Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni - Review
Higurashi (When They Cry)
Initial Rating: Instant Fav
Themes/Genres: Mystery,
Horror, Psychological, Supernatural, Thriller
Main Characters: Keiichi Maebara, Rena Ryuugu, Mion Sonozaki, Satoko Houjo, Rika Furude
Overview:
Good horror is always difficult
to come by, moving into smaller subjects narrows those choices down even
further. Anime is no exception; for
every series that thinks having some dead bodies means horror, you get the
sparse legitimately compelling and brutal ones.
Higurashi is in the latter area.
Based on a series of video games and their multiple endings, Higurashi’s
imagery horrifies after putting your guards down with adorableness and childish
fun, while its story snags you and keeps you guessing. It’s a series of differently focused
mini-stories as each arc reveals more about the major storyline, though often
brings up more questions than it answers.
In this review I’ll only be
taking a look at the first anime season so storylines and plot relevance from
the games and the later seasons will be left out. So let’s take a closer look at the sections
of the series that make it the confusing, brutal, bloodthirsty series it is.
Summary:
Keiichi Maebara moves to a new,
tiny town called Hinamizawa and promptly finds himself wrapped up in the hectic
friendship of a group of girls and their afterschool club. It’s all fun and games, mostly at his newbie
expense, until a horrifying truth about the town's past suddenly surfaces. As he attempts to uncover more about this
truth, he becomes paranoid and mistrusting of his close friends and the hectic,
fun-fueled friendship turns into a gruesome nightmare for everyone. But even once the group faces a horrifying
death… time seems to reset and they start over, taking different paths and
finding different difficulties each time.
As each reset passes, only one of the group, the shrine maiden with the
connection to Oyashiro, seems to have an idea, or even remember, what might be
happening.
Opening/Closing:
The opening theme of the series
starts the series off strong with a beautiful yet dark song and animation. The song, itself, is a low grumbling mixed
with high vocals piece, accompanied by a series of short looks at each of the
main characters. Each view of the solo
character, while short, hints and reveals pieces of their story without
actually giving much away. Unlike many
other anime openings, it’s not using scenes from actual episodes, filling the
opening title with spoilers. The only
thing the opening is promising is brutality and madness, a fitting explanation
of the series.
The closing theme, on the other
hand, is much softer and sadder and instead focuses on vague, yet fitting,
imagery and scenery over the characters, themselves. Some diluted blood here, a swinging knife
there, a ‘dead’ cicada to end on. More indirect
glimpses of storytelling that still fit the anime well and both themes unique
enough to be immediately recognizable as the series pieces they are, though the
opening more so than the closing. Though
the ending theme is beautiful and just as important to the series, the opening
is more immediately recognizable, in my opinion.
Plot:
Even though the audience is left
guessing most of the time, as any good mystery does, the story unravels slowly
and subtly throughout the arcs. It's
confusing and terrifying right up to the end of the first season, but in ways
that keep you wanting to know more.
Considering the fact that the anime is based on a game and all of its
multiple endings, it’s relatively well put-together. It keeps you curious to the overall story,
but the ending of each arc feels final enough that you know it was an ending.
There's even very little filler,
if any, in this series as each arc is only 4-5 episodes long and they need to
reveal just enough to give you pieces of the puzzle, but leave enough for the
next arc to fill in more. Since it only
has 26 episodes to tell you as much as it can, the episodes only show you what
you need to know to get a handle on the story.
There isn't too much or too little, as long as you take into account
that there's a second season to finish explaining what the first didn’t
finish. Beyond that, there are hints and
double meanings all over the anime that, while you probably won’t catch the
first time through, a rewatch or two will reveal.
Animation:
While the animation may not
always be the most proportionally correct, with itty bitty limbs and very large
heads, the show has such a unique style to it that the odd proportions work in
its favor. Certain artistic choices,
such as details in the eyes and face when 'Oyashiro' seems to be taking over,
are especially noteworthy as they really give Hirgurashi its own feel, setting
it easily apart from the many, many others.
If there’s one thing that’s vital
to horror, is that it has to have its own unique style, especially so if it’s
animated. Outside of the actual scares,
that’s what I love best about horror anime, it never looks like just another anime and therefore can’t feel like just your average,
run-of-the-mill anime. There are, of
course, exceptions to that; there are series that doesn’t want you knowing just
how fucked up it is until the brutal deaths start hitting you in the face, but
Higurashi is not one of them. Higurashi
is a fucked up, bloody series that takes little time to get into the action so
the art style works well with that.
Ending:
The series doesn't reach its
final ending in the first season, having several games and arcs to work off of,
so the ending of the season can easily feel unfinished before you watch the
second arc. It does, however, go through
each of the stories for each of the main characters, exploring their different
"bad endings" and managing to find a hopeful note to end on while
also telling you there's still more to learn.
Many of the mysteries are still left to unravel, including why the world
is repeating, in the first place, or even what, or who, Oyashiro even is.
It has a decent season finale,
even though things still don’t feel completely wrapped up. You feel hopeful for their future, seeing the
possibilities that they can solve the mysteries around them, if not in the final
life of the first season, then at least in their later reincarnations. There are still burning questions that need
answering, of course, but it’s to be expected when the first season and thus,
the first set of arcs, are dubbed the ‘Question’ arcs. Luckily, the second season, and second set of
arcs, are dubbed the ‘Answers’ arcs, so the answers lie ahead.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, Higurashi No Naku Koro
Ni, or When They Cry by its English name, is one of my absolute favorite
anime. It's brutal, it's bloody, it's relentless,
and it's decently well-written. It's a
full-blown 'who done it' mystery but also a brilliant supernatural horror at
the same time. Even the harem-like
undertone can be tolerated considering most of the punishment and ridiculous
outfits, courtesy of the group’s after school club activities, end up on the
main male character rather than the females.
