Anime - Higurashi no naku koro ni

Just a quick review of Higurashi
I know I may be lacking an audience here, but whatever I'm bored

Original title : Higurashi no naku koro ni (When the cicadas cry)
English title : (Higurashi) - When they cry

Release : 4th April 2006 - 26th September 2006
Length : ca. 23 minutes per episode ; 26 episodes
2nd season : Higurashi no naku koro ni kai - 24 episodes
Genre : Mysterie ,Horror ,Drama

Features blood and gore at some parts, and shouldnt be watched by people younger than 16 I'd say.


:nyan:



Story and Setting
I cant really tell you much about it, since it contains many twists and I dont want to ruin it for you. So I wont tell you anything in detail that goes past the first episode.
I'll try to avoid spoilers as good as i can.

The story is set in a a small village called Hinamizawa in 1983. A boy named Keiichi Maebara moves out of a big city and into the village. He spends happy days with his new friends and gets adapted to his new lifestyle. While learning about the people and traditions of his new home ,he hears some rumors about a homicide 5 years ago, at the day of the annual Watanagashi(trans: cottondrifting ) -festival. He wants to learn more, but quickly realizes, that his friends dont tell the truth about it and try to hide facts.
Keiichi also learns about other homicides, and the connection seems to be something called Oyashiros curse.

The story is divided into different chapters, and is a bit confusing at first. Each chapter lasts from 4-5 episodes. So if you want to get a good impression of Higurashi you just have to watch the first chapter = 4 episodes . You shouldn't judge the show after 1 episode.
The story is the main aspect of Higurashi. Its the story that keeps you going, and its the story and atmoshpere that make this anime great and unique.
Higurashi is known for its mindfuck-moments and sudden changes of mood and atmoshpere, so you can never be sure when the light-hearted moments you enjoy right now will turn into dark and creepy ones.
Overall its a pretty dark and sad story that deals with paranoia, trust, loss and friendship .
Its trying to solve the puzzles, figuring out whats exactly going on and guessing what will happen next, that makes up a good chunk of the entertainment.
Also, you cant really understand everything after finishing the first season. Many things get explained in the 2nd season, but in the end it all makes sense. (really)

Sry for beeing so vague.

Oh btw, even though Keiichi has mainly girls as friends, the story will not start a stupid romance, harem or some
other cheesey shit. This has to be appreciated.

:nyan:

Animation
This is the greatest weakpoint of the show. The animation is average at best, and can in no way keep up with anime like Death Note or Elfenlied .
The colours dont look too great and sometimes the people just look strange.
But the artstyle gets the job done, and in the really important moments, the animation gets a quality boost and delivers.
You shouldn't watch Higurashi for eyecandy anyway so who cares .
The good thing is, that Higurashi makes excellent use of different "camera-angles" . You could say, that while the image is ugly, its presented in a great way.
(I hope you understand what i mean ^^)

It's like Minecraft. It can have its own charm, even if its not really up-to-date .


:nyan:

Sound
The Bgm in this is really well done. While there are few tracks that are awesome on their own, every single one of them adds to the mood of the scenes in a very good way.
Many tracks sound creepy and can give you chills or make you feel uneasy. I cant really say anything bad about the soundtrack. The Soundtrack is never really the focus, but always a good addition to the scenes.
I'll give you one or two examples, but keep in mind, that the tracks aren't quite as good without the given context.




The show does have a very good opening in my opinion thats really fitting.
I know it starts with flowers, its still great




The voice acting in Higurashi is great in japanese (as far as i can tell) . Even though I dont speak japanese I still think that the way the actors speak transports the emotions and mood really good. I also watched the english dub (only the 1st season is dubbed) but it isn't really good. I really dislike Rikas and Renas english voices, but I think its watchable if you really dont want to read subtitles.
If you can however imagine to watch it with subtitles, you should always choose to do so , because the japanese version of Higurashi is just better.
There are 2 single 10 second scenes however, that are just fail in both languages. But hey thats just 20 seconds of several hours so who cares.

Last but not least, the soundeffects. I think they are fitting, and i dont really have any problems with them. At one or two points they are used in an awesome fashion, because the viewer already connects certain things with certain sounds. I would declare the crying of the cicadas as a main soundeffect, just like the sound of Keiichis bell and telephone.
I think its already obvious after the first 4 episodes, that the studio that made Higurashi knows pretty well, when and how to use sounds.


:nyan:

Conclusion
Higurashi is an aweome anime, that i highly rcommend. Its a hit or miss anime and i guess the gore and insanity of a few scenes makes it a miss for most people. But for me its a hit, and among my top 3 anime of all time. The best way to experience higurashi is late at night alone, and without spoilering yourself by watching fanmade trailers and stuff, because they always show way to much of the twists and important scenes to make the trailer more interesting.
If you really dont know if you should check it out, you can watch a trailer i will add (i didnt make it though).
But if you think you will take a look anyway ,you shouldn't watch the trailer.



:nyan:

I don't mind if you help me correct things in this review ,or give me tipps how to make it better. I will add things to this review when i see fit.
If you already watched the anime, just tell me what you think. If you dont like it, feel free to say so, but please stay polite

I apologize for any mistakes in my english.


http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/higurashi-no-naku-koro-ni-episode-1-english-dubbed-online-free#English Here is a stream with bad quality. Always use the "english subbed mirror" because the first one has a sound issue and way to dark image. Do yourself a favor and klick at the third Mirror in the yellow boxes above the video.

never heard about this anime. Might look into it.

Looks interesting. Nice review.

Never heard of this anime either.