This has all gotten rather ugly, I have to say. But then, this is Higurashi so I suppose that’s par for the course. I see that the fans of the VN has shitting all over these developments hard, on the grounds that they’re trashing Satoko’s character. I guess the benefit of having a little distance is that none of that bothers me in the least. I never liked Satoko that much anyway, and I find her much more interesting in this arc than in any of the earlier ones.
Up until this week I might have added “sympathetic” to that, but yeah, that ship probably sailed for good here. Oddly enough even now I sort of get where she’s coming from, and I still believe Rika is partially at fault for what’s happening here. But I think that the evidence is overwhelming that the real problem is that Satoko was basically nuts all along. The episode makes a point of making clear that the ability to loop doesn’t prevent the looper from going insane as a result of it – as indeed, I think most folks eventually would. But the fact that Satoko is so unbalanced right from the start kind of tips that her bus wasn’t making all the stops to begin with.
Really, what needed to happen here is for these two to just let each other go – that would pretty much have ended the problem. But Rika was drunk with the euphoria of having finally beaten the system that beat her down for a hundred years, and Satoko was… Satoko. She’s obsessed with Rika and always has been, and not-Featherine sticking her horn into it just makes her an enabler. Satoko does try reason at first, then deception, than outright guilt – but Rika is as stubborn as Satoko is unhinged. So more and more quickly Satoko falls back on hitting the reset button and upping the ante.
Not-Featherine is the villain of the piece in the larger sense, since from what we’re seeing now she’s basically doing this to relieve her boredom. Somehow I think Satoko would be even less likely to eventually type out Hamlet than the room full of monkeys, but let’s be honest, what not-Featherine is really after is more on the level of Mahouka. Satoko can get there easily enough, since her behavior is eminently predictable. Rika getting dumped back into the same loops will certainly spice things up, and we’ve already seen she can be fairly formidable when she’s fighting on close to even terms. But she doesn’t have a sadistically mischievous Kami in her corner.
Anchen
March 6, 2021 at 4:41 amI think anyone who actually read/is a fan of the original VN/Sound Novel actually would think this is within capability for Satoko. A lot of that was previously from the Hinamizawa syndrome but she has actually always been a little bit insane in general. I think the people who are more “upset” are usually the fans who only watched the original series, as that skipped most of the little things that kinda showed that Satoko was at least a little nuts all along. A lot of that is from the abuse she has taken, her clinginess to her brother before, the feelings and fear of abandonment she has had.
A thought I had was that this version of Satoko came from the “last” loop that Rika had, Matsuribayashi where the only real conflict was beating Takano. The extent that they fought in the original Minagoroshi hen (the arc before the win) to get her to reach out for help when her uncle was abusing her was a sort of shining, huge moment. I think if they had managed to get their happy ending from that arc, *that* Satoko wouldn’t have done the things she did in Gou. But because this Satoko didn’t experience that, she had only her fears and insecurities and in some ways pride that lead her here. At least that’s my view on it.
Guardian Enzo
March 6, 2021 at 9:50 amI don’t disagree with you in theory, I think all this is quite within expected parameters for Satoko. But I see a ton of comments from people who claim to be VN folk trashing Gou for ruining her character. As an anime viewer I don’t see it.
Derrick
March 6, 2021 at 6:27 amI thought this will be Bern’s kind of backstory, but this becomes a different kind of mess
feng lengshun
March 7, 2021 at 8:50 pmTo be fair, it’s St. Lucia. If there is one thing you can trust is their ability to create mentally unhinged witches. If you take the Trick ending then Ange became one, and that’s not counting her depression and suicide attempt before that. Then if you count Mion from the other Shards then that’s at least two serial killers they produced.
In addition, we know that schools like the Takarazuka is fucked up. Even an anime like Starlight Revue celebrating the talent and passion they produce still basically condemn the toxic atmosphere the place has.
But still, Auau took her at her lowest and then just show her a deeper hole. Saikoroshi OVA is a giant prelude to all this. Rika has a pattern of behavior with callousness and making light of people’s bond, which is understandable considering her deaths but her mistake her is so very *Rika*, but we can also see that Satoko always had the possibility of becoming a bully.
I’m pretty excited to see where this is going now.
Guardian Enzo
March 7, 2021 at 9:14 pmWe are seeing some supposed reform with Takarazuka now, though just how seriously one should take that as an outsider I don’t honestly know.
C.S.B.
March 8, 2021 at 9:45 amWhat’s the old saying? “Death is always close by” or something like that? Indeed.
Just finished re-watching Higurashi Rei, and took interest in something Rika says in episode 5 (Day Breaking Chapter) along the lines of: “I was always trying to draw others into my world, but never tried stepping out myself.” Just found this and the implied bratty(?) personalities of she and Satoko and their conflict in the fragment of Dice Killing Chapter (Rei episodes 2, 3, and 4) highly amusing in light of Higurashi Gou. Kinda makes one feel all of this could have been avoided had Rika learned her lesson back and not tried to force her will on Satoko… if those events took place in Gou’s world, anyway.
That definitely does not excuse Satoko obsession in changing Rika’s mind about leaving Hinamizawa… especially after she seemed (in my opinion, anyway) to want to get stronger and more independent so as not to be a burden on her brother should he return. I sympathized with Satoko a bit in the previous seasons due to her succumbing to full blown Hinamizawa syndrome, and barring a reoccurrence of the virus, I find it a tad strange to see her this possessive naturally.
Then again, it also makes you wonder just how far you can blame a virus (whether supernatural or not) for the heinous murders these kids committed during the first series of time loops… especially the premeditated ones. I mean, Keichi did have a violent outburst before moving to Hinamizawa…