#houjo satoko

[gabbyp09]

#oficial art #7th expansion #wtc #wtc series #higurashi no naku koro ni #hnkn #higurashi #higurashi when they cry #when they cry #ひぐらしのなく頃に #ひぐらし #ひぐらし卒 #@kataribe1388 #rika furude #furude rika #hojo satoko #satoko hojo #satoko houjou #houjo satoko #maebara keiichi #keiichi maebara #ryuugu rena #rena ryuugu #hanyuu #hanyuu furude #furude hanyuu #shion sonozaki #mion sonozaki #sonozaki shion #ryukishi07

[minty-muse]

Cute art from the inside cover of the gou anthology

#no twin pic that one isn’t cute #satorika #keirena #higurashi no naku koro ni #higurashi gou #higurashi no naku koro ni gou comic anthology #higurashi #rika furude #satoko houjo #rena ryuuguu #keiichi maebara

[mykatzone]

The girlies!!

#higurashi #shion sonozaki #mion sonozaki #rena ryuugu #satoko houjo #rika furude #hanyuu furude #katart

[witch-of-illusions]

So happy to see the entire club timeskip reuniting, even with new outfits! Wish their faces weren't hidden, but still...❣️

#higurashi #higurashi meguri #higurashi no naku koro ni #rika furude #satoko houjo #satoshi houjou #shion sonozaki #keiichi maebara #rena ryuugu #mion sonozaki

[crossoverheaven]

#When They Cry #Higurashi #Satoko Houjo #Scooby Doo #Mystery Inc. #Fred Jones #tumblr polls #poll

[minty-mewz]

The gay reaper sends frankenzombie rika to transylgaynia to get hitched with satokula

#higurashi no naku koro ni #higurashi #higurashi when they cry #satorika #when they cry #rika furude #hanyuu furude #satoko houjou #satoko houjo #satoko hojo #blood #fanart #my art

[ultraericthered]

The re-traumatization of Satoko Houjo

Following up from my last reblog, I want to really specify all the ways in which the Gou/Meguri manga has been doing far more justice to Satoko as a traumatized victim of abuse than the Gou/Sotsu anime, which just went for the stupid, cartoonish Enfant Terrible route with her. Most impressive is how for the most part, it’s all in the artwork.

Firstly, look at this part here:

The TREMBLE there as Satoko has bruised her own hand is telling. Bruises on her body are such an old, familiar sensation for her given how her aunt and uncle used to treat her. This is the first time in ages she’s felt it and while Looper Witch!Satoko finds it pleasurable, the traumatized human child she is deep inside is trembling with pain. And the choice of words, “appeal to uncle”, is interesting. Satoko understands how Teppei thinks and how physical violence is such a core part of who he is, even now. It wouldn’t be enough to just claim to him that she’d been hurt by bullies at school; her uncle would need to SEE the bruises, the aftereffect of violence that are so familiar to him, in order to be sold on the threat to his niece’s well-being. 

Then we have this part:

Method acting at it’s finest. Looper Witch!Satoko is pulling from not only the memories of human!Satoko (who the witch persona now looks at as simply a character she’s play-acting as for “the game” she’s in), but the emotions that accompany those memories which they may still evoke. She’s willing herself into the mindset of a child who has been horribly abused, traumatized, and wants to be saved. The child she was. The child she, way deep down, still is. (Also fuck Teppei, he is indeed repulsive and deserved that headshot he got.)

She actually fucking gags herself to bring out all the bile and vomit that was rising up in her thanks to her “acting technique.” The look on her face and in her eyes as she’s panting and going into a nervous breakdown, followed by the brief smirk and mad giggling, encapsulates the self-harming, masochistic nature of what Looper Witch!Satoko is doing and her own psychology towards it versus how it makes her feel on a subconscious human level. She hates it because it’s unpleasant, emotionally and mentally scarring and draining to be put through, but she loves it because herself on the brink of destruction makes her so pitiful and worrying to her dearest friends and found family in Hinamizawa, brings out a fierce desire to protect her and treat her with love and compassion. Satoko has long felt like she’s only deserving of love and warranting of her friend’s time and care when she’s an object of pity, a damsel in distress to be saved, a “tragic heroine”. Looper Witch!Satoko is that externalized.

This picture here really is worth a thousand words on what I just said:

Is it, Satoko? IS IT REALLY?

And then we see a specific reaction from her at two different points:

The FLINCH. First that, plus her horrified expression and trembling, is at the sound of her uncle roaring in rage, a sound that forever haunts her and shakes her to her core. Yeah, Teppei thinks he’s protecting his neice from bullies this time, but he’s applying the same wrath, intimidation techniques, and threat of violence he used to use on her in order to do so. The next time she flinches is when Rika is shouting encouragement to her to take her stand against her uncle, and brings up Satoshi. The talk of her brother who “always fought back” and “stood up against the abuse” is hitting Satoko different this time - because Satoko, deep down, recognizes that she’s once again suffering in silence and allowing her own abuse to be perpetuated, this time not by her aunt and/or uncle or even others in Hinamizawa, but by Eua and her own witch persona. She’s again lost in darkness.

Earlier into Rika’s phonecall, Satoko was smirking, so some who have a colored perception of Satoko at this point may have the interpretation that she’s faking everything and has her hand over her mouth to hold back laughter. But that’s not what ends up shown:

That clench. That squeeze. The deliberate artistic choice that, just as when she flinched back there, her upper face is darkened so that we cannot see her eyes. There is an internal struggle going on her. This is Satoko’s buried humanity acting up and trying to break back out to the surface, all while the witch persona tries to “get into character” without letting that “character” overtake her and mess up the whole performance she’d wanted to put on. Ultimately, we see the witch eyes and a smirk return to Satoko’s face, meaning the witch persona won out...except for one tiny detail. The tears. And had those tears stayed like that, it’d seem fake....but then Satoko cannot stop them.

Those tears are real, and the cry for help, those words “HELP ME!”, now ring true with an extra meaning. Satoko wants to be helped and saved from herself. She wants to leave the darkness of her warped psyche and subconscious and the metaphysical embodiment of her mental breakdown and the malevolent demon who empowered her with the looping ability all behind so that she can return to being the person she was, the person she needs to be, with the friends and family she needs to be with. And what really signifies that this is the inner human Satoko crying out from Satoko’s very subconscious? 

There’s the precedent established earlier. It’s happened before, when Satoko was not intending to really cry in the moment, yet still did because she’d been touched. She’d been reached. She’d been felt.

So this has been a great portrayal of a traumatized victim of child abuse who has willingly put herself on a self-destructive course by seeking comfort in her own trauma and stability in her would-be eternal childhood by controlling her own victimization and how the narrative of events and responses of others plays out from it, rather than seeking comfort, control and stability in what and who provided her the means for salvation and release from all that pain years ago.

(I will update this with reblogs as Satoko’s tragic tale continues.)

#When They Cry #Higurashi #higurashi no naku koro ni #Meguri #manga #Satoko Houjo #child abuse #trauma #emotional abuse #abuse victims #tragedy #tragic villain #great villain #poor girl #the woobie #good writing #opinion #analysis #tw:abuse

[jessu-uu]

「誰かの嘘がまた 誰かを傷つけ...」

#Satoko Houjo #Higurashi #Higurashi no naku koro ni #HigurashiWTC #Satoko #Satoko Hojo #ひぐらしのなく頃に #ひぐらしFA #higurashi Gou #Higurashi Sotsu

[evangelifloss]

#higurashi no naku koro ni #satoko houjou #higurashi #when they cry #satoko hojo #satoko houjo #wtc #ryukishi07 #polls #higurashi meguri

[veenavalart]

#Higurashi no Naku Koro ni #higurashi gou #higurashi no naku koro ni gou #satoko houjou #satoko houjo #furude rika #rika furude #higurashi spoilers #st.lucia academy #higurashi #When they cry #when cicadas cry

[gabbyp09]

#oficial art #@zorane_chama #hnkn #higurashi no naku koro ni #higurashi #wtc #ryukishi07 #7th expansion #higurashi when they cry #when they cry #when they cry series #ひぐらしのなく頃に #ひぐらし #ひぐらし巡 #ひぐらし業 #rika furude #furude rika #satoko houjou #houjo satoko #higurashi satoko #hojo satoko #higurashi rika #rika higurashi #rika wtc #wtc rika #satoko wtc #wtc satoko #higurashi gou #higurashi meguri #higurashi sotsu

[onewholivesinloops]

how does it feel to have entirely correct opinions about houjo satoko

it feels very good <3 and it feels even better when people boost my ego like this. please keep telling me i'm right about satoko houjou all the time. i already know it's true but people should say it anyway.

#garlandgerard #asks

[mykatzone]

Satoko commission for @girlwhodeceivesfate !! Tysm <33

#higurashi #satoko houjo #when they cry #katart #commission art

[crossoverheaven]

#Who Is Queen Of Manipulation? #Revolutionary Girl Utena #Anthy Himemiya #When They Cry #Higurashi #Satoko Houjo #tumblr polls #poll

[minty-mewz]

This is canon

#higurashi #higurashi no naku koro ni #higurashi when they cry #when they cry #satorika #hanyuu furude #rika furude #satoko Hojo #satoko houjo #fanart #my art

[ultraericthered]

Something else that’s really grinding my gears? This goddamn story arc currently running in the Higurashi Meguri manga, and that ran in the Higurashi Sotsu anime in 2021. I mean, questionable pervert-bait panels of underage Satoko aside, it seems strange to say this since I recently remarked on how well Meguri did with Teppei, and now with its recent update it’s continuing to do well with Ooishi too, and all throughout, our main star Satoko has just been an absolute delight, being very funny and endearing while also a deep, tragic character.

But those are all effective parts and pieces of a larger whole. In the anime, those parts being as surprisingly strong and effective as they were by Gou/Sotsu standards made Curse Revealing the highlight of Sotsu. In the Meguri manga, it and its earlier question arc are the weakest arcs in spite of the parts that work. In both versions, this question and answer arc pair falls short of full potential because they are, at the most fundamental level, not what they should’ve been.

It’s something I’d stated before: Again, neither version of this story arc got it 100% right, as it was doomed from the offset by being chained to callbacks to the original Curse Killing AND Massacre Chapters that have to be done twice and with a very, very gross and unsettling subversion at its core.

The “very, very gross and unsettling subversion” is, of course, the fact that Satoko, a canonical victim of child abuse from the OG story, is now lying about being abused to two separate parties who believe her and take the abuse/bullying allegations dead seriously and fight to protect her because they love and care about her so much...all set against a backdrop that mirrors the story arc from the OG story where the abuse was really happening to her and her friends really fought for her by rallying the entirety of Hinamizawa to the cause of helping her save herself from the abuse at the hands of her uncle, who in this new story is one of the many dupes Satoko is decieving.

It just does not work as a premise and is not only spitting in the face of Ryukishi07′s earlier (and far better) writing, but in the face of real life child abuse situations where the victim is suffering in silence, needs to speak out and needs to be believed, helped, and defended from their abuser. If you look at any such situation with the mindset of “well, what if the child is lying about getting abused and bullied so horribly and is just playing folks against each other for the lulzs?”, rescuing children from bullying and abuse that unreliable adults and systems enable and allow to befall them becomes that much harder.

For a “subversive take” on what went down for the bulk of the Massacre Chapter of OG Higurashi, this is all that was needed:

See, the latter is the reverse of the former, not a gross distortion of it. Satoko gets to lie and decieve and play others for suckers in her game against Rika while not having to rely on being dishonest about something that was very real and very serious in the original work.

#When They Cry #Higurashi #higurashi no naku koro ni #Gou #Meguri #manga #Satoko Houjo #teppei houjo #karaudo ooishi #opinion #criticism #bad writing #child abuse #they wasted a perfectly good plot