Higurashi: When They Cry - Sotsu

Mousekateer627 Oct 1, 2021

5

SPOILERS AHEAD  "I expected nothing from the world, because expectations lead to disappointment." A direct quote from the final episode of Sotsu that sums up my experience with this entire series perfectly. My God, I shouldn't have watched this season out of my house because I was so close to punching a nearby kid. That's how angry and frustrated I am. Sotsu is basically Gou but through Satoko's perspective!! It's the same retracing, recapping, reusing and recycling of the first season that just ended last winter !!! It's the same exact conflict. Rika and Satoko are still fighting each other to literal bloody death because Rika wants to go abroad to a girl's boarding school with Satoko and Satoko wants to stay in Hinamizawa with Rika. But both of them are too selfish and stubborn to give in so they live and kill each other over and over. Their "conflict" is resolved in the final episode when their friends gave them a generic heartful speech about "Friends don't have to stick with each other all the time. They don't have to do everything together." NO DUH SHERLOCK !!! I'm sure I and 99. %  of the viewers came to that conclusion before the first season ended. THAT'S YOUR CONFLICT??!! THAT'S YOUR RETELLING Of HIGURASHI??!!! I just love that the final epic battle is given to us via Dragon Ball Z and Saint Seya because that fits Higurashi so well !!! This very basic conflict would fit better in maybe 4 episodes NOT 41 EPISODES!!! IT'S BORING, DRAINING AND FRUSTRATING !!!! Audio, voice acting and music are fine, I even like the opening and closing with the visuals. I still dislike the animation and character designs especially when they don't change the facial structure of the characters' faces when they're older or younger it really annoys me. Main characters other than Rika and Satoko have less presence, relevance and development than Gou (especially the case with Shion). Hanyuu has more screen time but is about as useful as she was in Gou. Rika and Satoko have time looped and lived longer years than the collected audience but they still act like what you expect from 2 tantrum throwing 5 year olds with knives!! They made up and compromised but they're still gonna fight and kill each other and repeat ??!! What the HELL !!! Rika and Satoko's relationship here is beyond toxic! Beyond abusive! Why are they still friends after all they've done to each other??!! What's the point of the this adaption? What's the intention? Who's it for?! It fails as a remake and a sequel!! All I've got out of this adaption is that I'll never look at Rika and Satoko's friendship the same way.  Higurashi's heart and strength comes from the characters' friendships, why taint that if you have nothing new or good to give us ??!! Why ruin what's been established without evolving the story?! Stick with the visual novels, original anime and mangas. Don't bother with this version unless you want to see little girls kill each other in gore galore.

DogzOnFire Oct 1, 2021

1

Utter trash. Final episode made me genuinely angry. Don't waste your time by starting this, it is mostly recap and the thought processes of the characters, their motivations and ultimately what they think is a reasonable thing to do or to forgive someone else for doing is so idiotic I felt like I gradually became dumber as a watched it. Truly an insult to anyone who stuck around for this long.

BrockAndropov Mar 3, 2022

2

It's all recaps, no development, no use of characters. Horrid ending with no closure and no feeling except bitterness. There are only two characters and the rest are furniture.