Higurashi in Umineko [Spoilers for both series]

[Isae]

[quote=“keeperofencarta, post:30,
topic:213”] If I had to summarize Lambdadelta’s role in the Higurashi: she represents an anomaly in Featherine’s game board, an inverse of Bernkastel and predating her, obviously. [/quote]

If Lambda is an anomaly in Featherine’s game board, then what kind of game board was it originally?

Hanyuu is also Oyashiro. Miyo Takano with the sponsorship of Lambdadelta, in resurrecting Oyashiro, changed the board in a way that at once corrupted and elevated the game.

How did Takano “resurrect” Oyashiro? I know she claims she’s “become” Oyashiro at the end of Minagoroshi, but it’s not like she actually became a god. To me she just seemed to be more drunk on power than anything else.

Hanyuu represents what happens when Featherine’s horn is damaged, meaning her horn preserves her identity as a witch while she retains her godlike powers.

How did Featherine’s horn get damaged in the first place if she’s so powerful?

In a way, Lambdadelta set herself up for failure here, letting Rika set the pieces up wherever she wanted (as stated in episode 2).

So Rika only won against Lambda because Lambda “let” her? Inspiring stuff.

Rika goes to a world without Miyo, without Tokyo, the world she created by saving Miyoko.

But simply saving Miyoko wouldn’t have created the world of Saikoroshi. There are many factors different from all the other worlds that Rika has been too that are unrelated to Frederica saving Miyoko. Such as:

-Hifumi Takano was actually able to set up a clinic back in the day. (And maybe cured Hinamizawa syndrome?)

-Rena never moved from Hinamizawa.

-Rika’s mom was the Reincarnation of Oyashiro rather than Rika.

-Keiichi never committed his crime with the model gun

…I think there was more, but I’m having trouble thinking of them off the top of my head. (It’s been a while since I read Saikoroshi.)

In that world, Lambdadelta never existed, and so Hanyuu (who was born from Lambdadelta’s interference) was never present either.

Wait…how was Hanyuu born from Lambdadelta’s interference? Also, Hanyuu did exist in the world of Saikoroshi. She says that she lived with Rika’s mom just as she’s now living with Rika. But apparently at some point before Rika showed up from her original world, Hanyuu “went to sleep” or whatever.

Beaten, broken, and forced to endure the same torture that she subjected Bernkastel to, entered the game as a piece- as the only piece that would give a perfect parallel. Lambdadelta became Satoko.

So Satoko was taken over by Lambda? Or she was (retroactively) Lambda the whole time? In that case, what about Satoko in Saikoroshi? Also, why didn’t Satoko have meta-awareness like Rika did?

Remember in episode 6? Battler was stuck in the logic error before the sin’s commission. From the very beginning of the game, he was trapped in his closed room.

I just thought that was foreshadowing. To make the readers be like, ‘What’s this all about?’ before they get to the scene where he gets trapped. And I can’t say I’m personally too fond of meta-world time travel theories. It seems to make things unnecessarily complicated. It’s like when people say Frederica was born after Saikoroshi and then went back in time to help Rika escape the maze of fate.

That’s also why during Umineko we had no dark Higurashi chapters. With the cats away (or cat, in this case), we got the Happy Lucky Dochhi OVAs. As soon as Umineko Ended though, we started seeing entries like Outbreak, which can serve as an alternative “solution” not requiring Takano.

I don’t think that really had anything to do with the fact the Umineko was going on. Besides, I don’t think Kira is canon anyway. Or if it is, then we might as well consider the console arcs (which came out 2008~2010, I believe) as canon as well, and they contain dark arcs.

Also, I don’t know if you’ve read Kamikanshi-hen (the sequel to Outbreak) but (spoilers for Kamikanshi) Takano does turn out to be behind it.

[quote=“keeperofencarta, post:30,
topic:213”] If needed I think I have, somewhere, a formal proof that Lambadadelta and Bernkastel shared their logic error/hell using 6 or 7 quotes from Lambda.
[/quote]

I’d like to see those, if you don’t mind.

Also…I don’t really understand the parts of where you talk about how there has to be a “culprit.” I thought Rika’s terms of winning were just to surive, and if she could have done then even without ever having found out who caused her deaths, she still would have won.

[Isae]

Hanyuu herself is very uncomfortable with the very apparent shift in narrative away from the original intent.

Hmm, can you give me an example of when she is? It’s not that I don’t believe you, I just want to get a better idea of what you’re saying.

It probably would have been an endless draw otherwise. Lambdadelta is “Super Paper” after all. This is evidenced by the fact that she fights on even footing with Bernkastel, who categorically has the advantage. Also, ANGE recognizes Lambdadelta as being from a higher plane than Bernkastel, and Ryukishi has specifically stated that Lambdadelta is unique among witches.

But I was under the impression that Rika could have escaped the maze of fate a lot earlier if she had only talked to people like she does in Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi. So the only “miracle” needed was was a miracle to get Rika to take that action. (I’ve always thought that the miracle was Rika’s friends remembering other worlds.) So in one sense, a miracle was necessary, but in another sense, it wasn’t.

Tokyo still exists, but remember that Tokyo was going to pull out shortly even in the original world. It was Miyo’s insistence that put Hifumi’s work into credibility, it was her interference that saved the town from the dam and caused most of the murders. Miyo Takano is probably just as much a hero as a villain in that regard.

But the situation in Saikoroshi is completely different (and not because of Takano’s absence). For example, let’s say that Frederica didn’t save Miyoko’s parents. Miyoko still might have ended up with Hifumi, but she wouldn’t have had to inherit his legacy/dream, because he already received funding to study the Hinamizawa syndrome, hence the Takano Clinic in Hinamizawa.

As far as Rika’s mom being the reincarnation, I think that was a lie Hanyuu told Rika to get her to act. It doesn’t make sense that their family would be exactly the same if an entire generation was skipped. More likely, it was an off the top explanation since the next point would spoil too much of the thinking game.

Technically, you wouldn’t need a whole generation to to be skipped. In order for the Reincarnation to be born, there has to be eight generations of first born girls in the Furude family. You would just need for one of her ancestors to have an older brother.

Rika and Satoko, Bern and Lambda, are both here torturers and prisoners in a game they’ll be stuck in for eternity since it can’t be fixed.

But Lambda talks as though they did get free. The reason they run is because they don’t want to remember all the suffering they experienced when they were trapped… Or at least that’s the impression I got.

Since Lambdadelta has said that she never found her way out of her logic error, that implies that the event resulting in her logic error was in the game with Bernkastel.

Lambda refers to it as “that hell” when referring to both of their logic errors, together. This is in contrast to how she refers to Battler’s logic error.

I’ll agree with the first three, but these two I don’t remember.

That’s fascinating! Where were you able to read it? Tentatively speaking, we can approach Outbreak then as an alternative setting with the same characters but a different motive and method. But until I read the second part I can’t say too much there.

I read it in Japanese…I seem to remember hearing something about someone translating it, though.

I guess my main problem with this theory is that it seems to completely undermine the themes of Higurashi. I mean, it’d be one thing if Ryukishi always meant it to be this way, but all this is obviously what in Japanese they would call an ‘atozuke’ (literally, ‘after-attachment’); something attached to the story after the fact.

[Isae]

Sure. Remember in the ritual tool shrine- the reason Shion heard stomping and noises. Hanyuu objected very much to the traditions associated with Oyashiro as told by Takano.

But Hinamizawa had a bloody history long before Takano was even born. Hanyuu just doesn’t like to hear about it.

Paraphrasing Frederica Bernkastel’s words at the end of the anime adaptation “trusting and believing can only go so far, especially in Hinamizawa.” There were some specific memories from previous arcs, as well as Hanyuu being convinced to participate, and a great deal of luck and chance that led to her victory. Their receptiveness to her, Hanyuu being allowed to enter the game, events favoring Rika and her friends, all of those correlated to Lambda letting Bern have a leg up. They actually showed this in the meta-scene with all of the friends viewing the board together, a metaphor for them having a leg up in the last iteration of game.

I wouldn’t use quotes exclusive to the anime to make a point if I were you… But anyway, I’m afraid we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

The events in Hinamizawa might be as you stated, though. But even so, the explanation given to pieces is usually very different from what’s really going on in the background. The events in Dice Killing are more of an “additional proof”, and not so much a linchpin.

Not every Higurashi story is a mystery that needs to be solved. I thought Saikoroshi was just supposed to show how Rika stopped thinking like a witch (and “gave birth” to Bernkastel in the process).

I think it’s beautiful! The themes of friendship are still there. Bernkastel does talk about how awful her punishment game was, quite a lot. I think for her, having absorbed all that despair, it’s different than it was for Rika. Bernkastel did create a bond with Lambdadelta that parallels that of Rika and Satoko though, and that, I think that creates a great love story in the background, one at least as amazing as the one in the foreground of Umineko.

Yeah, the friendships are still there, but they don’t actually serve any purpose, which is why I say that the themes have been damaged. Also, the significance of anyone besides Hanyuu, Rika/Bern, and Takano/Satoko/Lambda has been rendered null and void.

[Isae]

I think that, while it may be true that she could have possibly reached an exit sooner, the journey to that point, the whole story, was what brought her to understand that. Also, if she got out sooner we’d never have a cute kitty named Bern :3

Yeah, that was basically what I was trying to say.

Are you familiar with a concept called “The Death of the Author”? Basically, the motives and intentions, mistakes and failed allusions, of the author of a work should have no bearing on its interpretation. Ryukishi is very VERY good at writing a coherent piece, but he essentially admits that his original intent with the work was very different in a lot of ways. He even changed the culprit and an entire episode based on feedback, and Rika developed into Bernkastel just to troll his lead software guy and close friend, BT.

I’ve heard of it. So are you trying to say that the themes aren’t important? Or are you saying that we should interpret it however we want?

By the way, thanks for being patient with me. Sometimes I worry that I’m coming across as too aggressive or hostile when I’m debating. I don’t entirely agree with your theory, but I admire that you were able to come up with something coherent from the clues about Higurashi in Umineko.

[Isae]

Examining earlier chapters in light of later revelations is a great way to dig deeper and deeper each time.

Except no one seems to care about “digging deeper” when it comes to the human characters. Only the meta characters.

Ryukishi is very VERY good at writing a coherent piece, but he essentially admits that his original intent with the work was very different in a lot of ways. He even changed the culprit and an entire episode based on feedback, and Rika developed into Bernkastel just to troll his lead software guy and close friend, BT.

While Ryukishi may have changed various things, it doesn’t seem like he ever changed the overarching themes of Umineko.

Basically I’m saying that while When They Cry is somewhat unique in the level of interaction the author has with his text, even Ryukishi is a proponent of dissecting the work mercilessly - and so we should accept the work in full without concerning ourselves with the writer’s intent. In the end, the most merciless theories that avoid the heart end up hitting the closest to home, tragic as that might be for a certain red haired archbishop.

So my theory is invalid because it just happens to align with what a lot of people think Ryukishi meant by Higurashi?

[Karifean]

He changed the culprit

I’m going to have to ask you to expand on this if you don’t mind. What makes you think he changed the culprit?

[qno]

Getting mixed signals here.

and decided to change based on that, in order to make the culprit harder to uncover and engage readers (this was between episodes 1 and 2).

Did he change the culprit?

It was that, or he changed the way he told the story to lead casual readers away from the truth, altering the tone in order to change people’s perceptions.

Or not? The “It was that, or” confuses me a bit here, considering your were pretty much sure of it in the earlier post. If anything it should be ‘and’ then. Or did you mean that he considered changing the way he told the story but chose to change the culprit instead?

Aside that, the heavy shift starting EP3 is pretty noticeable. From the meta-world having more and more to say, to the entire 1998 narrative. A lot of the larger subplots either grew or began in this episode. It is kind of hard to consider how Umineko would’ve turned out without Banquet. At the same time however: if 1998 wasn’t planned in some form, why does Ange even exist (since she is mentioned in EP1)?
In a way this shift is adressed in the story, with the first two episodes being credited to the “original” author, the rest being forgeries. Maybe the surrounding story evolved to a point that Ryukishi didn’t intend at first. Or maybe I should remove the ‘maybe’.

Aside that, thanks for reporting some of the stuff Ryu revealed there.

Btw. this discussion seems to move away a bit from the original purpose of the topic. Maybe a split?

[Isae]

Continuing from the kakera thread… (I also brought up some past points, if you don’t mind.)

-Lambda sounds like a pretty overpowered character. I mean, so is Featherine, but she works because she’s more of a neutral character. Lambda on the other hand is a major villain (Higurashi) and a major “good guy” (Umineko). Ryukishi’s pet?

It’s stated that the two can’t create a universe together no matter how hard they try.

Could you provide a direct quote?

-I propose that the reason there are extra Higurashi arcs is for the enjoyment of Higurashi fans and has no deeper significance. Especially since most of them are obviously not canon.

-If we can trust Lambda to tell the truth, then I guess Keiichi and Bernkastel must be the same person, because in EP6 Lambda says that Bern is the one who came up with the ‘demons eating popcorn’ thing, when it was actually Keiichi. This line even has those dots over the text to indicate that she’s saying something important.

We don’t have a lot to go off of on this, but it may have been something entirely more boring, a world without tragedy.

This doesn’t match with what we see of Featherine in Umineko. Bern says that she learned what she did about tearing the guts out of things from Featherine, although she could never hope to reach Featherine’s level. Featherine also says that ‘monster’ is a word of praise to her.

So, fast forward to the end game, Miyo is beaten, the massacre doesn’t happen, and the game ends. Lambdadelta can either concede (without consequence) or can put forth an alternative culprit after “Miyo” was removed as a possibility by Frederica saving Miyoko.

What are you basing this bit on, exactly?

It was a retroactive and infinite loop of self-inflicted hell.

I don’t see why it would be infinite. Bern would be free as soon as Rika defeated Takano, and Lambda would be free as soon as she ‘served her time’ as Satoko, right?

That’s why Lambdadelta mind breaks when she remembers Higurashi and always runs away when its mentioned.

Quotes?

In this case, the damage came from Miyo “resurrecting” the god Oyashiro. Hanyuu is a very fitting analogy for that.

If Featherine’s horn got damaged, then how did it get fixed again? Also, it’s strongly suggested in Higurashi that Ouka damaged Hanyuu’s horn with the sword Onigari-no-Ryuuou.

Ryukishi has specifically stated that Lambdadelta is unique among witches.

I’d like to actually hear him say this, if you have the files.

As far as Rika’s mom being the reincarnation, I think that was a lie Hanyuu told Rika to get her to act. It doesn’t make sense that their family would be exactly the same if an entire generation was skipped. More likely, it was an off the top explanation since the next point would spoil too much of the thinking game.

But Hanyuu wasn’t the only one who said this. Rika’s mom herself said she was the Reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama. Or are you going to say Hanyuu made her say that? Plus, that was literally the whole reason Rika had to kill her mom.

In fact, it’s implied in the fact that Lambdadelta says “I didn’t count” with reference to the number of cycles through her punishment game. But the Houjo family in particular is the spark for many murders.

She says that she “didn’t count,” not that she “couldn’t count.” In fact, she says ‘Maybe I should have counted the years like Bern did,’ implying she was capable of it.

Logic errors usually come with certain strings. Satoko’s might be that can’t remember her past selves. In fact, it’s implied in the fact that Lambdadelta says “I didn’t count” with reference to the number of cycles through her punishment game. But the Houjo family in particular is the spark for many murders. Satoko’s parents, her aunt was killed to protect Satoko, her Uncle in some shards and Ritsuko in others. Satoko makes heckin good catalyst as it is, if we’re looking at people who instigate murder and paranoia. Plus, there’s the actions of Satoko that Bern attributes to Lambdadelta, events that took place in the first 8 episodes. And the fact that Ryukishi flat out told me that they’re connected Though that’s my Golden Truth so I can’t/don’t have to prove it.

So what about Satoko in the world of Saikoroshi?

They actually showed this in the meta-scene with all of the friends viewing the board together, a metaphor for them having a leg up in the last iteration of game.

Er, when was this again?

Also, perhaps Miyoko’s father had a hand in supporting Hifumi’s research in the “perfect world”, leading to a better solution to the Hinamizawa syndrome.

Why would Miyoko’s father be any help? Wasn’t he, like, relatively poor? I can’t imagine he has much influence.

I believe that any quotes are valid as long as they don’t contradict.

Well, if we’re talking about theories, then one person’s “doesn’t contradict” is another person’s “does contradict.”

[Isae]

It was in here. I skipped around and I may have interpreted it that way based on both of them presenting alternate universes as the best possible one, and Lambdadelta’s outright refusal to become one with Bernkastel.

Well, I think it’s a pretty broad interpretation.

That would trivialize the Higurashi game board quite a bit.

Funny, that’s the exact problem I have with the theory you’re presenting. But I was talking about the real world. I don’t think the extra arcs “actually happened” in the world of the story. Or if they did, there’s an infinite amount of fragments, right? So why couldn’t these worlds have happened on their own without anyone “playing” them?

Game masters feed lines to pieces. Nothing more, nothing less.

Are you saying that everything the pieces do in Higurashi (except Takano and Lambda’s other pieces) is just because Rika is making them do it? In that case, why didn’t she just have everyone help her in the first place? Or at least make it so that they don’t go crazy and kill each other?

Also, even in the Frederica parts of Higurashi, there’s no evidence that she’s directly controlling any other piece besides her own.

Tea Party section of Episode 3, Lambdadelta running out of the room, shouting “I’m still playing it!” at the mention of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. If she’s still playing it that means she hasn’t produced a solution yet, meaning the logic error still stands.

I got the feeling Ryukishi hadn’t really decided what he wanted to do with Bern and Lambda at this point. So he was just mentioning Higurashi as an easter egg. We do know that he changed Umineko quite a bit, after all.

Episode 6, Lambdadelta freaking out and wondering if the people around her were really real when talking about her logic error.

Seemed like a PTSD-esque flashback to me.

“Runs away” is really only half though, and applies to Higurashi Spoilers. She also bluescreens and generally freaks out when talking about Logic Errors

Higurashi spoilers are allowed here. It says [Spoilers for both series] after all. And she seemed to talk to Erika about Logic Errors perfectly calmly.

Q: Is there a deeper meaning to how he uses the same character in multiple works, or is it just for fan enjoyment? A:
In most cases he likes to think of it as actors in different movies,
like Harrison Ford in Star Wars or Indiana Jones. In other cases, like
with witches (Miyo and Lambdadelta were mentioned), there can be more to
it, but the rest is secret.

I can’t be sure unless I hear exactly what he says, but just from this it sounds to me as though he’s offering Takano/Lambda as an example of someone who’s different. For all we know, he might mean Bern and Featherine, too.

Of course she was capable of counting the years spent, but if she had she might have been broken much worse, similar to Bernkastel.

But how could Satoko have counted if she didn’t have meta-awareness?

Remember when I said that Dice Killing is a world without Lambdadelta? The fact that Satoko is both without tragedy and a terrible person with no love for Rika would support the idea that Lambdadelta isn’t present in that world.

So Satoko was her own person before she was hijacked by Lambda.

Theories, depending on the meta-level, may or may not mutually exclusive. However, the facts that they’re built on have to stay consistent if there’s to be discourse. That’s why there’s an order for canon, but only contradicting facts should be considered invalid just because they came from the Manga instead of the VN, or the Anime instead of the Manga. Heck, both series are self-referenced as books, games, and plays within the series. I think the author’s intent is generally to have When They Cry accepted as a multi-medium series.

I guess this is another area where our opinions differ fundamentally. I only consider a Higurashi work canon if it doesn’t contradict the eight core arcs (and maybe Saikoroshi) at all. Granted, there are contradictions between the eight core arcs themselves, but at least those arcs are all necessary in the greater story.

Also, I consider the different media as their own separate canons. For example, there’s the VN canon, the anime canon, the manga canon, the drama CD canon, etc.

Anyway, I don’t see much point in continuing this argument unless we can somehow come to an agreement on what’s canon.

Yeah, Lambdadelta is generally considered a step above Bernkastel. She says it when she calls herself “Super paper” as opposed to Bernkastel’s “scissors”. Ange acknowledges it when she stops time in a way that was different from Bernkastel, and believes Lambda to be of a higher dimension. Lambda says it again in episode 8 when she tells Bern she’s been going easy on her the whole time.

Logically speaking, for paper to stand on the same level as scissors means that it’s either some bad ass paper or the scissors are just junk.

So she’s basically a Mary Sue? What a surprise that Ryukishi has one!

[WitchOfGames]

I always considered the part where Lambda goes “I haven’t finished playing Higurashi!” As both an Easter egg like somebody’s said and Lambda playing along in the scene (since in EP6, she very clearly knows what Bern went through in the logic error, though as somebody has said, Ryukishi didn’t really utilize the Voyagers well until Chiru). After all, that part of the Tea Party was meant to be really silly and trying to play Lambda as dumber than she is for the “How long are you going to keep fooling around?” Mirage coordinator part to have that punch. After all, in the same scene, she keeps asking who Bern’s piece is even though it was obvious, and Lambda clearly knows that it’s Ange by the time the fourth game starts to where she puts the limit on Ange, and she addresses Ange by name when she tries to convince her to bring the game to a tie (though there is a chance she found out in the in between of the two games, but we can’t be sure since we’re never really shown them).

And the weirdness of it all is that to the people in Umineko, Higurashi is just a tale (Battler has stated that he’s read it before and all but outright stated that his favorite is Shion). So maybe we can view the grand library where all these stories are collected as the universe, and Higurashi is a Galaxy in that universe, where people can make up ideas about it and view it as a story, but to those who experienced it, it’s just their world they protect and love?

[Isae]

By the way, I was rereading some of the “Logic Error” parts in Umineko, but I couldn’t find any parts where it was referred to as a “sin.” It’s just called “the worst mistake the witch side can make.” Also, another definition given for a Logic Error is “a trick that has become impossible.” So what would the “trick” in Higurashi be?

[keeperofencarta]

I remembered it wrong. Joining this community was a mistake. I suck at Umineko. Deleting my account. Later.

[WitchOfGames]

You raise a fair point about what the logic error in Higurashi is based on that criteria. Featherine’s leaving it up to her Miko to solve it can be reflected in Hanyuu’s resignation up to Matsuribayashi, since Hanyuu’s is generally telling Rika, “Don’t get your hopes up, Rika, we’ll just move on from here, why bother.” But where exactly IS this logic error? We know it took a miracle to break through it, but what counts as the logic error itself?

[Isae]

Yeah, I wish we at least knew for sure what the logic error was.

It doesn’t help that the only logic error example we have to look at is Battler’s, which doesn’t seem to have much in common with the Higurashi logic error.

But one interesting thing is that the story of Higurashi being the result of a logic error almost makes it sound like there was a “Higurashi Prime”, and only the last world “counted” because that was when the error got worked out. But in that case, it wouldn’t make sense that each Higurashi world continues after Rika and Hanyuu leave it.

[someoneunknown]

This is a theory I had but if Okonogi is the same in both series wouldn’t that mean if you choose the Magic Ending of Umineko that Ange play right into TOKYO The Japanese Illuminati hands in the When they Cry Universe hands because she giving all Ushiromiya Political Power which she had for being the last living member of the Family to Okonogi who work under TOKYO.

Not until I did this theory did I come to understand that TOKYO is basely The Illuminati for Japan in When They Cry Universe.

[WitchOfGames]

I can’t believe that Ange giving the Ushiromiya family power and money to the WTC Illuminati is considered the true end of Umineko, holy crap. The Ushiromiya family is part of the Illuminati…

[Isae]

Wait…wasn’t Higurashi just supposed to be a story in the world of Umineko? Then what does that make Okonogi? Or TOKYO, for that matter?

[WitchOfGames]

Ryukishi, what even are you doing. Did Higurashi really happen in Umineko or is it just a story (and why is Okonogi here)? We’ve discovered the real mystery of the series, all just from this revelation. Does Tokyo exist? Why would Ange willing sell her family to the WTC Illuminati (if that Okonogi is the same one?) Is Umineko Okonogi the same one in Higurashi? Is he not? Is Okonogi just an Easter Egg and Ryukishi just went “screw it, he’s already there and I don’t care about fixing that?”

insert repost of the X-Files Illuminati theme

[Isae]

My guess is that Higurashi being a story and Okonogi are both Easter eggs, and only Bern, Lambda, and Featherine actually have a meaningful connection to Higurashi.

So I’m going to think of Okonogi in Higurashi and Okonogi in Umineko as being different. However, that still leaves the question of whether Tokyo exists in Umineko and whether Okonogi (in Umineko) works for Tokyo if it indeed does exist.

[GoldenBugHunter]

Don’t forget that Higurashi also includes the release of its own book. In the fragments where Hinamizawa is destroyed in the disaster, Ooishi and Akasaka release a book about the weird events leading up to the disaster called ‘Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni’ so teenage Ange, at least, could have read it, along with Hachijo Ikuko. Ikuko is much more likely of the two, what with the professional interest of course.

But I do wonder if all of these references are a message from Ryukishi to the readers that we haven’t actually given Higurashi a proper solution? If a mystery manifests as a witch, and the witches of Higurashi are alive and kicking and not laid to rest like Beatrice was, then maybe there was a true solution to Higurashi all along that no one has actually presented to ‘complete’ the game and lay both Bernkastle and Lambda Delta to rest? After all, brain parasites and reincarnation really don’t hold up to ‘endless 9’ scrutiny or any of the rule sets used by Umineko’s detectives.