THE POINT OF NO RETURN | Higurashi When They Cry Ch.5: Meakashi [PART 8] [BLIND]

[@I_Cognito]

I think one of the best things about Higurashi and one of the reasons why the anime left such a big impression on people who never even heard of the VN or the manga before, is that this series is outstanding at depicting genuine negative emotions like anger, fear, anxiety and hatred. Fantastic acting performances by the cast are one reason for that, but the writing is just as good at conveying the despair these characters feel whenever things go dark. And the reason why Meakashi is my favourite chapter is because it delivers the best example of this with Shion's incredible wrath. Her outbursts are some of the best depictions of genuine raw anger I've ever seen in a game, anime or a novel, because they feel so realistic. Even her iconic mad laughter is just a way to deal with her own anxiety and her bitter feelings. I actually think that someone like Shion, who is full of despair, would have been a far more fitting mastermind than any of the Danganronpa villains, really.

[@Asehpe]

The scene in which Shion hears Kimiyoshi say that Satoshi was just "a Hōjō brat" always seemed to me very well structured, among other reasons, because if you read between the lines you can feel Kimiyoshi slowly coming to the realization that the twin he's talking to is not Mion but Shion, and that Mion is the one in the torture room... so it slowly dawns on him that he screwed up... and you can feel it in his voice...

[@TheGreatDetectiveKnows]

''Going through a checklist'' is a very Shion personality trait, bahaha. One of the many things I enjoy about her character is how calculated and cold she is. From the beginning, she's used to having to be ''superficially normal'' because she experiences disadvantages and rejection when she reveals her real thoughts. Seeing her narration and thought process is so fascinating to me. That entire projection of Shion describing Satoshi being brought to the torture basement, looking up at Mion for help, then asking Mion to drop her role of successor for him is entirely Shion projecting her own thoughts and feelings when it happened to her...It's so brilliant. She sees the tool... Mion does nothing. She was strapped into the device...Mion does nothing. She's basically screaming at Mion to help her in that scene.

[@jacksoncristensen9337]

Actually, outside of when she starts pretending to be Mion and the latter half of Meakashi, she's pretty frank most of the time according to Rika herself. She doesn't hesitate in publicly voicing her displeasure towards Takano's rudeness in 1982 (curiously, Shion, Keiichi, Rena and Rika all harbor the same distaste for Takano's condescending personality in their corresponding arcs, and Mion's most certainly no different because Takano talks ill of the village all the time) or towards the murdered construction worker who was an asshole (although Matsuribayashi-hen shows that Shion actually feels sorry for him and brings flowers to his grave every year, she still maintains her claim that he was rude, and even Oishi seems to agree since he used to beat his ass). She won't say that she hates the police, but anyone can tell that she doesn't like them either from how passive aggressive her remarks towards them sound as Keiichi points out in Ch. 2. Similar to how the sisters make fun of each other in Ch. 7 but Keiichi immediately points out how massively obvious it was to everyone that those two in fact get along extremely well. She genuinely enjoys her time with Keiichi in Meakashi/Watanagashi and in fact, if anything, the one she's most dishonest with is towards her own self, because she knows Keiichi is starting to replace Satoshi for her and immediately tries to deny it by claiming "his hand wasn't warm!" mere moments after literally saying the opposite in her mind. This reaction of course is caused by the Hinamizawa Syndrome affecting her brain and making her go crazy thinking Satoshi is following her, since Shion has no issues being with Keiichi all the time in later arcs. In fact, she completely changes her initial perception of him as immature and straight up claims that Keiichi could have ended the Hinamizawa Dam War a year earlier than it did had he been there because of how much he cares for his friends and how outrageously charismatic he is. Hell, the motive of avenging Satoshi, the core reason everyone thinks she did what she did and why people think she's a yandere also turned out to be her lying to herself, she admits as such after killing Satoko (not that the anime bothered showing that part). She knows full well Satoshi would have never wanted this, she knows full well she can't say she loves him for not believing in his survival and taking it out on people, she knows full well this was all letting herself be controlled by the "demon" (hinamizawa syndrome) so that she would forget her feelings of sadness from losing her loved one and that "she" was always criticizing it in the back of her mind for breaking Satoshi's promiise. She thinks she has lost all emotion but of course Keiichi manages to briefly snap her out of it, which saves his life (temporarily) as she tearfully is unable to hurt him and warns him to never get close to her again, because she knows the demon will have completely overtaken her by then and will not hesitate to kill him. Keiichi and Rena were the ones who finally showed her unconditional love, after a lifetime of being thrown aside and hurt by her family. Of course she changes, a LOT, in Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi. Just like she said she would at the end of Meakashi when she she can't feel the Hinamizawa Syndrome anymore since her head has been broken open from a 2 story fall, she feels genuine remorse and apologizes to everyone, hoping to be close friends with Satoko and the others if she's ever given another chance, then proceeds to kill herself.

[@kirimusse]

This has to be one of the best villains I've ever seen in fiction, holy crap.

[@CaptainCaskett]

1:08:29 - 1:09:17 Satsuki Yakino absolutely killed that whole part perfectly with the slow start and increasing speed

[@Passions5555]

I am blown away by her performance.

[@shadowwwwwwwwwww]

funny to imagine a serious meeting between the heads of the three families and the relevant family members and rika-chan is just coloring all the while.

[@crackracing7900]

My favourite quotes I've heard about Chapter 5 were a couple of tweets I saw that said: "Meakashi follows Shion,cutting the toxic people out of her life" and "Someone stop this woman,she's feral". Honestly couldn't have said it better myself. Shion going nuts here is done so well,it's amazing. The scene with Kimiyoshi in particular,with the initial fake-out,followed by Shion breaking under the revelations about her torture,with the screen going black and WHAT? and UH? ,is still bone-chilling every time I see it. Plus the acting of Satsuki Yukino,who somehow still manages to one-up herself,makes it even better. Also,I don't think Mion "has been nothing but good to Shion" like you said: that last scene where she is talking about Satoshi's torture,while Mion did nothing for him,is clearly Shion projecting what she went through last year and showing how much she felt betrayed by her sister. And you know...hearing her and granny talking about disposing of the intruders,and pinning Shion to the wall only helped to strenghten the idea that the sister she once knew was nothing more than another member of the Sonozaki family...still maybe what she's doing to her is still unwarranted,maybe. Maybe. I can't wait for next week. I'm dreading it.

[@Boarbatrice]

It’s friday, or as I like to call it, Mion and Shion are just two years too young to be boomers friday

[@dantes_integrity]

I'm not even gonna Comment this week, cause this right here is just straight up Facts.

[@Mirza00023]

@@dantes_integrity I thought they are, they have the same age as my mother (born in '68), isn't that the baby boom decade?

[@goobermagoob9160]

@@Mirza00023 generational groups vary slightly depending on the source you are using. Some say boomers end at 1963, others might cut off at 1969. I personally go with 1945-1965.

[@csrjjsmp]

I’m impressed how well you remembered the events of Chapter 2! It was really helpful the way you continually pointed out the parallels since my memory of things was a bit fuzzy.

[@faitttth]

i love the way she reads out the onomatopoeiae and the "ahaha"s ..maybe i'm just too easily amused

[@axlorg89]

I won't lie, I do find Shion more fascinating than Mion, however Mion definitely is more fleshed out. I appreciate how much of a plot mover Shion is and how you can piece together how her bizarre behavior do have a rhyme and reason to it, as crazy as it is.

[@shirleyjenlion187]

that glass shatter sfx was the point of no return

[@Hechyyy]

was the same with keiichi in tatarigoroshi

[@shattermelon496]

It seems like you didn't grasp the incredible significance of that last bit. You know, the reveal that Mion was Shion from the beginning and vice versa

[@lukaszmatraszek5287]

This gets revealed in the next episode, not this one.

[@daniellundberg2875]

It is sort of revealed here, but in a way that you will question it

[@electricforest17]

1:41:47 easy to miss/misunderstand this but it is actually very important (and this thing isn't mentioned in anime anywhere at all)

[@GenetMJF]

Ye that's why I was so confused about the stuff. I only watched the anime rip

[@zeus4evah]

Yep, she just thinks she lost it. Hmm.. Maybe she did.

[@daniellundberg2875]

The anime sucks? :O

[@LucidGate72]

So when she said "Shion" went to the amusement park she meant that the original Mion actually went to the amusement park while the real Shion got the mark of the demon right?

[@narukamiseta122]

So I'm liking the fact that we're finally getting some answers. At this point however in starting to wonder if Shion is going to be the biggest part or one of the biggest parts of the mysteries. I know there are still more answers to be gotten, but it's looking like it at this point. I will say that Shion's transformation was well written, but it's really looking like everything hinges on her obsession with Satoshi and people are dying left and right because of that. I don't know how to feel about that honestly lol. And iirc Mion didn't specifically say Satoshi would be one of the people that would be spared and Shion just assumed he was. Also I Rose's theory on Satoshi actually being alive is correct, that means most of these people died for nothing. Tbh part of me actually wants this to be correct to spite Shion lmao.

[@I_Cognito]

This is still the first of four answer arcs. I know it's tempting to think you've figured it all out after getting the first big revelations, but keep in mind that there is more to come. Otherwise the next three chapters would be a lot shorter (they are not).

[@narukamiseta122]

@1:18:25 .......if that was actually her doing, I will be DONE. Like how powerful do they intend to make Shion? Lmao

[@gonzaloaraujo2101]

When i read the "huh?...huh?,huh?,huh?...What?" In my mind i heard Stone cold Steve Austin.

[@helenetrstrup4817]

I am sitting and listening while playing mobile games and in this game there is an item pack called "Mebaeru" I felt like I had gone cross-eyed for a moment. 😂

[@Hechyyy]

ive only watched the anime so far and am catching up with the VN rn and i dont think the last hospital scene in watanagashi was properly explained. does it have a fitting explanation in the VN atleast?

[@nayeem455]

I mean, I don't know much about the anime 'cause I've never watched it, but from the way Keiichi was acting in that scene, I figured he was hallucinating.

[@owoth7700]

It's never explicitly stated in the VN either, but if you pay close enough attention, you can figure it out yourself pretty easily

[@daniellundberg2875]

Yes, it actually explained in Watanagashi-hen, Keiichi literally says he is just hallucinating

[@wl4810]

Anyone passing through knows what is up with this music at 1:39:00 ? Is this due to the Festival patch ? It's ... Kinda lame ...

[@lordlycius]

Lol! It hasn't gotten Crazy quite yet, but will soon... lolol

[@Dddduuummb]

Wait a min that outburst at the end makes it sound like mion and shion switched places before shion was forced to go away from hinimazawa or even before mion got her tattoo. If thats so then mion became shion who is now mad at shion for being mion. Also if thats true then as per the prophecy of the twins the first born mion who is acting as shion, had a demon living inside her. However shion acting as mion is the one with the tattoo. Which makes the identity crisis shion( who we thought was swapped mion disguised as shion) has way more plausible.So did shion diguised as mion disguised as shion disguise as mion to stab keiichii? OMG this is so annoyingly confusing

[@bgill7475]

It’s not that confusing.

[@daniellundberg2875]

Yeah, there is another layer to the switching, but it will be explained soon enough

[@KenpachiRules84]

It’s not that confusing lol

[@narukamiseta122]

@26:17 I didn't know the Phantom Thieves were in this game lol

[@cesarc6395]

1:08:45 wowwww amazing

[@JetblackJay]

I think Kasai kills Mion who is shion by dropping her for the balcony but I could be wrong

[@daniellundberg2875]

How would that make sense?

[@JetblackJay]

He puts together who the killer was but that's not the case since I just saw the last part of the chapter

[@backseatgaming9087]

The BGM is too low, it detracts from the overall immersion especially in a visual novel

[@rahmandimadenda2484]

Shio was a Yandere simp bruh 😭😭

[@electricforest17]

22:49 :D

[@kilato9649]

Whats the ear pearsing sound?

[@palameno]

This reminded me of yttd

[@pasumiya4087]

cly it’s nothing like it tho lol

[@Kirbita22]

(this comment discusses current political topics as they relate and compare to the story, if you'd rather not hear about it please don't read this comment, stay safe!) at risk at getting too Political (tm), the system Shion describes around the hour mark of this video regarding the murders in Hinamizawa is shockingly similar to how the far right operates in the online modern age- unifying those who fall into their circles against "common enemies" and dehumanizing those enemies until the most reckless members find it acceptable or even necessary to "take action" against them, without having ever been given orders: a factory of "lone wolves" who can't be traced to any individual leader, because they technically act alone with the ideas the group helped cultivate. The main difference is of course that the Sonozaki family has a clear leader, while the far right internet circles just have various figureheads who don't control that much on their own, but form an interconnected net of viewers and followers amongst them, making them much more insidiuous. And I'm also pretty sure this system was mostly an accident in the case of the far right- there wasn't any Evil Mastermind who concocted the system Oryou-style. This is just the logical endpoint of a hivemind mentality that discourages disagreement in opinion and encourages dehumanizing its enemies.

[@maxmustermann9058]

In general Higurashi deals a lot with fascism, it's even the name of one of the tracks, but there are also at several points explicit parallels drawn between Hinamizawa and Japan in WW2. From the imperial family of japan claiming to be the descendents of Amaterasu the sun goddess and the villagers supposed demonic lineage both trying to exalt themself above normal humans. From Japan militarising after having been bossed around by western imperial powers to the villagersresorting to extreme measures whenever one of them is threatened and more. It's about a new generation (Keiichi, Mion, Rika and so forth) trying to deal with the archaic laws and past atrocities of the older generations, a bit of a microcosmos of post-war Japan.

[@Kirbita22]

@@I_Cognito Well... In totalitarian and/or fascist governments, the leaders can just straight up give the order to execute someone and then uphold them as an example. Ditto for cults- they may have to hide to the public, but whithin their ranks they can be as blatant as they'd like about who exactly did the Punishment. The reason i compare Shion's view of Hinamizawa here to the modern north-american far right in specific is because a crucial aspect in them is plausible deniability. Oryou doesn't give orders, and the villagers don't necessarily know anything about the cases individually, and the culprits are different and possibly unrelated each year, and they can't be reliably traced back to Oryou. Oryou doesn't say "this is who we will execute, this is who we have killed, this is the reason why"; she merely decides certain people are enemies and that it doesn't matter whether they live or die, and those who follow and share her beliefs decide to take action without being directly ordered to. The mentality is absolutely the same for all the aforementioned examples, though- it's just the methods that are a very specific and hard to deal with Thing.

[@BusyWaiting]

Why would you randomly bring up controversial contemporary political topics on a visual novel playthrough? This really has nothing to do with Higurashi.

[@Kirbita22]

@@BusyWaiting ah yes exactly the comment i thought i'd get first thing! because it's a neat parallel that can't be found anywhere else, duh. people are out here pulling out stats on mental health issues and no one complains about that one, right? move along man, rosematter can remove my comment if she finds it too offtopic but otherwise by adding another comment to the thread you just boost it for more people to eventually see. the correct method for dealing with comment threads you think are dumb or irrelevant is To Ignore Them oh almost forgot, eta: if you think "the far right is bad" is controversial, thats not a great look on you bud

[@BusyWaiting]

@@Kirbita22 ​Dude come on, I didn't say that. Gimme a break. Why are you immediately coming at me trying to fight me and putting words in my mouth? I'm just saying it's a controversial topic and really stressful for lots of people to hear about everywhere, there are many proper places to discuss this kind of thing. Some people just want to watch a youtube video on an anime game without worrying about and being reminded of contemporary politics, y'know? I don't want to get into an argument with you either so I don't want to reply again, so please just chill.