Ryukishi07 megathread - Currently Higurashi Gou griefing

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I've got to say that having a password that immediately tells you that you entered a wrong key is the absolutely most retarded thing in the whole series.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Turns out the artwork for the CD singles were a connected piece. There's probably at least two more pictures like this for Sotsu since I don't know why Mion and Keiichi (and Shion, too) would've been left out. Rena's there only because she's the literal face of the franchise.

 

[HexFag]

View attachment 2019127
Turns out the artwork for the CD singles were a connected piece. There's probably at least two more pictures like this for Sotsu since I don't know why Mion and Keiichi (and Shion, too) would've been left out. Rena's there only because she's the literal face of the franchise.

Well that was obvious. If there's anything positive to say about Gou/Mei, is that the art is always good and I like the designs more than the DEEN version imo. All I can wish for is a Kira OVA after Sotsu is over.

 

[Atatata]

View attachment 2019127
Turns out the artwork for the CD singles were a connected piece. There's probably at least two more pictures like this for Sotsu since I don't know why Mion and Keiichi (and Shion, too) would've been left out. Rena's there only because she's the literal face of the franchise.

Maybe she'll finally do something in the next season.
Personally, I'll give it a 5 or maybe 6/10, a bit on account of the fact that it gave me an excuse to rewatch the original anime with some bros when I found out it was actually a sequel. (Also, played the vn of both Higurashi and Umineko while I was at it). It just doesn't have the charm of the original, and suffers from the author trying to do some 4d meta continuation shit that wasn't there to start with. Almost everyone was out of character, and a lot of the problems the characters face shouldn't be there in the first place.
Are you seriously telling me Shion would do nothing if she learned that Satoko was going to St. Lucia's? That Keichi, the mysterious K, would ban traps from club activities? Its just stupid. That Rena wouldn't be suspicious about what's up? That's not even getting into what happened to Satoko. Why didn't she just fail the exams?
That being said, Teppei's redemption was a hoot. It was also a little out of character, if not out of place, but it was funny enough considering how much of a scrappy he was in the original.
I don't expect it to wrap up in a satisfactory way next season. But eh, who knows? I'll watch it anyway.

 

[Begemot]

I'm a lazy fuck so I'm only halfway through the "Massacre" sound novel when I was hoping I'd be ready to read Umineko by the spring. I need to rectify that. Reading the manga probably would've taken me less time, but those omnibuses are big boys. Takes me a good couple of hours to read half of one omnibus volume. Seriously cannot be read in one sitting, but I feel like I have to read each volume in one sitting lest I don't go back to it.

Here, for those not in the know, lemme stack up my Higurashi and Umineko manga volumes. Lookit this.
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Ain't nobody got time to read all dat.

Anyway Higurashi Gou? More like Higurashi Gomi. *spits*

Read the first Umineko book and that was it for me. The idea of a variety of repetitions of the initial concert, no matter how 'meta', just didn't appeal to me.

 

[HexFag]

Earlier today, Ryukishi07 annouced some stuff related to 07th Expansion. (mainly Higurashi stuff)

https://twitter.com/07th_official/status/1377616471803711490

We also got some new art of Rika.

Higurashi

https://twitter.com/The07thNetwork/status/1377622939441496066

Higurashi Hou+ is coming out this winter and there will be new stories exclusive to Hou+. There will also be a 20th anniversary event which will be held in August 2022.

Umineko

https://twitter.com/The07thNetwork/status/1377651681299599361

Saku's CD was announced as well as some Live project.

Ciconia

https://twitter.com/07th_official/status/1377616478346838020

He will continue writing it by the end of the year. It's not even finished yet. We're never getting Phase 2.

 

[Return of the Freaker]

Ciconia
https://twitter.com/07th_official/status/1377616478346838020 He will continue writing it by the end of the year. It's not even finished yet. We're never getting Phase 2.

Ciconia is going to end up being R07's 3.0+1.0

 

[Idiot Asshole]

Any chance we can get the posts from the Anime General thread merged into this one? I want to be able to read all of @Kari Kamiya's posts making fun of this shitheap in one place.

Also Ryukishi07 is a hack riding off his one success and doing everything he can to delay releasing Phase 2.

 

[HexFag]

Ciconia is going to end up being R07's 3.0+1.0

The worst part is that I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Any chance we can get the posts from the Anime General thread merged into this one? I want to be able to read all of @Kari Kamiya's posts making fun of this shitheap in one place.

Also Ryukishi07 is a hack riding off his one success and doing everything he can to delay releasing Phase 2.

You can probably ask him to bring over the posts himself, it would be cool since he had the most to say about Gou out of everyone else. I kind of understand the Higurashi milking, since that's what made him the money and that's what STILL makes him the money, but come on man, Phase 1 ended on such a fucking cliffhanger and I don't want to have to reread it or read a synopsis because I forgot details.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Any chance we can get the posts from the Anime General thread merged into this one? I want to be able to read all of @Kari Kamiya's posts making fun of this shitheap in one place.

Stupid Fucking Tree made a good point, but unfortunately things are hitting the character limit fast, which sucks 'cause I wanted y'all to watch the progression of my (and others') hopes and dreams getting crushed, leaving me (us) to wallow in a bloody, screaming mess.

Well, start with these, first. I'll figure something out in another post.

Spoiler

ALL THE HAU-AU HYPE.

OMG HIGURASHI'S COMING OUT THIS SUMMER AAEERHJG



Isn't that the Hou art-style? It's kinda odd coming off of Matsuri, really, but hopefully it'll contrast the horror well. That's the one thing that I think the first series managed to do well in spite of the poor production quality. The off-model moments made it creepier.

Thank God Yukari Tamura's still Rika. I thought she was retiring.

Given that that's actually how the series opens up (with Keiichi's inner monologue in the silence with cicadas and mentioning someone's apologizing to him over and over again), I'm thinking they're going to drop the flash-forward scenes before the start of each new arc. My biggest hope is that they're going to adapt the other arcs (the manga-only and PSP-exclusive arcs), or will have a bit more episodes per arc to get the fuller experience. But honestly, Chiaki Kon I think did a fantastic job with condensing the series, and I think it's sad she had dropped the ball with Umineko, but Higurashi will forever hold a special place in my heart for scaring the living shit out of me while still making me adore the setting and characters. And that badass music, too, I don't know how they're going to do the music for the remake.

I wanna keep an optimistic open mind with this because Higurashi hasn't really had a terrible time being adapted into anything, but Keiichirou Kawaguchi's filmography is... a mixed bag to say the least. There's some real stinkers he's directed, and I hope that's just because the source material was just shit (though from what I've heard about Island, the actual visual novel wasn't terrible, the anime was just that bad).

I think I get why a remake is happening, though. Not everyone is interested in taking the time out to read the sound novel, because it's pretty long, although Steam has helped it reach more people, which is great. Not everyone (in the Western world) reads manga, so even though the Higurashi manga is out there and does the sound novel justice, it's still a niche market, and some people just don't want to read pictures, I guess. Which is stupid because then that makes them reading subs all the more hypocritical, but anime sounds more attractive to people and you can reach a wider audience through the TV/computer.

But it sounds more likely than not they're going to make more money with this anime selling more merchandise that way. There's parts of the sound novel that never made it into the anime (we didn't get more of Rena's POV during the Atonement arc, for instance, and Shion and Mion's true relationship was skipped in the anime I think because of time constraints), and we have Miotsukushi-hen from Matsuri and Kizuna which is apparently considered to be the true ending or at least is a more satisfying ending than Festival Accompanying. I think if anything else, we're going to see more arcs be animated, but they're arcs that can't really be stand-alone arcs like with Outbreak (even though that still relies on proper knowledge of the series, but it was still fresh in people's minds at the time).

Issue about this is we don't have much information about what to expect with this anime, so we can only speculate what they're going to do with this. At the same time, current circumstances have made the timing on this really unfortunate, honestly. The stuff that goes on in Higurashi is...... yeah.

But if this goes over well, maybe we'll get a proper Umineko adaptation. I sure as hell would like that due to having no ability to play the sound novel, and while I'm slowly reading the manga, it's so dense that I have to take time out to read it, but that means forgetting details so I end up going back and I feel like I'm the one going mad over it lol.

So I just learned Funimation got the rights for the new Higurashi season, not Sentai like I thought.

God-fucking-damn it.

Almost finished with Onikakushi-hen, and now I'm hoping the new anime actually is going to go out of its way to animate the TIPS as like after credits scenes, or incorporate them into the main story. I legit forgot the Seventh Mart TIPS makes for some excellent psychological-horror fuel. They could go nuts with it, visually.

I'm just about to check the first episode out, so I'll return here in about thirty minutes. I'll try super hard not to compare it to the 2006 anime which had some stellar direction when it came to pacing and composition to make up for its poor animation, but maybe the new artstyle will help. Maybe. Also is hard to tell what they're going to do with it, since it sounds like only the first two arcs will be done in this season, which is reportedly two-cour. If that's the case, they're going to adapt the sound novel as close as possible to how it's paced.

Anyhoo brb. *gets demoned away*

EDIT:

Oh my fucking God, I am actually upset by this.

Spoiler: This rant went on too long, whoops

This is literally a remake of the DEEN anime, albeit not exactly beat-by-beat. There were three new scenes. One: they actually did put in the scene where Keiichi analyses Satoko's traps before walking into the classroom from the tacked doorhandle, the eraser in the doorway, and the trip to the inkstone. He also threatens her with the forehead flick and making her cry because she's still a kid. The DEEN anime didn't really do that even though Satoko's (proper) introduction is through the rigged doorway.

Second new scene is Keiichi, Mion and Rena walking to the shrine and at least one old lady is greeting them, but this is a silent scene with a new piece of music. The picnic scene just has Keiichi and Satoko fighting over the food more-so than in the original anime, but they couldn't bring in the rabbit apple slices for them to win Rena over with cuteness?

Third new scene is a fucking lame scavenger hunt because they didn't show the game club. At all. No punishment game for the loser, no card tricks, none of that, we just cut to the aftermath of them standing around. Keiichi doesn't even get marked, it's Satoko who gets marked with a "K.O." to the face courtesy of Rika pulling a punching-glove-in-box trick to "get back at her" for the bath pan trick in the storage room where Mion hid the permanent marker (that was the entire scavenger hunt, she hid a marker in the school and it's not even hard, Mion makes things intentionally difficult for Keiichi so he can learn how to play the games their way). Rika doesn't pull stuff like this until much later in the series, so this is actually out-of-character for her at this point in time.

The remake is literally reusing music from the DEEN anime. I thought the composer was going to do remixes or some new stuff, of which two tracks are new (I don't recall them being in the anime before), but they literally are just pulling from the archives because "Well, the fans are going to get mad if we don't use the music." This includes the original OP, "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" by Eiko Shimamiya being played at the end, coming in at the most inopportune time where Keiichi is shifting through the pile of newspapers to look for the dam dismembering, of which we don't see the article, Keiichi just reads it off for us. Seriously?

Oh, and the cinematography is so fucking boring. I didn't expect to get some well-placed cuts and framing in this particular remake, but the atmosphere is nowhere to be had here because of boring camera angles (only time it's "ooh, shocking" is when they do close-ups of Rena and Mion's mouths when they're being curt about them knowing nothing, but the cuts are too fucking obvious) and ill-placed lighting. Keeping Keiichi and Tomitake in the shade of the cliffside at the dumping grounds doesn't make for a sinister "Wait, what?" moment when Tomitake drops the bombshell of "They're still missing one of the arms."

But the worst offender of bad cinematography for me is the very beginning. Yes, in the original we get a shot of Keiichi really going to town with the bat on Rena and Mion, but the thing is, in the original, it didn't drag on, no wide-shots of the entire room except in the area where the bodies are (but still no empty space), no good look at anyone's face because of shadow or extreme close-ups, shots of blood splatter was kept to the walls and bat--it was meant to be shocking and mysterious. And hell, the original actually didn't give away the most graphic portion of the scene where we get a shot of the bat breaking an arm on impact, but they go ahead here to show the body being bludgeoned on-camera instead of saving it for later.

And let's have a shot of the entire empty and uncluttered room because having the camera be far away from Keiichi as he's silhouetted against the window is supposed to be creepy, I guess.
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In terms of similar POV shots, depends on which is scarier to you:
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Also, what the hell, why is this the final shot of the episode?
View attachment 1634901
Ermigawd, the little girl has glowy red eyes to signify something wicked this way comes, this is supposed to be spoopy, guys. Why is Higurashi falling for this stupid trope? And hell, Rika has no business being put in the spotlight like this during Onikakushi-hen, but she's only had so much focus this episode because "Well, the fans know what's up with her." No, her being kept out of the picture is the real red herring, not this bullshit with her having red eyes because "Oooooh mysterious".

Upgraded artwork doesn't mean squat. Keep the scares subtle but slowly build them up to the climax, that's why it's so good as a psychological-horror. Also, why isn't this anime trying to do something new? Why do they have to fall back on the original anime so goddamn hard like this?

TL;DR: Newcomers, just check out the 2006 anime right now and come back to this later if you still want more Higurashi after you're done, because by then, more episodes will be out for a proper compare-contrast (which I fear will become more prevalent as the weeks goes on). If you want a fuller experience, read the manga if you just have no interest in getting the sound novel off of Steam.

I still don't get why they're milking the fuck out of Higurashi in 2020 while we could have gotten a proper Umineko anime at this point.

I look things at a critical eye simply because I enjoy writing and wish to create my own work one day, and thanks to taking a screenwriting class, I look for key turning points a lot. But Higurashi is one of my all-time favorites series and was what got me to dive more into horror (psychological-horror especially), and I still find it a rather unique experience for a murder mystery. The adaptations have otherwise done a fine job in portraying the horrors of paranoia, but it's a lot better when it's through the first-person narrative, which is why the sound novels work so well (next to ambient sound).

Speaking of, I actually forgot to mention that you don't start hearing the cicadas proper until dusk when Keiichi and Rena are heading off to the dumping grounds, but it's the middle of June, you should be hearing cicadas everywhere you go, and not just in one ear (the left in this case), or in particular scenes. I can't believe they fucked that up. You shouldn't have to turn the volume up to even try to hear them, either. This is something the original anime got completely right, you couldn't watch a scene without hearing cicadas everywhere, and that was the point.

Jesus, Passione, you had one job.



I want this to be good, too, especially since this is how most newcomers are going to even check out the series at this point, but if they're not going to get the full experience, then what is even the point of a remake? I know people complained about DEEN skipping around scenes, but there's nothing worse than skipping important character scenes, such as the group's game club, which heavily comes back into play later in the most disturbing way.



I'm actually feeling more cautious about a proper Umineko anime now after seeing the first episode of Higurashi 2020. If they're just going to repeat the same beats from the original with Higurashi, who's to say they're not also going to do the same thing for Umineko when that'd be a horrendous idea?

I mean, after the failure that was Umineko I would expect them to be more cautious this time around. Just look at this new Higurashi's art style and compare how the 2006 adaptation looked better years ago and you see that they're not even trying. Of course, we might be wrong and they'll change stuff up as the run goes but I'm not that confident.

I think the character designs are based off of Hou's art, and you could still tell who they are so it doesn't bother me that much, though Keiichi looks really dopey in some shots, which is weird. And after seeing Tomitake, I actually am worried about how they'll show Miyo and Ooishi, because oof. People laugh at the big heads and stick necks of the original, but I find it endearing. And hell, they even got the poofiness of the '80s hair right in that anime, Satoko is the only one who seems to have poof in her hair in this one.

I still think it's baffling they're just reusing the 2006 soundtrack, though. Like seriously, guys? Are you just that insecure with yourself that you can't trust yourself to make new music, and yet you somehow trust yourself to do a proper adaptation of a sound novel series which relies so much on ambient sounds and a soundtrack? You either have to go all the way with a series like Higurashi, or just don't do it at all.

Also, whatever anime-only stuff they'll add on doesn't make me confident when they couldn't even make an original scavenger hunt seem fun but sneakily malicious. Oooh, Mion hid a permanent marker somewhere in the school, now you gotta find it and then do whatever you want with it. That's it? Piss off with that pussy shit.

Gonna be checking out the second episode later today, but for the bolded, that's actually just going make it be more convoluted because the only times Umineko had any relevancy with Higurashi was with the poems at the start of each arc, and the very final scene where Bernkastel (who suspiciously looks like Rika in another life) goes up to a young Miyo Takano and tells her to go spend time with her parents. Around the time where her parents were going to go for a drive and get killed. It's heavily implied this may have been the moment that made her turn apathetic and search for a need of entertainment (in the form of chaos), or she may have always been this malicious and she did that on purpose to see what would happen to that world should Miyo have not pursued the Hinamizawa Syndrome research. See: Outbreak.

The first episode already fucked this up by not incorporating Bernkastel's poem or making any hint to it whatsoever. The 2006 anime incorporated anime-original poems in the episode previews, but instead of getting one of those at the end of the first episode of 2020, we get red-eyed Rika. Gag me.

Now if it's a reinterpretation, then I hope it does a good job at it. Higurashi confirms there are multiple worlds, but we only get to see five, maybe six (because Time-Wasting is a flashback arc that happens prior to every arc) of them before Massacre happens (the PSP/DS ports and manga add some original arcs prior to Massacre, but the main game has only the five worlds). Some of them play out the same way, though, but others had slight differences, although I'm extremely worried Passione's fucking this up from the word "go". I want this to be good for the sake of the newcomers because I don't want newcomers getting the wrong idea about Higurashi, but I'm just really disappointed that they're just taking cues from Deen's adaptation more-so than either putting their own spin to it or by properly adapting the sound novel. Cutting out the game club scenes is a horrible narrative decision I can't believe they made.

Alright, watched the second episode. I am still mad because this is clearly a show for the fans, newcomers should NOT be watching the 2020 Higurashi anime, and yet newcomers are going to flock to it anyway because it's "new", and that infuriates me. They're getting spoiled on the mystery from the start, for as far as I can tell, promotional material didn't say anything about this being an actual retelling as hinted in-series. It actually peeves me off we didn't get the arc's name until now given it's a clever twist on the first arc, Onikakushi-hen, Demoned-Away, and I think it would've been really nice to have had it mentioned after the end credits:
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(隠, kaku; 騙, dama)

So as a long-time fan, I get it that they're definitely doing something different and playing things up a bit (even though they're still taking cues from the 2006 anime, music included) and I've had my fill of Higurashi fanfiction to see how creative fans can get about the what-ifs that I do wholly welcome original arcs, but also as a long-time fan, I hate that newcomers coming into the series blind are already getting the mystery answered before it kicks off. That's what makes Higurashi so amazing is that going in blind enhances the experience to its fullest potential. Unfortunately, it seems that everyone knows the plot (and twist) of the series if they've been hanging around weeb circles for a time, but that doesn't mean they should miss out on that experience if they're interested in Higurashi. If any of them are confused over the opening scene of episode two, that is their cue to go back to the beginning.

For those in the back: If you are interested in getting into Higurashi, DO NOT watch the 2020 anime until you have experienced Higurashi. Check out the original anime, the manga, and/or the sound novel before returning to this series.

Also the cinematography still sucks and I'm honestly not a fan of the skipping and constant cutting back to the calendar, although watching Rika's dance was nice (although again, I hate it when things cut away elsewhere during it). The music during that scene I think is from the Matsuri game if not directly from Kai, so yeah, doubt there's any new musical score to be had here. Which I'm really disappointed about because that was what I was most looking forward to was new music. The credit pictures were really beautiful, though, makes up for how ugly the OP's art was at times, like yikes.

I also don’t like how they exposed Rika and Hanyuu so early in the Higurashi reboot. It ruins things for newcomers. While I’m still not a fan of the new art style it does seem to be doing a decent job of switching between moe and serious. Doubt it’ll match or surpass the creepiness of the original anime though.

At the very least it’s nice they brought the old seiyuus back.

Turns out it was a secret sequel all along, and probably is going to act as a bridge between Higurashi and Umineko based on what people pulled out from the OP. Going by comments from at least MAL, the newcomers are confused and even some veterans are confused, but are warming up to the idea after laughing at Ryukishi07's trolling. There's one retard arguing it's a rebuild anime and that it's totally okay for newcomers to watch it.

But yeah, I'm honestly upset that the newcomers have to be exposed to the answers of the mystery through this before they had a chance to know about the mystery. Fuck, guess we're never getting a proper anime adaptation of the sound novel at this point. Maybe they'll make it up with a new Umineko anime if that's what they're teasing us about.

I was looking at the OP on YouTube, and people were commenting that they think you can see Featherine and the Mansion in the OP. I actually don't like that they're hinting at Featherine, if that's who it is, either as she was a late addition to Umineko. Maybe he's going to cover the world's most hardcore ten year old's transformation into Berncastel. I'm just not convinced most studios can do that standing around and talking at each other well.

Don't take that the wrong way, I'm only hard on Umineko because of how much I love it. Just wasn't happy that tumblr's theory they cooked up, no doubt while typing one handed, is the one that Ryukishi went with. I will be interested if we see Kanon and Shannon together though. I don't remember if the previous anime had that, but since that was before the big reveal, I don't know if it counts.

So I went back and watched the first ep of the 2006 how they cry to compare. And it made me really sad. The 2020 version had some GREAT horror elements going for it. It completely cuts Keiichi's narration, which allows for more tension. When the characters respond to the murder, instead of getting all anime dark, it makes a fast cut to their mouths and completely mutes all sound except their voice. Its nice and jarring. There's a good juxtaposition of this cute look with the odd actions that are slowly building up. It hints at Reika through the use of the calendar. It also establishes his relationship with the girls earlier and we get to see through action rather than his internal narration.

And then in the second episode...it throws it all away. It completely spoils the importance of things and breaks down all the tension that had been building. I know people know what is coming, but there are people who haven't seen it before. Or forgot. I don't get why they made that decision. If they were going to do that, it should have been in the first episode. But still, feels bad man.

Higurashi holds some sentimental value for me which is why I'm so concerned about how Gou is going to turn out, especially with the mystery and horror already falling flat two episodes in. On top of it being super good in getting me more invested in the psychological-horror genre by giving me nightmares for the first time in years, it was the first time I learned about the concept of nakama and why it's so important in Japan. I hadn't yet watched One Piece yet, and although my childhood anime practically had the concept of nakama all along, the dubs never conveyed that outside of the surface-level meaning of friendship. Higurashi was also among my first anime where I actively sought after subs as well as more mature anime (once I got my own laptop, but also got out of high school), and there was something special about it that I couldn't tell what it was at the time without more and more exposure. I mean, why else does it get such high praises everywhere you look?

I'm currently on my seventh rewatch (well, think technically it's my tenth, I'm actually not sure since I started my annual October rewatch around 2016), and it's actually been a long, long while since I last watched it subbed. I know the dub is really rough, but watching it in English was helping me soak it in just a bit more even though by then I had long since read the manga and even sought after a YouTube playlist of the sound novel, and it was also out of courtesy for a brother when we were watching it together (he wasn't yet used to subs, but he bailed after Massacre and hasn't returned to it lol). Where the dub failed, and even where the animation faltered (because yeah, it's cheap animation), the amazing sound design and cinematography helped to keep it from falling apart. It still kept me invested in the atmosphere and the tension in the air. The original Japanese track is much more nuanced since the script does rely on wordplay quite a lot that the English track couldn't get down (Rena telling Keiichi she found him in episode four is creepier in the sub since children typically go "Miiitsuketa!" in kakuenbo), but there's also other quiet sounds like breathing or knowing when to start raising one's voice or laughing that the dub somehow glossed over. Maybe if they hadn't rushed it, they could've polished that up, who knows.

I'm telling you, even though the Cotton-Drifting arc is rather slow paced and isn't as shockingly violent as Demoned-Away, it masters tension and timing. I knew exactly what was coming, but the ending of episode seven where Keiichi is interrogating Shion over the phone still unsettled me through a great combination of voice-acting (voice-directing might be the better word, I honestly don't find Soichiro Hoshi to be an amazing seiyuu at all so it's a miracle he works well as Keiichi), musical cues, and cinematography. I'm actually currently watching it with another little brother 'cause I've noticed he's been... unusually interested in the Saw franchise lately, but I would much rather have him be first introduced to horror in better ways. He's also been showing more interest in anime and since the timing was right in this being October, figured I'd invite him to watch an arc with me every Saturday (so at this rate, I'll have "Atonement" playing on Halloween). I have no idea what he thinks of the series, but he hasn't been objecting to it or whatnot. Seems to be handling it better than my previously-mentioned brother who's a bit of a pussy when it comes to that, but we're watching it on the TV instead of the computer like then. Although to be fair, the vast majority of its infamy comes directly from "Eye-Opening", so if that arc doesn't faze him in any way, then I guess nothing will.

Anyway, I hope Gou does surprise me later on, and I actually do plan on doing a second rewatch once it's nearing its conclusion to see how it properly flows, but I hope this doesn't become a wet fart like Kira was. Even Outbreak seemed to have become forgotten by the fans even though it was a nice return to what made Higurashi Higurashi. (Probably real telling when Kira was never licensed by Sentai Filmworks, although Outbreak not being picked up either is a shame.)

 

[HexFag]

Stupid Fucking Tree made a good point, but unfortunately things are hitting the character limit fast, which sucks 'cause I wanted y'all to watch the progression of my (and others') hopes and dreams getting crushed, leaving me (us) to wallow in a bloody, screaming mess.
View attachment 2049366

Well, start with these, first. I'll figure something out in another post.

That's only up to the 2nd episode too. Holy shit.

I am glad that Gou, despite its quality, finally gave me the motivation to read the much better Umineko and Ciconia because I had been putting them off for a while at that point.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Part 2 in which I quickly learned from my mistake in having chunks of quoted messages stuffed into a spoiler. I are so smrt that I April Fool'd myself.


Secret Asshole's second rant.
Kari Kamiya (me) seethes over episode three.
Secret Asshole's third rant. He loves these. And my follow-up response to his rant.
I point out '06's usage of better cinematography.
Secret Asshole: "Like, just do your remake. Don't do both."
Episode four's when shit went down. Optimism cautiously spikes.

I was pleasantly surprised by episode 4 but


It DID hit comical levels for me. I almost laughed when

Spoiler

they showed Keiichi tearing up and that he was still alive. The profile shot of Rena stabbing him also looked kinda silly but overall I was impressed by the animation for that scene.

I didn't find it scary per say but it was well done and I'll give credit where it's due. I'm actually looking forward to what's in store now.

Xenomorphs Are Cute outlines episode 5.
Kari shrugs off episode 6 for being accurate and realized TYPE-MOON's been involved for ages (I r so smrt).
Episode 7 and Kari doesn't like them glowy eyes. keyboredsm4sh was stoked, though.
Kari geeks out about "Curse-Killing" for a moment to no avail.
Episode 8 skepticism. Xenomorph went into more detail.
BIG BRUDDER and Teppei redemption arc foreshadowing. Leads to simping.
BIG BRUDDER again. Kari finds Ani-One Asia.
Episode 11. Episode 12 discussion doesn't look like ever happened, but I can't recall.
Episode 13. Stupid Fucking Tree was more optimistic.
Newcomers shouldn't have been watching Gou.
Kari's epiphany about Watadamashi-hen. Too bad that (apparently) wasn't the case.
keyboredsm4sh tells Rika to kill herself.
Stupid Fucking Tree and Kari react to Episode 15 differently.

Higurashi Gou's animation is so goofy it sucks all the horror out of it. Mion shaking Keiichi on the ladder looked like someone shaking a paper cutout back and forth, same with Akasaka's... whatever that was. Immediately made it unenjoyable because it was like a parody of itself. Visual novels have animation like that for a reason. Anime is not animated like visual novels for a reason.

Reactions to the infamous episode 16. Also anatomy fail.
Kari discovers the manga is handling Gou better than the anime.
Episode 17 apathy. Stupid Fucking Tree mentions some Italian WTC retard.
Kari makes fun of Takano in episode 18.
Episode 19, right? Yeah, Kari wasn't happy about it.
Return of the Freaker is mad with episode 20. Kari lols about lack of end credits artwork.
Yeah, keyboredsm4sh and Freaker aren't happy. More AWS-8Q and Erika Furudo say something about Umineko but I can't click the spoilers yet. :( This thread was then shortly made.
Keyboredsm4sh hates episode 23 and Gou.

And that was it for the anime thread. I'll post "Nano Desu" at the end 'cause it makes me happy and I love singing it. That is so.

EDIT: Bruh, I can't believe the first few links were still Secret Asshole's rant. He can't keep getting away with this!

 

[albert chan]

These scenes almost pale in comparison to the 2006 version. I wish they showed more of Rena looking more like an adult than she was in elementary school.

 

[Idiot Asshole]

These scenes almost pale in comparison to the 2006 version. I wish they showed more of Rena looking more like an adult than she was in elementary school.

If Rena could go one episode without screaming Omochikaeri that would be great. She's the most broadly written of the cast so far in Gou, but at least she hasn't been totally mangled like Rika and Satoko.

Well, start with these, first. I'll figure something out in another post.

Part 2 in which I quickly learned from my mistake in having chunks of quoted messages stuffed into a spoiler. I are so smrt that I April Fool'd myself.

Thanks a lot for that, you're a trooper.

 

[Return of the Freaker]

I just gotta say, on the 2 Higurashi subreddits people are justifying Satoko's character/actions in Gou on exposition and dialogue from Satoko in the VN (Satoko putting tacks on windowsills, her thinking to herself that she could've become like Takano...) Sorry, if you're relying on obscure bits from the VN, that's not good enough. Also, not everyone has read the VN

 

[evrae]

It started as a one time joke back during the chrisposting days, before evolving into another vgcw type show but with when they cry characters with the main character in all the shows being battler.
Sadly it seems recently it has entered a sort of discordwar between one of the producers of the main show and the creator of one the spinoffs

Quite funny to find a R07 thread on here from getting into that shitshow of a story to find mentions of a stream I watch. I know they've sworn off of threads on /vrpg/ after one turned into a massive shitshow but things seem way more calm now thankfully, unless I'm wrong with that one. Never really looked into the drama though since I'd rather avoid that for the media I actually enjoy.
S6 was pretty fun overall, I wasn't really interested in S7 since it felt like S4 but competent, still very filler-like though that isn't a shock considering the whole universe reset warrants setting the ground for everything all over again, here's hoping S8 is fun.
One of the spinoffs (which I'm guessing is the one you're referring to, since it's basically the first spinoff) was on hiatus for forever but it seems like it paid off with the gimmick for it, and thank fuck they're actually sticking hard with a 4 hour schedule even if the "half episodes" are genuinely just episodes to fit all the other arcs in.

Back on topic, should I get into what is already out for Ciconia or just wait until it's finished (and hope I don't die before then)?

 

[HexFag]

Quite funny to find a R07 thread on here from getting into that shitshow of a story to find mentions of a stream I watch. I know they've sworn off of threads on /vrpg/ after one turned into a massive shitshow but things seem way more calm now thankfully, unless I'm wrong with that one. Never really looked into the drama though since I'd rather avoid that for the media I actually enjoy.
S6 was pretty fun overall, I wasn't really interested in S7 since it felt like S4 but competent, still very filler-like though that isn't a shock considering the whole universe reset warrants setting the ground for everything all over again, here's hoping S8 is fun.
One of the spinoffs (which I'm guessing is the one you're referring to, since it's basically the first spinoff) was on hiatus for forever but it seems like it paid off with the gimmick for it, and thank fuck they're actually sticking hard with a 4 hour schedule even if the "half episodes" are genuinely just episodes to fit all the other arcs in.

Back on topic, should I get into what is already out for Ciconia or just wait until it's finished (and hope I don't die before then)?

Is there a thread or somewhere where all of the TFR shit is documented? It seems like an interesting read and I don't have that much knowledge on the subject as a whole.

As for Ciconia, Phase 1 is all worldbuilding and setup until the final parts of the Phase. I liked the worldbuilding and theorycrafting autism and whatnot but it's all pretty pointless since Ryukishi isn't even done WRITING Phase 2 at the current moment. It's also 40 bucks. I'd say wait for a sale or until Ryukishi's lazy ass announces Phase 2.

 

[evrae]

Is there a thread or somewhere where all of the TFR shit is documented? It seems like an interesting read and I don't have that much knowledge on the subject as a whole.

As for Ciconia, Phase 1 is all worldbuilding and setup until the final parts of the Phase. I liked the worldbuilding and whatnot but it's all pretty pointless since Ryukishi isn't even done WRITING phase 2 at the current moment. It's also 40 bucks.

There's the wiki for it that generally has all the characters for the big two streams (TFR and TCR), it has some of the stuff from other streams but it's a little patchy in that regard and generally you'd have to go direct. There's a bunch of spinoffs doing their own shit on different days that you have to find directly as I've already mentioned, TCR (and nWr, the preshow for TFR) is generally the only one it seems that has a serious plot connection to TFR (it's currently at S3, which is set after TFR S5, the ship TCR takes place on wasn't seen at all since the timeskip in TFR S6 so there's probably going to be something explaining what happened there.
There's also a VOD channel linked on the wiki that has the past streams with chat included for both of those shows + the prestream show for TFR, and generally the guys behind both upload the lore for both shows on their own channels (TCR S2 is patchy because the guy running it had a panic with an apparent hard drive failure and he's a lazy fuck with uploading lore to begin with).
TFR has a set of recaps for S1 to S5 but for S6/S7 you'd have to catch up the hard way, for all of TCR you'd have to catch up the hard way.

In a nutshell it's goofy AI vs AI wrestling of various characters that has big story arcs involved. TFR S7 involved BCW returning and a feud between TFR and BCW culminating in a fight to determine which show would be the one to last, while TCR S3 involves a number of wrestlers getting kidnapped and forced to do errands by a Monokuma lookalike from TFR S5 and not dying in the process, carried out by something similar to World of Horror but chat votes on choices and who to send out.

Guess I'll wait on Cico then, that and I know getting the prepacked R07-mods for his VNs is generally the way to go.

 

[Wild Wild Wisteria]

Also this is what "Sotsu" means, which honestly sounds lame. At least the "karma" label had actual relation to Higurashi's themes, calling Rika a "noble" is just stretching it.

Another poster mentioned the text in the VN said something about a “graduation question” or 卒業問題. When you combine the Kanji for Gou (業) and Sotsu (卒) you get Sotsugyo (卒業), aka graduation. I dunno what Sotsu’s story is about but from a purely linguistic viewpoint I guarantee you that Sotsu in this context means graduation, not nobility. Maybe Ryukishi wants to go Question/Answer with Sotsu/Gou, but I have no idea, I’m just a randy with a Japanese language degree.

I wanted to chime in with my 2 cents about how much I hated Gou, but @Secret Asshole already pretty much covered what I wanted to say. I was cautiously optimistic at first, but after putting up with 8 episodes I decided that I’d had enough - and I’m glad I dropped this pos abortion of an anime. I remember seeing lots of bait threads on MAL when Gou first started airing that amounted to “heh, fans of the old anime are retarded doo doo heads lel” and “Boy howdy these lolis are hot af fuck u if u disagree”. There was also an article (if u wanna call it that) by MAL staff fellating Gou when only 2 episodes had come out. I dunno if it was already talked about so I’ll link it for posterity.

What Just Happened to the "NEW" Higurashi? | archive​

Edit: The article isn't as bad as I remember it, it's actually pretty neutral in tone attempting to explain where Gou fits in the storyline and whether or not newcomers should jump into it. I remember really hating how retarded Higurashi discussions on MAL got at this time so that may be a factor why I'm misremembering how this article went. Oh well, I'm a sperg

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Edit: The article isn't as bad as I remember it, it's actually pretty neutral in tone attempting to explain where Gou fits in the storyline and whether or not newcomers should jump into it. I remember really hating how retarded Higurashi discussions on MAL got at this time so that may be a factor why I'm misremembering how this article went. Oh well, I'm a sperg

Nah, it's fine. MAL watchers are fucking insufferable anyway since literally half of them are trolls and the other half are unironic lefty consoomers. Discussions devolve into slapfights so fast, and the scores are unbalanced because of enjoyment/franchise bias. Popularity rates are also off-kilter and don't accurately represent anime as it stands in the Japanese market, it's all Western-based. And Western anime fans are spergs to the next level. I only read the Gou discussion threads for a few people's thoughts since they at least attempted to explain themselves but also were Umineko fans.

The "graduating question" thing I still think wasn't something Ryukishi planned almost twenty years ago anyway, and I still don't think it makes sense in the theming and what has happened in Gou thus far. Least with Rei (礼), it was called that as a way to thank fans for supporting the series to the end and was like a parting gift, but also in-story, it was Rika (or Bernkastel) being able to bow out of the story now that she got her happy ending. Gou (業) is definitely something that would fit thematically in Higurashi, but the execution of the episodes that followed didn't resonate with what "karma" entails in the Higurashi-verse. Rika torture porn shouldn't be what amounts to karma just because she fought to live. Unless it was always destined to be that Rika was supposed to die after Watanagashi but Hanyuu kept interfering, then why aren't we following Hanyuu around for her karmic punishment? That sounds like a better series than the one we got.