Second day
Progress: Higurashi Arc 1, End of Chapter 2.12 + Full Cast Review
Kyougokudou, Kyougokudou, why hast thou abandoned me?
That was my only thought earlier in the day when I wrapped up Chapter 1. Higurashi has left a detective shaped hole in my heart, making me wish deeply for someone capable of assembling all of the suspects and boldly declaring something along the lines of the culprit is here in this room among us at that moment. Indeed, it might be accurate to call Higurashi’s structure the result of having a detective story without a real detective. It seems like a simple deviation from convention, but it is quite novel in execution. So long as our characters are acting merely out of self preservation rather than any intention of becoming crime solvers, it lavishes the suspense and thrills on nice and thick without having to invent too many contrivances to keep various mysteries unsolved.
Let’s talk about that point on thrills a bit more. In my previous post, I did not spend almost any time talking about the parts of Higurashi outside of its mystery elements. That is to be expected, it is my bread and butter. If you don’t want to talk about mystery fiction, you are really in the wrong neighbourhood. That said, I do hope I can correct that at least partially in this post.
Visual novels really are a great medium for horror. There’s all sorts of compromises to have to be made in order to keep a story suitable for the medium, and sometimes I wonder if many visual novels would not have been better suited as long-running novel series — especially in genres like sci-fi. But horror really does belong here. The particular kind of dread that is captured in a suspenseful scene where the player is the one that controls the flow of dialogue, the advancement of the action, but is powerless to stop the oncoming terror… It is just something special.
While chapter 2 toned down the horror elements, and I won’t call Higurashi’s horror writing a particular achievement in the long history of the genre, this visual novel has a great sense of how to make full use of its medium. It knows to slowly build suspense through its audio-visual elements in perfect synchronisation with the rising tension of its story. Its gently pushes the accelerator lower and lower, picking up speed in time with the audience’s ravenous curiosity to learn what exactly is the secret behind so many of its characters; and then suddenly, the screeching sound of breaks as a scene will turn towards a horrific turn of events, dripping with dread: No matter how much you want to know what happens next, there’s a tinge of anxiety when you click forward, wondering if something unexpected will shock your senses again. It is a simple but addicting formula which was hardly invented here, but is at least executed with just the right sense of itself in order to effortlessly keep you on your toes.
But what has really stood out to me in Chapter 2 much more than Chapter 1 is how well Higurashi makes use of its characters. That wording is quite deliberate, because I do find some aspects of the character writing frustrating here. They are not nearly as deep as they could be, the various sides to their personalities are extreme to a fault, and the moe elements are frankly outdated in their execution. That said, Higurashi has shown a real talent for giving these characters interesting things to do. The kinds of things which seem to effortlessly bring out the best in these characters.
Mion and Shion are not characters with the depth, internal logic, and charisma necessary to say that they could thrive in just about any story. When I leave Higurashi I will not find myself thinking about Mion and Shion as though they were real people who penetrated my heart and made me think of them as such. That said, the story these two characters go through in Chapter 2 is damn compelling and brings all of the most interesting aspects of their characters to the forefront.
Then who was Mion?
Perhaps the most understatedly important Japanese mystery writer of modern era is the short story author Kaoru Kitamura. Kitamura was the leader of a movement towards expanding the mystery genre beyond the bounds of murder, towards a greater range of puzzling narratives and situations. This style came to be known as “everyday mystery” writing, and has been a staple in Japan ever since, especially in the form of short stories.
Why the sudden non-sequitur? Because the influence of the everyday mystery style on visual novels, especially of the bishoujo and dating sim genres, has been palpable. Many conventional means for building drama and stakes within a romance story exist, going back centuries: The will they/won’t they dance, the love triangle, meeting the family, lifestyle drama, among others. However, dating sims made the decision to kick a lot of these to curb. Instead, the romance is generally intermixed with an everyday mystery style where the protagonist must first uncover a mystery relating to the background of the heroine, and in so doing learn of their romantic interest in the heroine.
Higurashi Chapter 2 is a shining demonstration of the strengths of this style, while also having the guts to abandon it when the time is right, and move on with its own style confidently. Frankly, even while I sing the praises of dating sims for making use of another genre’s convention to reach for a new style of their own, it is a pretty haphazard effort. Rarely are the mysteries which drive such romances compelling or well done in their own right. Higurashi, however, is able to display an impressive deftness and genre savviness with such conventions when given the opportunity.
The crux of the effectiveness of the Mion and Shion switcheroo subplot is not merely the way it is told, but the self-awareness to rely on the effect of the previous Chapter on the audience. Ordinarily, the proof that Shion is her own person would be staring the audience in the face, who can only curse Keiichi for his foolishness in jumping to such an off conclusion. However, in the previous Chapter, the audience has experienced the erratic depths of Mion’s behaviour first-hand, and has been left intrigued by the possibilities surrounding her mysterious background. In such an environment, the possibility that Mion would be willing to fake the existence of a sister is no trivial possibility.
Of course, despite that, the foreshadowing is sufficiently comprehensive such that the audience can unravel this mystery ahead of time quite easily. It is a laid-back level of difficulty, as is appropriate for any everyday mystery, which should be as comfy and casual as it is suspenseful. The genius of this Chapter is how the events of this subplot rhyme and reverberate throughout the whole narrative. From the first few subchapters right through to the epilogue, Higurashi is delving deeper and deeper into the consequences of a few simple events on the character of Mion, and how her hidden anxieties and responsibilities all build upon one another to make her the person she is. That is good, disciplined writing.
Like any good mysteries, whenever Mion or Shion are revealed to have swapped places in any context, it is a satisfying reveal, but because of the added character context, it affords the savvy reader who can spot the switch early the chance at greater understanding of move of these characters. Indeed, in the epilogue, as soon as they rescued Shion from the Sonozaki household without locating Mion, every mystery nerve in my body fired at once in instant concern, having been well trained by switching triplet maids and the like. Even before reaching the end, I was an instant subscriber to the theory put forward in the Full Cast Review that the sole culprit of the events of the epilogue was “Shion”, who could have suitably been either one of the sisters during this time depending the precise rules of this setting.
What the future has in store
Speaking of the setting, we got plenty of juicy worldbuilding details this Chapter. However, we haven’t been given the answer to probably the single most important question, within which every other mystery of Higurashi is co-dependently nested: Is the world of Higurashi supernatural or not? Without the answer to this question, there is an air of uncertainty about every possible speculation that can be made.
The other biggest impediment to understanding is the question of motive. Last post we discussed the late Queen problem, a genre savvy way of articulating the challenge posed by any mystery with a plot that is constantly unfolding and never giving the audience the chance to take stock of the full set of facts. Another means by which this is achieved other than merely introducing new physical evidence is the withholding of motives.
Even with an open and shut case on the question of howdunit, if the question of whydunit remains unresolved, the author can always shift the answer to the question of whodunit. In other words, if the motive is unknown, the apparent culprit can always turn out to be an unwilling cog in the machinations of the “real” culprit, the one with a motive for the crime. Therefore, even as we gain ground on understanding many of the individuals secrets of Higurashi, the lack of a clear motive for the murders which pile up each Chapter leaves us unable to ascertain the real culprit and the real nature of the mysteries. Despite that, I will engage in some speculation.
Impressively hidden in Chapter 2 is an important confirmation: It is indisputable that no single mastermind is behind every murder in the Higurashi series. Even as we uncover a string of murders committed by “Mion” in order to defend the village, it did not escape my attention that the original murders committed on the night of Watanagashi were not merely not on the list of incidents that “Mion” admitted to — she was just happy to take on that guilt by assumption and implication. “Mion” and “Shion” both have strong, if not ironclad, alibis for the time of the murder of Jirou Tomitake. This fact among others leaves me totally convinced that Tokitake was murdered by a third party each Chapter for a reason unrelated to the machinations of various factions to protect the village from outside influence.
My strongest doubts have, from the start, been on Miyo Takano. She had opportunity, her status as a nurse gives additional credibility due to the likely use of a drug as the murder weapon, she fits the nature of a closed circle of suspects, and she is the most important, active party standing outside of the power struggles of the Three Families. The evidence of a physical struggle complicates this theory, but it is hardly impossible that Takano had help in the physical act of the crime. There is just one problem with this theory: Miyo Takano was bafflingly “murdered” a day before her disappearance and the murder for which I suspect her. More so than any other piece of the puzzle, this murder has me stumped. I have gained a functional if incomplete picture into every other mystery that has been present in Higurashi thus far. However, I just cannot make heads or tails of how or why Miyo Takano was murdered.
Certainly, I can’t rule out the possibility of her death being faked, likely by herself. I have no clue how easy it is for a nurse to fake dental records, but it can’t be impossible. However, even in that case, things remain baffling. Why was the murder faked for the wrong night? Surely with such an elaborate scheme, it would have been possible to fake the correct time of death. And if it wasn’t faked, that is only more baffling. Because Takano was very much alive on the night of Watanagashi.
We are still far from the point where all of the clues can be arrayed, when I have any chance of making progress with these speculations. Indeed, we are still in the “questions” arc, so in many ways the investigation is still ongoing. However, one thing above all others has become clear in reading Higurashi. Ryukishi07 knows how to write an authentic style, conventional mystery. It is just an open question whether he wants to tie things up that neatly, or whether we’re in for a wild ride of possible supernatural shenanigans and historical conspiracy. I am still firmly in the camp of believing that there are concrete human suspects, who committed these crimes in comprehensible, logical manners. I guess we’ll see how right that is in Chapter 3 and beyond.
