Higurashi Ch. 5 Meakashi Spoiler-Free General

Well I was more thinking as to what actually happened on that day. Did Satoshi buy the stuffed animal? Was it already gone? What happened then, was he abducted on the way home? Or did he never make it to the toy store in the first place and he actually went missing earlier?

Either way, here are some more notes~

[details=Chapter 9 Notes]-Helloooo déjà vu.

-Haha, the differences in how Satoshi and Keiichi handle the situation is just hilarious.

-Jesus fucking christ Keiichi.

-Good old Ryukishi narration. I guess you could read this in a sort of longing tone, but to me this really reads as Shion having to remind herself that Satoshi would’ve done things sooo much better than Keiichi because she doesn’t want to accept that she could actually move on and find someone new to take a liking to.

-That being said, Shion thinking back to Satoshi and how his existence is being forgotten is pretty saddening, ngl.

-It’s so easy to imagine how the tug-of-war scene came to be, isn’t it. If Watanagashi had gone slightly differently that totally would’ve been how it went down =P

-Though then Shion mentally berating herself for ‘forgetting about Satoshi’ and totally convincing herself that Keiichi stroking her head didn’t make her happy at all is just tragic…

-And then there’s the extra footstep. And Shion doesn’t even rationally interpret it as her going through the same experience as Rena and Satoshi, she just emotionally accepts that it’s Satoshi’s footstep immediately.

-She continues talking to him the whole evening.

-And as Satoshi follows her daily life, it starts brightening again.

-This is so weird to read, heh.

-Man the storehouse scene reads a lot differently from Shion’s perspective, now doesn’t it?

-Tomitake to the rescue~

-“Notebook Page 172” Yay more talk about ancient ritualistic customs.

-“Notebook Page 173” And more.

-“Notebook Page 179” Heh, now that’s a fun theory, isn’t it.[/details]

[details=Chapter 10 Notes]-Ah yes, that night when everything starts going haywire in every single goddamn arc.

-Oh hey Shion finally makes the connection between the footsteps she’s experiencing and the ones Rena was talking about.

-And then as Mion intimidates Shion, she finally takes it too far and Shion snaps.

-Shion ‘waking up’ kind of reminds me of Keiichi’s experience in Tatarigoroshi. All that’s missing is Dancers7.

-Unbelievably unfortunate how Shion inadvertedly killed Oryou with that stun gun so quickly, isn’t it?

-Shion is so dominating in the interactions with Mion, but even she falters when it comes to the curse.

-“While there were only ones and zeroes in the world, she believed there were numbers with decimal points.” Now that’s poetic. I do like how the likeness of Shion and Oryou is emphasized here though.

-I really do wonder how this story would continue if Shion actually got to interrogate Oryou…

-Seeing the utter explosion of Shion’s violent emotions at the family that neglected and mistreated her all those years is pretty heavy though. Even Mion is not exempt from it.

-“Notebook Page 183” Sometimes I can’t help but wonder when Shion took the time to take these notes…

-“Notebook Page 185” The relationship between the Sonozaki sisters and their dad is never really given much attention as far as I recall. Makes me wonder how easily Shion fell into her obvious bias of wanting him to be innocent even though she so readily condemns the people she doesn’t like, like Oryou.[/details]

[details=Chapter 11 Notes]

-Even having disposed of Oryou and locked up Mion, Shion is still afraid of the retribution she’ll face for sneaking into the storehouse. Though I guess it’s more her being scared at the fact that everyone just ‘accepts’ that horrible things happen to people for ignorant shows of disrespect.

-Now I can finally point out how “Mion” teasing Keiichi in their meeting was such an obvious Shion tell, especially with how Keiichi himself points out that that was totally out of character for her =P

-Keiichi really is a terrible actor and liar though, Shion’s definitely not wrong there. That instant comparison to Satoshi though.

-Scheming Shion is a delightful sight though, in a way. Even knowing how it ends, there’s a feeling of excitement to any good thrilling story.

-Hmm, I haven’t heard Shion mention God in quite a while now that I think about it. I wonder if she prefers just attributing anything she could consider an ‘enemy’ to a human, such as the curse. Though I guess Oyashiro-sama works too.

-Goddamnit Ooishi. YOU RUINED EVERYTHING.

-That council meeting really is chilling though, isn’t it. Everyone casually accepting that death is perfectly reasonable retribution for entering the freaking storehouse.

-Man Kimiyoshi was doing so well, but then he had to go and say that the Houjous deserve to be cursed. You could hardly have made a worse mistake, dude.

-And then Shion goes berserk on him.

-Shion comes up with the same idea for a curse that was brought up in Himatsubushi and the podcast, IIRC. It’s a clever system, getting around laws and basically making it impossible to charge the leader with anything.

-Ah man I almost forgot this was the same phone call where Keiichi starts ranting like a madman. Of course Shion is a lot more shrewd than he realizes.

-Seems like such an obvious conclusion in hindsight than Satoshi is probably at the bottom of that well, doesn’t it?

-This scene where she talks to Satoshi is genuinely moving… I didn’t remember it being so poignant.

-And then when she blows up at Mion… man this arc is just so good.

-There’s the ‘give me my name back’. I remember this being so weird in the anime because they completely and utterly omit the part about them having been switched. Not even joking. Even though it tells you so much about their relationship.

-“Notebook Page 188” Man Shion really is fully committed to this, isn’t she…[/details]

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No idea, really. If that plush Keiichi wins in Onikakushi is the same bear, then Satoshi obviously didn’t buy it, but if it’s not, then I don’t really see much hints for either case being true.

Man that IS weird. I didn’t notice since I was playing with the 07th mod which places PS3 sprites where Mangagamer ones are missing, so those two did have sprites for me. But why did the Mangagamer sprites include Akane, but not the other adults? Weird!

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The original sprites also only have a sprite for Akane, so that might be why. Mangagamer could have easily said, “we are only making new sprites for the sprites that appear in the original”. Still, why did Akane get a sprite when the others didn’t in the original? Was she intended to have a larger role in the story and then something changed last minute? The world will never know.

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[details=Chapter 12 Notes]

-Goddamnit Keiichi, yes that’s what I’m doing right now.

-Shion you do realize Rika was dancing on stage while you guys were sneaking into the storehouse?

-“I’m the shrine maiden of Oyashiro-sama, don’t you know?” Heheheh, the wonderful implications~

-It’s kinda tragic how blatant Shion is projecting her expectations of the Furude Family Head onto Rika, not even attempting to consider the fact that she might be a little off base.

-These lines remind me of that one exchange in V for Vendetta. “What was done to me was monstrous!” “And so they created a monster.” Shion is the same way right here. Because she suffered so much - in her mind at the hands of the very ones she’s now planning on torturing - her baseline for terror is extremely tilted. Even hammering nails into people’s fingertips seems appropriate.

-That instant switch to “I really liked him”. Though it only takes her a few lines to realize her trust was misplaced.

-Shion’s fantasy of Satoko being the fourth year’s victim instead of Satoshi is all sorts of tragic. So selfish. And yet so saddening to hear.

-And she suddenly realizes she’s become everything she’s ever hated… and then instantly scrambles to find an excuse as to why she’s not that terrible after all. I love the writing in Shion’s narration so much.

-There’s Rika.

-“I’m pretty good at pouring soy sauce into a funnel, you know…?” xD

-Suddenly the music cuts out completely as we read about Rika matching Shion’s footsteps. How ominous.

-The smirk.

-‘Torture Maniac’, I remember the line just being ‘sadist’ in one of the anime subs but I like this expression a lot better. It’s right on the mark at this point, too.

-Urgh, that sure is one way of committing suicide though… and Shion squees.

-And then as Shion gets elated she recounts how her life became total shit in the first place. Surely she knows at this point that her life is heading into a dead end, so she doesn’t care anymore. Time to indulge in all those sweet feelings of pettiness and vengeance and taste what things would have been like if they had never gone horribly wrong in the first place, thus taking back her original name and reclaiming her position with it.

-I’ll still call her Shion though.

-It started earlier already of course, but from this point forward especially Meakashi is just… unbelievably tragic to me. As Shion completely loses it and as she’s already accomplished what she set out to do (or rather, she thinks she did), there’s nothing left for her. Nothing but to indulge in her most vulgar desires, pouring all her frustration and madness into atrocities. She reclaims the name Mion in the only environment she will ever be acknowledged as being the real Mion in. And in doing so irreversibly abandons Shion.

-Satoko, it’s a trap! Aren’t you the master of traps?

-I remember the anime showing this phone call wonderfully though. Where Shion, while talking to Keiichi in a totally distressed voice, casually wipes her fingers clean of Rika’s blood. It was perfect.

-Shion stahp, this is not a good idea, bail, baaaaail.

-Heh, and she feels inferior to Rena as a demon. Well we’ll just have to wait and see how much there is to that, won’t we? =P

-Jesus christ the berserk buttons.

-Great, even the inner monologue is becoming intelligible. Shion’s just drowning herself in more and more hate. Doesn’t help that she has Satoko locked up in her basement.

-Ooishi’s info network is really impressive though. Dude’s probably the most consistently well-informed guy around.

-Phew, that was a long one!

-“Notebook Page 195” Oh you know Shion they built a Rika Cloning Facility for everyone’s amusement.

-“Notebook Page 196” The way this TIP keeps bringing attention to how some parts are just scribbles really mirrors Shion’s mental state, doesn’t it?[/details]

[details=Chapter 13 Notes]

-“Hey everyone, are you still alive?” sure makes for a catchy greeting, doesn’t it.

-One of the most memorable scenes from the anime, though I distinctly remember its conclusion being so much more poignant in the VN. Let’s see how it holds up.

-Satoko’s determination on showing her growth as she strives for the future is such an incredible contrast to Shion who deliberately drove herself into a dead end as she wanted to sort out her past.

-Even though, well, we’ve already seen the major downfall of Satoko’s determination in Tatarigoroshi.

-Shion’s not wrong though. Satoko’s strength came too late for Satoshi. But then again, would she have gotten that strong in the first place if things had never played out the way they did? That’s something only the voyagers can really know.

-As she finally realizes she really did cut her future away from her, she breaks down once more.

-“That thing… is me.” Almost feels like a 4th wall break, doesn’t it?

-“Hurry and corner me. Hurry, let me be… free.”

-The duality of what Shion does here, both wishing for her own destruction as well as attempting to struggle as much as she can manage, is really interesting. On the one hand she has nothing more to lose so why not cause as much havoc as could still bring her joy, on the other hand she’s deliberately coming up with excuses not to do it, and rooting for Keiichi and Rena to stop her. And when Keiichi still shows her affection after all this, she calls him a fool for it but is still clearly touched by it, even if her cynicism hides most of it.

-Also, as much as she dissociates herself from, well, herself, I do really like how introspective Shion still is at this point.

-Ah yes, the Sonozaki Bluff. In a way it’s the perfect coup de grâce for such a tragic story isn’t it? The realization that in the end it was a complete and utter fuckup. And of course, even though she just admitted in her thoughts that she couldn’t imagine Mion and Oryou lying, she has to deny it. She simply has to. Otherwise, every single reason for her falling into this dead end of her own making evaporate, and all that’s left is… a punchline.

-RIP Mion.

-“Notebook Page 199” And there ends the notebook. Written on June 1st? Was that a typo?[/details]

[details=Chapter 14 Notes]-I’m guessing this typewriter bit is identical to the Watanagashi one, at least partially.

-So we went from Satoshi, to creepy ghost thing, to yourself, and now Mion. Man you have a lot of people following you.

-In the end, Shion still has one final bit of vengeance to enact on Mion.

-Man this constant laughter in the narration is kind of distracting xD

-Poor Keiichi. No clue what’s going on, even after all this time.

-And then Shion misses her step, and falls down onto the elevator housing two stories down, initiating the end of this arc. That single final moment of complete clarity is really magical to me. Right before Shion rolls over and falls down headfirst towards the concrete ground.

-In her final moments, Shion swears to herself… that she wouldn’t make the same mistake again. And so she hears Satoshi’s voice as she’s about to hit the ground.

-“I’m sorry that I was born.” Those words…

-And in the alternative timeline where Shion remembers her promise, we finally get to see her pretty sprite after all this time. Such a nice, lighthearted scene at the end of it all.

-“A Happy Diary” Ultimately I do agree with Ooishi though. Shion really did love Satoshi. Yes, she acted on that love in entirely selfish manners and completely ignored what Satoshi himself would have wanted, but I could see them having a much, much healthier relationship if the circumstances had been a little different. And while Shion’s feelings for Satoshi were twisted by virtue of him being literally the only interesting thing in her life, that’s not all there was to it. Absolutely not.

-“Disowned” Just a little sneak peek at the behind-the-scenes of the Sonozaki family.

-And finally… the Staff Room. It should probably come as no surprise, but I certainly sympathize with Shion. That doesn’t mean I think her actions are in any way, shape or form good, but I’m not looking to justify them in the first place. I simply think that I can sort of understand why she followed the path she did. It is what it is. In the end, that’s all there is to it. I’m not looking to make her actions good. I just strive to see them as human, and understand them as such.

-So basically, I care not for justifiable murder. Only for understandable murder.[/details]

And that’s Meakashi. I really love this arc. It made Shion into my favorite Higurashi character and she still holds that spot today. She’s a very tragic character in my eyes. That moment when she decides to enact her revenge for Satoshi’s supposed death, she cuts off her own future for the sake of sorting out her past. Reminds me of another particular plotline in a 07th Expansion work, heh.

Meakashi to me is the first arc that truly exemplifies Ryukishi’s incredible talent at writing human characters, and for that it will always have a special place in my heart. As for whether or not it will remain my favorite Higurashi arc by the end of this reread though, well, we’ll see about that.

Also I was surprised - the standard You didn’t even play in this arc, did it? I thought it played during the end credits but, uh, there were no end credits!

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Well now, that was one heck of a ride! I was thinking of posting small updates while reading but I ended up just going through everything and boy was it worth it. It’s amazing the amount of catharsis and emotional impact this story had, compared to the previous chapters, and for this, I mark it as the best chapter of Higurashi…so far. So to start, let me open up some discussion from the previous posts…

I honestly think her actions up to zapping and imprisoning Mion and Oryou were justified. Oryou’s death was an accident after all (though it is less justified putting a taser to an elderly woman). Everything after that? Well… nope.

Hey man I loved the OST since the question arcs :’( [quote=“VyseGolbez, post:19, topic:48”]
After all, in Watanagashi, Keiichi met both Shion and Takano one day earlier, so saying “It’s been forever!” wouldn’t make much sense. Or am I just dumb and seriously misremembering things?
[/quote]

That was actually Shion saying “it’s been forever”… wasn’t it?

But yeah the whole motorcycle falling seen is quite suspicious…

This opens a veeeeery big can of worms. There are changes in Meakashi compared to Watanagashi but that begs the question… if there were minor changes there, whose to say there aren’t more major changes? Like the butterfly effect, maybe the changes we saw were enough to make it such that Meakashi actually had it as Mion being the true culprit :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m starting to believe that these sounds are made by an actual supernatural being… A “presence,” if you will, who Rika can interact with on a very close level. Is it Oyashiro-sama? Is it Frederika Bernkastel? Or is it something else?

And something from the previous topic, since I can read the spoiler tag:

This is what I both love and hate about these two chapters: It can go either way, and everything still falls into place! I definitely knew back then that Shion replaced Mion at the very least on the day after Watanagashi, and I was open to the possibility that it was Shion all along who was torturing and killing everyone… But there was no solid evidence. It was just up there. But that by itself makes this whole turn of events even more fun. If it were easy to figure out, then reading this chapter would, well, just be a bore. It makes me think that it wasn’t intended to be solved in the first place.


I’m suddenly pressed for time so I’ll leave my personal thoughts for a later date :hauu:

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Yes it was, which is why it wouldn’t make sense. After all, if Keiichi met both, that also means that Shion met Takano the day before. Why would she say “It’s been forever!” in this case?

I remember a Japanese person on Steam also saying that the end credits were missing. Did the original version of Meakashi have end credits? Did MangaGamer forgot to include it?

Keiichi met both of them together the day before??
Or is that something from Watanagashi that I forgot already?

That is something you forgot from Watanagashi. Which is why I was somewhat certain that Meakashi is just ever so slightly different from Watanagashi. But don’t feel too bad, part of the reason why I remembered that was because I made that timeline a month or so ago.

Also discourse tells me that I’m posting a lot in this topic.

Ryukishi actually stated himself that the deduction that Mion is the culprit is a perfectly valid deduction at the time of Watanagashi. It turns out to be wrong, but it’s not because of faulty reasoning.

Though rereading this chapter made me realize that Mion and Shion refer to Satoshi differently, Mion says “Satoshi” while Shion says “Satoshi-kun” which is something you could probably piece together after the Shion scene in Tatarigoroshi and lead back into that one scene where ‘Mion’ freaks out holding the ladder in Watanagashi.

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When I looked at the shipping thread once, I was actually surprised at the lack of Keiichi x Shion support.

Perhaps not so much now.

Let’s talk about Satoko again for a moment.

I was honestly astonished by her ability to take Shion’s assault as well as she did. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to. Perhaps Ryukishi wanted to remind us that, though it can drive us to madness, it can also make us stronger.

I want to know something: how do we feel about Keiichi as of this point? I’m curious.

Also, I’m glad we all seem to have agreed to call Mion and Shion by their names they begin this with for the sake of simplicity.

One more thing: there’s a specific thing that Rika says that I’m surprised more people haven’t brought up.

Yes, the original version has end credits. And yes, ‘You’ (non vocal) plays during them.

I can’t believe they left that out. :unamused:

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We should probably let MangaGamer know so they can fix it.
I’m planning to let them know after work.

Edit: I just got a responds from a programmer from MangaGamer.

I’m now confused did or didn’t the Japanese version of Meakashi have end credits and the song ‘You’ (non vocal) ?

I think they mean that the question arcs didn’t have end credits (although the original Tatarigoroshi actually did).

Now to continue the discussion on my thoughts in general about Meakashi. First and foremost, I’d like to state one thing: I’m dropping the ball on trying to figure out any of the mysteries. Frankly, it’s been the most frustrating part of the past few games for me (mostly because of the peer pressure of looking at this from a mystery perspective). With that, I’ve almost forgotten what I’ve loved about the Higurashi series: the raw emotion portrayed by all the characters. So THAT is what I shall be focusing on for the rest of the answer arc chapters. After all, we’re done with the questions arc, so I shall stop asking questions. :stuck_out_tongue: so what happened to satoshi? Who was the culprit of all the members? What the fuck is happening in hinamizawa? I’m good with just enjoying the ride until we get to those answers.

Now then! My, where do we start? This chapter just has so much raw emotion in it that I have no idea where to start. Let’s begin with Shion’s undying love for Satoshi. It was such a pleasure to read about her emotions budding from having an interest in him to falling head-over-heels for him. Going so far as to reveal her identity to create an alibi for Satoshi was the high point in this, and gave Shion so much plus points in my book for that.

I’d like to link in some of the earlier themes of the story with this; one big point of question early on was Mion and Shion’s discussion of what is “mature.” Shion believes standing up for yourself and resolving discussion is the mature path to take whereas Mion believed preserving the harmony was the more mature thing to do. It came as such a shock for Shion, this being the first time they disagreed on something. So, which of those is actually considered “mature”? Well, that’s all up to you to decide.

However, when we look at Satoshi, he seems like one of the latter types of people. Instead of telling off his family, he protects Satoko and keeps the harmony of their family intact. And whaddya know, Shion goes gaga over this! Thus, it makes me feel that Shion doesn’t love Satoshi just because he was there to provide some interest in her life; Shion loved Satoshi because he possessed a maturity that Shion could never have.

This hooks very well into what she thought of Keiichi. She thought her reason for loving Satoshi was simple as that, thus, she thought that she could have Keiichi as a substitute. But Keiichi wasn’t warm. He did not have Satoshi’s maturity because his maturity was more of the kind that Shion has: the confront and resolve type. Maybe, in reverse, that’s why Mion fell in love with Keiichi.

So that’s one thing I hope people will realize in this chapter: Shion’s love for Satoshi was, in no way shallow. It gives more reason to her going crazy over his loss. But does it justify her deeds? Well, that’s for you to decide :wink:

Guess I’m out of time again, so come back next time when I start talking about Shion’s spiral into madness~

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I believe that Satoshi bought the bear for Satoko. I dont think that Satoshi would be one to run off and leave Satoko for herself.
I think it was one of the tips this was mentioned, but its Satoshi hiding something in a bush and he’s saying that he’s hiding this thing so he can come back and get it later, but no one will see it passing by. I think he intended to come back for this item (the bear) and give it to Satoko for her birthday. Now the question becomes here, why didnt he come back? I think he was going to meet up with someone quickly, someone he trusted. That person is somewhat responsible for Satoshi’s disappearance. Whether they made him disappear or someone else enlisted in their help is up for discussion. Who this person might have been is up for discussion, but I don’t think it was anyone from the Sonozaki group. I believe Oryou and Mion when they say they had nothing to do with Satoshi’s disappearance. As to whether or not Satoshi is alive, I have no idea.

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So let’s talk about Shion’s madness a bit. I think we can all agree that her descent was caused by a big bout of paranoia: she believed that the whole hinamizawa persecuted Satoshi, and was now out to get her. There are many many little things that caused her to go down this road. We have her investigation, the news from satoshi, the damn notebook from Takano, and her going into the storage shed only moments before Takano and Tomitake’s deaths. They all ligned up just sooo well with making it appear that there was a “system” involved in Hinamizawa with all this. After she listened in on her granny and Mion talking about it, she just cracked. Kimiyoshi’s reactions regarding Satoshi didn’t help one bit. And because of her belief, she ended up using Keiichi to try to ensnare the culprit (we all know how that ended up :mii: )

But where did she go wrong? I guess the VN makes it quite obvious: Shion failed to protect the Satoshi in her heart. Not only Satoshi, but she failed to protect the entire Hinamizawa in her heart. She was a part of the Hinamizawa Guardians after all! With what she did, she ended up betraying the people she grew up with.

This is why the catharsis for the entire VN was the scene of Satoko protecting her belief in Satoshi. And damn did that move me to tears. The epilogue itself was just so sad. Things could have gone so much better! I demand a chapter with Shion being a part of the gang!!!

Even with regards to her grandmother, she was too quick to label her as the mastermind, but failed to remember the tip from her own mother. Oryou isn’t really as bad as she seems! She does have to put on a very scary act, but it remains just an act at the end. Maybe it has caused things to happen, perhaps even the kidnapping of the grandson in Himatsubushi, but that is probably all there is to it.

But looking at it from a more meta perspective, what does this have to tell us, the readers? Well I have a question for you guys: were you able to protect the Hinamizawa in your heart? Or were you, like me, quick to label Rena, Mion, Satoko and even Rika as murderers?

Yes, a subtle point of this whole topic goes into how people think of the series as a whole. Suffice to say, I felt an immense amount of guilt at the whole Satoko scene. I was not able to protect the Keiichi, Rena, Mion, Satoko and Rika in my heart. Heck, my biggest view since Onikakushi has been that they are guilty, but we should play along anyway, and forgive them for that (which is why I liked the potential of there being an alibi for Keiichi in Tatarigoroshi).

So what I think the VN wants to tell us regarding this mystery is that we should not be so quick as to judge our friends just because there is a potential of them being the culprit. We’ve spent so many chapters playing games and having fun with them, and then we would label them as culprits soon after?

Yes, call it naive if you will, but this is probably the biggest hint I’ve been given in the entire series. I will not make the same mistake as Shion, and I will protect the friends in my heart. I drop all my charges against Rena, Mion, Satoko, and Rika, no matter how suspicious they seem to be. I’ve always wanted to trust and believe them (which Onikakushi all too easily disgraced for me) and from here on I’m pushing on that belief.

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I agree that it is easy to start suspecting everyone and acquiring the same paranoia that many of the characters developed. However, it’s hard to suspect certain characters. I mean Onikakushi was clearly the Keiichi getting super paranoid and ended up beating his friends into pulp. Watanagashi, Shion calling Keiichi and supposedly meeting the mayor when it was completely impossible was a huge giveaway that something was up with the twins (except at the time I thought it was Mion as Shion. I even thought it really was Mion switching into Shion at the cafe and stuff which has been proved incorrect).

After Meakashi, it’s especially hard for anybody to accuse Mion or Satoko of being guilty. It seems likely that Takano killed her boyfriend, so maybe, (wild guess incoming) oyashiro sama punishes murderers through Rika? Maybe the god gets rid of murderers like the guy who killed the foreman, like Satoshi who probably killed his aunt?, gets rid of Takano, and Rika went to kill Shion because Shion was a murderer by then?

Regardless, I find that it’s hard to protect the image of someone when they are shown to be in the act of murder. Even if somehow Rika just carries syringes for fun and Keiichi has alibi in Tatagoroshi and it was all in his head, there’s no mistake that at least in Onikakushi Keiichi bloodied up Rena and Mion in his room. I feel like before we exonerate anyone we need to focus on some of the details and how some of these murders may be crimes of passion due to paranoia and the historical image the village gives off.

…Goddamn.

Something about this arc had felt off to me. It, somehow, hit me nowhere as hard as most people here despite Shion being my favorite character in question arcs. I finished it in two or three days but something felt off regardless. I thought that perhaps I should have reviewed Watanagashi. Perhaps I binged it too hard. I felt I was doing, or feeling, or thinking about something the wrong way.

And you just fucking nailed (pun not intended) it in a single sentence. I stopped caring when I started to think of everyone and everything as the culprit. In the end, I fell to my own excessive paranoia as well.

I love your outlook. I’ve also focused too hard on “solving the mystery”, myself! I think I’ll believe in the club members from now on, just like you do.

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