After finally getting to the end of the "perpetual murders", Rika is riding bicycle with her friends till she gets run over by a truck, which makes Hanyuu transport her to another reality in order to avoid the accident that could result in Rika's death. Yet, this time, in this other world, she cannot find Keiichi, Takano and other characters, while Satoko’s brother and Rika’s parents are still living in Hinamizawa.
Things start to get complicated when the two realities start to overwrite one another and Rika needs to decide which reality she wants to live in: a whitish world or a place stained by blood? The plot is developed in a mystery scenario where everything is bewildering and a vital decision seems inevitable. To some extent, we can say this revives the mood of a visual novel in which every resolution is a conclusive factor for the following narrative.
There isn't enough character development with the exception of Rika, since basically all the OVAs are filled with her internal monologue, or rather her conversation with her other persona, and all the other characters remain essentially the same, even in another reality. Apart from Rika's journey, there isn't much except that kind of special that allows fans to see their favorites characters in comical situations.
The paradigm for the whole story consists of a scenario and its deconstruction. If we examine particular scenes, we will see that there is a considerable variety of them and, moreover, that there are scenarios within scenarios, plots overlapping other plots, stories of small importance as well as large, stories with staying power and narratives that quickly pass, leaving their values and resources to be reevaluated by the following storyline.
First, we are in a humorous plot, then in a disturbing one; to close the cycle, we are presented with another comical plot in the last OVA. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei is not about a story of endless murders anymore, rather is about a everlasting cycle of happy and sad moments which we all know very well since it is what life is all about.
As the title suggests (rei=礼=gratitude), while respecting the past, as Rika learned to respect her mother, one must also “kill” his past in order to live the present. Likewise, there’s always an exciting promise that makes us look forward to the future, yet we must never forget to appreciate the here and now. Change is not the aftereffect of exclusively abstract forces, but of real people’s actions in response to their daily lives.
A release from the well-known Studio DEEN, it doesn't stray far from the company’s habitual animated presentation in the previous seasons. Bathed in violent touches, adorable infantile behavior, and a strict adherence to perturbing character development, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei is quite comfortable playing to Toshifumi Kawase’s strengths as a experienced director and screenwriter of fantasy and thriller plots.
The background music is virtually the same of the previous seasons ranging from extremely happy to downhearted. Tamura Yukari once again does a good job as Rika, varying from “Nipa!” to a rather scary voice. Nakahara Mai (Rena) just shows to us this time the “I want to take it home” voice (the “it is a lie!” that was so creepy is actually funny now).
The initial row of the opening "Super Scription of Data" is marked by a somewhat dark mood carried by a guitar riff and a continuous beat accompanied by lyrics inspired in a popular childish song “let's make a pinky promise: if you lie, swallow a thousand needles” - childish and creepy at the same time. The beginning of the song is marked by a brooding intensity and a lofty path till is struck by a new tone, a more extrovert type of music, when reaching the chorus. This duality represents what is this series pretty well. Highly dramatic is the grand pause in the vocal before the refrain.
AnNina has a unique vocal touch, permitting every lyric its full significance, whether she is belting it out or whispering it. The ending “Manazashi” is a good example of all of these factors working together wonderfully. The piano announces the row in a quietly lyrical mood. The music projects a mood of gentle contemplation. In violent contrast is its lyric, with its overtones of brutality: “I killed them gently, so that they couldn't feel any pain”.
Peace is the dream and the search, the longing for oblivion. Since happiness is not to be attained in that reality, love leads beyond its confines becoming the ultimate escape. Thus the impulse that generates life is transformed by a magnificently romantic gesture into the destroying passion whose fulfillment is death: as a dreamlike lyrical melody, the music is steeped in poetry. The piercing sweetness of the voice, a melancholic violin soaring high above the harmony, the dark resonance of the piano - the song has a high emotional content: “What have I lost?” while shards fall with the characters within.
The irreparable of our past – this is the real corpse. All the other cadavers may very well be a delusion. All the corpses may be alive somewhere else, all our own previous seconds of life may be existing elsewhere in the illusion of space and time, in the falsity of elapsing. But what we were not, what we did not do, what we did not even dream; what only now we see we ought to have done, what only now we clearly see we ought to have been – that is what is dead beyond all the Gods.
What we've missed definitely holds no sort of expectancy in any kind of metaphysical system. Maybe we could bring what we have dreamed to some other world, but could we bring to another world the things we forgot to dream? These, yes, the dreams going begging are the real corpse. We bury it in our hearts for ever, for all time, for all universes.
