Higurashi Sotsu - Anime Episode Discussion Thread (All Higurashi spoilers OK)

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by Dextro

What I'm afraid of, though, is of the show deciding to go for a "happy" ending where Satoko is "saved" from her descent into madness. I hope I'm wrong.

Unless it's a ruse, the impression I got from the last two episodes with Eua stating that Satoko has lost her humanity and turned into a witch, as well as her warning that if Satoko dies before Rika she'll get thrown into a world without her point more towards the ending being a complete loss for Satoko.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Kakurin

Unless it's a ruse, the impression I got from the last two episodes with Eua stating that Satoko has lost her humanity and turned into a witch, as well as her warning that if Satoko dies before Rika she'll get thrown into a world without her point more towards the ending being a complete loss for Satoko.

Rika grabbing Satoko's hand in the OP hints she will be "saved" though.

[Jan-Poo]

Redeeming irredeemable characters is Ryuukishi's shtick. Just look at what he just did with Teppei.

Going by how his stories went in the past Rika is probably going to forgive Satoko for all that she did, in fact she might even say "sorry" and tell her that it was all her fault, then she will say that she still regards her as her best friend. I mean I'd be positively surprised if it isn't going that way.

Whether this will have a good ending or a bad ending for Satoko, Rika or both is another matter though.

[AC-Phoenix]

Going by the latest episode Rika seems to start catching on in this arc.
That look she gave Satoko when the latter had her back turned wasn't a worried or pitying one but one of suspicion.

[MCAL]

I mean generally speaking, whenever Ryukishi does a redemption, he at least makes sure to point out that what they were doing before was wrong. He's not really a "Person did nothing wrong" kind of writer. Not saying it won't go that way with Satoko, but it isn't really a guaranteed thing based on his past works.

Anyway, there's been speculation for awhile that this season is actually going to be two full cours and the reason dvds only say Sotsu is 15 episodes is because the last nine episodes or so will be titled something else (Sotsugyou I guess) and it feels like this episode really gave more credence to that. Either that or we're really looking at something really rushed at this point.

[Zolton]

Satoko spells it out at the beginning of the new episode for people like me: "I am still myself." Lol so much for the human/witch split personality twist. I guess the innocent Satoko is really forever lost. (Watch me be wrong again.)

Tatariakashi will go on for at least one more episode, which leaves only 5 episodes tops for confronting Satoko.

[Jan-Poo]

Well this wasn't something that I had realized yet, Ooishi basically decided to manipulate things to make Teppei the inevitable next target of the "curse", so that he could catch the perpetrators on the act.

This provides an explanation as to why he will be present when K1 kills Teppei.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Well this wasn't something that I had realized yet, Ooishi basically decided to manipulate things to make Teppei the inevitable next target of the "curse", so that he could catch the perpetrators on the act.

This provides an explanation as to why he will be present when K1 kills Teppei.

Yeah, though I doubt he'd be dumb enough to actually imprison K1 for it, even without the virus. I mean it was justified self defense - at least up to the point where K1 had him unconscious.

[Jan-Poo]

Yeah, we know that after k1 kills Teppei Ooishi loses it completely and starts killing people left and right. My guess at this point is that he lost the last strand of his sanity after realizing that his trap didn't lead to anything conclusive as K1 being the culprit doesn't make any sense.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by MCAL

Anyway, there's been speculation for awhile that this season is actually going to be two full cours and the reason dvds only say Sotsu is 15 episodes is because the last nine episodes or so will be titled something else (Sotsugyou I guess) and it feels like this episode really gave more credence to that. Either that or we're really looking at something really rushed at this point.

It pretty much confirmed it to me. With the slow ass pace, there'll probably be two more episodes for this arc. Then they'll do an answer arc for Nekodamashi (it definitely doesn't need one, but Sotsu loves spoonfeeding the viewers) and it will end with the story going back to Satoko pulling the gun on Rika.

[MCAL]

Welp, it finally happened. The endgame for Satoko is starting to slot in place.

A lot of people are going to think Lambda here, but this seems more like an Eva/Eva-Beatrice situation to me.


EDIT: https://twitter.com/ohonipah/status/1415710811264274434

I just also wanted to note that some people were speculating this might be the case from the start.

[Marina2]

Ah........I see. So the story goes with "I am not actually evil, my evil personality did it" route.

IMO, It's really a cheap way to try to redeem Satoko 'character'.

.......Wait, so what exactly was the scene with Teppei and K1 in Tataridamashi? Satoko beat Teppei with the bat with the same movement as K1 did.

[MCAL]

Originally Posted by Marina2

Ah........I see. So the story goes with "I am not actually evil, my evil personality did it" route.

IMO, It's really a cheap way to try to redeem Satoko 'character'.

That's why I think its more an Eva/Eva-Beatrice situation. In Umineko, Eva basically describes her witch self as a part of her. That she has the potential to do horrible things and even the thoughts to do them, but while she can hold them back and try to deny it, the witch part of her is still her in the end and not a different person. Witch Satoko even says basically the same thing during this episode.

......Wait, so what exactly was the scene with Teppei and K1 in Tataridamashi? Satoko beat Teppei with the bat with the same movement as K1 did.

Most likely, Satoko knocked Keiichi out and the rest was a hallucination. (Re-watching the scene, you can even hear Eua's staff jingling, implying something was up). EDIT: Oh yeah, that would also explain why there's so little blood on Satoko when she returns to the festival, if she only hit Keiichi once.

[Tsundere Louise]

Even if there was any turning point for Satoko, she passed it long time ago and won't be able to return. Now I only wonder will this be linked to Umineko at the end or not, and if it will, I really hope for a remake with Gou/Sotsu staff and designs by Akio Watanabe as well.

[Zolton]

Originally Posted by Marina2

.......Wait, so what exactly was the scene with Teppei and K1 in Tataridamashi? Satoko beat Teppei with the bat with the same movement as K1 did.

Some people noticed the bat was coming at K1 from below, which would be weird if a grown-ass dude like Teppei was swinging it. "Evil Satoko" theories started back in T-damashi, if not sooner.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Marina2

Ah........I see. So the story goes with "I am not actually evil, my evil personality did it" route.

IMO, It's really a cheap way to try to redeem Satoko 'character'.

.......Wait, so what exactly was the scene with Teppei and K1 in Tataridamashi? Satoko beat Teppei with the bat with the same movement as K1 did.

I concur with MCAL's conclusion that it is more akin to what happened in Umineko Episode 3.
Satoko may deny her witch form out of desperation, but it was still a part of her that was born, albeit chaotically through Eua's powers and the loops.
It isn't like she was unaware of her actions: after all, she consciously accepted Eua's offer so she -was- willing to trap Rika in Hinamizawa. But the extent of the methods went out of hand because of that witch part of her, which basically became sentient so to speak.

[Kanon]

Satoko's reactions to instigating her friends to kill each other and to torturing Mion before killing her: "lmao, this is way too fun!"

Satoko's reaction when about to kill her abusive uncle: "Oh no, I've become a monster! I can't kill the uncle that has always been so kind to me (for the past few days)!"

The writing is horrible. Satoko's breakdown should have happened a lot earlier. I'm sure people will argue it was a matter of her reaching her boiling point, but there were better ways to do this than using fucking Teppei. Oh and it looks like the pacing has been total shit this season just so Satoko becoming a witch would happen on episode 34.

Well, at least something interesting finally happened for the first time this season.

[AC-Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Satoko's reactions to instigating her friends to kill each other and to torturing Mion before killing her: "lmao, this is way too fun!"

Satoko's reaction when about to kill her abusive uncle: "Oh no, I've become a monster! I can't kill the uncle that has always been so kind to me (for the past few days)!"

The writing is horrible. Satoko's breakdown should have happened a lot earlier. I'm sure people will argue it was a matter of her reaching her boiling point, but there were better ways to do this than using fucking Teppei. Oh and it looks like the pacing has been total shit this season just so Satoko becoming a witch would happen on episode 34.

Well, at least something interesting finally happened for the first time this season.

You forget that her abusive uncle did a 180° turnaround, and not just in one loop but in all of them.

---
So Bern is probably the next one to break off Rika. I really wonder how they'll go about featherine getting her name.

[Jan-Poo]

Satoko holding her right hand with her left in the real world while also talking to herself in front of Teppei is not something that we have ever seen Eva doing in Umineko. Eva vs Evatrice has always been the representation of an internal conflict, not the actual display of an insane person. And if that didn't actually happen, well I don't know what to say about suddenly using an unreliable narrator with no logical explanation in an answer arc.

I guess that in the case of K1 which now I must inevitably concede that he was an unreliable narrator in tataridamashi, we have the excuse that it was a question arc and he received a heavy hit on the head, and probably after seeing a glimpse of the shocking scene of a room completely bloodied, but I still find it very challenging for my suspension of disbelief that he conveniently imagined that he was the killer.

Anyway I see no reason why suddenly bringing up two conflicting personalities of Satoko unless the idea is to set the stage for when Rika will "save" the good Satoko from the evil one, which, I agree with Marina2, would be very lame.

[MCAL]

Originally Posted by AC-Phoenix

You forget that her abusive uncle did a 180° turnaround, and not just in one loop but in all of them.

She also clearly says she doesn't want to hurt her friends anymore. Which seems to imply a sort of regret for everything. That being said I do agree we should have gotten to this a little sooner or at the very least we should have gotten more foreshadowing to this.