I wish I could voluntarily erase my memory to play the games. I basically barged through the anime back after it first aired. I still really enjoy going back and clue spotting though.
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[quote=“Karifean, post:4, topic:42”]
Personally, I loved the scene in the shrine this time around.
[/quote]Hahaha, I did get a kick out of that too. Takano basically just kept escalating the stories (which were pretty interesting just by themselves IMO) and freaking 'em out… good stuff, haha. (Really I’d have probably gotten along pretty well with Takano.)
[quote=“Karifean, post:4, topic:42”]
I think the all-you-can-eat event was the first time Keiichi met the real Shion, wasn’t it? Or am I forgetting something…
[/quote]Hmm… I was pretty sure that wasn’t the first time (if so, why would she give him the ticket out of nowhere?) but I s’pose it’s possible. I’ll have to go back and reread those sections to see.
Oh man, that’s pretty bad. I tried watching the parts of the anime that were covered by ch.1 after I finished ch.2, and it just seemed like… it was skipping too much, and could’ve done certain things so much better.
Clue spotting is fun though! Outside of the mystery (or music) genre I rarely rewatch anything, but it’s really fun to go back through something and try to catch connections that might’ve been missed, even after the mystery is solved. (There are so many details! Some accidentally glossed over because they seemed insignificant.)
Finally got into starting this game and just finished chapter 3 earlier. Since I have not yet finished, I’m going to ignore all the other posts for now 
Definitely what seems to be the theme of this episode is the confusion between Mion/Shion. Unfortunately, due to the world being filled with spoilers, I have already been made aware of the truth behind the existence (or at least, what I suppose to be the truth). Therefore, unlike episode 1, where I was in the same state-of-mind as Keiichi, I can’t quite relate with Keiichi’s thoughts where he is dead set over the fact that Mion is simply pretending to be Shion.
The early tips more-or-less confirm Shion’s existence; Rika claims to have seen Shion, after all! But the question here lies in really at which points of the story are you talking to Mion? And at which points are you talking to Shion? This is something that Keiichi himself does not realize but since I have the advantage of being the reader I find it a bit enjoyable~
EDIT: End of Chapter 5 now and I guess (I hope?) that it has reached the point where I can come in spoiler-free. While I was almost sold that the date scene was happening with Mion, after her pushiness it dawned to me that it was actually Shion, with the intent to torment her sister.
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Well, I’ve gone and finished Watanagashi! My thoughts are in a bit of a mess and I have absolutely no way of organizing them in a coherent way, so I’m just going to post them per-paragraph as they come by.
Firstly, I guess the biggest issue is “who killed Keiichi and Shion?” Well, I have no doubt that Shion can easily emulate an argument between herself and her sister, especially in her current mindset, so I would personally be surprised if there was any other explanation. As for who killed Keiichi? Well, the Shion in the after-party claims that she could easily have been the one to do it then return to Shishibone to kill herself but, well, that would seem hard to do with that timing. For this I have two possibilities: A) Keiichi, struck with the guilt of having never apologized to Mion, ends up hallucinating and stabbing himself, to absolve himself of all the things he couldn’t apologize for and to finally convince himself that Mion is gone; and B) the way they describe her weapon sounds oddly familiar; a bit too familiar with Rena’s weapon in Onikakushi. Perhaps Rena went and did the deed, after learning that she will be left all alone. She could have disguised herself, or the mixture of Keiichi’s own mental state could have caused him to convince himself that it was indeed Mion.
Next up is Rika! Her whole speech about the dogs and the cats was pretty cryptic, but I guess what she means to have said was that she was planning to protect Keiichi because, if she didn’t, she knew that the real culprit, Mion, along with the rest of the Sonozaki family, would get caught (she did say, after all, that the dogs were in trouble). That being said, I think she went to Mion’s house for more than just soy sauce; she went their with a specific intent. That syringe that was found in her skirt pocket points to only one thing: the suicide-inducing drug. She went there, planning to take care of Mion after all! But, for some reason, Mion was able to one-up Rika and get to her before she could cause any damage… Perhaps it has to do with a certain idiot telling a certain someone who was pretending to be a certain Shion Sonozaki that he told everything to Rika
Next thing, and I only include this because the afterparty talked about it so much, is the possibility that despite Mion having confessed to everything, that doesn’t necessarily make her and her family the culprit of all the past 4 years. To be quite frank, I am not going to be bothered to figure out the mystery behind deaths that we have been given absolutely no clues about, and have no relation whatsoever to Keiichi. Sure, while those might have been “perfect” cases, the police might have just been too dumb or too pressured by external forces to notice things that, in this incident, Rena herself was able to notice.
About Rena, boy was she great in this episode. Definitely a turnaround from the last episode, but I love her dependability in this episode quite a lot. It shows that Rena notices a lot of things that she doesn’t mention outright. That pretty much explains why she went crazy over Keiichi last episode: she knew Keiichi was hiding something and knew Keiichi was lying to her and she didn’t quite appreciate that. Well I think any decent person in Rena’s shoes would be pissed off by Keiichi’s actions last chapter, but she’s a bit more mentally unstable than most decent people ^_^;;
Now for the more confusing issues: Who exactly was the Takano that led the four into the storehouse? If we assume that the autopsy was true and Takano really did die a day before Watanagashi, then who exactly was it? Could it have been an insider, that specifically tempted the rest of the cast into going to the storehouse just to make an excuse for the incident? Or could it have been an impostor, who wanted access to the storehouse and needed to pretend to be Takano to do that… Assuming that the person who went into the storehouse is the same owner of the Scrapbook in the tips section then, well, we aren’t necessarily told whose scrapbook it is, so it might as well be anybody’s! It could even be Keiichi’s mom, for all I care!
And last and most annoying out of all the mysteries is… When exactly was Keiichi talking to Mion and when was he talking to Shion? With the way those two were, you really can’t figure out who is who. Like, at the last day, when they visit the Sonozaki house, Mion never really does show her tattoo that supposedly proves her identity; Rena stops her from doing so. There is at least one thing that I am sure of: the Mion that Keiichi met with on the day after the Watanagashi was most definitely Shion. It wasn’t just obvious, it was downright stupid. But the question is why? Why did she have to pretend to be Mion on that day? Why did she need to ask Keiichi again if he met with Takano and Tomitake? Perhaps the one who really went into the storehouse that day was Mion, and Shion, for her own safety, needed to know if he went it together with Mion who, at the time, was pretending to be Shion… And all the rest of the days at Angel Mort? Who exactly was that, then? I guess it has kind of been implied that the Shion that showed up with the bento was Mion as was the one who gathered the Hinamizawa residents to help Keiichi but… Does it even matter?
This opens up a whole big can of worms that might not even be worth pursuing, as it might not even give any answers to the bigger questions. All I can say is that this chapter is a lot less of demons vs people and tries to tell an actual story with a message at the ending; and I quite appreciated this chapter for that sentiment.
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[quote=“Karifean, post:4, topic:42”]
Man these reaction posts are so much fun to read 
Personally, I loved the scene in the shrine this time around. How Keiichi and Shion both just keep getting more and more terrified and Takano on the other hand gets more and more gleeful. It’s hilarious.
I think the all-you-can-eat event was the first time Keiichi met the real Shion, wasn’t it? Or am I forgetting something…
NotKyon:
[/quote].
Oh dammit should not have opened that spoiler
Expected though. Not surprised on that.
I really liked the Mion-Shion shenanigans, and Shion stole my heart. <3
The only thing I have any inkling on the solution on is whether or not is Takano’s death.
Takano is a nurse, right? The corpse was burned and one of the TIPS mentions that dental records were used to identify the corpse. I think Takano mixed up the dental records to fake her own death, possibly because she knew that she’d be “targeted” by Hinamizawa after sneaking into the shrine storehouse. (whether that be the residents or the village or the “true culprit” hinted at the Tea Party). This has to imply that Takano was involved with another corpse (and its death unless she procured the corpse from the morgue or something). The only missing person(s) that corpse could be, assuming they were mentioned in the story beforehand, is one of the people who was “demoned away” as part of the previous incidents.
…Wait, didn’t they say that the dental records were from three years ago? Could that be a clue that the woman who fell from the observation platform years ago (Satoko’s mom?) is the corpse here? That’d bring into question how she could have survived the fall and captured by Takano afterwards though, and that would be pure speculation. (Might have gotten the order of the “curse” killings and Onikakushis wrong).
Also, seeing as there were rampant murders and kidnappings going on after Watanagashi, I think there are two possible implications:
-
The “true culprit” didn’t commit any crime in Watanagashi (this chapter), or their crimes were interrupted (so their plan to demon away someone on the night of the Watanagashi didn’t work out, and possibly only one of the Jirou-Takano murders were committed by the “true culprit”, in which case I will be going with Jirou seeing as that’s consistent with Onikakushi)
-
The reason Jirou and Takano were victims in Onikakushi was not that they infiltrated the storehouse, but something else.
One other thing: Could it be that Keiichi was stabbed by the “true culprit” at the ending but since Keiichi is convicted that the true culprit is Mion, the true culprit appeared as Mion to Keiichi.
That’s a pretty reasonable explanation. What does that tell us about Onikakushi though?
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Well, it tells us that, not only was the Sonozaki family involved in the “demoning away” but the entire village as a whole. But hey, as long as you don’t subscribe to the “demons did it” theory, I always thought that fact was pretty obvious?
Ooh, I like that theory!
I meant the syringe being found on Rika.
Yes, that is exactly what I mean; because Rika has the syringe that only means that she was also involved in the murder of Tomitake, in one way or another. And with that, it isn’t much of a stretch to say that the rest of the villagers were involved as well…
But what does that mean for Rika’s motive? Well, like I said, she went there with the intent to kill
God it’s really hard to control myself seeing first time readers theory craft about certain things.
Gotta just say that Watanagashi is actually my second favorite arc, and it has almost nothing to do with the arc itself, but more because it sets up my favorite arc, which is Meakashi. Watanagashi is also one of the few question arcs in Higurashi that actually presents a mystery that can feasibly be solved by the viewer before some sort of reveal, since the mystery functions on a single basic concept that is established early on in the arc.
Perhaps most importantly, Watanagashi introduces my favorite character in Higurashi. I doubt Shion will be stealing too many hearts before Meakashi, but hoo boy when you guys get there…
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Very late, now that Ch.3 is effectively out, but I’m going through my theories in prep of reading that so I guess I’ll just run through some of my thoughts.
Firstly its worth noting on the argument of “People or Demon” that seems to be the focus of the mystery’s origins, I firmly subscribe to the idea that magic is bullshit. It’s admittedly VERY HARD to align myself this way at this point but that’s what I want to believe.
So, the main enigma coming out of Ch.2 for me personally has always been the existence of the “Third Mion” (this phrasing assuming the “Second Mion” would be Shion) who supposedly both stabs you and kills Shion. The story wants you to believe its The Demon coming back for the promised revenge, since you later find out both Mion and Shion are dead, and thinking about how this works has always been kind of confusing. There’s a few ideas brought up in this thread, but like you guys I struggle with most of them.
The most obvious non-magic theory is that the Third Mion is Shion, who then later fakes an argument with herself and commits suicide by jumping to her death. I kind of struggle with this idea, but at the same time its the most plausible explanation. I don’t think Shion would do that to Keiichi, since he’s basically her only real ally. But then again, she’s supposedly still mentally unstable at this point. Its viable that she kills Keiichi and then herself in order to frame Mion for revenge, since she wouldn’t know Mion didn’t actually escape. A deranged person would probably be willing to take this level of self-sacrifice. But again, it’s questionable.
The other theories are mainly the two @Pepe ran through; Keiichi hallucinating out of guilt, or Rena disguised/confused to be Mion. I… struggle with both of these. I don’t think Keiichi was actually that badly left off after the mess at the Sonozaki household, but then again he could just not be showing it. As for Rena, I find it hard to see because, at least for this game, I truly believe Rena is definitely your ally. It’s an odd swerve of character (yes I know, even despite Ch.1) for that to happen at the end.
The other interesting thing is something I had forgotten about until reading through this thread, and it was that Mion wasn’t the only other character to “come back from the dead”, the other being Takano during the Watanagashi Festival. But then, I actually find @Funyarinpa’s idea that she faked that death quite plausable. She could do it, and the game definitely wants to make you believe that the adult characters in the game are quite smart and powerful compared to the lead cast in certain aspects.
There’s a lot of other things, but I don’t know if there’s anything too major to cover. Rika is clearly more powerful in the context of this world then they want to show, but then again I’ve seen that as rather obvious in the first part too. Rena’s change in alignment is actually the most interesting character detail, and I think it has to do with how Keiichi dealing with his finding out the town’s past is handled.
It’s not explicitly detailed, but there’s a definite difference between Ch.1 and Ch.2 and its how Keiichi is seen as “one of them” to Hinamizawa in Ch.2 compared to “an outsider” in Ch.1. The deal in Ch.1 doesn’t really occur until AFTER the history is found out though, whereas in Ch.2 the defining moment is significantly BEFORE it happens (the motorcycle drama). I definitely believed during Ch.1 that admitting what you found out was the “correct” answer, and the entire problem stems from not doing that and then in response being seen as an enemy. When he comes clean to Rika, she’s immediately willing to help her friend, and Rena’s willing to help you the entire way. The oddity is Mion, who not only can’t seem to trust you but gets rid of the people she knows explicitly try to assist you regarding this knowledge and concern.
The game definitely wants me to believe its because of The Demon, so trying to reason this explanation would have to relate to her sense of duty. She truly believes its up to her to protect the town. Since I don’t subscribe to the magic theory, how does this work. Is Mion brainwashed into this way of thinking, having it drilled into her since she was young? I know the Wrap-Up Party wants me to consider that the Sonozaki’s might not actually be the culprit for all the incidents, but I dunno. I’m willing to trust Mion but I can’t really say anything about her family.
The last thing to mention, and I’m editing this in later because I’m stupid and forgot about it, is “Mion” appearing under Keiichi’s bed in the hospital. By THIS point, especially right after the reveal of Mion’s death and the mystery of who the Third Mion is confusing him… I’m willing to admit he did probably start hallucinating shit at this point. Keiichi himself refers to it as an illusion he expected to see, and there’s no definitive death since it cuts off at the supposed lethal blow.
…This ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be, so I’ll cut it there. Typing this up was a good way to mentally step back through the stuff brought up in Ch.2, so I can be ready for what Ch.3 throws at me and confuses me all over again.
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I’ve been dying to find a game or book to immerse myself in recently (summer holiday! \o/ ), but nothing was really cutting it, so I decided to reread Watanagashi instead. Man I love the relaxing OST.
Tried to read the old release of Tatarigoroshi, but 4:3 with no voice acting and a very noticeably worse translation led me to drop it off. I’ll be waiting for the official retranslation, but it’ll be August before I can play that. :c
Anybody else planning to replay this chapter soon?
By the way, I’m planning to liveblog my replay since it is too much of a bother to take notes otherwise in this very post. Untagged spoilers for Watanagashi and perhaps Onikakushi following.
Just so you know, this liveblog and the theories it introduces were and will be influenced by a spoiler about this arc I had beforehand (as well as a more general spoiler). I won’t be referencing that spoiler, however.
Still with me? Good. I think we should try to untangle the mystery of the Mion-Shion duality first. It’s obvious that Shion exists as a separate person from Mion (unless you feel inclined to open innumerable cans of worms about unreliable narration and stuff), but knowing when we talk to which person, assuming Mion can pull a Shion disguise well enough to convince Keiichi, can be critical to solving the mystery. I’ll be liveblogging it encounter by encounter.
–MION/SHION DUALITY–
ENCOUNTER #1: I’m currently in the first scene in Angel Mort (Shion’s introduction basically). Besides the obvious stuff, there isn’t much to add save for a distinct change in voice but that can likely count as part of the disguise.
M/Shion mentions the maid punishment Keiichi endured when they first meet. Now we know that at this point Shion lives in the town and if memory serves, Shion and Mion rarely communicate. So the question is, could Shion have learned about that punishment before Keiichi came to Angel Mort for dinner? I think not, so I posit that the first time we see Shion is actually Mion in disguise.
ENCOUNTER #1: MION
ENCOUNTER #2: (this is right after the curry contest)
So, Keiichi hasn’t had a proper lunch and so collapses on the floor as soon as he gets home from exhaustion. Then, Shion visits him! We were told by Mion that Shion lives in Okinomiya and she does not come to Hinamizawa often. Now, why would this Shion:
- Visit Keiichi’s home, which she has supposedly talked to only once?
- Know where Keiichi’s home is? (this one can be explained by “Mion talks about it” I suppose…)
However, there’s one thing I am not sure about here.
We have posited already that Mion could be disguised as Shion in Angel Mort (E#1). Mion seems to imply that she’ll be at a difficult job she “isn’t used to”, then goes on to say that she’ll be working at the toy shop. I don’t think working at a toy shop could in any way be exacting or exhausting, nor could there be much of a thing “to get used to”. So perhaps, her complaining about how tiring the work is was a mistake (which is weird compared with her club activity persona, which is always cunning, not to mention all that mafia stuff I recall being uncovered later on). More importantly, though, is that this makes it seem likely that she’d be at work that afternoon. Perhaps she donned her disguise as Shion and visited Keiichi’s home along the way? I do not recall if Mion goes near Keiichi’s house on the way to town. I think there might be something related to this at the very beginning of Watanagashi (or was it Onikakushi?) but it’s probably not enough of a nitpick to comb for, not just yet.
Yep, she is on her way to work apparently. Well it’s either that or an excuse for Mion to don her Shion visage.
That gives me a third reason to suspect that this is Shion:
If she’s on her way to work and she is from Okinomiya, why the hell would she be in Hinamizawa?
I do not recall any excuse being made for why Shion is often in Hinamizawa, a visit or anything, so this is actually further definite proof for this Encounter being Mion’s doing if you ask me.
Moreover, Shion just deciding to bring him some “leftovers” out of the blue especially on the day Mion knows Keiichi ate no lunch seems remarkably convenient.
ENCOUNTER #2: MION
Okay, it’s far easier to write on my PC and my computer is usually offline when I’m playing Higurashi (shitty wifi reception in my room), so I’ll be recording my impressions in a Notepad sheet and then transfer them over to this post once in a while.
ENCOUNTER #3
-Chapter 3 TIPS: “It Was Delicious”-
This TIPS is Keiichi returning the aforementioned bento box to Mion per Shion’s request after giving it to him (what’d the deal with that be anyway? I mean, Shion supposedly sees Mion rather rarely so it seems inconvenient that she’d tell Keiichi to bring it to Mion. She could’ve visited the next day to pick it up or something, huhu. An excuse for visiting Keiichi’s house again as well. :p)
Mion acts all flustered and asks for Keiichi’s impression about the bento, and it is glaringly obvious that she sucks at lying.
This TIPS, I think, is pretty much an acknowledgement by Ryukishi07:
Mion can be disguised as Shion, so Shion’s presence or voice must not be taken for granted as it being Shion you’re talking to. This also means that Mion is capable of being (acting?) gentle, shy and kind the way the Shion persona is at will.
I entertained the possibility of it being Shion disguised as Mion , and maybe her gentler manners are the reason this “Mion” is kind of flustered at this point. This assumes that Shion can come (and stay, probably) in Hinamizawa according to her will, and that she’s cooperating with Mion over this. Seeing the later “love rivalry” of sorts between the two (it’s been months since I first read Watanagashi, that happened, right?), I have trouble believing that is what happened.
(edit: Ohohohohoho, Mion even thanks Keiichi for putting candy in the box. )
And thus, for me:
ENCOUNTER #3: MION
ENCOUNTER #4:
This is that infamous scene of Keiichi tipping over a bike and the Hinamizawa residents ganging up on the angry hoodlums.
Shion calls Keiichi “Kei-chan”, which seems a bit more intimate than expected of a mere acquaintance or a very new friend.
“My sister told me” is yet again the excuse for why she immediately knew that Keiichi was coming to the restaurant to pick up his key.
There isn’t much of an overall compelling evidence here otherwise pointing to this Shion being the Disguise rather than the Person.
Oh wait, this is getting interesting. Shion asks Keiichi who would he save if Mion and Shion were both dangling off a cliff and he could only save one. Sounds like something Mion would ask- In fact , there’s a suspicious slip of the tongue here. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…
And now the dam project has come up, but not much there save for how Shion sends off Keiichi.
ENCOUNTER #4: MION
To be perfectly honest noting down all that as I play is both tiring and makes the game less enjoyable, so I guess I’ll be taking a break from liveblogging.
A friend who has played all of Higurashi told me that the spoiler I had was incorrect. I don’t know anything, I feel. D: It feels bad to question Shion every time she appears, especially since she ended up being my favorite character so far. How it ends makes the replay even more painful. ;_;
Edit: Shion gives some very compelling evidence that she was the one who brought the bento and did stuff about the ticket when she and Keiichi encounter Mion working at the toy shop. Now that I think about it, making Keiichi give the box back to Mion is beautifully cruel, but there’s still the question of how (if) she knew Keiichi didn’t have lunch that day.
Moreover, why would Mion keep telling Shion about this stuff, which is how Shion claims to know things happening between Keiichi and Mion?
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I agree, I always thought it was odd that Mion told Shion first when she’s supposedly on bad terms with her instead of Rena, who’s stated to be her best friend. She does tell Rena eventually, and Rena knows that Keiichi’s flaw is that he can’t see people as being different than how they show themselves to the world, which is why Rena has these hints that “Somebody hurt Mii-chan” to Keiichi.
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http://www.polljunkie.com/poll/mtwamc/watanagashi-tea-party-character-poll
For those of you who have finished Watanagashi, I’ve prepared this character poll! My goal is to see how character perceptions change over time as we progress through the Tea Party. If you’ve already finished beyond Chapter 2, please do your best to rate these characters as you would based only on content from Chapter 1 and 2!
The Watangashi Tea Party has finally commenced! I look forward to all the discussion and speculation that results from this. Be sure to highlight topics or questions you’d like to see brought up in the podcast with bold!
We’ll be looking at your discussion here to decide on a Watanagashi Tea Party MVP to win a free copy of Tatarigoroshi, so get posting!
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Come on guys! There’s only 3 days left in the Tea Party and nobody has posted anything here! :S
There isn’t much I can say on this, but I do have a theory that never became relevant, and, accordingly, was never confirmed or denied.
The scene where Keiichi goes to Angel Morte for the first time is a really weird situation. him and his dad just suddenly head over there under the pretence that his mom doesn’t have time to cook, and when they arrive, his dad disappears to the toilet for like half an hour.
Before that we have a scene of Mion wanting to get closer to Keiichi, but feeling like the boyish first impression she made makes it impossible for Keiichi to see her as a girl,… so I think there’s plenty of things pointing to this scene being a date that Mion organized with the help of Keiichis Father, with her using Shions persona as a way of getting a second chance at meeting Keiichi for the first time.
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It’s good to be back in Hinamizawa.
After starting Umineko, I feel like I’ve been spoiled, because this episode didn’t resonate with me in the same way that Onikakushi did when I first read it. That could have a lot to do with the fact that I knew the scares were coming, even though Ryukishi did his best to mix things up. It could also be the fact that it feels like a precursor to Episode 3 of Umineko in that (Heavy EP3 spoilers) the culprit seems to look incredibly obvious, but then at the end something new is thrown at the reader that contradicts everything the reader’s been told up to that point. So while I did enjoy this episode a lot even though I had to read it by a vague deadline, some of the concepts did feel a little stale to me.
With that out of the way, time to discuss the ‘sharing of the soy sauce’.
Stemming off from what I remember of Onikakushi (which I’ve discovered I have yet to write a post about), I came up with the theory that Keiichi was hallucinating some things partway through. In the All-Star Cast Review of Onikakushi, Keiichi claimed that the murders were caused by both humans and a curse, but I think that may actually have some ground. It’s my personal belief that while there are people who were killing on the night of Watanagashi, the curse of Oyashiro-sama was slowly taking its toll on Keiichi himself in the form of severe paranoia. Whether or not Rena and Mion were going to cause him harm or not was still up to interpretation, but Keiichi’s murder justified his death in some way.
In Watanagashi, Mion definitely seems more suspicious now, although that doesn’t mean Rena is off the hook either. In fact, it differentiates itself too well from Onikakushi in that not once does Rena verbally attack Keiichi, but rather acts as a trusted ally. I think there could be two reasons for this:
One, both Rena and Mion are still in cahoots with one another, and Mion placed all the blame on herself to avoid giving Rena trouble. Rena pretended to be an ally, throwing him off with ‘evidence’ that would place the blame on Mion in order to hide what she had done. This is me invoking Chesterton’s third rule of writing detective stories, namely that if the criminal is in the foreground, he/she should be serving in some capacity other than ‘criminal’. Thus, I feel that it is very possible Rena is still the culprit even though she’s clearly ‘assisting’ Keiichi.
Two, neither Rena nor Mion were ever the culprit in the first place. In the All-Cast Review Session for Watanagashi, Mion suggests that the first four murders were too good for the fifth, which was incredibly messy. The Sonozaki family would have covered their tracks pretty quickly if they wanted to murder someone quietly, suggesting that the purpose of this story was to ensure that Mion definitely wasn’t the culprit. And maybe Rena really didn’t know anything, and the criminal is hidden from us until a later chapter. It kinda sounds like a cheap tactic to make us read more, though… ._.
And I haven’t even started talking about the anomaly that is Shion. Another tactic suggested by the gang is what Umineko calls ‘spinning the chessboard around’, which in this case means putting myself in Mion’s shoes to understand why she did the things she did. I think even Battler would have understood that Mion held feelings for Keiichi, but because of two major factors (Keiichi’s cluelessness and Shion’s own feelings for him), she was driven to throw herself in the metaphorical Onigafuchi of her mind and attacked the both of them in a slow, painful manner. If she were the culprit, what fueled her murderous rage was jealousy.
I also think that the throwaway tidbit about Mion and Shion switching places when they were young might be incredibly important here. We have little idea who could have called Keiichi when Shion disappeared, although via chessboard logic, it’s easy to suspect that Mion could have made those calls under the guise of Shion. And then comes the question of who stabbed Keiichi when Mion died. So here’s what I came up with: What if Shion was actually the one torturing Keiichi, and Mion was in the cell? You could say the one thing that differentiates them is their tattoo, but Rena refused her when she tried to show them, and she thanked her. Not only would this further back that Rena was in cahoots with Mion/Shion/whatever, but it would also be something of a Devil’s Proof (if I’m using my terminology correctly), because we never saw the tattoo on her back. One of them has to be Mion because Mion has the tattoo, but until we see who has the tattoo, it’s impossible to disprove that Mion is actually Shion in disguise, and vice versa.
Anyway, I’m done rambling. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this chapter, although at this point I could care less about the lore of Hinamizawa. Seriously, how did Rokkenjima become a far more interesting place? 
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So we just finished the podcast, and I just realised that we forgot to talk about a really important scene; the scene where Keiichi is on the ladder and Mion flips her shit.
Can we talk about that?
So this first part is my reply before reading the topic, so I’m sorry if I repeat stuff.
So first of all, what do we have confirmed now: Not much, really. The only thing that wasn’t doubted is that Hinamizawa definitely has a dark history. As a corrollary, even though the Review Session doubted the Sonozaki family’s involvement, they do have access to further torture devices.
Now for some of the things that don’t make sense. In the Review they already went over how “Mion” could stab Keiichi even though she’s dead. However, that leaves both Keiichi’s eventual death, if that is how the end of the hospital scene was to be seen, and Takano’s reappearance even though she was supposed to already be dead. I only have an explanation for the latter. Basically, since she burned to death and was only identified through her teeth, I could reasonably assume that not all of the burned remains are actually Takano’s. The former though is way more confusing, especially because I’d assume Keiichi’s mother to reenter the room once Ooishi left.
Now the Review also asked why Keiichi is targeted in both chapters and said that it can’t be because of the storehouse since he never went there in the first chapter. Now, in this chapter it showed even more strongly that the village kind of acts as a whole and is way more close-knit than even other villages. At parts it felt similar to depictions of sects in fiction to me, even. So it could very well be that Keichii crossed a line of sorts in both chapters that basically caused the villagers to deem him “dangerous” or “sinful”. With that approach this line then could have been the storehouse in this chapter. For that matter, one thing that happened in both chapters is Keiichi invariably asking about the incidents before Watanagashi. Another thing I can’t really make heads or tails of yet is Mion’s remark of Satoko being “cursed”. One thing that’s important to note is that we can’t be sure if Mion is Mion and Shion is Shion for most scenes. Only those where both appear can we be sure that they either are indeed themselves or have swapped positions, however such a theoretical swap could not happen during such a scene where both appear. Oh, the existence of Shion and the influence of the Sonozakis explains how Mion knew that Keiichi ate with Ooishi in Onikakushi, since they ate at Angel Mort, as far as I remember.
Now some thoughts on my feelings towards the story in general. Music wise, it’s funny, I like more the sad and scary tracks, but the tracks that play during the SoL scenes are only meh to me. Feeling wise, though, I’m confused. I mean, from what I hear this is supposed to be psychological horror, yet I never felt fear, neither in Onikakushi nor in Watanagashi. I mean, what I do feel is a feeling of sickness or disgust whenever deaths or tortures are described in all their details, but actual fear, no. So, am I weird?
Also, I don’t know where to put this, but I wanna put this somewhere:
Stuff Watanagashi referenced (from what I felt):
- The Game of Life
- Memory
- Soylent Green
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