Story - 1:
This story starts off pretty simple. A young boy called Maebara Keiichi moves to a new town. It's small, with a school that literally just stuffs all the kids in one class because there's too few for year groups, and he consequently makes female friends of different ages (fuck knows where all the guys are in this anime - he even joins a baseball team at one point and manages to make no male friends) who he goes on stupid cheery picnics with. At first, I thought this wasn't too bad. But I quickly became incredibly confused and simultaneously frustrated.
The first problem with this anime is the layout. It's presented in these really stupid arcs that last a few episodes, and are mostly dull and predictable. The aim and potential of these arcs is clear - they wanted to show all the sides of a mystery and reveal different details with each storyline. But these storylines were ridiculous. They all deviated so far from each other that I could barely recognise that they were meant to be connected. It was like the writer was trying to write plots and just gave up half-way through with a sigh and started another. There's nothing clever about this anime. There's nothing mysterious about this anime. It's just confusing and convoluted and ridiculous - characters completely change personality between arcs, and nothing really make sense and the ending - oh god, the ending!
I can honestly say I have never hated an anime ending more than the ending of this anime. I made such an effort to force myself to the end of this 26 episode anime only to find that it wasn't worth it. It was never worth it. It was the biggest waste of time storyline I've ever attempted to follow. That ending was so ridiculous and answered no questions. I was appalled, frankly, that I'd allowed myself to sit through it. It's awful.
Art - 3:
This anime's art feels so low quality throughout. 2006 isn't that long ago, but animes even older than that do a better job at art than this does. The character designs are bland and unattractive, the backgrounds are no sort of breakthrough, and the colours were dull with only splatterings of blood diverting your attention from the apparent lack of effort put into the animation. Really, this anime's art is nothing you'd call pretty. It's mediocre at best.
Sound - 3:
This anime is yet another that suffers from what I like to call "does Japan really sound like that?" syndrome. These weird shrieking insects constantly sound whenever anyone is outside like nails on a chalkboard, although this is hardly something only Higurashi suffers from. I can only assume these are the cicadas that the anime's title refers to (which I only learnt were bugs from watching Haruhi Suzumiya) but Jesus Christ - they surely can't honestly be that loud?
Aside from that, the voice acting here was mostly mediocre in the Japanese dub but for the love of God, do not under any circumstances approach the English dub. I have watched some frankly atrocious dubs (particularly when I first watched Higurashi, since I hadn't been watching anime for long and still struggled to read subs and catch all the action) but I couldn't watch this anime's English dub past the first episode. More blood spewed from my tear ducts in those first 20-odd minutes than out of any character in the entire anime. The only dub of this I was impressed with was the French dub, so if you speak French then try that.
Characters - 1:
Oh, dear. The characters of Higurashi. Where, exactly, do I begin? Perhaps with our main character, the idiot that he is. Despite the anime trying to reinforce that Keiichi is smart, he does the stupid thing at every turn. He's the male equivalent of big breasted female running up the stairs which, although I'm used to as a horror fan, could simply not abide to see in a guy that was straight up supposed to be this bright puzzle solver. He was a fucking moron.
Aside from that, this anime is dripping in infuriating lolis. They tend to go psychotic every arc or so, which was predictable and sigh-worthy. Nothing about the apparent villainy of these young girls felt realistic. It felt bratty. There was nothing creepy about them - it was like they all just threw a tantrum with a knife in their hands. All these characters ever did was scream and shout and kick and then stab things. They were irritating even before this, with their obnoxious giggles and ridiculous games. They just plain aren't likeable, and their personalities were mostly dull as all hell.
Enjoyment - 2:
This anime is not fun. It is a drag, plain and simple. It is painful to force yourself through, with little in the way of interesting plot points and characters. You become pleased to find their lives are awful because, frankly, they deserve that shit for putting you through this despicable piece of crud they call an anime. You won't laugh. You won't cry. You won't even be that disgusted, because the horror itself is lame. This anime isn't scary or creepy or suspenseful. You don't care if the characters die because they'll all be back in an episode or two to infuriate you again. In fact, I challenge you to attempt to care about the characters full stop. Maybe if they actually became good villains and were entertaining in that respect, I'd have actually enjoyed this anime.
I mean don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that horror is a good genre. I enjoy horror, but the genre itself is awful. You are more likely to find something awful than something good, but at least a lot of the bad shit is at least entertaining in its ridiculous grotesqueness. This is not the case with Higurashi. Higurashi is plain unenjoyable from start to finish.
Overall - 1:
Pathetic, appalling, however MAL wants to describe the 1/10 rating... it's right. Frankly, no matter how hard I try, I can't see a reason why you would like this anime. There are animes I hate where I at least understand some semblance of an appeal in their grotesqueness. Heck, there are animes I myself enjoy that other people would say are awful. But this anime, in all truth, is a waste of time. It does not deserve a 10 rating. It does not deserve a 9 rating. You are welcome to give it one and enjoy it, by all means, but I will never understand your motive or reasoning. You are giving this anime more credit than this overrated jockstrap will ever need and the fact that it has such a high average on MAL is, more than anything, shocking.
Please, if you ever listen to anything I say, do not watch Higurashi.
Do not waste your time on this anime.
Don't even open the streaming link.
Don't type the name into Google.
Don't put it on your to watch list.
Turn back.
Turn back now.
It's too late for me, alas, yet there is still hope for you.
