Higurashi Gou - First Half Analysis

Posted January 6th, 2021

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"Higurashi When They Cry Gou" is a 2020 TV anime series produced by Infinite, with animation by studio Passione. The series represents a new iteration of the original Higurashi series, but it's being presented as an entirely new tale that author Ryukishi07 has refered to as "a Hinamizawa no one knows", creating a new setting that will mirror the original on a surface level, but is in fact an entirely new story.



At the time of this writing, the series has reached its halfway point, with the conclusion of what I assume are the primary "question arc" storylines, Onidamashi-hen (Demon Deceiving Chapter), Watadamashi-hen (Cotton Deceiving Chapter), and Tataridamashi-hen (Curse Deceiving Chapter). As such, I decided I wanted to just write up an analysis of these stories and see what I as a single viewer can piece together of this series.

I will begin by going over each story, that story's themes, how those themes are explored, and ultimately an overview and analysis of the tragedy of said story. Afterwards, I'll explore Higurashi Gou overall and discuss its nature as a series created to "deceive", as well as analyze the series from the standpoint of the "XYZ" Rules established in the original Higurashi and compare them to the worlds we're seeing in these Higurashi Gou stories. Finally, I'll close on speculation regarding a possible "mastermind" and the reason for these stories to exist.

The Themes of Onidamashi-hen

Onidamashi-hen (Demon Deceiving Chapter) is a story taking place between June 10th and June 23rd in 1983, and is depicted in episodes 1 through 4 of the anime. The story follows Keiichi Maebara, as he slowly grows suspicious of his friends by learning about the dark history of Hinamizawa and Oyashiro-sama's Curse. I believe suspicion and trust are key themes to what's portrayed here, and serve to present a base tragedy that can unfold in environments like Hinamizawa.

-Suspicion and Hinamizawa's Series of Bizarre Deaths
If you're familiar with Higurashi, you're probably already familiar with the Hinamizawa Series of Bizarre Deaths (aka Oyashiro-sama's Curse). This refers to the series of yearly deaths that occur each year on the night of the Watanagashi Festival, in which one person dies and another is "demoned away" as a supposed sacrifice.
1979: The Dam Construction Chief is murdered and dismembered, and one of the five culprits disappeared.
1980: Satoko and Satoshi's parents fall from a cliff and die while on vacation. The mother's body is never found.
1981: Rika's parents die, with her father collapsing suddenly, and her mother's body going missing in the swamp after an apparent suicide.
1982: Satoko's aunt is found beaten to death, and a drug addict is pinned as the culprit, but Satoshi goes missing afterwards.

In Onidamashi-hen, this information is fed to Keiichi directly by Ooishi (albeit without the direct ties to his group of friends mentioned), and the story then shifts to revolve around Keiichi's growing paranoia about Hinamizawa, in particular his friends. The possibility that someone close to him may have been involved in such frightening crimes drives him to start behaving cautiously, and he ends up meeting with Ooishi several times to discuss the matter. This is all backed by the knowledge that Tomitake and Takano had gone missing the night of the festival he'd just attended. The importance of this story is that it establishes the base conundrum of the setting of Hinamizawa. It may seem like a peaceful rural village, but it has a dark and bizarre history looming over it. However, in the end, our protagonist Keiichi chooses not to let such subject matter effect his relationship with those close to him. However, from the very start, something seems off...

-Keiichi and Rena's Perceptions of One Another
The story of Onidamashi-hen is a story about the relationship between Keiichi and Rena, and the bond these two share. On the surface, it's presented as the story of Keiichi growing suspicious of his friends (particularly Rena), but considering the story from Rena's point of view, Keiichi is the one behaving strangely. To explain it simply, Keiichi and Rena's relationship shifts from one where they believe they understand each other, to one where they each begin to doubt one another, and neither is sure what changed to cause this. It's the kind of awkward social situation where you know something's wrong, but can't tell what. From the perspective of the audience, it's clear what changed on Keiichi's side: he learned about the dark past of the village, which caused him to become paranoid around his friends. But what does that have to do with Rena? Nothing Keiichi learns is directly tied to her in any way, so why does Keiichi begin to fear Rena in particular above his other friends? It's because she's behaving strangely too. When it comes down to it, Rena is the only person who starts to truly give him a bad vibe. When Rika asks Keiichi to confide in her, all he can explain on his part is that despite being his important friend, the way Rena looks at him scares him sometimes.

The peak of the discomfort in their relationship culminated in the moment when Rena shouted at Keiichi, calling him a liar. Keiichi, who was keeping secrets from her and talking to the police about something behind her back terrified Rena, who believed that Keiichi was threatening some kind of happiness she had worked hard to achieve. We aren't shown Rena's point of view, but it should become clear enough now that Keiichi's actions taken on account of him feeling suspicious of Rena brought enough discomfort to their relationship that Rena herself became suspicious in turn.



-Analyzing the Tragedy
On the evening of Thursday, June 23rd, Rena went to Keiichi's home while his parents were out under the guise of coming to cook for him. And although Keiichi had felt scared of Rena, he chose to believe in her and let her inside. Eventually, Keiichi enters the kitchen to find Rena scratching at her neck, and claiming she'll make Keiichi and herself the year's victims of Oyashiro-sama's Curse so her father can live in peace. Rena attacks Keiichi with a knife and the two have a bloody struggle against one another.

In the end, this is the culmination of what I'd discussed previously. Rena had determined that Keiichi was a threat to her happiness, and attempted to murder him for it, unable to trust her friend. The mystery, then, is what did she believe Keiichi threatened? The only hint we have is that it's something regarding her dad. It's highly likely that Rena had already murdered someone to try and protect her family, and she feared Keiichi had discovered that this happened. After all, for Rena, the reason to be suspicious has nothing to do with Hinamizawa or its dark past, but rather it's to be suspicious of someone capable of taking away the peaceful life she "worked hard for." As an old-time Higurashi fan, this is the obvious conclusion to reach. (for reasons I'll discuss in the next section) But it's because it's obvious and relies on my prior knowledge that I wonder if there could be some other factor involved here regarding Rena's suspicion and decision to attack Keiichi.

But the extent of this chapter's Tragedy doesn't end with Rena and Keiichi, let's talk about what we learned after. On June 24th, the day after the incident at Keiichi's home, Rika and Satoko were both killed with a single knife in their home. Why had Rika and Satoko been killed, and who was behind this? I feel like the answer to this question lies even closer to the core of Gou's story than the conflict between Keiichi and Rena. In the end, I'll discuss this incident in further detail later on, alongside others from the remaining two stories.

-Onikakushi vs. Onidamashi
I believe Onikakushi-hen and Onidamashi-hen work very well as parallels to one another. They both carry similar themes, it's just that how those themes resolve in the end are different. In Onikakushi-hen, it's Keiichi who gives in to paranoia and kills his friends after reaching a L5-like state of the Hinamizawa Syndrome. In Onidamashi-hen, Keiichi does not give in to that paranoia and chooses to trust his friends, but in the background Rena was the one losing herself to the paranoia caused by Keiichi's actions. My initial assumption is that this is a world like Tsumihoroboshi-hen where Rena murders someone to protect her family, but no one finds out about it so Rena is left to go insane, fixating on Keiichi's changing behavior until she eventually reaches the conclusion that she must get rid of him.

In Onikakushi-hen, Rena could be considered the main "villain" via the perspective the story is told from, despite the truth that she wasn't. Onidamashi-hen flips that on its head by making Rena into an actual assailant, instead of a perceived one. Thus creating two stories that are similar on the surface, but have fundamental differences that alter how the events conclude. To begin with, in Onidamashi-hen Keiichi never learns about Satoshi in particular in a way to fixate over comparing himself to him, and he never views Mion suspiciously after her initial denial of incidents from the dam war. It's much more focused on the way two people perceive one another. If this were Onikakushi-hen, Keiichi would've gotten to enjoy a nice meal made by Rena had he let her indoors. But that's not the story that was taking place to begin with, so letting Rena inside resulted in tragedy... It's an inverse of Onikakushi-hen's tragedy.

The themes of trust and betrayed trust, these are what the stories of both Onikakushi-hen and Onidamashi-hen are founded upon.

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The Themes of Watadamashi-hen

Watadamashi-hen (Cotton Deceiving Chapter) is a story taking place between June 12th and June 20th in 1983, and is depicted in episodes 5 through 8 of the anime. The story follows Keiichi Maebara, as he gets caught up in a love triangle-like situation with the Sonozaki Twins Mion & Shion, and ends up confronting Hinamizawa's dark history. I believe the themes of this arc revolve around the nature of Hinamizawa and how Oyashiro-sama's Curse has twisted the feeling of unity in the village, including the struggle against the complacancy of such an abnormal place.

-Addressing the Unity of Hinamizawa
The unity of Hinamizawa refers to the feeling of comraderie in the village as described by Mion. How everyone in the village looks out for each other, such as if one person threatens a villager, two stand up to defend them, if two, then four, etc. In the end, the story spends a long time on these themes, and it ends up being summed up well in Mion's final conversation with Keiichi. The unity of Hinamizawa is something very important to Mion, and it's something she has always taken pride in, so the fact that such an ideal ended up becoming twisted due to Oyashiro-sama's Curse is something that weighs heavily on her, and in this story drives her to take action in any way she can as the heir to the Sonozaki family.

-The Twin Problem & the Feelings for Keiichi
On the topic of feelings personal to Mion, another thing that's center stage here is the focus on her feelings for Keiichi. After the board game tournament, Keiichi (with a bit of advice from Rika) ended up giving Mion the doll he'd received. It made Mion very happy to realize that Keiichi could see her feminine side too. This culminates in Keiichi visiting Angel Mort and discovering Mion working there in the attractive maid outfit. However, this is where things get complicated. Embarrassed by the situation, Mion passes herself off as her twin sister Shion, who Keiichi hasn't met. In the end, it becomes a cute & comical back-and-forth of encounters, until Keiichi finally realizes Shion is a real person too. What's more, in the midst of this, Keiichi ends up buying Shion a doll of her own, identical to the one he gave Mion.

This is the Twin Problem. Mion and Shion are quite different, but by hiding a part of herself behind the guise of "Shion", Mion probably ends up quite distressed when the real Shion enters the picture. In the end, it wouldn't surprise me if she began to doubt what Keiichi really thought about her. But that's why the act of getting the doll from him in the beginning is so important: that was something done before he'd even known Shion existed, and promising Shion a doll was only something that happened from Keiichi's confusion that Mion originally caused herself. The real mystery here then, is how Shion felt about getting a doll from Keiichi. To begin with, why did she reach out to him in the first place? To tease her happy sister?

Regardless, I don't want to get too bogged down analyzing the specific feelings of these sisters. It's clear Mion is in love with Keiichi, and Shion's feelings are less clear, but they're probably a key to some aspect of this story I will get back to later.

-Mion vs. The Dark Past of Hinamizawa
In the end, Mion's love for Keiichi was the final push she needed to build the resolve to stand against the stagnant state of Hinamizawa. Ever since Oyashiro-sama's Curse began occurring each year, I believe Mion's struggled to find much to be proud of in her home village, that's why she's always the first to talk about what was accomplished during the dam war as a proud feat. She clings to that pride, but deep down the series of bizarre deaths has left her with the impression that her home has become a twisted place. For a while she'd been able to ignore it, until Keiichi, Shion, Tomitake, and Takano entered the ritual tool storehouse on the night of the Watanagashi festival. Suddenly, the person she loved had become a prime candidate for the "curse" she dreaded every year. On top of this, the other three were already readily sharing details about Hinamizawa's dark past with Keiichi the evening before. Mion had wanted to hide this dark side of the village from him. She had wanted Keiichi to see Hinamizawa as a great place, so the two of them could enjoy a happy life there together. But now that had all fallen apart, and worse, Keiichi was in danger.

Thus, Mion called Keiichi to her home, forgave him after he confessed to entering the tool storehouse, and showed him the Sonozaki family's underground chamber filled with torture tools. After that, she locked Keiichi in a cell, complete with everything he'd need to survive, in order to keep him there for a while, protecting him from anyone who could go after him. This was Mion's act of resistence against whatever was causing Oyashiro-sama's Curse.



-Analyzing the Tragedy
The tragedy of Watadamashi-hen is one that had occurred away from Keiichi. After all, Mion had thoroughly protected Keiichi from anyone who could go after him. Mion was the one who tackled the problem head-on. So what happened?

On the night of the Watanagashi Festival on June 19th, Tomitake and Takano had stolen a truck from the festival grounds and drove away, disappearing. Also that night, village mayor Kimiyoshi had disappeared. At the school on June 20th, Rika had gone missing at the Hinamizawa school shortly after talking to Keiichi. Mion had also seen her talking to a strange man in a work uniform behind the school. The evening of the 20th is when Mion had called Keiichi over and locked him up, where Keiichi had seen her leave with a pistol to go confront a "henchman" she'd seen on the security camera. Afterwards, Mion and Satoko had both been found dead in the hallway of the Sonozaki estate, and the bodies of Oryo Sonozaki, mayor Kimiyoshi, and Shion Sonozaki had been found at the bottom of the well in the Sonozaki underground chamber, and Rika's body was eventually found in the septic tank of the Hinamizawa school.

After learning about who died and where, Keiichi was stunned because it made it seem as if Mion was the culprit. After all, she could've already killed Oryo, Kimiyoshi, and Shion on the night of Watanagashi. When the class was searching for the missing Rika, Mion stopped Keiichi from checking the septic area. And finally, what if the person she went to confront after locking him up was Satoko and they'd killed each other? Keiichi could only wonder if this huge body count was all a result of Mion trying to protect him from some conspiracy.

But if that's not the case, what could've happened behind the scenes? To begin with, the murders and victims are all over the place and strange. The deaths of Rika and Satoko in the midsts of this are especially bizarre, so let's focus on them for a moment. The last time Keiichi saw Rika, he was being scolded for entering the ritual tool storehouse, and Rika had basically expressed that this world was doomed and that he should've watched her dance. But the actual last person to see Rika was Mion, who claims to have seen her talking to someone in a work uniform behind the school. Why was Rika talking to someone like that there? And why did Mion not do anything if she saw it? To begin with, it seems as though Mion may have seen something she's not telling us, because later when the class was searching for Rika, Mion had an outburst where she seemed convinced that Rika must be the culprit behind Oyashiro-sama's Curse. What did she see that could've possibly lead to that conclusion? And furthermore, what happened after that conversation she saw that could've lead to Rika dying in the septic tank? Sure, it could've been the doing of Mion herself, but then why would she still share what she saw, or rant about Rika being the culprit if she already knew she was dead? It doesn't quite add up. Furthermore, Satoko was also strange in this situation. She'd last seen Rika talking to Keiichi, but upon news of Rika being missing from class, instead of expressing worry over her friend, she instantly points out Keiichi being the last one who saw her in an accusatory manner, until Mion speaks up about the strange man she saw her talking to. Why was Satoko so dead set on making Keiichi seem suspicious? Sure, the class was on edge because of the Curse and mayor Kimiyoshi's disappearance the night before, but still... In the end, Satoko seemingly went to confront Mion that evening at the Sonozaki estate, whether she was the one Mion saw on the security camera or not. That being said, if Mion was under the impression that the missing Rika was the culprit, would she look at Satoko as being her "henchman"? If so, then maybe Satoko really was the one she saw on the security camera. After Keiichi broke through his cell, he did get a peek at the cameras himself, and he saw a group of men in work uniforms storming the Sonozaki estate, so they could also be the "henchman", but the the way Mion spoke was as if she was going to meet a singular guest, so I personally feel it's more likely the workers came in just after the mysterious "henchman" who may or may not be Satoko. Regardless, the end result ended up being the deaths of Mion and Satoko in the halls of the estate. Did they kill each other? Was it the mysterious workers? It's hard to say.

Finally, the deaths of Oryo, Kimiyoshi, and Shion in the well. Did they all die on the night of the Watanagashi festival? To begin with, Oryo's death seemed to have been hidden, because the villagers were only aware of the disappearance of Kimiyoshi, and given Mion's lack of sleep there was likely a search party for him specifically. Shion was potentially still alive long enough to call Keiichi and tell him about Tomitake and Takano's disappearance earlier in the night. But the possibility exists that it was Mion who informed him of that while pretending to be Shion, but why pretend to be Shion in such a situation? Especially when she was likely already regretting pretending to be her from earlier. Regardless, something happened at the festival that night which led to the deaths of two of the most important people in the village, as well as Shion. Of course, the implication is Mion killed them to protect Keiichi, but that doesn't seem right, you know? What could possibly have happened that night...? I'll analyze it more later when thinking of Gou as a whole.

-Watanagashi vs. Watadamashi
Much like how Onidamashi-hen was an inverse of Onikakushi-hen, parts of this story feel like an inverse of Watanagashi-hen. In the original, as revealed in Meakashi-hen, the culprit was Shion who'd switched places with Mion on the night of the festival, but I find it difficult to believe such a thing occurred this time. I don't believe there's much to gain from comparing the specific events, since I feel like the core circumstances behind them are too different, but it's amazing how Watadamashi-hen hit a lot of the same notes in a much shorter amount of time. Festival where Keiichi & co. sneak into the storehouse -> Kimiyoshi goes missing -> Rika (& Satoko in Watanagashi-hen) goes missing -> confrontation at the Sonozaki estate.

I think it goes without saying, but if you're familiar with the original, it's believed that giving Mion the doll is the key to avoiding the tragedy of that story. But in this story, a tragedy still occurs despite Mion getting the doll. Much like in Onidamashi-hen, Keiichi makes the correct choice at a key moment. I don't believe Shion is responsible for the murders this time, at least not for everything, but at the same time, I don't believe Mion is either, despite how things are set up. The original Watanagashi-hen was specifically designed to paint Mion as the culprit, only for Meakashi-hen to reveal it was Shion. Watadamashi-hen similarly paints Mion as the culprit, but it's in a situation that Mion is undoubtly much more involved, and there seems to be no reason to believe another twin swap happened after the festival. Besides, Mion's corpse itself seemed to have scratches on her neck. Was Mion beginning to develop L5 Hinamizawa syndrome symptoms? That could explain some things, like her paranoid fixation on Rika, but we still don't know what she saw that could've lead to such conclusions, even inher paranoid state.

Finally, there must be some overarching plot going on here that Mion's move to protect Keiichi has interferred with. There's only so much one can infer from the victims and where they were, but whether Mion had a true understanding of the situation or not, she wasn't fighting an invisible enemy, because somehow or another, she and many others ended up dead... If she hadn't protected Keiichi, I really wonder what would've happened to him? We may have been able to witness something very close to the core of Gou's story... Additionally, the infiltration of the estate by what seemed to be the Yamainu was also extremely curious. What were they doing there? Were they looking for Rika? What made them go into the Sonozaki estate? From the perspective of the original, it's really hard to gauge. On the topic of the Yamainu, I didn't mention in Onidamashi-hen's section, but by June 23rd in that world, the Irie clinic was closed for remodeling. What on Earth is the meaning of that? Well, I'll go over that more later, since it's not relevant here. But since this is a new series, I have to be careful not to let preconceptions of the Yamainu from the past story deceive me too much.

In the end, I think Watadamashi-hen ended up being a story much more personal to Mion, but at the same time, much like the original, it paints her as the only plausible culprit. But there must be more that we're missing. What did you see on June 20th, Mion...?

==

The Themes of Tataridamashi-hen

Tataridamashi-hen (Curse Deceiving Chapter) is a story taking place between June 9th and June 19th in 1983, and is depicted in episodes 9 through 13 of the anime. The story follows Keiichi Maebara, as he becomes a close brother-like figure for Satoko Hojo, and his battle to break down the discrimination against the Hojo family and rally the village to save Satoko from the abuse of her uncle Teppei. I believe this arc serves to deconstruct the issues regarding Hinamizawa that were presented in the previous arcs, to allow an alternate look at the unfolding tragedy without an explicit focus on Oyashiro-sama's Curse.

-Satoko, Keiichi, and Satoshi
Throughout the story arcs thus far in Higurashi Gou, one aspect that's been strangely absent of focus until now was the existence of Satoko's older brother Satoshi. In this story, Keiichi starts to bond with and grow closer to Satoko, and during this he learns about Satoshi, and how he'd always be someone there to protect Satoko in the past from people like their abusive aunt. However, Satoshi disappeared on the night of 1982's Watanagashi festival, after the aunt was found dead. These were the circumstances that lead to the uncle Teppei fleeing Hinamizawa and Satoko moving in to live with Rika.

Satoko was very close to Satoshi, so his disappearance likely had a big impact on her. In Watadamashi-hen, Rena mentions that the energetic and cheerful Satoko we know is more of a recent side of her, compared to how she used to be. So it's interesting to analyze Satoko and Keiichi's relationship through the lens of "filling the void left behind by Satoshi." Rather, this view becomes even more apparent at the end of the arc when Satoko asks Keiichi if he could become her new "Nii-nii" (the nickname she referred to Satoshi by). The discrepency here though is that Satoko's relationship with Satoshi and her relationship with Keiichi are fairly different. The way Satoko treats Keiichi is more like a smart little sister taking care of her clueless big brother, as seen by their early interactions in this arc during the time they bonded when Keiichi's parents were away. While we weren't given much about Satoko and Satoshi's relationship, it really felt more like the other way around in that Satoko depended on him. But perhaps Satoko may view this difference as a growth in herself. Even if she views Keiichi as her new "Nii-nii", she has grown enough to be able to take care of him, instead of the other way around like with Satoshi. Regardless, there is only so much we can infer about Satoko's feelings, but I think she really is a complex girl who continues to do her best despite tough circumstances. This is why the tragic idea of her uncle Teppei coming back and forcing her into a cruel home life again is so heartbreaking, and why the characters fight so hard to save her from that situation.

-The Movement to Save Satoko & the Unity of Hinamizawa
I won't go into detail on why Child Welfare Services are so hesitant to act in regards to Satoko's case, that's all covered at length in the story, so instead I'm going to focus on the meaning behind what Keiichi actually accomplishes in this story. Long story short, Keiichi and the rest of our leading cast (including Shion, who's very protective of Satoko due to a promise made with Satoshi) confront CWS to try and get Satoko out of the Hojo household as quickly as possible after witnessing one of her panic attacks in class, and due to various reasons they stubbornly remain slow on addressing the case. Our leads then proceed to round up more and more people to protest CWS and force them into a situation where they must address Satoko's case. In the midst of this, Keiichi and the gang appeal to and win over both Kimiyoshi and the rest of the village council, as well as the head of the Sonozaki yakuza family, Oryo Sonozaki. Keiichi, in essence, breaks down the discrimination against the Hojo family that's been perceived by the villagers since the dam war, and rounds everyone together for the purpose of saving her, bringing Satoko in as a fully accepted part of the Hinamizawa village.

This amazing feat is also the natural climax to themes that the previous arcs have built up regarding Hinamizawa itself. Onidamashi-hen introduced this story, and from the perspective of Keiichi's growing suspicions and the warnings of police like detective Ooishi, makes the village seem like a frightening place. Watadamashi-hen tipped the scales more towards the center, providing a perspective of Keiichi, now close with Mion and Shion, with a more grounded view of the situation, as he can see and understand how much it pains Mion that her home village she respected has become a place where things like Oyashiro-sama's Curse can continue to thrive. And finally, here in Tataridamashi-hen, we hit the other side of the scale, where Keiichi confronts and breaks down all preconceptions and hits the core of Hinamizawa itself in his crusade to save Satoko. We're introduced to and get to understand the perspectives of Kimiyoshi and Oryo all at once, and we end up with a situation where we can truly see the fabled unity of Hinamizawa come together for a positive cause: saving Satoko. By the end of these three arcs, we've essentially undergone an entire arc of establishing and breaking down the true nature of this village to the point where it's difficult to really suspect that there's some big conspiracy among the higherups. (In fact, Watadamashi-hen established Oryo and Kimiyoshi as possible victims themselves.) And yet, despite the understanding of this village becoming so clear, these mysterious deaths still seem to be a total mystery. What is going on?

-Ooishi vs. Hinamizawa
One key aspect that got some focus in this story as well was the role of the police in all of this. When Irie talks to Keiichi after his first run-in with detective Ooishi, Irie reveals to Keiichi that many in the village really dislike Ooishi because of how antagonistic he seems toward the village, to the point where he's been given the nickname "Oyashiro-sama's Familiar." After all, whenever he comes around, an incident occurs at the festival as if he's bringing the bad luck of Oyashiro-sama's Curse with him. Though rather than that, as Irie described, Ooishi has an obsession with discovering the truth behind Hinamizawa's series of bizarre deaths. This is even evident in the first two arcs, where in Onidamashi-hen the detective seems to rely excessively on Keiichi as a source of information that could get him some new leads, and in Watadamashi-hen he comes off a bit disconcerting the way he watches over everything trying to stay ahead of any incident, but in the end saves Keiichi from the underground cell and later informs him of the strange deaths that had occurred. It's clear that Ooishi has a fixation on this case, but for most of this story, that isn't really much of a central focus. In Tataridamashi-hen, after their initial encounter, Ooishi simply watches Keiichi from a distance, impressed at seeing him break down the preconceptions of the villagers to rally them to help save his friend. In the end, Ooishi ends up putting himself into the role of "the bad cop" by getting in Keiichi's way with legal technicalities. Though as revealed in Ooishi's scene with his colleague Kumagai, he knew Keiichi would end up succeeding due to convicing people like Oryo, and was simply "pretending" his role as a formality. Once Assemblyman Sonozaki and his lawyer showed up, Ooishi backed down with no resistence at all. And after they brought out Harayama of CWS, he even promised to drive them to the Hojo house personally to resolve the case and save Satoko.

Ooishi's role in Tataridamashi-hen is interesting because it places him in the role of being a "villain" who's getting in the way of our heroes' goals, but at the same time, deviates from Keiichi's perspective for a moment to give us a rare instant of displaying his true character and intent. However, the ultimate finale of this story forces viewers to give this entire character role a double-take, but before we cover that, let's discuss the true "hero vs. villain" dynamic that is core to this arc...

-Keiichi & Teppei
Teppei Hojo is a terrible person, but also a key figure in this whole story. Tataridamashi-hen is, at its core, the struggle of Keiichi Maebara against an incident that only exists because this man exists. He's the catalyst for everything that happens, from Keiichi petitioning CWS, to tearing down the Hojo discrimination and bringing Hinamizawa together. This was all able to occur because Teppei Hojo existed as a "villain" to fight against. However, this whole struggle occurred without Keiichi ever meeting Teppei Hojo once, until the very end. Keiichi did have a "dream" where he saw Teppei for a moment, but it's not something he remembered the next morning. If someone were to ask the Keiichi Maebara in this story to describe Teppei Hojo's appearance, he couldn't.

Despite this, Keiichi can see the damage caused by this man. He hears the stories about him from others, and he sees Satoko's panic attack first hand. Furthermore, despite being a story told primarily from Keiichi's perspective, this arc contained several instances of taking us out of that perspective and showing us Teppei being witnessed by others. The very first scene we see in the arc is the landlady of his apartment trying to make a complaint to him. Later, we see an old villager witness Teppei back in Hinamizawa, bringing Satoko into the Hojo house. At one point, Chie-sensei goes to confront him regarding Satoko, meeting him at the door. And finally, although not a direct witness event, toward the end we see some other villagers fixing a jizo statue that they believe Teppei must've knocked down. Tataridamashi-hen went out of its way to have more scenes outside of Keiichi's point of view, as if to assure us that Teppei is here. Because of that, I do believe Teppei returned to the village, and took Satoko with him back to the house, but... There has to be some reason he and Keiichi never met. I believe figuring that out may be an important key to the truth behind this story's tragedy. Speaking of the tragedy...



-Analyzing the Tragedy
Separate from the tragedy of Teppei returning and abusing Satoko, the ultimate tragedy of this story is that everyone overcame that incident, only to be hit with an even more shocking turn of events at the last moment. The night of the Watanagashi festival on June 19th, Satoko took Keiichi aside from the festival during Rika's ceremonial dance, and invited him to her home to give him something that had once been important to Satoshi. Satoko leaves Keiichi alone for a moment in the Hojo house's living room, and as soon as Keiichi turns on the light, he's bashed across the head with a baseball bat. Blood getting all over his face, he turns around to see Teppei, furious over what Keiichi had done, and about to strike him again. Satoko runs into the room shocked, just in time to see Keiichi tackle Teppei, take the bat, and murder him then and there, before collapsing in the pool of blood himself. Later on, Keiichi awakens in the hospital with a bad head wound, and can't remember anything after entering the Hojo house. Later in autumn the still-hospialized Keiichi talks to Rena, who tells him that on that same night he went to the Hojo house, apparently after the festival's cotton drifting ceremony, Ooishi came into the crowd with his pistol, and that Mion, Shion, Rika, and Satoko are all dead. Baffled, and unable to understand it, Rena cries out how this doesn't make any sense.

Let's start from the top. What was Teppei doing in the Hojo house? Did the police/CWS even take him into custody? If they did, did he escape? Even if he did, how did he know who Keiichi was? They'd never met. Was Teppei even really there? What did Satoko take Keiichi there to give him in the first place? There are a ton of questions raised by this single scene. I think the first angle to tackle it from is whether things actually did unfold as we saw them. After all, Keiichi has no memory of what happened in that room, and the only witness was Satoko who ended up dead not long after. It could be considered a delusion, but Keiichi had never met Teppei. Could he really have a delusion about someone he never knew the appearance of? Could it be Satoko's delusion? That's possible, but it doesn't seem quite right. After all, she was away from the room, and came running back after hearing something happen. But, if we do analyze it from this angle, it's possible Satoko had set up one of her usual traps, but it went wrong and gave Keiichi the head injury. The struggle between Keiichi and Teppei could've been a delusion triggered in the mind of Satoko, unable to comprehend an injured Keiichi bleeding from the head. In the end, considering Keiichi doesn't remember what happened, and the fact that what happened in the Hojo house that night wasn't talked about in much detail from Keiichi's later discussions with Kumagai and Rena, there's only so much that can be speculated.

The real puzzler is what happened at the Watanagashi festival regarding detective Ooishi. I'll get this out of the way first: I don't believe Ooishi personally shot Mion & co., at least not intentionally. Ooishi's character in Tataridamashi-hen was presented as antagonistic, but in the end, through a combination of his discussion with Kumagai and his behavior, we know he wasn't nearly as cruel as he was making himself out to be, and was mostly making sure things regarding Keiichi's protest followed protocol. But this is thrown into doubt when we hear from Rena that Ooishi came into the crowd with a pistol, and that Mion & co. are dead, implying Ooishi shot them. But, that's just an implication based on Rena's wording. If Rena actually saw Ooishi shoot everyone with her own eyes, wouldn't it be easier to just say Ooishi killed everyone? There was hesitation in Rena's voice, and she made it very clear she doesn't understand why what occurred that night happened. When Keiichi mentioned Ooishi's name in the hospital, Kumagai was caught off guard as well. We don't actually know what happened regarding Ooishi, whether he was arrested as a murder suspect, or if he somehow died too that night. The lack of information is what makes these cases hard to piece together.

One last thing to touch on, is that based on Rena's wording, Satoko had been one of the victims at the festival too. Did she return there after whatever occurred at the Hojo house? What was Satoko doing at the time? I feel as though Satoko is another key character to unraveling the meaning behind this series of events...

-Tatarigoroshi vs. Tataridamashi
Tatarigoroshi-hen and Tataridamashi-hen have a fair bit in common despite being very different stories. Of course the base conflict of Satoko being taken in and abused by Teppei is the same, but both stories also portray Ooishi in an antagonistic role, lead to a scenario where Keiichi seemingly murders Teppei, and then provides a twist that makes us doubt whether said murder actually occurred. The big key difference of course is how Tatardamashi-hen enters a path resembling Minagoroshi-hen from the original, in regards to Keiichi rallying the whole village to save Satoko. However, while that story ended in a tragedy that finally revealed the core antagonist of the original Higurashi, this story just ended in a sudden tragedy that is just as puzzling as ever.

There isn't too much I want to compare here, but I will say the mid-arc transition to the protest against CWS was well done, and using those Minagoroshi-hen elements to complete the story arc of Hinamizawa's structure as a village I described earlier within just the first half alone is brilliant. That really made a great use of Higurashi's format. Now, the big difference is that since Keiichi took that course of action, he didn't carry out a plan to murder Teppei as he does in Tatarogoroshi-hen, but considering he did "dream" of that world, it's likely he had a good feeling it wouldn't end well even if he did. It contexualizes his clash with Shion's "just go kill the bastard" idea well enough, just as the scene did in Minagoroshi-hen. Now, this also raises the possibility that when Keiichi did ultimately encounter Teppei, it could still be his delusion because he remembered him from the world of Tatarigoroshi he dreamt, but I don't believe this to be the case. Like I explained before, it would've been easy to have Keiichi just meet Teppei once in-story like in Tatarigoroshi if they wanted it to be a possibility of being his own delusion. I believe everything has a purpose for being portrayed the way it is.

One final question is this: Why did Teppei return to Hinamizawa in the first place? In the original, he only returns in worlds where the woman he teams up with to blackmail others, Ritsuko, is murdered by yakuza. This is established in Tatarigoroshi-hen's first scene, and later contexualized by Tsumihoroboshi-hen & Minagoroshi-hen. But in Tataridamashi-hen, all we see is him shouting at his landlady who was trying to confront him regardings the neighbors' complaints about the smell of his apartment. In that scene we also see Teppei was on some type of medication. What is the meaning of this? If Ritsuko doesn't play a role in the story of Higurashi Gou, why did Teppei return to Hinamizawa?

==

HiguGou & the meaning of "Deception"

Now that we've gone through and talked about each arc individually, let's look at Higurashi Gou as a whole. From the very beginning, this series appears to be designed around the theme of Deception. The series itself deceived fans on what it would be due to very vague promotion prior to airing, every arc title features "damashi" (deception) in the title, and at a core level I believe these worlds are, for some reason, specifically designed to deceive Rika.

-Who is being Deceived?
The answer to this question, as I just wrote, is both the audience and Rika. Every story thus far, on some level, involves building on and betraying expectations on how things in the Higurashi world are "supposed to work", and from this perspective, longtime Higurashi fans and Rika are on the same page... right?

While I do believe that the audience and Rika are both being deceived, I believe the idea that we can relate to Rika's perspective because of that is, in itself, one aspect of the deception. After all, all three arcs thus far are primarily told from Keiichi's point of view. If Ryukishi wanted this to be a story about Rika being thrust into these looping worlds again, and struggling against incidents that don't make sense to her, then I feel like we would've seen more of her perspective, if not written from her POV entirely. But we didn't. That isn't how this series is structured. Outside of the scene that establishes Rika's circumstances, we have no idea how she really feels or what she's been doing to manage her situation outside of Keiichi's point of view. In the end, all we were given was just enough context to understand Rika's situation, and then we were set loose, as these new iterations of classic stories built up a new Higurashi When They Cry.

Since this is a new TV series that promoted itself as something anyone can watch, of course there will be viewers watching this as their first experience with Higurashi too, and that's why I really compliment how thoroughly the first half managed to solidify the characters and their relationships, as well as giving the structure of Hinamizawa village a complete arc through the three different tales. From the structure, you'd think those with fresh eyes would be the least prone to being deceived, and while that may be true in some ways, that's not the case overall. After all, all of the core mysteries are things no one truly knows the answer to. The circumstances of every death in this series is a totally new situation, so it doesn't matter whether you have prior experience with Higurashi or not. At the same time, prior knowledge will effect how you choose to analyse things, and I think it's likely a lot easier for older fans to get caught up at analyzing an angle based on prior information. This is why in my overviews I intentionally tried not to do that. (Outside of the sections where I directly compared a story against the original version.) Different kinds of fans will inevitably end up looking at these stories in different ways. But in that sense, I think it's a great thing, because this gives Higurashi a mystery again. After all, I'm writing this because this series contains a mystery that's tough to explain, regardless of who you are.

-The Futility of the Right Choice
With the discussion on a meta level out of the way, let's talk about the direct deception of Rika taking place in the series. To begin with, there are numerous opportunities in these stories, from Keiichi's point of view, where we can see Rika trying to push her friends to make the "right choice" for various situations. In Onidamashi-hen she pushes Keiichi to believe in Rena, in Watadamashi-hen she encourages him to give the doll to Mion, and in Tataridamashi-hen she cheers on his efforts to go through the proper process to save Satoko. The general idea behind these encouragements is that making these choices would avoid a tragedy. However, they don't, and a lot of the times these encouragements could very well have been a vital point in the circumstances that lead to the tragedies we did see. Keiichi opened the door for Rena because he believed in Rika's words. Mion locks up Keiichi partly because getting the doll from him allowed her to become honest with her feelings for him. And the situation to save Satoko clearly had some kind of critical flaw that lead things off course in the end as well.

When I said it felt like these worlds were specifically designed to deceive Rika, this is what I meant. It wouldn't surprise me if the actions taken by Rika in every story end up playing a huge part in what causes these tragedies to snowball. Of course, I'm not blaming her, since I don't believe she realizes this could be the case, but I believe Rika's confidence ended up playing a huge part in how she ended up letting things go wrong. In Episode 2 she confidently declared "I know the Rules of Hinamizawa" and that she even "Knows Who Kills Rika Furude." Well, guess what? Any old time Higurashi fan can tell you these stories aren't playing by those rules at all. I really feel for Rika, getting trapped in a situation like this must be a nightmare for her...

-Rika Furude & the Hinamizawa No One Knows
After Onidamashi-hen aired, the official twitter formally announced that this series is about a new "Hinamizawa that No One Knows." That stuck with me, and has effected how I viewed the events in this series through every step of the way. We don't yet know what, but something about the setting of this series is different from the original on a fundamental level, and that's why Rika keeps hitting these dead end tragedies. In order to find an understanding, we must throw out all preconceptions and analyze what's in front of us. Let's take a look at what kind of Rules we can draw from Higurashi Gou...

The New Rules of XYZ?

In the original Higurashi, Rika had come up with a personal set of rules that defined her experiences with June 1983 in Hinamizawa:
X: One of her friends will fall victim to Hinamizawa Syndrome and become paranoid & violent. (A variable.)
Y: Tomitake and Takano die on the night of the Watanagashi Festival. (A constant.)
Z: Most people believe that the Sonozaki Family is responsible for Oyashiro-sama's Curse. (A red herring.)
However, the new Hinamizawa clearly doesn't follow these rules. So let's try and see if we can go through these and see if we can find patterns in Gou that can create a new "XYZ."

-X: The State of the Hinamizawa Syndrome
Discussing the Hinamizawa Syndrome in regards to Higurashi Gou is a bit of a difficult discussion to have, because the details of the disease in the world of Gou have not been defined. However, notable traits of it are still seen bit by bit throughout the story, so I do believe it's still a factor in some way or another. Rena in Onidamashi-hen is a clear victim, and Mion may have suffered it on some level as well in Watadamashi-hen due to the scratches on the neck of her corpse. Satoko was likely also suffering it in Tatardamashi-hen, especially if the clash between Keiichi and Teppei was a delusion on her part. The story did make a point of mentioning Satoko hadn't seen the doctor in a while, due to the situation with Teppei.

The conundrum this puts us in now though, is that Rule X may not have changed at all. The characters going crazy due to the Syndrome may very well be the chaotic variable its always been. But it's also quite likely that it may only seem that way to deceive us. Like I said, the state of the Hinamizawa Syndrome in Higurashi Gou has not been defined. Furthermore, there wasn't a single scenario that focused on Keiichi falling victim to it himself. In the original Higurashi, the fact that we got many scenarios where the main character personally experienced the symptoms worked as the biggest hint toward what was happening. But at the same time, those very same instances acted as fakeouts for several of the supernatural horror elements present in the original. If there could be one thing pointed out as the biggest difference between then and now regarding Keiichi's experience as the main character, this is it.

We never got to define the Hinamizawa Syndrome in this series because we never really got to see a character experience it at length. The only time Keiichi displayed any kind of symptom... was when he scratched his neck for the nurse in the very last scene of Onidamashi-hen. If there was any scene that was important for defining Hinamizawa Syndrome in Gou, that was it. But it's so vague that we can't tell if Keiichi brought his fingers to his neck because of what the nurse asked, or if he actually felt itchy there. Regardless of which was the case though, what about his scream? Keiichi's fate is pretty much left up in the air, much like the idea of the Hinamizawa Syndrome's role in this story.

-Y: Tomitake & Takano, Professional Truckjackers
Old time Higurashi fans will know that Tomitake and Takano were very important characters, because their deaths in the original were always consistant in every arc, thus serving as one of the biggest hints to the core of Higurashi's story. But this time, the idea of whether they die at all is brought into question. Can we analyze their actions from the perspective of a constant once again? I believe so.

In Onidamashi-hen, we learn that the two of them both go missing, with Takano's car and Tomitake's bike both abandoned at the Furude Shrine after the Watanagashi Festival. In Watadamashi-hen, we learn the same thing is true, however, we're given the additional inside info that the two of them had hijacked one of the work trucks from the festival staff, and had driven away with it. I think it's safe to say we can assume this is what happened in Onidamashi-hen as well, but in that scenario no one witnessed the truckjacking. This brings up the interesting point that the two really don't care if they have witnesses. For some reason, they had to get a truck and drive it somewhere in a hurry, as if there were some kind of emergency. Where the heck did they go? And why steal a truck, when Takano has her own car? It's a mystery.

For the record, Tataridamashi-hen makes no mention of what happens to Tomitake and Takano on the night of the festival. After all, that story ends suddenly and tragically that very same night. However, Tataridamashi-hen's mention of deaths on the festival grounds that night does make one wonder. Perhaps Tomitake and Takano fled in such a hurry to avoid being caught up in such a massacre? If Ooishi isn't responsible, who was? And regardless, how would Tomitake and Takano have learned what was about to occur? And if that's the case, what stopped it from occurring in Onidamashi-hen and Watadamashi-hen, and why were the two still missing afterwards? It's an uncertain connection, in the end. But without a status report on the two in this arc, we can only assume what took place, and try to put the pieces together ourselves.

In the end, Tomitake and Takano seemed to be involved in some strange circumstances that seem consistent with every world, to the best of our knowledge thus far. The circumstances have changed from the original though, so we can look at it as a new Rule Y, involving the same people.

-Z: The State of the Sonozaki Family
In the original Higurashi's Minagoroshi-hen story, Keiichi's movement to save Satoko and reunite the village under the cause to save her served as the final death to Rule Z. This was intentional, because Rule Z's "suspect the Sonozaki Family" motif was a long-lasting red herring through most of the original, which was shattered by Keiichi's actions in Minagoroshi-hen, followed up by unveiling the true mastermind shortly after. In contrast to this, Higurashi Gou has never used the "Sonozaki Family" as a red herring to any of the incidents in the series, and like I explained previously, Keiichi's movement to save Satoko ended up being the climax of an overarching story in Gou regarding the nature of Hinamizawa as a village and its unity. Any unknowing fan can enter Gou and get the initial impression that Hinamizawa's a spooky place in Onidamashi-hen, but then Watadamashi-hen gets you intimately familiar with Mion's view and her perspective on the village and her family, before Tataridamashi-hen sends Keiichi and co. on a crusade to tear down the village prejudices and give an open view on Hinamizawa's true nature.

As I've said before, I think it's a brilliant 3-act structure to introduce Hinamizawa with. But it also means that the "Sonozaki Family" red herring barely exists. Rather, on a meta level it barely exists. In-universe, you can still tell there are characters such as Ooishi who blatantly mistrust the Sonozaki family. But these character feelings don't tend to really be tied to the actual incidents themselves. In the original, the Sonozaki Family red herring was a focal point for the paranoia of whatever character suffered Hinamizawa syndrome. But in this series, rather, because we had a scenario where Mion herself seemed to suffer the effects, her paranoia seemed rooted with... the Furude family? I touched on this earlier, but even considering her paranoia, it's strange for Mion to suspect Rika. Did she overhear Rika's doomsday scolding of Keiichi? If not, what did she see that gave her that impression? Furthermore, Rena's motive in Onidamashi-hen didn't seem to be triggered by the Sonozaki Family red herring, rather, it was likely Keiichi's suspicious actions that she fixated on.

In the end, Rule Z still exists, but it's possible that it's not being used as a central red herring this time. The presentation of the series, and behaviors of the characters both support this. So what red herring (Rule Z) could be enforcing the paranoia of those suffering from our new undefined Hinamizawa Syndrome (Rule X)? Wouldn't it be tragic if Rika's actions behind the scenes ended up becoming a core root in the red herrings that cause these incidents? It's only a possibility, but it'd be quite tragic... For now, I don't have a definite answer on the new Rule Z.

-The Constants that Remain
I think it's important to analyze the constants that remain, outside of the idea of the XYZ structure. Ignoring Tomitake and Takano's disappearance, the end result victims of each story include Rena, Satoko, and Rika in Onidamashi-hen. Mion, Satoko, Rika, Shion, Oryo, and Kimiyoshi in Watadamashi-hen. And finally Mion, Shion, Satoko, and Rika in Tataridamashi-hen. Because consistancy is important to analyze, I think it's very noticable that Rika and Satoko die every time.

In the original Higurashi, the main trick involved the idea that Rika died every time, usually in a consistant way (much like Rule Y) unless she died via a variable cause from Rule X. So I wonder if this time, not only is Rika's death an intended result, but so is Satoko's death. However, the issue with this theory is that outside of who died, none of these deaths have any consistancy. In Onidamashi-hen, Rika and Satoko died together in their house. In Watadamashi-hen, Rika died in the septic, while Satoko died in the halls of the Sonozaki estate, possibly from a confrontation with Mion. In Tataridamashi-hen, they both died on the festival grounds after some incident involving Ooishi pulling out a pistol. And this goes for the others as well. No one has a consistant manner of death in every arc. The lack of any consistant methodology to the deaths leads me to believe that whoever is behind the incidents occuring in Hinamizawa doesn't necessarily want these deaths to occur in any specific manner. In fact, I wonder if they want any deaths at all...?

-The Significance of June 22nd
Before I move on to finally wrapping this up, I want to talk about June 22nd. The first ending theme to the anime "Kamisama no Syndrome" features several painted illustrations, one of which is a prominant depiction of Rika's calendar on the date June 22nd. Since the ending theme is depicting this date as though it were important, I feel as though there must be something important occuring on that date. There's only one problem: we only ever see the date of June 22nd play out in one arc, Onidamashi-hen.

On June 22nd in Onidamashi-hen, Keiichi confronts Rena on he way home from school asking whether she's keeping secrets from him, culminating in Rena shouting that he's a liar. The famous "Usoda!" scene. After that, Keiichi recieves a call at home and learns a bit about Rena's history, before being interrupted by his dad who thought Rena had gone to his room. Keiichi then proceeds to have trouble sleeping that night, scared from hte idea that Rena may have been peeking into his room while he was on the phone. And... that's it. That's everything we see happen on that day. It's all stuff that has to do with Rena, and nothing about anything else that could've happened that day.

I might be looking too far into something that may just be a flourish for the ending theme, but it still bothers me. The most I can piece together is that the 22nd is the day the Irie Clinic shuts down. After all when Keiichi tries to visit on the 23rd, he's turned away because the clinic is closed for remodelling. I think this is likely some kind of huge clue regarding what's happening behind the scenes. Why did the clinic close, and what is the purpose of the remodeling? It's also strange how little we've seen of the clinic at all in Gou... These things that are just out of sight could connect to the core mysteries.

==

Who is the Mastermind?

So when all is said and done, who's the mastermind orchestrating the tragic events in June 1983 in Higurashi Gou's Hinamizawa?

-Defining a Mastermind
First, we must establish what a "mastermind" even is. Using the original Higurashi as a base, I think it might be safe to define a "mastermind" as "a character whose existence and intentions are a common root cause for the incidents that take place." The mastermind of the original Higurashi was not personally involved in every tragedy taking place in that series, but many of the incidents that occured can be traced back to that character and their intentions in one way or another. So in this case, who could we pin point as potential suspects?

-Satoko Culprit Theory
I want to get this out of the way first, since I've noticed it's a popular thought pattern among fans. Rather, I don't know how many of them have thought up lengthy theories on the matter, but I can see why this idea has gotten popular just because of Satoko's strange behavior at certain points in this series.

If you rule out a third-party culprit, the deaths of Rika and Satoko in Onidamashi-hen could be viewed as a murder-suicide, or a double-suicide. Satoko could've attacked Rika then killed herself. What's interesting is that this attack mirrors Rena's attack on Keiichi. Why would the two methods of attack be so similar, and why would Satoko feel the need to attack Rika in the first place? Could it be the result of a misunderstanding after learning about what happened between Keiichi and Rena?

Watadamashi-hen was so chaotic it's hard to place. To begin with, Satoko's motivations seem to have to do with Rika's disappearance & death. In the classroom, she seemed to realize something was wrong even before Chie-sensei mentioned it and got everyone together to search. On top of that, her very accusatory tone in trying to make Keiichi seem suspicious was strange. Ultimately, it is very likely she went and confronted Mion, and they killed each other. But what was the motive here? Rika? This is a scenario where we see Satoko react to something bad happening to Rika, and it just isn't how you'd expect her to behave at all. Did Rika tell her something beforehand? Does it have to do with whatever motivated her to possibly attack Rika in Onidamashi-hen? Or is the fact that she couldn't attack Rika anymore the motivation itself? Is there some reason Satoko needs to go after Rika?

Finally, there's Tataridamashi-hen, the scenario where the individual deaths are the least clear of all. If like I considered before, Keiichi and Teppei's confrontation really was a delusion on Satoko's part, and she ran back to the festival and died there with the rest, what all happened around that? What did she say to everyone? Did they meet up at all before the massacre? Or did Satoko have something to do with what happened?

What is Satoko's goal? Revenge over Satoshi's disappearance? Does she blame the Furude family for some reason? Is there something going on giving a red herring that paints a target on Rika's back? After all, Mion was suspicious of Rika too. Besides, even if that was her motivation, how does that explain Tataridamashi-hen, where she seemed to finally accept the situation and let Keiichi become her new "Nii-nii"? Perhaps if she really did imagine Keiichi and Teppei's encounter, she blamed herself and set things in motion that led to the deaths. Or perhaps, Tatardamashi-hen was a scenario where whatever could've motivated Satoko was settled, but some other kind of Rule X factor went wrong?

This is as far as I can get by analyzing the "Satoko Culprit Theory" on my own. I personally don't believe Satoko could be the mastermind to begin with, but she definitely has a key role to play in why some of these scenarios are unfolding the way they are. The fact that she's dying every time like Rika is strange, even if the deaths themselves aren't consistent. But no matter how deeply she falls into the paranoia of the Hinamizawa Syndrome or anything else, I don't see her targetting Rika for any reason that could be consistant across all three stories. Rika's very important to her after all. I believe it would take a very big occurence to create a situation where Satoko would come into conflict with her. But perhaps, the Onidamashi-hen parallels are a hint... if Rika is treating Satoko differently, due to having to deal with these looping worlds, who's not to say that social awkwardness isn't messing with Satoko the same way it could've messed with Rena...? Speaking of Rena...

-Rena Culprit Theory
I won't talk much about this idea, since I had only just thought of it as I'm writing, but Rena's also kind of a strange figure in the midst of this. The key thing that threw me off at first was the idea that her actions in Onidamashi-hen were all Rule X-like actions taken on her part. That's why I spent the Onidamashi-hen section mostly talking about her and Keiichi's relationship, and struggled to find more to add. But again, the idea I came up with in my head regarding that incident is rooted in what I know about Rena from the prior series', so it's always bothered me.

Rena survives in every scenario other than Onidamashi-hen. In Watadamashi-hen's conclusion, her presence is so irrelevant she isn't even mentioned in the end, and in Tataridamashi-hen she and Keiichi had a comraderie to try their best together to reach the best goal line, and after everything she's the sole survivor who arrives to deliver the tragic news regarding the others.

Her dialogue in the final stretch of Tataridamashi-hen was a little strange, in that she talked about reaching the goal line and "knowing" that they had to save Satoko in a hurry. I mean, it's not too out of the ordinary, and fit in with what the others were saying, but there was something about it as if she had the perception that avoiding a tragedy was the "true intent" of their efforts, instead of saving Satoko. The way she spoke was similar to Rika in a way. But at the same time, I don't believe she's experiencing the loops or anything like that. Well, I say that, but I guess where I'm going with this would depend on Rena being another person to go through the loops.

I guess what I need to point out next is Rena and Keiichi's weird conversation in the classroom about a person's true self during Watadamashi-hen. The way Rena broached the topic with Keiichi was framed in what seemed to be a very purposefully strange way, but it's never followed up on in any meaningful way in the rest of the arc. What kind of answer was Rena trying to get out of Keiichi. And if she was looping, did it involve the memory of Onidamashi-hen?

Well, I think this whole argument is farfetched. Even the Satoko Culprit approach has more merit. But it doesn't change the fact that I feel there's something different about Rena that has yet to be explored. Even if there's something to what I was talking about, I don't understand why she'd be involved in the incidents of Watadamashi-hen and Tataridamashi-hen to begin with. After all, that's why she's the voice of reason who cried out in agony over this nightmare scenario in the end...

-Regarding the Rest
I think I'll just put this here, but I don't believe there's any reason to make a Mion or Shion culprit theory, and definitely not a Rika culprit theory. (despite discussing the possibility of her unwittingly spurring on the incidents)

Mion's entire character was laid bare in Watadamashi-hen, and framed as the culprit for what occured there alone. Whether she was actually the culprit of any of those killings or not, I can't see that having any relevance to Onidamashi-hen or Tataridamashi-hen. Shion has more potential to be a culprit, and I'll freely admit the possibility of her involvement in some of the Watadamashi-hen deaths, but I just don't see her in any kind of "mastermind" role. Though I do suspect she and Satoko met together in secret on the night of the Watanagashi Festival in Watadamashi-hen. If something occurred between them, that could lead into reasons behind some of Satoko's strange behavior later on. But I can't begin to guess what.

-Outside of the Friends
Looking for the mastermind within the group of friends is strange to begin with, but the only reason I do so is because of how apparent it is that none of the other adults could be the culprit this time. The modus operandi of the mastermind of the original Higurashi is missing entirely (and if you've seen/read it, you know who I'm talking about), and I doubt the author Ryukishi would re-use that same character in the same capacity anyway.

Honestly, the leading possibility right now is an "Ooishi Culprit Thoery" but I can't begin to picture him in a situation that would lead to him consistently being involved in each arc's deaths. Besides, Ooishi is such an obvious red herring on his own that I can't imagine him being the mastermind, even if he is responsible for Tataridamshi-hen's deaths.

In the end, pin pointing a single "mastermind" is really, really hard... Perhaps then, the idea is that one doesn't exist?

-The Experience Intended for Rika
The last thing I'd like to say is that, the world of Higurashi Gou is absolutely some kind of experience intended for Rika. I don't know the reason or logic behind her being thrust into this situation (I can speculate, but I think I've done enough of that, lol.), but it's clear this experience is meant for her, and trying to tell her something.

I think the ultimate goal of Higurashi Gou is whatever Rika ends up getting out of this experience in the end. Was tearing down her idea of the "right answers" for these stories a tough life lesson to show her that miracles are simply miracles? Is the idea to teach her that tragedies can still occur in life even without a big bad mastermind to target, and that you could inadvertantly be the cause? Is there some deeper cry for help hidden in these scenarios that whoever is responsible hopes Rika is able to discover? Is Rika simply being toyed with and tortured, and it'll end up being a struggle against her tormentor? I don't know. The answer could be any or all of the above.



... I hope Hanyu's alright.

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What's Next?

Whoever you are, thank you for reading this ridiculously long analysis. The only reason I wrote this is because I realized if I didn't write this down now, I'd never have a record of my mid-series thoughts on Higurashi Gou to look back on. Being able to be a part of this story as it unfolds is something I'll always treasure, regardless of how the series turns out in the end. It was a long time ago when I devoted myself to being a Ryukishi07 fan for life, and though I haven't read everything he's done, he's still someone I respect immensely and one of my biggest inspirations. He seems to have had this idea on a new Higurashi for a while now, and was given the opportunity to finally make it a reality thanks to Infinite, Kadokawa, and studio Passione. Even though Higurashi was a story that finished a long time ago, I respect his choice and ability to give this world and these characters life one last time.

-Nekogoroshi vs. Nekodamashi
At the time of writing, the airing of Episode 14 "The Cat-Deceiving Chapter, Part 1" (aka Nekodamashi-hen Part 1) is just days away. Is this going to be based on the original Nekogoroshi-hen short story, featuring the gang talking about rumors and urban legends about the abandoned quarry near Hinamizawa? If so, how would they tie that in to Gou's story? Well to begin with, based on the preview screenshots it seems like we're finally due for a Rika POV story for the first time, so it's safe to say that we're going to begin our dash towards the climax now.

I'll look forward to the finale! Thank you Higurashi Gou! And thank you everyone who dedicated the time to read this riduculous rambling post!

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