs.
So, don’t give up on Higurashi yet. It hasn’t jumped the shark at least.
Okay, a lot of people are saying it’s all psychological, that some of what you see is true but most of it is twisted, and the mystery is in what you can trust of what you’ve been shown…
But I seriously don’t see how that works when ‘what you’ve been shown’ is the same characters being killed (or not killed) in completely different ways for completely different reasons. Psychological thrillers are supposed to be subtle. When the only ‘psychological’ possibility that allows the arcs to be reconciled without supernatural explanations is that the viewer/K1 is *COMPLETELY* delusional and sees things that just aren’t happening all the time, it’s not so much a psychological thriller as just a total mindfuck.
Sometimes mindfuck is okay, but mindfuck doesn’t equal mystery.
As one who doesn’t agree with Jason on most of his opinions, I have to agree that he does make some valid points. The anime strips a lot of story from the visual novels and hence we don’t the full presentation of the story. It was hard to guess with the original novels and even those who played through them admit that there’s not enough in the anime to work with.
The result of this is we get a different view of what this anime should be about. Not TIPS, no epilogues, and no idea that we are supposed to be participants in mystery. So what are we left with? A much different impresson for first-time viewers who are forced to watch a series of B-movie thriller sequences that don’t seem to have enough material to tie everything together. If we didn’t know about the question vs answer arcs, or the availability of the TIPS on Animesuki or the stuff the anime left out from the novels, I think less people would have kept up with it to this point than now.
Jason, why did you say the show peaked at ep 5? Re-reading your comments on Watanagashi-hen, it looked like you were having fun for all 4 eps (5-8).
I liked this one, gave me a chill at the end. Seems that the curse requires the deaths, but the one who knows it wants to just have a “happy” life, the opening song makes a lot more sence now. Perhaps with all the “time” jumping, somehow someone (or possibly a few someones) will come back in time , save everyone, and the espers can use there powers … oops wrong show again :)
But, serously, this anime is messed up in the head!
I like it.
I have to agree with jason though, the series really hit a climax in the first 5 episodes that the rest of the series hasn’t been able to get back up to.
But what I find most annoying so far is the fact that episode 5 and 9 start out with a random death that unlike the first one doesn’t actually get shown.
Since this was looking to be a mystery sorta show, giving us an answer and letting us figure out how it got to that answer was really fun.
I just really hope that there is more phycho Rena in this next arc, nothing freaked me out more then when K1 was smashing her fingers in the door. And nothing made me more giddy then when she gave him a kiss while holding that machete.
The people who saw the next episode have stated that it brought the series back to the perfection it was during the first two acrc, so I’m going to hold on to the next episode before I can pass judgement.
But other than the Rika centricity of this episode, I really didn’t enjoy it too much. There wasn’t enough insight. The Oyashriosama moments did seem to bring me back for a bit.
I’m really looking forward to next episode. Satoko’s nii-nii looks hotter than Itsuki.
>>But seriously, without the tips and the game players, where are you then? what would be your opinion of the series then? What if you don’t want the unavoidable spoilers that will come from delving into game info?
For me, I would still do what K1 asked of me at the end of the 1st story arc, help solve the mystery. Hell, I’ll read spoilers, because I’m a spoiler whore. Without the TIPS, I would imagine I might have some of my theories wrong, but I’ll still try to make out what’s there or not. I’ll be doing exactly what Memento is doing right now.
Bit of funny news:
“Motorola’s RAZR 2.0 gets a name: K1”
http://blog.scifi.com/tech/arc....._razr.html
PSYCHO KILLER PHONE!
I’ve been following this series. It’s really interesting, but I did like the first two arcs more. I’ve been REALLY controlling myself not to look at spoilers, cause there is just so much to ponder about in this series. I haven’t seen episode 14 or 15 yet, but I have seen 1-11, and basically read summaries of 12 and 13 because I couldn’t download them. (I also don’t like Satoko) Honestly though, I like this series because it gives me stuff to think about, cause I keep telling myself that there is a plausible explanation for all of this (anime wise).
Oh and I do like Inukami a lot, it’s a great series IMO, that is underrated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....=higurashi
Creepy. How`d Michiru know that Yukito came from Tokyo?
>>But what I find most annoying so far is the fact that episode 5 and 9 start out with a random death that unlike the first one doesn’t actually get shown.
That’s because that actual scene does not take place during the second chapter. They probably throw that in to get people interested.
While this chapter may not have a lot of action it is still important nonetheless, probably the most important one yet. In this chapter we find out that Rika already knows what’s going to happen. One could guess that she can see in to the future, however that doesn’t explain where the different worlds come from. Also it doesn’t explain how Rika knew how to cook if her mother never taught her (from the TIPS). So if she already knows things before they happen and it’s not because she can see into the future then the other explaination is that she’s already lived through these events. Somewhere along the line someone hits the “time reset” button and only Rika is able to keep her memories, possiblly because she is the reincarnation of the Oyashiro-sama.
I think the one thing that could’ve saved this episode is if Mamoru seeked out Keichi as he was the only one who survived the gassing. I was praying for that. Alas, I was left with the episode ending so crappily. While I liked the third arc, the fourth arc really was “The Time Wasting Chapter”. And I want my 50 minutes of my life back!