/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46808412
I don't think Sayo was ever really comfortable being any of her persona's since she just hates herself so much. Shannon is an ideal that she thinks she can never truly archieve and feels as if she's lying to everyone by showing herself as her. Kanon is all the repressed negativity and cynicism inside of her that she needs to vent out, which she views as disgusting and then there's Beato, who she wants everyone to see as an inhumane monster because that's what she thinks she deserves to be seen as. It's tragic how far her guilt has warped her into really believing she can't be deserving of love no matter what she does and that she's just inherently broken.

Sayo's escapism is that she tried to look for a positive in everything, even believing and holding out that Battler would come and remember and understand her in the end, but due to her circumstances her worldview kept getting increasingly warped. She keeps being forced to run from everything she can't put a positive spin on, leading her to create all these personas and it causes her to eventually become unable to bear any bad among the good, blinding her from any real ''love'' she might've been able to achieve. Even though Shannon and Kanon themselves prove that multiple perspectives aren't mutually exclusive, she becomes too blind to see it due to her sadness and just comes to view herself as completely broken and unfixable.

A character can not change much throughout a story but remain effective in their role and meaning. Jessica is just as humanized and highlights her emotions as much as everyone elseand has a nuanced mindset and inner conflict between what she wants and what she struggles with. She also ha ssome parallels with Sayo with her view on her ''double life'', and it shows the wieght of multiple perspectives in how she sees herself and how the world sees her. Also thematically relevant in her blindness towards Sayo's struggles, adding to the cycle of ignorance in the family. Jessica doesn't get enough credit for how nuanced she is, just like the majority of other Umineko characters.

Really don't get where the whole ''Jessica is stupid'' thing came from because at worst, she's an average teenager. Also not to mention its heavily implied she knew about Kinzo's death and intentionally hid it because she knows her parents are in debt, you can tell from her dialogue in the question arcs, she isn't stupid.

>>46580067
Tohya wrote it mainly for Ange because even though he's scared of meeting her, he knows can't just leave Ange alone with nothing. It's his way of bringing her (And hopefully himself) closure without actually meeting her. It'd be weird if he just forgot about her and left her with nothing, he isn't that kind of person to just forget about her when he remembers how much he means to her, even if he's no longer the same person and can't meet with her. EP8 zones in on Ange so much and ends with her decision because she's the eventual subject of Umineko, the whole thing was for her and to teach her the meaning of love which Battler figured out too late. The way it's written is also partly to protect his family's image, when in reality most of them were probably shitty people for the most part. I view it as just his way of really coping with all he's been through, he wants to move on but he can't just forget either.

Tohya never really managed to move on for many years even when Ange did thanks to him, but he eventually finds closure by meeting with Ange, their sibling bond is what finally allows them to heal despite the fact neither of them are the same people they used to be. And it allows Tohya to finally escape the purgatory he'd been stuck in for so long once he fully confronts his past self again.

>>46420008
No I agree, Ange eventually realizes this whole journey is not worth it for her because if she cannot know the truth, only what she chooses to believe matters. The belief is more important than the truth itself and it's what'll impact her wordlview, becoming confident in her belief being her own truth. When I say Ange sees the world through more than one lens in the end, I mean it as her being able to not only see the belief that someone in her family must be a complete villain (Like Eva) or that her family didn't truly love her and each other but to also remember the love they had for each other, even if it's a more distant memory due to how much she's suffered. With her new belief, she can build happiness ontop of all of her misery instead of wallowing in it which is what she does, EP8 is called twilight because she comes to realize both happiness and misery can coexist in her life, and she lives with the faint hope that one day a surviving relative might pop up. Ange reading the diary Tohya showing her she'd inevitably destroy herself in a desperate search for the truth since no matter the answer, it will never make her happy. Piece Ange isn't the real Ange after all, but the decision you make with her is the one the real Ange comes to. The trick ending shows ange fully denying love and giving in to her completely cynical wordlview, believing that the people around her have to be against her if it's possble and refusing to see the good in them. For her, it'd be a terribly lonely life.

Again, the magic ending I really just interpret as, what you choose to believe is more important than the truth itself. Erika and Dlanor put it too, during their conversation about Erika's ex, Erika can think up a ton of reasons as to why he would've cheated on her and while Dlanor can only think of a few for why he wouldn't, neither side can fully be denied. What affects the world in situations like these is what you yourself choose to believe, logic and reason can't always work when it comes to questions of the heart.

>>46331933
I agree, I wondered why he didn't but I suppose it was just for the sake of keeping his sprite consistent? Or R07 just didn't want to make the detail obvious. Regardless, it'd look a little bit jarring if he suddenly got bright blue eyes I guess lol.

>>46245085
Fair enough, I'm not really thinking of the specific criteria Higurashi gives for it since that was more of a joke on R07's end, I'm thinking which character embodies the themes of the work best. Arguably for Higurashi, you could make a case for Mion in that sense considering she embodies the themes of the work more than anyone else right from the beginning and she is a direct foil to the main villain, Takano. She never develops or succumbs to the syndrome because she is that pillar of strength within the club that embodies the story wholeheartedly.

>>46215986
I don't think Sayo planned for every single outcome, she had months to write as many forgeries as she wanted and I don't believe in-universe forgeries were as long as the actual episodes you read because it's a visual novel, more like a dozen or so pages in which things are roughly described. Sayo could've definitely written EP1 and EP2, after which Tohya/Ikuko takes over, who knows what other forgeries had been like. Only the ones that lined up somewhat were correctly identified and so many could've just been lost at sea. Regarding Ange, Sayo could've plotted with Kyrie and Rudolf as well, which is how she would've known Ange wouldn't come. Rudolf also mentions typhoons always happen this time of year also so It's not crazy for her to plan for a typhoon even if she wasn't 100% sure and that things just happened to work out enough for her to think of sending them out, the real point of them was for someone to read them and come to understand her, not to be 100% accurate to what would actually happen. You can think of all of it as unlikely but I wouldn't consider it an outright plot hole personally since there are interpretations you can make out of it that work, It's more a weak point in the story imo. But it doesn't really take away from the rest of the work for me (Also considering the fact the message bottles mentioned in 1998 are part of the forgery so any other message bottles out of dozens could've been excluded, but that's not really all that relevant when looking for an explanation within said forgery).

>>46151024
Fragments are doomed the moment anyone decides to take another person's sins upon themselves, indirectly forcing them to push their sins onto said person, which is what Rika does for almost every fragment. Higurashi is a story about humans learning not to push their sins onto others. Rika fails so many times because she keeps trying to take everything upon herself; forgetting her friends are real people too rather than some pawns in a game she's playing with fate. It's only once she learns to confide in them eventually that they all atone and bear their sins together.

>>46153515
Tsumi implies this because Rena through Keiichi learns that she needs to atone for what she's done and confides in Keiichi, which is something she's failed to do for the entirety of the vn up until that point, so does Rika. It's a bad ending after that because the heart of the story still went neglected, but it reminds Rika that there's power in confiding in her friends and the people around her, which leads to the eventual resolution.

>>46124514
I haven't really kept up with Reiwa. Is it worth continuing? I liked it but I ended up losing interest somewhat after the first loop