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...Well, this caught my attention! I've read... like, two arcs worth of the manga (and even NOW I'm still not sure what the gently caress happened because (to my understanding) I'd have to be spoiled on a crapload of even more things) so I remain puzzled and eager to try to piece this crazy poo poo together in LP discussion. I gotta say though, putting aside meta context that if things were different these kooky kids wouldn't be in school/interacting together, but you'd think if the local school is just a single class that the scant few kids in town--all different ages, at that-- are all squeezed into, with ONE TEACHER, then more parents would be putting them on buses to the closest bigger towns with actual schools.
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Jun 21, 2021 03:43
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limeicebreakers posted:Haha yeah, sorry for the wait. IRL etc. etc. I hope people enjoy Higurashi, too - definitely rougher than Umineko or Ciconia, but with its own message that resonated with me more than the other When They Crys. Without resorting to too many buzzwords, there is something very... raw about about Higurashi that gives it more of a sinister edge and at times, the plot simply just hits harder. Umineko used an Agatha Christie Mystery style set up with a bunch of rich (and mostly) assholes but here whatever's going to go down, is here in a neighborly small town. These MCs aren't people squabbling over an inheritance as the audience has a much harder time of trying to find someone to root for, they're just kids having a good time. There's something more personal/empathetic about that in a twisted "this could happen to you" kind of way, that builds up dread way more significantly. Also, I always feel like no matter what she's wearing, any outfit Rena wears automatically turns into a school uniform.
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Jun 22, 2021 15:28
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DelilahFlowers posted:Really enjoying this so far. I like how our protagonist Keichi is a fully realized character and not some insert for the audience. He really is a cheeky little bugger, though at least he doesn't delve into the sadistic (so far). Though from some of the chat between Keichi and Mion, it seems a bit weird that they only known each other for three weeks +2 days. It feels like they knew each other since they were kids. Guess they are competing for authority as the oldest kids in town? Keichi strikes me as a guy who's started off trying to be polite but nervously awkward about the weird social situation he's in, but quickly realized how to roll with it, treating most of the girls like he would any group of actual piers he'd be with were he in a high school with other guys his age. It's either that or go talk to a wall or a tree for social support, and hey, these girls all seem nice.
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Jun 24, 2021 00:26
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The tacks and the loving ink well are really kind of pushing it, yeah. I can only imagine that with Keichi being older/bigger/snarkier than pretty much everybody but Mion, he's the only target she can in good conscience try to prank like this. Unless she really is just an rear end in a top hat and was setting out nails or paintbuckets for actual children, or Rena, but I doubt she'd have any friends if she was pulling that crap.
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Jun 24, 2021 02:06
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Is illegal dumping a huge problem in Japan? I mean, on the one hand, it sure would be easy to ditch your garbage in Back-rear end Prefecture like where the game takes place, but you'd still have to send truck after truck out there to do it.... But getting whoever's doing this to stop may also be a hurdle?DelilahFlowers posted:That is... a weird reaction. Like an "I don't wanna talk about it" would be fine enough but a flat "I don't know". Like, I guess it makes some sense that she wouldn't know the ins and outs more than him, with her being there just a year. Prolly only knows stuff just from the news. And like, this kind of incident wouldn't be something the town would want to talk about, being a gorey murder and all. But the monotone delivery of "I don't know" puts me off. It's not like Rena. This is a place where everybody knows everybody. Talking about how Tenchi-san from two blocks down was chainsaw-murdered in the middle of August or whatever would probably be taboo. Also, I'm kinda new to the "Tips" part of this. Some of the info in them were just integrated to the storytelling of the manga, but is there a reason they're side notes/stories rather than exposition within the game itself?
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Jun 24, 2021 18:08
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All things considered, Keiichi is being an incredibly good sport when the girls invite him to a card game where they're all cheating like sin and he still sticks around after being trolled into losing.
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Jun 26, 2021 20:04
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Aaaannnd here we go, things start to get creepy. Mion and Rena have been caught now in an obvious lie, though they couldn't have known Keiichi would have found plot convenient magazines over at the dump or otherwise have been able to follow up on it easily. Makes me wonder if everybody else in town would react with either answer were someone to ask after the murder incident. I honestly don't know if the illegal dumping is actually a later plot point for any of the chapters/arcs, but given that this small town made a huge stink over, you know, not being destroyed to the point of protesting the larger government and committing a gruesome murder, I can't help but wonder if any of the neighboring towns, prefecture/state politicians, et. all. aren't retaliating in the most petty ways imaginable that they can get away with by slipping waste disposal trucks a few hundred yen to divert garbage to this town. It's been awhile since I had college courses in Japanese culture, but one thing I seem to recall is that calling attention to, or protesting wrongdoing can be seen as being almost as bad as the wrongdoing itself because it's disruptive. You're simply not supposed to make waves, even if you're being screwed over. Which, ironically, seems to be what Mion and Rena are (not) doing rather than be honest with Keiichi by pretending this poo poo didn't happen. Given the way they cheat at cards, I shouldn't find it so surprising...
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Jun 29, 2021 03:16
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I've been thinking more about retaliation against Hinamizawa with this last update. We already know somebody's dumping garbage on a regular basis there, but Keiichi's opening narration, questioning the education value of the school, could be another clue: Nobody loving cares about this place. The Japanese zeitgeist concerning putting your kids into the best schools/education is extremely hardcore, 80s or no 80s, so I'm frankly stunned, and would have expected, like, a Board of Education to poo poo a gold brick too if they cared or knew about it. This laissez faire attitude towards their school, basically letting all the kids go free range is about as shocking as the gruesome murder everybody's pretending didn't happen.
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Jun 30, 2021 22:10
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Not all of the game scenes these kids play make it into the manga but this President one did... mostly. I don't think Mion tried to write an out for herself in the penalties during that, but it was a fairly prominent character establishing moment for everyone involved otherwise. That said, and this is mostly just a personal take since I play card/board/role-playing games with my hoodlum friends a lot (or at least pre-pandemic I did,) but the rampant cheating, misdirection and dirty-dealing makes Keiichi and the girls (and especially Mion) come off way way worse than I think the game is intending. Clearly there's an intentional effort here to give the reader pause and not trust any of the characters what with the gruesome murder hanging in the background. But even with that in mind, some of this unflattering stuff would be grounds for expulsion/exclusion of any gaming group I've been in. Mion's basically roped all these other impressionable girls into playing for keeps every-loving-day, and as a result, Keiichi (as the new kid) has reacted with stupidly greedy impulses which are, to be polite, kind of creepy. Harem anime wasn't even INVENTED until the early 90s, FFS. :V
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Jul 3, 2021 14:27
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Viola the Mad posted:Yeah, writing kids fooling around isn't Ryukishi's strongest suite, I think. Parts of the first day in the Umineko arcs felt cringey in the same way to me, like Battler reaching for Shannon's bust. Ehh. Mion being a bastard when it comes to playing games is hardly the same as the dehumanized adults in Umineko (who were, to their credit, at least given reasons in the narrative to explain why they became such terrible people but were never meant to be condoned.) Her and Keiichi's behavior is completely egregious (and probably very bad influences on Rena and the actual children) but here at least it's got a double intent- we're seeing that these are just kids up to shenanigans, but look at how ruthless and deceptive they all can be, whether playing a long con or being outright greedy for a win in otherwise harmless games.
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Jul 4, 2021 05:49
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limeicebreakers posted:That's interesting, I always read it as Keiichi giving as good as he got. ...Well, not in the last update (he definitely 'gave' too much there), but as long as everyone comes out of it unscathed and unmurdered, it's fine...right? As someone who's hung out in 3-4 game store circles over the years, (non of which excluded girls,) Mion's play for keeps and frankly cutthroat behaviors would risk her becoming insufferable; at least, that's my impression of her. Keiichi being a good sport up til now of all of it DOES at least imply these kids are having fun screwing around and not taking it personally. All in good fun, but I wouldn't want Mion to show up at my game store playing Munchkin or MtG/Werewolf/Mafia/etc. with the tactics she brings. She probably memorizes the rules of any game she plays and otherwise preps wayyyy too much ahead of time to the point where she has arguably unfair advantages so she can screw with people like Keiichi. Capfalcon posted:This guy is 100% a dead man walking. DelilahFlowers posted:He's cruisin' for a bruisin' Let's pretend he's completely ignorant of anything about the Backwater Gruesome Murder. I still can't imagine him walking around like a jackass taking unsolicited photos (of minors, no less) would be appreciated by the locals even if the town had nothing to hide. Also, while I still think all the garbage dumping and lackluster schools is an intentional retributive action, all of Hinamizawa's neighbors aren't necessarily in on it. This seems to be a unique festival, which could attract outside attention, and while the town's residents are fairly insular if not outright xenophobic, they don't seal off the place to hold it (Like, say, the creepy cult from the first Siren Game) so they presumably are okay with some outsiders bringing in popcorn machines and Gundam model stalls in for an evening of partying.
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Jul 5, 2021 18:22
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Viola the Mad posted:Is it just me, or is Rika pretty withdrawn? It's been some time since I watched the show, but from what I recall, in early episodes Rika came off as the quiet-but-adorable little girl who always shows up in time to punctuate the club hijinks with an adorable little head-pat or an adorable little nipaa~. In the game, she's so quiet that you almost forget that she's there sometimes. She'll get caught up in the hijinks, like with the zombie game, but during the festival she just keeps repeating variations of the same line during the food competition. Up until the kyute thing hunt, it just seems like she was mostly checked out. Am I reading too much into this? This, wow, this is some spot on analysis, I tell you. (And yes, FTR, they all were adult/young adult gaming groups that I was part of.) It also, if you ask me, makes things hard for Rika and Rena most of all. Good loving luck to either of them if they need to catch a break; I wonder if some of Rena's attempts to speak with Keiichi (before he taunts her) were intended to be more serious/less jokey and that went right over the dude's head. Keiichi's made it a life's calling to tease Rena if he senses weakness, second only to his game war with Mion, and while he also targets Satoko by being a wise-rear end, the latter is just a kid who doesn't know any better and gives as much as she takes. Well, she tries more physical pranks since she's not on Mion or Keiichi's level of "psychological warfare" but she can still hold her own is my point. Rika just feels like the most poorly suited out of all of them to stick to this group. Rena's kind of a dope, but she's presumably also hung out with Mion for awhile; whereas Rika needs a pier group of more down to earth kids close to her own age, not the most insane posse this Non-School has to offer. But I feel what you said about trust goes both ways. Yeah these girls will cheat like gently caress at games without insulting anybody or hurting one another's feelings, but we also have witnessed the oldest ones lie about what they know concerning a murder. It's not a good sign, not at all...
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Jul 5, 2021 20:41
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Ooof. I just know bad times are ahead, but if that Bear (which we can see be removed from the BG, nice touch btw) was so big, Rena has problems carrying it, how huge was the airsoft pistol on display? Or the tank model? Forget Teddy, someone should have tried to win a monster gun to keep themselves safe. (I'm assuming nothing was to scale on there, but gently caress that. The sense of dread is building; I'd want a hand cannon right about now...) Also, uh... nice ritual there. Having a little girl ritualistically gut a bunch of futons and have the innards pulled out don't imply anything violent or insidious at all. Kinda reminds me of that ritual that kicked off Corpse Party, TBH....
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Jul 6, 2021 16:42
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I mentioned earlier that I read the first two volumes of the manga and know a few spoilers but most of what I know is so random, these revelations don't make a lot of contextual sense to me, or I forgot what I read while reading the Umineko LP that links the games. I also know where to get a copy of the live action movie, but I haven't done so yet. (Also, also, I was around for the original Dangan Ronpa threads a few years ago and I loving despised the shitlords who purposely spoiled the mysteries (especially during DR2) so I've tried to avoid referencing anything I have prior knowledge of.) Like, my theory that garbage dumping being a possible form of retribution against Hinamizawa? This is just something that I came up with during the read of this thread and not the manga. Never occurred to me until now. Funny story, Yen Press used to put out a Shonen Jump-esque monthly with a handful of chapters of different Manga and Manwa, and it included Higurashi. They stopped publishing Higurashi chapters RIGHT BEFORE the first arc coverage ended. I was so furious at the time. EDIT: Sorry, I meant the first two Arcs worth of manga, but I'm still here for all the stuff not included in that. TKMobile fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Jul 7, 2021 |
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Jul 7, 2021 02:53
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I swear to Crom, even though it's not what happened, that ONE angled pic of Tomitake and Blonde Lady the game kept using in this update made me think they were about to murder Keiichi. With their bare hands. That was eerie poo poo right there, I tell you. I really don't like the casual way they were talking about the subsequent deaths though. Maybe it was just me but the way they did that came off as somewhat disrespectful of the dead, but if I were going into this blind? Circumstantial connections or no, this TOTALLY feels like the rest of the town is in on the killings. Not literally everybody but it really feels like all of them are at least turning a blind eye to any heinous poo poo that transpires. And talk about loving overkill. If Tomitake's to be believed, this town fought really loving dirty against the Dam Builders, but I still don't know why --again, this is assuming the townspeople are doing all of this-- they'd keep on murdering people for years later on. They loving won. Doesn't matter if Japan's economic boom still kept on going past the 80s (thus increasing the need for those dam projects) the bureaucracy alone to get such a project going again in the exact same place would take a long time to go into effect and it couldn't have been seen as worthwhile anymore. So why would anybody keep killing people, even if they were all butthurt that some of their "own" were in favor of the now defunct and probably never coming back project? What's most sinister about this is just how circumstantial this is. If not for the fact those other people all die during the festival, there's just enough doubt (and probable ease to kill someone in a remote area without having to worry about the cops) to make one consider it all a coincidence.
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Jul 9, 2021 01:21
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I read the manga of this and even I'm not sure WTF happened here. ...the problem is 5 of the 6 people involved with the original killing already confessed and, presumably, are all serving jail time as we speak. And the dam isn't being built anymore. The ringleader's goals were achieved, apart from being wanted for murder and being out on the lamb. If he's even alive of course. But let's say he is and he's still a free man. Even if he had the rest of the town backing him up, why repeatedly come back the day the first guy was killed, kill one more person in a way that looks accidental, and then go back into hiding? And then do that three more times? That's not just crazy, that's kinda stupid... And not just a stupid in the way of "Oh poo poo, we killed the foreman, let's chop him up and hide the pieces." It's stupid in a needlessly complicated way. TKMobile fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Jul 9, 2021 |
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Jul 9, 2021 04:26
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I had to go back and re-read some of this, but: Post Dam Year 1- Dude who supported the Dam project drowns/dies while on vacation, body is never found. Year 2- Local Priest and his Wife (Wife #1) both die during the next festival. Illness and drowning. Wife #1 leaves a suicide note Year 3- Housewife/ Wife #2 Didn't go to the festival at all, and she's only related to a "troublemaker." Who simply moved away and as far as we know, wasn't horrifically murdered during any subsequent festival. Her death is under reported AF for a scenario where some nutso killed her and the cops found her remains. The fact the last two victims were housewives confused me for a bit, but Wife #2 feels so weird. The Year 1 guy wasn't even in town when he died and feels the most accidental-tangent. Everyone else died in town, so like, you could totally accept that he just had one heck of a bad break. But why kill Wife #2? If the (other) guy who actually supported the dam moved away, and the first killing didn't give AF about where the victim was, why not hop on the bus and go strangle him or whatever? Why did the pattern of "You have to be in/around Hinamizawa to die" only start after Year 1 guy? And yeah, the sheer indifference to Wife #2's death definitely spells out to me that the town is turning a blind eye to the killings. If any of my neighbors just turned up dead one day, I'd be freaked out at the least. Or go down to the knife and sword store and arm up.
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Jul 9, 2021 14:00
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Wait. If she's a housewife, that must mean she was *married* to somebody. What the gently caress... So did her husband or kids not raise any Kane about her death or it being under reported as it was? I know it's a huge social faux-pas to make a stink/create waves (despite the irony there of what this town did...) but not having *anything* to say about it kinda goes beyond the pale here. Jeez, I wonder if her family were pressured into just (publicly) shrugging "Oh well, Mom got mutilated; I wonder how the Tigers are doing this season..." leaving them to be hosed up in private over this.
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Jul 9, 2021 16:51
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I like how immediately after Chie tells the kids not to talk to anybody, Keiichi immediately starts talking to someone. This is literally the first time, that I can recall, I've even seen Chie the Teacher be named/have a character portrait; good job being indifferent AF, Teach. I hope this guy proved his credentials to you. But one thing that has ALWAYS bothered me about this loving scene is now none of the other kids (who all signed the victim's shirt in this version of the story, FFS) get dragged out of class and asked about this. I can... maybe see Satoko and Rika being excluded. They're extremely young compared to the other three; even though the cops have very good grounds to interrogate all 5 kids for clues it would look kinda bad if they were forcing literal children to answer questions about a double homicide...(and we all know the townfolk overreact if you piss them off.) This guy hasn't even named himself or flashed a badge or anything. And he grabs the new kid to grill about the killings. What if nobody had told Keiichi anything? It's improbable, but Rika and Mion were clearly trying. Whether he's a reporter or an actual cop or whatever, I always found this as an incredibly tactless move.
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Jul 10, 2021 23:19
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limeicebreakers posted:Keiichi is not...the brightest bulb in the toolshed. Well, that's actually kind of smart of this guy. Hinamizawa's residents probably don't like cops, given the givens, so showing up in a black and white cop car is asking for it. But you know what would have been smarter? If it was absolutely necessary to talk to ONLY Keiichi instead of getting all the kids to answer questions, take that unmarked car and go visit him in the privacy of his own loving home. I'm not sure how police procedures work in Japan, but it would seem way more on the level if he asked the kid questions with his parents present. Besides, Keiichi's house is literally designed for unmarked cars by the dozen to come visit without raising suspicion. EDIT: *goes to read the Day Nine part 2 update* ...Holy gently caress... TKMobile fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Jul 11, 2021 |
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Jul 11, 2021 04:35
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It improves later on, thankfully, but for now his idiocy is working out for him and the reader, because this doesn't look like info we'd get outside of the police officer. Note that he brought an unmarked car, though.
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quote:“Don’t play games with me!!! Big Oooofff, there Keiichi. I went back and read the manga portion of this scene. Oishi actually flipped out his badge immediately upon greeting Keiichi and… well something he said I forgot hasn’t been brought up in the game yet, but while here he actually tries justifying his singling out of Keiichi? In hindsight after seeing two versions of this I can now unequivocally say that Oishi comes off as a sleazy eel. Like all of his facial expressions in the manga are flippant or slimey or both, so my earlier assessment of him being rather tactless remains. He’s just put a huge onus on Keiichi that seems at the very least unethical if not legally dubious… because if this was an inner city murder thing that would be something else but asking him to be a snitch in such a closely knit town community known for its violence towards outsiders is the same as putting a big loving bullseye on Keiichi’s back. Also, I find it odd that while Tomitake is wearing dog tags the errata doesn’t mention them…
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Jul 12, 2021 15:26
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I’ve said that I know some spoilers and all but Tomitake’s fate is still stumping me; I have little idea what the balls happened to him. Keiichi brought up a good point though: why are the motives for the killings weaker each time? The dam project failed and a Shinto Priest, his wife and some other randos are hardly the sorts who wield the power to kickstart that back up again and if it’s over something as petty as “well, you didn’t protest with us enough!” not only is the town eventually going to run out of tangential people to kill, if someone loving dies here every single year and somebody else always goes missing, after enough years of killing and missing, you’re going to have all the feds come down on this place with a sledge hammer, especially if somebody important bites the dust. This “curse “ just isn’t sustainable. TKMobile fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Jul 12, 2021 |
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Jul 12, 2021 17:11
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Wait a minute… If the gaming club was formed AFTER Rena moved into town, why the hell does their Cluedo deck have Satoshi’s name in it if she never knew him? That said, the LIAR accusation scene is really scary in some versions especially with the mangaka pulling out all the stops for Rena’s anger… But if Rena knew about Keiichi’s meeting with Detective Dickhead, why not say anything outright that she saw him get in the car?
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Jul 14, 2021 18:23
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Capfalcon posted:Honestly? It's a small town where digging into other peoples' bullshit seems to be a great way to get murdered. So, it's fine to let people have their secrets, but it's another thing to get called out by a snoop who has secrets of their own. Well, I suppose intentions here make a difference; Rena, or at least Classic Rena and not WTF Rena, would be in character if she was trying to keep a friend safe compared to Keiichi who seems to be motivated by self preservation. But you can't can't blame the guy! He just lives here trying to have fun with his hoodlum friends playing board games all day and then next thing, he notices a string of murders have been going on and Chief Wiggum just basically forced him to keep an eye out for any clues, essentially making Keiichi an enemy of anyone who does have secrets to keep around here. But still... I'm having issues reconciling all this. It really feels like the only difference is that Rena apparently outright saw Keiichi speak with Oishi and knows he's fibbing, whereas Keiichi had no means of finding out he was lied to unless other outsiders told him what was going on. He got caught and she didn't. Sort of.
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Jul 14, 2021 22:38
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quote:"That's about right. No, actually, I'm surprised as well. I never realized they had that in common." Oishi, you are a terrible policeman. How could you not notice that after the third time??? I guess this is the kind of poo poo you deal with when you have a gag order on these murders and your lead detective is soliciting help from a clueless minor, but I swear, this is getting kind of ridiculous. If the lid gets blown off this whole mess, the authorities are going to look incompetent or worse than if they continue to let this ride, as they are getting close to just accepting the fact that two people are going to die in this town every loving summer.
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Jul 16, 2021 20:34
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 While I think that the entire village cannot be in on the killings (Satoko and Rika aren't involved, no way, due to both their age and how in hell would they be on board with their families being massacred) Oishi's sole contribution to solving any of this poo poo is the implication that even if any given villager is not in on this, ALL of the villagers who are old enough to understand what's going on are turning a blind eye to whomever's doing the killings for one simple reason: They could be Next. But... Crom's Devils, but I REALLY cannot reconcile anymore how big of a poo poo Oishi is. He is literally ruining Keiichi's life by involving him on a sensitive case even his boss told him to leave alone, making him out to be a potential target and he's not even loving sorry. FFS, the dude just took him to Japanese Hooters for all I know! And for WHAT? Pride!? He has no personal stake in this and he's not doing it for altruistic reasons or simply to solve the case. Dude is loving retiring with his grandma after this year, whether or not he solves anything. The level of incompetence and selfishness is just... It's loving staggering. TKMobile fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Jul 18, 2021 |
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Jul 18, 2021 21:16
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Capfalcon posted:Counterpoint, everyone who disappeared is someoe close to the group but not fully a member of the group. Last year, their newest "friend" disappeared. The person who presumably had the same role as our unlucky protagonist in the game (and murder???) club. These murders started when like Rena and Mion were 10. Satoko and Rika were barely, what? 5? 6? Mion may be deeper involved, and Rina is holding a cleaver on the cover image, but I cannot really see Satoko and Rika be actively involved in the murders. Because again, they've lost their families to this. But... You do have some good points. Letting Keiichi know about this is the right thing to do, but I still maintain Oishi's unwittingly or not painted a target on the poor kid by showing up and driving him off someplace to question him. Repeatedly. Did he think he was being covert?
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Jul 19, 2021 03:34
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Capfalcon posted:You're just talking to him because he's one of the last people to see him. I feel like that's the first mistake right there. 5 kids signed the shirt a murder victim was wearing when the corpse was discovered. Even if this town hates all cops, even if they have trouble with the law, it seems everybody would realize the fuzz would HAVE to show up at some point, at the very least to go "Okay, everyone chill. We just need to ask these kids what was going on when they last saw him," because...well again, they autographed the guy who died. Make it seem rote/procedural/boring as all hell when they do it and they SHOULD have done it. Ignoring an obvious point of questioning is just as suspicious, if not moreso as showing up in an unmarked car, grabbing the outsider kid and grilling him while filling his head with information that regardless of the "need to know" necessity is going to gently caress with him and put him on edge. And again, the narrative went out of its way to make the statement that Casa del Keiichi basically has a mini parking lot so people can come visit and see Dad's art gallery. His family are all outsiders but some unmarked car at their place could be easily interpreted as "Oh, the weird artist guy who lives in town has a client or something. Neat." Sure this involves the parents, who aren't tied to so many Persons of Interest, but Oishi should have involved them because Keiichi is still a minor. Because if Oishi expects that Keiichi could be a potential victim, NOT telling his parents is at the very least willful negligence.
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Jul 19, 2021 11:51
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limeicebreakers posted:What if the parents take the threat seriously? They've only been here for over a month, they could just as easily move out...taking Ooishi's only lead along with them. Better not risk it Oh dear god, that is horrifyingly in character for him... What makes me sad about this part is if they hadn't gotten creepy about it, Keiichi could have opened up to his friends. Yeah, it sure would suck royal if they were, like, axe-murderers in cahoots with any other killers in town, but Oishi hasn't really put his best foot forward here. "Mion, this cop has been bothering me about the murder this year and he said some awful poo poo about you and Rena. I need to know I can trust you... " Or hell, you know what? it's time to tell mom and dad, stupid!. You found a goddamn needle in your food, Keiichi it's way past time to yell for help!! This loving poo poo has gotten completely out of hand, but hey, you literally can run crying to his parents; you're not an adult. "Pops, put down that paint brush and listen. After some guy got murdered at the festival last week this creepy cop dude has been grilling me about my friends, trying to get dirt on them/solve the murder and my friends are acting really shifty ever since he did. No, really! Look, they put loving needles in my food! feel very unsafe. What the gently caress do I even do in this situation?!" Obviously THEY couldn't be in on the killings anymore than Keiichi can. gently caress Oishi and gently caress the gaming club; go find some other nice mountain town on the opposite end of the country that doesn't have an annual kill count and sell your art there. They invented UPS for a reason. TKMobile fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Jul 20, 2021 |
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Jul 20, 2021 19:54
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I know Keiichi is kinda starting to unravel at this point, but seriously, how hard would it have been to talk to mom about the loving needle? That being said, while I don't think Oishi has anything to gain from lying about Rena's previous school life, other than implying she's been in on whatever kooky poo poo the town's keeping secret for a lot longer than you'd think, the story about the windows and Oyashiro-sama just feels like some context is missing from it. Other than this incident and the two initial deaths following the Dam murder, where the couple were on vacation, all the bad poo poo that's happened has happened in the town specifically. Why did these two events not? Are they actually unrelated?
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Jul 23, 2021 11:54
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....And after saying something like that, this right there is the point my mom or dad would storm upstairs and drag me back downstairs by the foot until this was all sorted out. While it does cover, kinda-sorta, why Keiichi doesn't tell mom and dad about this and it doesn't quite feel half-assed, it feels... I dunno, short sighted? If there really IS some kind of curse, the rules behind it don't make any sense going off what we know, so there's no guarantee Mom and Dad aren't going to be eaten by goblins or something if he dodges it (and it seems like this year's victims are already stone dead; if Keiichi's going to die to fit the pre-established pattern, he has a whole year of prep time...) But if it's some kind of secret village murder-spree, the killers aren't exactly going to be happy in the event he 'gets away' or if the cops show up en masse, so his family is STILL in danger if they turn their sights elsewhere. reads the tip  Ohhhhh kayyy... Mion knows something and Rena doesn't seem to be in the loop. But... I don't have enough evidence to prove anything further; if it weren't for Tomitake seemingly having no interaction (that we know of) with Oishi, I'd start to suspect that all the subsequent murders are being done by people in the village, and they go after squealers who the cop talks to. It would also address why two of the victims were killed away from the village--they weren't on vacay, they were going far the gently caress away before going to the cops. And were then murdered... so... did somebody follow them? Oishi isn't from the village (I think) so he's not some kind of bag man for the village taking care of anybody who might talk. And if he was, there'd be no reason for him to target Keiichi since he only really knows what Oishi told him in the first place. Arrgh, none of the pieces don't fit quite yet. All the other murder victims get killed during/around the Festival, and we have our murder/missing pair already. So if there is a curse or a deliberate pattern, Keiichi shouldn't be worried until NEXT summer. And Rena's record from before still doesn't connect to any of this either, I think. limeicebreakers posted:Updated the OP. Would you guys like it if I put some sort of divider between the TIPs so that you had an idea of which TIPS appeared at the end of each Day? That might be helpful yeah.
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Jul 25, 2021 00:42
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Maigius posted:I'm not sure what grade Keiichi is in, and he doesn't seem like the studious type. One thing he could do is transfer to the school in the city. I am also going to guess he will not tell his parents about getting run over by a van. At this point, Keiichi would be more likely to tell Mom that he was in an RPG random encounter with a mud monster than admit what happened. And some of the kids in Hinamizawa do commute to other schools, but... he would have to actually talk to his parents regarding that and again, he ain't talking.
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Jul 27, 2021 12:55
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Capfalcon posted:I'm not saying he doesn't have good reason, but Keiichi is really starting to sound unhinged. He's gonna hurt someone with that bat, and he's not nearly a hard enough dude to brush it under the rug. Yeah. Tomitake had a Silent Hill starter weapon and it didn't do him much good, either. What bothers me though is how little we still have to go on; other than Oishi and Keiichi's parents, nobody we've encountered in the story is capable of even legally driving a car, so there's very little means of figuring out who was trying to run the kid down other than the Nebulous idea of "A villager." EDIT: Wait, there is Chie the teacher, insert morbid joke here, but if she's acting on behalf of the village, it sure would have been alot easier to send Oishi away than let him get close to Keiichi....and then try to take out Keiichi. TKMobile fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Jul 27, 2021 |
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Jul 27, 2021 15:44
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The more intense this gets the sadder it gets... Crom... ...it's bad enough WTF-Rena keeps showing up, but what bothers me the most about this is if Keiichi had just talked to her, or Mion, even to just get off his chest that he feels unsafe/doesn't trust them how different could all this play out. Instead he's raving and swinging a bat around a classmate, which... Jeez, I'm glad nobody's around, that would look really bad for Keiichi. And hell even if he DOESN'T trust Rena, he could have caught her in a lie here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Rena said she didn't know who Satoshi was, or that he transferred out before the Game club was formed, right? But We/Keiichi know that's not true, or there's something she's leaving out since Rena seems to at least be able to recognize the guy's belongings. And... yeah there was evidence that they played Cluedo together, too, wasn't there? If you're going to rant at Rena, or if she calls you a liar again, point that poo poo out, dude. Make her have to give you a reason to trust her again.
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Jul 29, 2021 01:44
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Capfalcon posted:So, there's a lot going on right now, but my big question is this: Well, unless the game is outright lying to us, one of the more recent Tips revealed she doesn't seem to be fully in the know of the Village's deal, opposed to Mion. Meanwhile, though Oishi is not exactly the most reliable person in the story, let us assume he's just not making poo poo up to scare Keiichi into compliance. Officially Rena has had some sort of problem possibly tied to psychosis. But the problem/condition she was tagged with feels... wrong? I legit feel she was misdiagnosed. According to wiki, "dysautonomia" comes off more of a problem where the senses fail or spasm; vertigo, or more embarrassing stuff like nausea and GI problems. ...But Rena wasn't falling down or barfing or going temporarily blind back at her old school, she up and destroyed property and behaved violently. Like, alot of thousands of dollars worth of property was destroyed. She has displayed manic mood swings and even when she wasn't threatening to Keiichi, in Hinamizawa, she still had a habit of aggressive shows of affection, terminable shyness mood swings and collects garbage. Something is wrong with Rena. And I'm not trying to be a smart rear end here. I'm no psychologist, but she may be schizophrenic? Japan has a...problem, to put it mildly, with acknowledging or properly treating mental disorders, and somebody in the Umineko thread way back when said the author of the Cry series used to be a social worker. Rena feels like both a comment on this situation and, like one of the children in Umineko, a subversion of certain moe tropes meant to shock the reader and become aware something serious is going on with her. What I'm saying is, rather than make waves, somebody analyzed her with a misdiagnosis--possibly with intent as a means for both her and her old school to save face rather than have her condition (or whatever triggered it...) be put in the spot light and let her go without further study. I think Rena does legitimately care about Keiichi, but her personal problems have really corrupted her behavior.
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Jul 30, 2021 12:05
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He is really losing it. I did like the nice touch of him walking through the house and turning everything on; the manga didn't go into that, and honestly, who could blame him even if he wasn't suspecting his friends of being in on some serious poo poo? His friends could be 100% trustworthy, ready to jump out to fight all Persona 4 gung-ho for his sake, but he's still alone, stuck at home in the goddamn Murder Village. This isolation feels so creepy because it could easily be real. Dude. Keiichi... Buddy.... You mom flat out offered you help. Yeah your dad seems kinda flakey (especially in the manga where his design resembles Jesus in an art beret) but you should at least have told her something. Then again, I'm reminded that Keiichi is kind of a terrible choice for a murder victim. He only heard about the creepy poo poo from other people (including a policeman who even now seems more focused on endangering him than helping him,) so he wasn't exactly a threat, the seemingly annual murders have already taken place, and his father is...kind of rich and famous. Like I said before, whether this is an actual killing curse or just some covert villager axe murders, it's STILL not something that can maintain itself. Either the feds will come down hard, or everyone neighboring Hinamizawa will just flat out refuse to have anything to do with the place if this keeps going for a few more years. Hell, if it keeps up for even ONE more year, I half expect Kamen Rider or someone from an exorcist anime to show up with a big rear end sword and prayer scrolls to resolve this. Maybe I'm thinking of this from an American perspective, but killing the son of a local 'celebrity' would just bring way, WAY more attention on Hinamizawa whether or not the killings/secrets are mundane or supernatural.
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Jul 31, 2021 01:45
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Viola the Mad posted:This is from a few updates back, but I forgot that Ooishi told Keiichi about Rena breaking the school's windows. Dude spills the private medical details of a minor--mental health issues, for chrissakes, think of how humiliating that could be for anyone, much less a teenage girl--just so he can undermine this kid's trust in his friend. What a loving rear end in a top hat. ... I don't feel the least bit bad I've been spelling Ooishi's name wrong for like the last three pages of this LP. :V But, Crom, you're right. Unbelievably skeevy on his part and he technically did the same thing with Mion, revealing details about a minor's misdemeanors, that is. It's not like Mion killed anybody (that we know of) or committed a serious crime in lieu of everything else going on, but I can only imagine how mortifying this would have been if the kids were all in the same room together and Ooishi just read off this poo poo like a laundry list. Honestly, his tactics have been reminding me of what happened in a Jackie Chan film of all things. No, really. Check out the first Police Story. Chan's cop character is repeatedly used as a pawn, put in danger, and abjectly humiliated by his superiors in order to put away a crime boss, but early in the film, said Crime Boss's secretary is also purposely set up by the cops to look like a traitor/snitch (including a fake assault against her) so she'll be scared into cooperating more. (The film ends with a seriously put out Chan just beating the poo poo out of everybody after all he's been through.) While I'd love to see a Higurashi with a young Jackie Chan playing Keiichi and this is all a murderous comedy of errors, Keiichi sadly doesn't have the distinction... Anyway... I still stand by my assertion that Rena has been purposely misdiagnosed. Her behaviorisms simply don't match what her records list her as having.
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Jul 31, 2021 11:25
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Viola the Mad posted:Just call him Mr. Delicious, no one will care. ...I feel like if Higurashi had been brought over and they dubbed everything to Americanize/Carl Macek it, he'd be called Detective Tubbs or something. Random musing. But back to the discussion at hand, I'm very inclined to agree with y'all. They just slapped a ten-dollar word on Rena's medical records and misdiagnosed her. I didn't know what dysautonomia is until I looked it up. Did you? How many Joe Randos would know what it is? Just doing cursory research but apart from maybe "mood swings," dysautonomia doesn't have any symptoms leaning someone towards violent outbursts. Rena would be getting sick or temporary lose vision, have heart problems or more likely becoming depressed and inactive and... Jesus. ...Her life expectancy could become incredibly short? This isn't something that should by rights push a berserk button on the back of her neck. Not even if she was REALLY upset upon being told she had maybe a few years to live. Crom's devils, but what was the logic here? Write her off as having a potentially lethal condition that seems way more physical then neurological? Who does that appease? I mean, it... kind of fits what I was taught in Japanese culture studies back in college. My teacher there explained that you could expect that a Japanese person, to avoid making a scene, would first go to a "normal" doctor with a complaint about, say, a sprained ankle or back pain or any mild physical malady and then on the side tell the doctor they've been feeling depressed too or [insert neurodivergent behavior here] and be discretely sent to a therapist (that, I imagine they could sell to friends and family as "Oh, the Doc told me to wear an ankle brace and I had to go see a specialist. *shrug* What can you do?") Just to get them to someone they could possibly open up to. But I said Kind Of. This feels like a rather extreme thing to diagnose her with and she hasn't displayed any symptoms (again, aside from mood swings but holy poo poo, hers in the game aren't what I imagine is normal for this condition) DURING the course of the story. gently caress, I bet Ooishi doesn't even know what dysautonomia is.
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Jul 31, 2021 23:17
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 I swear to Crom... I've been on the fence about the artstyle being used for this version of Higurashi. In fact I feel like it's kind of toned down (but then again the mangaka I'm more familiar with REALLY knew how to make everything look hosed up when they wanted) but I've never seen anything so legitimately pathetic and awful as that Rena in the Rain shot. loving hell Keiichi, you might want to go to the doctor about a hang nail and get yourself checked into the loving psych ward, you bloody rear end in a top hat. Like... Jeez... What do you even say about this? I know, at least from Keiichi's view he's been seeing a scary AF version of Rena from time to time (including five minutes ago) but this... it's just loving traumatic. The TIP is kinda beating you over the head with the idea, but I'm convinced there's at least 2 Renas rolling around in her head and we're seeing... I don't know which one's the 'true' Rena, but this... loving wow. She's at least the 'good one' who's been around the most often... and it's this Rena the other one bailed on. She just has no loving clue what the goddamn hell just happened or why.
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Aug 2, 2021 02:05
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I just... At this point I question if ANY OF THIS has anything to do with the previous murders anymore. Keiichi doesn't know poo poo that's worth being killed over; he literally only knows what the cops already know, so even if his friends were all in on some Dark Conspiracy or... I don't know worshipping demons or aliens or something, what do they or the evil masterminds gain from driving this poor idiot insane with paranoia? He has uncovered nothing about whatever's really going on... Hell, literally the only thing he (sort of) figured out on his own was that Rena lied about Satoshi and that's not exactly all the evidence the cops need to lock the townspeople away. Like... it feels like whatever triggered this sequence, from however many updates prior to present, it seems to keep getting worse any time Rena seems to know Keiichi is lying to her. TKMobile fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Aug 2, 2021 |
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Aug 2, 2021 04:41
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