Higurashi no Naku Koro ni -- Review ★★★★★
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (a.k.a. When They Cry) is crazy good, even if it takes a while to ramp up. But there's plenty of room to ramp up, since it's freakin' 60 episodes long across four series, and I've written before that I hate long anime. This one's well worth it though, and they make good on their generous allotment of time. Also, I'm a pretty big fan of gory J-horror, so mix that with dollops of moe and you've got a recipe for success.
Our protagonist, Keiichi, moves to the small, rural town of Hinamizawa, only to find himself and his new classmates stuck in the midst of a crazy murder mystery. That lasts about four episodes. Rinse and repeat.... So, the first series is sort of an anthology of seemingly unrelated short stories that happen to share the same characters in the same setting with a different chain of events each time. For each story arc, a new character(s) gets "Hinamizawa Syndrome" and goes on a murderous rampage, interspersed with moe slice-of-life sequences and exposition about each character's deep, dark secrets. There's an impressive amount of variety for a compilation of miniseries with essentially the same premise, and I was always eager to find out how things would get mixed up each time. But I was also on the edge of my seat, because this is a suspenseful show (despite it's shoddy production values, which thankfully improve each season) with loads of really graphic scenes. Higurashi is one of the most explicit examples of animated body horror, and I still squirm just thinking about a couple of these scenes. On the flip side, the comic relief is appreciated but doesn't stand up great on its own (but the 3rd and 4th series do a much better job in that regard).
Higurashi really comes together in the second series, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, which aims to tie up the loose ends of the first series and provides a justification for the format of the preceding story arcs. At this point, the narrative really takes off and the main characters set out to solve the mystery of the murders and Hinamizawa Syndrome once and for all. The intricacy of the plot at this point, and the various twists along the way, as well as the improved fit and finish that came with a pretty apparent budget hike, all come together into a riveting viewing experience that is no longer reliant on mere gore to keep you interested. Whatever shortcomings the first series may have, Kai totally redeems the show with its engrossing continuation of the story line(s). Sticking with Higurashi to the end of its second series definitely reaps the greatest rewards.
After Kai there are two shorter OVA series, with titles suffixed Rei and Kira. These episodes certainly feel like "extras" and may not even qualify as canon, but they're worth checking out if only for the continued increase in production value. They clearly had way more time to work on these, since they weren't weekly releases. A few of these episodes have serious, though bite-sized, plots that append the main story, but most are purely moe/service fare, so they're pretty nonessential, but if you're into that stuff then you'll surely appreciate the extra attention these characters get.
Higurashi definitely covers all the bases of Japan's modern artistic aesthetic of Ero-Guro-Nansensu. It's not always the most polished show, but it all comes together as a complete package, and it has a little something for everyone, as long as you can stomach the gore. As cliche as it is to say, Higurashi is more than the sum of its parts. At the very least, you have to appreciate Higurashi's ambition, especially for a horror series. It's suspenseful in all the right places, and it does a lot to give a unique spin on the classic mystery format.
--The Anime Hipster