Harlequina's Profile

I've just started going over the notes I took while reading the 4 question arcs of Higurashi now that I finished them. Just noticed a glaring mistake in the translation: Kumagai actually appears on the list of dead/missing characters at the end of Arc 3. However, his name is listed as Kumatani instead.

I remember being confused when I saw that name for the first time, since no one in the story is called Kumatani. Then it struck me - Kumagai and Kumatani are both written as 熊谷. I double checked that list in Japanese and the spelling was indeed the same. Kinda hard to believe I almost missed that detail in a mystery story because of a sloppy translation (let alone the fact this is the 2nd time they translate Higurashi).

I'm not sure how much that'll help me yet, but it seems like a small hint. Ooishi thought Kumagai wouldn't have vanished in arc 4 if they'd been together, but that was clearly not the case in arc 3. Kumagai also vanished more than once. Interesting.

Anyway, I guess you can't say anything about my thoughts without spoiling stuff, so I'll stop here! Just thought I'd share this weird mistranslation issue I noticed.

PS: I'm glad I decided to make my own summary of the arcs as I went through them. Now I need to set aside the most important questions, information and hints. Figuring things out still seems pretty daunting though, even with all my notes. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with something that makes sense or at least rule out certain possibilities.

Just finished reading Watanagashi yesterday. I gotta say I'm having a blast. Watanagashi was reaaaally creepy, especially Shion's last phone call and the basement towards the end. That was intense.

Unlike most people, I can safely say now Higurashi has been definitely more enjoyable than Umineko. I remember I was looking for a straight up murder mystery at the time I picked up Umineko, so I found it odd when it started to get more and more magical with those long descriptions of magical battles and whatnot. Umineko does have some great ideas when it comes to murders that are hard to solve without a magical explanation, but my expectations were misplaced. I really love this more realistic mystery and creepier feel of Higurashi.


Now, I've been wondering how much information is necessary to solve these mysteries. For instance, is it possible to get far enough in my analysis of arcs 1 and 2 before I read 3 and 4? I'm afraid there isn't quite enough information to work with yet, but I'd like to put in more effort if there actually is.

One idea I had was to try and piece everything once I finish arc 4 before moving on. It's probably pretty rewarding if you already have all the essential information and the playing field is fair enough. Would you say that's the case? Did you take your time to do that yourself? Or do you think it's better to focus on solving the cases more seriously only once you get certain hints from the answer arcs?

One of the reasons I ask this is that some of the information doesn't seem reliable. I can understand if Keiichi seeing Mion at night after her death is a hallucination, since he'd been pushed far enough at that point. But Ooishi says Takano died before the festival in arc 2 when Keiichi himself saw her on that day. I can't see too many possibilities. Ooishi lied about seeing the 4 sneaking into the storehouse (he only heard about it), so he could be also lying here too for some reason... but that doesn't seem to be the case. If he's not lying, then the Takano in the festival would be an imposter (e.g. a twin), but I didn't notice any hints that suggested that in the story. The last possibility I can see that she was Keiichi's hallucination... but at least for now, I feel it'd be impossible to tell reality from hallucination at any point in the story if he turned out to be that unreliable. On top of that, people did report having seen 4 people together to Ooishi, so I take it someone else would have to be there with them? Yeah, it doesn't seem to match the rest of the information. Let me know if I'm wrong, but I feel I'm stuck here because there just isn't enough information to work with.

Just watched those 4 episodes of Higurashi. Damn, if the vn is even better than that and the pacing is good enough, I'm going to have a blast reading it. My biggest fear is the pacing as Umineko felt extremely slow at times. Not so sure how the experience will feel without the gory visuals. But at least for now, I have high hopes for it.

Oh man, that sucks. I thought it would be more interesting to read a chapter and then watch it before moving on. I'll definitely check out episodes 1-4 though. Thanks for letting me know about that.

Discussing the chapters with other people would definitely make the experience a lot more interesting. But yeah, you'll most likely run into spoilers nowadays if you're curious to see what other people think, unless you're just talking to a friend who's also decided to read the novel. This more engaging experience would also make it a lot easier to remember what happened in each chapter. It would be great if it weren't basically gated behind 8 huge chapters.

Alright then, I'll give the first chapter of VN at try instead. Thanks for the insight.

If I do continue reading, I guess I should just read what I can on steam I pick up the rest of the novel elsewhere? Because it seems they take half a year or so to release a new chapter on steam and there are still 3 chapters left. The 5th chapter came out 12 months ago. If I'd started reading it back in 2015 when the first one came out, I still wouldn't have finished it.

This reminds me of my experience with Umineko in that I started reading it in 2015 as well and still haven't read chapters 7 and 8. It's so easy to forgot certain events and the details, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened even if you read it from start to finish without any breaks.

Did that ever happen to you? Is there some sort of quick summary of each chapter for those who can't remember much? I wouldn't be surprised if you told me you reread both Umineko and Higurashi, despite how long they are :P. Oh, and would you say it's important to remember these things in Higurashi as much as in Umineko?

Aside from that...
What mods are you referring to? Do you mean mods we have to get ourselves or are they just something that already come with the game if you buy it on steam?

And one last thing, do you think there's any issue (maybe spoilers or something) if I were to read a chapter of Higurashi, then watch the episodes that adapt it before reading the next chapter?

Hi there! I've been thinking about giving the Higurashi anime a try. I say the anime rather than the vn because I don't know how I'll feel about the pacing and how motivated I'll be to finish it if it's nearly as long as Umineko (is it also that long?). So I thought I'd ask the opinion of an expert on the subject. ;D

So... how did you like the anime compared to the vn? Do you think it'd be bad to watch the anime if I were to change my mind and pick up the novel in the future for some reason?

I was thinking about maybe watching a few episodes of the anime first to see if I like it. Or maybeeee read the first chapter of the vn. I don't know how much I'll like the story, so I gotta get started somewhere. Since I read quite a bit, I usually don't think twice when I have to choose between a vn and an anime adaptation. I'm on the fence in this case though.

Why? Well, I realize that Umineko isn't something you can casually pick up in that it's a massive commitment even compared to the longest vns out there, so I imagine Higurashi isn't any different. The Higurashi anime seems to have decent ratings as well to say the least. So yeah, I'd like to hear your opinion about how to get started and choose a medium without possibly ruining the experience or putting it off forever. :D

Go through Legend thread see Harle's post. Good good.

Yeah I know, I'll certainly take a break from Umineko once I'm done with Episode 6. I can't wait to start reading Root Double!

As for Episode 5, while the characters were pretty solid, I think the biggest thing is what they actually brought to the table. The Knox's commandments, the more logical approach that Erika follows in her reasoning, and also the fact that we get a lot more answers... these were all great changes. They made the mystery a lot more straightforward, which is something I was looking from the get-go.

Just picked up Umineko again and finished reading Episodes 4 and 5. I think it's been almost a year since I finished reading Episode 3. I can't say I enjoyed the first 4 episodes that much, because there was way too much fantasy at times and pacing was a slog with those extremely lengthy development scenes, which I felt could have taken place in half the time to say the least. The beginning of Episode 2 and 4 were particularly sluggish.

But I must say Episode 5 was a thousand times better than before. I didn't expect it to get THAT much better, but I'm glad it did. At least for now I suppose! I also liked that little surprise at the end of Episode 3 and the wrap-up of Episode 4 was great. But on the whole, Episode 5 was a lot more engaging. It wasn't just the climax this time.

Hey,are you the same guy who made an edited video of Kotomine-Shirou fight in HF in Youtube?

dude thank you thank you

Thank you, love your videos :)

Hmm yeah I've tried them both now. You were right, Ranpo is pretty bizarre. I enjoyed the later eps a little more than the first two, but maybe I just wasn't really used to it at the beginning.

Gangsta is awesome for sure, only seen two episodes so far but I think I'll enjoy it all the way till the end. The main characters just seem really cool and entertaining to watch, so hopefully it stays that way. Pretty cool OP for both Ranpo and Gangsta, and the Ranpo ED is especially good. ^^

Missed it by like 10 days or so but happy birthday Harlequin, hope it was good. ^^

Also haven't started anything from the new season yet. Enjoying Gangsta and Ranpo Kitan? Ranpo in particular looks interesting because more mystery is always a good thing.

I was about to ask you right now how much better you thought VLR was than 999 since everyone seems to think that, but wait... it's not on your list. So I take it you haven't played it yet?