higurashi no naku koro ni 24 (tsumihoroboshi 3)
Categories: anime, episodic review, higurashi
Tagged: higurashi, higurashi:rena
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Among the nonsense tragedies, what on earth you are looking for?
The episode begins with the Fat Cop and the Pedophile Doctor mulling over Tomitake’s death. Man, that’s a name that hasn’t popped up in this series for a while… and, again, Tomitake died on the night of Watanagashi. Clockwork. Tomitake is the groundhog of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni… “Oh has the emo killing sprees started yet?” “Well, Tomitake just died.”
We rejoin the Killer Loli SOS Brigade as they play another one of their wholesome games… so the solution to this logic puzzle, of course, is that the gun is out of place. It should be a machete. And the common thread has to be, “Ways K1 will die.”
I just love this “I’ll become serious!” So cute. Nevermind that Rena has the blood of two people on her hands already this arc.
(I really want to know what game they’re playing… the “How will I kill you game?”)
Ooishi stops by the school and asks Rena to chat with him. With he suspiciously eyed Rena during Watanagashi last in the previous episode, I thought that he’d question her about Rina or something. But no… it’s to question her about Tomitake. Why her and not K1, who would have panicked and told Ooishi whatever he wanted? It really doesn’t make a lot of sense why out of everyone, Rena is picked unless Ooishi wants to connect the murders, yet gotta love how this episode features zero mention of either of Rena’s murder victims. Higurashi being Higurashi.
Gotta love the unintentional comedy of this picture of Tomitake. What kind of professional wildlife photographer doesn’t use an “L” or “DX” series lense… and more importantly, doesn’t use a large zoom for wildlife? Then there’s the fact he’s photographed with a “WTF are you taking a picture of me?” face going. He looks like Satou when Misaki catches him filming the lolis.
Takano’s picture isn’t much better. She’s either staring intently at her watch trying to figure out what time it is or she’s trying to decide if she should slit her wrists. Where did Ooishi get these pictures?
(I think they should have tossed in Muteki‘s Sensei in the background for one of these pictures. It would have been highest of high comedy.)
Rena has a flashback to when she last saw Takano, and it was at the library when Rena went there with Yuki Nagato. What kind of books were Rena looking for? I wonder, I wonder?
(My guess: she’s looking for a book about how to sharpen knives.)
(Doesn’t Takano look like a complete druggie here?)
Takano and Rena stop and have a chat about Oyashiro-sama… Takano has her theory that Oyashiro isn’t what everyone thinks it is. Just like how no one ever suspects that the world was created on the whim of a female high school student who enjoys wearing bunny outfits.
Normally two characters rehashing events that have occured in prior arcs would bore me, but this time, Rena drops the shocking revelation that she’s emo in all sense of the word as she cut herself when she was away from Hinamizawa… and not only that, she also thinks that everyone bad that has happened to her during that time she was away was because of Oyashiro-sama’s curse. As a cherry on top, she revels that when she cut herself, she leaked out maggots in her blood that wanted to crawl back it… and it itches!
Basically, she looks like a junkie and is describing withdrawal symptoms of a junkie. Maybe they pump low levels of cocaine into the air at Hinamizawa and once people leave, they go into withdrawal. Sometimes, the machine or whatever that pumps the cocaine into the air goes haywire causing some people to overdose and go on emo killing sprees… and then one time they royally screwed up and killed everyone in town. There you have it… two episodes left and the only explaination that makes sense without resorting to time travel or some sort of Star Trek-ish plot is cocaine pumped into the air. I call this the “Working at Sunrise” theory.
“It itches! It itches! The red rice itches!”
Takano actually believes Rena’s story and lends her the findings about Oyashiro-sama… didn’t she lend these out to Shion earlier?
Rena starts reading Takano’s notes and discovers some interesting bits. Very interesting bits. Like how Shion and Mion used to be twin brother and sister. Or was it sister and brother?
Exiting the flashback, we see K1 being greeted by a mysterious hand from the bush. This is either a great thing like “K1! Help me! I lost my skirt!” or a really bad thing like “K1! Help me! Oyashiro-sama is after me!”
It turns out to be just Rena who wanted to share with K1 her findings about Oyashiro-sama. So this is the action caused by the earlier murders, when K1 swore the he would be Rena’s “nakama”? Maybe later in this arc, K1 would betray his “nakama”? Actually, even Vegas wouldn’t put odds on that.
(BTW, in the scale of anime characters who you’d trust when they say, “Nakama, darou?” wouldn’t K1 be at the opposite end of the spectrum as Luffy?)
(Great shot of K1 checking out Rena.)
Rena tells K1 that people are secretly after her because she has Takano’s notebooks. The notebooks basically blow this Oyashiro-sama thing out of the water, and I’m not sure why she’s telling K1 this… it’s not like he’s ever capable of helping.
Later, Rena recounts the books to K1. The books paint a different picture of Oyashiro-sama in that the town and nearby marsh is home to a parasite that drives people crazy and kill each other. The town then adopted various rules to prevent the spread, such as people can’t come in, can’t come out. The town also ate the intestines during Watangashi as part of an immunization procedure rather than whatever horrific torture we’re previously led to believe. A lot of information flows out of Rena during this conversation with K1… just two problems:
1. There’s two episodes left, and they’re basically tossing out a completely new theory angle for us. While it kinda jives, it’s a really boring answer to the mysteries of Hinamizawa. Seriously? Parasite? Though if it paves the way for a Ginko cameo, I’m all for it. Though it’ll be funny if Higurashi turned out to be the longest Mushishi episode ever.
(There’s comedy. There’s high comedy. There’s ramen comedy. Then there’s Rena’s “I’m glad your my nakama, K1.”)
2. K1 and Rena are on the phone talking for a solid four minutes. I can’t think of another anime that I have ever watched where the characters spent so much time talking to each other and explaining the plot points to each other. Even during Stand Alone Complex, when the Major was going over Laughing Man’s profile, they at least jazzed it up with some cool CG and a Yoko Kanno soundtrack. Plus, the Major wasn’t spending four minutes an episode explaining to Batou what the heck is going on that episode.
(I’m not asking for Higurashi to be SAC. I’m asking Higurashi to act out plot points instead of having two characters talk over the phone to discuss the plot points. It’s like tuning in to watch football, only instead of seeing 22 players on the field, we have Madden talking over the Madden 07 play selection screen. Bad times.)
We return to the school the next day, and Shion/Mion/whatever tosses out the :3 face. I’m beginning to miss her emo facial distortions already.
Rena sees the mysterious people tailing her near the school. They’re definitely after her. Still, I gotta love Rena’s ability to peak through doors and spy on people. Still, it’s alarming to see Rena– Rena!– flustered by the mysterious people. I’m definitely rooting for her to launch a major counteroffensive soon.
Two episodes left.
29 Responses to “higurashi no naku koro ni 24 (tsumihoroboshi 3)”
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What’s that you say? The syringes conspiracy types stick people with contain Evil Mind Control Parasites that make you kill people and rip your throat out? Of course! That explains… absolutely nothing!
Seriously, it was already painfully obvious what was up with the syringes, and if we’d been left with “some kind of drug that makes you freak out” works just fine. Having this big revelation over it seems like just another instance of explaining things you’ve already shown us (like the whole 4th arc). Of course, they did say Parasites instead of a drug, which opens up all sorts of hacky sci-fi/horror options.
So… will it be next episode, or the one after where we find out that Satoko’s uncle was wandering around after K1 killed him, because he dumped the body in The Parasite Spawning Pool and they all took over his body do you think?
at least we’ll always have the stellar OP…
parasidte?
PARASITE?
parasite eve.
-_-
Remember, the answer is always that aliens controlling your thoughts.
Funny you should mention alien mind control, wait till you see the next episode.
I say she did more of a =3= face then :3
it IS like startrek, the guy in red is not gonna make it out alive.
I had it pegged at being swamp gas making folks nuts, actually, and that everything was all a weird hallucination of someone while they were dying from the gas leak seen a few episodes back, after the flashback.
Oh, also? Resident Evil 4, beyotch. All we need to do is repleace Hinamizawa with a little village somewhere off the coast of spain.
> Oh, also? Resident Evil 4, beyotch. All we need to do is repleace Hinamizawa with a little village somewhere off the coast of spain.
Only if people’s heads start bursting open into bladed-tentacle-monsters.
Even then, you wouldn’t need a change of setting for a fit though. RE4’s happy-head people are lifted directly out of a manga called, if I recall, Parasyte. Alien monster larvae come to earth, crawl into people’s ears, eat their heads from the inside, then shapeshift into new heads, assume their identies, and go around eating people.
The main character had earphones on, so one missed his head and replaced his hand, and they wind up fighting the others together.
Oddly enough, it’s played for laughs quite a bit.
>>(BTW, in the scale of anime characters who you’d trust when they say, “Nakama, darou?†wouldn’t K1 be at the opposite end of the spectrum as Luffy?)
Luffy: You made them cry, I’ll beat you down.
K1: You made them cry, I’ll kill you.
Nah, they are pretty much at the same end, only with different execution.
Complain all you want, next episode will completely bury some of the ridiculous (not all, but some do) theories that have been posted over the past episodes. Still, it does brings up more questions (sadly anime watchers will never have a definite answer for everything). Oh, and forgot to mention it’s quite possibly the best episode so far (though that’s not saying much for Jason, isn’t it? :S)
Remember this, Takano WROTE the scapbooks. Who’s to say the parasite theory isn’t all bull? Who’s to say it is? Also note, Rena is getting slightly more mentally unstable by the minute. Takano’s creepy enough as is.
Ooishi probably picked Rena instead of Keiichi (in Onikakushi) to interrogate was because of what he observed at the Watanagashi. In both cases, it was their group who had last contact with Tomitake and Takano. In Onikakushi, Keiichi was the most uncomfortable with the group, due to Rena and Mion saying “Nothing Happened” in reguards to the dam murders. In this arc, Rena was the outsider because she killed someone.
O….M…..G….RE4
Satako: “Ah….Meester Keeicheey, what a surprise.”
K1: “Where’s Shion?”
Satako: “A leetle indeesposed of at the moment. Why not fight my right hand instead?”
Mion: “Urrrrgh!”
*scary battle ensues*
Shion: “Keeichi! Heeeeelllllp! Save me, Keichi!”
Ooishi: I see the president has equipped his daughter with ballistics too…?
My god…they were trying to develop parasite resistence by reintroducing the strains that were most virulent and had the most profound effect on people through dead human consumption. I’ve said this before but senerio writers need to do a little more research before pulling random crap out of their asses. Just google ‘vaccination’ and any halfwit can find that that is the most inappropriate way of doing this.
I wonder if you people even once asked yourselves, why Takano’s notes for Shion and notes given to Rena seemed to be complete different. Btw. Rena in this arc is starting to lose her senses as much as Shion and Keichi were losing their earlier, don’t believe in lunatics’ words so easily (in before ZOMG so it was an alien’s conspiracy).
So Shion or Mion is a male?
dot dot dot
>>marmoo says:
I wonder if you people even once asked yourselves, why Takano’s notes for Shion and notes given to Rena seemed to be complete different.
Nope, not at all. Why would we? Of course they’re different. After all, the only commonality seen in these arcs is that K1’s an idiot, Mama Sonozaki ate a lot of melonpan during her pregnancy, and most everybody (except Ooishi) dies, some more gruesome than others, and not always the exact same people each time. The plots are different each time (beyond the obligatory “start with lame humor, tease some nebulous danger, people start acting weird, K1 does something stupid that makes him die/go crazy/get pushed off a bridge, people die, the end” outline that each arc except the one without K1 follows), so why would the items that drive those plots (in this case the journals) be different as well?
I think a problem with this series is that people try to tie the arcs together (beyond the question and answer arcs), and unless this show starts whipping out some Big O, Simoun. or Back to the Future mojo, blood parasites just ain’t gonna cover it. And if they do end this series with Rena with a piece of toast in her mouth, meeting K1 to go to school, it’ll be too little, too late.
>>>Remember this, Takano WROTE the scapbooks. Who’s to say the parasite theory isn’t all bull? Who’s to say it is?
Because a “double plot twist” would be even more stupid.
Does this mean rena has the nii-pah virus?
Leave it to the Japanese to turn a perfectly good paranormal mystery into a rejected plot for the next Biohazard game.
LOL
Everyone’s griping about the illogical twists, yet no one mentions that Takano is the spitting image of Maetel. And considering what she’s supposed to be in the “real answer” arc…
Oh, and Jason, your analysis of Tomitake’s incompetence as a photographer hit the mark too closely. The scenario writer of Higurashi is practically rubbing the clue on our faces.
Looks like next episode Keiichi is going to let rena out of her misery…you know. “Keichi-Kun, before you take me out of my mysery I just wanted to let you know…I love you…nah *SLAM*”
Wow, next episode’s title implies things could get interesting,
de arimasu!
“Because a “double plot twist†would be even more stupid.”
Not actually if you believe Takano to be manipulating Rena. I think the notes did the job for Shion in pushing her to eliminate the heads of the Three Great Houses. Of course, it led her to kill and led her into a dead-end as the Head of the Houses were actually innocent and seemed to not be a part of the “Curse System” that Shion thought of. Hence, Takano comes off as the most suspicious, even her “deaths” are suspicious enough as it is.
>>Because a “double plot twist†would be even more stupid.
Yes, it would, if the former was a plot twist. But as everyone here points out, Takano’s scrapbook of alien maggots seems to be so full of bull, that I guess it actually IS pure bull.
Ok then. Popular consensus allows us two choices. Either the Higurashi plot twists are beyond normal ridiculousness or the characters in Higurashi are beyond normal stupidity that makes the show itself stupid. Take your pick guys.
Actually, Rena’s belief in parasites is an actual mental disorder called delusional parasitosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.....arasitosis). Rena’s already crazy as it is (due to post-traumatic stress disorder) and it shows in her actions after her parents divorced (She smashed up all her mother’s belongings and even years afterward is still highly unstable and has not recovered). This also ties to culture-bound syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.....c_syndrome), which is why she is so adamant that Oyashiro is the cause for her family’s divorce even though Rika says that Oyashiro is a good deity and not evil at all. It all actually explains Rena very well.
If there’s one thing people should have learned by now from watching Higurashi it’s never to take anything you see or hear at face value. Just because Takano’s notes say it’s all caused by parasites does not make it the truth. Remember, Rena talked about seeing maggots crawl out her skin BEFORE Takano handed her the notes. Who’s to say that Takano didn’t hand over the right “research” notes that would fuel Rena’s delusions. I’d have to go back and check but I think it was the same with Shion.
>>Doesn’t Takano look like a complete druggie here?
Doesn’t she always?