Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Himatsubushi-hen 2

August 1, 2006 | 15 Comments

I realise that I'm way behind on almost everything at the moment but I'm trying my best to catch up. Besides I'll come home soon so hopefully I'll be able to follow each series in a more regular manner. Anyway, I have to say that I'm quite surprised with the ending of this episode. I never thought that it'll actually be in line with the ending of Tatarigoroshi-hen. This suggests that unless something happens, the series will end in a manner that has been described at the end of Tatarigoroshi as well as this arc. This is interesting because the anime writers decide to present the bad ending first and foremost just like a player will most likely get when they play through the game for the first time.

The episode begins with one of the men who kidnapped Toshiki telling the boy to bear with his stomache because a doctor is coming soon. He also orders to boy not to say anything too much since they don't want to hurt him. The man then hears a car arriving in front of the house and when he opens the door, he finds out that his accomplice and Irie-sensei have arrived to see the kid. Doctor Irie is surprised to see the boy since he believes the boy is not from the village. The kidnapper, however, claims that the boy is the son of an acquintance that he's looking after. When the doctor checks on the kid, however, he notices a scar tissue from operation and asks the kid where he got it from. The kid claims that it was from a car accident that happened in winter last year. He also looks as if he's trying to tell Irie something. Meanwhile somewhere on the road, Ooishi is in the middle of driving a car while asking Akasaka if he's nervous.

Akasaka claims that he is not nervous but Ooishi assures him that he's told his colleagues back at the office that they're heading towards districts of Hinamizawa. As the car passes the forest, Akasaka sees a flash of Rika standing alone drenched in rain but it seems Ooishi doesn't notice her. The two eventually arrive in Katsudou which looks quite deserted. Ooishi explains that there are villagers who own fields up in the mountain and they tend to pass this area during morning and evening. Akasaka wonders if the villagers usually walk to the area and when he finds out that they usually drive a car, he asks Ooishi how the person managed to find the wallet while driving a car. Ooishi tells Akasaka that the person who picked it up conveniently had to stop the car because he had a stomache and had to relieve himself in the bush. As the two are talking, Ooishi notices Irie's car coming from the opposite direction so Ooishi decides to talk to the doctor.

Irie tells Ooishi his suspicion about the boy who is being held up inside the hut. Because of this Ooishi and Akasaka decide to stop at the hut. Upon finding out about Ooishi and Akasaka's arrival, the first kidnapper then runs from the window while carrying Toshiki while the first one opens the door for Ooishi. Akasaka manages to catch up with the man who takes Toshiki and the two gets into a fight. Unfortunately for Akasaka, the other man then arrives and shoots him in the shoulder. Thankfully for Akasaka, Ooishi arrives in time to startle the man with the gun. After a few scuffle, the two kidnappers decide to run away. Ooishi who understands that he can't shoot the two, has no choice but to let the kidnappers run away. Akasaka then passes out due to his wound and wakes up in the hospital being treated by Irie-sensei. Ooishi arrives to inform him the news that the minister has suspended the construction of the Hinamizawa dam in exchange of the hostage.

In other words, even if they didn't do anything, Toshiki would have been set free by the kidnappers. Ooishi believes that there is a large organisation at work around this village. For example, the two kidnappers Ooishi and Akasaka had a scuffle with, look very well trained and their shooting was precise as well. That night, Akasaka tries to make a phone call to his wife in Tokyo but find out that every single public phone in the village has had its cord cut out. Rika then appears to tell him that even if he would be sad if he had made the phone call. Despite weirded out by Rika's statement, Akasaka decides to return to the hospital. Rika decides to tag along since her house is on the same direction as the hospital. Akasaka remembers that Rika's house is the shrine and Rika tells him that is more or less correct. Rika then informs Akasaka that today is actually the day of the Watanagashi festival but she claims that it's just a name and the actual festival is rather boring.

To prove her point, Rika takes Akasaka around the village to see a group of villagers celebrating the festival. After this, however, Rika tells Akasaka that this is not the festival of Watanagashi at all. Later on the two end up talking about the fact that Rika pointed out to Akasaka that the dam project will be shelved soon. He wants to know how Rika knew about it but Rika is being elusive once again. Despite this, Akasaka tells Rika that he's relieved that peace will return to the village. All of a sudden, however, Rika tells him that the truth is from now on a ghastly event will occur once every year. In a few years, she'll even be killed. She thinks this is because this place is full of people who don't care about the lives of others. Even if Rika tells this, it might not change a thing. Having said that, she thinks if the goal is to erase death in the form of a moon reflected on a water's surface, then casting a peeble might not be a vain attempt.

A few years later, Akasaka visits Sapporo to have a reunion with the now retired Ooishi in order to ask him about a few things. Akasaka now has a young daughter called Miyuki who looks similar to his late wife, Yukie. As it turns out, Akasaka's wife died on the night of Watanagashi festival. Back then when Akasaka was still in Hinamizawa, his wife would go to the rooftop every evening and gaze at the sunset. However, when she tried to return to her room, she trip on the stairs and fell to her death. Akasaka now realises that back then Rika was feeling sorry for him and therefore made the decision to cut the phone cords. Akasaka also believes that if back then he had listened to Rika's warning and return to Tokyo, Yukie's death might have been prevented. Akasaka puts forth a theory that Rika can actually see the future. Ooishi, however, disagrees with this and points out that if Rika can do such a thing, then how come she could not predict the big disaster.

As it turns out, at the end of June 1983, poisonic gas spewed forth from the Onigafuchi swamp and killed all of the villagers in Hinamizawa. Ooishi tells Akasaka that there is an urban legend which Furude Rika is supposedly the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama. Because she was killed, the village provoked the anger of the God and therefore they got killed by the poisonous gas. Apparently this urban legend has been passed on from the Hinamizawa residents who managed to survive the incident. Akasaka is surprised to hear about Rika's death so Ooishi tells him that on the same day, some senior citizens found her corpse. What the police know is that Rika was taken there after being put unconscious by drug. Her abdomen was cut open and her internal organs were intentionally drawn out. Akasaka wants to know what Ooishi thinks about the series of murders that happened in Hinamizawa prior to the gas leak incident. Ooishi thinks those murders have nothing to do with a curse but merely sets of coincidence that happened yearly.

Akasaka, on the other hand, thinks the murders were not coincidence because Rika knew everything. Upon hearing this, Ooishi wonders why Rika didn't run away or try to put up a fight. Akasaka thinks that Rika did put out a plea for help. He then mentions how back then Rika told him that next year, June 1979, the construction manager of the dam will be killed. His body will be dismembered and discarded. In 1980, Satoko's parents will pushed off a cliff and killed. The year after, 1981, Rika's parents will die. In 1982, Satoko's mean aunt will be bashed to death. And then in 1983, Rika will be killed. Back then Rika told Akasaka that if these deaths are pre-established harmony then the last death is part of the plan. But in that case, she wants to know who actually planned this and told Akasaka that all she wants is to live happily with her friends. The episode ends with Akasaka narrating that the lockdown on district Hinamizawa remains unlifted even this year.

Summary of important points:
1. Irie and Ooishi gets along well with each other in this arc.
2. Ooishi and Akasaka realised that the kidnappers of the boy were well-trained.
3. Rika cut the phone cords so that Akasaka could not make a phone call to his wife.
4. Rika told Akasaka that there will be many ghastly murders after this because no one here cares about other person.
5. Rika also predicted her death in the next few years.
6. A reunion with Ooishi reveals that Hinamizawa's residents were killed in the poisonous gas leak incident.
7. There are apparently few survivors and some of them believed the incident happened because Rika was killed.
8. Rika is believed to be the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama.
9. Rika was found dead on the same day of the gas leak. Her stomach was cut out and her organs were taken out.
10. Akasaka believed that Rika was asking for help.
11. Rika told Akasaka about every single person that will die the following year.
12. Regarding Satoko's parents, Rika specifically mentioned that they will be pushed to their death.
13. Rika wanted to know who planned all of these murders to happen.
14. Hinamizawa remains closed even this year.

Questions:
1. How did Rika know about her own death as well as other people's death?
2. Why didn't Rika predict the gas leak?
3. Who killed Furude Rika?
4. Is Rika really the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama?
5. What caused the gas leak and why Rika didn't predict this?

Impression/speculation:

I once jokingly said that it's Hitsuzen (inevitable) that Keiichi will die on every arc. However, I am now starting to wonder if these characters end up dead because their personality and reaction inevitably leads to these murders. What I mean by this is that it's possible that the murders that happened after the cancellation of the dam project are merely chain reaction of each murder. For example, if a person kills another person, the family of the other person will be angry and tries to avenge the murder. Another possibility is that someone has been planning seeds of distrust so that certain individuals in the village will have a conflict with other individuals, which then lead to the death of one or more person. Judging from this episode, the culmination of these death is the murder of Furude Rika so it's possible that her death is the main purpose of the other murders. The question is, who wants to kill Rika and for what purpose?

Another question that is posed by this episode is how Rika is capable of predicting these events. After this episode, I'm quite convinced that Rika has the ability to either see the future or travel through dimensions to see the permutations of each dimension. This will explain a lot of consistencies and inconsistencies from one arc to another. In the majority of dimension travel kind of stories, while certain elements remain the same, other variables are ever changing depending on the circumstances within that dimension. This will explain why Ooishi, for example, hostile towards Irie in one arc and friendly towards Irie in another arc. This, however, does not mean that there are no threads that hold these events together. I really believe that Rika's death actually happens on each arc. Just because it wasn't shown during Onikakushi-hen doesn't mean that she didn't die in that arc.

If Rika indeed dies on every permutations or dimensions, then it is understandable that she can't see the gas leak incident. Her real ability is not to see the future but rather living through each dimension until the point where she encounters death. Since the gas leak incidenet happens after her death, there is no way for her to be able to find out about this. In addition to this, judging from Rika's own words, it appears that every single murder that will happen after her talk with Akasaka are the work of normal humans. For example, Rika clearly mentioned that Satoko's parents will get pushed off the cliff and killed in the process. This detail was not known prior to this arc and we have always assumed that the railings somehow gave in. But if what Rika said is correct, then Satoko's parents were killed not because of Oyashiro-sama's curse but because someone wants them dead. The same thing can be said about the rest of the murders.

The question is, which part of the series are supernatural and which ones are human intervention? I think someone definitely engineered circumstances so that several villagers in the village will go against one another. In that sense, I think all of the individual murders are the work of a person/a group of people. If my previous theory about a disease which causes psychotic breakdown in the majority of Hinamizawa's residents is correct, then it's probably quite easy for a person to pit one Hinamizawa individual against another. I also believe that the body torture, which is part of the Watanagashi ritual, is still practiced by the Sonozaki family as a mean of punishment. I believe the family is responsible for several 'disapperances' and murders but not all of them. The supernatural element of the show comes in the form of Rika's ability and the possibility that she is a reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama. I think the gas leak that terminated everyone in the village was the product of her anger over her death.

Timeline and speculative events

I will update this timeline/speculative events as I watch more of the episodes.

June 1978
1. Akasaka's wife died because she fell on the stairs,
2. Furude Rika predicted her own death as well as other strings of murders.

June 1979
1. The construction site manager of the dam was killed.
SPEC: Killer is possibly related to the Sonozaki's family, who's clearly opposed to the dam construction.

June 1980
1. Satoko's parent were pushed off the cliff.

June 1981
1. Rika's parent were killed.

June 1982
1. Satoko's aunt was killed.
SPEC: Killer is possibly either Satoko herself or her brother, Satoshi.

June 1983
1. Furude Rika got killed.
SPEC: Furude Rika is possibly tortured and killed by Sonozaki Mion/Shion and her stomach was cut out to make it look like she's been killed via Watanagashi method.

SPEC: Keiichi found her corpse and is accused by Satoko as Rika's killer.

2. Senior citizens found Rika's corpse in the temple.
3. Poisonous gas leaked out of Onigafuchi swamp and killed the residents of Hinamizawa.
SPEC: Rika, in her death, wished for the death of everyone else in the village.

© memento 2003