Backlog Dialogues

Alternate Episode Title: Furude's Eleven

It's time to plan a heist! The club prepares for the fight of their lives, for the sake of Hinamizawa and everyone who lives in it! But before we can do that, a bit more movement of pieces along the game board is required. Ooishi's character arc hits its finale in one of the best scenes in all of Higurashi, and the hype builds as we go through this penultimate section of Matsuribayashi, in preparation for tomorrow's festival!

(For bonus fun, here's a link to the insane house on Zillow that we can't stop laughing about in this episode: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1201-Marble-Way-Boca-Raton-FL-33432/87660584_zpid/)

Alternate Episode Title: Rika Explains it All

As we cross the vast seas of possibilities, the winds shift around us. Whether it is a tailwind giving us support, or a headwind buffeting us and hindering our progress, these shifting winds help determine our course, our fate. What risks we take, what chances we see, and how we sail with the wind determine our fate, and our existence.

With these thoughts, we close our discussions on Connecting Fragments, and chart the path to the true Matsuribayashi.

This week on Backlog Dialogues, we set up the game board.

As a person lives, they take on many burdens in their life. Whether it's as simple as a watermelon too big to take home on a bike, as thoughtful as a large teddy bear as a birthday present, or as complex and hindering as the weight of ones sins, that person needs to let themselves accept the help of others, for no burden is so easy that anyone can bear them alone.

Unless you're Takano Miyo, and are completely ignoring all the burdens you're building up in mad pursuit of your goal.

This week, we help each other take the load off.

Fifty fragments lay before you. Within each, a morsel of knowledge to build the understanding needed to reach the ideal June 1983. It will be a long process to sift through them all.

Which is why we need to do this in three parts.

Sorry.

This week, we cover the first seventeen fragments of Connecting Fragments, Ryukishi07's bizarre TIPS minigame that stands between us and the true Matsuribayashi, and look at the themes of the rot at the heart of the village that creates the circumstances that allow for a bad actor to appear and potentially destroy it.

The Mastermind has been revealed, and her god complex laid bare. With her unbreakable certain willpower, she is forcing the inevitable murder of Furude Rika, and the destruction of Hinamizawa. She wants nothing more than to tear god from his throne and be revered above all else. Truly, she is a monster for the ages... right?

Would it make you happier if she had a good reason?

A thousand little tragedies build upon each other to create big tragedies. Nothing happens in a vacuum. There are no good people, and there are no bad people. There are, however, bad ideas, and bad ideas can linger for generations.

This week, we look at the tragic life of a brave woman who stood in defiance of a cruel god that tests people with tragedy, and the seemingly innocent bad idea that led her to become the one who would destroy a village...

We're going more obscure with this minilog as we explore the 2013 cult classic anime Gatchaman Crowds and its 2015 sequel season Gatchaman Crowds Insight. We look at this history of the Gatchaman franchise and Tatsunoko Productions in general before we start discussing this strange, political, and highly prescient twist on the Superhero story, where protagonist Hajime Ichinose sets the rules and deals with internet trolls awakening individual will and friendly orange aliens granting sentience to the collective subconscious. And most importantly of all, we explore what it means to be a hero in a complex society based around the liberal democratic ideal of building consensus, as well as the dangers of populism and going with the flow. Yeah, it's THAT kind of series. Watch it!

We've made it to the end of the penultimate arc of Higurashi When They Cry. With this, all things have been revealed, and we are left to discuss the aftermath. As we prepare to go to the final world, we consider how Minagoroshi has been adapted, and discuss the greater context within When They Cry in the spoiler filled postcredits discussion. Where can we go from here?

Will. The power of the individual to influence people and events. This has been at the core of Rika's cruel fate all this time. As she has seen her friends muster the collective will to save Satoko, she too has found her own strength of will to defy her death once more.

But even the collective willpower of a village may not be able to overcome a will forged with certain conviction. A will backed by a far greater power than a single village will crush all beneath it. It would take a miracle for one to survive against such a force. A miracle backed by an equivalent amount of will.

This week on Backlog Dialogues, we confront the true Will behind the tragedy.

Politics. The science and art of convincing others to do what you want them to. For many, it's a dirty word, a thing to be avoided. But if you want to save the life of a child, if you want to change the nature of a village, if you want to tear through fate itself, it is a skill one must master. But even more important than mastering the skill is knowing who to use the skill on. To save Satoko, Keiichi must convince the head of the village herself to change her mind...

This week on Backlog Dialogues, we bring the greatest challenge to its end.