Higurashi Gou - Anime Episode Discussion Thread (OG/Kai spoilers OK)

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

Higurashi style of Maria-sama ga Miteru. Satoko is a bomb waiting to explode. Being trapped with other low score girls in the study room looks like torture.

Satoko, why even go to a school when you don't want to study?? Just drop and go back to Hinamizawa. Stop wasting Irie's money.

Rika finally got her dream life of getting high quality education + leave Hinamizawa. Using her long life experience, the other girls are amazed how mature she is.

It's not like she could stay in Hinamizawa forever. At some point she'd have to switch schools, just like Mion had to.
Satoko looks a lot taller too, so this was probably their high school already, which she couldn't have done in Hinamizawa anyway.

[Jan-Poo]

Well yes, she should have chosen a more laid back high school. St. Lucia is really a horrible place for anyone that doesn't meet the required standards (both behavioral and academic).

The problem is that she became too dependent on Rika and her brain doesn't even register the possibility that she could make new friends, so for her there isn't any option other than being with Rika.

[maximilianjenus]

suddenly becoming a high school dropout and a yakuza looks like the better alternative

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by maximilianjenus

suddenly becoming a high school dropout and a yakuza looks like the better alternative

Would Mion tell you the same story though ?

[Marina2]

Ep20

What the...! it actually happened! That person has made an appearance

.......................

Rika has become the "Onee-sama" of St.Lucia. Satoko tried to make Rika remember the old fun time but her prank gone wrong and ended up in a school prison (Wait, they have an underground prison??, this school is real f**k up)

For now, it's all big misunderstanding. After everything Satoko has done, Rika still protect Satoko while Satoko thought Rika completely betrayed her.

[gecd]

just like many have predicted
the silhouette in OP is really her after all

Spoiler for dont give me hope:

now I really want Umineko S2

[MCAL]

It should be noted that "Featherine" is voiced by someone else and with the mention of Satako having apparently met her before, I wonder if this isn't a grown up Hanyuu?

[FlareKnight]

It's just sad on a few levels. Rika didn't lose faith in Satoko and continued to defend her even as she was actively sabotaging herself and trying to drag Rika down with her. And yet from the start of this flashback, Satoko simply had no faith in Rika or the ability to try and comprehend her. Everything was always just a passing fad to her or a phase that wasn't really Rika. It's amazing Satoko that for over 2 years Rika has been momentarily entranced by all this...

I suppose part of this is simply Satoko's refusal to adapt and accept change. She couldn't accept the change in the club when Keiichi and Rena took over. And she can't accept Rika changing. Obsessively locked into the past. Of course this isn't unique to her since people can be that way sometimes. But it's all the worse when she continues to corner herself.

Somewhat surprised at the shock of injury. I mean...she's never hurt anyone with her traps? Really? I can't even blame the girl who spoke up. Her friend was hurt, Satoko isn't her friend and has actively refused to try and interact with anyone outside of Rika. Even if Rika is in a group she tries to either remove the group or isolate herself until Rika is alone.

I did find it kind of hilarious that this school has a prison. Of course it's becoming really hard to like Satoko as this goes along. Satoko gets someone hurt, doesn't take responsibility for it, and instead of feeling bad about either of those things she is more focused on the possibility that Rika turned her in. She's definitely on the right road to criminality there. I can understand lamenting her choice to go with Rika's suggestion. Although I still note she could have just left the school...

[Jan-Poo]

That prison was just over the top and outright implausible. Why did they even spent money to build something like that extreme if, as they said, something as unremarkable as a prank ending in a minor injury never happened before in the whole history of the school? Who did they ever had to put in there before? Students that forgot to address teachers respectfully?

That apart I think it's outright illegal to imprison someone like that.


Anyway as bad as Satoko's situation is, she didn't strike me as being at the point where she would end up doing something absolutely crazy. She is sad and miserable, but not broken or despairing. I wonder if something worse is going to happen, or if this is already the point where she starts killing people left and right. Yeah, that doesn't really sound right.

That new character, I really doubt it's the same Umineko character. So far her voice actress was credited without the specific mention of her role. I wonder if she will even be named Featherinne. Could it be that there's more than one Oyashirosama?

[Kanon]

St Lucia having prison cells was hilarious. They're trying hard to make us feel bad for Satoko, but IMO it's completely backfiring. Now that she has met Featherine (I really wish the OP hadn't spoiled she would appear), I doubt there is anything more to her suffering. She's already wishing she could go back in time, and there's no reason for her to refuse the opportunity to do it.

I just wonder to what extent Featherine will manipulate her. Obviously, she will pause as Oyashiro-sama and tell her what Satoko told Rika while she was watanagashing her, but maybe she will also screw with her mind?

[Archon_Wing]

A prison?

Yea, I get it's to throw Satoko in it, because the WTC universe is designed to shit on her , but still.

[maximilianjenus]

meh, better than the orphanage, jail is easier than murder chickens.

and satoko has it easy, at least she is not being bullied unlike other st lucia denizens. tho cqlling it jail is exagerated, they are simply detentions rooms, probably a vestige from the war, remember this happens in the 80s

[Liddo-kun]

episode 20:

I feel the drama is exaggerated. Satoko could just ask Irie she wants to drop out or transfer schools.. and that would be the end of her problems with St. Lucia.

dropping things from that high is not a good joke.. I was laughing when Satoko got jailed.

Rika finally have her dream come true. Respected by many, and living a life of comfort in a high class school for rich people.

[Ayu-ayu]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

That new character, I really doubt it's the same Umineko character. So far her voice actress was credited without the specific mention of her role. I wonder if she will even be named Featherinne. Could it be that there's more than one Oyashirosama?

Then why have her say Featherine's "child of Man" line at the end?

That is Featherine's trademark line(though it reminds me of C.S. Lewis, not sure if that was R07's intention or not though as I don't know how the phrase was translated into Japanese in Narnia).

I'm going back to my intial theory, though I think LD may be working with Au-Au on this one, taking the place of Bern as her miko. Perhaps this is why Featherine sees Bern as her cat that she has belled, and is playing with out of her boredom of 1000 years.

[Marina2]

"Child of Man" is usually how 'god' character call us, human. Hanyu also use it when she talked with Takano in the forest. It's not really a trademark line.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Somewhat surprised at the shock of injury. I mean...she's never hurt anyone with her traps? Really? I can't even blame the girl who spoke up. Her friend was hurt, Satoko isn't her friend and has actively refused to try and interact with anyone outside of Rika. Even if Rika is in a group she tries to either remove the group or isolate herself until Rika is alone.

I did find it kind of hilarious that this school has a prison. Of course it's becoming really hard to like Satoko as this goes along. Satoko gets someone hurt, doesn't take responsibility for it, and instead of feeling bad about either of those things she is more focused on the possibility that Rika turned her in. She's definitely on the right road to criminality there. I can understand lamenting her choice to go with Rika's suggestion. Although I still note she could have just left the school...

I wouldn't put quite that much blame on Satoko. It wasn't such a big injury from the look of it, but Satoko was clearly distraught, shocked that her little prank would actually endanger someone. Hard to say if she would have turned herself in eventually, but she was clearly upset, and then suddenly she's caught because "someone" said she's got a talent for such traps. In an instant she went from struggling internally with guilt on top of all these other feelings and then suddenly she's being subjected to an insane punishment apparently due to her best friend's decision. It's only natural she'd react to the imprisonment as she did.

As for Satoko never trying to befriend the other girls, to be fair the girls didn't try all that hard to befriend her either. The moment she didn't demonstrate the prim and proper behaviors dictated by the school they jump back and call her vulgar and uncouth. No kindness or consideration for an outsider, just disdain for a girl who doesn't match their standards. It only makes sense that she'd avoid approaching when they're around. And unfortunately this results in her not being able to see Rika standing up for her, only her continuing to play prim and proper and honestly casting aside almost everything that she was back in Hinamizawa.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by Ayu-ayu

Then why have her say Featherine's "child of Man" line at the end?

As Marina2 pointed out "hito no ko" (child of man) isn't really a peculiarity of Ryuukishi's character. I've seen several other godlike characters in anime using the same expression. But even if it was a unique catchphrase it still wouldn't mean they are the same person.

It wouldn't be different from how people in the past have speculated that Featherinne Augustus Aurora and Hanyuu are the same person because her name has Hanyuu's trademark noise hidden in it (on top of both names having the meaning of "feather" in it). Ryuukishi just like to have characters on his works to share similarities with characters of his previous works.

I think he probably got the whole idea from "Cid" from Final Fantasy.

[The Green One]

Well Rika had to be ejected from that world somehow..... which means untimely death. Which means murder. From you know who....

[Ayu-ayu]

Hm, I do remember that line from Hanyuu near the end, that is true.

I do still think that this story will help justify the witch personas in Umineko by the end, whether directly in the narrative or just hints. But I do think that Oyashiro-sama wants her miko back either way and that this is why she will enlist in Satoko as her vessel for divine punishment, as it were.

So returning to solely Higurashi material, I will note that the story that previously described the unusual sword (which seemed a dangling plot thread in the original) also tells of the story of Hanyuu losing her daughter. So there could be a dual-identity Oyashiro-sama theme here following that angle, perhaps?

The sword always struck me as a strangely unexplained story originally, so it's nice to see it used as set-up for this series. He gave a detailed description of it and seemed to give it a lot of significance, but never clearly led anywhere with that information that I can recall (unless there was another later side story I missed).

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

*sigh* Damn, we're going into Umineko's territory now, are we? Tbh, I was dreading this direction since I was never a fan of Umineko's magic/reality mumbo jumbo.

So that's it? That's all Satoko's reasoning to be a looper and kill people? Boy, I hope she has more than that.