English Dub Review: Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou “Cat-Deceiving Chapter, Parts 3-4”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Rika awakens in her next timeline to find Satako looking over her in her futon, but it soon becomes apparent that Satako has torn open Rika’s guts, causing her immense pain. She rants at Rika for angering Oyashiro by wanting to leave the village and that Rika has been cursed for wanting this, torturing her by yanking out Rika’s intestines and gripping them tightly like the rumored old Watanagashi ritual. In her pain, Rika reflects on why she wanted to leave in the first place, understanding that there was nothing wrong with the village itself, and begs forgiveness. This seems enough for Satako, who finally lets Rika die.

In the next episode, everything seems to be going actually well for once. No one goes crazy or kills anyone, in fact Takano comes clean about her plans to Rika ahead of time and the plot to kill her is sabotaged. Everything seems almost too perfect compared to the last few timelines. Rika then arranges a surprise for Satako, but she seems to expect it, confirming to Rika that Satako is the other time looper who has put Rika back in this endless cycle. Satako’s eyes turn red and she pulls out a gun.

OUR TAKE

I was very much dreading reviewing this episode after watching it for the first time subbed awhile back. I wasn’t expecting to get the other remaining episode of the arc, but it at least that makes it easier to just get this whole thing over with that much faster. The main point to take away from these two episodes is that we finally know the identity of the person who put Rika back in the time loop, that being Satako. We’ll be getting more into her motives over the next arc, Satakowashi-hen, which translates to Village Destruction Chapter and is a neat little pun, but for now let’s reflect on the big revelation here. It basically shows that the one who has brought Rika back to her greatest point of suffering was none other than her closest human friend, which is tragic in and of itself, but then the question goes to why and how she was able to do this, both of which we’ll get to. Still, seven episodes seems like enough time to explain all of that and then resolve the whole story once and for all…except we now know that the end of this season is not the end of the story, as Higurashi Sotsu will be picking this back up this coming July. So don’t expect much in the way of resolution until then.

But really, that’s not even my biggest issue with what’s going on. It’s more of an extension of my issues last time, where whoever is in charge of this season decided the main selling point of this series was not really the mystery or the cunning chess moves or even the strong bonds of friendship between the characters, but actually cute girls doing intense and graphic bodily harm to one another. Were I not covering this show for this website, Part 3 very likely would have made me quit the show entirely, and I can stomach quite a few bad writing turns. Heck, writing getting worse actually oddly makes me want to tune in more sometimes so that I can learn from someone else’s mistakes.

THIS though, THIS is just someone’s sick torture porn that just happen to be using characters I am attached to for its purposes. Even the most frightening and nightmare inducing torture from the first two seasons knew when to cut away, and when it was full in your face carnage, it was used sparingly to make the impact all the harder. Here though, we go from senseless bloody beating, to police massacre, to multiple senseless murders in plain view, to finally this. None of the carnage MEANS anything anymore. It’s just gross and gratuitous and it all but drains me of reason to care anymore. Even if this gets resolved and they find a clever solution, how am I gonna get my time back from sitting through all this? Anyway, the second episode is slightly better than the first, but unfortunately it gets this score for being paired with this travesty. Let’s just wrap this up as soon as possible.