Sawyer the Cleaner

Artist Unknown

Anyone have a source?

Sawyer the Cleaner

Artist Unknown

Anyone have a source?

Hanyuu/Featherine connection

I was meant to make this theory a long time ago and never actually did it. Well, now is the right time! So this is it, my theory of how Hanyuu and Featherine are connected and actually the same person!

So, my theory is that, given that Featherine is extremely old and was stated to have died and revive multiple times, she lived as different people. Hanyuu lived 100 years in the past and could be Featherine first life (we know that for a witch couple of days can be years for them, so imagine how old Featherine is). At some point she reincarnate with the form of the Featherine we know in Umineko and there are probably millions of years of differences between her and Hanyuu in Higurashi.

In the Umineko manga adaptation of episode 6, when Lambda talked about Bernkastel past (clearly showing Rika cough cough), we can also see Hanyuu, which Lambda refered as Bernkastel’s master and a “bad one”. It’s implied that Hanyuu was the game master of the game taking place in Higurashi behind the scene and caused a logic error. Instead of solving it she pushed it on Bern (Rika). This is most likely why Rika had to revive the same month for 100 years until she solved the logic error, aka find a miracle to defeat Takano’s power of certitude (granted by Lambda), and became Bernkastel the witch of miracles. So yes, in a way, Bernkastel did defeat Lambdadelta. 

It’s mentionned in Umineko that Bernkastel wandered the sea of Fragments endlessly, searching for any Fragment that can revive her master from the pits of death called boredom, if even for a moment. Eventually, the cat revived her master. Bernkastel seemed surprise to see Featherine alive at the end of episode 6, while understand that she must have come back to life. If Bernkastel already brought back Featherine to life in the past, we can assume that she died multiple times.

We know in Umineko fantasy characters often have human vessel. I believe that Featherine first “vessel” was Hanyuu (Hai-Ryūn Ieasomūru Jeda). After a vessel dies, Featherine can’t interact in the human world anymore, therefore she has to “revive” in a new form. She probably has lived many lives between Hanyuu and Hachijo. And when I said Hachijo, I mean Hachijo Ikuko AND Hachijo Tohya. In Umineko, Hachijo Tohya (as the pen name of Ikuko and amnesiac Battler) is stated to be the human vessel of Featherine, but I do believe that in the past it was Ikuko. We know Ikuko was a writer who seemed to have lost inspiration in writting until she met amnesiac Battler. I do believe that in the fantasy world, her losing her will to write resulted in Featherine death of “boredom”. Then, when they both became the writer Hachijo Tohya, Featherine was resurrected. 

Lambdadelta did mention that Featherine’s disk around her head got damaged and she lost part of her memory and as a result her personality and appearance changed. I strongly believe it’s the Hanyuu we saw in Higurashi with Rika.

Some interesting points from the wikis:

- When roughly translated, the two kanji that make up Hanyuu’s name (羽入) translate to “feather” (羽, hane) and “in” (入, iri) which, when put together, more or less make up the name “Featherine”.

- The first two katakana shared by her middle and last names, “Au” (アウ), are also used by Hanyuu as a catchphrase, “auau” (あぅあぅ). Bernkastel herself calls attention to this, referring to her as “AuAurora”.

- The name of Featherine’s human incarnation, Hachijo Tohya (八城　十八), contains two wordplays: An alternate reading for the kanji in the name Hachijo (八城) is “yashiro”. Coupled with the honorific “o-” prefix, this becomes “Oyashiro”, the more commonly-known name for Hanyuu. The name Tohya (十八) is composed of numerical kanji, numbering 18. Breaking down the name “Oyashiro” into syllables (o-ya-shi-ro), each syllable is one possible reading for the numbers 0, 8, 4, and 6. Adding these numbers together results in a sum of 18.

- Another possible allusion to Hanyuu is the fact that Bernkastel is Featherine’s miko while Rika was Hanyuu’s miko.

- Featherine is a transcendental being which could correspond to Hanyuu being a god. Additionally, Featherine has a habit of calling humans “Child of Man”, something Hanyuu did when speaking as a god. It is noted by Lambdadelta that, at one point, Featherine’s memory device was damaged, and as a result she suffered a change in appearance and personality. Hanyuu’s left horn has a distinct crack on the top, strengthening the link between the two.

(ps: I know Hanyuu’s left horn having a crack is related to her backstory and not Featherine’s disk being damaged, but it still may be a nod of them having a connection.)

I checked the source for that (it’s in Japanese) and it’s an interview by Ryukishi7. He seems to imply that Hanyuu may have wanted for Rika to remain in the timeloop so she wouldn’t be alone. Source

I just want to specify that I do not think the Hanyuu we saw in Higurashi is the Featherine we know in Umineko. As I said earlier, I do believe that this Hanyuu is an amnesiac Featherine after getting her disk damaged, as mentioned by Lambdadelta. I don’t think Hanyuu was evil or maliciously deceiving Rika, but it seems obvious that she wasn’t that great either and did manipulate Rika in a way for her own interest, which was to not be alone. She’s the reason why Rika went through hell and why Bernkastel, the cruelest witch, even exist. Hanyuu isn’t evil, but she might be an irresponsible and selfish person.

I’ll leave it there. I do have a theory regarding Hanyuu and Featherine for the 2020 Higurashi anime but I’ll keep it for another post. Thanks for reading and don’t hesitate to leave me your thoughts!

Rika/Bernkastel theory and analysis

Hey there! So here’s a Higurashi/Umineko analysis regarding the connection between Furude Rika and Bernkastel. Spoilers for both series, you have been warned.

Let’s start with what we know. According to Ryukishi, Bernkastel is the crystallization of all the universes where Rika died and that Bernkastel separates from Rika in Saikoroshi-hen and became a separate being. But, in Twilight of the Golden Witch, Lambdadelta said that Bernkastel was originally a cat who was turned into a witch, that she’s wandering the sea of fragments, searching for fragments that can revive her master from the pit of death called boredom. Both seem like totally different origins, but what if both could be true at the same time? Let’s theorize and analyze that.

So first, let’s talk about Bernkastel in Higurashi. She’s better known as Frederica Bernkastel. We saw her in the manga adaptation, after one of Rika’s death she ended up in the sea of fragments, and met Bernkastel who introduced herself as Frederica Bernkastel. She looked like Rika and dressed like her, but had the dead-inside eyes just like Umineko Bernkastel. I believe that this Bernkastel was the same as the one in Umineko, simply younger (100 years old instead of 1000), so basically a baby witch. She was cold and gloomy but didn’t seem particularly cruel. Insensitive yes, but not sadistic like the Bernkastel we know. That’s probably because despite all the horror she went through, she wasn’t trained to become cruel (I’ll talk about it later). But how did she come to be? Well, I suggest you read my Bernkastel vs Lambdadelta first fight analysis, but I’ll recapitulate here. Higurashi was most likely a witch game between at first Featherine (as Hanyuu) and Lambdadelta before Hanyuu committed a Logic Error and forced Bernkastel (actually Rika) to solve it, resulting in her being trapped going through the same month for hundred of years until she reached a miracle. So when the Logic Error started, an alternate version of Rika living outside the fragments was created, becoming the player instead of Hanyuu, and decided to give herself another name, Frederica Bernkastel, to dissociate herself from the human Rika. Her and the piece Rika shared the same memory and were both calling themselves Frederica Bernkastel. So, the one that will become Bernkastel was the player in the meta-world while the other was simply Rika. Funny thing, Frederica is a pun with Rika’s name, Furude Rika. Anyway, after the event of Saikoroshi-hen, Rika decided to stop being the witch Bernkastel and simply be a human, thus severing the connection between her and Frederica Bernkastel. I suppose Hanyuu regained her memory and become Featherine again and decided to make the witch Bernkastel her miko, travelling together in the sea of fragments to find new worlds to explore to cure their boredom.

Then what I deduce happened is that Bernkastel eventually completely dissociate herself from her human self and wanted to bury her past, thus giving up on the name Frederica and only calling herself Bernkastel. I believe it was implied in Umineko that Featherine trained Bernkastel to seek for fragments and “rip them opened”, giving Bernkastel a taste for blood and making her more and more cruel. She probably spent thousands of years doing that, being forced to hurt others and eventually being conditioned to enjoy it made her the cruel and sadistic Bernkastel we now know (and love). Bernkastel may suffer from a certain PTSD regarding that as she hallucinated cats eating raw meats while they were actually eating regular food, showing how much Featherine’s treatment broke her mentally. Bernkastel had two trauma: the Logic Error and the way Featherine treated her, and they both broke her and made her the cruellest witch.

Then what about the cat backstory? I did say it didn’t contradict her backstory of being Rika’s witch form. Now, let’s examine this scene from a human perspective. Featherine is the witch form of Hachijo. Higurashi happened in 1983, while we met Hachijo in 1998, making it 15 years. What if, when Bernkastel separated from Rika, a black kitten was born and adopted by Hachijo? And also named Bernkastel. Since Bernkastel lost her vessel that allowed her to materialize in the real world, Featherine would have given her a new vessel that was close to her own human vessel Hachijo. So Bernkastel (still Frederica Bernkastel at that point) become Featherine/Hachijo’s cat (and grew a tail, which she didn’t have in Higurashi), and later she became the Bernkastel we know, therefore Lambda didn’t lie, the current Bernkastel was indeed originally a cat. And Hachijo did say the cat was old, I believe 15 is pretty old for a cat (a cat is considered old at 7).

Then what about the Frederica Bernkastel we saw at the end of Higurashi meeting with Tanashi Miyoko? The adult one. Well, that one isn’t related to the Umineko Bernkastel. It’s most likely an adult Rika who gained the ability to travel back in time or between worlds. In other words, a witch. So it seemed that as an adult Rika decided to be a witch again and by preventing Miyoko’s family death (I think?), creating possibly the world without sin (Saikoroshi-hen), which would ironically create the other Bernkastel (well, separate her from Rika and become her own person). So this Bernkastel is a totally different person than the Umineko one, she’s an adult Rika that embraces her witch self and decided to travel through worlds.

So, in conclusion, Bernkastel is born from Rika’s despair through the event of Higurashi and the Logic Error, she became her own entity at the end of Saikoroshi-hen, she became Featherine’s miko and therefore, Hachijo’s cat who is her new vessel, and Featherine shaped her into the cruellest witch. Frederica Bernkastel used to be her name but she dropped the Frederica at some point, renouncing to her humanity, and an adult Rika became Frederica Bernkastel later, and both are different people.

I think I’m done, that concludes my theory regarding the connection between Rika and Bernkastel. Don’t hesitate to tell me your opinions, and don’t hesitate to follow me for more Higurashi/Umineko theories!

What Lambda is picturing awfully looks like what happened to young Miyo.The toilet, the rope, the haircut…Coincidence? I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure they are related, my guess would be that Lambdadelta is the witch form of Tanashi Miyoko borned from the “hell” she went through (the orphanage). I know the author said that Lambda and Takano aren’t link, but here’s the point: He said to Takano Miyo, not Tanashi Miyoko. Even if it’s the person, the author’s intent could have been to trick by playing with words. My theory is that after she’s been rescuded by Hifumi, Miyoko left her past behind her and decided to become a new person by changing her name. Basically Lambda would be born from Miyoko’s torment in the orphanage and the seperation happened when Miyoko wrote “34″ on the car window (which can mean Lambdadelta or Miyo), so this moment “split” Miyoko in two, her human self (Takano Miyo) and her witch self (Lambdadelta), who both have the same name (34). In conclusion, the author didn’t lie. Both Miyo and Lambda are related to Miyoko, but they aren’t related to each other directly. 

What do you guys think? Don’t hesitate to tell me!

Higurashi/Umineko: Bern and Lambda first fight

Hi there! Been a while I haven’t made a Umineko analysis. Well here I am back, and this time it will be about the connection between Higurashi and Umineko regarding Bernkastel and Lambdadelta fight.

We learned in Umineko that Bern and Lambda fought in a game in the past, that Lambda used to be the strongest witch in the world but lost her title to Bern when she defeated her. Many speculate that this fight was actually the event of Higurashi, with Rika as Bern’s piece and Takano as Lambda’s piece. I do believe it’s the case, but that the truth is more complex than that.

Let’s start with the connection between Lambdadelta and Takano Miyo. I do believe that Lambda is Takano witch form (well actually, Tanashi Miyoko witch form) but whether she is or not is irrelevant for this analysis, if you’re interested go see my Lambdadelta/Takano analysis. What mattered is that it is confirmed that Lambdadelta granted Takano as a child with the power of certainty. What does that mean for the Higurashi story? Well, it is what caused the event of Higurashi to happen Why? Because it is because of certainty if Takano kept winning and succeeding in killing Rika and basically everyone in Hinamizawa. And this certainty of winning caused the event of Higurashi to happen, since Rika’s goal is to survive and beat certainty.

So how does the game started? Well, I think Featherine started it. Well, not actually her. Remember when Lambda said that the device around her head contains her memory and that it was once broken and her appearance and personality changed, probably because she lost part of her memory. I believe she goes back to one of her previous life, which is Hanyuu. I’m going to talk more about it in a future analysis of Featherine and Hanyuu. So, the amnesiac-Featherine-now-Hanyuu met Rika and they become friends. But unfortunately, Rika died. Hanyuu probable used her power to go in another world (kakera) so she can be with Rika again. But because of Takano’s certainty to win, Rika continued to get killed and Hanyuu travels to another world again.

I believe that at some point Hanyuu realized that there was something supernatural about Rika’s constant death and eventually met Lambdadelta and decide to fight her in a game so Rika could remain alive. But she committed a logic error, which I think is claiming that Rika can survive, which is a logic error since certainty makes it 100% chances for Takano to win. But instead of solving the logic error herself, Hanyuu entrusted it to her piece Rika, who started keeping her memory of past worlds. This is I believe the logic error Bernkastel was trapped in, being forced to continue to same month until she finds a way to survive and create a miracle. This is the logic error she went through as a human and solve, thus becoming the witch of miracles. Lambda did they that the Game Master behind their fight was a bad one and put Bernkastel through her logic error, and in the manga it looks obvious that it’s Hanyuu. Rika won by making Takano doubt herself, thus losing her certainty, allowing her to reach a miracle and survive her fate. Bernkastel is born from all the worlds were Rika died and separate from Rika after her victory, becoming her own entity. This is how Bernkastel technically won a fight against Lambdadelta and become the strongest witch. Featherine probably regained her memory after that and made Bernkastel her miko and becoming her master.

So this is pretty much it. If you have any comment don’t hesitate to share, and I may work eventually on a Featherine/Hanyuu and Rika/Bernkastel analysis. Thanks for reading!

“Look, I’m magic too!”

Shkanon

Another Umitober round 

some stickers