What really intrigues the viewer is the unusual characters. They each have their unique traits, and even though they seem to mature throughout each arc and learn from their mistakes in some baffling way, they still have that soft fun side that grows on you naturally. Even though they are far from normal, by standards, these characters are fairly realistic and act as any normal teenagers do. However, they each carry out acts of violence throughout the story for personal reasons. Excluding one, who doesn't have the guts to kill, which you'll learn throughout.
Overall the background music is tense and fits well throughout every episode. There's only one problem. You can barely notice it! You're going to either be focused on what's going on, or just can barely hear it because the background music is at such a low volume pitch. You'd have to look up some of the bgms yourself before actually noticing. The most well-worked songs are the opening "Higurashi no naku koro ni" by Eiko Shimamiya and the ending song "Why, or Why not?" by Katakiri Rekka.
The one thing that disappointed me throughout this series is the animation itself. Throughout the violent moments, the characters don't look like...characters...they don't look human. They look like deformed mutant people. I'm not even joking there. It's that bad. But, other than that I suppose it can go without saying at some points it looks brilliant. But there are way too many mistakes in the series that I'm not proud of.
Overall "Higurashi no naku koro ni" was one of the best anime I've ever watched. Also the best Visual Novel I ever read. Even though the series is brilliant, the VN is the best offering to the series.
I honestly can say I enjoyed this series, and I've watched it too many times to count. Once you watch the first episode, you won't be able to get enough.
