Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (referred to as Higurashi from now on) seemed like such an anime. Unfortunately, it’s anything but.
Watching Higurashi reminds me of writing an English essay. I know what I want to write it, but I have no idea how to start. I can’t write an introduction to save my life. When I ask for help, I’m told to ‘state my thesis’, but I don’t even know my thesis. In the end, I write sloppy, repetitive paragraphs with no link between them and a confusing introduction. Then I proof read, and, with some help, finally manage to write something a little more readable.
Higurashi feels just like my crappy first drafts. It’s all over the place, repetitive and without a proper conclusion, forcing you to watch the 2nd season in hopes that the story will somehow sort itself out. The murder mystery that seemed to be prevalent in the anime is nowhere to be found. I suppose there is a little bit of mystery, but you really need to dig deep to just maybe figure out what you’re supposed to be asking yourself. The more obvious mystery elements, notably the deaths and the constituents of a strange drug, do not have an answer within the first season. Despite being mainly within the genres of horror and psychological, it has that awful slice of life feel that after 21 episodes, it feels as if nothing has happened. Why? Because the entire plot line is presented within 3 or 4 episodes which are simply repeated with different characters as the focus. It’s pretty much an omnibus format, but you’re given no clues as to where in time the episode has jumped back to, and what things the characters have done differently to get this outcome. Whenever a new arc started, I had trouble recalling what events had already come to pass and those that were still to come. Furthermore, there is no order to the arcs, as if the director wrote down the names of the different arcs on pieces of paper, pulled them out of a hat and decided that would be the order. Sure, Shion’s arc did shed light on Mion’s arc, and thus had to be after Mion’s, but apart from that, there was no evident reason for the order chosen.
On the whole, all there is to it is simply little girls turning crazy and killing each other, the end. It’s repetitive, mostly confusing and boring. Explanations passed mainly like they did in No Game No Life - where once character explains everything and the viewer is left mostly in the dark. The only reason why I wasn’t totally lost throughout the whole anime is because I was accidentally spoiled.
As if that’s not enough, most episodes are full of gore, gore, gore, crazy laughter and more gore. It almost reminds me of Pupa, except it’s not AS graphic (but not by such a wide margin) and doesn’t involve as many pained cries or cannibalism. I’m not squeamish when it comes to blood, in fact I’m a little bit of a sadist, but I found myself looking away from the screen a few times. That fingernail scene in Shion’s arc will certainly haunt me for life. *shudder*
The one redeeming factor would be that the writers know their cliffhangers. The ending theme has a tendency of starting at the worst moment possible. As a result, even if you have a general idea of what’s going to happen next (though, to the anime’s credit, the events do deviate between arcs), you’re still enticed to press that ‘next’ button. That’s the only thing that kept me watching all those 26 episodes.
The characters match the plot line standards. There is some diversity in their personalities at the start, but they’re all obviously based off the same format. At the base, they’re all mentally unstable and quick to kill. Well, maybe except for Rika. Rena and Shion are certainly the quickest to go crazy, and as such there is little difference between them. Rena’s love towards cute things makes her crazy side all the weirder. Shion is an extreme yandere. And by extreme, I mean extreme. The tomboyish, leader-to-be Mion has a girly side. Satoko used to be childish and is now acting like a big sister. Keiichi is a typical male protagonist (and the only one, at that). Nothing I haven’t seen before. Rika is also supposed to be the MC, but Keiichi seems to fill that role better.
Perhaps it’s a part of being mentally unstable, but even though they all become crazy and do pretty much the same things, notably killing, why they go crazy remains mainly a mystery. They tick over almost immediately, without much warning and without obvious reasons. This makes it hard to engage with the characters.
The ‘struggles’ between the characters may have valid themes, but they have all been done before - such as friendship vs. trust. There’s also a weird, deformed love triangle that doesn’t add anything to the plot or characters.
Once you’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it all. That is the story with Higurashi.
If there’s no appeal in the more important constituents of an anime, we could at least that the aesthetic value is high. Nope, sorry to disappoint… yet again. The art is possibly the worst I’ve seen yet. In fact, I was almost put off watching Higurashi by it. 'Never judging a book by it’s cover’ is only partly valid in this case.
Proportions are never exact in anime - whether it’s slightly big head or the huge round eyes, but Higurashi’s proportions were even more crazy. Huge heads and stick-thin limbs are not a good combination. The animation itself though wasn’t that bad (movements weren't jerky or anything). I do remember that there was one scene where the voice acting did not match the animation - hilarious - but apart from that, there were no glaring problems. Gore was disturbing, especially since most of the blood was a disgusting dark brown colour.
At least sound is here to save the day. The opening does get a little repetitive, since it is the same throughout all 26 episodes, but it was a good opening theme, so I didn’t mind that much. The ending theme was good, since the somewhat calm theme was often a large contrast against the previous events of the episode. The bad thing about it is that it’s entirely sung in English, with the least fitting words. And it’s not even like Danganronpa’s OP, where the English pronunciation was decent, but Engrish. The words are also sung really word, like a loud whisper combined with sighs and bit of a tune. I mostly skipped it.
One thing we can thank the VN for is the wide range of BGM. I find myself complaining a lot that there isn’t enough music during an anime. Well, not with Higurashi. They wouldn’t go down as some of my favourite tracks, but there were pretty good.
If I had to sum up my feeling towards Higurashi in one word, it would probably be ‘what?’. What is the plot line? What is happening? What has already happened? What is up with the art? What is the point of this much gore?
What did I miss that made most others give a score of 8 and above?
I’ve had this same feeling with the Monogatari Series. Everyone loves the anime, but it seems as if I somehow missed this vital ingredient. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s easy to miss. Higurashi wasn’t a total failure, but I was certainly extremely disappointed.
There is a bit of a… ‘twist’ to this, however. I believe it is possible that the terrible plot line and characters were actually what keep you watching - especially when it comes to the 2nd season. You’re so confused that you can’t help but want to know the answers. In that sense, Higurashi was simply an introduction - a bad one, but then again a bad introduction doesn’t necessarily herald a bad story/essay/etc. Hopefully, Higurashi no naku koro ni kai will, as the description says, "shed some light on the dark mysteries prevalent in the preceding season.” I suppose it’s up to you whether or not this is an efficient marketing technique… just kidding.
All in all, Higurashi no Naku koro ni is a poorly executed anime with few redeeming factors, but not torturous to watch.
Plot: 4/10
Characters: 4/10
Art: 4/10
Sound: 7/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Overall: 4.6/10 - rounded to a 5
— - - — - - — - - — - - — - - — - - — - - — - - — - — - - — - - — - - — - - — - - —
Thoughts? Complaints? Critiscm? Suggestions? Awe? Please spare a minute to comment on my profile so that I can improve my reviews.
