The new Higurashi is actually brilliant

life_sucks_69_ said:
It was quite alright, pretty decent until turning DBZ at the end.

Vell- said:
being intentionally bad is neither subversive nor clever

Liebely said:
Nah, it was shit and I hate it. Lmao.
Thanks OP for this thread and reminding me that Sotsu fucking exists. Thanks a whole lot, mate.

SmugRika said:
I, like many people was disappointed and angry with Higurashi Sotsu's conclusion 3 months ago, however during these 3 months I've had time to think about this series very deeply and I believe that we may have misjudged this series, I will tell you why right now.

Higurashi Sotsu was preceded by Higurashi Gou which was originally advertised as remake until it was revealed to be a sequel, that's actually clever commentary on the overabundance of remakes and reboots that saturate the industry.

Then the deceiving chapters, which are brilliant because you expect them to be different from the original but they're not, you are kept on the edge of your seat waiting for the new story except there is none until the ending of the each arc which are usually capped off with a classic Higurashi gore scene, now some people complained about them being too over the top and ridiculous however that is intended, as satire of the state horror anime's overreliance on gore or even possibly even a response to the dissatisfied VN fans that claimed that the original anime relied too much on shock value.

Now the real divisive part, Satoko's role as the villain, a choice that polarized a lot of fans and some people thought that her motivation was weak. However that couldn't be further from the truth.
After saving the village, Satoko and her friends start to slowly drift apart as friendships don't always last forever something that was expressed by the lack of screentime for most of the main cast besides Satoko and Rika, in a way it's similar to Clannad: After Story where the school friends are absent from the main characters' lifes as they grow older, the same idea was incorporated into the new Higurashi's story and Satoko was clearly hurt by that, especially when her best friend abandons her for fancy rich girl school which made her feel alienated and inferior when compared to Rika's 100 years of experience which makes her fit in a lot better, not to mention that the school itself is messed up like they even have prison cells to punish their students, Rika was looking too far ahead and was inconsiderate of her friend yet who can blame her for wanting to move forward after being stuck in Hinamizawa for 100 years while Satoko wanted keep living her happy countryside life creating a rift between them, then Eua manipulated Satoko's fears of Rika abandoning her to turn her into a psychopath for her own amusement and she saw Rika moving on from Hinamizawa as her abandoning her friends that she went through so much to save and that's how villain Satoko was born.

Now you might have thought Sotsu was a waste of time for its constant recaps and the way it answers Gou's, however that is also intended. The recaps serve to make you understand Rika's anguish after going back inside another inescapable death loop similar to Haruhi's Endless Eight arc which also receives a lot of hate to this day.
The answer arcs are also clever, as it tells us that the answers for some mysteries are not always that exciting or complicated, something that was already incorporated into the original's ending when the "curse of oyashiro-sama" was solved being anticlimactic is indeed the point.
Now for the ending which garnered a lot of hate too, because of its over the top DBZ style final battle but that's also intended as it makes fun of the original's also over the top cheesy ending while being a homage to the original with certain scenes like the rooftop battle and just like the original resolved Satoko's character arc by making her share her problem with her friends and ask for their help, Satoko tells Rika about why she tried to trap her in another death loop while she also understands Rika's reasons for wanting to leave Hinamizawa and she finally accepts being separated from her friends and stops being completely dependent on them.
At last this is why I personally changed my mind on the new Higurashi and finally appreciated for what it is, a brilliant satire and deconstruction of Higurashi and maybe even mystery stories in general, it makes fun of its own series while repurposing its original story to say something new, that the power of friendship isn't invincible and that even the strongest bonds can be broken with miscommunication.

I'd like to thank @EndlessMaria for making me reconsider my thoughts on this series, ever since she called me a fake Higurashi fan I couldn't sleep at night for a few days and so I had to look at the series and understand what it truly was about and thankfully I found its true meaning without being blinded by my intial hatred for it.

FireFistYK said:
Gou yes, Sotsu no (in my opinion)

Sotsu has really interesting ideas that were just very badly executed.

I won't lie, I still get goosebumps from watching the sotsu ending when "You - Sotsugyou" starts playing. Such a beautiful addition to the "you" song series and it almost makes me rethink what I think of the series.

Haunt-bot said:
.



Sotsu had a very pretty ending song, but it rang hollow being shown over a montage of these characters who have been bastardized and turned into shallow charicatures. I saw that part as nothing more than some last second emotional manipulation.

SmugRika said:
I, like many people was disappointed and angry with Higurashi Sotsu's conclusion 3 months ago, however during these 3 months I've had time to think about this series very deeply and I believe that we may have misjudged this series, I will tell you why right now.

Higurashi Sotsu was preceded by Higurashi Gou which was originally advertised as remake until it was revealed to be a sequel, that's actually clever commentary on the overabundance of remakes and reboots that saturate the industry.

Then the deceiving chapters, which are brilliant because you expect them to be different from the original but they're not, you are kept on the edge of your seat waiting for the new story except there is none until the ending of the each arc which are usually capped off with a classic Higurashi gore scene, now some people complained about them being too over the top and ridiculous however that is intended, as satire of the state horror anime's overreliance on gore or even possibly even a response to the dissatisfied VN fans that claimed that the original anime relied too much on shock value.

Now the real divisive part, Satoko's role as the villain, a choice that polarized a lot of fans and some people thought that her motivation was weak. However that couldn't be further from the truth.
After saving the village, Satoko and her friends start to slowly drift apart as friendships don't always last forever something that was expressed by the lack of screentime for most of the main cast besides Satoko and Rika, in a way it's similar to Clannad: After Story where the school friends are absent from the main characters' lifes as they grow older, the same idea was incorporated into the new Higurashi's story and Satoko was clearly hurt by that, especially when her best friend abandons her for fancy rich girl school which made her feel alienated and inferior when compared to Rika's 100 years of experience which makes her fit in a lot better, not to mention that the school itself is messed up like they even have prison cells to punish their students, Rika was looking too far ahead and was inconsiderate of her friend yet who can blame her for wanting to move forward after being stuck in Hinamizawa for 100 years while Satoko wanted keep living her happy countryside life creating a rift between them, then Eua manipulated Satoko's fears of Rika abandoning her to turn her into a psychopath for her own amusement and she saw Rika moving on from Hinamizawa as her abandoning her friends that she went through so much to save and that's how villain Satoko was born.

Now you might have thought Sotsu was a waste of time for its constant recaps and the way it answers Gou's, however that is also intended. The recaps serve to make you understand Rika's anguish after going back inside another inescapable death loop similar to Haruhi's Endless Eight arc which also receives a lot of hate to this day.
The answer arcs are also clever, as it tells us that the answers for some mysteries are not always that exciting or complicated, something that was already incorporated into the original's ending when the "curse of oyashiro-sama" was solved being anticlimactic is indeed the point.
Now for the ending which garnered a lot of hate too, because of its over the top DBZ style final battle but that's also intended as it makes fun of the original's also over the top cheesy ending while being a homage to the original with certain scenes like the rooftop battle and just like the original resolved Satoko's character arc by making her share her problem with her friends and ask for their help, Satoko tells Rika about why she tried to trap her in another death loop while she also understands Rika's reasons for wanting to leave Hinamizawa and she finally accepts being separated from her friends and stops being completely dependent on them.
At last this is why I personally changed my mind on the new Higurashi and finally appreciated for what it is, a brilliant satire and deconstruction of Higurashi and maybe even mystery stories in general, it makes fun of its own series while repurposing its original story to say something new, that the power of friendship isn't invincible and that even the strongest bonds can be broken with miscommunication.

I'd like to thank @EndlessMaria for making me reconsider my thoughts on this series, ever since she called me a fake Higurashi fan I couldn't sleep at night for a few days and so I had to look at the series and understand what it truly was about and thankfully I found its true meaning without being blinded by my intial hatred for it.

EndlessMaria said:

Sotsu ep 14 is peak Higurashi. If you equate it to DBZ you are incapable of understanding metaphors. I feel like I shouldn't have to explain this, but just because we are shown a fantasy battle doesn't mean that we should take it literally. We see this earlier on in Sotsu with Keiichi's view of him murdering Teppei not aligning with reality. It is cat box logic.

life_sucks_69_ said:


Man, can you just shut your condescending @ss up, you can be entitled where else, but not with me :)

The entire point of that scene is to show that their ideals are different and they don’t have to align, the message is so to-the-face, why the need to be a DBZ-like battle?

I was minding my own damn business, didn’t even say anything offensive about anything and you out here spoon feeding your “explanation” as if I’m a toddler and you think I don’t understand a thing or something. Stop being ridiculous and accept the fact that I can dislike your garbage piece of fiction.

JulietBestGirl said:
i hate higu sotsu but i agree that Eps 14 is peak fiction, eua's reaction was basically me watching that episode

JulietBestGirl said:
i hate higu sotsu but i agree that Eps 14 is peak fiction, eua's reaction was basically me watching that episode

Kinzo said:
I was originally going to give this a 5, but the last two episodes brought it up to a 7. Kinda wanna see what would happen if Ryukishi07 did the same thing to Umineko now. The despair of diehard fanboys and fangirls is just too delicious.

PinkShibaInu said:

How contrarian of you and many others to feel this way about this series, unfortunately I don't think even people like you won in the end. I'd say the "tears" was minimal at best and people overall just... stopped caring and moved on. Casuals back to AoT and Demon Slayer, fans back to past works.

It was just a fart in the wind that blew away. I don't think enough fans or fans of being haters are going to fund much else with this franchise at this rate so don't hold your breath.

PiGG_MaNN said:
I think you are giving Sotsu too much credit and for someone to call you a fake fan of the series, presumably just because of being underwhelmed by it is unreal. Many people like myself are disappointed with Sotsu for quite a few reasons, there is no question it is subpar and could have been done so much better in numerous ways.

I am fairly torn on Sotsu, there is a decent amount of things I liked about it, but to me there is no doubt that it was mediocre and only reason I gave it a 6 was because I love the series so much and got the most out of the good aspects of Sotsu, but I admit my bias. Like even the art style from Gou and Sotsu I thought was shite, I hate it but put up with it and you know what, I'll be true to myself and lower my score even further, because it SHOULD have been better, even though it hurts me to do it.

One thing you should never do is go easy on anime and manga, especially because it's stayed so good for so long compared to mainstream media. In this day and age people are far too complacent with bad media and praise mediocre efforts. It is always better to be more strict and be disappointed more often than to lower your expectations accordingly just to be happy, its the easy way out and will solve nothing in improving any medium. So far anime is not too bad, but I definitely feel it is becoming worse. I'm not necessarily saying OP does this, but it's more so a message I like to put out there every once in a while because I feel it's important to stay true to yourself now more than ever.

At any rate, I sincerely hope Higurashi picks up in the future.

Edit: Also, I actually like the idea of Satoko being the villain and mostly enjoyed the whole twisted friendship story but my biggest issue was I believe it was overdone and took center stage as well as being rushed. For instance I think there should have been more motive behind Satoko's betrayal other than St lucias academy, as up until that point they were inseparable best friends and to me felt incredibly jarring and cartoonish. It should have been the last straw, not the beginning of the end so to speak as it went from 0 to 100 very fast and I think that's why people don't like her as a villain, because if you think about it it's a little fabricated with little to back it up.