Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Review

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.

The entire group loses at club games at times and faces equal levels of embarrassing punishment for it, so there isn't an over-bearing amount of unnecessary moe.  I couldn't recommend it enough… as long as you can tolerate brutal deaths and an anime that keeps you guessing.  Though I do warn, this anime is not for the faint of heart or easily offended.  Other than that, it’s one that I’ll happily watch several more times.