Even anime horror protagonists make DUMB DECISIONS!!

[jeffboy]

i mean for uzumaki... they are in a spiral. no matter how far away the try to get, they will always get pulled back into the center

[CatFoxLilly]

I still need a horror-comedy, where all the horror gets thwarted because the MC keeps making sensible choices.

[whackareal]

Keiichi situation is just natural selection at its finest

[Internetpurge]

Shuichi Saito was the only sane/normal person in Uzumaki. Poor bastard deserved better.

[wma]

Mion later after she deals with Keiichi: "He had it coming! He had it coming! He only had himself to blame!"

[rocoroloc]

I think for Keiichi's situation, that plays into his fatal flaw of trusting his friends/buying fully into the shounen thing of friendship can solve anything. It's not out of the question or unbelievable for Keiichi's character to do that, whereas Rena trusting Shmion and following her alone would have been slightly more ridiculous

[minicle]

The Thing is possibly the closest I've seen to horror where the cast have a reasonable degree of common sense.

[skellyaceart]

The main thing about it is that, usually, the characters don't realize the genre that they are in. Put a D&D group in a similar situation but not tell them that it's horror, they'll make all the same errors. The audience knows that the story is horror, but the characters in the story likely don't realize until it's too late.

[just_]

For keiichi, he did the right thing. The whole point of higurashi is to trust in your friends and the people around you, and it's when he doesn't trust his friends that things go wrong. Even if this seems stupid of him, his doing so would've gone well in a slightly different world.

[atiqahdiyana]

I thought the idea was that the whole town has basically been put under this spell by the spiral. The boyfriend was literally the only one who could see it and hence why he was the only one who could push for the idea of leaving. But even then, saying "just leave" sounds easier said than done. Inevitably he stays for the same reason she stays. He stays because of his love for her and she stays for the love of her family. It was the only solid thing both of them had and they held onto it until it couldn’t ground them anymore. It wasnt about stupidity

[VeríssimoFênix]

So, if you accept the role of protagonist in a horror media, the first thing you have to do is turn off your brain

[SlurpyPie]

As someone who's read the manga I can sorta answer this question. Shuichi leaves the town more often compared to Kirie who stays more often in town which explains why he's less susceptible to the spirals compared to Kirie but even tho Shuichi is still aware of it even he is still influenced by the spiral since he's always brought back into the town just like everyone else.

It's most apparent when they try to leave the town for good nearing the end of the manga only to find themselves looping back to it, drawing them back to the town.

[EscarameloSalgado]

The “Dumb Protagonist who has a Smart Friend” is a super common trope in Junji Ito’s stories tho. Sometimes he changes the order (the only one I can remember rn is Mimi no Kaidan) but it’s very present in his work.

[Muz]

SPOILERS FOR HIGURASHI WHEN THEY CRY
(MILD)




























Tbh it was keiichi knowing that he could have the potential risk of getting captured or evem death. After the entire chapter he hurt the feelings of the sonozaki twins so much that he knew and was prepared for the consequences. It might seem dumb and yes it is, but its ultimately Keiichi's acceptance of his sins that he blindly trusts Mion and gets captured. In the visual novel he willingly goes with Mion even after knowing that she is luring him to his death. The anime missed this crucial detail so it feels a bit more empty in that regard.

[janeduncan]

Another was my favorite anime Final Destination. My classmates are dying? Let me go run down the stairs with this insanely sharp ended umbrella!

[natashagc]

Kirie didn’t want to move out of the town because of her family, mostly her younger brother

[an]

Bro thought they were smashing but turns out she's smashing him.

[RoamBuilder]

Nevermind seeing both of those things within a short time frame, I’d be gone the instant I saw the first one mate

[jpboiyy]

well in the original VN of Higurashi it was a moment for Keiichi to show his trust into Mion, rejecting her would just hurt her more like when he didn't give her the doll, and on Mion (Shion)'s side it was the final quarters of a "game" and she wanted him to see who she really is, to realize she isn't Mion.

[siaskies]

"Even Shuichi" sir, Shuichi was sounding the alarm from chapter one. His dad was essentially patient zero for the spiraling. But as to why Kirie didn't leave, it's the same reason Shuichi didn't leave. She loved her family, and he loved her. Neither were going to leave without their reason for survival.