Higurashi Ch. 5 Meakashi Spoiler-Free General

[Pepe]

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’m interested in reading your opinions regarding up to what point Shion’s actions were justified.

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.

It’s now on the level that I can see myself listening to the OST.

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

But yeah the whole motorcycle falling seen is quite suspicious…

Is Meakashi supposed to have the exact same chain of events as Watanagashi or are there actually slight differences?

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

What really are those sounds that shouldn’t exist (extra step behind Keiichi, that sound in the toolshed in Watanagashi, etc.)?

I’ll combine this with What is common between Ch1 Keiichi, Ch3 Keiichi, Rena, Ch2/5 Shion, Ch2 Tomitake and Ch5 Satoshi?

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:

Higurashi Ch. 2 Watanagashi Spoiler-Free General

(Spoilers for Meakashi) I find it interesting how Ryukishi constructed the mystery of this chapter. There’s no outright contradiction with having Mion be the culprit, at least up until the final encounter where Mion was already dead. Every single piece of the puzzle seems to fit just fine with Mion as the culprit, right down to Shion’s insanity at the end. But then you hit that final encounter which is simply contradictory. Of course the contradiction is revealed at the same time some other curi…

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.

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