Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – Onikakushi-hen [3-4]

Just a friendly warning, this is one of my “Past Series” blogs so in order to avoid confusion from this and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, please use the sidebar and select the proper choice under Past Series to avoid the confusion as well as get the other part of this arc if needed.

Episode 3 – Suspicion Summary: This is where everything starts to go wrong. Keiichi wakes up and upon hearing that Rena is outside waiting for him, he claims that he is sick and that she should go on ahead without him. Keiichi heads off to see Dr Irie and is given a shot and told to take the day off and rest. As he leaves the building, he overhears some woman gossiping about the nurse named Takano who was spirited away by the demon, however they think she might have just run away.

As Keiichi is walking home from the medical building, Ooishi drives past him and offers to buy him lunch which he accepts. They head to a small cafe and Ooishi tells Keiichi information about the murders and their connection to his group of friends.

• In the first year, Mion got into a fight with the Construction manager of the dam and he was killed
• In the second year, Satoko’s parents were big supporters of the dam project and was killed
• In the third year, Rika’s parents who were neutral to the dam project were killed
• In the fourth year, Satoko’s aunt was killed and her brother Satoshi disappeared

He also mentioned about what had occured in Rena’s old school. At her previous school before she was moved to Himizawa, she destroyed every window in her school. She was sent to a psycologist and she kept mentioning the name Oyashiro-sama. It was also discovered that Rena used to live in Himizawa before she moved away for school.

Later that night, the doorbell rings and outside is Rena and Mion with a box of 5 ohagi. Mion claims her grandmother made four and Rena made another one and that his club task was to pick out the one Rena made. She also interrogates him in the evil tone about having lunch with Ooishi and what he talked about.  When they finally left him alone, he attempted to eat an Ohagi which had a sewing needle in it. He throws it over the wall.

That morning, he is walking to school early without Rena when the men in the white van attempt to run him over which ends up narrowly missing him. When he gets to school, he decides he must protect himself so he steals a baseball bat from the locker and starts to practice his swings. Satoko seems upset about this for reasons mentioned shortly and Rika warns him not to lose the bat.

When the rest of the group is getting ready for their club, Keiichi is already ready to leave and tells them not to follow him. Alas, Rena follows him and he orders her to get away from him. She warns him that he is doing the same thing that Satoshi did before he was “Transferred”. That evening, Keiichi calls up Ooishi and tells him about the Ohagi. Ooishi tells him to find the needle but he is unable to find anything relating to the needle or Ohagi anywhere in the house. As the episode ends, there is a ringing at the door.

Episode 4 – Disturbance Summary: When Keiichi answers the door, Rena is standing there with some dinner she prepared for him. He says that his mother made him dinner yet she could tell he was lying. She grabs onto the door chain and tugs at it in an attempt to open it. Keiichi takes it a little bit too far and slams the door in her fingers while she is saying sorry over and over again in her normal voice (This to me is on my list of one of the worst things and violent things I have seen in Higurashi).

Keiichi runs upstairs to the phone and gets back on the line with Ooishi. He asks him a little bit more about Rena and he learns that not only were all the windows smashed in her old school, but there were three male victims who were her friends at the time and yet too scared to report her. While he is talking, Keiichi goes over to his window and closes it. He also notices Rena staring up at him saying the same words at him over and over… Sorry. The next morning, Keiichi is once again outside the school practicing his swings and Rena walks past him without talking to him at all however Mion comes over and warns him to stop swinging the bat.

Keiichi loses it and accuses Mion and everyone else of lying to him about everything. He gives her some of the information he found out from other sources without mentioning names and she apologizes for not telling him sooner. She is however angry that Ooishi was giving him information and that she should have killed him when she had the chance. The only reason why she let him live is was because he was retiring.

While he is walking home from school, the mental Rena comes up to him, despite his best attempts to hide from her and is carrying an axe. She mentions Satoshi and that she was unable to save him and that she will try and save Keiichi also. She mentions that it is not a human causing the murders but it is the god Oyashiro. Of course, Keiichi doesn’t believe any of this and knocks her down while she is laughing like a crazy person. While he is running away, he runs into the men from before and he runs away from them in the direction he came. The men manage to catch him and they knock him to the ground.

Keiichi wakes up in his bed with Rena sitting infront of him. She says that she has called the director and that he will help him. Mion also enters and they both agree to do the punishment game that they had to do for the Ohagi. (Dunno why Keiichi just didnt stay at school, I don’t think they would have done needles in the schoolyard). They pull out a syringe and Rena holds him back. They inject him with the needle and suddenly he has the bat in his hand killing both of the girls. Keiichi is traumatised over this and is now regretting it. He finishes his note and attaches the syringe with the drug they injected him with also.

Outside, Dr Irie and then weird men are outside, waiting for Rena or Mion to answer the door. Keiichi sneaks out the back way and into a phone box. He calls Ooishi and mumbles illegibly what had happened. Ooishi sends his men to where he is but it is too late. Keiichi is dead before they get there. He died by clawing at his own throat. They found the letter he wrote however the syringe was missing and a part of the note was ripped out. Keiichi was named as the suspect but there was nothing but the note.

He claimed that both Rena and Mion were working with some other men

He had no idea why they were after him

His last wish is for the reason why this happened to be uncovered

The episode ends here

Review: What can I say about these two episodes… They were both really traumatic and it really leaves you to wonder if Mion and Rena really did this or if it was Keiichi with some sort of Dementure/Himizawa Syndrome that is causing it. Whatever it is, it was really sad to see the ending of this arc but it was interesting to hear Rena’s laugh which will always be remembered.

The quality of these episodes seem to be different than Kai. Kai seems to have less issues that are seen in these episodes and focus more on wrapping storylines up which I think I only saw in the first arc of Kai this series. Of course, that is what Kai was meant to do but it was interesting to see how it all started as some of you may remember, before I started Kai, I hadn’t even heard of this series and put it on my sometimes blogging list. I am very glad I kept watching it.

I will bring you the next arc soon and I will do it in whole arcs to make it more of a cache of information on each arc.

Related posts:

1. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Onikakushi-hen [1-2]
2. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai – Episode 7
3. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai – Episode 13
4. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai – Episode 5
5. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai – Episode 12