Higurashi no Naku koro ni: FAQ
Mar. 10th, 2008 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
very_bad_endThis post is meant for people who have seen both seasons of the Higurashi anime.
If you have not yet viewed it in its entirety, this post will spoil you entirely.
Don't read it if you have not yet watched the series.
edit: Also note that this is a work in progress and future chapters will be up soon. XD
This post is meant to establish what the higurashi canon is for my own reflection and to answer most questions people have when watching what's going on. It may make use of information that is not shown in the anime, and at those parts I will explicitly say so.
But, if I get anything wrong, please point it out to me. I'll make any corrections necessary.
Chapter I: Onikakushi [Grabbed by the Demons.]
Q: Just what the hell was going on?
A: The REAL story of this chapter is NOT about how Mion and Rena are part of a Hinamizawa local conspiracy that targets Keiichi. No. That is fiction.
The story of this chapter is to show what happens when Keiichi contracts Hinamizawa Syndrome. All of the 'danger' that he is in, with one exception, is imagined.
Q: So... Keiichi was the crazy one in this chapter?
A: Yes. No one else went crazy.
Q: And Rika? Are we to assume she was killed and the 'Great Gas Disaster' of Hinamizawa occurred?
A: Yes. I don't have an official TIP or other reference to point to, but that is also to be assumed to have happened.
Q: But if Keiichi went insane, then did he really just IMAGINE all of those fights with Rena/Mion?
A: Yes, and no. Go back and rewatch/reread the entire chapter. Notice the exact WORDS that are being said when Mion/Rena are 'threatening' Keiichi. With the exception of Mion saying she's going to 'kill the damn old man,' and Rena greeting Keiichi with her hatchet on the way home from school, they're not actually saying anything threatening at all. To give a concrete example, Mion when she said 'I'll be sad if you skip school tomorrow!' was actually said in a NICE way. We can most likely assume Rena didn't really shout: "LIAR!!!" at Keiichi either.
Q: Why don't Mion and Rena tell Keiichi about Satoshi when he asks in this chapter? They tell him the truth in Tatarigoroshi-hen!
A: The key here is timing. When Keiichi asks in Tatarigoroshi-hen, it's after Satoshi has already been mentioned by someone else, and it's before the Watanagashi festival has taken place. In Onikakushi-hen, Keiichi discovers Satoshi's existence because of a misplaced 'Clue' card, and the Watanagashi festival murders have already taken place, so Satoshi's murder and disappearance is fresh in everyone's minds. It's because of that and the desire not to scare Keiichi that they don't tell him the truth... which ironically, end up triggering his Hinamizawa Syndrome even more. XD;
Q: What about the needle in the ohagi? Keiichi imagined that too?
A: Partly. We know from Minagoroshi-hen that Keiichi, for some reason, has a fear of sharp things being put in his food. What Mion really put in the ohagi was tabasco sauce. Keiichi's condition had apparently progressed to the point he imagined the sharp spice of the sauce to be a needle, and then promptly freaked out.
Q: So that's why there was no needle when he went to check...?
A: Yes. There was no needle for Keiichi to find because no needle had ever existed.
Q: What about the white wagon van that almost runs Keiichi over?
A: In the game, when you get to the part Keiichi gets 'attacked' by the van, it's stated that Keiichi heard the van's horn blast before he 'jumped' out of the way.
It's likely that it was some workers, much like the people in Tsumiboroshi who startle Rena, who were in the area and honked their horn at him afraid he was too close to the road. Not an attack. (Although the existence of the Yamainu's van could lead to a conspiracy theory, I don't think there's a concrete answer.)
Q: What about the scene where Rena confronts Keiichi with a hatchet on the way home from school? Was that all imagined?
A: Actually, yes. The biggest clue is that Rena apparently 'teleports' there. It's safe to assume that entire 'conversation' was Keiichi imagining Rena was stalking him.
Q: Who WERE those people Keiichi met after he ran away from 'Rena'? Did he imagine those people too?
A: Actually, no. Keiichi did not imagine them. Those people were the Yamainu, the Irie clinic's special covert-ops team. The area Keiichi ran to just happened to be very close to where they do their military training.
Q: If Keiichi really just 'ran into' the Yamainu, why did they not kill him?
A: Remember, that 'officially', the Yamainu is not a network of evil henchmen, but a government agent working to support the secrecy of the Hinamizawa Syndrome projet. Keiichi is a random villager, and we know from later in the episode that Dr. Irie was still alive and in "top" control of the Yamainu. They most likely just decided he wasn't a threat and left him on the ground after knocking him out. The games also elaborate further: Keiichi asks Rena how he got to his house. Rena tells him she found him exhausted, but conscious, and walked him back to his house. All he said was: "I'm fine, I can walk..." but she still gave him a shoulder to lean on.
Q: All right, if Keiichi is the crazy one here, then why do Mion and Rena still try to act normally after Keiichi crushes Rena's hand in the door and Keiichi yells at Mion that they're not friends?
A: The best explanation seems to be that, deep down, they both knew Keiichi was their friend and didn't really mean what he did, but they didn't want to agitate him further by becoming sad. So, they did their best to ignore it. Notice how in the Onikakushi flashback in Tsumiboroshi-hen, that the last thing Keiichi sees before he kills Rena is her kneeling down, arms outstretched, telling him: "Please believe in me, Keiichi. :)"
Q: Why does Takano only 'disappear' after the night of Watanagashi? Why don't the police find her corpse anywhere?
A: There's two possibilities. One is simply that Takano disappearing is just a variation of the lead up to the final days of Hinamizawa and that she simply choose not to leave a fake corpse this time. Another possibility is that maybe Oishi just decided not to tell Keiichi that Takano was found burned to death. Remember that Oishi is Keiichi's only source of information in this arc, after Tomitake and Takano both disappear.
Q: What's the deal with the story Oishi tells Keiichi about Rena? About how she broke all the windows in the school and then beat up a few guys with a bat?
A: Keep in mind Rena's situation at the time. Her family had just left Hinamizawa and her mother and father were beginning to break up, if they hadn't already. Besides this, we know from other arcs that Rena was terrified of the curse of Oyashiro-sama and that she felt he had 'followed' her away from Hinamizawa. Also, what isn't known, is that those boys at her school had tried to RAPE her. Rena snapped. She fought them off and then broke every window at school in a cold rage. That's the reason why none of them talked about it afterwards, they would have to admit they provoked Rena's behavior. Also, this story is meant to serve as a contrast to Keiichi's story from Tsumiboroshi-hen, about how he took a bb-gun and started shooting little girls.
Q: So, the syringe Mion draws in the final scenes was fake?
A: Yes. In the games/manga/etc., Tomitake is the loser of the Watanagashi festival games. As a punishment game, all of the kids take a marker and write on his shirt. Things like: "Come back and play again!" The 'syringe' was a marker that Mion was going to use to write on Keiichi's shirt.
Q: Why does Dr. Irie show up with the Yamainu at the end? Furthermore, why don't the Yamainu CATCH Keiichi once he runs from the house?
A: Given that Mion and Rena spend the moments after Keiichi wakes up talking about 'the director,' they likely called him. We can assume the Yamainu were there with him because of their encounter with Keiichi earlier.
As for why they don't catch him, we can guess that either Dr. Irie called them off in hopes of not aggravating his decline into Hinamizawa Syndrome, or that Keiichi simply reached the phone booth quicker, and by that time they couldn't do anything without alerting Oishi.
Q: The note Keiichi hides behind the clock has parts removed. Why?
A: Keep in mind there was no syringe. What was really 'affixed' there was a pen. It's most likely that the Yamainu were the first ones to discover the murder scene; they found the note, and made enough 'correction' to it so that the police wouldn't catch on Keiichi was simply crazy. (That might lead them to the discovery of Hinamizawa Syndrome.)
Q: So, how did Rena know what Keiichi was eating for dinner? His ginger pork ramen, bought from the Seventh Mart?
A: In all likelihood, the best answer is probably just that Keiichi's mom told her. XD;
Q: What happens to Satoko and Rika after Keiichi, Mion, and Rena die?
A: We can most likely assume that they continue going to school up until the Yamainu kidnaps Rika for the lead up to the Great Hinamiawa Sterilization Campaign. Satoko's uncle doesn't return in this chapter, so there's no reason to assume she goes insane either.
Q: So the real point of this chapter isn't about how Keiichi betrays the village and is killed, but how Keiichi falls victim to Hinamizawa Syndrome and the tragic results of suspecting his friends?
A: Welcome to Hinamizawa.
If you have not yet viewed it in its entirety, this post will spoil you entirely.
Don't read it if you have not yet watched the series.
edit: Also note that this is a work in progress and future chapters will be up soon. XD
This post is meant to establish what the higurashi canon is for my own reflection and to answer most questions people have when watching what's going on. It may make use of information that is not shown in the anime, and at those parts I will explicitly say so.
But, if I get anything wrong, please point it out to me. I'll make any corrections necessary.
Chapter I: Onikakushi [Grabbed by the Demons.]
Q: Just what the hell was going on?
A: The REAL story of this chapter is NOT about how Mion and Rena are part of a Hinamizawa local conspiracy that targets Keiichi. No. That is fiction.
The story of this chapter is to show what happens when Keiichi contracts Hinamizawa Syndrome. All of the 'danger' that he is in, with one exception, is imagined.
Q: So... Keiichi was the crazy one in this chapter?
A: Yes. No one else went crazy.
Q: And Rika? Are we to assume she was killed and the 'Great Gas Disaster' of Hinamizawa occurred?
A: Yes. I don't have an official TIP or other reference to point to, but that is also to be assumed to have happened.
Q: But if Keiichi went insane, then did he really just IMAGINE all of those fights with Rena/Mion?
A: Yes, and no. Go back and rewatch/reread the entire chapter. Notice the exact WORDS that are being said when Mion/Rena are 'threatening' Keiichi. With the exception of Mion saying she's going to 'kill the damn old man,' and Rena greeting Keiichi with her hatchet on the way home from school, they're not actually saying anything threatening at all. To give a concrete example, Mion when she said 'I'll be sad if you skip school tomorrow!' was actually said in a NICE way. We can most likely assume Rena didn't really shout: "LIAR!!!" at Keiichi either.
Q: Why don't Mion and Rena tell Keiichi about Satoshi when he asks in this chapter? They tell him the truth in Tatarigoroshi-hen!
A: The key here is timing. When Keiichi asks in Tatarigoroshi-hen, it's after Satoshi has already been mentioned by someone else, and it's before the Watanagashi festival has taken place. In Onikakushi-hen, Keiichi discovers Satoshi's existence because of a misplaced 'Clue' card, and the Watanagashi festival murders have already taken place, so Satoshi's murder and disappearance is fresh in everyone's minds. It's because of that and the desire not to scare Keiichi that they don't tell him the truth... which ironically, end up triggering his Hinamizawa Syndrome even more. XD;
Q: What about the needle in the ohagi? Keiichi imagined that too?
A: Partly. We know from Minagoroshi-hen that Keiichi, for some reason, has a fear of sharp things being put in his food. What Mion really put in the ohagi was tabasco sauce. Keiichi's condition had apparently progressed to the point he imagined the sharp spice of the sauce to be a needle, and then promptly freaked out.
Q: So that's why there was no needle when he went to check...?
A: Yes. There was no needle for Keiichi to find because no needle had ever existed.
Q: What about the white wagon van that almost runs Keiichi over?
A: In the game, when you get to the part Keiichi gets 'attacked' by the van, it's stated that Keiichi heard the van's horn blast before he 'jumped' out of the way.
It's likely that it was some workers, much like the people in Tsumiboroshi who startle Rena, who were in the area and honked their horn at him afraid he was too close to the road. Not an attack. (Although the existence of the Yamainu's van could lead to a conspiracy theory, I don't think there's a concrete answer.)
Q: What about the scene where Rena confronts Keiichi with a hatchet on the way home from school? Was that all imagined?
A: Actually, yes. The biggest clue is that Rena apparently 'teleports' there. It's safe to assume that entire 'conversation' was Keiichi imagining Rena was stalking him.
Q: Who WERE those people Keiichi met after he ran away from 'Rena'? Did he imagine those people too?
A: Actually, no. Keiichi did not imagine them. Those people were the Yamainu, the Irie clinic's special covert-ops team. The area Keiichi ran to just happened to be very close to where they do their military training.
Q: If Keiichi really just 'ran into' the Yamainu, why did they not kill him?
A: Remember, that 'officially', the Yamainu is not a network of evil henchmen, but a government agent working to support the secrecy of the Hinamizawa Syndrome projet. Keiichi is a random villager, and we know from later in the episode that Dr. Irie was still alive and in "top" control of the Yamainu. They most likely just decided he wasn't a threat and left him on the ground after knocking him out. The games also elaborate further: Keiichi asks Rena how he got to his house. Rena tells him she found him exhausted, but conscious, and walked him back to his house. All he said was: "I'm fine, I can walk..." but she still gave him a shoulder to lean on.
Q: All right, if Keiichi is the crazy one here, then why do Mion and Rena still try to act normally after Keiichi crushes Rena's hand in the door and Keiichi yells at Mion that they're not friends?
A: The best explanation seems to be that, deep down, they both knew Keiichi was their friend and didn't really mean what he did, but they didn't want to agitate him further by becoming sad. So, they did their best to ignore it. Notice how in the Onikakushi flashback in Tsumiboroshi-hen, that the last thing Keiichi sees before he kills Rena is her kneeling down, arms outstretched, telling him: "Please believe in me, Keiichi. :)"
Q: Why does Takano only 'disappear' after the night of Watanagashi? Why don't the police find her corpse anywhere?
A: There's two possibilities. One is simply that Takano disappearing is just a variation of the lead up to the final days of Hinamizawa and that she simply choose not to leave a fake corpse this time. Another possibility is that maybe Oishi just decided not to tell Keiichi that Takano was found burned to death. Remember that Oishi is Keiichi's only source of information in this arc, after Tomitake and Takano both disappear.
Q: What's the deal with the story Oishi tells Keiichi about Rena? About how she broke all the windows in the school and then beat up a few guys with a bat?
A: Keep in mind Rena's situation at the time. Her family had just left Hinamizawa and her mother and father were beginning to break up, if they hadn't already. Besides this, we know from other arcs that Rena was terrified of the curse of Oyashiro-sama and that she felt he had 'followed' her away from Hinamizawa. Also, what isn't known, is that those boys at her school had tried to RAPE her. Rena snapped. She fought them off and then broke every window at school in a cold rage. That's the reason why none of them talked about it afterwards, they would have to admit they provoked Rena's behavior. Also, this story is meant to serve as a contrast to Keiichi's story from Tsumiboroshi-hen, about how he took a bb-gun and started shooting little girls.
Q: So, the syringe Mion draws in the final scenes was fake?
A: Yes. In the games/manga/etc., Tomitake is the loser of the Watanagashi festival games. As a punishment game, all of the kids take a marker and write on his shirt. Things like: "Come back and play again!" The 'syringe' was a marker that Mion was going to use to write on Keiichi's shirt.
Q: Why does Dr. Irie show up with the Yamainu at the end? Furthermore, why don't the Yamainu CATCH Keiichi once he runs from the house?
A: Given that Mion and Rena spend the moments after Keiichi wakes up talking about 'the director,' they likely called him. We can assume the Yamainu were there with him because of their encounter with Keiichi earlier.
As for why they don't catch him, we can guess that either Dr. Irie called them off in hopes of not aggravating his decline into Hinamizawa Syndrome, or that Keiichi simply reached the phone booth quicker, and by that time they couldn't do anything without alerting Oishi.
Q: The note Keiichi hides behind the clock has parts removed. Why?
A: Keep in mind there was no syringe. What was really 'affixed' there was a pen. It's most likely that the Yamainu were the first ones to discover the murder scene; they found the note, and made enough 'correction' to it so that the police wouldn't catch on Keiichi was simply crazy. (That might lead them to the discovery of Hinamizawa Syndrome.)
Q: So, how did Rena know what Keiichi was eating for dinner? His ginger pork ramen, bought from the Seventh Mart?
A: In all likelihood, the best answer is probably just that Keiichi's mom told her. XD;
Q: What happens to Satoko and Rika after Keiichi, Mion, and Rena die?
A: We can most likely assume that they continue going to school up until the Yamainu kidnaps Rika for the lead up to the Great Hinamiawa Sterilization Campaign. Satoko's uncle doesn't return in this chapter, so there's no reason to assume she goes insane either.
Q: So the real point of this chapter isn't about how Keiichi betrays the village and is killed, but how Keiichi falls victim to Hinamizawa Syndrome and the tragic results of suspecting his friends?
A: Welcome to Hinamizawa.
