Then Who Was Phone?

[rionaleonhart]

I've finished the second Higurashi instalment, Watanagashi! My thoughts are under the cut.



Poor Keiichi. Everything's always his fault. 'Yes, Keiichi, I murdered five people, but YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BROKEN INTO THAT STOREHOUSE, SHOULD YOU? YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT MORE CAREFULLY ABOUT WHICH OF YOUR FRIENDS TO GIVE A CUTE DOLL TO. MAYBE THEY WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO DIE.'

The ending was a little heavy on the backstory dump, which I've come to realise is a recurring problem in this series, but there was also a lot about it that really interested me. I hugely enjoyed Keiichi and Mion laughing together at his bad joke as she openly prepared to torture him to death. And that he promises not to hate Mion, and he holds to that promise even when she goes 'by the way, I lured you in here so I could kill you.'

My feelings on Shion fluctuated a lot, but I liked her by the end. When you first find out she's a person of her own, she doesn't come across well; it seems like she's using Keiichi to torment Mion for her own amusement. In the end, though, when she's begging Mion not to kill anyone else, it's hard to hold her pettiness against her. She's not necessarily a nice person, in some respects, but she's not a bad one.

I'll admit I also resented Shion at first because I'd thought there was a weird Keiichi/Mion romance developing, and then it turned out that the person Keiichi had a crush on wasn't actually Mion in disguise. But the last chapter served my desire for weird Keiichi/Mion romance rather well. I love that Mion killed two of Keiichi's friends, but he still can't bring herself to hate her. I love that his response to hearing the police have found Mion is mingled 'so she won't try to kill me again' relief and 'but I don't know if I actually wanted her to be caught' sadness. Plus there was Mion's strangely throwaway line before they went into the underground murderbase:

Mion: I am nothing more than a demon, so I don't understand human feelings anymore. I have a feeling, though... that I know why Mion fell in love with you.
Keiichi: ...Don't say that like it's not related to you. You're Mion.

The ending was so cruel. 'Okay, a load of people were killed in this one, but at least Keiichi and Shion narrowly escaped death! ...nope. Oh, hey, Keiichi survived the second attempt on his life as well! Maybe he'll get out of this instalment ali— nope.' I thought he was safe! Permanently traumatised, but safe!

What's Rena going to do now? There's nobody left. In a weird way, though, she seems like she might be able to handle the loss of all her friends. Better than Keiichi, certainly. She's a lot stronger than she appears at first glance.

Rena was so level-headed and forgiving in Watanagashi that I have to believe Keiichi was imagining her malice in the first instalment, or that there was some sort of possession or other external factor influencing her behaviour in Scary Mode. The 'real' Rena genuinely is kind, even when she knows Keiichi has been lying to her, whereas Scary Rena's appearances often seemed to be brought on by lies. Although her detailed knowledge of how Satoko was lured to her death might suggest that she's still in the habit of spying on friends.

As for the 'real' Mion, who knows? Mion's the only one who's scary in both instalments so far, and she's also the only one who ends up dead in both, other than Keiichi (and Keiichi only probably dies at the end of this one). I'm interested to see what she's like in part three, assuming that things are going to be reset again.



My favourite part of the Higurashi games might actually be the full-cast party at the end of each one, where all the characters gather together to celebrate finishing the game and discuss the story as if they're actors in it. It's a nice way to make everything feel a little less dark. Keiichi is so affronted that all these terrible things keep happening to him.

Comments

[alwaysbeenasmiler]

I think my favorite part of the series is how in each installment, there is a wipe-- and you don't know where the antagonizing murderous moe blob will come from-- you realize that it could be anywhere and you keep trying to anticipate who it is that is gonna go crazy and off the deep end! It constantly keeps you guessing!

[rionaleonhart]

It's so interesting! Each time you've got the same characters, but the circumstances are slightly different and things blow up in different ways. Fanfiction often exists to go 'what would happen if we tweaked this one thing about canon?', but Higurashi has its own AUs built in.

[wolfy_writing]

'Yes, Keiichi, I murdered five people, but YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BROKEN INTO THAT STOREHOUSE, SHOULD YOU? YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT MORE CAREFULLY ABOUT WHICH OF YOUR FRIENDS TO GIVE A CUTE DOLL TO. MAYBE THEY WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO DIE.'

Aw, Keiichi!

Mion: I am nothing more than a demon, so I don't understand human feelings anymore. I have a feeling, though... that I know why Mion fell in love with you.
Keiichi: ...Don't say that like it's not related to you. You're Mion.

That is interestingly weird!

Keiichi is so affronted that all these terrible things keep happening to him.

Adorable!

[rionaleonhart]

Poor Keiichi just keeps screwing up in ways that get people (and himself) killed, and he always feels intensely guilty and regretful about it. Keiichi, bless you, you didn't know that giving a doll to the wrong person would result in the deaths of eight people.

In the first game's review session, the characters argued over whether all the weird incidents were the result of a god's curse or just the actions of people. When they asked Keiichi to settle the matter, his response was 'It's obviously both! People attacked me, and then I died because of the curse! Everyone's picking on me!'

[wolfy_writing]

....okay, characters being held to inappropriate standards of responsibility and blamed for stuff they can't reasonably anticipate is one of those things that makes me want to give them "It's not your fault!" hugs.

...he's not wrong.