January Updates + Wataakashi DVD Commentary Summary

Hi everyone!

I hope 2022 got off to a good start for you all! I'll jump right into video updates. I'm currently refining my notes right down ready to write the script which is not as far along as I'd hoped to be by now, but my planning document ended up at nearly seventy pages, so that would be why (there is something very wrong with me). I'm still not sure what the runtime for the actual video will look like and thus how long it will take to edit it together, but things should start moving fairly quickly in the next few days once I'm past this bit.

As I said before, it took a long time to decide to make this video and I was quite apprehensive about it, but I'm really glad I decided to in the end. It's been an absolute killer, definitely the most work I've ever put into a video, but I feel confident it's going to be a really worthwhile end product. Completely contradictory to what I originally promised, I have actually ended up pretty much breaking down the entire show, and I have some other interesting tangents to go on too. I'm at the bit now where I'm ruthlessly cutting out anything that doesn't flow with and benefit the overall analysis, but I'll probably be going through my thoughts on each arc in turn. You'll see I've also included what will probably be the final thumbnail. And that's not all!

One of the reasons for my slow progress these past few weeks is right at the end of last year, the Wataakashi DVD was released, and I found out only then that it came with audio commentary on the last two episodes of the arc by Ryukishi07 and Satsuki Yukino. Seeing as I'll be talking about Wataakashi a fair bit in the video, I decided I needed to buy it and translate it in case there was any important insight into the creation of the arc, which took a considerable chunk of time -- I've never done anywhere near this much Japanese translation before.

Bits and pieces will crop up in the video, but this is a purchase I was only able to make thanks to the support I get from you all (the DVD is quite exorbitantly priced), so I've included a full summary of the commentary here exclusive to patrons. I hope it's a fun little bonus that will help to tide you over until the actual video is out!

It's hard to justify buying these DVDs if not for video research with how much they cost and translating them is very time-consuming but I would also be curious to know, if I were to do another of these, which Sotsu arc you would all be most interested in me doing it for (there were no commentaries for Gou). Anyway, I'm going to get back to work, so without further ado:


WATAAKASHI DVD COMMENTARY SUMMARY

DISCLAIMER: The commentary tracks consist of Ryukishi07, Satsuki Yukino (Mion and Shion's seiyuu) and Chiaki Matsuzawa (a TV announcer who is a knowledgeable Higu fan and has been acting as a host for a lot of stuff like this for the series recently) watching the episodes and casually discussing them. As such, there's lots of parts where people speak over or interrupt each other or where they flit between topics randomly without finishing thoughts as scenes change etc., and so there are often times where it's quite hard to hear/follow what's being said. Ryukishi in particular speaks SO quickly and unclearly (he has a habit of slurring like ten words together). Basically, I've done my very best to make sure everything here is accurate, but I'm not fluent in Japanese, and can't 100% guarantee I haven't made any mistakes. I've pretty much clarified/omitted anything I'm unsure about, though.


Episode 5

• Matsuzawa-san starts off being like "Why did Mion have to become like this?". Yukino-san agrees and says she was totally unwilling to do the arc lol. She's joking around, more being like "Why did this have to happen to Mion 😭" than "Why did you write this" to Ryukishi, but either way, she makes clear she was really reluctant (one of her lines basically translates to "I feel like, why", which, yeah). She jokingly says "Please don't use Mion as a test subject", presumably talking about Satoko putting Mion through all this, but maybe it applies to Ryukishi, too. (The tone is generally very light all through these conversations with lots and lots of laughing and joking even as they talk about serious topics. Ryukishi seems to get on really well with the seiyuu cast, as they do with one another.) Ryukishi says Mion is in a position where she knows about everything going on behind the scenes in the village, so it's hardest for her to be (naturally) suspicious. She is not a naturally suspicious person. That's why Mion won't develop the Syndrome by ordinary means. Shion, on the other hand, is a bit more prone to it, as she's sort of unstable/anxious. Yukino-san says yeah, Shion has an intense/fierce personality.
• Matsuzawa-san asks how all this was for Yukino-san, seeing as this is the first time this side of Mion has come out. Yukino-san says she had to say things that felt impossible (that Mion would never usually say), and so it was difficult for her to process. Matsuzawa-san says that maybe that was what it was like for Mion, too. The conversation suddenly changes here before Ryukishi can weigh in because the curry battle scene comes on.
• They joke for a bit about Chie being scary and there's also something said about Satoko and traps I couldn't catch, but it didn't seem important. Ryukishi also says that up until this point Mion has been the one character who when she’s onscreen, you think everything is going to be fine (so basically she's a relieving presence -- when Mion's onscreen, you can relax, but Wataakashi challenges this status quo).
• The scene where Mion says "I'm home" to the doll comes on and everyone says how cute she is. Yukino-san says "乙女, 乙女", or basically, "She's being so girlish". Matsuzawa-san says this is the most girlish/girly we've ever seen Mion being. Yukino-san says she thinks she's always been like this, but we're seeing it more than before.
• Ryukishi says Mion is (historically) the character who seems to be the most suspicious, but isn’t actually involved in the conspiracy at all. He says it's standard (in mysteries) for there to be characters who seem unimportant, but turn out to be the culprit. Mion, a character who is the next head of the Sonozakis, a criminal family, was basically created with this idea of seeming suspicious, but turning out not to be. In the past, Ryukishi had to hide her true feelings and make her look mysterious, but this time, people who have been watching for a long time know that she's an honest girl ("素直な子") who doesn't have a hidden side to her ("オモテウラがない"). Then he says something like because Mion is like this, Wataakashi has all its emotions (anger, joy, sadness etc.) depicted more straight-forwardly than the other arcs.
• Yukino-san says Mion and Shion have been switching places since they were kids so they must be very good at pretending to be one another, and it's amazing that even their family don't notice. Matsuzawa-san says this time, it's easy to understand who's who. Ryukishi says it was hard when it was just the storyboards, but looking now (at the finished product), he could see that this or that scene look like Shion, but aren't Shion. The facial expressions and gestures make it easier to understand. Yukino-san says it was difficult to find the balance with how much Mion should act like Shion. (Though at the same time,) before, the script would say “Shion pretending to be Mion” etc., but this time, it was all just “Mion”, so that was much simpler. Ryukishi says Yukino-san basically has to play four characters, not just Mion and Shion but also Mion pretending to be Shion and vice versa, and that this is very advanced. He says it's amazing that she can play all these roles with the same energy. Yukino-san says it's difficult to recreate the same energy twice, so she likes to record for the two parts as close together as possible. Matsuzawa-san says it's amazing to think she records them close together because for us, we're seeing her as two completely different people. Ryukishi says that it's not just that their voices are different, but that they have their own unique way of saying things/expressing themselves, and that Yukino-san has done a great job at conveying that.
• I think Matsuzawa-san says here that the atmosphere when Mion or Shion are with Keiichi is also different. She says that we know Mion loves Keiichi (she uses the phrase "恋愛感情"), but what about Shion? What she says/is asking about Shion isn't quite clear, but Ryukishi says that Keiichi, for Shion, is basically a toy she's interested in playing with. Also, it's because Mion is interested that she’s interested too. If Mion loses interest, she will too. She’s having fun and picking on Mion a bit. I think he also says Shion is getting involved with Keiichi to punish(?) Mion a bit (not clear on the word he uses).
• They all mention how Shion's feelings for Satoshi weren't really relevant/didn't "come out" this time. Ryukishi says there's a part of Shion that wants to believe that Satoshi is still alive somewhere, and there's a part of her that wants to look forward as a human being and continue to live in a world where Satoshi is gone. Yukino-san says you can see in this arc that Shion is trying to live a "positive life" and not fall victim to suspicion because, for example, it's her first time getting a stun gun from Kasai (she asks for/has it before this point in the original). Ryukishi says that if it wasn't for the extreme illness of Hinamizawa Syndrome, Shion would have been able to slowly come to terms with her feelings of waiting for Satoshi and living in a world without him. He seems to really want to make clear that when the characters fall to Hinamizawa Syndrome, this is the worst version of themselves and they act in ways they wouldn't be capable of otherwise. He says that if Satoshi does come back, Shion will welcome him home(, but she's living her life either way, basically). He also says this is a story where "the spotlight is on Satoko", so he didn't really have time to write about Satoshi and Shion. More accurately, he basically makes a joke about abandoning them a little bit. He says it like he feels bad or is even perhaps aware people were unhappy about this, but he's more talking about not having time to write a storyline centred on either of them here, rather than talking about not involving them more in Satoko's story. Yukino-san says this kind of thing can be left up to the viewer's imagination, and Ryukishi seems to say he'd be grateful if viewers can take his constraints into account a little in terms of not having time to explore every character.
• There are some random jokes here about Ooishi while the scene where he's telling Shion Takano and Tomitake took off is on, and some stuff about Takano. Ryukishi jokes about how Takano's research of Hinamizawa's history is a "pure/genuine hobby/pastime" ("純粋な趣味") (as in she has this kind of pure love for it). Entering the Saiguden is like the culmination of her research, going into this place nobody else can go into. Yukino-san says it's like the final thing she has to do. Ryukishi says yes, and now she knows she might be arrested (after betraying Nomura's faction), she comes to her senses, confesses everything to Tomitake and they escape in the truck.
• Matsuzawa-san says she wants to ask why Ryukishi abolished rules X, Y and Z this time around. He says he's had a lot of people tell him they want to erase their memories of playing Higurashi and enjoy it again with a fresh mind, so he thought it would be a good idea to show a Hinamizawa where rules XYZ don't exist at all, where there's a new set of rules. Yukino-san says you really don't know how this loop will end (for this reason). Matsuzawa-san says she wonders if there's even 1% chance of getting the right answer this time around (Ryukishi marketed Higurashi with the tagline "Correct answer rate 1%" for a while when the VN was being released, which is actually true based on the first 100 emails he got with theories about Onikakushi -- I found this out here). Ryukishi says he wanted everyone to have fun getting fooled together, but it is possible (I couldn't hear this whole sentence).
• The scene where Shion phones Keiichi after they snuck into the Saiguden comes on. Ryukishi says that in the past, this scene was written from the perspective of Keiichi, but now it is written from the perspective of Shion, and in that sense, it's quite symbolic of the overall theme of this work in terms of flipping things around. Matsuzawa-san says it feels like the power balance between Mion and Shion was reversed this time. He says that just as Yukino-san pointed out, in this fragment, up until now, Shion hasn’t ever become the demon-like version of herself and committed murder. Rather, this time Mion has an outbreak and becomes a murderer, so yes, the power balance is completely reversed.
• I had trouble understanding this bit, but it seems like Matsuzawa-san asks Yukino-san if it's strange/difficult for her to act this very different Mion. Yukino-san says she treats each fragment as a new life. Ryukishi says yes, each piece/version of each character is different/new. Yukino-san says it's easy as someone who plays the role to think, "I don't want to die again!" but the character themselves are living a new and unique life, so even if there's vague memories of what they were like in other fragments, she tries to disregard those thoughts (and act each character as a new version of themselves?). Matsuzawa-san says it's amazing that the performers can erase their memory like that.
• We're at the dreaded Mion killing Shion scene, and Ryukishi says in the old version of this arc, Shion goes after Mion, so again, it's a complete reversal. Matsuzawa-san says it really is the complete opposite of both the Mion and Shion we've seen so far. Ryukishi says that you can really see the way Mion and Shion "go crazy and break" is different. When Shion becomes a demon she's ruthless, but for Mion, there are moments when she becomes ruthless, but then she starts to regret it and returns to the very precipice of her other self/the rift between the two identities, then becomes ruthless again. She has this indecisiveness that makes her frightening. Matsuzawa-san says it's kind of like she's trying to suppress it but it's still coming out. Yukino-san says she thinks (L5) Mion is like a pale blue flame ("青い炎").  Ryukishi agrees, and says it's this instability that's so scary about (L5) Mion. It's a quiet fear.
• It seems like Matsuzawa-san asks whether any other characters were planned to have the Syndrome or something to that effect. Ryukishi discusses what would happen if Kasai reaches L5 a bit. He says because of Kasai’s fighting background, it would be kind of like an (action?) movie. It sounds like he says Kasai would be focused on protecting Shion. Yukino-san asks whether his outbreak wouldn’t have anything to do with Akane. Ryukishi says Akane is a woman who is out of reach for Kasai ("高嶺の花"), and that a storyline like that (with L5 Kasai focused on Akane) would make Kasai (too?) like Shion (in being driven by love), but I couldn’t really follow this part, I might have misunderstood.
• The last few minutes, various random things are brought up. Ryukishi mentions again the idea that a really hot flame isn’t red, but pale blue, and that this story brought out that scary side of Mion. They joke about how it’s Kasai’s fault that Oryou dies because of the upgraded stungun. Finally, Ryukishi says something about how this is a story about a supernatural being giving Satoko, who is dealing with this uniquely/quintessentially adolescent problem of her school life, an impossible power. He's said before that Eua is basically the real evil of Gou/Sotsu, in that she takes advantage of Satoko at this lowest point and gives her this power rather than letting her solve her problems in a human way.

Episode 6

• The episode opens with Mion carrying Oryou’s body so they talk and joke for a while about how hard it is to carry a corpse (😭). Yukino-san talks about it in some detail and Matsuzawa-san jokes that she’s put a lot of thought into it. Ryukishi says acting isn’t just about reading words but conveying these kinds things as well, after all (like the strain of carrying a body).
• They get onto the topic of how heavy Rika’s body would be (RIP) and talk for a while generally about how shocking some of the scenes in this episode are. Ryukishi basically says he was really surprised when he saw the storyboards too, and something like, “I can feel that the anime staff are awakening in a crazy direction, and I'm wondering what to do!". As I understand from interviews etc., the way that Gou/Sotsu went was Ryukishi wrote the original plans for the story (I have no idea how detailed these were), then Passione completely took over in terms of realising the story visually and made the storyboards, then they gave the storyboards back to Ryukishi to approve before they made each episode. He describes how, for the scene where Mion disposes of Rika's body, he had envisioned more of a manhole cover in an outhouse from which sewage is collected, rather than a literal toilet, and when he saw how Mion stamps Rika into the hole, he was amazed (in the horrified sort of way). It's not clear whether the stamping was Passione's insertion (I hope so), but either way, my general understanding from everything he says here and has said elsewhere is that he definitely did not expect the anime to be so graphic/disturbing. He wanted Passione to do their own thing with it and none of this is to say he was unhappy with what they came up with, but he was surprised at certain things in both the storyboards and the final product (he definitely mentioned somewhere that he didn't realise Satoko had an orange jersey on in the St. Lucia prison scene, for example). Yukino-san acknowledges that the audience were shocked, too. (I've attached some examples of the storyboards for Episode 5 to this post, which were included with the DVD.)
• We’re still on the Kimiyoshi torture scene, and Ryukishi mentions that the nail-ripping scene is very famous (I’m guessing he means in the original). He then reveals he experienced having his nails peeled off when he was in junior high. Matsuzawa-san is like, “You did it yourself?!” and he laughs and explains it happened while he was at summer camp learning how to catch rainbow trout (I couldn’t understand what actually happened, it sounds like it must’ve been to do with a fishing line or wire or something, but Yukino-san and Matsuzawa-san made lots of pained noises while he was recounting it lol). He says he wrote the scene remembering this, and it seems his pain was transmitted to everybody who has never experienced having their nails peeled off (lmfao, from everything he’s said over the years Ryukishi seems to pull a lot from personal experiences in his writing). Yukino-san says that she’s never had her nails peeled off, but that when she takes a bath they get really soft and sometimes sort of bend inside out (Ryukishi screeches here), so she remembers that pain when acting the scene. Matsuzawa-san says they’re linked through their nail pain, and it makes the scene more painful to experience for readers. Ryukishi is like, “This is a horrible conversation, sorry, let’s talk about something else".
• We’re at the scene where red-eyed Rika speaks to Keiichi and then Satoko comes over and asks him to play with her and the other kids. Matsuzawa-san says it feels really different seeing Satoko now (knowing the truth). Ryukishi also says Rika thinks she knows everything here, but she doesn’t, and now Mion has heard all the suspicious things she said to Keiichi. He says Rika would never expect what’s going to happen, because she has never seen Mion succumb to Hinamizawa Syndrome in her entire journey through fragments.
• They talk about how it’s striking that Mion cries while she’s killing people. Ryukishi says the director wanted to show a different kind of madness to Shion’s kind (I’m not clear on whether Mion crying was the director’s choice or his, just that he mentions the director specifically). They talk about how Mion is, of course, sad to be killing her friends. Yukino-san mentions the line where Mion says she’ll kill herself when everything is done. Ryukishi says that she sees this as a pain that has to be endured to put an end to the evil of the village and the curse. The final part of her mission will be to kill herself, too. He says it’s very intense/heavy. Yukino-san notes that she puts Keiichi before everything else. She says that for L5 Mion, if it’s to protect Keiichi, she can even kill her friends or sister, but she has to make this decision within herself that it’s a necessary thing to do to protect him, or she can’t do it.
• We're at the Rika outhouse scene now, and they talk for a bit about their experience with these sorts of outhouse toilets (lol). Ryukishi reiterates that he was shocked when he saw the storyboards. Yukino-san wails while Mion stamps Rika into the toilet.
• Mion is saying one of her many "I need to protect Kei-chan" lines and Matsuzawa-san murmurs to herself, "Yes, that's what she's thinking/feeling right now". Ryukishi says Mion and Shion are both delusional because of their love -- not that it's just this, but as a response to Matsuzawa-san. Matsuzawa-san muses that for Mion it's love, but also her obsession with ending the evil in the village, the sense of responsibility she feels, lots of things. Yukino-san agrees.
• Yukino-san jokes that Rena is kind of useless this time around. Ryukishi jokes that by the time she finds out what's going on, everything's already over. He also jokes about how Rena had to work so hard digging those holes to bury the corpses, but Mion has the well in the underground Saiguden, so it's really quick to get rid of the bodies. Yukino-san mentions how this is the first time we've seen the well looking/being used like a well and Ryukishi agrees, but then they get distracted by a scene change.
• They talk about various unrelated things for a few minutes like making phone calls to friends on home phones (because the scene where Mion calls Keiichi comes on). Hard to understand, but I don't think I missed anything important.
• Yukino-san notes how it's misleading that Ooishi's men look like the Yamainu (when they're staking out Mion's house). Ryukishi says yes, it seems like it's the Yamainu, but it's not. He says he thought that people who remembered rules XYZ/were fans of the original would be watching Gou/Sotsu assuming the Yamainu were going to be doing suspicious stuff behind the scenes, but they're actually not doing anything -- it's a trick. Matsuzawa-san asks about his thought process behind things he changed and kept the same as compared to the original. Ryukishi says that during the -damashi arcs, his aim was to make it look like everything was exactly the same, even though it was actually reversed. He wanted things to appear the same, but actually, the essential roles of the characters were completely different from before. The very first thing he wanted to do was to trick people into thinking it was a remake.
• At the scene where Keiichi arrives at Mion's house to confess to his sin, Ryukishi says that when he wrote this scene in the original, he felt a staggering amount of empathy/emotion. He said it was the first time he had that sensation of going into the zone, just writing and writing. He says it's really hard to describe, but it felt like he was flying into the sky. When he sees this scene of Keiichi going to the Sonozaki house, it really brings back those feelings for him. Matsuzawa-san says that's how important the Sonozaki family are to the story, after all. Ryukishi says yes, they're at the centre of the world of Hinamizawa. Still, he says, when the original series was over, the Sonozakis had been proven to be innocent (insofar as their involvement with the curse). The Sonozakis were meant to seem mysterious, but then we find out Mion is just a normal, honest girl. He's already revealed that that was a trick (so it was a bit tricky to undo that in Gou/Sotsu? Or that was why he did it? I'm not sure). Yukino-san says, "She's just a good girl". Ryukishi says how when he was blessed with the opportunity to do Gou/Sotsu, he knew he wanted to put the spotlight on and delve deeper into Rena and Mion's characters.
• They get to the bit where Keiichi busts open the cell Mion locks him in, and they joke about how strong he is. Yukino-san mentions how Rena died in Onidamashi/akashi but Keiichi survived even though he got stabbed so many times. They laugh about this for a while and Matsuzawa-san wonders whether Mion even needs to protect him (lmao).
• We're finally at the last face off between Satoko and Mion. Yukino-san mentions how beautiful this scene is visually, with all the red. Ryukishi says it's cool, and that Satoko and Mion is a unique match-up and rare clash we've never seen before. Matsuzawa-san says there's something game-like to it, these two people who love games facing off against one another. Ryukishi says Mion and Rena are usually together and Satoko and Rika are usually together so getting to see a scene like this between these two is really fresh.
• Yukino-san says the way Satoko kicks the gun is really cute. They also talk about teenage Satoko, and how womanly she is. Ryukishi says it's all thanks to the character design and staff. He says he always thought when he was writing that Satoko would be the most beautiful when she was grown up.
• The episode ends with the sound of the final gunshot and Satoko and Mion's bodies and there's a sort of awed silence at how impactful it is. Matsuzawa-san jokes that she wants it as a postcard, then says that sometimes the more tragic something is, the more beautiful it is ("美しく"). Ryukishi says it's true that a woman in a kimono with a gun beside her and a shoji screen behind her in the sunset is a picture that's very Hinamizawa-esque.
• Matsuzawa-san is concluding the commentary when Yukino-san interrupts her to be like "HERE! HERE! Satoko looks so sexy!!!" (yes, "エロい") during the scene from the ED where Satoko and Rika are lying next to each other. They talk about this before when they talk about how womanly teenage Satoko is -- she seems to be very fascinated with Satoko's waist. They laugh at her and Matsuzawa-san asks her for her final thoughts in the last few seconds. She says that she thinks Mion did her utmost to keep living, moving forwards, surviving. She half-jokes that maybe if just Keiichi is alive, that's enough for Mion/she succeeded.