What this anime has done is taken one of the most common elements of anime we have seen throughout its history: the loli character. The cute young girl stereotype, the one individual who from the audience point of view would never harm a fly. That stereotype has been ripped to shreds by this anime. And does it so brilliantly.
The anime is told through a series of arcs, following the encounters of a close group of friends, the majority of which could be filed under loli or at least something close to it. But as time goes by, each are reveals that each one of them has skeletons in the closet which, when discovered drastically change the dynamic of their relationships, whether it be friendship, family or love. Everyone has their lives derailed in an insane manner.
And the way that this is one is just fantastic for the slice of life genre. To begin with anyone could be fooled into believing its simple school/slice of life anime, the kind of one that can be found almost anyway these days. Then BAM! This illusion is shattered, whether it is what a person suddenly says or a certain event. The atmosphere changes form pleasant everyday scenario to having you on the edge of your seat. And from that point you are left like that. Higurashi has become a ticking time bomb with the viewer completely aware of it, yet at the same time wondering could possibly change these almost princess peach style characters, to psychotic murderers who would stab Bowser in the face if he so much as coughed within a few metres. It's intriguing to watch but also scary: the first anime to actually do so which is impressive in itself for me.
But the good stuff doesn’t stop there. There's this real feeling of mystery about the whole series, about why the girls have all turned psycho, and the background events that occur. And as the series progresses, pieces of the puzzle slip into place, something will happen that will destroy all your detective work and cause to revaluate it again and again. I really liked this, because if it were easily solved, I feel that some of that atmosphere, that tension would have been lost. The series just feels like pure chaos at the end with no obvious solution to some of the biggest questions. And in this lies the fear of something unknown. In fact, the only thing I know for certain is that I'm never gonna be able to look at the loli stereotype in the same way again.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this review and please give me any feedback on it.
