Higurashi Rei

[Okenido]

Well that was a disappointment.
Hanyuu is STILL a bloody Deus Ex Machina...

I myself don't understand why everyone thinks that a happy ending is required...

[Beware the talking cat]

It wasn't a happy ending. It was a happish ending, but I assume Rika actually did kill her mother, and hanyu's just lying to her to keep her from feeling guilty.

[HolyCow]

Well that was a disappointment.
Hanyuu is STILL a bloody Deus Ex Machina...

I myself don't understand why everyone thinks that a happy ending is required...

I was more disappointed that they never showed her killing her mother :\

Yes I know Higurashi isn't all about the "psycho lolis" but I felt kinda cheated when they just skipped to her waking up, if you get what I mean

[ShadowZeroHeart]

Cant we just leave the perfect world perfect as it is? Maybe Rika and her mom over there are still living happily? Come on, lets give rika a tiny piece of happiness will ya? havent she suffered enough? =X

[b0mb3r]

well just finished the ova. is a mixed bag. I love the 1st and 5th episode for the comedy but i have quarrels that it isn't as bloody as the previous two seasons were. Though I love rena explanation using candy as an example for rika when she woke up from the dream world hanyuu made for to respect parents. I really like that closure and know more about hanyuu and her relationship with her daughter.

7/10

[ShadowZeroHeart]

Personally, i kinda wish for a happier ending for Rika... But i must say this ending is good. Or else we would find more news about people that suicides or kills thinking "People don't die, they just go into a parallel world." Also, in a way it is telling fans that your life may be happy, as long as you can accept what there is?

[b0mb3r]

Personally, i kinda wish for a happier ending for Rika... But i must say this ending is good. Or else we would find more news about people that suicides or kills thinking "People don't die, they just go into a parallel world." Also, in a way it is telling fans that your life may be happy, as long as you can accept what there is?

well i guess is like you to appreciate the things you have now as true happiness. maintenance and balance is a key to a healthy life?

[ShadowZeroHeart]

From the entire higurashi story, it would be more like

Do not be afraid to fight hard for what you believe, but do not lose sight of what you do have. Appreciate what you have, while defending them and achieving more?

maybe?

[Beware the talking cat]

I would say the major themes are:

When united, people can do anything.
Nothing is more precious than everyday moments.


I think they are distinct themes, and trying to mix them together is just going to get them muddled.

[b0mb3r]

another theme is:

is a kick ass show?

and is for L.O.L. people?

[ShadowZeroHeart]

another theme is:

is a kick ass show?

and is for L.O.L. people?

Damn, but i have to agree with this one

[Ambi Valent]

I sin once more by going back to this thread...

Of Higurashi, I've only seen the anime, so my knowledge about it is incomplete. Also, I might have missed important hints in the anime, so my alternate character interpretation might be completely wrong. So highlight my guesses at your own risk. (And if "Rei" is not canon but just an extra, I'd also be wrong)

Spoiler! :

First, it seems to me that before the "Massacre" chapter, all attempts to solve the mystery and escape failed. In "Massacre" the characters learned the identity of the enemy, but could not escape. After "Massacre" however, there seem to be different worlds in which Rika and the club were successful, at least the ones in "Rei" (with immaterial Hanyuu) and the one in "Festival Music"(?) (the final arc of "Kai", with material Hanyuu).

Rika does not remember this, but in "Rei" we also learn that Hanyuu apparently has the power to plant and erase memories. This could be Rika's method of travelling between worlds, with Hanyuu putting "old Rika" in the place of "young Rika". Other characters such as Akasaka and Rena have realized this "old" appearance. It is questionable whether anything of "young Rika" survives this process, as "old Rika" could just be pretending, or if they coexist, with "old Rika" coming into the foreground whenever necessary. This power to transfer memories might also explain the deja vu occurances of the other characters, or Akasaka's fighting skills (according to Wikipedia, he only trained after his wife's death, but he has them in "Festival Music", a world in which she survived). Hanyuu appears getting better over time.

"Rei" might be the first world where she does not go for an accurate transfer. Before that, it was important to transfer information correctly, to learn as much as possible about the tragedies to prevent them (although she might suppress memories that could trigger behavior leading to the tragedies). At the end of "Rei", Hanyuu claimed she planted the memories Rika had of the "pure world" as a dream, and I think she's correct since she also appears to start to erase them at the end. Other hints that the "pure world" didn't really exist are Hanyuu's claims that Rika's head has been crushed in the accident, while promising to return her to that world, her absence (she might have claimed to push Rika from one world explaining that, though) and her apparent possession of complete information about that world (if she had such abilities, she could have learned the identity and the plans of the enemy much sooner), and Rika's existance as 9th generation instead of 8th (suggesting an important difference happened several centuries ago while everything else appeared to have nearly the same in the present).

This would mean that when planting that dream in Rika, Hanyuu was lying! The "pure world" appears to have been a secret test of character, to check whether Rika was as vicious as Hanyuu said she had been (apparently Hanyuu's origin story was told outside the anime, but I only know how she described it in "Rei"). And while Rika's chair attack on Satoko was indeed vicious, it was a one-time event - and the athletic Satoko is implied to have hit Rika with a ball at the back of the head in the beginning, knocking her unconscious, or as Rika believes, killing the previous Rika leaving the body empty for her. Rika's main test was whether she would do what is right, letting her mother live and remain in a world where everyone else stands above her - or ruthlessly kill her while nobody else knows, returning to another world where she's cheered. Because this was the choice, the aesops the other characters come up with don't fit.

She apparently made the choice to let her mother live, and was woken by Hanyuu afterwards. Too late, Hanyuu realizes that Rika now believes she is a murderer, something she, and she alone, never was in any of the previous worlds. If it was a plan by Hanyuu, she'd have erased not just the memory about the decision, but about the entire test - and she appears to do try just that at the end. But Bernkastel is already born... and she appears at the very end of "Kai" in front of a young Miyoko to test her with a life-or-death question. When Miyoko learns the "death" option means she would be with her parents, she chooses that. When Bernkastel asks whether she would regret that decision, Miyoko reaffirms that being with her parents is the best option, and later enters the doomed bus in which her parents died in the previous worlds... except the deadly collision is prevented at the very last moment. (Hanyuu might have similarly saved Rika's life in the bike accident, preventing her to be crushed by the truck).

I currently think the world in which Rika has her bike accident, and Hanyuu installs the "pure world" dream, is the world in which the very first victory happened. Later on, Hanyuu travels on, and back in time, now without Rika who lives on in that world. Hanyuu still installs memories to prevent the disaster, but now RIka isn't weighed down by the memories of hundreds of years of hopelessness and defeat. And then, whether in the next world after "Rei" or several attempts later, Hanyuu finds the world of "Festival Music", sets the wheels in motion, and a Rika who's much more cheerful than through all of "Kai" convinces her to join the physical world. On one hand she now puts her own life at risk, on the other hand she now finds acceptance in a world where friends stand together. And in the end she goes off alone to find and forgive Miyo.

Which only leaves the question why Hanyuu did not prevent the previous murders. She might actually have tried to do so. After all, she could always travel back further in time than Rika could. She might have tried to warn the people like Rika did, and failed like Rika did. Or she did the most obvious thing (to a vicious god) after "Massacre" and attacked the enemy mastermind at the earliest possibility - that is, killed Miyo Takano while she was little - and doing everything to prevent the Hinamizawa murders and tragedies. Hifumi Takano's research never gets organized by little Miyo, he gains even less respect this time, and not dedicated to raising a child, he eventually moves to the place of his research - Hinamizawa - and opens a hospital there. Later, the dam war is deescalated, leading to the dam getting built. Satoshi and Reina are saved, as well as the Hojo and Furude parents. Too late Hanyuu realizes the direction in which Rika and Satoko are developing, Rika having become a manipulative "princess" and Satoko acting with open malice... before the time comes for Hanyuu to put the RIka she knows in this body, she decides to abandon the world in which she once again bloodied her hands and go to the next world instead... while keeping the memories as a blueprint, using them for Rika's test later on. But while she describes this world as pure in the test it's anything but.

The journey only really ends for Hanyuu when she goes to forgive Takano, and while she is ready to sacrifice her own life, she fortunately doesn't have to. Still, Bernkastel's journey goes on... where will it lead to?

[ShadowZeroHeart]

I think you are thinking a bit too much into this, though it might be possible, i sincerely hope its not true... they deserve a happier future...

Spoiler! :

The arc of Rei is after Kai, meaning it is shortly after they saved Rika from the eternal nightmare. Her overjoy from the release from the nightmare made Rika overly happy, thus she raced around and got crushed.

Hanyuu, as revealed to seem to be an ancestor of Rika, tries to resurrect her, but maybe due to her powers weakening from after that entire time period of the eternal nightmare, for some reason, it was incomplete, thus Rika was sent into a world that doesnt fit. Besides, even in Kai, we could see that Hanyuu and Rika cannot control the time when they are really resurrected, so the instability of their powers can be easily seen.

The existence of big Rika to change the past is unexplained, but with Hanyuu around, and Rika being her descendent, you can just say its a power she might possess?

The idea of Hanyuu being able to plant and erase memories is hard to believe, since in your words, she could have easily changed the way Rika is like, by manipulating her memories, same for everyone else... Unless of course, she is the most vicious one of all...