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Hello everyone! In this review, I will be reviewing both “Higurashi no Naku Koroni” as well as its second season; “Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai”. I will be referring to these series as either “Higurashi” or “Higurashi Kai”.

The Higurashi series has got to be one of my most favorite anime out there. There are many people out there who think of anime as a “kid’s” show where it’s all light and fluffy. Well, this anime is one that I like to bring up over most anime that you would consider “not a kid’s show”, because of how great the story line is and ... just how intelligently the plot is carried out. Higurashi no Naku Koroni is a horror, mystery anime that is really much more than that in my point of view.

Story: 10

The story starts out with Keiichi moving in to a town named Hinamizawa, where he meets new people, makes new friends, and soon starts to discover the secrets that this strange town holds. Now, the first episode spoils the ending of the first chapter, and as you will know, a lot of people will die in this show, many times.

As Keiichi soon realizes, most of the “deaths” happen when the Cotton Drifting festival occurs and the curse of Oyashiro-sama supposedly arrives. The curse seems to bring paranoia and eventually death to certain people in the village. The most interesting thing about the Higurashi series is that the story is carried out in a time-loop kind of thing, where after one set of deaths happens, the story goes back and everyone is alive again. Higurashi is based on a visual novel and the anime seems to show al the “bad endings” in the VN. These bad endings are necessary for you to piece together and figure out the truth to these deaths.

I just really love how this anime gives you small hints and clues during each death case it gives you only to show you something even more gruesome, which confuses you with what you thought was true. The first season of this anime shows you all the death cases while the second season reveals everything to you and actually gives you a pretty awesome and heart-warming ending.

Art: 8

Now, most people would say that the animation quality for Higurashi is awful, with which I would agree, but, the transition between the light and fluffy animation parts to the eerie and spooky animation parts makes me argue that the lower animation quality can add to the sudden change in atmosphere. The transition really throws you off and adds to the scare score. Higurashi is also famous for its “Higurashi face”, where the character’s faces look pretty insane and scary.

Sound: 9

The Higurashi series’ soundtrack still amazes me to this day. One of the pieces includes one titled “Main Theme” which offers pretty eerie and freaky atmospheric background music.
The openings are amazing! The song for the first opening was one of the things that kept me watching the series, considering on how unnerving the series was, in a good way. The openings prepare you for what is to come and really gets you in the mood. In my opinion, I liked the first opening song better than the second, but I like the second opening’s animation over the first.

Character: 9

When you first watch this series, it is hard to get attached to the characters at first, due to them either being freakishly haunting and scary when it comes to those parts, or die in first few episodes. But once you get deeper into the story, you start to get attached to the different character’s personality especially during the parts where the characters are having fun, playing games, and getting closer to each other. In the first season, there are just so many deaths, where even some of them are mysteries or aren’t explained that you just get confused and scared about what’s going on and you feel bad for the characters. During the second season, things start to get clearer, deaths are starting to be explained, the whole time loop thing is revealed and you get attached to the characters as they fight to change their destined deaths.

Enjoyment: 10

I really enjoyed this anime as a horror and mystery show just because of how the plot is carried out and how it slowly feeds you the horror at the perfect and most unexpected times. It did a great job in its pacing but you really can’t just stop at the first season, you must, and I really mean it, you must watch the second season to find out the truth and wrap up the whole series. Plus, Hanyuu, one of the cutest characters there, doesn’t appear till the second season, so, watch it!

Overall: 9

Overall, I think that this series will become a classic in its genre and really enjoyed it. Even though it’s a horror anime, giving you horrible experiences of death and despair, and is emotionally jarring, it has its funny moments and can be emotional towards the end.

I know that I’m reviewing both the seasons at the same time, but it’s really hard and frustrating to review the first season without the second season for me.

This anime is just great in itself and is a prime example to why anime isn’t just for kids and can be enjoyed by teens, young adults, and adults who just love a good horror/mystery show.

Overall well-rounded, well-made, and perfectly executed, I give this a 9/10. I would like to give it a perfect score, but as this is a professional critique, I like to consider the possibilities as to why others might not like this (gruesomely violent and rather jarring).