I do have a rather disturbing view on animes such as this, as well as others that are mature, violent and have tragic, jealous love stories - they are my favorites if done correctly and this one is done amazingly and that is only one part of what I love. There are an assortment of murders, but you are never sure what to believe or what to think, nor what is good and what is wrong and they are all done for the best reasons - the reasons that I look for in anime, books, movies and anything else because they are the true human emotions - love, jealousy, family, fear, protectiveness of those that you love, abuse, sibling love, first love, first crushes and everything else that makes a person what they are. Things that would be precious memories are nothing more than a myriad of blurs and confusion in which the main character sometimes does not know what is real and neither does the viewer. If you can top a psychological thriller with supernatural elements, then I am in my glory and this anime does just that.
Aforementioned, the first moments of the anime immediately will let you know if you can stand this kind of anime or not - a lot of is done like the beginning, which you see a rather vague vision of a guy beating something on the ground most likely to death with what looks like a bat, but you have no idea why, obviously and you do not see the actual beating, it is left to the imagination and much of the anime is like this and if you have an active imagination like me, filled with theories, then this anime is perfect for you!
Once the shocking beginning is over, if you are still watching and did not get disturbed and turn away from your screen, you are put into the normal setting for an anime - or so you think. You see a bunch of beautiful girls that look very different and act very different, as well, and the main character guy that was just doing the beating in the beginning, and they are all in school having a dandy time.
By now, you already know that this is not a happy, simple anime, so nothing obviously is what it seems and your mind immediately starts racing as to what just happened and if the violence started so soon, when could the next thing happen and it could literally happen at any moment!
The main characters live in a tiny little village away from main cities and civilization and they only have about 2,000 people in the entire town. The school where the main characters go is nothing more than one classroom which houses all the students in the town, from grade-school to high school, all in one classroom and there are only 15 students altogether, so once you learn this, you are creeped out even more because this is a very unique and disturbing setting. The town is in the middle of a beautiful, huge forest and the whole area is very majestic and isolated.
The storyline of this anime is so intricate and woven that it really is hard to explain in words and I sat for a while before even trying to write this. You will want to watch the scenes again to make sure you didn't miss anything and so many things will rush through your head when you watch this anime because so many things happen unexpectedly and you have no idea why.
Contrary to what I thought, there isn't really an awful lot of actual violence on screen and the first animation I saw was one of the worst ones in the anime. However! There are a ton of different horrific things that happen, but you only get to see the beginning of them for most of the anime and your mind is left to figure out everything else, but really is hard to do!
For me, once again, this anime was perfect. I love watching things where you have to think and have theories and it makes your mind work, and this anime does just that. I was constantly trying to figure out what was happening and who was really who and even though I was right a lot of the time, when I was right, it was just totally more disturbing because the things I thought were very creepy.
This is a psychological supernatural thriller. There are very horrible things that happen very often, but you, the viewer are left to figure out what is real and what is not and who is really in the wrong and in the right. The first season of the anime covers four question arcs and two answer arcs, where the second season will hopefully finish the rest up.
The voice actors... oh, the voice actors were possibly among the best I have ever heard and they were totally satisfying for reach situation. Sometimes someone screams in a situation or laughs insanely, but they are not good at it - that is not the case in Higurashi. All the voice actors are extremely talented at their roles and most of them will actually give you chills at one point or another.
I loved the art! The facial expressions and the different ways the characters eyes would change were absolute genius and I loved how the screen would slowly go over to their faces, so that you, the viewer, would have to wonder what their expression would be - would the character be sane at the moment, or would they be out of their mind? They also did not only have one expression for when people were upset and mad and insane, there were many different expressions for the different characters - they all have their own personal insanities!
The music is absolutely awesome for the anime. I got two of the soundtracks afterwards and have been listening to them non-stop. The music goes perfectly with the anime and sometimes it's happy, but generally it's creepy, psychotic, mysterious and makes you very nervous and scared, but it's also beautifully done. The opening theme will capture you and drag you in and you will have it stuck in your head non-stop and trust me, that is a good thing because it is awesome!
I highly suggest this anime to anyone that liked animes such as Elfen Lied, which is another of my favorites. This anime is now among my favorites and I highly await watching the sequel, which I have not started yet and I am so happy to have come across this anime, I will admit... I LOVE THIS ANIME!
