Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gou (Higurashi: When They Cry

Rika Furude and her group of friends live in the small mountain village of Hinamizawa; in June 1983, they welcome transfer student Keiichi Maebara into their ranks, making him the only boy in their group. After school, they have fun playing games and spending each day living their lives to the fullest. Despite this seemingly normal routine, Keiichi begins noticing strange behavior from his friends, who seem to be hiding the town's dark secrets from him.

Elsewhere, a certain person watches these increasingly unsettling events unfold and remembers all the times that this, and other similar stories, have played out. Using that knowledge, this person decides to fix these broken worlds. However, when certain variables change, the individual is faced with a horrifying realization: they have no idea what to expect or how to stop the impending tragedy.

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Adaptation:	Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gou
Prequel:	Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei
Sequel:	Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sotsu

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Characters & Voice Actors

Furude, Rika

Main

Tamura, Yukari
Japanese

Ryuuguu, Rena

Main

Nakahara, Mai
Japanese

Sonozaki, Shion

Main

Yukino, Satsuki
Japanese

Sonozaki, Mion

Main

Yukino, Satsuki
Japanese

Maebara, Keiichi

Main

Hoshi, Souichirou
Japanese

Houjou, Satoko

Main

Kanai, Mika
Japanese

Hanyuu

Supporting

Horie, Yui
Japanese

Takano, Miyo

Supporting

Itou, Miki
Japanese

Ooishi, Kuraudo

Supporting

Chafurin
Japanese

Houjou, Satoshi

Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu
Japanese

More staff

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Cook, Justin

Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki

Producer

Kaneko, Hirotaka

Producer

Nakamura, Makoto

Producer

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Opening Theme

"I believe what you said" by Asaka

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Ending Theme

	4: "I believe what you said" by Asaka (eps 24)
	1: "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni " by Eiko Shimamiya
	2: "Kamisama no Syndrome" by Ayane
	3: "Fukisokusei Entropy" by Ayane

Reviews

Jan 18, 2024

hexashadow13

Recommended

tl;dr: A very different but solid Higurashi experience.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gou is a sequel to the anime from over a decade ago. It’s done by a completely different animation studio who have a completely different art style and was also somewhat marketed as a reboot. But make no mistake, it is absolutely essential that one be familiar with the main story of Higurashi before watching Higurashi Gou, whether that be through the anime, VNs, or manga. As such, while this review will not have spoilers for Higurashi Gou it will have major spoilers for all that comes before it. I will also note ... that Higurashi Gou has connections to the other titles in the When They Cry franchise, Umineko and Ciconia. It isn’t strictly necessary to be familiar with them to understand the key points of what’s happening in Higurashi Gou, but you will be missing out on some smaller details.

As the synopsis of this anime describes, this anime starts off with Rika once again being thrown back into the eternally looping Hinamizawa of June 1983. She’s already managed to survive it once, so she’s much more optimistic about getting through it and intends to be much more proactive about guiding things to a happy future. However, things are proceeding very differently from how they were previously which makes things far more difficult than she expected, resulting in her having to go through multiple loops.

While this is what’s important in terms of the overarching plot, what’s far more interesting during these portions is what actually happens during these loops. They are all incredibly similar to arcs in the original Higurashi, but with key differences that ultimately lead to a very different ending. As such, to a degree these might feel a bit like playing a game of find the differences. This might feel like somewhat of a slog at times, but it ultimately felt pretty worthwhile to pay attention. The reason for that is that unlike when going through Higurashi the first time, you should already know all the rules of the game. You know what Hinamizawa Syndrome is and how it works. You know about how everything rumored regarding Ooshiro-sama’s curse is nonsense, but that there really is a major conspiracy. And thus unlike with the Question Arcs in the original Higurashi, I feel that it’s actually possible to solve the core mystery of each arc while going through it. Thus, these are much more interesting if you’re actually watching them as mysteries that you’re doing your best to solve as you watch. Unfortunately, this does come at a cost, in that because things are much easier to follow the psychological horror aspect doesn’t work nearly as well. But on the flip side, Gou spends more time on the slice of life aspect and ultimately handled it much better than the original did. Overall, it’s an incredibly different experience from the original Higurashi, and overall I’d have to say a weaker one, but one that’s still pretty good.

However, arcs like that aren’t all that Gou is composed of. Following these arcs, it switches to an arc that’s really focused on putting Rika through the wringer. I really didn’t like this arc. It felt like it was abandoning it’s psychological horror aspect and just delving into torture porn relying entirely on blood and gore. Ultimately, why it was handled in such a manner does become clear: it needed to go through a lot of suffering incredibly quickly so psychological horror wouldn’t really work. However, in that case I feel like each instance dragged on too long and it would have been better off just being a montage or something. Still, however much I dislike it, it does serve it’s narrative purpose.

Following this, it reveals who the true antagonist is and then leads into an extended flashback where it explains why they came to be an antagonist and how they’re doing what they’re doing. This should also pretty much completely fill in any blanks left in solving the mysteries in earlier arcs. I feel opinions on this flashback arc will vary tremendously depending on how much you can relate to the antagonist, but I felt it was very well written. The antagonist is a mess and a complete monster, but I can empathize. The smartest thing would probably have been to just walk away when given the chance, but I can see how hard that would have been as well. Throw in that absolute power power corrupts absolutely, and it’s pretty clear how things progressed the way they did. Higurashi Gou ultimately ends by closing the loop on the flashback, but not progressing any further. Thus, there isn’t anywhere near a proper end to the overarching story yet. Still, it ends at a solid enough point and there’s another season so the ending is fine for what it is.

The art and animation I felt were really good and overall I like the new art style better than the old, though I’m a big fan of Passione for whatever that’s worth. The horror aspect doesn’t work as well in the new art style, but the horror was much less of a focus from a narrative point of view regardless of the art style so it doesn’t matter as much. On the other hand the art style works much better for the slice of life which was more focused on, so I think overall while it wouldn’t fit all that well to the original Higurash it’s a much better fit for Gou. There definitely were some areas that I think could have been better handled though, for example some of the character designs look really weird, such as Tomitake and Ooishi. The OP and ED had pretty good songs and visuals that fit well. There’s only one OP despite there being two cours, but visually it changes somewhat to reflect the progression in the narrative so I was fine with it. I also liked how they used an OP song from the original Higurashi at times. The soundtrack didn’t really pop out much which I feel is pretty disappointing for Higurashi but on the whole it was fine. Also, the arc names were pretty clever for the modified repeat arcs.

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Nov 3, 2022

ShiroFox2

Mixed Feelings

So even though people say its a reboot, it is kind of a sequel to the original series
by kind of i mean its technically necessary to see the original series to fully understand but not really.
its a lot of fun and takes a nice twist, but its a lot more mellow than the original in the plotlines

overall, i really recommend for you higurashi fans, but not for first time watchers who want to start off from the reboot. start from the original series. trust me, its so much better and will give context. and yes, i do recommend seeing it after you finish the original, ...

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Sep 17, 2023

IceCreamScene

Not Recommended

"It’s not that hard to write a sequel, expand on characters and story in meaningful ways, and try to make it as good or better than the original. For most people, the standard was the original Deen anime from 2006-2007, and for a sequel to not even begin to reach the quality of that, let alone the original VN, is… well… maybe it just shouldn’t have been made in the first place.

Gou is unique in that, if you’ve consumed any Higurashi content before it, it will actively hinder your experience while watching it. Yes, you will have a worse time watching a sequel if you've ... already watched the original. I am not joking. A massive reason for this is the fact that half of Higurashi Gou is glorified recap; the first three arcs are adapted straight from the 2002 VN with detailed differences and a changed conclusion to serve the new narrative. This is why, if you’ve consumed Higurashi in any shape or form before this, it’ll likely bore you half to death. The episodes add absolutely nothing of value to the characters and even trivialize their arc and development from the original, making them somehow less of a character. These arcs only exist to serve the new narrative and to make sure newcomers aren’t too confused… which is so… completely backward.

Promotional material is mostly harmless; it’s literally just advertising, and that’s what it should be. I can’t decide whether I love the trailer for Gou or detest it. On one hand, it was a decently funny bait-and-switch, advertising the show as a remake of a beloved VN to then be revealed as a sequel in episode 2, and on the other hand, it would’ve been much better as a remake. This isn’t even mentioning the swarm of first-timers to the series starting off with Gou, partially due to the fact that the original Higurashi has become rather hard to watch legally. The original Higurashi Deen anime was… good, I guess, but to say it was totally faithful to the original and used its time wisely is just wrong. I was so hyped for a remake because of this, so you can imagine my dismay when I found out it wasn’t.

Shock factor in place of depth and horror.
If you’ve ever seen the original, I should hope that you came to the conclusion that the “horror” of it came from the artistically crafted plot and impactful death scenes. Taking the beginning of the original VN as an example, it starts with an ambiguous, repetitive bashing sound over Keiichi’s inner monologue as he commits an atrocity we have yet to see. It’s insightful, it’s mysterious, and most of all, it’s impactful. Then we come to Gou, which throws all meaning out the window and replaces it with unsettling images and sounds. Sure, it’s more in line with the traditional idea of “horror = scary,” but it’s such a poor choice considering the themes of the original. I’m not even saying it did the unsettling images and sounds particularly well either; they’re not thought out or even scary, really. Most of the death scenes result in the entire room they're in being absolutely covered in blood, no matter what weapon they’re using, and even ignoring the blood, everything from the characters to the animation falls in line with your typical slasher, rather than the psychological horror it’s supposed to be. And that’s the one thing anime does incredibly poorly; slashers succeed in scaring their audience due to it being live action and therefore relatable to an extent. Anime can’t do that, for obvious reasons.

It’s just not scary. In any sense of the word.

I honestly feel bad for the voice actors, who continuously put up a stellar performance no matter the quality of the Higurashi content they’re featured in. They’re one of the shining stars that I got from scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of compliments to give the show. It’s astonishing how they can put up this good of a performance even after 14 years of voice acting for the franchise, and I have endless praise for all of them. Though when it comes to the new coat of paint the sequel got, I’m not so kind. I really, really thought about this, and I prefer the original art and animation. Intentional or not, the bad art and questionable animation definitively set a tone that matched the narrative of the show. Gou’s just feels so bland and basic; it doesn’t change to match specific tones presented by the plot, nor is it good (This does NOT include the EDs, which were amazing). It’s “good,” don’t get me wrong, but that’s all I can give it, and it links back into my argument about the lack of depth the show has, and I think the animation is a rather nit-picky example of that.

I’ve held off talking about the main issue of the first season so far, which is undoubtedly the story and pacing. The pacing is so incredibly inconsistent in the worst places. Take, for example, the first 13 episodes. I know I’ve mentioned them a lot, but I cannot stress enough just how bad they are, and I will keep talking about them until I’ve convinced you. As I said before: “half of Higurashi Gou is glorified recap.” This by itself isn’t a bad thing; however, none of it is cut. Despite being a sequel, it goes out of its way to explain almost every single thing we should already know by this point. And as a result, it just feels like you’re watching the original Deen anime again. This isn’t even contained to the first 13 episodes; parts of Sotsu and later in Gou we get Matsuribayashi-hen recap when plot should be taking place.

In a post-episode 13 world, the plot does actually happen, and the story makes meaningful progress for the first time in 4 hours. It arguably gets worse. The pacing goes into overdrive to the point where major character development is cut down into 4 episodes. It gets worse. Out of those 4 episodes, only roughly 2 of them (2 halves of 2 episodes put together and 1 good episode) have any meaning, while the others are relegated to padding and murder scenes. The murder scenes in particular could’ve been done well; all they would need to do is portray Rika’s active thought processes and mental deterioration in a meaningful way as she was being killed, but all they gave us were a few lines of dialogue from her each scene, most of them being completely irrelevant.

Funnily enough, Gou’s peak was when it was acting as it was meant to be from the start, a sequel to the original. The main characters get nice development, and the story that ended from the original is directly continued.

The second half of the arc is where the actual answers are revealed to us, and most importantly, we get to see one of the best characters from the original go down a dark spiral called bad writing. Some of the decisions made here are so bad and frankly disrespectful that I couldn’t take any of them seriously. It also clearly shows that the writer has no understanding of human emotion, with many events that should’ve at least put a strain on the main character's mental state just further fueled their questionable motivation for their even more questionable goal.

Now I have no doubt that the higher-ups at studio Passione had some influence in how this was written. Considering the general outside perspective of Higurashi, especially the anime, being along the lines of a murder-thriller with lots of gore and violence, they likely pushed the people actually making the show in that direction because they thought it would make a decent profit.

Overall, this show is really bad; I hate it from the bottom of my heart, and nothing is likely to change that.

Remember: It’s not canon if you don’t like it; just forget it existed and move on with your life. - Me, when this first aired."

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