When They Cry: Higurashi - Reviews

I am not really entitled to review a series after dropping it in the first half of it, but this one somehow compels me to do it. The whole pretext of the story is good - a student comes to a peaceful village, starts making friends... but the place is not actually that peaceful and there's generally something odd and wrong. We are told why it is so but we feel it might be more complicated than that. Good. The background music during the episodes nicely complements the story and makes it more dramatic. Except after a few episodes I felt like there's no order in the events that happened, the story doesn't lead anywhere and the main plot (or what I thought was somewhat the main plot) didn't seem to be moving forward. Nice strange things were happening, but then I found out they didn't make much sense in the overall story. When there started to appear moments that didn't make any sense from past or current perspective of the plot, I didn't much like but hoped they will be explained somehow later on. When this didn't happen after like two or three episodes, I kind of lost interest in the series, because it started to seem like a unordered heap of wannabe scary moments (which cease to be scary when they lead nowhere further) connected by the main setting and plot which were moving nowhere.

I'm well aware I might be condemning a good series just for a lack of patience but I don't think a viewer should wait for an explanation of little stuff more than a third of what he watched so far (except for like first two episodes, of course... or with some promise it will make sense later in the story).

Thus, the low rating of the series, because the story contributes most to the impression about the whole. At least in my point of view.

What I Liked:

-The last 2 stories of Shion and Rena were really Epic

-Every character has its own special color

-The Opening and Ending of the anime are really Cool

-The anime has multi-stories

-The Darkness, Blood, Gore and the Way of killing specially for the chamber of torture

What I hated:

-The story is still a mystery after that season

-All the characters can easily turn violent and bloody, they even have the same killing cold eyes and that evil laugh

Overall:

-The anime was really Good and Worth watching for a person who loves Horror and Mind-F*** anime

Go watch this now if you haven't already.

Definitely in my top five all time favourite animes, Higurashi is a masterpiece in what it set out to achieve. I'll admit, for first time watchers it will be difficult to understand what is actually going on, but it all comes into place in the second season which just makes you fall in love with the series even more. You're introduced to Keiichi, who has recently moved to the secluded village of Hinamizawa where he lives out his day to day lives with his eccentric and lovable group of school friends. Yet as soon as he finds out about a secret the village is trying to keep hidden, things go from good to bad, bad to worse, then worse to absolute bat s*** crazy. We are shown chracters who we cant help but fall in love with and throughout the series we are taken on an incredible emotional rollercoaster. Actually, it's more of an emotional back alley lynching. It is beautiful, then brutal. Sweet, then terrifying. We see kind adorable chracters descend into madness and it's completely compelling. 

Now I don't normally talk about the sound when it comes to anime, but the soundtrack for Higurashi fits the bill perfectly. the opening song is haunting and chilling, but inescapably beautiful to the point where I can happily sit and watch each opening and ending, when i usually skip them.

In terms of animation, it's pretty standard. Nothing groundbreaking but enjoyable, and really shines in certain scenes, but i'm sure you'll see for yourself.  

I could not recommend this show any higher. I gave this review a 9/10 because the first season doesn't really make clear what is going on so it is a little hard to follow, but the next season, as stated, clears it all up. When you do watch it, the first season is done in a series of story archs. We see different scenarios the group of friends are placed in, however the bigger picture that is the main storyline (which is revealed int he second season) remains constant.

In short, this anime will keep you on the edge of your seat, cringe in horror, and will keep you guessing the plotline and the eventual outcome till the very end.

Watch this anime. Now. 

If this is your first time reading anything up on this anime and you haven't had the pleasure to view it yet, I strongly suggest you stop looking and just see the anime. Trust me, going in blind is the best way to watch this one. You're welcome... Now onto the review...

Some spoilers ensue:

Ok, so this anime was awesome. As a horror entertainment conesuer, this one is gold. It's not really scary per say, but it has a creepy vibe and a good deal of violence, torture, and psychological terror. As I eluded to earlier, it was the best thing, for me at least, to go in blind. I had no clue what to expect and all I had heard was it was a) good and b) creepy. So by episode 4 and the major character dying I was like...whatthefuck?...and it was awesome. After that, I caught on to the fact that this show has question and answer story arcs (And just btw, I don't know how many of you out there watch classic Doctor Who, but that's pretty much one of the only other shows I've seen that uses this format). We need this in more shows. It works flawlessly here and you get to see your favorite characters play villain, protagonist, etc. 

There were a few story arcs i liked better than others...the Satoko/Satoshi one wasn't my favorite, but I loveeeeee Mion and Shion so most of the ones portraying one of them as a villain were perfect. The epic violence and torture was awesome and emotional especially in the second arc. The finale answer arc was also a favorite of mine and I can't wait to watch Kai because they left it wide open.

The voice acting in this was also so well done. You could feel their emotions, especially Keiichi and Mion. Even though I only pointed these couple out, I'm not trying to take away from the other characters. They were all gorgeous. This show has a weird Moe vibe which seemed off putting at first especially since it didn't give me any sense of horror, more harem...but it works flawlessly in this setting. The town itself is creepy and gives off its own horror movie vibe. I'm not a fan of the song in the closing credits, but the opening theme is just gorgeous and possibly one of my favorite opening themes to any show. It captured the feel of the show perfectly. 

Overall, I loved this show. As an experience, it was unlike any other anime I've seen and I love compilations so this having that effect bumped it up to favorites for me.

9/10 stars.

Watched Subbed.

This is my first review, so bear with me.

I really enjoyed watching Higurashi, the characters were interesting, the story, although confusing, was good and the music was amazing. It has it's flaws, but altogether it's a great series.

First the story, it's really confusing at first, but that really lets you think about what's going on instead of it all being told to you right away. Eventually most of the questions are answered and if not in this series they are in the other seasons. I'm not going to spoil too much, but basically, Maebara Keiichi moves to a small, quiet town called Hinamizawa. He spends his time playing games with his friends. However, he ends up finding out about a horrible murder that happened in the town, after that, horrific events happen to Keiichi and he starts to suspect that his friends might not be like they seem. There are other arcs too, with different main characters and events, but most follow the same formula as the first one.

The animation is pretty average. Nothing special, but nothing horrible either. However, it works. The animation doesn't really need to be all that great for a show like this, because all the other things really make up for it.

The voice acting in Higurashi is really good in the Japanese version, but the English dub isn't very good. The original Japanese voice actors did an amazing job at voice acting the characters. They don't sound to fake, and their voices really fit to the characters. The English dub voice actors could have been much better. Sometimes it seems like they were trying to copy the original. If they would have just used their own ideas instead of doing that, I think the voices would have sounded a lot more natural.

The music is also very good. It helps set the mood and sounds really nice too. I love both the opening and the ending theme, and the ost.

The characters all have unique and interesting personalities. None of them are too similar, but they aren't unrealistically different, either. They aren't underdeveloped Mary Sues, and all act realistically, and their designs are unique.

Like I said before, this is a really great anime and I really suggest you try it out, especially if you like horror.