However, I still think the episode could’ve been more effective if it was Hanyuu-centric (or even if the screentime were more evenly distributed), because while Rika learns the lesson, it was Hanyuu’s anguish that led to this chain of events. And I would’ve loved to see more of the background behind her struggle with that, and bringing Rika back one last time. Of course, if you do that, you change the whole structure of the episodes, but I think that would’ve been a fair trade off, and would’ve given us some real good Hanyuu character development.

With that said, the more I think about it, the more I feel like this was a really nice capper to the 1st and 2nd seasons. It feels “final.”

I think this works so well because we the viewer also always took for granted that Rika’s mom was never going to make it through. Now we are forced to ask why Rika never focused on saving her? Why did we too never think of saving her (or the other parents). This also means that the arc’s setup was the entirety of Higurashi.

They also do go into whether Hanyuu should really be resurrecting Rika all these times, but that’s an issue brought up to give finality to the story (as in there will be no more Rika dying and coming back for more murder mysteries). Besides, how mad can Hanyuu get at Rika getting run over. I mean, it was a freak accident.
.-= Michael | Low on Hit Points´s last blog ..Defending Haruhi, wrapping up Higurashi: Dice Killing Chapter, and final thoughts on Hatsukoi Limited =-.

I can understand why the latest OVA might leave some people dissatisfied taking into consideration that they were being released one by one each month just to let us know that it was all a dream in the end. Too bad that K1 only got like 5m in these OVAs and there were no soul brothers either. But despair not. I see that Ooishi, Rena and the others are going to be playing Mahjong. Oh Mahjong.
.-= keikakudoori´s last blog ..Saki #14 : what it feels like to be a supporting character =-.