OK, I can understand to some extent the pulling of School Days ep. 12 from the air, if it had an axe murder, or something along those lines, as seems likely. (And that’s the very thing fans have been longing for too!) But the pulling of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai is a knee-jerk reaction. It shows that those TV station managers in Japan have no understanding of what the anime series their stations are airing are all about anyway. Yes, Higurashi season one could be violent and disturbing, but by the end the basic message of the show should have been very clear: hope and the ability of friends (the all important Japanese nakama) to overcome their sad fate. This is not an easy thing to do, of course. The many episodes of Higurashi Kai where the friends struggle to save Satoko were all about that difficulty and the need for everyone to come together. With that focus, those episodes that were shown before the series was “axed” didn’t need to display a lot of overt bloodshed. Instead they were more psychological, emphasizing Rika’s moods and her fluctuations between hope and despair.
Of course, one can’t deny that season one was often an orgy of violence. Keiichi mashes his friends to a pulp in Onikakushi-hen; then later, in Tatarigoroshi-hen, there’s child abuse and Keiichi again commits murder; and Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen feature a variety of murders and torturing. But the last few episodes of Higurashi Kai have been free from on-screen murders. Now, certainly the title of the current arc, Minagoroshi-hen, indicates a massacre to come. I don’t know how bloody that would be, but as I’ve said, Higurashi seems to have moved beyond the need for outright graphic violence. And importantly, it does not celebrate violence. You could argue that the plot of School Days encourages a desire in the audience for a bloody retribution against the insensitive Makoto. Higurashi, instead, reveals the tragedy that can be generated by misunderstandings among comrades, especially when they are manipulated by a clever villain. Now we have a real-life misunderstanding about what Higurashi itself represents. By pulling this series, the TV networks will give a very wrong impression about the nature of an often troubling, but complex and thought-provoking drama.
Loading ...
I think the problem is less that the stations don’t understand the show and more that random non-fans who might be channel surfing don’t understand the show.
I’m sure the TV stations would be more than happy to stick to their regular broadcasting plans if they weren’t worried that somebody would try to sue them, or that the media would latch onto the issue and give them a ton of negative press.
They’re just trying to protect their business interests - their bottom line.
So they won’t be showing any more Higurashi Kai episodes?
Well, one can argue that this is part of the ongoing smear campaign against otaku culture. Blame the visible while not addressing the true problem. Far easier to do that…
Orion >> I know they had their business reasons, I just wonder how necessary it really was, particularly if the next episode did not even have violence in it. Then there would not even have been a real danger of outraging channel surfers.
Tyrenol >> I don’t know if it will return to TV or not. Maybe it will if the current bad publicity dies down, but I don’t know enough about the climate in Japan for these sorts of issues or if there are any past precedents. At the very least, I’m sure it will appear on DVD.
lanie-emon >> Otaku culture seems to be in an odd position in Japan: on the one hand there’s a lot of negative perceptions of it, but at the same time there’s the increasing popularity of Akiba and maid cafes and the like. And then there’s the government promoting anime and manga, and seeking to use them in cultural relations with the world.
Well lets keep our fingers crossed cause they might be showing the final episode of school days after all