Seeing the paranoia from the outside in, the revelations of seeing why Rena is the way she is and the depth her character secretly has, the sheer fever-pitch the chapter reaches long before the end and then somehow still just keeps ramping up. I get that the ending is overly drawn out, but its blistering intensity and the way it makes "the power of friendship" actually compelling and emotive for perhaps the first time ever just hooks me

Probably the clearest candidate for the title of best Higurashi chapter. The descent into hell here is unrelenting even up until the final moments, at first heartbreaking, gut-punching and hopeless, then deeply dark as you see Keiichi be driven beyond the brink, and ultimately nightmarish and surreal in its final stretch. Something truly special

Shion may be my favourite character in the entire story and she ends up being the perfect subject for the deep empathy that Ryukishi has for his characters. The ways in which this chapter both brings alive and contrasts beautifully with Watanagashi also acts as a great introduction to the Answer Arcs, ultimately raising at least as many questions as it answers

I've cooled off on it quite a bit since but this was arguably my favourite chapter at the point of finishing it, Minagoroshi in its best moments is very effective at capturing the impassioned energy from the end of Tsumihoroboshi and building upon it making for some incredibly exciting and emotionally compelling content. This chapter also drags a bit in its middle portion though, whilst its ending dips into the kind of silliness that would proceed to really drag down Matsuribayashi for me

Does exactly what it needs to, setting up all manner of mysteries and question for the reader with a very compelling descent into madness towards its end, but ultimately it is very much an introductory chapter and lacks a lot of the emotional and thematic depth that later chapters would find

Honestly I find this chapter a really mixed bag, and it's perhaps the chapter of Higurashi that is most dearly in need of an editor with the opening half seeming to me both overly long and very messy. It's a good thing I love Shion so much, and that the climax is so intense, but I do think some of Ryukishi's worse tendencies as a writer are on display here

Resolutely fine, thankfully short, and with a few standout moments, but lacking much of what makes Higurashi so interesting. A bit of me wishes there was a more elegant way of incorporating this part of the story rather than dedicating this small pace-breaker of a chapter to it

Very much do not dig this one. Takano's backstory and the fragments sections are both passable, but everything afterwards increasingly lacks all of what draws me to this story, whilst descending into such silly fanfiction-esque nonsense especially in its action scenes; Akasaka fighting off a whole gang of Mountain Dogs on his own, Kasai successfully commanding a room to obey him, Mion repeatedly beating Okonogi in combat. I'd checked out several hours before the story actually concluded and it just kept going. A very disappointing end