Ehhhhh
kinda hard to "beat" child rape tho
Ehhhhh
Yeah, it's a little more than she doesn't want to study. When Satoko goes to Saint Lucia she literally has no one else to fall back on since the club was the really only family she had left. Since her grades are so low she's thrown into classes where studying is all, and everything she does with nothing else. She's basically stuck in a toxic environment where it's impossible for her to succeed, and yeah just like real life usually forcing people to cram for studying doesn't actually help them improve anything, especially if they have any sort of learning disability. As someone who has to deal with Inattentive ADHD I can personally vouch for that myself.While I have several problems with the show so far, this particular point doesn't bother me. It's not just that Satoko hates studying, it's that even if she does it, even if she spends like 5-6 years of torture (for her) to learn everything, next loop she'll still be stuck in St. Lucia. She will still have to attend the classes that she hates, she will never be able to make friends in that school, Rika will still hang out with her new friends a significant amount of time, etc. St. Lucia will never work for Satoko no matter how much she tries, basically. What she wants and what Rika wants are fundamentally incompatible.
I mean no matter how much you slice it, at the end of the days this drama is about two teen girls not wanting to go to the same high school (And the average teen is way more mean and self-assorted than Rika!!). Satoko can endure a bunch of loops (And they all include re-doing Matsuri every time, good thing Rika seem to be able to perform THE MIRACULOUS MOVEMENT THROUGH A DAMN TIME STOP CONSISTENTLY THAT WAS SO MIRACULOUS IT LITERALLY MADE HER THE WITCH OF MIRACLES!! every time) and 100 years of Rika's torture porn movie but 3 years at the school she doesn't even need to go is what breaks her.Yeah, it's a little more than she doesn't want to study. When Satoko goes to Saint Lucia she literally has no one else to fall back on since the club was the really only family she had left. Since her grades are so low she's thrown into classes where studying is all, and everything she does with nothing else. She's basically stuck in a toxic environment where it's impossible for her to succeed, and yeah just like real life usually forcing people to cram for studying doesn't actually help them improve anything, especially if they have any sort of learning disability. As someone who has to deal with Inattentive ADHD I can personally vouch for that myself.
The way Satoko gets used to dying quickly is likely meant to show her strong will.I read through Higurashi and Umineko for the first time this year and loved them both dearly (as in maybe my favorite games of all time dearly). I'm so disappointed in this show. Satoko was my absolute favorite character (she seriously left such a good impression on me) and I just can't believe what has been done to her character here. I empathize deeply with her experiences at St. Lucia, but the ease at which she became capable of murder and suicide (Rika was terrified almost every time she had to die in Higurashi even when she knew she would loop back) is just baffling to me. This isn't the Satoko I liked so much. Everything about this show seems so cynical and heartless compared to Higurashi/Umineko, and I don't see how R07 is going to correct that at this point. It feels so off brand.
I think it's a case of them trying to cram too many plotlines into one episode, and you're just bombarded with so much information it didn't really stick out as much as it should. Episode 8 was probably the best directed episode of Gou, and shows they're capable of getting Higurashi's themes across when they dedicate some time to it.The way Satoko gets used to dying quickly is likely meant to show her strong will.
I think the lack of monologues combined with the often bland directing in Gou hurts some of the stuff it tries to do though, when it doesn't involve events that can be visualized in a physical way. The Satoshi scene in the newest episode was clearly meant to be a big moment where Satoko left her old self behind and yet it just comes and goes.
What do I win for calling it? On a serious note, I hope the next few episodes give us a good answer arc.
AT-X's programming grade was updated for next month, listing Gou up episode 30. So, another cour seems basically confirmed at this point. Note that there is an interview with the director though where he reaffirmed that Gou is ending with episode 24, so we're likely getting a title change, like the early "Higurashi Sotsu" listing.
Keiichi has a literal progression from point A to B and finally C through the novel. He starts to remember other worlds which prompts him to not repeat his mistakes when confronted with the same situations. He's a rich character and the reader can understand why he changes and how, he knows killing Teppei is bad so he knows how to confront Rena about her murder in Tsumi and what to not repeat in Mina.First we get the Teppei-driven episode and next we'll get our Okonogi-centric episode, don't worry everyone.
I really can't take this episode at face value because there's definitely going to be too many catches attached to it with more context in the coming weeks that may make any incoming observation feel immediately dated.
That said,
It's very funny seeing some people online have grievances with the idea of Teppei "breaking character", wanting to change his life around after having photorealistic nightmares, the same kind that immediately would throw someone like Keiichi into deep anguish and despair. It would be like if someone called Scrooge "out of character" for turning his life around after being haunted by his ghosts and his impending death.
Looking forward to seeing how this plays out though because it should be interesting to compare him to another certain adult who has problems with kids in Umineko
Calling it a redemption arc is a bit of an overstatement. More like it's his first step to stop being a complete piece of shit. Still though as a twist it's pretty great, and completely changes our perspective of what really went down in the third arc, and they did a good job to make it seem genuine in one episode no less.Of all the things I expected this show to do, a fucking Teppei redemption arc was not one of them.
In some ways, that kind of makes it great. I kind of wish they spent more time doing out of left field stuff like this instead of the first half being mostly a rehash with slight twists.
Calling it a redemption arc is a bit of an overstatement. More like it's his first step to stop being a complete piece of shit. Still though as a twist it's pretty great, and completely changes our perspective of what really went down in the third arc, and they did a good job to make it seem genuine in one episode no less.
I think my issue with Teppei in this episode is that he has a change of heart because he sees himself dying.
While I can understand why that might make him change his habits etc it doesn't justify why he is suddenly nice to Satoko.
If he had seen a vision of his own actions against Satoko and vowed to be a better man who would never do that, then I'd get it.
Satoko was obviously right to tell him no though, even though he was acting nice he was still doing it for his own selfish reasons
Quite. This one is older but after the last episodes, it hits different.
I think my issue with Teppei in this episode is that he has a change of heart because he sees himself dying.
While I can understand why that might make him change his habits etc it doesn't justify why he is suddenly nice to Satoko.
If he had seen a vision of his own actions against Satoko and vowed to be a better man who would never do that, then I'd get it.
Satoko was obviously right to tell him no though, even though he was acting nice he was still doing it for his own selfish reasons
I think that's why it worked so well for me. It would've been weird if he felt bad for seeing himself hurting Satoko in other timelines. He already hurt her plenty in this one. The reason for his change being completely rooted in self interest is exactly why I can buy it. Everyone is afraid of dying alone, and I can buy a 40 something yo having an epiphany after a series of nightmares about it and trying to turn his life around so someone will take care of him when he's old. It's very selfish, but also very human and realistic. It's the same reason abusive parents tend to grow softer the older they get..
I also loved how it didn't work out. You can't just atone for years of abuse with a single apology and a promise to change.
I just wish we don't get a continuation of this plot line since I think it already works very well as a self-contained story, and that they managed to strike a balance that's very easy to mess up if they don't move on now.
Satoko is seemingly constantly testing the loop ability, so this probably wasn't the specific world of any Damashi arcs, but the accumulated memories might have an effect there.I wonder if this leads to the part where Oishi goes crazy and Keiichi deals with Teppei shown in a earlier episode.
Hmm yeah I like that way of thinking about it, that makes a lot of sense and does make Satoko's refusal at the end have quite a lot of impact.I think that's why it worked so well for me. It would've been weird if he felt bad for seeing himself hurting Satoko in other timelines. He already hurt her plenty in this one. The reason for his change being completely rooted in self interest is exactly why I can buy it. Everyone is afraid of dying alone, and I can buy a 40 something yo having an epiphany after a series of nightmares about it and trying to turn his life around so someone will take care of him when he's old. It's very selfish, but also very human and realistic. It's the same reason abusive parents tend to grow softer the older they get..
I also loved how it didn't work out. You can't just atone for years of abuse with a single apology and a promise to change.
I just wish we don't get a continuation of this plot line since I think it already works very well as a self-contained story, and that they managed to strike a balance that's very easy to mess up if they don't move on now.
Funimation forgot that Daylight Savings Time is a thing I guess and posted something that I think was meant to go up 30 minutes after the episode went live, but instead went up 30 minutes before.
Season 2, Sotsu, is real and airs in July:
So the last episode was just to illustrate that Satoko could take advantage of people remembering past loops and nothing directly related to her uncle?