Once again Higurashi delivers a amazing story. I'm not sure if I prefer ch 6 or 7 but both are 10/10s in different ways.

I'm planning on writing a more complete review of all of Kei once I'm done so I wasn't going to do a spoiler review here however I gotta say this chapters too good to not mention some stuff.

First of all Rika & Hanyuu are amazing. Pre ch7 I wasn't sure what to make of Rika, she was very interesting but I wasn't certain of what it could be, so I suppose that was a part of the story I was unable to figure out for myself (sorry r7) but this chapter was a amazing look into Rikas character. I adore the way Ch 6 & 7 have been using perspective to tell the story, being able to see different characters views on thing is really cool, and Rikas very pessemistic outlook compared to Keiichi is a great contrast. If I explained more it would be pointless but I gotta say I adore the way perspective shifts around. And I love the strange 3rd person perspective that doesn't really seem to be first person, but there I'm not really sure if that's just a intential way of writing or if it's meant to be from Hanyuus perspective, because for example in this chapter when Ooshi gets killed, the perspective is not one of either of them but of noone, it feels like 3rd person but I distincatlly recall some things that seemed out of place if it was. anyway enough perspective talk

Rika is a super amazing character and she's grown on massivley. I never disliked her in the past chapters but she was always the character I was most disinterested in, but here she turns it around to become maybe the most interesting character, I adore her arc in this chapter. I adore the way we see previous chapters that previously seemed unconnected tie in here and how it shows that the entire story was planned very indepth from the start.

I love the way it changes you're perspecitve on scenes in the past, like Takano in Ch3, and how the disease affected everyone up to a point and the footsteps.. it's all so good. but my input here is really nothing special so I'll try not to drone on throughout the whole review.

Another thing I adore is that despite not remembering the past events how all the characters are clearly growing after going through their whole character arc, it's neat being able to see them change despite the fact that they techincally shouldn't. Though I guess if I had to have any complaint about the writing it's how come the gang didn't start remembering past shards before? I'm not that bothered since the rest of the game(book?? I still don't know if I should really call this a game)is super well written,and honestly regardless if there is a explanation or not... I kinda don't care honestly.

Music was amazing here, all the songs at the end especially are spectacular, just great music all round (but thats normal for Higurashi at this point). Also it's nice that some of the more overused sounds aren't being used as much, sure some stuff like the general Higurashi etc are fine, but if I hear that god damm mangled string insturment sound again I'll break, there was a scene in Ch5 where they played it after like every line Shion said so it just overlaps a billion times. and that piano too gets overplay alot in the Qs arc.

Obligatory the Steam sprites are horrrible, in Ch1 I was ok with them but I honestly despise them now, they are just horrible. (sorry to the artists that worked on them though...)

I'll stop here but very very final rough thoughts, Hanyuu is great and I love her basically being the explanation for everything, very funny. Also she's just great in general. Again Rika is written really great here, and so is everyone basically. the main cast dynamic is great, but I gotta say after ch6 Keiichi and Rena work so well together I love them both, I can't believe how well written everyone is honestly. BUT I almost forgot but why the fuck was there mention of the ps triple in this chapter?????? I think I had the translation set to 0 so there was no censor but like...??? break all the canon for a cheeky 4th wall break about the ps 3?? I don't actually mind it, it's cool to see such a obvious thing from the time the game came out that I ended up finding it super charming, but god that took me out of the game so hard. Also speaking of there were way more 4th wall breaks here right? like I can't really recall a single one before this, bar the after party. Again I don't mind it that much but it's still kinda strange. Also I kinda miss the afterpartys, they were fun. though I guess being in the answers arc theres no need for them to theorise and stuff. also the new messages with R7 are super nice he seems cool.

Also I read all this in 2 days which is pretty impressive for me, shows I've been infected with Higurashi brainrot, though the game crashed like 4 times somehow, very odd (espeically since I rarely saved as I was reading non stop for a while) anyway review over.

Ch7 peak, consistent super high quality writing and providing very nice conclusions to the mysterys set up in previous chapters.

Unfortunately, Higurashi's final chapters are frustrating ones. When comparing Umineko and Higurashi, I think Higurashi has the higher highs. Chapters 3 and 6 are stronger than any individual chapter of Umineko, and while Umineko is certainly no slouch in terms of the emotional moments I think Higurashi's emotional highs do hit harder. However, as a complete work I think Umineko is the stronger one. This is partly because of their structure. While there is an ongoing plot progression in Higurashi, each episode is primarily focused on the story contained to the episode itself, with the progression of the overall story taking a backseat. This gives the last two episodes the burden of bringing everything together and ensuring that Higurashi becomes one story as opposed to a series of stories. Umineko's ongoing throughline gives its final episodes more of an advantage in this regard. The other problem is that Higurashi is an absolute masterpiece in terms of its character writing and thematics, but flawed at best as a mystery story. Ryukishi's writing is more about the emotional meaning than the logical meaning, and while he can integrate this well into his mystery writing, it sometimes leaves him at odds with his chosen genre. Meakashi and Tsumihoroboshi are pretty disappointing when taken just as 'answers', but they manage to justify those answers within the context of what they're doing dramatically. The problem is that Tsumihoroboshi already brings everything together perfectly in terms of Higurashi's thematics and emotional throughline, and I would even argue if the rest of the story were modified to be smaller in scale it could have been a perfect ending. This leaves Minagoroshi as a chapter which has to focus more on bringing everything together plot-wise, and it often struggles in this regard. However, a weaker Higurashi entry is still Higurashi, and despite this entry's many flaws there's a lot to appreciate here.

While Tsumihoroboshi wraps up the character arcs of Rena and Keiichi (leading to them taking more of a backseat in these final chapters), Rika is still a character that we've been distanced from up until this point, being more of a mystery even in her arc Himatsubushi. Ryukishi makes a good decision to resolve the mysteries about her upfront in this chapter, leaving time for a greater examination of her resolve to end the loops and her weariness from her constant failure. Hanyuu is also an interesting addition to the cast. I'll admit I find some of her cutesiness and tics to be quite irritating, but her character has more complexities than on the surface. We often associate defeatism with struggle, but I think the point of Hanyuu's characterisation is that defeatism is far more comfortable than hope. It invites complacency - it's easier to not take action in the belief that there is no point than to take the risk of an action that could be rendered meaningless. While her character definitely doesn't have the depth of others in the series (particularly because Ryukishi chose not to include aspects of her character that could have rendered her more troubling), I think this comfort in defeatism is a well done character flaw.

The second and longest portion of Minagoroshi is the attempt to save Satoko, which is at once the most frustrating and most well realised aspect of the chapter as an 'answer arc'. There's a pretty big structural issue here in that the first few hours and last few hours move along very quickly and focus on major reveals. The middle portion isn't ENTIRELY disconnected - the chapter as a whole is about the conflict between hope and defeatism, and so having Rika and the gang overcome the 'worst case scenario' is a meaningful addition to this theme. But it does feel quite removed from the rest of the arc's resolutions, and the deliberate repetition and frustration of this portion doesn't help. However, a better way of looking at it is that this portion is a thematic kind of 'answer arc' for Chapter 3. Chapter 3 has plenty of mysteries in its final hours, but the driving question of that arc is "What am I supposed to do in a situation which appears hopeless?" The characters are put in a situation which nobody should ever HAVE to be in, and Keiichi's choice only leads to things becoming much worse. However, inaction is also clearly the wrong choice. Much like in Tsumihoroboshi, we see in the answer arcs that the outcome wasn't inevitable, that there was always another way. Everyone was just too lost in themselves and disconnected from each other to see it. This portion of the story is incredibly repetitive because that is the way of dealing with a dysfunctional bureaucracy. You can be cynical about the answer here given how much advantage the characters have (especially with the Sonozaki family's involvement), but the portrayal of the power of community is really quite moving, and you can tell it's something Ryukishi really believes in.

Another note on this portion: I really love the scene where Ooishi shows up at the protest. Keiichi believes Ooishi is showing up as an ally when it turns out that he's there to call it off. While I'm not going to claim Higurashi has particularly radical politics in terms of its portrayal of the police, this moment goes a lot further than most stories would. At this point Ooishi is no longer a suspect for the murders, and he does gain a more likeable presence. The story gives him something of a 'good cop' role. While this role inherently comes with issues, Ooishi is probably the strongest portrayal of a 'good cop' in fiction. He DOES have good intent, sympathetic motivations, a 'loveable asshole' kind of personality, etc. He's not a villain. BUT he also fucks up constantly, unintentionally escalates situations, makes wrong assumptions, and goes against his own morals because of his obligations as a police officer. He's only ever good when he ISN'T being a cop, as we see with him going against his duties to help the protestors.

On the other hand, a scene that I REALLY do not like is the Angel Mort scene here. While the majority of Angel Mort scenes are all pretty gruelling to get through, the one in here might be the worst scene I've ever seen in a piece of media that I otherwise liked. I think the majority of Higurashi fans can agree that these scenes are the lowpoint, though I think some fans go a bit too hard in trying to justify Ryukishi writing them. It feels as if people think Ryukishi was held at gunpoint by otakus until he wrote these scenes in, as if he had any obligation to include them. And yes, this kind of fanservice was accepted in the visual novels of that era and seen as an essential element of anything you'd release at Comiket, especially when starting out. But I think in overstating Ryukishi's progressiveness people forget that he WAS part of this culture. I'm sure he's different now, and probably regrets writing these scenes. I can't reach into his mind, and maybe he did have real disgust at writing these scenes at the time, but he also did have a choice to not include them. The best case scenario here is that he chose to sell out in order to gain more sales. He fucked up! We don't need to make any excuses for it! Usually the scenes are disconnected enough from the rest of the story that they don't necessarily 'ruin' it, but the one in this chapter is so closely connected to Satoko's abuse that it actually does seriously diminish the integrity of that portrayal. The otaku are portrayed as being sleazy and all, but the light tone of the scene ultimately lands on a tone of them being loveable goofballs. It feels like an affectionate jab from one otaku to another more than any kind of actual critique of fetishising a child abuse victim. At best it's a deeply distasteful and tonally failed comedy scene, and at worst it is complicit and inviting in that fetishisation.

My other bone to pick with this chapter is the Hinamizawa Syndrome reveal, which I think has issues on multiple levels. The most obvious of these is that it is incredibly far fetched as an answer to the mystery. This is actually my lowest concern - the mystery was never the biggest appeal of Higurashi to me, and I don’t necessarily mind that the answer isn’t realistic. The supernatural explanation for the time loops works fine because they explain an element that was ALWAYS supernatural. I think the problem is that Hinamizawa Syndrome is that it uses a ‘scientific’ explanation in such a contrived and specific manner that it feels even sillier than a fully supernatural explanation would be. I don’t have much to add as this is a very common complaint with the resolution to the mystery, and my analysis of Higurashi is more based around the characters/thematics than the mystery. For a review that picks apart Higurashi’s flaws as a mystery, I would recommend reading Jared E. Jellson’s analysis. His review is written with a much stronger knowledge of the mystery genre than mine, and while he is far more critical than I am of the series I find his critiques very sound.

My main issue with Hinamizawa Syndrome is how it functions as a metaphor. Hinamizawa Syndrome’s pseudoscience as an answer can be justified by the suggestion that its primary function in the story is a reflection of how the characters’ actions are the results of the environment that they’re raised in. This emphasises that the characters’ violent actions didn’t just happen for no reason, and that it is not inherent to them. The problem is that this is already in the story - we do not need the metaphor to explain this to us. Metaphor and allegory are often a strong way to render the abstract as something literal, but when we use metaphors for things that already have a literal presence in the story it feels as if we are being treated like children. In this context, metaphor becomes a way for us to more easily swallow the actual meaning. Hinamizawa Syndrome is an explanation for everyone whose thoughts on the characters began and ended with them being “psychos”. It’s a way to bash The Point into the audience’s head. And while a lot of Higurashi fans ARE bad at critically reading the story, I think catering to that kind of fan in the first place was a mistake. Sometimes you just have to accept that some people won't get it. Part of why Umineko is stronger as an overall story is that it has much more trust in its audience in this regard.

I also think Hinamizawa Syndrome is far too broad as a metaphor to really work. Of course all of the characters were influenced by their circumstances and their mental health, but the connections to Hinamizawa are wildly different. For Satoko’s case it makes perfect sense because the toxicity of Hinamiazawa as a social environment is directly connected to her family issues. For Shion, the primary issue is her family life, and the main connection to Hinamizawa is that the family is powerful there (though this would apply much moreso to Shishibone City and Okinomiya). Rena’s baggage with Hinamizawa is that she was separated from it, and this separation connects to her wider family trauma. Keiichi’s problems are from his mistaken belief that Hinamizawa as a whole is out to get him, causing him to lose his trust in his friends. All of these issues are connected to Hinamizawa, but the relationship to it is different in each one, and it can’t really be said that the village itself causes the issue in the latter three cases. This points to a wider issue, which is that the metaphor diminishes the specificity of the characters’ conflicts.

There’s a fine line between viewing mentally ill characters that hurt others as being inherently evil, and removing all possible accountability for their actions altogether. While the Hinamizawa Syndrome explanation implies that it exacerbates already existent problems, it does come a bit too close to the latter in providing a very convenient and direct explanation away for every single amoral action. Again, it’s a thing of making the already-existent meaning of the story easier to swallow. A reader who views Rena as being too ‘evil’ to be forgiven in Chapter 6 can now take solace knowing that it was the syndrome, not her. I personally think that it undermines some of the themes in the series, in particular the idea of accepting the sins of oneself and in others. Take for example the climactic scenes of Watanagashi and Meakashi: When Keiichi believes Mion is torturing him, he responds with a mantra of “You are not Mion!” He loves Mion so much that he cannot accept the idea of Mion the murderer, and instead chooses to believe in the Mion he knew before. In one sense, he is right to do this - it is in fact NOT Mion in front of him (though of course this isn’t what he actually means). But this is actually part of why his compassion fails to reach Shion. From Shion’s perspective, Keiichi’s compassion is moving, but it isn’t directed towards her. Her conflicts in Meakashi come from feeling unloved, and so Keiichi’s attempt at love here only comes across as more hateful. If Keiichi’s position was less “I love you, and therefore this is not you” and more “I still love you, even though you do this” then he might have successfully reached through to Shion. In the climax of Tsumihoroboshi, this is exactly what Keiichi does - he treats Rena not as a monster who has taken over his beloved friend, but instead treats her as still being his friend. I find Hinamizawa Syndrome is a bit too removed from the characters for it to keep this theme as powerful. However, one thing that Hinamizawa Syndrome might be useful for is that it handwaves some of the thornier aspects of how the series portrays mental illness. While Higurashi has a remarkably well done portrayal of trauma, its storyline is one that inherently does associate mental illness with violence, and it’s pretty hard to do that even sympathetically without going into some rough implications. So it probably is more tasteful that the murderous traits of the characters are applied to an entirely fictional syndrome than a real one (such as Rena’s implied schizophrenia).

While my issues with the Angel Mort scene and the Hinamizawa Syndrome reveal are major ones, I don’t want to come off as if I dislike the chapter. It’s just easier to delve into the flaws, since the positives of the chapter are mainly positives that exist across Higurashi as a whole. I don’t have much to say about the climactic scene in terms of analysis, but let it be known that this was yet another Higurashi chapter that had me sobbing by the time the credits rolled. Pretty much everything after the Hinamizawa Syndrome and Takano reveals is incredibly intense and well done (aside from the after credits scene, which runs a little too long and would work better as a tip). There are a few more issues I have with the final two chapters in general, but those ones will be more relevant to my Chapter 8 review.

>be the protagonist of chapter 4
>appear on the last tip of chapter 6 to piss people off by arguing the whole curse is a conspiracy
>be right
>appear once again on chapter 7 to thanks rika for saving her wife
>tell her that she could always lend his power
>leave hinamizawa for the rest of the chapter to take a bath with his wife
>appear one last time only to be roasted by rika, "you are useless"

yep that's the akasaka I love