Let’s start with the good elements first, which is primarily the solution the show provides it audience to the many, many questions. We finally discover whether the curse of Oyashiro is the retribution of a wrathful god who has been killing off the enemies of the village or not. There’s this brilliant plot twist half way through the anime that not only sheds light on this issue, but is just so shockingly unexpected. As for the other mysteries, the answer to why people are going insane, is a little bit far- fetched when you first hear it but in the wider scope of the plot it actually works pretty well. Overall I feel that the answer s that are given makes the first series even better, as I can tell it’s been well thought out and written brilliantly. Everything just slips into place by the end.
The whole repeated cycle of time that was used for each of last series’ arcs is present here once again. Not only is it explained why time is in a seemingly endless cycle but it’s actually used better. How it was used last series was basically seeing many of the same events from a different angle or seeing how a different event may have any effect on others we know about. It was all about focusing on different perspectives of the victims or the murderers of the show. It was very good mechanic to the whole first season and I’m happy that Kia has made it even better. Of course most arcs would result in either Rika Furde’ death or the release of a deadly virus, and with Kia, we see Rika trying to prevent this from happening. This brings us to another important observation between the two seasons; the characters.
If you haven’t read my review for season one, what I really liked about the main cast was that they were just the normal stereotypical anime character and the show had them do the most insane, inhumane things imaginable, usually against one another. Series two doesn’t do this, at least to the extent of torturing and murdering a loli, or cutting corpses into pieces. Heck, the craziest thing we see serial offender Shion do is hit someone with a chair... which they shrug off as if it was nothing. What the show does, and does well is show just each of the main cast is capable of great inner strength, against the odds that seem monstrous or impossible to defeat. A personal highlight of mine was when Satako finally stood up to her abusive uncle and how everyone gives it their all in order to help Rika. And it all happens without excessive violence committed by them. This makes the overall message of the show you must not resort to illegal methods in order to help others, and that everything, to con artists and fate itself can be overturned by the bonds of friendship. Its sounds cheesy, and isn’t even something that’s new to anime. But it does work pretty well.
Despite the praise I have for the plot and characters, there’s one major flaw with it; the atmosphere. Now some people may be able to live without it, thanks to the reasons I mentioned above. But fans like me who relished the horror of this show will feel let down. I was on the edge of my seat for almost the entire first season. With Kia I wasn’t, due to the horror just not being present at all. It doesn’t even try to be scary. The show spends too much time uncovering the mystery, for there to be room for this atmosphere.
At the end of the day, I think if you just want some answers, then you will probably really enjoy Higurashi Kia. But if you care more for horror, you will be definitely disappointed. Personally I’ m always going to regard season one as the better series, because it was scary which made it stand out from anime I had seen before.
Well I hope you enjoyed reading this review. Please let me know if you found helpful or if you have any comments on it.
