First Impressions / Higurashi

June 11. The fated day is approaching. Rika tears another day off the calendar with a heavy heart and a futile resolve. She tries to keep her spirits up for the sake of her friends, but her emotional fatigue cannot hold up much longer. Maybe a trip to the festival grounds can cheer her up?

Wait, no… I take that back.

At the temple, the townspeople are busy preparing for Watanagashi. Keiichi, Rena, and the Sonozakis are checking out the scene, and are having a good time when the fat cop Ooishi shows up with his uniformed entourage and puts everyone in a crappy mode with his creepy voice and unseemly suspenders. Rika and Satoko show up right then and chase off the cops with their loli innocence.

Supposedly, Rika is doing a miko performance during the festival, so Keiichi pulls his onii-san card and tells her he’s looking forward to Watanagashi. Naturally, this puts her (and the rest of us) in an even worse mood – luckily Rena is there to salvage the mess with another string of “ooh~ Rika in a miko dress~ omochikaeri~”

That night, Rika and Satoko head off to buy some meat for dinner. Apparently, Satoko has some trauma against any adult in the village – her family had vehemently battled the construction of the dam previously, eventually leading to their death / disappearance – seeing her hesitation, Rika puts the verbal smackdown on the meat seller and finishes up her shopping quickly. The forlorn music and dim lights suggest that something tragic is about to happen.

The next day, the Hinamizawa baseball team is getting cleaned out by some ace pitcher from the other team. Satoko decides to take things into her own hands and recites an incantation… into the pay phone, where she’s telling Keiichi to bring his ass on over. Within minutes, he arrives on his bike and brandishes his… golf club. Naturally, worthless K-chan gets K’d in 3 pitches.

During the break, Keiichi finds the pitcher by the water fountain. Their exchange goes something like this:

K: I hear you like desserts, you pussy.
P: No! I like grilled mea…
K: Desserts with colorful cream for those little girls with frilly skirts!!
P: NOOOOOOO I’m a pervert!!
K: Yes, you are. …But what’s wrong with a guy being a pervert?
P: Wha…huh?
K: You must be honest to yourself! Here are two tickets to that dessert store down the street. All you have to do is follow my instructions…
P: Yes master!!

Granted that it was supposedly planned by Satoko, Keiichi’s ability to play both bad cop and the good cop by himself is nothing short of astounding. But how much longer can the imminent tragedy be prolonged?

Elsewhere, Rika continues to foul up the mood with her emoness. After some encouragement from Satoko, she realizes that being down won’t help the situation, and picks herself up and cheers for Keiichi. “At least I can enjoy this fleeting moment…”

Although cheerful on the outside, Satoko is still able to see the conflict that brews within Rika. That night, with Satoko asleep, Rika starts talking again, continuing to lament her powerlessness and the despair of futility. Except this time, a rather familiar voice answers back. It’s Horie Yui, with her optimistic voice trying to push Rika to keep fighting. Have patience. Keep trying. Don’t give up, she says, but the unsteadiness of her own voice understands that all this optimism is likely to be in vain. Something will eventually get us out of this… Rika gets mad and tells her to stfu, “I’ll just be killed off again as always.” Satoko, having been woken up by the last line, confronts Rika about it. Who’s going to get killed off? “I am,” Rika replies, “due to a fate that I cannot escape.”

And just like that, Satoko wakes up, as if it was all a bad dream. It’s morning again, and Rika is in the kitchen as always, her nipaa self cooking up some breakfast. Was it a dream? Did you really say you would be killed off? Rika denies everything, but Satoko’s insight tells her otherwise.

June 12th club activity is something called “survival can kicking,” which involves Satoko and a can in the middle of a courtyard surrounded by traps – first person to kick the can wins. Keiichi claims the traps are all bluffs and runs straight into them… only to get trapped. Then, Rika inexplicably runs into one of the traps herself… and pops up like a gopher with a trademark “mii~”

Satoko gets worried again, and while Rika is out of the room, fesses up her “dream” to everyone else. Who would want to kill Rika? Seems unlikely, Rena points out, considering that some people even consider Rika to be the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama. Rika comes in and once again denies everything.

That evening, Rika is standing atop the lookout point with the town basked in the orange sunset. Hocchan is talking to her again, but even in the light we are unable to see what she looks like, or if she is even a physical manifestation at all. Rika explains that if she were to get Satoko, or anybody else involved, they would be cast in an unimaginable fate.

Satoko is woken up once more by Rika. “There’s nothing you can do. It’s already too late…”


Thoughts

An odd episode in the tradition Higurashi sense – the previous ep should have taken care of all the happy-go-lucky things, with the second ep delving into the real meat of the situation. Still, Rika’s continued spiral into lonely despair was a tragedy in itself – I’m sure that line about “don’t keep everything to yourself, let your friends help” still echoes in her mind, and she is doing all she can to keep herself from breaking down and crying out for help.

The introduction of Hocchan’s character (those who have played the game can tell you her name, as it has not yet been revealed in the anime) reminds me of that C.C. doppelganger trap character that is sure to play a prominent role in ep 24 and 25 – difference being that the one in Higurashi seems much more helpless, and is seemingly less mature. Perhaps she is something that Rika confided in, in one of her early reincarnations, and in doing so, dragged her into this endless cycle as well. Being one that wanted to help Rika, it’s understandable that she’s going to be the more optimistic one, but her wavering voice suggests that she also knows how foolish her hopes are.

It’s kinda like that movie “Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo” – no matter how many times you redo it, and no matter how many iterations you experience, what is predestined to happen is going to happen. How can one break free? Ashton Kutcher would tell you, just find the point where it all happened and make the ultimate sacrifice – give up the love of the very ones you are trying to protect in order to have them live on. Is Rika able to do this?

-jaalin

30 Comments

  2. Finally some suspense. It seems to be like the main concentration as a victim is Rika-chan this time. The anime producers should have started the first episode with this one instead. This episode seems to give a very good into and way to start warming up for the suspense.

    banzemanga
    Reply

  8. It can’t be helped. Most of the comedy that was presented in the last two episodes are parts that should have been in the first season that they ignored, so fitting all that into the beginning of this chapter will obviously push the main story a bit further back. Have some patience guys.

    Garet
    Reply

  12. As the story goes on, with each later Answer arc, you get less psycho lolis killing people. So if everyones expecting more bloodbath type stuff like the first half of s1, you’re not going to get it.

    GP
    Reply

  14. I still find this more interesting than half the other shows I’m watching this season, even if the beginning is focused on build-up. GP’s also got a good point too. Maybe the overall level of gore and violence will decrease, but I’m sure that we’ll still see some.

    Camario
    Reply

  15. OOOOH DID I HURT SOME ONES FEELINGSSS..oHHH WITTLE BABY GOT HURT>>> so he faked my name!! YOU BITCHASS…just for the record. it wasent meant as an insult.its commendable….but i see some people get they panties all up they little “30 ANIME WATCHING” BITCHASSs… go beat yo meat off.its mo constructive..

    p.s=im assuming that some one took offense to my comment and harbor no ill will toward none other than the fruit cup who took my alias… this aint a popularity contest dog! it’s a nime blog site…judgeing from your post with my alias..its apparent that you are a loser who got offended because my aimless comment struck a nerve in the back of your mind and made you have a moment of clarity that told you “yeah i do watch too much anime, and yeah it does bother me inside, i may never get laid , oh my god, what am i doing”…..
    SHEESH! and im supposed to be the otaku…laughable… remember it not a populartiy contest dog. i love this stuff just like u, so don’t hate bitch

    sorry for taking this much space webmaster. but im sure u could relate..i mean alias stealing????WHAT A PUSSY

    the "real"BROOKLYN otaku
    Reply

  16. I’d be hardpressed to watch and follow 30 anime shows at any given time… best I could do was 10-12, and that was on a minimal social life situation…

    Then again, I am not so good at exaggeration, either 😉

    – T

    Tolitz
    Reply

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