When I first watched the anime for Higurashi, I always felt the most mixed about this arc. While the ride is fun for its duration, it ends up feeling incredibly pointless when victory is snatched away at the very end. I have a different opinion now, and I think it actually contributes a lot to the message of the entire series. Nonetheless this arc is still significantly more flawed than the previous ones, especially compared to the prior two answer arcs which were nearly perfect.

One of the surface level issues with this arc is that it's unfortunately the 7th game out of 8. With the themes of this chapter being all about fighting against fate and not falling to pessimism, it's somewhat harmed when you know going in that it's doomed to failure. It's worth noting that I now feel this perspective is somewhat invalid, as the journey there is incredibly important and Rika's eventual failure is critical to showing how this chapter developed her and her perspective. Nonetheless, my first thoughts when I finished the anime version of this arc were "that was pointless," so I felt the need to note this down.

The more pressing issue with this arc is regarding it's main antagonist, the Child Welfare Office. This government agency is depicted as so comically incompetent that it's hard to take the arc seriously. The employees don't know anything about the case, and the social workers and administrators are made out to be incredibly stubborn for the sole purpose of establishing an antagonist to work against. The interactions with the office are incredibly slow and boring too, since it basically bogs you down in a slew of government bureaucracy alongside the main cast. Ryukishi even admits that his depiction of the office was poor in the Staff Room, and apologies for it. Government corruption is an interesting topic to tackle, but this arc handles it poorly and is extremely one-note.

As for the positives, the entire first section of this arc is a 10/10. Being able to see Rika's perspective is awesome as a twist from the previous chapters, and Hanyuu just being dumped on you without much initial explanation is really funny. There's a ton of cute interactions early on, and it's lovely to see how Keiichi is able to break down Rika's negative mindset and encourage her to work towards changing her own fate for the rest of this chapter. The character interactions are genuinely at their all time peak for the series in the first half. When Teppei eventually shows up, it elicits genuine emotion and it's heartbreaking to see how Rika desperately struggles to save Satoko before eventually giving up. She even goes as far to request that the Yamainu and Takano assassinate her uncle (which is a different issue I'll discuss later).

Even after Teppei shows up, this arc stays positive. The scene with Keiichi and Shion's argument over how to deal with Teppei is amazing, and I love how Shion is made to directly parallel Ch.3 Keiichi, even repeating the 1500 seconds line again. It's another great aspect of his character development and a fantastic continuation of his role from the previous arc.

Overall though I think the flaws of this arc become the most noticeable once it shifts back to a Keiichi POV. Staying with Rika's POV could've allowed the Child Welfare Office segment to have a more unique perspective as well as give the new character of Hanyuu more time to shine. Although Keiichi is not a bad character by any means (quite the opposite really), it still takes away one little change that could've kept the arc more unique. As per usual though it's still fun to see him band together a crowd to fight for Satoko. The section where he convinces Mion's Grandmother is where the arc finally starts getting good again.

After Satoko is saved, the arc switches back to a primarily Rika POV, which is a breath of fresh air. Probably the main benefit of the sluggish government bureaucracy segment is that it almost makes you forget that Rika is still going to get killed soon. This makes the sudden snap back to reality after their success feel a lot more impactful, which I thought was really well executed. Everything from Rika's preparations up to the Takono reveal and her execution are really enthralling to read. I really love the Hinamizawa Syndrome lore dump too, though its questionable how Rika knows so much about it and yet never suspected Takano seriously. The scene where Takano walks up to each restrained club member and shoots them in the head is honestly kinda peak. Rika's execution scene is also beautifully done, and I love it for the same reasons I love Satoko's resolve in Ch.5. The Emergency Manual 34 segment at the end is also harrowing, though I think it was probably one of the most underwhelming endings compared to Ch.3, 5, or 6. I guess it's because the main cast is already dead at that point, so you're only hearing about unnamed villagers being killed.

Another issue that people take with this arc/Rika as a character is how she never once suspected Takano/the Yamainu as being her killers. This is honestly completely understandable, and has always been Higurashi's greatest structural flaw. This is especially the case with Hanyuu introduced, the sole supernatural element in the series who explicitly goes out and about with her sole ability being to observe people. However, in her defense, the Yamainu and Tokyo represent Rika's critical blind spot that she has no reason to ever suspect of killing her. As explained in the chapter, they're actually the people she suspects the least of killing her, since they know best that her death could cause a potential disaster. It's also stated that she has suspected Takano individually of being a potential culprit, although that topic isn't explored much more than as an offhanded remark.

Hanyuu is another good addition to this arc as well, and having Oyashiro-sama be a useless crybaby is a very funny twist (I love her). Her role as an unwitting antagonist is incredibly interesting, and partially explains why Rika was unable to solve her murder after 100 years. Her pessimism has been the primary reason for Rika being so reactive as opposed to active in the previous chapters, and the fact that Rika is the sole person she can talk to/be seen by can partially explain why Hanyuu never particularly helped to save her, instead keeping her stuck in the loops forever. I love how, by the ending, the goal shifts from breaking Rika's pessimistic attitude to instead breaking Hanyuu's, with Rika's perspective now fully changed. The implication that Hanyuu's existence is the cause of Hinamizawa syndrome is another interesting aspect of her character that is often left undiscussed. Overall I think she's really well executed here, but I'm more interested to see how she's handled in the following chapter.

The biggest issue with this chapter is definitely that it's the first one that requires a significant level of suspension of disbelief. Hanyuu (and, by proxy, Rika's looping) is the first outright supernatural occurrence in the story that cannot be explained by anything else. Additionally, the laughable incompetence and stubbornness by the Child Welfare Office is really hard to believe, making it harder to really get immersed in the story. An issue that arises at the end of the chapter regards the Yamainu, Takano, and the club itself. The Yamainu are meant to be an elite assassination unit, and yet they get their asses whooped by the unarmed club members and are only bailed out through their numbers and by Takano. This is an issue that only gets worse in Chapter 8, and it's really hard to take seriously and not just laugh at. It's arguable that it can just be seen as an extension of the club games though, but its still silly when they're beating actual soldiers in a hand to hand combat scenario and somehow not just getting immediately gunned down like Oishi was. The Emergency Manual 34 and Takano's motivations are also somewhat hard to believe, but I think that's a topic better discussed in Ch.8.

Overall though I still think this is a fairly solid chapter, but it's definitely shakier than 5 or 6. The beginning is fantastic, but the middle is a difficult-to-believe slog. The ending is once again really gripping to read though, and overall is the perfect setup for Chapter 8.

Unfortunately, Higurashi's final chapters are frustrating ones. When comparing Umineko and Higurashi, I think Higurashi has the higher highs. Chapters 3 and 6 are stronger than any individual chapter of Umineko, and while Umineko is certainly no slouch in terms of the emotional moments I think Higurashi's emotional highs do hit harder. However, as a complete work I think Umineko is the stronger one. This is partly because of their structure. While there is an ongoing plot progression in Higurashi, each episode is primarily focused on the story contained to the episode itself, with the progression of the overall story taking a backseat. This gives the last two episodes the burden of bringing everything together and ensuring that Higurashi becomes one story as opposed to a series of stories. Umineko's ongoing throughline gives its final episodes more of an advantage in this regard. The other problem is that Higurashi is an absolute masterpiece in terms of its character writing and thematics, but flawed at best as a mystery story. Ryukishi's writing is more about the emotional meaning than the logical meaning, and while he can integrate this well into his mystery writing, it sometimes leaves him at odds with his chosen genre. Meakashi and Tsumihoroboshi are pretty disappointing when taken just as 'answers', but they manage to justify those answers within the context of what they're doing dramatically. The problem is that Tsumihoroboshi already brings everything together perfectly in terms of Higurashi's thematics and emotional throughline, and I would even argue if the rest of the story were modified to be smaller in scale it could have been a perfect ending. This leaves Minagoroshi as a chapter which has to focus more on bringing everything together plot-wise, and it often struggles in this regard. However, a weaker Higurashi entry is still Higurashi, and despite this entry's many flaws there's a lot to appreciate here.

While Tsumihoroboshi wraps up the character arcs of Rena and Keiichi (leading to them taking more of a backseat in these final chapters), Rika is still a character that we've been distanced from up until this point, being more of a mystery even in her arc Himatsubushi. Ryukishi makes a good decision to resolve the mysteries about her upfront in this chapter, leaving time for a greater examination of her resolve to end the loops and her weariness from her constant failure. Hanyuu is also an interesting addition to the cast. I'll admit I find some of her cutesiness and tics to be quite irritating, but her character has more complexities than on the surface. We often associate defeatism with struggle, but I think the point of Hanyuu's characterisation is that defeatism is far more comfortable than hope. It invites complacency - it's easier to not take action in the belief that there is no point than to take the risk of an action that could be rendered meaningless. While her character definitely doesn't have the depth of others in the series (particularly because Ryukishi chose not to include aspects of her character that could have rendered her more troubling), I think this comfort in defeatism is a well done character flaw.

The second and longest portion of Minagoroshi is the attempt to save Satoko, which is at once the most frustrating and most well realised aspect of the chapter as an 'answer arc'. There's a pretty big structural issue here in that the first few hours and last few hours move along very quickly and focus on major reveals. The middle portion isn't ENTIRELY disconnected - the chapter as a whole is about the conflict between hope and defeatism, and so having Rika and the gang overcome the 'worst case scenario' is a meaningful addition to this theme. But it does feel quite removed from the rest of the arc's resolutions, and the deliberate repetition and frustration of this portion doesn't help. However, a better way of looking at it is that this portion is a thematic kind of 'answer arc' for Chapter 3. Chapter 3 has plenty of mysteries in its final hours, but the driving question of that arc is "What am I supposed to do in a situation which appears hopeless?" The characters are put in a situation which nobody should ever HAVE to be in, and Keiichi's choice only leads to things becoming much worse. However, inaction is also clearly the wrong choice. Much like in Tsumihoroboshi, we see in the answer arcs that the outcome wasn't inevitable, that there was always another way. Everyone was just too lost in themselves and disconnected from each other to see it. This portion of the story is incredibly repetitive because that is the way of dealing with a dysfunctional bureaucracy. You can be cynical about the answer here given how much advantage the characters have (especially with the Sonozaki family's involvement), but the portrayal of the power of community is really quite moving, and you can tell it's something Ryukishi really believes in.

Another note on this portion: I really love the scene where Ooishi shows up at the protest. Keiichi believes Ooishi is showing up as an ally when it turns out that he's there to call it off. While I'm not going to claim Higurashi has particularly radical politics in terms of its portrayal of the police, this moment goes a lot further than most stories would. At this point Ooishi is no longer a suspect for the murders, and he does gain a more likeable presence. The story gives him something of a 'good cop' role. While this role inherently comes with issues, Ooishi is probably the strongest portrayal of a 'good cop' in fiction. He DOES have good intent, sympathetic motivations, a 'loveable asshole' kind of personality, etc. He's not a villain. BUT he also fucks up constantly, unintentionally escalates situations, makes wrong assumptions, and goes against his own morals because of his obligations as a police officer. He's only ever good when he ISN'T being a cop, as we see with him going against his duties to help the protestors.

On the other hand, a scene that I REALLY do not like is the Angel Mort scene here. While the majority of Angel Mort scenes are all pretty gruelling to get through, the one in here might be the worst scene I've ever seen in a piece of media that I otherwise liked. I think the majority of Higurashi fans can agree that these scenes are the lowpoint, though I think some fans go a bit too hard in trying to justify Ryukishi writing them. It feels as if people think Ryukishi was held at gunpoint by otakus until he wrote these scenes in, as if he had any obligation to include them. And yes, this kind of fanservice was accepted in the visual novels of that era and seen as an essential element of anything you'd release at Comiket, especially when starting out. But I think in overstating Ryukishi's progressiveness people forget that he WAS part of this culture. I'm sure he's different now, and probably regrets writing these scenes. I can't reach into his mind, and maybe he did have real disgust at writing these scenes at the time, but he also did have a choice to not include them. The best case scenario here is that he chose to sell out in order to gain more sales. He fucked up! We don't need to make any excuses for it! Usually the scenes are disconnected enough from the rest of the story that they don't necessarily 'ruin' it, but the one in this chapter is so closely connected to Satoko's abuse that it actually does seriously diminish the integrity of that portrayal. The otaku are portrayed as being sleazy and all, but the light tone of the scene ultimately lands on a tone of them being loveable goofballs. It feels like an affectionate jab from one otaku to another more than any kind of actual critique of fetishising a child abuse victim. At best it's a deeply distasteful and tonally failed comedy scene, and at worst it is complicit and inviting in that fetishisation.

My other bone to pick with this chapter is the Hinamizawa Syndrome reveal, which I think has issues on multiple levels. The most obvious of these is that it is incredibly far fetched as an answer to the mystery. This is actually my lowest concern - the mystery was never the biggest appeal of Higurashi to me, and I don’t necessarily mind that the answer isn’t realistic. The supernatural explanation for the time loops works fine because they explain an element that was ALWAYS supernatural. I think the problem is that Hinamizawa Syndrome is that it uses a ‘scientific’ explanation in such a contrived and specific manner that it feels even sillier than a fully supernatural explanation would be. I don’t have much to add as this is a very common complaint with the resolution to the mystery, and my analysis of Higurashi is more based around the characters/thematics than the mystery. For a review that picks apart Higurashi’s flaws as a mystery, I would recommend reading Jared E. Jellson’s analysis. His review is written with a much stronger knowledge of the mystery genre than mine, and while he is far more critical than I am of the series I find his critiques very sound.

My main issue with Hinamizawa Syndrome is how it functions as a metaphor. Hinamizawa Syndrome’s pseudoscience as an answer can be justified by the suggestion that its primary function in the story is a reflection of how the characters’ actions are the results of the environment that they’re raised in. This emphasises that the characters’ violent actions didn’t just happen for no reason, and that it is not inherent to them. The problem is that this is already in the story - we do not need the metaphor to explain this to us. Metaphor and allegory are often a strong way to render the abstract as something literal, but when we use metaphors for things that already have a literal presence in the story it feels as if we are being treated like children. In this context, metaphor becomes a way for us to more easily swallow the actual meaning. Hinamizawa Syndrome is an explanation for everyone whose thoughts on the characters began and ended with them being “psychos”. It’s a way to bash The Point into the audience’s head. And while a lot of Higurashi fans ARE bad at critically reading the story, I think catering to that kind of fan in the first place was a mistake. Sometimes you just have to accept that some people won't get it. Part of why Umineko is stronger as an overall story is that it has much more trust in its audience in this regard.

I also think Hinamizawa Syndrome is far too broad as a metaphor to really work. Of course all of the characters were influenced by their circumstances and their mental health, but the connections to Hinamizawa are wildly different. For Satoko’s case it makes perfect sense because the toxicity of Hinamiazawa as a social environment is directly connected to her family issues. For Shion, the primary issue is her family life, and the main connection to Hinamizawa is that the family is powerful there (though this would apply much moreso to Shishibone City and Okinomiya). Rena’s baggage with Hinamizawa is that she was separated from it, and this separation connects to her wider family trauma. Keiichi’s problems are from his mistaken belief that Hinamizawa as a whole is out to get him, causing him to lose his trust in his friends. All of these issues are connected to Hinamizawa, but the relationship to it is different in each one, and it can’t really be said that the village itself causes the issue in the latter three cases. This points to a wider issue, which is that the metaphor diminishes the specificity of the characters’ conflicts.

There’s a fine line between viewing mentally ill characters that hurt others as being inherently evil, and removing all possible accountability for their actions altogether. While the Hinamizawa Syndrome explanation implies that it exacerbates already existent problems, it does come a bit too close to the latter in providing a very convenient and direct explanation away for every single amoral action. Again, it’s a thing of making the already-existent meaning of the story easier to swallow. A reader who views Rena as being too ‘evil’ to be forgiven in Chapter 6 can now take solace knowing that it was the syndrome, not her. I personally think that it undermines some of the themes in the series, in particular the idea of accepting the sins of oneself and in others. Take for example the climactic scenes of Watanagashi and Meakashi: When Keiichi believes Mion is torturing him, he responds with a mantra of “You are not Mion!” He loves Mion so much that he cannot accept the idea of Mion the murderer, and instead chooses to believe in the Mion he knew before. In one sense, he is right to do this - it is in fact NOT Mion in front of him (though of course this isn’t what he actually means). But this is actually part of why his compassion fails to reach Shion. From Shion’s perspective, Keiichi’s compassion is moving, but it isn’t directed towards her. Her conflicts in Meakashi come from feeling unloved, and so Keiichi’s attempt at love here only comes across as more hateful. If Keiichi’s position was less “I love you, and therefore this is not you” and more “I still love you, even though you do this” then he might have successfully reached through to Shion. In the climax of Tsumihoroboshi, this is exactly what Keiichi does - he treats Rena not as a monster who has taken over his beloved friend, but instead treats her as still being his friend. I find Hinamizawa Syndrome is a bit too removed from the characters for it to keep this theme as powerful. However, one thing that Hinamizawa Syndrome might be useful for is that it handwaves some of the thornier aspects of how the series portrays mental illness. While Higurashi has a remarkably well done portrayal of trauma, its storyline is one that inherently does associate mental illness with violence, and it’s pretty hard to do that even sympathetically without going into some rough implications. So it probably is more tasteful that the murderous traits of the characters are applied to an entirely fictional syndrome than a real one (such as Rena’s implied schizophrenia).

While my issues with the Angel Mort scene and the Hinamizawa Syndrome reveal are major ones, I don’t want to come off as if I dislike the chapter. It’s just easier to delve into the flaws, since the positives of the chapter are mainly positives that exist across Higurashi as a whole. I don’t have much to say about the climactic scene in terms of analysis, but let it be known that this was yet another Higurashi chapter that had me sobbing by the time the credits rolled. Pretty much everything after the Hinamizawa Syndrome and Takano reveals is incredibly intense and well done (aside from the after credits scene, which runs a little too long and would work better as a tip). There are a few more issues I have with the final two chapters in general, but those ones will be more relevant to my Chapter 8 review.

WOW. So we FINALLY learn what this series is all about 3/4ths of the way into the series... and I wouldn't have it any other way. Reading Higurashi up until this here has been nothing short of a thrill ride with its twists and turns and this chapter felt like nothing short of therapy for me for getting to know these characters. Seeing everything go right for everybody not biased since Mion finally got that FUCKING doll, including them finally managing to break through Satoko's fate just filled me with nonstop euphoria.

Aaaaaaaaand that made me hate Minagoroshi's ending in the best way possible. My jaw was wide open and I was laughing because I was so pissed off at that ending. God dammit, you give me the narrative equivalent of an ice cream cake and then smash my head into it.

But that's what the series is all about, baby. Picking yourself back up and keeping on going with the help of your friends. The ice cream cake may be smashed by your face, but you can still work to enjoy it. And what good is a cake if you can't share at least a bit of it?

Also I see the hype behind Hanyuu now. Never expected the definition of "girlfailure but not really because she's actually really cool and powerful" would end up being the actual Oyashiro-sama. I don't know! Maybe I was expecting her presence to be along the lines of when Bella Hawthorne was exorcised out of Maya Fey's body (speaking of which, I'll get to that series some day) but at this point I should expect the unexpected in Hinamizawa.

This is the perfect primer for Matsuribayashi and let me tell you, after finishing this chapter I was MOTIVATED to finally bust through the finish line. This isn't really me-core as Watanagashi or Tsumihoroboshi was, hence the 4.5 stars but I could really find no faults with this one.

Once again Higurashi delivers a amazing story. I'm not sure if I prefer ch 6 or 7 but both are 10/10s in different ways.

I'm planning on writing a more complete review of all of Kei once I'm done so I wasn't going to do a spoiler review here however I gotta say this chapters too good to not mention some stuff.

First of all Rika & Hanyuu are amazing. Pre ch7 I wasn't sure what to make of Rika, she was very interesting but I wasn't certain of what it could be, so I suppose that was a part of the story I was unable to figure out for myself (sorry r7) but this chapter was a amazing look into Rikas character. I adore the way Ch 6 & 7 have been using perspective to tell the story, being able to see different characters views on thing is really cool, and Rikas very pessemistic outlook compared to Keiichi is a great contrast. If I explained more it would be pointless but I gotta say I adore the way perspective shifts around. And I love the strange 3rd person perspective that doesn't really seem to be first person, but there I'm not really sure if that's just a intential way of writing or if it's meant to be from Hanyuus perspective, because for example in this chapter when Ooshi gets killed, the perspective is not one of either of them but of noone, it feels like 3rd person but I distincatlly recall some things that seemed out of place if it was. anyway enough perspective talk

Rika is a super amazing character and she's grown on massivley. I never disliked her in the past chapters but she was always the character I was most disinterested in, but here she turns it around to become maybe the most interesting character, I adore her arc in this chapter. I adore the way we see previous chapters that previously seemed unconnected tie in here and how it shows that the entire story was planned very indepth from the start.

I love the way it changes you're perspecitve on scenes in the past, like Takano in Ch3, and how the disease affected everyone up to a point and the footsteps.. it's all so good. but my input here is really nothing special so I'll try not to drone on throughout the whole review.

Another thing I adore is that despite not remembering the past events how all the characters are clearly growing after going through their whole character arc, it's neat being able to see them change despite the fact that they techincally shouldn't. Though I guess if I had to have any complaint about the writing it's how come the gang didn't start remembering past shards before? I'm not that bothered since the rest of the game(book?? I still don't know if I should really call this a game)is super well written,and honestly regardless if there is a explanation or not... I kinda don't care honestly.

Music was amazing here, all the songs at the end especially are spectacular, just great music all round (but thats normal for Higurashi at this point). Also it's nice that some of the more overused sounds aren't being used as much, sure some stuff like the general Higurashi etc are fine, but if I hear that god damm mangled string insturment sound again I'll break, there was a scene in Ch5 where they played it after like every line Shion said so it just overlaps a billion times. and that piano too gets overplay alot in the Qs arc.

Obligatory the Steam sprites are horrrible, in Ch1 I was ok with them but I honestly despise them now, they are just horrible. (sorry to the artists that worked on them though...)

I'll stop here but very very final rough thoughts, Hanyuu is great and I love her basically being the explanation for everything, very funny. Also she's just great in general. Again Rika is written really great here, and so is everyone basically. the main cast dynamic is great, but I gotta say after ch6 Keiichi and Rena work so well together I love them both, I can't believe how well written everyone is honestly. BUT I almost forgot but why the fuck was there mention of the ps triple in this chapter?????? I think I had the translation set to 0 so there was no censor but like...??? break all the canon for a cheeky 4th wall break about the ps 3?? I don't actually mind it, it's cool to see such a obvious thing from the time the game came out that I ended up finding it super charming, but god that took me out of the game so hard. Also speaking of there were way more 4th wall breaks here right? like I can't really recall a single one before this, bar the after party. Again I don't mind it that much but it's still kinda strange. Also I kinda miss the afterpartys, they were fun. though I guess being in the answers arc theres no need for them to theorise and stuff. also the new messages with R7 are super nice he seems cool.

Also I read all this in 2 days which is pretty impressive for me, shows I've been infected with Higurashi brainrot, though the game crashed like 4 times somehow, very odd (espeically since I rarely saved as I was reading non stop for a while) anyway review over.

Ch7 peak, consistent super high quality writing and providing very nice conclusions to the mysterys set up in previous chapters.

>be the protagonist of chapter 4
>appear on the last tip of chapter 6 to piss people off by arguing the whole curse is a conspiracy
>be right
>appear once again on chapter 7 to thanks rika for saving her wife
>tell her that she could always lend his power
>leave hinamizawa for the rest of the chapter to take a bath with his wife
>appear one last time only to be roasted by rika, "you are useless"

yep that's the akasaka I love