[details=Chapter 4 Notes]
-Heh, Shion criticizing Satoshi for not trying hard enough. Sometimes it’s easy to pass as Mion, isn’t it 
Though hmm… (Matsuribayashi Spoilers) I wonder if Irie, beyond just giving them an outlet, partly works as coach so he can closely monitor the boys’ conditions? You know, just in case…
-It is rather interesting to see the Houjou family circumstances described from the other side - usually it’s “Satoko’s” mother who’s remarried a few times, “Satoko’s” uncle and aunt who are such terrible people, but now, of course, from Shion’s perspective they’re “Satoshi-kun’s” family. It’s a small touch, and it makes sense.
-And there comes Shion’s jealousy towards Satoko. It’s not like her feelings towards her are unfounded, but well, she’s expecting a lot from a brat.
-“I’d objectively looked at the situation and made a modest proposal.” and literally the next line is “To be honest, I was simply afraid that he might leave the team.”
-Enter Rena. I do like how Higurashi defines the relationships between all of its cast members pretty damn well. Like it’s not all just revolving around Keiichi. Especially Shion could’ve fallen into that trap, but Meakashi blew all those worries out of the water.
-I do like how Shion, kinda unlike Keiichi most of the time, is good at picking up a lot from relatively minor details. On the one hand it’s just satisfying to follow a POV character that’s good at keeping up with things as they come, on the other hand it’s also just another element that makes Meakashi feel so distinct from everything we’ve read so far.
-The entire scene with Rena is really damn chilling tho, isn’t it. I don’t feel like I can just casually comment on it any more though =P
-Nice Hinamizawa Bus Stop reference.
-“Notebook Page 21” You know, since Rena was shown not to know about Shion in Watanagashi (and from what I remember the circumstances make it unlikely she was just playing along) I do wonder what Rena must’ve felt when her existence finally became public knowledge. Did she think back and re-evaluate all her interactions with Mion? I wonder if she ever did come to realize the one she talked to in this scene was actually Shion.
-“Notebook Page 24” Hmm, now I wonder how Shion reacts to first experiencing the extra footstep herself. I don’t quite recall.[/details]
[details=Chapter 5 Notes]
-Couldn’t even stop to write during this whole school scene. Such a charged moment. Even though Shion is acting totally unreasonably (and my god Mion must’ve had such a great time picking up the pieces afterwards…) you can just feel her frustration so strongly.
-Oh hey is that another version of You I hear? It really is the leitmotif of this chapter, huh.
-And the notebook page tells us that Shion did come to realize eventually that she didn’t really care about Satoshi’s feelings in the matter, just about her own.
-Midway point already… been slacking on my note taking a bit. I blame Meakashi for being so damn engaging.
-Kasai is such a good guy. He doesn’t have much of a presence at all for a long time, but whenever he is there he’s pretty cool.
-I really wish we got some more insight into Mion’s perspective during this whole fiasco. I’d imagine she’s quite annoyed at what she has to deal with occasionally, but can’t really let go of her feeling of responsibility, which really does perpetually affect Mion and Shion’s relationship.
-Shion being so continuously reluctant to take care of Satoko is really kind of heartbreaking.
-“A Torn Diary” Well, is there anything left to say at this point?[/details]
[details=Chapter 6 Notes]
-Figures that the terrible relationship between the Houjou family and the villagers was kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Though I doubt it would’ve taken long to get sour either way.
-Witness Satoko and Rika’s epic stare-and-Nipah-down!
-“It’s already been decided.”
-The descriptions of Satoshi’s state of mind do seem awfully familiar, don’t they.
-Hahahaha oh man, thanks for the mental image of Oryou looking at a bag of small goodies, being like “fuck this” and going out to buy electronic equipment, while the people leading the raffle could only stare in disbelief.
-Heh, nice one, Irie. He’s pretty good at handling Ooishi, isn’t he.
-Ooishi prodding Satoshi for a reaction.
-This Shion-Satoshi scene is the most upbeat in a while, huh. All this light-hearted teasing. It’s so nice, especially knowing that in the timeline, as far as we know, it’s almost time for Satoshi to be onikakushi’d.
-And then Shion gives up her safety to give Satoshi an alibi.
-The characters for ‘poetry’ and ‘sound’, huh…
-“Notebook Page 29” Isn’t it a little hard to just ‘make up a culprit’, even for the Sonozaki family?[/details]
[details=Chapter 7 Notes]
-This scene really makes you remember just how intimidating the Sonozaki family can actually be at times doesn’t it…
-Aaaaaaaah, the nail ripping scene. It never gets any easier to witness no matter how many times I go through it. Seeing that for the first time in the anime I legitimately feared for my fingernails for a while. Reading about it only made it worse. What gets me now though is how utterly helpless Shion is in this scene. “I realized that this was really happening, and there was no escape.” And then how she desperately tries to calm herself down enough to actually do it… and then how that all breaks apart once she starts going through with it. It hurts to read. It’s one of those scenes I’ll probably never forget.
-Can’t help but wonder how Kasai must feel in the follow-up. Perhaps he did feel a little disappointed in Shion placing Satoshi’s safety over hers, his and Yoshiroh’s, but after seeing what she put herself through I doubt he had much on his mind besides staying by her side. Even though he also had to be the bearer of some unfortunate news for Shion.
-It breaks my heart to see Shion take comfort in knowing her sacrifice got the result she wanted, moments before being informed of Satoshi’s disappearance.
-Ooishi is playing this in a rather shrewd way, isn’t he. He’s probably well-aware that Shion doesn’t know about Satoshi’s disappearance. It’s more like he’s deliberately creating a situation where she won’t have anyone else to turn to or anywhere to run when he does hit her with it. He wants her to be his ally in uncovering the truth.
-The mystery of what happened to Satoshi on that day is well set up, isn’t it. Something I’d actually like to see the newcomers tackle. Curious what you guys think is the truth of the matter~
-Despite being in it for his own reasons, Ooishi really comes across as likable to me in this scene. It kind of resembles the end of Himatsubushi to me, where he peptalks Akasaka that they still have a job to do in uncovering what actually happened. I doubt he actually believes Satoshi will come back, but he doesn’t deny it to Shion’s face either.
-“Notebook Page 34” Heh, I didn’t even remember this TIP.
-“Notebook Page 42” This is the sort of thing I do love about Higurashi in general though. How individual events leave different people with totally different impressions of what actually happened, and the story acknowledging this. In that sense Higurashi is actually a pretty complex story.
-I’m really loving the soundtrack btw. I did remember Meakashi being a serious step forward in the OST department but even so I didn’t quite recall just how good it actually was.[/details]
[details=Chapter 8 Notes]
-And then all of a sudden out-of-nowhere-culprit-kun shows up and throws a wrench in everything.
-Ooishi trying to get info out of Shion, nice try, man.
-Shion’s really putting a lot of thought into all this, isn’t she. It’s nice of her to gather all that information for the reader though isn’t it I guess getting the perspective of someone who’s been around Hinamizawa for a good while already but still uninvolved enough to be confronted with this as a huge mystery was about as good of a choice for the first answer arc as it could’ve been.
-Oh hi there Takano. Apparently she keeps running her fingers through her hair, but all I can see her doing is stroking her boob with her hand.
-Feels like I haven’t heard one of these ‘research infodumps’ in a while, heh…
-Eventually we get to what I believe is the last chapter in 1982? Mion and Shion meeting in Shion’s apartment.
-That instant switch when Mion expresses wonder as to where Satoshi went… chills.
-And then the reveal of Mion’s own sacrifice… such a beautiful moment.
-“Notebook Page 50” Not much to say.
-“Notebook Page 64” Sounds a lot like the way Akasaka and Ooishi were forced to end their own investigation in failure to uncover the truth, doesn’t it?
-“Notebook Page 85” ‘Time heals all wounds’ they say… at least it will numb you, whether you want it or not.
-I do like how these three TIPS let us transition to the present relatively smoothly. The story of the past has been told, it’s finally time to continue where we left off.[/details]
