Lack of motivation to write aside, I genuinely don’t have much to say about Sotsu so far! So here’s a collection of scattered fragments on the first two arcs.
First: these are by far the most straightforward Answer Arcs in the entire WTC series, aren’t they? I was initially wondering if we might be doing the set up from original Higurashi, with similar events but different Fragments - but no, we don’t even have that conceit. We’re showing the exact Fragments as in the -damashi arcs, just from different points of view. With Satoko even spelling out her trick afterwards!
The overall result is that Oniakashi and Wataakashi still feel like Higurashi being set to “easy mode” to cater to newcomers. Even after that ship long since sailed.
Meanwhile, the actually optimal way to experience Higurashi SotsuGou really does seem to be having watched the original Higurashi anime many years ago. My younger brother is in that category - so what feels like repetition for superfans like me ends up being a nice refresher on the characters and their circumstances for him.
New OP/ED!
-Gou’s OP might still be my favorite (not having a random clothing damage Hanyuu helps…), but Sotsu’s is a close second! And I suspect the song will only grow on me as the season continues.
-I think the part of the OP that surprised me most was the sheer amount of St Lucia-age Satoko and Rika in this one. So far, it seems like Sotsu’s Answer Arcs are going to be exact perspective swaps on the corresponding Question Arcs, which won’t leave much time for St. Lucia shenanigans. Perhaps a hint that we’ll be returning to that original Matsuribayashi Fragment?
-And yes, @tarhalindur, you were not wrong that I would be all about those OP/ED visuals! As so many people have noted, the laser light battle in the Sea of Fragments is extremely Umineko-like. Even specifically Lambda and Bern-like. Regardless on how the actual SatoRika relationship shakes out, I think we’re still fully on track for witch origin stories!
(Though leaning too far into the Umineko witches makes those shots really hard to take seriously, haha! Please imagine Rika and Satoko screaming “I LOVE YOU” at the top of their lungs there, and that’s it, that’s Lambda and Bern’s dynamic in a nutshell. XD)
-As for that one shot of Satoko and Rika nearly kissing… well… that’s what my other post is going to be about.
-I actually don’t have much to say on the ED, beyond it being as incredibly beautiful as the last two. (Gosh, I really need to get high resolution screencaps of it to use as desktop backgrounds!)
Symbolically and tonally, it’s oddly hopeful and reconciliatory for this point in the story. (That handholding image in the Sea of Fragments at the end...!) In the episodes themselves, all we see is Satoko going about her plan with villainous glee (and so much for my theories that she was barely keeping her side together). But between the OP and especially this regretful ED, I still find myself believing Satoko and Rika will eventually work things out.
Oniakashi
-I thought Oniakashi was a surprisingly efficient and well told version of Rena’s backstory. I can’t remember how it was done in the OG Higurashi anime, but compared to the VN, this is a very efficient condensation of her backstory. We got exactly what we needed to know, presented in a decently affecting manner, and without over-belaboring the point.
-I always disliked that Rina was characterized as so one-note evil given her profession. It felt stereotypical in a bad way. So I was quite happy to see Rina got some tiny bit of depth to her, she honestly needed it even more than Teppei.
-There were also some neat bits and bobs of symbolism and atmosphere building scattered throughout these episodes. That quick shot of Satoko with looper-eyes in her reflection in the classroom, for example.
(Seeing the witch version of yourself in a reflection… does that happen in the Umineko manga? I know it’s a very very common subject for fanart, but I don’t recall it occurring in actual canon before. Which is to say: goodness I love all the fanart in this mode, so I was very happy to see that visual come up in the actual series.)
Another neat detail - the symbolism of Rena’s cotton puff sinking during the Watanagashi festival. Was it on-the-nose? Sure. But it’s lingering on tiny things like that which really help to set the atmosphere, something Gou really struggled to do. So all-in-all, I think I’d actually consider Sotsu off to a stronger start than Gou in its presentation.
-After building up "how does Satoko inject people without arousing suspicion?” as an obstacle in my head so long, the explanation that Rena was just asleep felt rather underwhelming. (And come on, we don’t even get to see it in Wataakashi? Sheesh...)
-All the digital ink spilled on theories where part of Keiichi and Rena’s fight was a hallucination… well, so much for that. Pity, that was the one thing that could have really elevated the end of Onidamashi in my opinion.
-That being said, as much as I’m unhappy with the “solution” to Rena and Keiichi’s fight, juxtaposing it with Rika’s happy cheering was about the best way that material could have been presented. (The pitch black comedy continues to be on point, lol.) Plus, whiplashing from that to Rika learning about it at school makes it clear why she despaired enough to resort to suicide.
And the suicide itself… well, that scene sure made it obvious that Satoko is a lot more practiced at manually jumping Fragments! Heh.
(Though much like the infamous USO DA, Rika Stabby Fun Times is another scene where I think the original anime sold the horror better.)
Wataakashi
Satoko and Eua being able to snoop on Rika and Hanyuu’s conversations in the Sea of Fragments is very intriguing. That means Satoko probably knows about the Onigari too.
But does this detail (and Eua’s badmouthing of Hanyuu) make it more or less likely that Eua is Hanyuu in some form? Man, I don’t even know at this point…
-At least Satoko’s adventures in firearm acquisition was a taste of the completely absurd time looper thunderdome tactics I was hoping for. Rika really needs to up her game!
To some extent, Satoko’s strategy here also feels like a commentary on fans asking silly questions like “why didn’t Rika get a gun?” Ditto regarding her curiosity about what an L5 Mion would be like. She truly is becoming more witch-like - in that she’s now a dark mirror of the audience’s most morbid interests, just like the role played by Bernkastel, Featherine, and of course, Lambdadelta.
Oh, and don’t think I didn’t catch those horse names being another extremely oblique LambdaBern reference. Satoko placed her bets on Wanyan beating Cheshire Cat, you say~?
(Wanyans/Meowoofs are also a Ciconia thing, though they’re first mentioned as a pet Lambda has in Umineko’s epilogue.)
-As for Satoko and Teppei, I’m still okay so far with how Teppei’s change of heart is being handled. I actually kind of like that even this “better” side of him is still clearly a pathetic loser who has no business taking care of a kid. And Satoko is warily tolerating his presence on her own terms, with no actual intention of forgiving or trusting him. She controls the situation!
-So much for Shion escaping St. Lucia getting brought up in Wataakashi, huh. Or Shion and Mion’s backstory at all, for that matter. A disappointing choice, after I thought Oniakashi did decently well with Rena’s backstory.
-In general Wataakashi seems to be getting hit the hardest with pacing woes, as well as taking the least unique route to Mion going L5. Lots of it seems like an attempt to parallel Shion’s obsession with Satoshi / Shion realizing she did something horrible but it was too late from Meakashi, to questionable effect.
If anything, the thing I found most interesting was that Satoko was the one opting to push the jealousy angle! Usually she’s quite naïve when it comes to romance. But now... projecting much, girl? :P
-Finally, I can’t help but continue comparing these -damashi/akashi arcs to the twists in the original arcs, and that comparison still does not do the new arcs any favors. Because Onikakushi and Watanagashi had some really good twists to their solutions! In contrast, these new arcs are an exercise in “what if the early suspicions you had about Rena being murderous and Mion being a yandere were actually RIGHT?” It’s Onikakushi and Watanagashi played completely straight, and I think those arcs lose a lot of their brilliance as a result.
It also makes me very, very nervous for how Tatariakashi will be handled...
But we’ll get there when we get there, I suppose. No sense worrying about that now, when we’ve got Mion’s bloodbath to cover next episode!
OKAY *one* I really like the set up for how this is done.
We get Rika noting this is the first time among the worlds that Satoko is going over to Shion's place.
So now we got Satoko with Shion and Mion, and she comments that bc they're dressed, well, identical, they're basically perfect copies of the other. And like, it's funny bc I thought that was more a commentary of Satoko realizing she could somehow use that but it ends up almost working against her (I say, despite her happy to use this setup all the same).
So it's not just her setting up Mion. It's her setting them both up, and just letting time be the decider here. I hate it. But it's so fascinating how because it's interesting, it fulfills the entertainment value to Eua, while assuming it'll provide benefits to Satoko as well (since her whole thing is like, chaos of what's happening, to draw Rika out through exhaustion and non-stop bad ends).
