With this episode, I’m beginning to understand this arc a bit. It’s one of these cases where the disease isn’t really triggered for anyone, so the turn of events are just what would go on if nobody did anything unpredictable. Meanwhile, the time is filled with random games, and Rika’s despair. Satoko seems to be the only one who acts differently because of it.
Tis episode yet again didn’t give us any new information, it just confirmed things more. Irie indeed is doomed to die. The real villain is indeed controlling the Sonozaki-family from the shadows, and Tomitake indeed clawed himself to death, because of the disease. One interesting thing to note is that Rika said he would be killed, instead of suicide, which makes me suspect that the killer forcibly awakened the diseases in them. Something also tells me that these guys in uniforms were messing with the electricity house as a step to set off the great Hinamizawa-disaster.
Still, I finally know the answer to one of the smaller questions raised in the first season: Remember when Keiichi and Shion felt that they were being watched? It turns out that they were the henchmen of the Sonozaki-family after all. It seems that they’ve been collecting information for the real killer all along. We already know that they’ve received training, so I imagine that you can only spot them if you really pay attention, which is what Satoko has been doing in this episode.
Rika is also way too caught up in her own despair. Keiichi didn’t remember everything without any reason. I think that for the past arcs, she’s been trying to manipulate the wrong things. While she tried to cure the individual victims, she also could have gone after Tomitake, Takano and Irie in order to protect them. Somehow, she didn’t do that.
While typing this entry, I’ve also been wondering something. Why did Irie have the cure for the disease in the third arc, and why did Rena and Mion have it in the first arc? It’s been a long while since we saw these arcs, but I can very well imagine that the culprit killed Irie because he formed too much of a threat. I also finally remembered that Irie didn’t die in every arc: he lived in the first one.]]>
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 30
Actually, if you’ll recall, when they were about to jab Keiichi with the syringe in the first arc, Mion and Rena mentioned that “the doctor” would be coming soon… I suspect they probably got the cure FROM Irie.
I need to rewatch the first series, though, as this is one anime where paying careful attention to little details is key. (:
-Tom
Actually, in the first arc Rena and Mion weren’t even going to “stick” Keiichi. Remember that it was just a penalty game that got out of control, Keiichi was hallucinating that they had a syringe when it was actually just an ink pen that they were going to use to draw on Keiichi’s arm. And for the “Doctor” coming I think it was because Mion and Rena found Keiichi passed out in the woods, carried him home and called Dr. Irie to check him out.
For the cure, I don’t think that believe that Dr. Irie even knows of the disease, we have been given no indication that he knows anything about it. In the third arc, he just believe that Keiichi was delusional, not that he had a disease. I mean, if Dr. Irie had the cure to the disease why wouldn’t he petition for a mass immunization of the population at the first sign of infection?
I’m thinking just like you are and that is Dr. Irie is murdered because it means that if he is kept alive that he will figure out about what is going to happen to a certain degree, such as the disease being released. This is why he is poisoned, to keep him from interfering after the plans are set into motion.
As for the henchmen, I don’t think that they are Sonozaki related. Remember back when Shion was going through the distinction, having her fingernails ripped out, the henchmen that held her down were just nothing more than mafia-like street thugs, not high trained assassins. I just doubt that the Sonozaki family equips their henchmen with silenced pistols when they are sort of like the yakuza of the town. I think that the real killer(s) is controlling those guys and is using the Sonozaki Family to a certain degree, but is not related to them.
On a final though, last episode we saw that Hanyuu was some sort of spectral spirit or something like that. Now in the third arc, remember that Keiichi heard some footsteps like someone was following him? I think that was Hanyuu. In that arc, Rika knew that Keiichi was the one that was infected and sent Hanyuu to keep tabs on him. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that this was how Teppei’s body was dug up and moved by Rika. Although I do see the ridiculousness in this as Rika wouldn’t be able to move, or much less dig up a full grown adult’s body, but is fun to speculate.
Sorry about the wall of text, but I’ve just been think about this stuff for a while and had to write it down and get it out. Thanks once again for blogging this series, I always look forward to your posts and theories for this series.
The reason I believe that the true killer has something to do with the Sonozaki-family is because of what Mion said in the fifth arc. Remember how she said that her position in the family doesn’t have any power at all, and that she only acts as a spokesperson. Furthermore, she believes that there is someone, other than Mion, who’ll inherit her true position. And I believe that this man or woman is the true killer, as we’ve seen the henchmen work for both him/her and the Sonozaki-family (see arc 4).
Also, if Mion and Rena didn’t try to cure Keiichi from the disease in the first arc, how does that explain the sixth arc, in which Rena tried to embrace Keiichi?
the stalkers of satoko aren’t said to be sonozaki’s, though ^^;;
and while it’s true that rika could have just ‘protected’ (with the strength of a 12yr old girl…) irie+tomitake+takano, the reason why she doesn’t is because it would lead to important plot/ending detail being given too quickly~ because she’d realize who’s the culprit, which is minagoroshi/matsuribayashi spoiler
Didn’t she talk about Shion, wo in fact is the sibling with that tatoo on her back?