Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Genres: horror, thriller, school life, mystery, drama
Themes: moe, murder, easily disturbed, harem (v. mild), personal development, occult, mindfuck
Studio: Studio DEEN
Licensor: Geneon (FUNimation)
Year: 2006
Target Demographic: seinen

Summary:
The setting is a small village in the coutryside of Japan called Hinamizawa, in the year 1983. Maebara Keiichi has recently moved to the town from a larger city, and immediately makes a handful of close friends. Everything in the town seems idylllic, but there is a dark history hidden beneath the smiling faces.

Review:
This anime really took me by surprise. I had seen several AMVs with clips from it, so I presumed based on those that a single person outside of the main cast would be murdered and the main cast would attempt to find the culprit(s). Along the way, they would uncover secrets held by each other and by the other residents of the town. Also, I presumed there would be some fallout within the group, causing some dramatic situations.

Man was I wrong.

Higurashi opens with a young boy, soon revealed to be the main character, beating the life out of two young girls with a baseball bat. No reason is given until the end of the story arc, in episode four. Soon after revealing that the murderer is the main character, the girls who were murdered are introduced: his best friends in his new hometown. Why did he kill them?

At first, the story seems very upbeat and cute. There are face-faults, wacky situations, and general silliness. As the story progresses, though, a sort of desperate, violent paranoia sets in - a theme that continues throughout the other story arcs. The town of Hinamizawa, formerly Onikuguchi, has a long history fraught with violence, and the residents have similarly traumatic histories, none of which are fully understood or accepted by those involved. When these histories are exposed, old scars are opened, and the fear of those involved leads to a crescendo of violence and hatred.

There are several consecutive story arcs, most of which culminate in one or more of the main cast being murdered, usually by another of the main cast. Each story arc is seemingly entirely separate from the rest, and the main cast is reset to life at the beginning of each. However, over the course of the anime, the motivations of each character are exposed more, revealing a common pattern in the goings-on of this little town. At the end of the season, the final story arc finally makes good sense of why, if not how, everything keeps getting reset, and what the purpose of following these tragic stories has been (other than just watching close friends kill each other in gruesome ways). I was very much surprised at how well the final arc added an overall cohesiveness to the entire season, and, of course, the "oh shit" moment in the last 10 seconds of the last episode. If not for that last little thing Rika says, everything could have been mostly wrapped up. That girl has WAY more going on with her than she ever lets on, though, so I am looking forward to the second season, where I hope to learn more about her and why she can remember all the temporal iterations and states that the month of July will never end.

So basically, Higurashi follows the sorrows of five young people, culminating in personal revelations on the part of two of the characters, and a HUGE revelation for the audience right at the end. Really, this anime is all about the growth of the characters through emotional trauma, even though on the surface, it seems like a normalish psychohorror. I definitely recommend it! Stick with it to the end, keep your mind active in trying to figure things out, and you will not be disappointed with the ending :)

Ratings (out of 10)
Animation: 9
Art: 9
Character depth: 10
Character growth: 10
Closure: 10
Plot Holes: 9
Poignancy: 8
Predictability: 10
Realism: 9
Suspense: 10
Overall: 9.5

JIKAI: Ladies vs Butlers, Ah! My Goddess, Sumomomo Momomo

PS: If you can think of any improvements to the way I have done this review, please tell me! In particular, I think my ratings could be improved, as well as the cohesiveness of my text review.