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Your thoughts about how the end of S1 was going to play are very interesting, I just instantly assumed by the beginning of arc 2 that it was dealing with alternate realities/time loops, mostly because somehow I ended watching 5 anime that dealt with that in a row without even knowing about it (seriously when the 5th one revealed in a plot twist that the characters were in a time loop I started laughing for like five minutes) and Higurashi was the 4th one.

After the end of S1 I was sure we would get Rika as MC going full detective, but I think that's just the obvious development. And I remember having a lot of theories about how it would play out (mostly because I watched it with a friend and we discussed about it at the end of each arc) but don't remember most of them anymore since I watched it a year ago and my memory is not that good.

I do remember thinking that one of the dead or dissapeared people was behind everything, but I don't remember why I thought that right now. And I was dead sure that it wasn't a supernatural thing, not because I had any proof but because I had another theory about how things were happening and everything being supernatural would've been just a boring outcome.

Now I get your gripe with Higurashi a lot better, but I have to say it again, it is a mistery. You can solve some things, and at least theorize about the outcome without watching Kai. Maybe we just expect different things from the genre (or from a first season) and maybe in a few years when I rewatch the first season I will understand why you think it isn't one.

Right here in MAL everything gets a mistery tag though. Kami Sama no Inai Nichiyoubi, Black Bullet, Baccano, Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, hell even ef: A Tale of Memories, which is just a romance anime somehow got a mistery tag.

When you watch Kai please tell me your thoughts about it, I think you will like it more as it's a lot more linear and IMO better done than the first season. It focuses a lot more on the characters and on being a mistery than being a thriller and a slaughterfest.

Fair enough, the adaptation of the first season of Higurashi was more focused on thriller and horror while it should've been more focused on building the mistery, and sometimes it gave the feel that it was trying to be more like a slasher movie than an actual mistery.

But Higurashi gave hints to a puzzle on the first season, and badly executed or not (I think it was well done but I understand why anyone would think otherwise) it is a mistery. Was the whole dam-related serial murder caused by a curse? Was it an actual serial murder planned by someone? Was it a coincidence? These are just the main questions. You also have a lot of minor ones scattered around all the story arcs that work as hints toward the bigger ones (How is Satoko's uncle alive when Keiichi clearly killed him?)

In fact, the VN's from where Higurashi is adapted are divided in two games, one which has the "Question" arcs and is adapted in the first season, and another with the "Answer" arcs, and is adapted in Kai.

The TTGL comparison was not that good, so I'll change it. It's more like watching the Endless Eight and then ignoring Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu.

That being said, your review was mostly fair for the first season alone. I just thought you were one of the huge number of people who just ignore Kai without reason.

Please least edit your review saying that this is just the point of view of someone who has yet to watch the second season.

It is a direct continuation and it holds the answer to the mistery, it has most of the character development and everything neccesary to make sense of the first season. Higurashi IS a mistery, and even if you can say it is poorly written that's because of other reasons (I can agree with you saying that Keiichi is pretty much your average MC though).

I honestly can't understand why so much people completed Higurashi and then ignored Kai just because, it's like watching TTGL up to ep 15 and then stopping without any reason.

I liked your Elfen Lied review. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who finds that show to be pretty bad.

I'm a bit busy now, so I will respond back in a couple days. I must say though...I'm not sure how well you understood Elfen Lied. There are plenty of reasons to dislike Elfen Lied, and I could offer you a dozen valid reasons myself. However, those reasons should be based on aesthetic disagreements and not the fact you somehow didn't understand basic plot points or messages.

I thank you for responding back. However, I have several points where I disagree with your assessment.

1. She murdered the one girl who was nice to her? Who are you talking about? The girl who told the bullies where the puppy was, just so she could see Lucy cry? She was never actually nice to Lucy. She pretended to be nice, so that Lucy would let her guard down and reveal something that the other orphans could actually use to get a reaction out of her, which ended up being her beloved pet.

2. She murdered her alleged parents? No she didn't! Lucy's parents are NEVER seen in the entire series! The only thing we are told is that her parents abandoned her in the woods to die, after being disgusted by her freakish appearance. Someone found her crying in the woods, and sent her to the local orphanage. The other orphans learned this story from the adult workers, who didn't bother keeping it a secret. They then tormented Lucy with this fact, that even her own parents thought she was a hideous freak. To make matters interesting, Lucy's parents are hinted to be foreign immigrants. Lucy is drawn with lighter skin than most of the Japanese characters and in the manga is stated to look distinctly foreign. The manga also states that her father abandoned her, but her mother actually tried to find her, but couldn't because she likely couldn't read Japanese. As to why her parents were in Japan and what Lucy's ethnicity is, no one knows because it is never stated even in the manga. A common "fanon" or "word of God" to borrow phrases from tvtropes is that Lucy's parents were Russian nuclear scientists who fled to Japan from the Soviet Union in 1984, since Lucy was age 18 in 2004 when the series took place.

3. Lucy attacked members of a government facility that had been experimenting on her and torturing other mutants in her presence for 3 years. She has every reason to want to murder the faculty of the Diclonius Research Institute. Yes, Lucy DOES test out her vectors on an innocent girl, although fortunately she only knocked her out because her vectors weren't working properly. Although Lucy's stated reason for continuing to exist despite the suffering she endures is to one day apologize to Kouta, her last 3 years in the facility damaged her remaining humanity and sanity. That is why she wished to become reborn and "start over" as Nyuu. Lucy sometimes couldn't control her anger, whereas Nyuu was un-corrupted by anger and hatred.

4. You believe Yuno is less evil because she only murders people in the way of her goals. That actually makes her MORE evil. She isn't just mentally ill, she actually knows exactly what she's doing and making cold, calculated decisions to take other human lives to further her own goals and desires. Your argument is basically that Jeffrey Dahmer is evil because he killed random people, but Stalin isn't evil because he only killed people either in his way or that threatened his goals. That is basically the definition of evil. The first is amorality whereas the latter is true immorality. Someone who isn't insane and actually chooses victims and consciously makes the decision to kill them for personal benefit is the height of human depravity.

5. Lucy's goal is very clearly stated to be having one person to love and be loved by. She didn't wish for revenge against humanity, increased power, or anything else. The Kakuzawas offered those options to her and she threw the offer in their faces. ALL she wanted was to be with Kouta and to somehow "start over again", which referred to living as her rebirth form Nyuu. As Nyuu, Lucy is a threat to absolutely no one. Nyuu will undoubtedly continue to rapidly develop mentally and become like Lucy in personality, but she doesn't have all the anger against mankind and has no desire to hurt anyone.

6. Both have done horrible things, but one suffered from psychosis and serious mental illness, whereas the other was more just a sociopath. One felt deep remorse for her crimes and a real desire to repent, which made her actually worthy of our forgiveness. The other really didn't and honestly isn't worthy of our affection or forgiveness.

Lucy at age 10 did murder 2 random innocent families, Kouta's family, and about a dozen festival goers. Prior to meeting Kouta, she had never received kindness from anyone and had never been treated as a human being, so cut off from all relations she never properly developed social bonding and empathy, instead seeing non-mutants as her enemies. After meeting Kouta and seeing that humans are NOT simply evil, she realized the gravity of what she had done and wished to die if she couldn't stop herself from killing again. Then at the festival she believed Kouta had betrayed her and killed the festival goers along with Kouta's family in a blind rage of jealousy. After realizing too late that Kouta was innocent and she had MASSIVELY fucked up, she laid low for the next 5 years and eventually lived with a runaway named Aiko, although her character wasn't named in the OVA. Aiko had murdered her drunken father in self defense after he attacked her with a knife, but Lucy wished to turn herself in to the police in Aiko's place and take responsibility for the murder so Aiko could live freely. However, the government research institute picked that night to try capture Lucy and Aiko was shot trying to defend Lucy. Lucy surrendered peacefully to try save Aiko's life, but she died anyways. After 3 years of isolation and torture in the research facility, Lucy was very psychologically damaged, but still wished to be reborn and "start over" after finally confessing her guilt to Kouta, the person she loved.

Basically, Lucy committed the vast majority of her horrible deeds as a psychologically underdeveloped 10 year old. She did evil things, but felt great guilt and remorse for those things and wished to repent for them. Lucy was a flawed anti-hero, but ultimately not a bad person.

Now lets look at Yuno. She did suffer some abuse from her mother, but NOTHING like the complete isolation and psychological abuse that Lucy suffered. Most people other than her bitch mother, treated Yuno kindly and thought she was a sweet little girl, not a hideous horned monster and a freak unworthy of compassion. Despite this, Yuno showed signs of complete sociopathy from a young age. She only cares about herself and treats other humans as disposable pawns that she will ruthlessly and remorselessly sacrifice to get what she wants. Yuno was even willing to kill Yuki's own mother if necessary to get her way of owning Yuki as her own boytoy and fulfilling her own goals. Yuki of course wouldn't want his own mother or his friends murdered by Yuno, but Yuno doesn't ultimately give a shit about Yuki because she only thinks of herself. She wants a possession, not a true romantic partner to be treated as an equal. Yuno is drawn to look cuter than Lucy and acts much more feminine, but in personality she is less like Lucy and more like Griffith from Berserk or Freeza from Dragonball. Once again, she is an absolute sociopath incapable of empathy, remorse, or basically considering the feelings of anyone but herself.

By looking at motivations and character psychology instead of the net result of how many they killed and how innocent their victims were, you can begin to see the true picture. Lucy = troubled, but ultimately good human being. Yuno = fucking evil. Except for the 3rd universe Yuno, which is an entirely separate entity. In an infinite multi-verse there literally has to be a version of any person that isn't evil. Just because in universe #42323432 their version of Stalin is a really nice dude, it doesn't change the fact that our version of Stalin was a total dick. We spend the entire series watching a version of Yuno that is objectively a horrible human being, so I don't care that universe 3 Yuno wasn't that bad, just as I don't care that according to multiverse theory, there is an alternate Stalin in some universe that is basically Mr. Rogers.

Just kidding, welcome to MAL!

Loves Mirai Nikki, hates Elfen Lied. Lucy is evil, but loves Yuno.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOxt9PoJNkg

I enjoy an informed debate, but if you do not wish to talk, that's fine.

Makoto is obviously a sociopath, which is a real thing, and sadly makes it all the worse. Serial dating, disinterest, and plain sociopathy make up his character. Maybe at one point he did feel bad, but that quickly went away in lieu of detachment and meaningless relations with other people.

I'm not saying you should re-rate it, your opinion is your own.

Faith restored. School days is a piece of shit thank you

Well, the tragedy is what sets the show apart from every other cookie cutter harem. It's like you said, a no win situation, similarly to how it would be in real life if you tried to play a bunch of girls off on each other.. It wouldn't end well, they certainly all wouldn't be cool with it and everyone end up one big happy polyamorous orgy as other shows tend to suggest.
While extreme, it definitely left its mark on the genre and anime. What other title besides maybe Mars or Destruction evokes such a strong response (typically negative) than School Days?

Subjectively, it's not great, which is why I gave it a 6, but the examination of the psychological aspect of a harem was really cool to me, so I'd recommend School Days

For one, it's definitely a deconstructivist take on the harem genre. That one is pretty obvious. Your complaints about how the story and characters are presented should be directed at the creator of the VN, 0verflow. TNK who animated it are responsible for how crap it looked and sounded.
Your'e right. It is pretty vile to see how depraved and boundary-less people act.
I point you to the review for School Days that I wrote.. It sums up my thoughts and feelings on the matter.

You wrote all this about School Days and you're trying to say that you didn't enjoy any of it? You have pretty good attention to detail, and sorted out the story from the bull out pretty well, aside from the art, which is absolute garbage.
School Days has more going on than you think. I liked what you wrote, but there were a few key things you were missing. Why does it necessarily have to be a bad series because it didn't have a happy ending? It's the subtext that matters in this case.

depressing==worst==>Clannad==Shit