Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Meguri - Vol. 5 Ch. 19.1 - Akarigurashi-hen Part 5.1

[MangaDex]

 

[bagong016]

Ryukisho you GOAT this is totally better than the anime

 

[Zafkiel_Aleph]

Pretty sure we can consider meguri to be a direct prequel to Umineko at this point. I'd like to talk about a few things that I believe this route is taking us to. SPOILER WARNING if you haven't read Umineko.

I'm guessing the end of meguri is when Rika's descent to madness begins. Satoko committing proxy murder just to keep on preserving her ideal world in the next loops probably means that she's accepted the weight of the situation she's in. Doomed to live for all eternity, she's trying to make the most out of her remaining time before she breaks and ascends to the higher realms. While Rika, assuming she's also aware of their fate, would probably just keep on doing things she never got to experience in the village until she gets bored and starts resorting to cruel acts for entertainment in her descent to madness. Eventually, the 2 ascends and would cross paths in the higher realms as Bern and Lambda. And thus, begins their cat and mouse chase. I believe the purpose of the higurashi gameboard is to birth and nurture powerful witches to keep Featherine entertained.

 

[kikithedeceiver]

I might get disagreements on this. I do think this outcome is better than how Sotsu did it; however, it still lacks the consequences from everything Satoko did to everyone, and it's topped off with her being "rewarded" with Satoshi's return and things will be better now even though Satoko obviously refuse to give up and just move on.

Like, don't get me wrong, I get Rika looping so much led to the miracle of having Keiichi, Takano and Shion remembering for this to happen, but I preferred if we saw the progress instead of having it spoon-fed us that, "Oh, she looped many times off-screen after learning about what Satoko's doing!" But I'll chalk it up to Ryukishi and Tomato needing to finish up the story ASAP. Now with Satoshi's miraculous return...it's too convenient when the last time we heard of him and his condition was at the start of Meguri.

It's just...nothing felt earned like how the original Higurashi did it. Almost everything felt like it was handed over to Rika to make it work after she found out.

 

[jcdizon416]

I really appreciate that Tomato really made this manga much better than Sotsu. Shion actually played a huge role instead of being just a background character. And it seems that the DBZ or Touhou style fight that happened in Sotsu got replaced altogether.

 

[DakkiXYZ]

I might get disagreements on this. I do think this outcome is better than how Sotsu did it; however, it still lacks the consequences from everything Satoko did to everyone, and it's topped off with her being "rewarded" with Satoshi's return and things will be better now even though Satoko obviously refuse to give up and just move on.

Like, don't get me wrong, I get Rika looping so much led to the miracle of having Keiichi, Takano and Shion remembering for this to happen, but I preferred if we saw the progress instead of having it spoon-fed us that, "Oh, she looped many times off-screen after learning about what Satoko's doing!" But I'll chalk it up to Ryukishi and Tomato needing to finish up the story ASAP. Now with Satoshi's miraculous return...it's too convenient when the last time we heard of him and his condition was at the start of Meguri.

It's just...nothing felt earned like how the original Higurashi did it. Almost everything felt like it was handed over to Rika to make it work after she found out.

I, for one, am fond of 07's compassionate kind of storytelling. I'm tired of the meta-trope of things having to be 'earned.' Humans in the real world don't come in hero and villain flavours. Everyone is valuable as a being with unique experiences, the protagonist of their own story. If at the end of the day you can save everyone, save everyone. Hell shall be empty, Protestants and neoliberals be damned.
Rika getting everything offscreen feels rushed, but I don't know if seeing her do all of those things would have made the story any more interesting or if it'd instead feel slow and predictable.

About Shion remembering having killed Satoko... Well, that wasn't Shion. In the fragments/loops of the alien simulation of Watanagashi fate, 'Shion' is actually the Mion of the other fragments. So Shion here accessed Mion's memories. There was a nice invariant of Shion never going L5 that was broken in this story when the one to do Watanagashi/Meakashi is Mion.
I think the connection between the WTC series is that the fragments are many instances of planet Earth's simulation inside of the alien ship in Haworthia's story. This could give many scenarios in Ciconia without time travel, as 07 said there wouln't be loops in Ciconia. It also unifies the material and meta world. Satoko is said to be Vier with her memories erased, as if Higurashi is some experiment in the subterranean complex. Higurashi is a game played between runs of the simulation.

 

[Werebearguy]

Downsides to the manga over the anime:
- No chair being thrown
Positives to the manga over the anime:
- EVERTHING ELSE

Please dear god let this be leading to a good ending. I'm all for crazy plot twists and despair, but Satoko (in this version) has suffered enough.

 

[Clover_Zero]

Oh god, that's such a good development, I screamed. This manga is truly better than the anime, and I'm not even the most critical about it. I'm glad Satoshi played a role here. A miracle indeed.

 

[Lambdadeltum]

My heartrate increased as soon as Satoshi walked in. Akase the Goat.

 

[kikithedeceiver]

I, for one, am fond of 07's compassionate kind of storytelling. I'm tired of the meta-trope of things having to be 'earned.' Humans in the real world don't come in hero and villain flavours. Everyone is valuable as a being with unique experiences, the protagonist of their own story. If at the end of the day you can save everyone, save everyone. Hell shall be empty, Protestants and neoliberals be damned.
Rika getting everything offscreen feels rushed, but I don't know if seeing her do all of those things would have made the story any more interesting or if it'd instead feel slow and predictable.

About Shion remembering having killed Satoko... Well, that wasn't Shion. In the fragments/loops of the alien simulation of Watanagashi fate, 'Shion' is actually the Mion of the other fragments. So Shion here accessed Mion's memories. There was a nice invariant of Shion never going L5 that was broken in this story when the one to do Watanagashi/Meakashi is Mion.
I think the connection between the WTC series is that the fragments are many instances of planet Earth's simulation inside of the alien ship in Haworthia's story. This could give many scenarios in Ciconia without time travel, as 07 said there wouln't be loops in Ciconia. It also unifies the material and meta world. Satoko is said to be Vier with her memories erased, as if Higurashi is some experiment in the subterranean complex. Higurashi is a game played between runs of the simulation.

Valid. Compassion is a good thing, but I feel that every time a story tells of someone who did something bad that hurt their friends due to their own insecurity, trauma and/or they were brainwashed/manipulated, it's always unconditional forgiveness and pardon, and everything will be okay again. Rika can save Satoko, and that would make me happy as a fan, but personally, what she did to Rika, her best friend, and all her other friends is something I cannot forgive since I had similar experiences with people like Satoko. Not everyone can be saved when they're stubborn about being in the right and holding you back to keep you with them for their own needs. That's unhealthy. And for someone like Rika, who sought to get out of the neverending loops, I don't understand how she could forgive Satoko that easily, with Satoko refusing to realise she was in the wrong/lost.

I was thinking the Rika solving things offscreen could be amended by having her also being in a montage of her finding small clues here and there before getting killed endlessly, like how we had the montage of Satoko learning how to use a gun, crack the code to get the H173, kill Rika, repeat. This will also show Rika's resilience. Sure, she got killed over and over, but it showed she was ready, and she's slowly gaining clues on what to do, and that this 'game' is different from the original loops she went through.

 

[Yukizakurasou]

About Shion remembering having killed Satoko... Well, that wasn't Shion. In the fragments/loops of the alien simulation of Watanagashi fate, 'Shion' is actually the Mion of the other fragments. So Shion here accessed Mion's memories. There was a nice invariant of Shion never going L5 that was broken in this story when the one to do Watanagashi/Meakashi is Mion.

Kinda confused what you mean here.

 

[Goodbyefrankenstein]

Thank god for this manga. Anime wished it could even be as smidge good like this

 

[BakedBanana]

Ah damn, I caught up! I do wonder how this will end, so far it's been amazing.