Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni - Rika & Hanyuu - "Haunted"
+++ 13 tracks with music by: Murder By Death, Portishead, Poe, Nine Inch Nails, Emilie Autumn, Eisley, Wilco, Tori Amos, Massive Attack, Terami Hirsch, Kate Bush, Radiohead, and Hotarubi Kakeru. +++
+++ Poems by Frederica Bernkastel originally appeared in the Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni games, and were translated by the members of the AnimeSuki Higurashi forum; more can be found here. +++
+++ Images come from a variety of places, including the Higurashi Image Thread on AnimeSuki, Memento, Anime History, and t_instone. +++
This mix contains spoilers through the end of Minagoroshi-hen. I know a few spoilers beyond that point, but did not intentionally put anything in there that alludes to that. So if you are up to date with the anime's most recent episode (16), you should be all right. The mix does contain probably some slight spoilers for things that are in the game but not in the anime (well, Frederica Bernkastel, at least.)
I decided to do something slightly different with this mix; instead of writing comments for each song like I usually do, I decided to only use pictures, and also the poems. Hopefully they will convey the ideas I have about the songs and how they relate to Higurashi.
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I was the most unfortunate.
I knew that there was no exit out of this maze.
Then, he was the next unfortunate.
He did not know that there was no exit out of this maze.
But all the rest weren't so unfortunate.
They didn't know that they were in the maze in the first place.
-Frederica Bernkastel
01. MURDER BY DEATH - END OF THE LINE [x]
The wait, it is over, this bottle is done
So we clench our fists and fight our demons
Lay low, keep your head down
Lay low, listen for the sound
of the dusty train that's coming
to sweep us all away
I can hear the rails come rattling
Against the hectic fray
So set the bone with a cardboard splint
And strike the nail against the flint
And set the fields on fire
Let the devil come, let him come
I'll be waiting for him this time
I am stronger now and I can fight it
I'll be waiting at the end of the line
At the end of the line
02. PORTISHEAD - MOURNING AIR [x]
Did I see a moment with you
In a half lit world
I'm frightened to believe
But I must try -- if I stumble, if I fall
I'm reaching out in this mourning air ...
Have I got the strength to ask
Beyond the window
I feel this fear alone
Until we have total honesty,
If I tremble or fall
I'm reaching out in this mourning air ...
03. POE - HAUNTED [x]
Come here, pretty please
Can you tell me where I am
You, won't you say something
I need to get my bearings
I'm lost, and the shadows keep on changing
And I'm haunted
By the lives that I have loved
And actions I have hated
I'm haunted
By the lives that wove the web
Inside my haunted head
04. NINE INCH NAILS - EVERY DAY IS EXACTLY THE SAME [x]
I believe I can see the future
Because I repeat the same routine
I think I used to have a purpose
Then again, that might have been a dream ...
I can feel their eyes are watching,
In case I lose myself again.
Sometimes I think I'm happy here.
Sometimes I still pretend.
I can't remember how this got started.
But I can tell you exactly how it will end.
Every day is exactly the same,
There is no love here and there is no pain.
Every day is exactly the same.
05. EMILIE AUTUMN - DEAD IS THE NEW ALIVE [x]
Dead is the new alive
Despair's the new survival
A pointless point of view
Give in, give in, give in, give in
You play the game
You never win
So take me now or take me never
I won't wait
You're already late
So say goodbye or say forever
Choose your fate
How else can we survive?
Dead is the new alive
06. EISLEY - INVASION [x]
And they will try to make us forget ourselves
One by one, one by one
Call me crazy but they are after us
One by one, one by one
You don't have to know the truth
If you believe it
I believe it, too
And ooh, something's not right
I can feel it inside,
Something's not right
You would take the breath from my throat
And you would take the cherished people that I hold
07. WILCO - HOW TO FIGHT LONELINESS [x]
How to fight loneliness?
Smile all the time
Shine your teeth 'til meaningless
And sharpen them with lies
And whatever's going down
Will follow you around
That's how you fight loneliness
I wanted to know the world that was outside of the well.
So I tried hard to get out from the bottom of the well.
I wanted to know the world that was outside of the well.
So I climbed up numerous times despite falling down over and over again.
But then I realized it.
The higher and higher I climb, the pain increases when I fall down again.
When my interest in the world outside of the well began to equal the amount of pain,
That was when I finally realized the meaning of the story to Der Froschkönig.
-Frederica Bernkastel
08. TORI AMOS - STRANGE LITTLE GIRL (THE STRANGLERS) [x]
One day you see a strange little girl look at you
One day you see a strange little girl feeling blue
Walking home in her wrapped up world
She survived but she's feeling old
'Cause she'd found all things cold
Strange little girl
Where are you going?
Strange little girl
Where are you going?
Strange little girl
You really should be going
09. MASSIVE ATTACK - SLY [x]
I feel like a thousand years have passed
I'm younger than I used to be
I feel like the world is my home at last
I know everyone that I meet
Somewhere in the music I can hear the bells
I heard a thousand years before
There's always more
There's always more
Wondering is this there all there is
Since I was since I began to be
Wondering, wandering
Where we can do what we please
Wondering
10. TERAMI HIRSCH - TIME MACHINE [x]
I've been gone more than I've stayed
Haunting where we've been
Touching and not touching
To feel again...to feel again
Four walls closing in
Writing words upon my skin
Makes a book you say
I wonder where the end begins
I will walk, dishevel all the snow
Depressed by years of travel
Listening to the myth of fingerprints
I let it all unravel
Like a deck of cards with no dealer
Like a sleeper waking from the dream
Hopscotch to a better boulevard
Give me peace...give me peace...give me peace
11. KATE BUSH - RUNNING UP THAT HILL [x]
And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
Be running up that building,
Say, if I only could, oh...
You,
It's you and me,
It's you and me,
We won't be unhappy.
12. RADIOHEAD - STREET SPIRIT (FADE OUT) [x]
This machine will not communicate
These thoughts and the strain I am under
Be a world child, form a circle
Before we all go under
And fade out again and fade out again
Cracked eggs, dead birds
Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see it's beady eyes
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out again
13. HOTARUBI KAKERU - DEAR YOU -HOPE- (RIKA AND HANYUU IMAGE SONG) [x]
Nokosareta mirai ga mou sukunakute mo
Taisetsu na mono o mamoritooshitai
Sono tame ni wa kami-sama ni sakarau koto mo
Mayowazu itowazu ni tsumi o okasu
Natsu no semi no you ni hakanakute mou sugu watashi wa shinu to shite mo
Anata no soba de waratte hoshii shiawase o kudasai
Mou ichido hajimemashou
Kondo wa kitto shiawase na ketsumatsu o kitaishite
Semete saigo no sono toki made
Zutto yasashiku hohoende irareru you ni
Even if there aren’t many futures remaining anymore
I want to protect the precious things to the end
For that, even the act of defying god-
I’ll commit sins unhesitatingly and untiringly
Even if I’m ephemeral like the summer cicadas and I’m to die very soon
I want you to laugh by my side; please give me bliss
Let’s start it again
So that I can surely hope for a happy ending this time
And at least smile tenderly all the while
Until the moment of the end
Notes:
Thank you to dangermouse98, crimsonlady, allegrakabuki, and astrangerenters for making suggestions for this mix. You all helped me immensely.
There is a Rika AMV set to NIN's "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" which you can watch here; it partially inspired me to make this mix.
"Dear You -Hope-" is one of four variants on the "Dear You" song which appeared on the Image Vocal Album of the same name. You can download the entire album, along with other great Higurashi music, here (hosted by joesca). The translated and romaji lyrics are from the Words of Songs blog.
What kind of world lies outside of the well?
Is it something that is worth struggling for?
What kind of world lies outside of the well?
Is it something so attractive enough to fall and try over and over again?
What kind of world lies outside of the well?
Let's enjoy taking the pains of finding that out.
If I reach the world that I yearn for, it must be a spectacular world.
Even if that world is another pit inside a well.
The key to the new world is the resolve to get out of the well.
Being able to get out or not,
A new world awaits...
-Frederica Bernkastel