This was an awesome episode! I really love this arc, mostly because of the fact that the entire arc has no fake emotional face distortions. Don’t get me wrong, these can be great at times (Simoun, for example, makes great use of them), but the low budget of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni just makes them incredibly fake.
Anyway, before the arc started, I was fearing that this arc would be the same as the third arc. After all, Satoko and Rika are just perfect to be such victims, versus the antagonistic portrays of Rena and Mion in the first two arcs. I was very pleasantly surprised when I found out that Rika would be portrayed as a prophet. The effect this had really was awesome, and Akasaka proves to be a worthwhile main character.
We start with the kidnapping of the son of the minister being solved. The son is getting very sick because of some reason. It’s got something to do with a scar the guy has which he got in a car accident. Therefore, the kidnappers ask for Irie to drop by. He then notices something very strange, though we never know exactly what.
Oishi and Akasaka meanwhile are exploring the same area, as the boy’s wallet was found. Still, the wallet was found very conveniently. Everyone who goes through the district by car. The villager who found the wallet just happened to be sick, and he just happened to relieve himself right next to the wallet. This certainly means that one of the villagers wanted the grandson to be found.
Akasaka also manages to see a glimpse of Rika before they head in the district. What was she doing there? Then they drive into Irie, who just came back from the kidnappers. He tells them about the hide-out, which would mean that he doesn’t have anything to do with the kidnapping. This is strange, as four years later, he was leading the same people into Keiichi’s house in an attempt to cure him. This suggests that he became involved with Hinamizawa somewhere in these four years.
When the kidnappers notice Oishi and Akasaka, they attempt to flee, though in the end, they fail. Still, the kidnappers did show a good fight against the two of them. They had a very precise aim with their guns. This suggests that Keiichi’s vision of the guard trying to overrun him was indeed just imaginary. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have missed with the car.
The two kidnappers manage to flee in the end and the grandson gets saved. Still, Hinamizawa wins in the end, when the dam construction is cancelled. I think that the kidnappers have done more things like this, which made the kidnapping the final straw. I think there’s a good chance that the Sonozaki-family pulled some dirty tricks. It’s almost like they wanted the grandson to be found. After all, the head of the Sonozaki-family was pretty serious when she found out about Akasaka. I don’t think that she could not foresee the fact that he and Oishi were able to find the kidnappers.
Afterwards, the story turns towards Rika, and this is where the real awesomeness begins. Akasaka tries to call his wife, but every phone he runs into has its wires cut off. Then he runs into Rika and he suspects her of being the one who cut the phone wires. Rika neither confirms nor denies. Though she does mention the fact that only sadness awaits him if he calls.
Akasaka then takes Rika to her home (after all, it’s evening). Rika then reveals that this is the evening of the Watanagashi. The festival is a lot different than on the previous arcs, as we just see a bunch of guys drinking, laughing and screaming. Rika then takes him to her favourite spot again, and she reveals quite some interesting things.
She actually predicts each of the Watanagashi-murders. She also reveals that she’ll be killed in a couple of years, as it’s already been decided. She reveals more, though we have to wait till later in the episode for that. We then return about five or six years later. Oishi managed to survive the volcanic gas and he has retired. He now lives in Sapporo. Akasaka decided to meet him, in order to confirm a couple of things.
Akasaka also has understood Rika’s words. During the night of the Watanagashi, she tripped off some stairs in the hospital and died. Remember what Rika said in the previous episode? She said that he’d better return immediately to Tokyo. If he did that, his wife would be saved, as she’d be doing something else than walk off some stairs. And even if she did trip, Akasaka would be there to save her. That’s also the reason why Rika cut the telephone wires. She knew that Akasaka’s wife died, so she didn’t want him to feel sad. But why? Why did she warn him?
Oishi then tells Akasaka about how Rika was killed in the way we saw it in the previous episode, and about the volcanic gas. Keiichi is nowhere mentioned. Akasaka then reveals Rika’s predictions about the Watanagashi-murders. The next Watanagashi would mean the death of one of the dam opposers. I guess I was wrong in assuming that this arc dealt with that murder, as it actually happened one year after. The next Watanagashi, Satoko’s parents would be pushed off a cliff. The next Watanagashi, Rika’s parents are to die (interesting note: Rika doesn’t say how). The next Watanagshi Satoko’s aunt will have her head bashed in and be killed. The next Watanagashi, or a few days after, Rika will die.
Rika, however, didn’t know who was behind it. Everything is part of a plan, though she doesn’t know whose plan it is. Rika only wants to live happily, along with her friends. I guess that that means why she was so protective of Keiichi in the second arc.
Rika’s prophecy actually reveals quite some interesting things we didn’t know yet. The first victim appears to be the dam construction manager (I could’ve sworn I heard this before, but whatever). His body will be dismembered and one of the murderers will still roam free. After the previous episode, I thought that this would be Rika, but her role will be an entirely different one. Out of all the other possible culprit, Mion seems most obvious, as Oishi revealed that she got into a fight with him during the third episode and she is, along with Keiichi, the only one of the Higurashi-cast who has murdered. Still, the body was dismembered, cut into six pieces. Mion’s style is performing the Watanagashi on them. And after all, just because she got into a fight with him, that doesn’t mean that she’ll automatically kill him. Though for now, I’ll believe her to be the murderer, due to lack of other suspects.
The second murder: Satoko’s parents. They were indeed murdered, by being pushed off a cliff. It was no accident at all. The body of her mother must’ve drifted into some unknown place, or the murderer had plans with that, and removed it. Still, the reasons for the murder remain unclear.
The third murder still remains shrouded in mystery. Rika’s parents will be killed. Her father will die because of a mysterious illness and her mother will commit suicide. Why, how, which and what still remain unknown.
The fourth murder will indeed involve Satoko’s aunt being bashed into the head. It indeed suggests that Satoshi had a little fun. Still, Rika does not mention Satoshi at all. Could it be because he never died, or because he didn’t die at a Watanagashi. I’d go for the latter, as the previous arc showed his dead body, Watanagashi-ed.
The fifth murder, and the most interesting one, will be Rika’s own. It seems that during the first arc, she also was killed in this way. In the second arc, Mion disrupted this prophecy by murdering Rika herself, and dumping her into the well, along with the others. For some reason, Mion didn’t want to wait for Rika to get killed near the shrine, and she wanted to kill her personally. After all, Satoko wasn’t supposed to come after her, as revealed in the eighth episode. I don’t believe that Mion was the one who killed Rika in the other arcs. Perhaps Shion has something to do with it?
The interesting thing remains that Rika only mentions the murders in which Keiichi was not involved. The fact that Rena, Mion and Keiichi die in the first arc never gets mentioned. The fact that Satoko, Mion and Shion die in the second arc never gets mentioned. Satoko’s uncle in the third arc never gets mentioned. Perhaps Keiichi’s role in this is even bigger than we originally thought.
During the second arc, Rika also willingly goes to Mion in order to be killed. Another theory would be that she wanted to disrupt the plan of the bad guy by getting herself killed in another way, as she saw it as a good chance. She failed to do this in the other arcs. (Wild theory: what if Rika’s death is directly related to the volcanic gas? What if Rika needs to die before the gas can be released? After all, the press could be hiding something).
Also, I’m very surprised that Oishi managed to survive the volcanic gas. The fact that he ran off in the third arc could suggest that he found out about it, and attempted to flee before it erupted. Ever since, he’s kept quiet about it, and so, he even doesn’t tell it to Akasaka.
Still, Hinamizawa has lots of secrets. Why did Rika know about the murders? She could’ve heard them from the Sonozaki family. The Sonozaki family could be hte culprit, though Rika told Akasaka that she didn’t know who was behind it. This would suggest that the Sonozaki family wasn’t behind it. Still, how did Rika know about Akasaka’s wife? Okay, she could’ve phoned the hospital she was staying in. But first, how the heck did she know the phone number. And second, how did she manage to predict an accident? I am so trying to believe that we’re dealing with something not supernatural here, though Rika’s case is totally leaving me in the dark right now.
Overall, I really liked this arc. It was really refreshing to see no Keiichi, Rena, Mion, Shion or Satoko appear, and make the arc just focus on one of my favourite characters: Rika. Oishi also improved a lot. I actually liked him and Akasaka was a very good protagonist. Especially because he wasn’t a pubescent male, or something like that.
