SatoRika

SatoRika is the femslash ship between Satoko Houjou and Rika Furude from the Higurashi: When They Cry fandom.

Canon
Satoko is Rika's closest friend, and they have been living together since the death of Satoko's aunt. Satoko is usually the only one who can tell when Rika is upset, as well as the only one who is not fooled by her cute phrases that she uses to hide her true feelings. Like all of her friends, Rika tries to protect Satoko because she knows how much pain she has been through, especially since many villagers still shun Satoko for her parent's support of the dam project while at the same time they praise Rika at every opportunity.

In Minagoroshi-hen, Rika says Satoko is more than family and their bond is much deeper than that. In the anime original arc, Yakusamashi-hen, Satoko is paranoid that someone was planning to hurt or kill Rika, leading to a heartwarming moment of Rika telling Satoko to smile. By the end of the scene, Rika succeeds and they laugh together.

Until the third anime season, the only time this is not so is in Saikoroshi-hen which represents a "perfect world" for all other characters save Rika. Both Rika and Satoko's parents are alive and well. They live with their parents and do not have the same close bond, or seemingly any bond at all. In that arc, Satoko considers Rika to be a spoiled brat or "princess" who attracted and exploited all of the boys at school. She bullies Rika until she steals a book Rika is reading to discover an exit from her current world to return to the world she secured in Matsuribayashi-hen. The enraged Rika beats Satoko with a chair then and threatens to beat her again if Satoko ever comes near her. In the anime and particularly in the manga versions of Saikoroshi-hen, Mion, Satoshi, and, as she is known in this arc, Reina confront Rika in an attempt to cease the conflict. She is told by Mion that she had been a "princess" which earned the enmity of most girls near her age. However, Satoshi confesses that Satoko really does not want to fight Rika, but she is too stubborn to admit it. In this world, Mion, Satoshi, and Reina set up their club to allow everyone to play together and become friends. In the manga, Satoko is depicted with her arms folded and glaring at Rika during the games, but the implication is that she will, eventually, accept Rika.

In Higurashi Gou, Satoko is revealed to be the one who has kept Rika trapped in a timeloop after she managed to escape it. In the world of Matsuribayashi-hen, Satoko agrees to attend St. Lucia Academy with Rika. Though she hates studying and has no interest in the school, she wants to be together with Rika. The two of them study together and are both accepted into St. Lucia. Once they get there, however, they grow apart as Rika becomes immersed in high society. Satoko is unable to fit in with the other students and struggles to keep up her grades, so Rika decides to stop associating with Satoko. Satoko later creates a new timeline to undo what happened at St. Lucia. However, Rika betrays Satoko again in the new world. Satoko kills herself and Rika to reset the time loop back to 1983, and makes it her goal to keep Rika trapped in the loop until she gives up on leaving Hinamizawa. Satoko states that she loves Rika and is apparently possessive of her.

Fanon
While fans started discussing the nature of their relationship back during the original visual novel and anime, the fresh sequel to the franchise has given additional bust to their shipping, as Satoko's obsession could easily be read as yandere crush on Rika. Although officially she became obsessed with Rika due to her crippling fear of being alone and abandonment issues, technically her yandere behavior towards the latter could still be interpreted as a villainous crush without any problem if you wanted to.

While this has pushed a significant number of people away from the ship due to toxic nature of its development, other people still hope that further development of Sotsu will help them both find a happy ending and steer their relationship on a healthier way.

Fandom
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