The very nature of what I want to discuss here is a spoiler. Higurashi is one of the few shows where I think it’s important to not be spoiled. As I already explained when I declared season 1 the ideal Horror Anime.
This post will even spoil season 2. In fact it's more so about season 2. Though some important hints at the themes I'm discussing here are in season 1. October just started so it's as good a time as any to watch it.
Spoilers ahead.
Even the real intended title of this post is a spoiler btw.
Spoiler Alert!!!
How Higurashi/When They Cry makes the best Christian Allegory of any Anime.
I’m pretty sure it’s not intentional, the religious imagery of the show is all Shinto (but at the same time Hinamizawa’s local cult is not normal Shintoism which tends to consider even animal sacrifice taboo). But like Peter Hiett I like finding unintentional allegories for The Gospel in secular fiction.
[I had to leave The Gospel tag off this in order to not spoil it.] His main mission statement on why he does is in his Altars to the Unknown God sermon. And Ryan Reeves has talked about why Tolkien and Lewis looked for Biblical truth in Pagan myths.
Original Sin in this analogy is the Curse of Oyashiro-Sama which is ultimately revealed to be an illness, the Hinamizawa Syndrome. Which fits Brad Jersak’s suggestion that we should view Sin as a Disease in his Gospel Explained with Chairs presentation. An analogy that is Biblically supported by Matthew 9:12.
Hanyu becomes a willing Human Sacrifice to provide the cure which is connected to her bloodline and is deified as Oyashiro-Sama. Rika Furude can sort of be viewed as her Prophetess. Oyashiro-Sama is thought by the people to be a vengeful god, but she is really the exact opposite. Though she can get angry.
Besides being at the wrong time of the year (Summer rather than Autumn) the Watanagashi Festival happens to interestingly parallel Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement). The Sacrifice is like the Sin Offering and the cotton being sent to drift on the river is like the Azazel Goat.
But what really nails it for me is that as the second season approached it’s conclusion, Hanyu and our other protagonists are determined to save even the villain who caused all the problems. And that’s why I mentioned people who teach Universal Salvation above, because that’s what I believe as well. And this, like a lot of Anime, I like for how it shares that sense of unrelenting mercy.
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