When They Cry: Spoilery thoughts
Sep. 7th, 2019 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrMy non-spoilery thoughts on this horror/mystery anime.
Spoilers below!! I explain the context for anyone who doesn't know the plot and is curious, mostly just to try and lay it out for myself and try to figure out the mystery. I knew the basic gist of some of this going in, and it didn't ruin my enjoyment, but I think it's more fun being confused if you can handle it.
Content note: death and violence.
So! This is going to be from memory so I'm probably mixing up the order a bit.
When They Cry starts with that flash-forward to the protagonist Keiichi murdering his friends Mion and Rena with a baseball bat, so WE'RE tense form the start. But to begin with Keiichi thinks this little mountain town he's moved to, and the female friends he's met there, are all nice. Especially the sweet, if kinda ditsy, Rena. There's also tomboyish older Mion, and the little girls Satako and Rika.
Then he meets a photographer from out of town who talks about That Murder Four Years Ago: the government wanted to create a dam that would destroy the village, and the villagers protested, and then the guy in charge of the dam was found dismembered. And one of the killers was never found.
Whenever Keiichi tries to ask his friends about it, they get suddenly cold and change the subject.
Keiichi attends a cute local festival! Cute scenes involving fairy floss and odango etc!
The photographer tells Keiichi that every year since the dam murder, someone dies on festival night, and another person vanishes. And it's always people involved with the dam, generally those who tried to make it happen. Including Satako and Rika's parents.
The next morning, Keiichi is contacted by a police detective. The photographer is dead, and the woman he was with, a local nurse, has vanished. Apparently the villagers believe the deaths are caused by the local god, and the people who vanished were eaten by a demon.
Mion and Rena ask Keiichi who he was talking to, and he says nobody, and they get cold and creepy, with cat-like pupils. Other people from the village start acting like they want Keiichi dead. Rena shows up at his house and listens to his phonecalls. And one day she gives him food with a needle in it. But when confronted she seems to have no idea what he's talking about.
The detective says Rena had to leave her last school after she smashed all the windows with a baseball bat and said the village God was watching from the foot of her bed.
Keiichi starts carrying around a baseball bat, and drawing away from his friends. They're upset, and it turns out he's acting like their old friend did just before he "transferred away". Which is to say, before he vanished. THINGS GET VERY TENSE AND CREEPY.
Rena and Mion cross the line into straight up trying to murder Keiichi. He kills them in self defence with the baseball bat, but only after they poison him, and he dies not long after.
AND THAT'S THE END OF EPISODE FOUR.
There's a scene of Mion laughing while Rika smashes her own head into a wall.
AND THEN. IT'S BACK TO CUTE SLICE OF LIFE AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED.
The leadup is different this time. Keiichi has more romantic subtext with Mion. We meet Mion's twin sister Shion, who is clearly trying to steal him away from her sister.
On festival night, Shion persuades Keiichi to help investigate the secret, forbidden part of the shrine. There is a statue to the local god, missing one hand, and also...old torture equipment.
Apparently the village consider themselves descendants of demons, and used to torture and eat people from the lower villages. The nurse explains this with a creepy gleam in her eye.
The next morning she and the photographer are both found dead. Shion, in a panic, wonders if this means TWO people will have to vanish, for balance. Namely...Shion and Keiichi, the other people who desecrated the shrine.
Rika, who is a shrine maiden, makes it clear that she knows what Keiichi did, but will try to protect him from the consequences. He tells Shion, and Rika goes missing, along with Satako.
Mion is mostly herself but sometimes her eyes get wide and angry and she rants about how, say, Satako has been Cursed. This looks different to the cold, catlike eyes in the previous set of episodes. Does cold and catlike = god, wide and angry=demon? I'm pretty sure they're being taken over by something each time.
Keiichi finds out that Shion has been missing herself for several days. All his phonecalls have been with Mion, pretending to be her sister. Rena, who seems much smarter this time around, figures everything out. She slaps Keiichi for disrespecting the sacred shrine, but doesn't want him to die, and seems entirely herself. She goes with Keiichi to apologise to Mion, in the hopes that this will cause the violence to end, but with the police as backup outside.
Mion explains that she is the heir to a yakuza family that carry on the legacy of the village's demon heritage. She has a demon tattoo on her back, and a demon in her heart. She's been involved, directly or indirectly, with all the deaths, not just recently but going back all four years. Keiichi and Rena are pretty understanding, what with her having MURDERED THEIR FRIENDS, and Mion talks about "how much Mion liked Keiichi"... before knocking him out and putting him into a torture device.
The demon took over Mion when Keiichi broke her heart. What's left of Mion has been trying to stop the demon from killing him, but at this point she's just a walking corpse. But she doesn't quite kill Keiichi.
He finds out that the nurse died before festival night, and Mion's corpse was found before the last time he saw her. And then Mion shows up one last time, and kills him for good.
END EPISODE EIGHT.
So that's been quite a trip! I don't really know what's going on but I'm curious!! Also we never saw the scene with Rika and Mion but I guess it was implied D:
Rena's character felt a little inconsistent between arcs, but everyone else was the same. It's not clear to me how much they know what's going on. Rena didn't seem super surprised to find out about Mion's demon. Is her backstory the same as before, and the god just happened not to take her over this time? Is Mion a murderer every time, even if not always THE murderer? How far back does the reset go, just to the point we see, or earlier?
Rika always seems to want to protect Keiichi. But she's the shrine maiden of the God murdering all these people!
They do seem to all genuinely care about each other. There's a quiet melancholy about the girls, but I don't know how much of that is based on knowing what's going on, and how much on just...so many people they know dying.
Were the villagers trying to kill Keiichi mind controlled, or did they have some town meeting about Killing This Boy?
It's funny watching this while playing Demon's Bond, where Japanese demons/oni also live in little remote mountain villages but are ACTUALLY VERY NICE AND MISUNDERSTOOD. I keep imagining the demon protagonist Yukina of Demon's Bond watching over my shoulder with an outraged expression.
Also I love how ambivalent Japanese people are about religion and gods. Disrespecting them unnecessarily is bad, but it's not too out there to have a god that demands human sacrifice and should be opposed. I mean I realise that Japanese media about Weird Mountain Villages with Creepy Shrines is like US media about Weird Southern Towns With Creepy Churches.
Looks like this next arc is about Satako. I don't have strong feeling about her in the anime. She was more of a jerk in the game which I found off-putting, it's the main difference I've noticed between the two based on what I played.
Spoilers below!! I explain the context for anyone who doesn't know the plot and is curious, mostly just to try and lay it out for myself and try to figure out the mystery. I knew the basic gist of some of this going in, and it didn't ruin my enjoyment, but I think it's more fun being confused if you can handle it.
Content note: death and violence.
So! This is going to be from memory so I'm probably mixing up the order a bit.
When They Cry starts with that flash-forward to the protagonist Keiichi murdering his friends Mion and Rena with a baseball bat, so WE'RE tense form the start. But to begin with Keiichi thinks this little mountain town he's moved to, and the female friends he's met there, are all nice. Especially the sweet, if kinda ditsy, Rena. There's also tomboyish older Mion, and the little girls Satako and Rika.
Then he meets a photographer from out of town who talks about That Murder Four Years Ago: the government wanted to create a dam that would destroy the village, and the villagers protested, and then the guy in charge of the dam was found dismembered. And one of the killers was never found.
Whenever Keiichi tries to ask his friends about it, they get suddenly cold and change the subject.
Keiichi attends a cute local festival! Cute scenes involving fairy floss and odango etc!
The photographer tells Keiichi that every year since the dam murder, someone dies on festival night, and another person vanishes. And it's always people involved with the dam, generally those who tried to make it happen. Including Satako and Rika's parents.
The next morning, Keiichi is contacted by a police detective. The photographer is dead, and the woman he was with, a local nurse, has vanished. Apparently the villagers believe the deaths are caused by the local god, and the people who vanished were eaten by a demon.
Mion and Rena ask Keiichi who he was talking to, and he says nobody, and they get cold and creepy, with cat-like pupils. Other people from the village start acting like they want Keiichi dead. Rena shows up at his house and listens to his phonecalls. And one day she gives him food with a needle in it. But when confronted she seems to have no idea what he's talking about.
The detective says Rena had to leave her last school after she smashed all the windows with a baseball bat and said the village God was watching from the foot of her bed.
Keiichi starts carrying around a baseball bat, and drawing away from his friends. They're upset, and it turns out he's acting like their old friend did just before he "transferred away". Which is to say, before he vanished. THINGS GET VERY TENSE AND CREEPY.
Rena and Mion cross the line into straight up trying to murder Keiichi. He kills them in self defence with the baseball bat, but only after they poison him, and he dies not long after.
AND THAT'S THE END OF EPISODE FOUR.
There's a scene of Mion laughing while Rika smashes her own head into a wall.
AND THEN. IT'S BACK TO CUTE SLICE OF LIFE AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED.
The leadup is different this time. Keiichi has more romantic subtext with Mion. We meet Mion's twin sister Shion, who is clearly trying to steal him away from her sister.
On festival night, Shion persuades Keiichi to help investigate the secret, forbidden part of the shrine. There is a statue to the local god, missing one hand, and also...old torture equipment.
Apparently the village consider themselves descendants of demons, and used to torture and eat people from the lower villages. The nurse explains this with a creepy gleam in her eye.
The next morning she and the photographer are both found dead. Shion, in a panic, wonders if this means TWO people will have to vanish, for balance. Namely...Shion and Keiichi, the other people who desecrated the shrine.
Rika, who is a shrine maiden, makes it clear that she knows what Keiichi did, but will try to protect him from the consequences. He tells Shion, and Rika goes missing, along with Satako.
Mion is mostly herself but sometimes her eyes get wide and angry and she rants about how, say, Satako has been Cursed. This looks different to the cold, catlike eyes in the previous set of episodes. Does cold and catlike = god, wide and angry=demon? I'm pretty sure they're being taken over by something each time.
Keiichi finds out that Shion has been missing herself for several days. All his phonecalls have been with Mion, pretending to be her sister. Rena, who seems much smarter this time around, figures everything out. She slaps Keiichi for disrespecting the sacred shrine, but doesn't want him to die, and seems entirely herself. She goes with Keiichi to apologise to Mion, in the hopes that this will cause the violence to end, but with the police as backup outside.
Mion explains that she is the heir to a yakuza family that carry on the legacy of the village's demon heritage. She has a demon tattoo on her back, and a demon in her heart. She's been involved, directly or indirectly, with all the deaths, not just recently but going back all four years. Keiichi and Rena are pretty understanding, what with her having MURDERED THEIR FRIENDS, and Mion talks about "how much Mion liked Keiichi"... before knocking him out and putting him into a torture device.
The demon took over Mion when Keiichi broke her heart. What's left of Mion has been trying to stop the demon from killing him, but at this point she's just a walking corpse. But she doesn't quite kill Keiichi.
He finds out that the nurse died before festival night, and Mion's corpse was found before the last time he saw her. And then Mion shows up one last time, and kills him for good.
END EPISODE EIGHT.
So that's been quite a trip! I don't really know what's going on but I'm curious!! Also we never saw the scene with Rika and Mion but I guess it was implied D:
Rena's character felt a little inconsistent between arcs, but everyone else was the same. It's not clear to me how much they know what's going on. Rena didn't seem super surprised to find out about Mion's demon. Is her backstory the same as before, and the god just happened not to take her over this time? Is Mion a murderer every time, even if not always THE murderer? How far back does the reset go, just to the point we see, or earlier?
Rika always seems to want to protect Keiichi. But she's the shrine maiden of the God murdering all these people!
They do seem to all genuinely care about each other. There's a quiet melancholy about the girls, but I don't know how much of that is based on knowing what's going on, and how much on just...so many people they know dying.
Were the villagers trying to kill Keiichi mind controlled, or did they have some town meeting about Killing This Boy?
It's funny watching this while playing Demon's Bond, where Japanese demons/oni also live in little remote mountain villages but are ACTUALLY VERY NICE AND MISUNDERSTOOD. I keep imagining the demon protagonist Yukina of Demon's Bond watching over my shoulder with an outraged expression.
Also I love how ambivalent Japanese people are about religion and gods. Disrespecting them unnecessarily is bad, but it's not too out there to have a god that demands human sacrifice and should be opposed. I mean I realise that Japanese media about Weird Mountain Villages with Creepy Shrines is like US media about Weird Southern Towns With Creepy Churches.
Looks like this next arc is about Satako. I don't have strong feeling about her in the anime. She was more of a jerk in the game which I found off-putting, it's the main difference I've noticed between the two based on what I played.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-07 01:54 pm (UTC)Mion is mostly herself but sometimes her eyes get wide and angry and she rants about how, say, Satako has been Cursed. This looks different to the cold, catlike eyes in the previous set of episodes.
Ah! I don't remember catching this, but it's VERY interesting! Was there anyone in the first arc who DID at some point get crazy eyes like these? This is both a genuine question and a guiding one, because I SUSPECT there is an answer that matters quite a lot, but I don't remember for sure.
Also, I love Rena a ridiculous amount. Just have to put that out there because it is my biggest reaction to remembering that Higurashi exists, aside from some more spoilery thoughts about the nature of the mystery. I mean, I love all of the kids, but Rena is definitely an all-time fave.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-07 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-07 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-07 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-09 08:06 am (UTC)Replying here so you get a notification:
It's really funny seeing someone attempt such a concise summary of just the earlier episodes, because that's basically impossible to do accurately. Even aside from where thespeculation goes astray, you're pretty much guaranteed to end up stating some things as fact that are actually not!
Yeah, I can already tell my perspective on events is going to change going forward, which is one reason I wanted to write down what I think now, to look back on it later.
Was there anyone in the first arc who DID at some point get crazy eyes like these?
I don't remember, unfortunately! It's less obviously Different than the cat eyes, so if it happened wouldn't have jumped out at me.
I like Rena, and am really intrigued to get a more consistent, deeper feel for who she really is.