Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Keiichi Maebara has just moved to the quiet little village of Hinamizawa in the summer of 1983, and quickly becomes inseparable friends with schoolmates Rena Ryuuguu, Mion Sonozaki, Satoko Houjou, and Rika Furude. However, darkness lurks underneath the seemingly idyllic life they lead.

As the village prepares for its annual festival, Keiichi learns about the local legends surrounding it. To his horror, he discovers that there have been several murders and disappearances in the village in the recent years, and that they all seem to be connected to the festival and the village's patron god, Oyashiro. Keiichi tries to ask his new friends about these incidents, but they are suspiciously silent and refuse to give him the answers he needs. As more and more bizarre events occur, he wonders just what else his friends might be keeping from him, and if he can even trust them at all.

When madness and paranoia begin taking root in Keiichi's heart, he will stumble straight into the mysteries at work in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, a story that is told across multiple arcs.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Furude, Rika Main

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Ryuuguu, Rena Main

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Sonozaki, Shion Main

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Sonozaki, Mion Main

Yukino, Satsuki Japanese

Maebara, Keiichi Main

Hoshi, Souichirou Japanese

Houjou, Satoko Main

Kanai, Mika Japanese

Takano, Miyo Supporting

Itou, Miki Japanese

Ooishi, Kuraudo Supporting

Chafurin Japanese

Houjou, Satoshi Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Akasaka, Mamoru Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Oomori, Hiroyuki Producer

Hyuuga, Yasutaka Producer

Urasaki, Nobumitsu Producer

Okamura, Takema Assistant Producer

Reviews

Nov 26, 2008

Ceptryn

Recommended

Watching Higurshi is like locking a group of happy people in a test chamber, only coming back to find they've hacked each other into a bloody mess. Its horrific, its shocking, and yet a part of you, cannot help but wonder, how did it happen?

The curiosity takes over... and so you repeat the experiment, knowing full well that those cute looking teenagers you just sent are going to end up as bloody pulps. But hey, at least each time they die, you're one step closer to figuring out why they died, it's all good.

Higurashi essentially places you in the role of the scientist. It divides ... itself into several arcs, each of which begin exactly the same. A teenager moves into a remote countryside village, and befriends a group of sweet fangirls that could have come out right from a harem rom/com. Then, explicably, thing go wrong... very wrong.

The pacing is excellent, the suspence pulpable. You know terrible things are going to happen, but you don't know exactly what. Higurashi would appeal to two types of people. The maglomanics who cackle madly in seeing a happy community descend into the depth of oblivion, and the curious scientist who watched each arc with intense interest... for they want to know exact *why* everything goes wrong (though they can also cackle madly just a little).

The true draw of Higurashi is the mystery. The series will leave you guessing, postulating all manner of reasons why the sweetest girl in the class is now butchering every child in sight with a giant cleaver. Each experiment you run (arc you see) reveals a few more clues, and you formulate a new theory, only to find it shattered by another totally unexpected horror in the very same arc. The beauty of Higurashi is that a mystery of such grand scale, every detail is meticulous, and while every bloody event seems random at first, they all eventually fall into place

Not only are the characters are memorable, and filled with interesting secrets, and unlike school days, they're actually also extreme likeable. This is no small achievement, given what they're portrayed doing to each other.

Higurashi is really the pinnacle of a dark mystery. You'll start off the mad scientist, watching those innocents in the test chamber with morbid curiosity. Yet, slowly, that morbid curiosity will be transformed into sympathy, and as you fall in love these victims, that initial curiosity will into turn a genuine desire to figure out whats going on so that they can be saved.

***

As always, I welcome feedback!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Aug 16, 2008

LilGunmanX

Mixed Feelings

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni has received much praise from the anime community in general, which hails it as the mystery to end all mysteries. Everybody loves it and chances are that, if you're reading this now, you've heard good news!

However, upon my completion of the anime and the 2 subsequent seasons that followed, I came to the conclusion that this praise was COMPLETELY undeserved by the anime, which is mediocre in the intellectual department, and is much less a mystery story than it is an action/adventure story with a lot of secrets. Furthermore, any actual "mystery" behind the story is made impossible to solve ... by the introduction of unnecessary paranormal elements and fictional diseases.

Overall, I was very disappointed by this anime, and it is not worth the hype.

---

Story: The first part of the first season I found to be very interesting indeed. Everything was confined within the laws of physics, and I was constantly on my toes trying to solve the mystery of Hinamizawa. Sadly, the story floundered from the last arc of the first season up to halfway through the second season, and it became a chore to watch. The introduction of unnecessary paranormal elements and fictional diseases did not help either, and only served to further complicate the plot while not adding much value to the story. In any case, we certainly could have done without them. Luckily, the story picks back up during the second half of the second season, which greatly makes up for the absolute failure of a first half, and you'll probably find yourself pleased with the ending.

Overall I would say that the story lowered itself from what it could be (an awesome mystery story) to what it is now... a confusing action adventure story for people that like to pretend they know what's going on from the very first episode.

Score - 6; Completely overrated. So much wasted potential...


Art: I wouldn't say that the art is completely terrible, but it certainly could've been better. The artist uses gradeschool techniques of using unusual hair to differentiate the characters. Okay. The little girls are anorexic and have square-shaped heads. Alright. Mion and Shion have stereotypical oversized breasts. I'm losing my patience...

Then I figured out that Teppei Houjou is a recolor of Ooishi.

Now I'm just angry.

The blood and gore portrayed in the anime does help alleviate the pains of this travesty though, and the general art style isn't atrocious like in some other anime I know, so I can't give it a 0.

Score - 3; Everything you would expect to see in an anime, with added blood. I don't see why everyone thinks it's so special.


Sound: I found that the voice actors fit the characters well, and I was also impressed by the ending and opening themes for each series. However, I found some of the character dialogue cheesy, and some of the children's speech patterns were annoying (okay Satoko, you miss your brother, we get it.)

Score - 7; The VA's were good, the soundtrack is nothing to scoff at, but the dialogue is not without its flaws.


Characters: You know, I must admit that the character development was pretty "good". In fact, it was so "good", that I was bored by it. I found Rika's long tangents later in the series to be uninformative, uninteresting, and unimportant. But it's okay because "it helps build her character!" right?

Wrong!

Furthermore, I don't see why the hell the older characters would even bother to hang around with the younger ones, aside from Shion that is. And, more importantly, why the devil does someone like Satoko know guerrilla warfare!? Humorous as it may be, I don't believe it is ever explained.

(and even if it is, that doesn't explain why she can knock Keiichi flat across the room without batting an eyelash!)

Score - 4; I was sarcastic when I said that the character development was good.


Enjoyment: Despite being highly disappointed by the anime as a whole, the ending was cute and the beginning does get you hooked pretty quickly, so I did moderately enjoy it.

I think my favorite arc was when Keiichi threw the ohagi at the wall. I lol'd pretty hard.

Score - 7; Maybe I'm being generous, but I had a few good laughs and there was nothing better than seeing the look on Keiichi's face when that ohagi went splat.


Overall - 6; Although I was highly disappointed by it, the anime did have its good points. My advice to you is don't listen to the hype and don't bother with it unless you like shoddy, confusing storylines.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 4, 2010

thesilentarmy

Not Recommended

There is an alarming number of people in the online anime community who hail this series as one of the best series in not only the horror/suspense/mystery genre, but in all of anime itself. For the life of me, I cannot discern where people get these feelings from. Higurashi is one of the most over rated series I've ever watched.

90% of the reason Higurashi is so terrible results directly due to the fact that the series is basically the same premise retold over and over again, a little different each time, in each 4-6 episode arc. It becomes a chore to watch it after you ... realize it's going to start over and retell a similar story in the second arc. But it goes beyond that, once you realize it's not even the same story. It's an entirely new story that has little to do with what you just watched before it.

Higurashi attempts to be a mystery, yet fails miserably. A mystery requires consistancy, something Higurashi lacks entirely. What happens in each arc is not the same as what happened in the arc before it. Imagine a story that retells itself again and again, each time showing you different perspectives of the same story, letting you in on different key knowledge that you may have lacked in the last arc, that you might come to understand and solve the mystery over time: This is what Higurashi SHOULD have been. But it's not. Each arc tells the story differently, to the degree that you are confused by what has actually happened and what events are relevant to what is currently going on. Things happen so differently that what is actually going on is indecipherable, leaving Higurashi little more than imagery of cute little girls turning psychotic in various situations that tell no complete story. Higurashi is utterly confusing and incomprehensible. The true mystery becomes, "Why does this have nothing to do with what I watched in the last arc?" not, "Why are strange murders happening every year at the same time."

The only thing propelling you to watch more of Higurashi is faith that it will eventually explain everythng to you. But it will not. Without giving any spoilers, Higurashi throws entirely new concepts at you at the end which bring about more questions than answers. At the end of the 26 episodes, one feels entirely cheated, as though an enormous amount of time has been wasted. One goes on web forums and complains of this, only to be told by fervent lolicons that, "You have to watch the second series before judging it. It explains all." But one is left looking at another 20-something episode long series and feeling not very optimistic, ready to watch something worthwhile, something that is not Higurashi. I don't waste my time watching an entire season with very little redeemable about it to conclude that I need to watch the second season. I just cut my losses and move on.

The characters aren't even likeable. There is a stupid male protagonist that is often referred to as bright even though he consistently does the stupidest things known to man (horror protagonist syndrome) and everyone else is a generic little girl. Oh, and there's a detective. In one arc he's a nice guy. In another he's a terrible douchebag. Again, no consistency.

Higurashi will appeal to certain groups of people: Lolicons, people that like stuff just because it is weird and confusing, and people that like anything with blood and graphicness in it. Unless you fit that bill, I cannot comprehend what you would like about Higurashi. The only good thing I can say about it is that there are parts of it that are a bit creepy. But it's even a bad suspense story, as each time the suspense builds up, the story retells itself in a new arc and drops all the suspense.

Ignore the hype. Unless you like little girls, pass on this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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