English Dub Review: Higurashi – When They Cry: Sotsu “Curse-Revealing Chapter, Part 4”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Child Welfare protest unfolds like before, though now we see it through Oiishi’s perspective as he tries to keep the crowd happy by bringing the welfare agents directly to Teppei to show he’s know abuser, thinking he needs to keep him alive for the festival to catch the killer he thinks is in the village. Satako tells Rika that Teppei was taken away and then tries to finish him off herself, but then is stopped by a manifestation of her guilt, which she kills before doing the same to Teppei.

OUR TAKE

Once again, we’re treated to some genuine twists regarding the Curse Deceiving Chapter, though they’re while I can’t say I could have seen them coming, they feel almost a bit too out of nowhere to make them very good twists. Back when we saw these events from Keiichi’s perspective in Gou, it did seem a bit too easy of a win at first, which led to the sudden drop in hopefulness when he ended up suddenly being beaten by a crazed Teppei at the end. Now it turns out that couldn’t have happened at all, since Teppei was killed by Satako before Keiichi even got there, so I am a bit interested in how they plan to explain just what Keiichi saw there. Oiishi still seems set on his plan of using Teppei for bait against the Oyashiro killer, which we know only leads to him shooting up the festival and dying himself, though what confuses me a bit is whether or not this was in Satako’s plans or not. Did she know that Oiishi would handle things this way and understood that she would have to kill Teppei herself? Or was this another case like with Mion of her losing control of the game piece she thought she was using and having to improvise? Satako is both smart and dumb enough that either could have happened, but the ambiguity doesn’t do her any favors.

But the big development here is the brief rise and fall of Satako’s conscious emerging from her to stop Teppei’s death, finally admitting the guilt of all the terrible things that she’s done to Rika and their friends and wanting it to stop…only for the “witch side” of Satako to fully take over and even kill her own good half in order to continue with the plan. I’m of two minds about this, one being a bit relieved that we’re finally getting some acknowledgement that these are not actions Satako would normally do or at least not ones she would just be able to immediately make peace with while showing that she’s gone too far to turn back and that she can’t stop now, while the more cynical side of me just sees this as a cop out to handwave complaints like my own away and continue on with the drama. With only five episodes left before this entire show is wrapped up and me not knowing how they’ll resolve things, this could be set up for later…but I doubt it.