In my opinion, Meakashi is the best arc of Higurashi. It’s intense, cathartic, and wonderfully paced. Meakashi is basically a character study of Shion, most of which takes place while she is by herself or consumed by her thoughts. While this is certainly a different approach, I think it works in Meakashi’s favor, because Shion is such a compelling and well-written character, definitely one of Ryukishi07’s best.

Meakashi’s portrayal of trauma and isolation and their effect on your mental health is superb. While often presenting herself to others as confident, fun-loving, and friendly, she is in actuality a very lonely, cold, self-loathing, and manipulative person. Her whole life, Shion has been abused, rejected, and neglected by her family, many of which are violent yakuza; these factors have left a lasting impact on her mental health. She’s essentially abandoned at a boarding school that she despises, and when she escapes to Okinomiya she must live in isolation to avoid being caught and tortured by her own family. Whenever she does go out, she must dress up as her sister to avoid detection. While she attempts to cope by projecting herself onto the Houjou siblings and becoming increasingly involved in their lives, she can never truly shake her feelings of distrust, rage, and loneliness. Her self-hatred and anger initially manifest as hateful thoughts towards Satoko, who she relates to the most, but gradually become more intense and destructive as the arc goes on. You truly feel just as trapped as Shion as she tries to make sense of everything she’s gone through, especially after the slight time-skip that happens around halfway through the arc.

It’s not only Shion that makes this arc good- Higurashi is a psychological horror visual novel after all, and this is one of the most genuinely unnerving arcs in the series, especially near the end when you are trapped in Shion’s mind as she tries to justify her increasingly violent and irrational decisions. The mystery element is also strong- while this is the first “answer arc”, and it certainly does clear up the questions from Watanagashi-hen, it leaves the reader with a long list of still-unanswered questions, and leaves you wanting to read on and unravel the rest of Hinamizawa’s tale. Another thing I love about Meakashi is how it captures Shion’s mental state following her escape, and her overall feeling of aimlessness post-trauma. The complicated feeling of wanting to recover, but being unable to shake your hurt and bitterness, constantly retreating into your memories, and just feeling… stagnant and unchanging, is genuinely so perfectly captured.

I also really love this video analysis, as I think it breaks down both the arc and Shion as a character wonderfully, though be warned that it contains spoilers for Higurashi as a whole. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIqrUmJLr5A