Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 03

Not as good as the previous two episodes, though this one still managed to amaze me. We continue the morning after the last episode. Keiichi wakes up, and suddenly doesn’t feel like going to school, so he calls in sick. He goes to the hospital, and on the way back, he runs into Oishi who invites him to lunch.

During this lunch, Oishi reveals some more interesting things about Keiichi’s friends. They all have something to do with one of the victims. If it weren’t for me not being able to remember all of their names, I’d list who had a relationship with who. Furthermore, Rena apparently had a little ‘fun’ on her previous school, before she transferred, including a baseball bat and all of the windows in the school.

For some reason, Keiichi now is the one in most danger, even though the festival’s almost a year away. That night, Keiichi gets paid a visit by Rena and Mion, who bring him a couple of ohagi. Then, they turn into creepy-mode again. The impact just wasn’t as good as the previous episode in which Rena went berserk. In there, Keiichi was a bit pushy and wanted to know something of her, and got totally owned afterwards. Right now, they just changed spontaneously, it seemed only meant to deliver a message, or something. Still, the results are pretty awesome to watch, as Keiichi now totally loses it. Especially when he finds a little ‘souvenir’ left in the ohagi.

Keiichi makes up some kind of plan during the night, and goes to school extra early, at which he almost gets hit by a mini-van. He then notices that the driver intended to actually hit him. At school, he searches through random lockers, and suddenly finds a baseball bat. He finds this a nice weapon, and decides to practice with it. His friends all see this, and all get away from him as soon as possible.

After school, Keiichi just goes home, without joining the club. Rena follows him, and reveals some interesting information about Satoshi, in a quite emotional scene, again with her changing into freaky-mode. The same complaints as above. That night, Keiichi gets the jolly news that he’ll be spending 24 hours home alone, as his parents went away for work. Oishi then makes a call, and Keiichi tells him about what happened, and realizes that he would not make a good detective. Then, we see a strange figure walk to his house, and ringing the doorbel, after which the episode ended.

Like I said, I loved the previous two episodes more. They had just utter crazyness. This one was probably more meant in order to give a bit of explanation to what was happening. Ah well, we’ve got the basic outlines now, all that’s left are the details. And there are a LOT of details.