Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is definitely hard to get into and understand without any background knowledge of how it works. Going into it, all I knew was how gruesome, twisted, and shocking it is. What confused me the most is how every few episodes is a different arc. While watching, I had so many questions about what was going on and really just wanted a bit of explanation but after a few arcs and still no answer to what was happening, I think that's what made me lose interest. I had to search and read the summary of all the episodes/arcs to understand the whole story and everything that happened. After finishing the anime and finally understanding the story, I see why it was structured like that but it was still difficult to sit through the anime not understanding things. I was more confused than scared.
Watching the anime for the first time, I remember not expecting how it seemed to be like a normal splice of life at first. Everything seemed very peaceful until mentions of people getting murdered or disappearing each year, how the town is cursed, and how people are becoming insane and paranoid. It is a great way to catch all the viewers off-guard and makes the anime successful as a psychological horror.
If you're into psychological horror and you somehow have not seen this classic, definitely worth a watch. It does teach you some things such as friendship and trust. Even as someone that does not often watch psychological horrors (even though I like and enjoy them) and having a rough time with this anime, I am happy that I watched Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
