Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – Why It’s Teh Pwn

Ah, Higurashi. The only show this season which will simultaneously overload your brain with cuteness and scare you so much you wet yourself. The entire plot centers around one question: "What can Keiichi do to piss off the killer lolis and the local deity so that he gets himself killed?". To understand the show so far (I'm thinking about adding it to the blogging lineup), you need to understand the characters, and what makes them so deliciously cute and evil at the same time. (Note: the story so far is detailed below, beware spoilers and the like)

Let's start with the overall plot. It's 1983, and Maebara Keiichi has just moved to Hinamizawa, a small Japanese town. Hinamizawa is so small that there is only a one room school, and the same teacher teaches all of the children, who range from 5-ish to Mion's 16. It seems like nothing eventful happens in this quaint little town…except for the organization attempting to flood the town in order to build a dam. Or the presence of an evil deity, Oyashiro-sama, and his sick and twisted yearly festival, the Watanagashi. Or the fact that someone dies and someone disappears every year at the Watanagashi festival. Or the killer lolis…

(also note that each arc resets itself, so while Keiichi, Mion, and Rena meet a very bad end in the first arc, they're all up and running for the second. Each arc starts out with a flash of the end, as a teaser.)

First up, our "hero" (if you can call him that…): Maebara Keiichi (as always, mouse over for wit)

Keiichi has just recently moved to Hinamizawa, and is completely unaware of how messed up its inhabitants are. The plot focuses on him, and the killer lolis that make his life miserable. He has a bad habit of lying to the killer lolis, which pisses them off. In the first arc (Demoned Away), Keiichi met his end after clawing his throat out while under the influence of a drug that Mion and Rena gave him. This all happened after he beat the pair to death with a baseball bat, of course. So far in the second arc (Watanagashi), Keiichi has gotten on Mion's bad side, and is under the protection of little Rika-chan. Oh yes, a 10 year old miko will so help your chances…likelihood of surviving the latest arc: abysmal. He lies to the lolis, and that makes them mad. Don't make the lolis mad, Keiichi.

Now it's time for killer loli #1: Ryuugu Rena

Rena is the…instigator of the first arc. While seemingly cute, and obsessed with cuteness herself, she is, in fact, a killer loli. Rena seems to be the most "off" of the girls, as she's the only one who's actually tried to do something really bad to Keiichi (she put fucking sewing needles in some food she gave him!). She also has a thing for carrying a really big machete… Rena is the same age as Keiichi (15), and she most likely has a crush on him. Until she injects some kind of hallucinogenic drug into him and he goes berserk, smashing her into a pulp with a baseball bat. In the current arc she doesn't do much, except act cute. Thank God.

Here comes killer loli #2: Sonazaki Mion

Mion is the daughter of a Yakuza boss, and heir to his throne, so she carries a gun (apparently fake, as nobody comments on it) around to fit the part. She might have a crush on Keiichi as well. While she's a lot more stable than Rena, she has a habit of going into some kind of psycho mode, with face contortions and a really creepy voice. In the first arc, she seems to be a part of the same shady organization that Rena is a part of, and she meets the same fate. In the second arc, she's kinda the bad guy, and gets onto Keiichi's case after he and her twin (see below) go into the temple storage shed.

But wait! It's killer loli #2.5: Sonazaki Shion

Shion, as you can tell, is Mion's (younger) twin sister. She, like her sister, might have a thing for Keiichi. She has only appeared in the second arc so far, although the identity of the "Mion" in the first arc can still be speculated apon. She seems to be the less dominant Sonazaki twin, although it's really hard to tell who is who (Mion has disguised herself as Shion at least once, to give Keiichi a bento). She was the one that convinced Keiichi to venture into the temple storage shed and learn the true nature of the Watanagashi festival. Shion becomes concerned for her and Keiichi's safety after the other two people that were with them at the time died (just in time to be affected by Oyashiro-sama's curse), and she frequently calls Keiichi's house afterwards to warn him. Unfortunately for Keiichi, the caller couldn't have been Shion, because she's been missing since the day after the festival…

GOGO killer loli #3: Furude Rika

The cutest of the 4 killer lolis, Rika is the youngest of the group and the miko (priestess) for the local shrine for Oyashiro-sama. She is also is a top contender for the "~desu Queen" title, and has been known to use the phrase "boku wa" (both of these are considered extremely cute when used by young girls in Japan). In the first arc she doesn't do anything but act cute (and she does a damn fine job of it). In the second arc she's in the know about the true meaning of the Watanagashi, and is trying to protect Keiichi from whatever grisly fate Mion has cooked up for him. Unfortunatly for her, she eats it by slamming her head repeatedly onto a very big kitchen knife while Mion (or Shion. My head hurts…) gleefully watches on, as seen in the small foreshadowing scene in episode 5.

RANDOM RIKA-CHAN CUTENESS BREAK

If you haven't been able to tell already, she's my favorite .

And finally, killer loli #4, Houjou Satako

Well now, what do we know about Satako-chan? She lives with Rika-chan. Her parents died as a part of Oyashiro-sama's curse. Her brother, Satoshi, who Mion might have had a crush on, disappeared for the same reason. That's it. The OP hints at her future killer loli aspects, so the chances of her being the central character of the next arc are pretty high.

Now for the non-lolis!

Takano Miyo and Tomitake Jirou

Takano Miyo is a nurse at the local clinic. In the first arc she does nothing but appear then disappear as a part of Oyashiro-sama's curse. In the second, she leads Keiichi and Shion into the temple storage shed to shed (heh. I made a funny) some light on the true nature of the Watanagashi. She dies by lighting herself on fire, again due to Oyashiro-sama's curse. Or perhaps because she went into the shed…? Tomitake Jirou is a freelance photographer that spends the summer in Hinamizawa. In the first arc he explains Oyashiro-sama's curse to Keiichi, and then falls victim to it by clawing out his own throat with his bare hands. In the second arc he serves the same purpose, as well as entering the shed with the other three. He also gets the same fate: death by bloody fingernail. Note to self: don't fuck with Oyashiro-sama.

And last (but not least): Oishi Kuraudo

No screen for Oishi-san, because I'm lazy and because he's old. He's the local detective that used to be on the Oyashiro-sama murder case, but retired because he couldn't solve it. He pretty much serves the same purpose in both arcs so far: giving Keiichi info, especially when it makes the killer lolis seem even more dangerous. He's the one who fingered Mion and Rena as being a little "off" (a little?) in the first arc, and he informed Keiichi of Shion's disappearance in the second.

Well that's all there is to tell. Now do go and download it, and watch the rest. You'll thank me for it. Or make me buy you a new pair of pants.

EDIT: The win and goldness of the Higurashi OP is now up on nipponsei. Creepy…