Higurashi Sui: Someutsushi Full Series Spoilers General

[Seraphitic]

Hmmm… Ok well that was interesting.

I liked this chapter. It had a very relatable feel to it. The struggles that the characters (mostly Kimiyoshi) face (decisions for the future, love woes, struggling family, unfamiliar environment, inferiority and wanting to fit in) are all ones that people in there teens would expect to face. The story felt pretty solid on the whole. Not too much in terms of mysteries to solve on the whole once you know about HS, so that is a bit of a disappointment. I liked the little twist that Kimiyoshi was actually dreaming but that her family was dead anyway (presumably by her own hands).

I’m going to have to say, I was a little disappointed in the characters in this chapter. Personally I really only liked Minai and Chisato. Natsumi was… well she was alright. I thought that she felt kind of like a discount Keiichi in some ways. To be sure there were some differences but the similarities between this arc and Onikakushi are striking. It felt like a reversal of what happened to Keiichi but really very similar things. To be fair, this would make sense since both suffer from HS but it’s just too much the same for me to look past it. Because of this I felt like Natsumi was just a poor replacement for Keiichi. In all honesty though, it might just be that Keiichi is the kind of person that I would love to be friends with and Natsumi just isn’t really. I guess in the end it’s personal preference.

I will give one more minor criticism of the work. I felt like there were a lot of plot threads and ideas that never really went anywhere. Whereas in Onikakushi the central point is that Keiichi is distrusting his friends and there really isn’t anything distracting the reader, Someutsushi has several different things that just kind of dwindle out in the end. It’s not that they are unimportant as they establish for the reader that Natsumi is going crazy. However, it makes the story feel like it lacks focus.

I do have to give the story props for that ending though. That was quite a ride. A+ for the psycho yandere. Gotta love those demon faces that we get to see. I’m also in full agreement with @Aspirety that the demon voice is kind of unnecessary.

Other than that the music and art were ok but nothing really to write home about except for that one picture of a bloody Natsumi sitting in her living room stunned. THAT art was haunting and I loved it.

I would love to see more of the detective in future arcs and I’ve been assured that she is indeed present in other console arcs. I loved her character and interactions with people. I appreciated every minute of her on screen and I wish that the story made more use of her, perhaps cutting between her questioning people and Natsumi’s life. Just a thought.

[U4ea]

I highly doubt Akira has Hinamizawa Syndrome. He’s not from/never been to Hinamizawa. I feel like that would have come up at some point in the arc if he had any sort of connection with Hinamizawa’s residents outside of Natsumi. I just chalk this one up to good old paranoia and nothing else. That said, who knows? Maybe he contracted it from Natsumi somehow?

Hinamizawa Syndrome is very confusing as a disease. Most germs are essentially spread in one of four ways. Way one is through the air (sneezing, coughing, this is how influenza spreads). The second is through skin contact (this is how you get chicken pox). The third method is by fecal matter that later ends up in the mouth (this is how you get salmonella) The fourth and final is through bodily fluids (this is how you get most STDs/STIs). I’ve always assumed that Hinamizawa Syndrome works through the first method. But looking back at Himatsubushi, I was kinda confused as to why Akasaka never came in contact with the disease. I thought to myself, “maybe you have to live in the village sometime before coming in contact with Hinamizawa Syndrome, instead of just visiting it?” Airborne diseases affect people almost instantaneously, since you just have to breathe in order to come in contact with them (that said, just because you have come in contact with a disease doesn’t mean you always become sick, as sometimes the body will destroy a virus before you even begin to have symptoms).

So, how exactly would it spread to Akira? I think in his case it almost has to be airborne. Due to living in the city, he wouldn’t have to worry about food/water being contaminated with fecal matter. I also highly doubt he and Natsumi ever kissed considering how paranoid the two of them were (so no fluid contact). They could have held hands or something, but one of them would probably have to have a rash (skin born diseases usually take the form of rashes/bumps/distinct skin markings). There are no rashes mentioned here, or anywhere else in Higurashi, so I kinda doubt that Hinamizawa Syndrome spreads through skin contact… But if it spread through the air, then maybe he could have gotten it from his time with Natsumi?

Who knows~ I’m not a med student so I’m not exactly sure how that would work. I may also be completely wrong about diseases in general. As I said, I have absolutely no medical training whatsoever. Those who are in medical school, please correct me as I’m probably wrong. All of this information I’ve gotten either through the internet or my lackluster health education.

But yeah, I agree with you that the whole demon voice thing was rather silly, as well as unnecessary. It’d be a bit more justified if he did have HS somehow, but it’s still a bit too silly to take seriously.

Also, @Seraphitic I completely 120% agree with you that Natsumi feels a little bit too much like a discount Keiichi. I think that’s because like Onikakushi, one of the main themes of Someutsushi is that you should trust your friends. And just like in Onikakushi, a lot of the problems in the arc could have been solved if the friends stopped keeping secrets from one another. I’d like to think this parallel was done on purpose so that new readers can pick up on the similarities between Natsumi and Keiichi so that they can try to solve the mystery of what is happening to these characters.

[kyuketsukimiyu]

I completely 120% agree with you that Natsumi feels a little bit too much like a discount Keiichi.

I liked seeing Natsumi because I find more of myself in her than I will ever in Keiichi. Natsumi’s drive was that she is insecure in herself by default, Keiichi has overblown confidence. Her hesitation in being able to lean on her friends because she is afraid of burdening them, and then her image with them feels distinct enough for me from Keiichi’s mistrust that is born of him finding out information they were allegedly hiding from him.

I need to go back and check the timeline of events pretty closely before I could present these as proper theories, but does Akira come in contact with Natsumi or her family’s blood at any point before we can completely dismiss Natsumi’s ability to be reliable as a narrator? It is a bit of stretch, but I wonder if it is possible that Natsumi’s dream - and in turn the events of Onisarashi - were actually closer to the way things went down in this world, and Akira contracted HS being exposed to the blood of infected people when he was in the house to save her, and the part from when Natsumi “wakes up” plays into the delusions of the Infected Akira who’s heart was not strong enough to believe in the good core that is Natsumi.

[DoctorDiablo]

I don’t think the story presented enough evidence to conclude Akira had Hinamizawa syndrome. But he did allegedly get conked on the head with a vase and was nearly strangled to death, both of which could result in brain damage. Plus he endured enough emotional trauma to develop standard human mental illness.

[Clover_Zero]

Poor Akira and Natsumi. I don’t have any idea if Akira is infected with HS, but anyway, here’s my thoughts after I read Onisarashi-hen again instead, I can’t help it.

Onisarashi-hen does a much better job. The beginning feels rushed and all of sudden, but it’s overall better for me, even though it mostly focuses on the romance (Someutsushi-hen has plus for friendship). Plus for (Onisarashi-hen spoiler) bittersweet ending, where the two get married. Although they might lost their youthful dreams, they’re happy together, and Natsumi’s psyche is slowly becoming better. There are some negative indications, but overall, it’s a pretty much happy ending, but I call it bittersweet because Natsumi killed her family and spent five years locked. Someutsushi-hen feels like it only exists for Minai, not for Natsumi or Akira, in my opinion. The way things ended in Someutsushi-hen actually fits because Akira and Natsumi never develop a strong bond and understanding, unlike Onisarashi-hen, so I have no complaints about it.

I think there’ll be other arcs with Natsumi in it, so I can’t wait to see how the other arcs play out.