This post is more of a theme analysis or something so the whole thing will have spoilers for the original first 2 seasons of Higurashi
The remake of Higurashi is currently airing, and the most notable thing so far is that the art style is different. Personally I dislike the new designs, my least favorite part being that Satoko has a skin fang now, but the story is still there, and along with that are the strong themes about friendship.
The main friend group in Higurashi is amazing. They are basically the perfect friend group. Everyone is super fun, they all have great chemistry, and it’s just nice to see that they all have a great time together. What could possibly cause this group to break apart?
The horror of Higurashi is based on that fear. Specifically, the fear that forces outside anyone’s control can affect your friends to the point of having negative effects on everyone in the group. In the case of Higurashi, they go insane and start murdering people. In the show the obvious “force outside anyone’s control” is the government conspiracy exploiting the Hinamizawa syndrome. No one in the friend group has any idea about the agency, and so they aren’t able to do anything about it. More realistically though, each character has their own personal struggles that seem extremely difficult to actually solve. Just to name a few, Shion has Satoshi’s death, Satoko has her uncle, and Rena has her parents’ divorce.
Just like these characters, the people in your friend group have personal struggles which you can not prevent. Just like how Keiichi can’t stop Rena’s parents from getting a divorce (since he can’t time travel), you can’t prevent your real life friend’s parents from divorcing either.
And single, unfortunate events usually lead to more unfortunate effects. For Rena specifically, the misfortune started with her parents’ divorce. This led to her dad getting a new girlfriend, which led to him being exploited for money, which led to his safety being threatened, which led to Rena confronting the girlfriend, which led to her killing the girlfriend. As Rena says in episode 23, “I think misfortunes cause chain reactions. Once it starts it’s difficult to get out of it. In order to escape, it takes great effort.”
And so what happens if you can’t prevent every single problem your friends might have? The answer Higurashi seems to give is that the unfortunate events build. And then your friends go insane and murder a bunch of people. And then the timeline resets and you have to watch it all over again.
The embodiment of this hopeless feeling is Rika. She has seen her friends continuously tear each other apart and lost all hope. It seems like there’s nothing she can do to keep this from happening, because everyone just has too many of their own problems that no one can do anything about.
But Higurashi does present a solution to this problem. In the Rena arc, the last few episodes of season 1, we follow Rena as she is pushed into despair seeing her dad get taken advantage of, and eventually resorts to murder because she doesn’t see any other way out. And then her friends find out.
Keiichi asks Rena why she needed to be pushed this far. After all, they were friends and friends are meant to support each other in hard times. Rena could’ve fallen back on the emotional support of her friends, but she didn’t. Rena says she didn’t seek help from her friends because based on her past experiences she didn’t believe her friends would’ve helped her. But Keiichi sees that all he has to do to get rid of Rena’s mindset is to display trust and support. He says that since they are friends, he will believe that this horrific murder was the very very last thing she could’ve done. And then everyone puts their hands together, showing that they all trust Rena’s judgement and they will try to support Rena by continuing to be friends.
The best friend squad decides to continue being best friends who will support each other in their times of need, and also bury the chopped up corpses of the people Rena murdered. This show is so wholesome
But also, after realizing that the solution to Rena’s problem is communication, it becomes clear that everyone’s problems could’ve been solved if the friends just talked to each other about said problems. However everyone has something holding them back from finding help. Satoko doesn’t want her friends to help, Rena doesn’t think her friends would help, Keiichi thinks his friends are trying to kill him, and Shion has no friends. But if they had been able to get past these mindsets, they would’ve had the support of friends who they could talk through their problems with.
And so the main message of Higurashi is that even though you might not be able to prevent your friends from having struggles in their lives, you can still help them out by just talking to them. And if you are having a struggle, you don’t need to murder someone and cut up their body. All you need is someone to talk to. And if you have friends, then your solution is right there.
Other good horror anime often have a nihilistic and terrifying view of humanity. Shiki, one of my favorites, bases the most prominent part of its horror in themes around human nature. But while Higurashi’s horror is definitely very well executed, making good use of a good concept, its themes are ultimately extremely wholesome. And because of that, when you see Rena get talked out of her insanity, the first time this has happened for anyone, and the camera focuses on Rika, the person who had given up all hope, and she’s crying, it’s heartwarming.
Don’t beat your friends to death with a baseball bat. Don’t kidnap and murder them. Don’t blow up the school. Don’t kill your stepmom and chop up her body. Just talk to your friends.
But like, if you already cut up the body, then your friends can also help you deal with that too.
I forgot about the remake. I even rewatched the first few resets a few months ago in preparation! I'll be back here after that's finished 'cause I gotta watch it but for now I've got some words to add about the original.
An aspect you didn't cover that I rather liked was the paranoia Hinamazawa syndrome affects people with. It's something that comes up as early as the first reset, and happens in the next few too. Characters will say something that comes off extremely creepy and freaks the others out when the show is busy having these best friends murder each other and then, after everything's reset and all is peaceful, a character will say a very similar line but this time it's all friendly and there's no bludgeoning going on.
My memory is a bit hazy here, but if I recall correctly it's confirmed by the show later on that this was indeed paranoia, Keiichi murdered his friends with a bat even though they only wanted to help him. I don't remember how the show handled it's theme's but that seems like something that plays really well into the themes of friendship you brought up
I forgot about the remake. I even rewatched the first few resets a few months ago in preparation! I'll be back here after that's finished 'cause I gotta watch it but for now I've got some words to add about the original.
An aspect you didn't cover that I rather liked was the paranoia Hinamazawa syndrome affects people with. It's something that comes up as early as the first reset, and happens in the next few too. Characters will say something that comes off extremely creepy and freaks the others out when the show is busy having these best friends murder each other and then, after everything's reset and all is peaceful, a character will say a very similar line but this time it's all friendly and there's no bludgeoning going on.
My memory is a bit hazy here, but if I recall correctly it's confirmed by the show later on that this was indeed paranoia, Keiichi murdered his friends with a bat even though they only wanted to help him. I don't remember how the show handled it's theme's but that seems like something that plays really well into the themes of friendship you brought up
You're right, in the last episode (I think) of season 1 they show that Rena and Mion were trying to help Keiichi and were just drawing on his arm or something but because of Hinamizawa syndrome he thought it was a syringe. I think Hinamizawa syndrome could in a way represent the things that prevent the friends from seeking help from each other since it makes them paranoid
