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

Rika Furude and Satoko Houjou are best friends who have lived in the small village of Hinamizawa for their entire lives. Alongside their other friends, they spend every day together, and every moment is filled with fun and laughter. However, as Rika and Satoko begin to grow older, a life-changing opportunity presents itself to both of them. Rika is determined to follow her dreams and wants Satoko by her side.

Although Satoko is hesitant, she decides to walk this path with Rika. However, the realization of her dream forms a rift between them. This leaves the girls living in completely different worlds, with Rika enjoying her new life and making new friends while Satoko grows more and more isolated.

Longing to return to the nostalgic days in Hinamizawa, Satoko despairs and wishes things could be changed. Just when she is at wits' end, an encounter with a supernatural entity changes Satoko's perception and imparts new revelations about her best friend Rika. This begins her journey to get the future she desires—by any means necessary.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Prequel:

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gou

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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

Akasaka, Mamoru

Supporting

Ono, Daisuke
Japanese

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Staff

Oowada, Tomoyuki

Producer

Nagatani, Takayuki

Producer

Kaneko, Hirotaka

Producer

Nakamura, Makoto

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Analogy" by Ayane

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Ending Theme

"Missing Promise" by Konomi Suzuki

Reviews

Jan 22, 2024

hexashadow13

Recommended

*Note: While this review does not have spoilers for Sotsu, it does have major spoilers for Gou.*

tl;dr: Slow moving and with an ending that is quite bizarre, but still enough worthwhile content to be pretty good.

Higurashi Sotsu is the sequel to Gou, and could be seen as the answer arcs to it. However, while the Question/Answer arc structure worked well for the original Higurashi, it does not work as well for Gou/Sotsu. The original’s answer arcs were interesting in that for the most part, they didn’t retread old material much but rather solved the mysteries of the question arcs while going through new stories. However, ... the first three arcs in Sotsu are straight up repeats of the first three arcs in Gou from new perspectives, which isn’t anywhere near as interesting. This is especially an issue because the final arc in Gou gives you enough information that you should be able to figure out essentially everything that matters in the three preceding arcs of Gou. As such these arcs feel unnecessary.

It’s not like these answer arcs don’t have anything worthwhile at all. The first arc I thought was pretty clever in how it essentially overlaid two of the arcs from the original on top of each other. The second is interesting in how it shows a character that was seemingly immune to Hinamizawa Syndrome getting it and it manifesting pretty differently from how it has in others. It’s a completely new story that’s pretty creepy even if you’ve gone numb to seeing Hinamizawa Syndrome in action. The third arc in hindsight I think may only be predictable to those that have read the Comic Anthology since it uses the same subject material as one of the stories in it. There are a lot of minor details that needed explanations for it to make sense, though the actual explanations given weren’t very good as they involved coincidence, luck, and things just working out how Satoko wanted them to. That fits with her character and abilities, but it’s still not all that interesting. Still, this arc does a really solid enough job of showing how low Satoko has fallen. So there is some good new content here. Just not enough for the runtime of the anime. It felt like each arc could have been cut down by an episode for a tighter better paced experience.

Still, after all that it finally gets back to cliffhanger that the second to last arc of Gou ended on with Rika realizing that Satoko loops. After that, things get messy. Really messy. At first things get extreme in a way that’s very un-Higurashi-like. Still, it’s really cool and well executed so I’ll give it a pass on not actually making much sense. But then they keep going in a way that doesn’t make sense and the anime overall ends in a way that feels like it completely ignored everything that just happened. It felt like throughout the anime it was heavily emphasizing how much of a psychopath Satoko was becoming while also emphasizing how traumatized Rika was getting, but in the end they just completely shrug it off. In the end, everything that happened is treated as the equivalent of the shounen trope where two friends get into a fistfight by the river as they bare their souls to each other. It’s just incredibly bizarre. Despite all that, I would still have to say that I enjoyed what they did with the epilogue. It doesn’t fit Higurashi very well, but I’m a sucker for endings like that so I’ll take it. All in all, Gou/Sotsu have major issues, but I’m still glad they exist.

The art and animation were really solid. Episode 14 especially was amazing, with the highlight being the shot early on that spun around. The animation of Rika’s Watanagashi dance was impressive in Gou, but after seeing it so many times it started getting kind of old in Sotsu. The OP and ED are both solid in terms of the songs and visuals used. I also thought the use of the insert song “You” from the original was very well done. As an aside, I didn’t mention it in my review of Gou since it would be spoilers, but I’ve always thought of Lambdadelta and Vier as Takano expys so them actually being Satoko will always feel weird.

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Jan 15, 2024

ChrisDC

Mixed Feelings

Before we start this review, I'd like to let you know I have not played the Visual Novel and have only consumed Higurashi content in anime form, so my perspective will differ from those who have read the Visual Novel.
It's also important to understand that both Gou and Sotsu are regarded as blasphemy by many Higurashi fans. I definitely can see why, but that doesn't mean the anime outside of a Higurashi perspective is bad or deserves to be rated a one, as the anime itself isn't that bad; it's heavily flawed and poorly executed, and its premise is quite interesting.

Requirements before watching:
Please watch ...

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Jul 13, 2023

lindencat

Not Recommended

I watched Gou and Sotsu back to back. I enjoyed Gou, so I was excited to see where things would go in Sotsu. But wow, was I ever disappointed.

This was not like a typical Higurashi series. It didn't evoke those same emotions and overall vibes of the first season. Even though most of Sotsu was a dumpster fire- like mess, I was hoping that by the final episode of Sotsu that things would get a bit better and that we would have a solid ending to this mediocre season. What I got instead was a bunch of unnecessary "but why tho" moments which I won't ...

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Poll: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sotsu Episode 15 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Sep 30, 2021	412 replies	by Drinzen »» Feb 22, 4:37 AM
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