Given the high praise the series has received, I was quite interested in seeing what much of the community has praised as being one of the best horror anime available. Unfortunately, I was left unimpressed by it.
Story:
(I should preface this in saying that, while I talk about the story's inconsistencies and how things aren't very clear, I'm not looking for something with a simple story; quite the contrary. One of my favorite films is 2001: A Space Odyssey and one of my favorite game franchises is the Metal Gear Solid series, both of which are notoriously confusing to understand, with the former being highly symbolic with the latter being simply very complex and you just have to dissect it. I do believe, however, that there are effective ways at leaving things "open-ended" and others that just come off as poor story-telling, where Higurashi no Naku Koro ni falls into the latter category. There are hardly any pieces, really to put things together, and it's also not intended to really be heavily symbolic. You start the series with a certain major questions that structure everything and you finish with those same questions unanswered which makes it impossible to piece anything together without pure speculation.)
Perhaps one of the most disappointing aspects of the anime is the story. The story is told in a set of six arcs focusing on the same exact sequence of events but as a different "arc" which tends to feel a bit repetitive by the end of it. It's also unclear what the goal of doing so was, as well. There is no real resolution as to why the episodes are all similar. There is some overlap in the stories of certain episodes, but you're left wondering why it appears that the sequence of events are reoccurring and, by the end of it, it appears to hint at the loop simply restarting. The first loop takes you by surprise after roughly the sixth episode or so, but it's never clarified by the end why the loop is occurring or if it's even ended, for that matter, even if it's hinted that it continues. Now, to it's credit, since I have yet to see the second season, it's possible that it's explained in the next season, but, as is, it's rather unsatisfying a first season. I should clarify, however, that I'm not simply opposed to there being a few things left unanswered and a few mysteries left to solve when setting up for a second season; that's perfectly understandable and makes the next season desirable to watch. However, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni's entire story structure was left unexplained. It's not just that there were a few mysteries still to solve, but that they didn't really provide enough to give the viewer a sense of what was going on. It's as though everything was just left a mystery rather than just leaving a few things still as a mystery to explain in a second season.
Another issue I had with the story was the end to the last arc of the season. It wasn't immediately obvious whether that was the "real" ending that finished the loops or if they continued. In the end of the last arc, there are a lot of things that seem like they may be intended as the "real" story of what's going on which, if that's the case, then it really is an odd ending, in my estimation. Without spoilers, the "reason" that they give for a lot of the odd behaviors that you see throughout the series comes totally out of left field, and not in a good way. It doesn't sound like a "big reveal" that was carefully crafted, but felt more uninspired and completely out of nowhere that I found myself laughing when they "revealed" it. Again, this may have just been the ending to the sixth arc which still wasn't the "real" ending to the loop, but if it was, it was sorely disappointing. There's just so little resolution to the story at the end and there's never any real clarification as to why the loop is occurring that it's hard to be satisfied at all with the ending.
Another issue that struck me was how many of the events don't make very much sense. What I mean by that, is not that I don't understand what's going on, but, rather, there are certain behaviors or events that don't really have much motivation for them and there are events or behaviors of characters that feel like they came from nowhere or could have been avoided rather easily. 'Plot-holes' isn't quite the right word for it, but I suppose it's adequate in describing some of the inconsistencies that I found through the anime. There were simply too many instances where I'd be asking myself, "Wait, why did the character just ___? They don't even have a reason to and they could have just ___ which would have avoided all of that."
To its credit, there are a lot of little details which they do pay attention to such as making references to other arcs or doing something that maybe retells bits of a previous arc from a different perspective, but, again, it's never clarified on why there is overlap between the arcs or why they're occurring so the apparent "overlap" doesn't appear to hold any significance. Is the "overlap" the "real" story? Is the story repeating until they finally arrive at a "good" sequence of events which will look like most of the overlap? Is it just a series of disjointed tails that happen to look like each other? Was the last arc the "true" arc? Was the last episode actually a hint at the arcs repeating again? There were even things about characters that were revealed that seemed like they were true in some episodes, but not in others, so what was "actually" true about the characters and what wasn't? There are some things that hint that they may be connected in the last arc, but hardly anything really satisfying. In fact, the way in which they all feel connected is like, the third arc sort of has little references to the second arc, the fourth to the third, the fifth to the fourth, and the sixth to the first. The fact that the overall structure of storytelling was never even explained or clarified as to why it was occurring is part of my frustration with the story as you couldn't tell what "actually" happened, what was "actually" true about the characters, and separate that from stuff that was just part of that particular arc and things that were supposed to be true of the characters. Again, since I haven't seen the second season, I could be unfairly judging it, but as it stands, the story was hardly satisfying.
Art:
Next to the story, my other least favorite thing was the art. In fact, this was much worse than the story. The art style is the rather stereotypical mid 2000's style that just looks really bland and uninspired. It wasn't just the character art style, though, that I felt looked bad, but also the quality of work. There were so many angles that were really poorly done, in my opinion, and felt like something from an amateur studio. Lots of really off looking proportions and perspectives that felt very amateur.
I do like the fact that they're trying to do the whole "cute girl gone psycho" trope and I think sometimes it can work as it's fairly effective, but I think they just abused it to death -- no pun intended --, they didn't execute it very well, and they never did anything else beyond that.
Sound:
The sound was actually not bad. The musical score, especially, was adequate for the series. Several tracks really set the atmosphere and even the opening theme was fine, as well. There were a few tracks that were sort of mediocre, but I think overall it was possibly one of the higher points of the series.
Character:
The characters were fine, but nothing special. The "slice of life" portions of the anime were part of what I disliked about many mid 2000's anime where the "moe" characters are painfully cringy to watch. "Shuffle!" was another good example of this. To its credit, however, there is some variety in how the characters are expressed throughout the series since each arc is slightly different so you see a "different side" to each of the characters. However, again, because the story isn't not very clear, it's difficult to determine what's "actually" part of their character and what isn't and is just part of "that arc" and won't be true in the next arc.
Enjoyment:
I don't hate the anime, but I wasn't really amazed by it at all. It wasn't really a chore to get through it, but it was still pretty forgettable, in my opinion. I mean, if you like moe girls and gore, then have at it, but it didn't really feel like much more than that. The story was just a bunch of tropes strung together in a form that wasn't explained, which left it feeling like it wasn't even the point of watching the anime.
Overall:
I won't say that it was a complete chore getting through the anime, but it didn't really have any impact on me as a horror anime. When I watch a good work of horror, I expect it to stick with me for several day. I expect it to have a big impact on me and get me thinking. I expect it to cause me great uneasiness and anxiety while watching the entire thing. This... this just didn't do any of that. It was just a little gory and the topics a bit more mature. That's basically it. It's relying too much on the "cute girl gone psycho" trope to push the feeling of horror, but I think it relies far too heavily on it. After a while, I just started getting bored with it as much of it was just a repetition of the same thing and you knew that a cute girl was going to become really violent. The feelings of uneasiness, if they even exist at all, begin to diminish after the first two arcs or so.
In a nutshell, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is:
1.) Moe high school setting
2.) Moe girl goes psycho
3.) Moe girl is going to be covered in people's blood by the end of the arc.
4.) Rinse and repeat for six arcs of 26 episodes of the same core events told slightly differently with a different psycho moe girl.
If this were really the best in horror anime available, it would appear to me that anime wouldn't have much to offer the horror genre.
