Higurashi Ch. 3 Tatarigoroshi Full Series Spoilers General

[Aspirety]

Spoilers discussion topic for Chapter 3: Tatarigoroshi of Higurashi When They Cry. Chapter 3 refers to volumes 5 and 6 of the manga, and episodes 9-13 of the first anime series.

This topic is intended for people who have finished the entirety of Higurashi and wish to discuss this chapter in light of future events. For those who have yet to finish Higurashi in its entirety, please tread carefully, because there will be untagged spoilers! Please tag references to outside works with the [spoiler] tag, with adequate context provided in parenthesis.

For those who have yet to finish the series and wish to discuss the story up to this point, please visit our Spoiler-Free discussion topic.

While this topic will serve as a general hub for discussion of the chapter, if a conversation ends up flowing in a certain direction, don’t be afraid to continue it in your own topic! Keep the “reply as linked topic” button beside each post in mind.

[Karifean]

Umineko - Bernkastel Character Discussion (Full Series Spoilers)

([General] Higurashi Spoilers) Well, in that case the question is how did they know where the body was?

(General Higurashi Spoilers) I think it was Takano and the Yamainu actually. Takano did ask Keiichi whether he ‘buried the corpse deep enough’, so it’s implied she knows that he buried a corpse. It’s not a stretch to assume the Yamainu dug up the corpse to make Keiichi a less credible witness so he can’t believably testify to having seen Takano.

[Isae]

(General Higurashi spoilers) Yeah, that’s actually what I think. I wonder how Ooishi found out where Teppei was buried, though. He and those other cops showed up with shovels, so they must have at least had a vague idea where the corpse was supposed to be. Do you think Takano told them? (Not directly, obviously, but used her connections to convey the information.) If so, was it some kind of strategy on her part, or did she just do it for laughs?

[Aspirety]

Seriously though guys, what the fuck is up with this chapter? So many head-scratchers.

Are we running on the assumption that Teppei really was killed, or was it just someone who looked like him? I guess I can buy that the Yamainu did it just to cover up any trail Takano left behind by meeting with Keiichi.

But why is it that the disaster occurs in some chapters and not others? It defnitely didn’t occur in Watanagashi, so why now?

May be some details I’m forgetting, so bear with me.

Also, the notes at the end really make me wonder if Takano was written as the main villain from the beginning or not. It kinda bugs me how the most suspicious person was the mastermind after all.

[Karifean]

Are we running on the assumption that Teppei really was killed, or was it just someone who looked like him? I guess I can buy that the Yamainu did it just to cover up any trail Takano left behind by meeting with Keiichi.

This exactly. The one Keiichi killed really was Teppei; Satoko claimed he was still alive because she was hallucinating and linking everything bad happening to him (Hinamizawa Syndrome Level 5 and stuff). The others were forging an alibi for him.

But why is it that the disaster occurs in some chapters and not others? It defnitely didn’t occur in Watanagashi, so why now?

The disaster happens because Takano kills Rika and convinces the Tokyo higher-ups that the village needs to be purged lest they all go insane in the next 48 hours. In Watanagashi, Shion kills Rika and her corpse is discovered later on, disproving or at least casting doubt on Takano’s hypothesis which prevents the purge from happening.

Also, the notes at the end really make me wonder if Takano was written as the main villain from the beginning or not. It kinda bugs me how the most suspicious person was the mastermind after all.

Pretty sure Takano was supposed to be the main villain from the very beginning. That being said while she is the ‘main villain’, there are multiple mysteries in Higurashi intersecting with one another and the “Rule Y” mystery that causes the village to get wiped out is hardly touched upon before Tatarigoroshi. Before that at best you can link Takano to Tomitake’s strange suicide.

[Isae]

Also, the notes at the end really make me wonder if Takano was written as the main villain from the beginning or not. It kinda bugs me how the most suspicious person was the mastermind after all.

What Karifean said.

Also, Ryukishi has said that with Higurashi, what he really wanted people to figure out wasn’t so much the culprit but the “rules” that made up the Higurashi world. I seem to remember him saying that as far as he was concerned, if readers figured out Rules X, Y, and Z as shown in the prologue to Minagoroshi, they “won.”

[Karifean]

A nice little detail I took notice of when rereading this was how Keiichi was treated when he was found by the military after the disaster. One of the guys there insisted he receive medical attention and screams at the others not to kill him. It’s a nice callback to the Emergency Manual 34 scene in Minagoroshi where you can see how the forces are completely devastated at having to purge the entire village. Not like they could really go against their higher-ups’ orders but I suppose seeing a lone survivor appear was the last straw for some of them, so they saved him even though it compromises the integrity of the volcanic gas narrative.