Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

Sea-bears and Skylines

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei [Rei] is the third installment of the Higurashi series based on the games created by 07th Expansion. Like the game, Rei covers the events after Furude Rika had finally escaped the meandering halls of fate, breaking the cycle of repetition.

Rei serves as more of a side story, giving small view into life after reiterating summer. The first and last episodes of the set OVA's are for purely comedic purposes. Nothing really happens and the only insight we get into any of the characters is that Rena finds Keichii's 'sea-bear' cute. Yes folks Higurashi went there... they ... implied our brunette buxom wanted Maebara's little friend.

The episodes in-between, 2 through 5 or the Dice Killing Chapter, serve as a more serious side story. Rika one day wakes up in yet another world where everything is seemingly perfect. Everyone she sees is spared of their sin's from previous realities, their souls not torn into shards waiting to be duck taped back together.

It's an interesting setup, but it fails in it's execution. The three short episodes lack any sort of engaging drama, and the story is squeezed down your throat in slabs of monologue. I commend the tale for trying to shade in some background on Hanyuu, Rika's goddess companion, but I didn't find myself caring.

Production

Rei is more of the same. The art hasn't improved much from 2006 when the original Higurashi premiered. The animation was cleaned up a bit, and the colors a bit more vivid. It's somewhat disappointing considering this is an OVA.

The sound work is still the same. The seiyuu remain untouched and the music is largely forgettable. The OP didn't really set an ominous tone like the first two shows did. No special effort seems to have been made in the production of Rei.

Watchability and Enjoyment

The two comedic episodes are hilarious. Funny has always been a part of the Higurashi formula, and it was refreshing to watch an episode focusing on Humor.

Rika's side story on the other-hand is about as engaging as wading through a swamp filled to the brim with molasses compared to the first season. Though it made the fifth episode all the more entertaining. After the dull chapter, the comic finale let me leave the realm of Higurashi with a sweet taste on my lips.

Themes

The Dice Killing chapter, through all it's faults, posed an interesting dilemma: Which world would you pick, one you toiled endlessly to create yourself or a perfect one handed to you on a silver platter. The reality you molded from fate is imperfect but yours, you own it. Which do you keep?

Closing Thoughts

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei is a mixed bag. If you enjoy Higurashi's brand of comedy then check out Episodes 1 and 5. I couldn't recommend The Dice Killing Chapter except to the most rabid fans who care to know even the palest of brushstrokes on Hinamizawa's canvas. But if your that crazy your better off getting the sound novels.

Pointless.

That is the one word that sums up Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei. Even before I started watching this, I questioned whether the excellent Higrashi no Naku Koro ni Kai really needed a sequel. The answer is no, it doesn't.

What saves Rei from the chasm of utter disappointment is the two comedy episodes, as those serve to tell the story of what happened after Kai, when Rika finally had escaped the cycle of endless deaths. Those two episodes - the first and the last - are great in their own way, as they serve as a sort of "reward" to us viewers. Fanservice, ... if you will.

However, the three middle episodes, falls short. The premise is promising indeed - Rika finds herself in yet another world, where everything is very different - but the arc simply do not pay off. The majority of the time spent in this dimension is pure exposition - talk, talk, talk and very little action. In fact, when it's finally becoming serious, the arc ends and leaves us viewers filling in the holes. I feel robbed of somehting that could have been both very disturbing and very great, much like the first season of the series.

Sure, we get a nice little message in the end that serves as an ultimate ending. But the holes in between are simply too big to be overlooked, and my final impression is that Rei needed more time, as well as more balls from the creators.

What happened to the show's initial focus on insanity and violence? I really miss that.

Okay, so, for the second half, it was pretty good. Well, it was fine. I didn't mind it. It was Higurashi, so I'd take what I could get.

But what the actual hell was that fanservice? Literally disgusting, I hated it. All the characters are 14 or younger. I can handle the little bit of fanservice in the main series, but I absolutely despised it here. I know any series like this is bound to have fanservice and that Higurashi has it in other parts of the series as well, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I'd almost say it's not worth watching ... just because of that.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I just couldn't stand to see the 11 year olds be so sexualized in one of my favorite shows. Gross.

I have some massive mixed feelings about this OVA. I feel this is the piece of the story we didn't need to know but had its good moments.

First, I'll start by saying that you can actually split this into 2 parts as the final episode is its own arc and separate from the rest. The way I'll do my review is by starting from the serious episodes 2-5, then the 1st then last episode.

Episodes 2-5 are the actual serious parts, the meat of the story for this OVA. It opened up a pretty interesting premise, one where Rika is thrust into a timeline where the ... goddess cannot reach her, and she has an extremely short amount of time to find a piece of something that can restore the ability for her to return.

I won't spoil it too much, but it didn't actually focus on the syndrome but rather if Rika must make a personal sacrifice and kill someone close to her so she can return, or stay in a world where none of her friends committed the major sins they committed before the series start (Satako and her parents... for instance). However, if she stays, then life as she knows it will change as friends are moving away and some she will have never met this timeline. We also find out why Rika had a goddess by her side all this time, as well as an interesting revelation in regards to her in episode 5 as she firmly tells Rika something which puts episodes 2-5 in perspective (especially as the syndrome is left out).

In contrast, the first episode is purely comedic, but it was a vast change comedy-wise in comparison to any other comedy in Higurashi. Basically, what I mean by this is that it was surprisingly more skeevy and over-the-top. It had its moments, but coming out of the end of Higurashi only to have trained forces coming out of the woodwork at the pool and a canon being shot at someone's chest all the while even the adults are trying to get an underaged boy's swim trunks off.... was weird, to say the least.

I liked a good amount of the comedy in Higurashi, and I'm not against the idea of a bunch of young girls teasingly and dramatically going after a boy's swimsuit, but this went beyond that to a whole new level of ridiculous, especially with the bonkers, almost looneytune-esque reactions of the adults. It'd be more funny if it wasn't Higurashi since it felt more like a tonal whiplash, which is why I almost dropped the OVA altogether.

The final episode is another purely comedic episode, bringing in a godly set of items which can have disastrous consequences, but were intended as match makers. It felt a little bit better than the first episode, but it did have some extremely weird moments with Rena crushing on random people (even breaking up a couple as both adults end up wanting to be with her even after the items' influences are gone). I will say though, I didn't mind it as much as episode 1, and it was still a blast to watch. Definitely a lot more funny, but it almost felt like it was trying to imply these items were the start of the syndrome that plagued the village. Ultimately, by the end of the episode, I think that was a wrong assumption, but that did feel weird as that would open up many more questions and be a crappy origin if it were true.

In conclusion, I like to think of this OVA as a mediocre sandwich made of some cheap, nearly stale bread, and a condiment of which is awkwardly paired with some surprisingly decent filler. Was it absolutely crucial to the overall plot? No, it wasn't. However, it did have some nice bites in there, but nothing too substantial. It came across as very average.

An OVA, isn't it... So, OVA, we indeed did cross paths again. I never thought I would meet you in such circumstances.

Ah, Rei. The season that has absolute jack-shit to do with the story. Continuation? Oh, yes. We've prepared that. Why not have Kira to continue with it?

Rei isn't really one of my favorites. It just gets a laugh out of me. The first episode, made me laugh my freakin' ass off. But, I kinda wanted to make my skin crawl, not laughing. Luckily, the second arc of the season saved it for me.

I'm not going to explain the story. It is pretty self explanatory ... itself. It's basically like the other ones.

Rei is split into two. Absolutely silly episodes, and skin-crawling episodes. The first and last are silly, and the middle kinda make your skin crawl a bit. If beating the shit out of someone with a chair makes your skin crawl, then... Go ahead.

The graphics in this season have tremendously improved. Improved incredibly from the last two seasons, I don't know if Rika dyed her hair again or not, but enough of that. I think the reason it was improved was because, they had better technology? I don't know. But, the graphics are great, nevertheless.

The soundtrack, isn't so good in this one. What? I know what I'm saying. I said the soundtrack isn't so good. It just doesn't have as much songs as I like. Like, I like songs that make my skin peel off, and being replaced with another skin, inside of my skin that is dark. That made no sense, I know. But, there wasn't many new songs in this one, they were all probably repeated from the last two seasons.

Characters. I forgot to mention Hanyuu. Hanyuu is my absolute favorite in the anime. Hanyuu is the pinnacle of kawaii. I think. Eh, what am I saying? Too many animes have too many kawaii characters. So, I'll stop for what I am saying at this moment. In the first episode, a new crew group type thing is introduced.

The Soul Brothers or The Four Heavenly Kings. It consists of Keiichi, Tomitake, Ooishi and Irie. It's completely funny and completely absurd, it makes me laugh all inside. So, every time you see the Soul Brothers, there wont be a time where you wont laugh. I think. Depends on your sense of humor. Mines kinda dumb.

Anyway, I didn't enjoy this as much as the other two seasons, the reason my enjoyment is so high though, is because of how much I laughed. I somehow laughed when (Insert spoiler here) even though it was kind of making my skin crawl. But, also made me laugh, considering that she kind of deserved it.

Overall, I have no choice but to give this anime a 6. The anime in terms of horror, or psychological, are now a disgrace to the name. It is no longer horror or psychological after this OVA. Luckily, Kaku: Outbreak was released sometime last year.

I can't really say to enjoy this or not. It's either you do, or you don't.

Well, while this isn't as strong narratively as the first two seasons of the series. The story still is interesting enough (minus the first episode going for something different compared the rest of the episodes and having a more...comedic fan-service type of vibe.)

The art overall is a slightly improvement over the original, even if it still looks relatively samey (at least for me because binged Kai and this rapid fire.) There's a much stronger emphasis on color for the first episode which is a bit of a fresh air for the series (it's also probably just meant to match the tone of the episode), but ... the show DOES tone the colors back down for the rest of the series to match.

There really isn't any actual 'horror' in this one for me, rather the show has an emotional plot that sort of takes center stage and while it's not bad, it's nothing spectacular either. It just feels...passable I guess, though it does still makes sense in the world of the show.

The characters act like they're supposed to, even having some characters who didn't get a lot of screen time actually get a few minutes here, which is nice. The problem for me is that we really don't see the whole main cast from the class, rather we're focused on one character again like in Kai (which I'm guessing took over the franchise up until now. Hopefully the 2020 remake gives an emphasis on ALL of the characters rather than just one and just finds a way to develop them all appropriately. That's either said than done though.)

Songs are re-used from the series's soundtrack, which I guess makes sense, since some people consider this a 3rd season of sorts to the series (which makes this one of the shortest seasons I've seen an anime have.) The opening and ending themes are good though (which doesn't mean much since I gravitate to that kind of J-Pop sort of music thanks to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.)


Overall, I didn't really ADORE this one, but I didn't hate either. It's just kind...meh. It just feels like a sort of like filler stuff. But I get that it's adapting light-novel stuff, so I guess that makes sense (though, I'll be reading the Manga and the novels to compare to the anime series at some point.)

It's alright, I'd say unless you're a real big Higurashi fan and want more of it (especially Rika and Hanyuu), just skip it.

This OVA confuses me. One minute it's trying to be a serious story and the next it throws all logic out of the window in favour of silly fun. The tone is all over the place and I don't know how to feel.

Episode 1 can be enjoyable if you turn your brain off and enjoy the madness but if you think about it for even a second, your brain is going to hurt. It is so jarring to go from 50 episodes of a dark and bloody mystery series to whatever this is. I understand the appeal of wacky and surreal comedy but it doesn't ... feel right when it's using these characters. Yes, the main series had some laid back and silly scenes but A) not to this extent and B) they at least made logical sense for the most part. This was too much.

Episodes 2-4 are what you would expect from this series. A multi part mystery about the most recent iteration of Hinamizawa except things are out of place this time. Although it's nothing special and it being a continuation of season 2 ruins the ending a little, it's enjoyable for what it is. It's nowhere near as compelling as the arcs that were in seasons 1 and 2 but it's interesting enough to where I'd recommend it to anyone that wants more Higurashi.

I haven't watched episode 5 yet but from what I can tell it's just another "logic out the window" episode similar to episode 1 so I expect my feelings to be the same.

To sum up my thoughts, what was the point of this? The silly parts feel extremely out of place and while the middle arc was enjoyable, it doesn't do anything to justify it's existence. All of it is just pointless filler. I want to give this a 7 for the enjoyable middle but if I'm reviewing this OVA as a complete package, the silly stuff tanks the final score.