Archive for Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
HiguKai OPED released! Wai~~! Wai~~!
Whee~~ finally out! Naraku no Hana and Taishou-a!
First off, I must say, awesome, awesome covers. Rika and Hanyuu is total <3 :)!
On the songs themselves, I’ll say Naraku no Hana initially wasn’t what I expected. The electronica-ish buildup at the beginning caught me off guard a bit until the familiar slow intro we’ve gotten to love kicks in. The song kinda had some gaps as well in the some of the middle parts and overall, kinda felt empty at times. Still, I’ve grown to love it after a few loops of it.
Taishou-a, meanwhile, is up to expectations and it’s getting really close to be my favorite of the two songs. The slow and melancholic feel of the song really embodies the tragic elements of the Higurashi series.
Yakusamashi-hen: Hinamizawa Daisaigai
So ends the Yakusamashi-hen, which played it’s purpose well to include in all the clues and hints that were removed in the initial season. In this episode, the Hinamizawa Disaster is implied as a manmade disaster rather and the mysterious group of men are shown to be the culprit.
That being said, poor Rika dies horribly once again, and I just really… feel so sorry for her, suffering as much as she is. Satoko also put up a brave fight in this episode, but sadly, she doesn’t escape in the end.
That being done now, it’s finally time for Minagoroshi-hen, and Hanyuu should be appearing in the flesh next episode. Minagoroshi is one of the bloodiest arcs, I’ve heard, so…
Yakusamashi-hen: Yotei Chouwa
Yakusamashi-hen continues on showing Rika’s growing despair and feelings of hopelessness, and Satoko, meanwhile, starts to experience the similar condition that befell Keiichi in Onikakushi-hen and Rena in Tsumihoroboshi-hen.
Thank god for Ryukishi07 insisting on making the Yakusamashi-hen for the second season of the anime, as I’ve just completed rewatching Higurashi I, and while some important plot points were animated in, but they’ve never fully hinted on many of the important things that would be essential to solving the mystery, case in point the looping Hinamizawa and Rika, only seminally hinted and revealed at the end of Tsumihoroboshi-hen.
But now, Yakusamashi-hen finally fleshes out Rika’s character, and god, at the risk of being mislabeled, I’ll admit this, she’s now my favourite character of the Higurashi cast. Yukarin truly shows her talent with Rika’s role, perfectly switching from the “light Rika” and the “dark Rika” almost effortlessly and bringing out the despair that Rika feels to life.
Next episode should wrap up Yakusamashi-hen, and go in to the next arc, Minagoroshi-hen, which should be one of the bloodiest ones.
Yakusamashi-hen: Muryoku
The sh*t hasn’t hit the fan yet so this episode is still in the “light-hearted” feel, but this time the main focus is on Rika and her growing despair about the events that will be taking place, and the episode title demonstrates that. Her growing despair and feelings of powerlessness have reached to such levels that she actually shows off “Kuro Rika” to Satoko.
I can only barely imagine what it feels to get stuck in a loop which ends with you getting killed every time. The more I think about how many loops have possibly happened, the more I symphatise with Rika and admire her strength for still managing to keep up her happy facade.
The bleak things aside, this episode still has enough laughs to entertain, and Keiichi was pretty awesome during the baseball game with his way of, ahem, persuading the opponent’s star pitcher to give up the game to them. Of course, who can forget his dramatic entrance with the golf club. I’m pretty sure if Keiichi loses his baseball bat in a fight, he’ll somehow pull out a golf club out of nowhere and continue.
Also, Rena’s omochikaeri :D~~~~~~~.
Hauu~~ omochikaeri!!!
Yakusamashi-hen: Onigokko
Why the pacifier??? Seriously.
Wow, this episode was a riot, Kantoku seriously got shafted last season. And poor Keiichi forced to cosplay Bjork XD. And Rena… oh dear god, Rena, that was one dirty trick.
That’s what makes Higurashi memorable I guess, how it can go from extreme comedy to extreme violence just like that. Anyways, much thanks to Studio DEEN for upping the animation quality from the last season…. I’m halfway rewatching Higurashi now and seriously…. ughhh…
Also, dark Rika is total love. I say, Yukarin really shines when given dark roles. While her light roles *coughmoetancough* are somewhat more famous, it’s when she does dark roles like Rika do I truly love her voice.
Rika enjoying her “grape juice”
An interesting thing about Naraku no Hana….
First pointed out by sagematt in the AB.Net IRC channel, it seems that Naraku no Hana, HiguKai’s OP song, when reversed, sounds rather like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, the first OP. I shat bricks when I first heard it and it’s really pretty creepy and awesome. The version sage linked was the trailer one, so I did a little messing around with the clean version from the raw, and the results can be downloaded here. Also, if you’re addicted to the song, like I am now after looping it the whole day, here’s a rip for listening convenience.
P.S. Adult Rena looks pretty young to be 38.
