Himatsubushi suffers a little from basically being a side-story, but this chapter is still one of the more interesting ones in terms of Higurashi’s politics. The dam protest can be mistaken as something that adds to Hinamizawa’s darkness and closed-off mentality, but as the series goes on it becomes clear that Ryukishi takes this backstory a lot more seriously than that. One of his strengths as a writer is that he always puts thought into writing about sensitive topics, unlike some of his contemporaries who use them as easy shock value. In this chapter, it becomes clear that the dam protests and the militant tactics used in them were ultimately a necessity. One of the best scenes in the chapter is Akasaka being asked by Rika about what he thinks they should do if the protests are morally wrong. His struggle to respond is pretty revealing. While he’s not the most interesting character, the chapter develops a good conflict of him having to confront his own morality. One thing I like about Higurashi’s portrayal of police is that even when cop characters are likeable as individuals they still maintain their role in a corrupt system. I like how Akasaka is given a stereotypically moral task of resolving a kidnapping, but finds that even this leaves him complicit in a greater structural issue that his role as a police officer requires perpetuating. Since there’s no moment where he actually needs to get his hands dirty the conflict doesn’t resolve in the most interesting way - if the chapter were a full-length one there might have been more opportunity to build up this moral conflict into something more impactful. The real highlight of the chapter is Rika, particularly the haunting scene where she predicts the future up to her own death. While this chapter doesn’t reach the emotional highs of the previous three, this might be the most compelling scene of the question arcs in terms of mystery and atmosphere. The difference in Rika’s characterisation compared to the other three question arcs’ use of their focus characters is that we remain somewhat distanced from Rika - she’s made more complex, but there are far more questions than answers about her character, making her somewhat inexplicable. You also get a lot of great material in the TIPS, to the point that the TIPS might be superior to the main chapter. I really love the exploration of Rika’s mother as someone who is not directly abusive (from my memory anyway) but who clearly holds her daughter in contempt. Rika’s ominous monologues are another excellent layer of mystery to her character. Overall the chapter is the least impactful of the question arcs and it being written as a short addition while Ryukishi was struggling with Meakashi does show, but these qualities make it a worthwhile addition to the series.