As expected of the master Ryukishi, Chapter 7 is as amazing as the rest. Rika's perspective is very interesting and while Hanyuu does tick me off, I acknowledge that she has an important role in the story. The intense emotional payoffs are rampant in this chapter with Satoko finally standing up to Teppei and the spiraling disaster at the end. Chapter 7 manages to tell a story that's both extremely hopeful and heavy at the same time and it felt good to ride the emotional rollercoaster. I am a bit sad that the mystery is all but gone now but the story continues to be enthralling nonetheless.

Despite the fact the first 10 sub-chapters or so are basically going back and forth with Child Services I felt like the pacing on this was pretty good? The events themselves are repetitive, but not the characters' reactions or the drama it creates, and it added a lot to the suspense wondering 'how the hell does this end in a massacre?'

...With that said, I don't think it quite lives up to this suspense. Every Higurashi chapter so far imo has fallen prey to a trap of 'interesting and engrossing plot that builds up to a climax midway and then the tension completely dies' (except for Onikakushi and Watanagashi, which I'd say more straightforwardly continually ratchet up the tension). But it feels especially unsatisfying here because saving Satoko takes up a huge chunk of the chapter.

The actual scene where the main cast get killed is super chilling, but to immediately follow it up with them all reuniting as ghosts is a bit saccharine I feel? Tsumihoroboshi also had a bit of mood whiplash with Rena and Keiichi's fight that I didn't entirely vibe with, but I think it's fair to say it at least means something after all the heaviness of the previous arcs + Rena trying to blow up the school. But I don't know... this felt like it diminished it a little. I guess because also this arc isn't especially heavy on the oppressive horror atmosphere that pervades a lot of the others, so it feels like when we finally get a taste of that it immediately gets undercut.

Also I think the absolute worst thing for Higurashi's pacing is characters' internal monologues. People malign the Onikakushi slice of life stuff a lot (and rightfully), but Rika is just constantly going on about fighting destiny and believing in a miracle and whatnot and it's just... I get the point, but it could have been dialled back.

And on that note, this chapter pushes 'if everyone believes they can make a miracle happen' so hard it was genuinely starting to sound less like typical anime power of friendship and more like that culty pseudoscience self-help nonsense that teach bad things happening to you is because you didn't do enough positive thinking. I understand this isn't the intention here, and 'keep on believing and fighting' is a valuable message in the context of the story, and I'm not trying to be cynical here - it's just it gets hammered home so. Damn. Much.

This review sounds pretty critical, but I generally enjoyed this chapter (and Higurashi so far) a lot - I'm just more interested in trying to dissect what didn't work for me than what did. But all in all it's a nice chapter with lots of good character moments and answers to mysteries, and I am eager to get into the finale (though perhaps not right away).

Currently I'd rank the arcs at: Meakashi > Tatarigoroshi > Watanagashi > Tsumihoroboshi > Minagoroshi > Himatsubushi > Onikakushi