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Comments
LOL, the anime exaggerated *everything* and you're angry about the stabbing part? I'm more angry about how they exaggerated the baseball bat stuff. As for the stabbing part, I have read that in the Visual Novel version of Meakashi-hen it's made clear that in Watanagashi-hen Rika did *not* commit suicide (which is why the start of episode 5 is just BADLY wrong) and thus was tortured to death. I can only presume that the experience was so bad that in Meakashi-hen, Rika decided "oh fuck no, not again" and when she didn't die immediately after the first stab she just kept doing it to end it sooner.
It also allows them to show Shion's *gradual* reaction that changes from disgust to just being weirded out to an impish smile to a flat out EVIL LAUGH that scared the shit out of me the first time I watched that.
Now as for why a BASEBALL BAT can draw so much blood, there really isn't an explanation. COME ON, DEEN! BATS DON'T WORK LIKE THAT!!!
Still, if not for the fact that the visual novels were just a lot better (although I was only ever able to read the first two, since they're insanely long and I almost never get the time to actually read them without being constantly interrupted) it would've been my favorite anime of all time, and if you don't compare it to the original visual novels, it still is.
The first season drew me in with its characters and mystery and the psychological aspects of horror and fear that they kept piling up. Yes, episode 21 may have been the goriest and bloodiest in the series but it was that "If you say sorry 1000 times" line that got me badly and made me shiver so much...
However, it was the really the second season, the epic story of Rika and Hanyuu that instantly promoted Higurashi's storyline to god-tier status for me. Objectively speaking, the second season has quite some pacing problems (the pacing is closer to the VN and then they drag stuff out so much that they STILL can't fit in everything properly) but then it didn't effin' matter to me. Rika for the win.
I don't think that an adaptation is "wrong" when it changes the details, just different.
I agree with you on just about everything else, though.
^ edit: Not with you though. bad forzy.
@Cygan: oh. OK then. I do agree with you that those scenes could use some toning down in the anime, the scenes themselves have to be there and are plot-required and the story is worth it, but damn the scenes themselves were seriously unnecessarily exaggerated...
@Forzare: It's wrong because it pulls the scene into Watanagashi, in which it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It makes sense in Meakashi-hen *after* Watanagashi and the offscreen "tortured to death" scene happens, but not before.
Yes, you can rationalize it away, but that doesn't change the fact that pointing it out properly (like people say the Meakashi-hen visual novel does) is better than just leaving it up in the air.
And yes, two different loops.
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
?
from the editor's notes in the Eye Opening Arc (Shion Arc), apparently there were two different instances where Rika is unaware of Shion's intentions and willingly falls victim to her torment and kills her, and the second encounter where she eliminates herself right then and there so she doesn't have to see Satoko die before her, or allow Shion to get her mis-guided revenge on the Furude family.
Apparently Rika dies a lot and witnesses different endings each time, there just isn't chapters for them because some of them are a bit similar, with just different endings.
And then there's Bernkastel....
I'll link it to you in a PM.
My only real complaint is the music, mostly during the slice-of-life-ish scenes. The creepier pieces are usually more effective, and every now and then I'll notice a bit of new music (like the pretty cool music that plays during Keiichi's last phone call with Shion in Watanagashi-hen that sounded like it was ripped from Doom, and the music that plays when Keiichi [decides that he's going to kill Teppei], but the other music is really repetitive, bland, and kind of annoying. In fact, during the beginnings of each arc, before the creepy stuff starts, I've started to just turn off the music and listen to my own until stuff actually starts to happen.
I do think that the one advantage the anime has is that, well, it has voices. So scenes like Keiichi slamming Rena's fingers in the door while screaming at her to get out, Mion tormenting Shion in Watanagashi-hen, and Satoko's breakdown partway through Tatarigoroshi-hen were even more effective. I felt legitimately disturbed at those scenes in the anime in a way that the VN couldn't quite accomplish.
tldr: I like Higurashi a lot.
I'm whoring my account and no one can't stop me