Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• In the flashback of Curse-Killing that about Keiichi's thinking brilliance, there's an extremely important detail that in fact reveals most of the story. Keiichi is said to have difficulties imagining a cube open on all his sides... but ask him to draw a dice cut open, and he'll do it immediately. The metaphor of the die roll is one of the most recurring ones in the Solution arcs, and indeed, Keiichi can take that dice and tear it apart like no one's business. There's even an arc named Dice-killing.
• It's mentioned extremely early on that Rika has a lot of skills. Naturally, she's had a very long time to develop them.
  • An exceedingly subtle example: Those creepy vocals in the main theme? Hanyuu's Verbal Tic.
  • Her skill with a mop sounds impractical and made up on the spot... until one looks at how much she's practiced the Mochi hammer and the Watanagashi ritual tool, both of which are similar to a mop or a polearm.
• Shion hearing random thuds in the forbidden storehouse? Just her going insane? Or her hearing Hanyuu throw a tantrum over Takano's eschewed views on Oyashiro-sama?
  • But that wasn't in the same arc was it? Because Rika let Takano and Tomitake into the shrine later in Kai. Shion wasn't there when Hanyuu threw her tantrum.
    • But she can clearly go where ever she wants, as seen later. She very well could have been in there.
    • This is made clear in the original sound novels, where Shion hears Hanyuu for the whole arc (although what she hears is just explained 2 arcs later). It's also explained that Hanyuu likes to hang there anyway.
• The first time I watched the final episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, Takano's final bullet missing Hanyuu seemed like a straight up Deus Ex Machina. Only when I watched the season for a second time did I realize it was a beautiful Ironic Echo of the scene in a previous episode where Takano challenged God to kill her, and a subsequent lightning bolt missed. This made the finale feel a lot more well-planned. -User:Xelloss 08
  • • Add the scene where Takano throws the coin at the donation box, and Hanyuu herself tosses it back at her.
  • Frankly, this actually is an Ass Pull in the anime. Hanyuu never mentions that she has the power to stop time. This is how she dodged the bullet.
  • Well, if someone can reverse time, then you would think they would also be able to stop it. Also, from the camera view you can tell that the bullet didn't change direction at all but it still missed. Not very hard to work out if you quickly look twice.
  • I always thought it tied into their will. Their will to live make the miracle of the bullet 'bending' happen. Which goes to show you that their will matched Takano's will. Which was the reason they kept failing in the first place - Takano's will to prove the other Takano's theory was stronger than Rika's will.
  • Related to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Takano Miyo's Image Song. I might just be thinking too much (in my standards), but it suddenly hit me why the verse has such a strange structure: Though Miyo's name originally was Miyoko, she changed it to Miyo (3-4) because of Hifumi (1-2-3). So, during the song verse, even though the compasses have a 4/4 beat, the verses themselves are structured as "3 compass - 4 compass - 3 compass - 4 compass" and so on, instead of a 7/8 beat as I had thought at first! -User:Flav 10 PM
  • Another Higurashi one: Rena mentions Keiichi is acting just like Satoshi did, fueling his paranoia that the Satoshi also saw his "Transfer" coming, in fact Satoshi's bat swinging pratice and sudden antisocial behaviour was his preparations for killing his Aunt.
  • Onikakushi-hen is all seen from Keiichi's point of view while he is succumbing to Hinamizawa syndrome, which is why we never see anyone looking demonic with cat-pupils in any other arcs.
  • Then there's the way that they knew that he had eaten lunch with Oishii, the cafe' is owned by Mion's family. They were probably asking his sincere opinion on what he had for lunch, and why he made such a ruckus with some old man they didn't know. They probably didn't know any other detail, suggesting that Shion wasn't at the restaurant at that time, and they only heard through third parties.
  • Far before we learn of Hanyuu, Rika tells Shion (pretending to be Mion) that Oyashiro will forgive people who go into the shrine if they're sorry. Shion sarcastically asks if Oyashiro told her this him/herself, Rika says "yes". Many arcs later we learn Oyashiro aka Hanyuu has been there talking to Rika this whole time, Rika wasn't kidding.
• The memetic phrase "That's a lie!". I realized two things; first, the fact that it makes a lot of sense as one of the series' Arc Words, because it represent the first step- a small distrust and suspicion in your friends- into the Hinamizawa Syndrome-fueled paranoia and insanity that repeatedly gets ahold of the main characters in the early arcs. But it's doesn't have to be explicitly said that way- and then I realized; in Onikakushi-hen, though through different wording, the one who first accused Rena of lying was Keiichi, who was somewhat paranoid then but still distrustful of Rena, and afraid that she was hiding something from him. It's then, a short time after Rena denies lying again, the paranoia really settles and he starts hallucinating that she's Cute and Psycho. Brilliant! It's subtle, and somehow works both as a hint and a piece of Foreshadowing.
  • The very first dialogue between Keiichi and Rena. Keiichi pranks Rena, and when he reveals he was just kidding, the phrase he uses is "I was just lying". It helps that in Japanese "uso da" can also mean "I was just kidding/it was just a joke".
• In Japanese onomatopoeia, the noises that higurashi ("evening cicadas") make is rendered as "kanakanakana." Intentional or not, the resemblence to Rena's Verbal Tic was enough to make me smile a bit.
  • It's the same with Rika's "mii" tic.
• The title is a play on the Japanese word for murderer, hitogoroshi. "When the murderers weep."
• Miyo Takano spelled her own plan's doom when she dropped the '-ko' from her name. You have to switch gears when you're playing with the the readings of the numbers, but if you include her '-ko', her name is essentially '345'. Hifumi was '123', as he did the first three steps of the research. By dropping her first name's '-ko', Takano essentially foreshadowed her own plan's eventual failure by not getting a 'fifth part' done.
• The covers for the manga, at least the background colors. This is more of a visual thing, a way to tell the reader subconsciously about what to expect in the arc. During the "question arcs", the covers were completely black, as though enshrouded in shadow. When the "answer arcs" came around, the backgrounds became white, as though light shone on it.
• Higurashi no Naku Koro ni's first ending theme song was done in Gratuitous Engrish, so for those that don't understand that language understanding the lyrics might be kind of hard. Look at the words, now think of the Obfuscating Stupidity of Rika Furude, I'll be back here while your mind is blown. -GX Next
  • Despite being a woman singing, I aways assumed it was meant to represent Keiichi's thoughts, not Rika's. He is the main character of season one, after all.
    • It works for ALL the main characters on their respective arcs, because it makes sense to Rika and Keiichi, but I first thought it was from Tsumihoroboshi-hen's Rena's perspective. Namely, they all think they know the truth and that everyone in Hinamizawa will end up dying. They all think they are the Only Sane Man.
• We hear about Shion dislike of canned meat in Meakashi-hen, at first you might think that that scare story she was told as a kid actually had some grounding from Mion's speech at the end of Watanagashi-hen, then you find out that it was Shion all along and the part about the canned meat was just some of the bullshit she made up.
• Massacre Chapter. Not only does everybody die, as the title implies, on-screen and also brutally; but this is also the first time where every single question about what's going on behind the scenes, except some mostly secondary details, are answered in full and without pulling punches. It's also a massacre of fan theories, red herrings and epileptic trees.
• The ending of Onikakushi, when Mion and Rena "assault" Keiichi. That exact event has happened twice before in the same arc, once on Keiichi and once on Tomitake.
• Takano's moment of supreme cuteness in Massacre. Making Takano look cute and adorable basically moments before revealing that she's the villain. Good one!
  • Also, the realization that Takano goes into Cute Mode when heading in a shed full of centuries-old torture tools. Whackjob much?
• Some wonder the point of giving Takano a horrible backstory, then adding Hinamizawa Syndrome on top of it. But let's look closer. Her problem was always the Hinamizawa Syndrome, even though it was just an unhealthy, unjustified, paranoid - naturally - obsession with it. Even if she never had the Syndrome proper, she had just about every single symptom, and has had them most of her life.

Fridge Horror

• Emergency Manual 34 is implemented in every world where Rika is captured and killed by Takano. That means that no matter what happens in the arc, every single person in Hinamizawa during the night Rika dies is killed. Always and without fail. This is most shocking in Atonement, which ends happily, then roll credits... and the same night in which the arc ends Rika and then everyone else is killed.
  • This might also explain how memories get to other worlds. Most of the Five-Man Band in most worlds is dead no matter what. The end of Massacre hints that these ghosts don't quite stand aside to be forgotten, and seem to know about other worlds in some way.
• In certain worlds Fredrica goes and prevents Miyo's parents from dying. That means she won't meet Takano, which means after he dies no one will continue his research and nothing will be done to help Hinamizawa Syndrome. The dam will be built, and everyone will move away from Rika, which will cause an instant mass outbreak of Hinamizawa Syndrome. Which in turn causes paranoia, violence, and eventual death for the victim and potentially people around them. Satoko's mom would also keep on divorcing and getting married, and Satoshi might kill his aunt and potentially someone else due to the above spoiler. Keiichi would also not move to the village and ever meet his friends, leaving him in his previous depression.
  • And the worst part? If we assume this is Umineko's Bernkastel it's very likely she intended to do all that.
    • The only problem is that Rika's death does not cause a mass outbreak. In both Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen, the villagers never have an outbreak due to Rika's death, so the mass outbreak seem a little unlikely if they would be forced away from Rika. Not that the pressure of relocation trigger an outbreak.
  • Well, there is another possibility: seeing as the murder of the dam foreman always occurs in any universe and the project is always ended after his death, it is still possible that the dam would be halted anyway. In either case, without Miyo's help in the Hinamizawa Syndrome research, Satoko would most likely die after killing her parents, seeing as there would be no cure for her to use. And only Satoshi would be watched over by his aunt and uncle, so he could either live or die at that point. As for Rena, her fate is up in the air, as it is never mentioned whether or not she was cured of her outbreak in the past, so she could very well die. The only safe ones would be the Sonozaki twins, Keiichi, and Rika as they would have little to influence their suspicions of others. So, it's not all bad, but still pretty girm, in this case.
    • It's not actually the murder of the dam foreman that causes the end of the project, it's the negotiations after the kidnapping of the Cabinet Minister's grandson.
• Houjou Teppei is implied to be a pimp. Now think about what might have ended up happening to Satoko, under his "care", if she had been living in the same house with him through adolescence into adulthood, and tell me you don't want to be sick. --ncfan
  • There are some implications of sexual abuse in the sound novel too..
• At the end of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, Frederica Bernkastel is able to prevent the deaths of Miyo Takano's parents so that Miyo may also have a happy ending. However, this means there will be nobody to continue the research for Hinamizawa Syndrome when Dr. Takano dies, which means no Irie Clinic in Hinamizawa, which means no treatment for the Syndrome. As a result, both Satoshi and Satoko are doomed to early deaths due to the syndrome, while Keiichi, who usually has a higher level of the Syndrome in most arcs, is also doomed to die in a similar manner. Possibly also Shion. And God only knows who they'll all take with them while they're in level 5 of the Syndrome (if history repeats itself, Keiichi will probably kill Mion and Rena) before they claw their own throats out.
  • Since everything was caused by Lambdadelta and Bernkastel, it was still all unavoidable, because despite all the little actions the characters took that could change in different universes, they didn't have control in what they were doing. And Onikakushi-hen is much, much more scary when you realize that Keiichi hallucinated everything scary about Mion and Rena. It makes you realize just how freaky Hinamizawa Syndrome is.
  • The ending of this series is Fridge Horror in itself. Once the the elation you felt after watching Rika finally create a happy world for herself after centuries of trying, you start to think about all those 'failed' worlds. We know that a new world begins when Rika dies in the old one. But we've also seen that the worlds continue to exist after Rika's death. So this one reality where things went well came at the price of thousands and thousands of repeated tragedies, the aftermath of which still exist a thousand times over. And we know from the first episode of Kai that there is a world whereone of the characters survives and is living a life of nothing but regret and anguish. And given that what's true in one world is most likely true of several others... Yes. ENJOY THAT 'HAPPY ENDING' NOW, SUCKERS!
• In Onikakushi when you start piecing together what the 'syringe' was and what Mion actually meant by her statement.

Fridge Logic

• Rika and Satoko along with Hanyuu in Matsuribayashi-hen live alone without any adult supervision despite the fact that child services have been a major plot point. I mean I can understand them overlooking Satoko because their afraid of the Sonozaki clan, but Rika is a miko and a very important person in the town plus the fact that she is the queen carrier. One would think that she would have been put in a (decent) orphanage or up for adoption, and for that matter, why didn't Irie just adopt Satoko to pull a Wife Husbandry?
  • Irie talks about wishing he could do that, but child services won't usually let singles adopt kids. Technically, they're under Kimiyoshi's custody. Given how much the three families are allowed to do whatever the heck they want by the government, there's a possible explanation as to why child services aren't getting involved.
  • It's worth noting that the Child Services, in just about any arc you care to mention, are hilariously incompetent, staggeringly bureaucratic, and in Satoko's case, outright malicious. It's very likely that they just didn't care about either of the children, especially if no one in the village would bring it up to them, and why would they? Satoko was a pariah, and Rika was respected enough to not have her will challenged by the towns people.
• In Tatarigoroshi-hen, how did Satoko push Keichii through the side of a bridge? Even taking into consideration that she is a lot stronger than she looks, there is no way he should have been able to pass between interweaving wires that are put there specifically to prevent people from falling.
  • It's an error in the anime version. The bridge looks different in the manga and sound novels.
• The entire Emergency Manual plan has to be completely unnecessary, as evident from the ending of Meakashi-hen, in which not only does most of the village continue to live (and in faraway locations) without any Hinamizawa Syndrome, but Rena also does. Given that she is explicitly shown in another arc to be infected with Hinamizawa Syndrome and have an outbreak (and when Rika is around), this means that the Queen Carrier's role logically has to be complete nonsense. At best, the Furude family has a genetic immunity to the infection. After Someutsushi-hen and Kageboushi-hen, it's evident that not only was the Emergency Manual unnecessary, it was also completely counter-productive in that it caused outbreaks among the Hinamizawan diaspora population.
  • You're right. The entire plan is useless, but that's kind of the point. As was revealed (I think in Onisarashi-hen) that Hinamizawa Syndrome isn't caused by distance from Rika, but extreme stress/mental turmoil. For instance, Keiichi developed the symptoms in Onikaushi-hen not because he left town for a few days, but because he started to get somewhat paranoid and distrustful on his own first, after he discovers the dam murders/"curse".
  • WE know that, but Takano and Irie would have no memories of that. That, however, doesn't explain why Rika doesn't seem to know.
    • Given the fact that she's dead when she's killed, she wouldn't know that her death doesn't cause a mass level 5 outbreak. The emergancy manual was put into effect because they believed that the death of the queen carrier would be an automatic trigger, not that they thought it was the only cause. Although this does raise another bit of Fridge Logic, If neither the death of the queen carrier or distance from the queen carrier trigger the virus then what's the point of there being one in the first place?
      • The queen carrier is immune to Hinamizawa syndrome, and her blood can be used to make a drug that the suppresses the symptoms it causes.
        • How in the world would giving the host immunity ever prove beneficial to a disease/parasite? I mean, isn't the basic theory of evolution go along the lines: those with useful mutations or favorable traits suited to their environment are able to pass it to the offsprings? A mutation that made the syndrome unable to function properly could occur, but there's no way that something that ruins their chances for survival/infection would be passed on to future generations. Unless I'm over thinking this and your saying it's just that her family has a genetic immunity, in which case that would make perfect sense.
          • The whole 'Queen Carrier' thing is just a theory in the first place. Mostly based i how they are well treated by the locals and are immune to the disease. It is probably just the family that have the genetic immunity and the parasite lived on through other means(in other people). Maybe there are even other immune people and we just never knew.
        • By the way, just how would they go about making a drug to suppress symptoms out of her blood? Stem cells? I don't think that kind of research existed back then.
    • The queen isn't immune in the first place. Rika notes that in a few worlds that the only one who never went berserk was Mion and says that even she herself did it a few times, but was killed instead of successfully killing anyone.
• In Onikakushi hen, Keiichi and the others were playing tag (It was in Onikakushi-hen in the Visual Novel.) To stop Satoko from chasing him, Keiichi asked some girls nearby that if they saw Satoko, tell her "Satoko's parents are at the front gate." Granted, Keiichi didn't know at the time that Satoko was a Self-Made Orphan, but in the Visual Novel (and Anime) This worked and Satoko stopped going after Keiichi. What. The. Hell. ~Zfish 9
  • In the anime, he gets the girls to say the teacher is looking for Satoko.
    • Becomes Fridge Tear Jerker when you realise that Satoko might have actually thought her parents were at the front gate -- people in mourning often feel as if their loved ones are about to re-appear from nowhere, and Satoko definitely hasn't had any closure to help her put an end to the grieving process.
      • I'll step in and remind you that Satoko hated her parents and killed them herself.
        • Are you forgetting the whole 'Hinamizawa Syndrome' explanation?
        • And the fact that she repressed those memories?