If Yakuza and Higurashi chapter 6 showed me anything, it's the fact that I'll need to find myself a friend good enough to fight me to death on a rooftop.

Sheep Counts

Going into this from chapter 5 I was expecting another 'Alternate POV' retelling. Whilst I like chapter 5, I felt that it was ultimately on the predictable side of things. Luckily chapter 6 goes its own way, and tells its own story whilst not missing out on answering questions that were had prior.

Night When the Invisible Scares You

Teetering on the edge of truths, untruths and paranoia, the story woven here embraces the strongest aspect of its main counterpiece, Onikakushi. What is real? What can be trusted? Does the truth lie in cult? curse? something more? something less? something inbetween? Both rewarding and discouraging in the hunt for answers, the characters' alliances keep you guessing as more information becomes apparent.

Wandering Words Lead to Heaven

Throughout this entry of the series Keiichi and Rena grew on me a lot. I already really liked Keiichi as a protagonist I 'get', and this chapter further solidified that. Rena is a character I also deeply adore, and she proved herself to be the strongest supporting cast member to me in this chapter. Any scene where they share their spotlight together can blow almost anything else in the series out of the water. The final scene is easily the strongest part of the series so far, and I am very curious if Ryukishi will manage to top it in the remaining chapters.

I'll put some trust in the answers.

This chapter is so goated. The only complaint I have about it is that it slows down a lot in the middle, right after the Watanagashi festival. Aside from that there's so many fantastic elements in Tsumihoroboshi.

Ch 6 has, imo, some of the all time best Higurashi scenes up to this point in the story. Both of the scenes at the dump with Keiichi and Rena were amazing. Keiichi remembering what he did in Chapter 1 is probably my favorite Higurashi scene now, and made me feel genuinely emotional with how well it's written and the new revelations that are revealed to the reader in it. The rooftop fight is also the perfect finale, although it may be considered a little lengthy for some (but I personally found it very fitting, and I love the parallel to their club games).

Ch.6 additionally has some of the best character interactions and relations as well. I love how the entire cast supports each other, and it makes Rena's downfall in the latter half of the chapter all the more tragic. My one complaint is that Satoko is mostly left out of it, but that's a common trend with the entire series unfortunately. The support triangle between Keiichi->Rena->Mion that is demonstrated throughout the entire series is just really touching, and it's at its peak in this chapter. I really can't properly put into words how much I loved everything about the character writing here.

Rena is such an interesting character too. All the previous chapters establish her as being exceptionally sharp, so you already know going in that she’ll be one of the most entertaining characters to read through. It’s sad to see the state she fell to prior to the story even happening, and the revelation that she nearly died from the disease before even moving to Hinamizawa makes everything she does even more impressive. She’s also the only character to have killed prior to even really falling victim to the virus (though granted, Rina was in self defense). It’s sad to see her need to reach that point, but it’s simultaneously made more interesting compared to the previous protagonist Shion. Compared to Shion’s arrogance, Rena is a lot more genuinely competent and brutally efficient with how she takes care of both the murders and the bodies. It’s cool as somewhat of a continuation of their rivalry from the previous chapter.

Rena’s great intuition makes it even more tragic to watch her spiral downwards after the Watanagashi festival. The community usually likes to poke fun at all the alien stuff that she ends up becoming obsessed with in this chapter. While it is funny, it's honestly tragic to read through in the narrative itself. It all just highlights how far she has to fall to get to that point, especially when compared to the previous victims of Keiichi and Shion. The parallels that are made between Rena and Keiichi all throughout the chapter are also just fantastic, culminating in the scene where Keiichi realizes that she is doing exactly what he did in the first Chapter. It’s all just so terrifically done.

Aside from that, this chapter does a lot of cool technical things as well. I wasn't sold on the dual Keiichi-Rena perspective at first, but it ends up being extremely well utilized, especially towards the end of the chapter. Rena's text becoming increasingly more red throughout it is silly but super cool. Additionally, in regards to the 07th mod, this chapter is probably the first time that the CGs are all pretty good, and the voice acting is probably at its peak (Rena’s VA is incredible). I’m a fan of how many red herrings were utilized in this chapter as well. The narrative gets extremely close to revealing the truth, but mixes in so much of Rena’s own delusions that it can easily lead the reader to writing off the actual solution. It also makes Rena an even more reputable character, as she gets extremely close to solving everything prior to becoming exceedingly more deluded (although granted, it was with a lot of help from Takano and she never pinpoints the correct culprit). It’s once again fun to compare her to Shion from the previous chapter, who gets similarly close to the solution in some aspects but never gets nearly as close as Rena. BTW this chapter has the 2nd Hanyuu mention in the series and it’s also the first time she has a voiced line. Kino.

My greatest regret is that my writing skills are too incompetent to properly do this chapter justice. It’s genuinely one of my favorite pieces of media that I’ve ever experienced.

This chapter was honestly so good that I had to do it justice by trying to be artsy and thoughtful (which just means adding a soundtrack to my review lol). I never thought anything else in Higurashi could ever touch Watanagashi but I was wrong. Not only was it able to resonate with me, it was able to hit me.

Accompaniment: Children of the Wind by Crying

This chapter serves as the answer to Onikakushi, the chapter that made me fall in love with the series. As such, this chapter has made me fall in love with the series all over again. What was a psychological horror masterpiece has turned into a meaningful masterpiece about trusting your friends.

Firstly, I wanted to talk about how just how realistic Rena's depression felt to me. In Doki Doki Literature Club, Sayori's depression was able to get me from her being able to express how much she doesn't want people to burden themselves with her existence. Rena's also touches on that, but it's the way that her circumstances are portrayed at first. In spite of how she feels, she thinks her life is pretty good. She's well off with living, she has amazing friends, and her dad has a girlfriend that's cheered him up the first time since he got divorced. She's well aware of this and she feels bad about feeling upset, knowing that her friends go through worse. This is part of the non-communication that she has with her friends

This leads into the second theme that heavily resonated with me: a lack of trust and how that can be a burden on anyone. Obviously most of us won't be going through the circumstances of killing a badger couple or suffering severe delusions caused by paranoia (not in that magnitude at least, I will talk about it more.) If I'm being honest with myself, I'm... a bit of a petty person. If someone does something that makes me feel bad about myself, I probably won't forget it. Even if they don't mean it that way (which they most certainly don't). It's small, and I know they don't mean it, so I don't talk about it as it might cause more trouble than it's worth (a reason I also resonate heavily with Watanagashi and Mion).

Of course, Rena's reasoning is far more reasonable, with her friends not giving Satoshi the support he needed before he disappeared. But Tsumihoroboshi keeps in line with the series teachings of opening up about your problems to your friends to try and become a better person. And probably the most interestingly relatable part is Keiichi trying to reach Rena's ears by speaking from his heart. But, he's not good at expressing his words. Rena doesn't know what he's talking about. I had to stop and think about that bit. I wouldn't call myself dense like how Keiichi is, but being someone with autism I have trouble reaching people and helping people understand through my words, especially with emotionally charged moments. So Keiichi starts over and just gets to the point. And that's what ultimately reaches Rena which I found is realistic to interactions I've had with my friends when they were going through their struggles. I just wish I was able to grasp their hand with the same impact that Keiichi was able to reach. A simple symbolism of friendship is able to stay in Rena's heart, even when she's descending into madness.

The final theme I wanted to talk about it paranoia and anxiety portrayed through mental disease and madness. As a quick note, this chapter is exemplary in demonstrating the unreliable narrator literary device. We hear what Rena hallucinates through her perspective, and you hear the truth of the same interaction. That's just so cool to me. It's a clear cut allegory of how depression and anxiety warps your perspective to fit a narrative that seems irrational to anyone else. I honestly can't offer too much critical insight here I just wanted to highlight how cool the perspective shift was this chapter and what it meant to me.

This chapter has officially earned the title "Alliecore." Fucking amazing. And there's 30 hours of the main story left and I'm already hooked for Minagoroshi. I am now at the stage where I recommend this VN to all of my friends. I hope you're happy, Leah (who recommended this series).