Get ready to squirm!
“Higurashi no naku koro ni” is without a doubt the one of the most suspenseful and well-crafted pieces of horror anime I’ve come across. Unpredictable, complex and meticulously designed to make you feel relaxed and safe – to make you squirm with unease at the exact right moments!
The year is 1983 and Keiichi Maebara has just moved to the quiet village of Hinamizawa with his parents. He spends his days enjoying the peaceful life in the village together with Rena, Mion, Rika and Satoko - a group of girls he goes to school with.
It’s all fun and games until the village begins to prepare for their largest celebration of the year - the Watanagashi festival (cotton drifting festival). At this point Keiichi has begun to uncover more about Hinamizawas dark history - something that his friends turn out to be very tight lipped about. Several murders as well as strange disappearances have plagued the village in the past and they all seem to be connected to the Watanagashi festival and to the local deity known as Oyashiro-sama.
As Keiichi begins to dig deeper, he soon finds himself entangled in a web of dark mysteries, murder and things that he probably should just have left untouched.
“Higurashi no naku koro ni” was initially created as a dōjin soft visual novel by the dōjin circle 07th expansion. A Dojin soft is basically the Japanese equivalent of an independent game made by a group of people as a hobby rather than for profit.
The story that was written by Ryukishi07 (real name unknown) is divided up in six story arcs. The arcs of the first season are collectively named “Question arcs” and are meant to set up the whole plot for us. The arcs of the second season “Higurashi no naku koro ni Kai” (2007) are the “Answer arcs” where delve deeper into the story and where questions left unanswered in the first season are uncovered.
I will be touching upon that a bit later on in this review and it's something that could be good to have in mind before watching the series.
The village of Hinamizawa is – as we soon find out - stuck in a time loop and the events of the previous arc resets every time we are presented with a new arc. Are you still with me? Ok good! The central point in all of the story arcs is the happenings surrounding the cotton drifting festival and the curse of Hinamizawas local deity Oyashiro-sama that plagues the village and its inhabitants.
Now, this storytelling format was a bit confusing to me when I first saw the series and it took a couple of rewatches to get the hang of everything. The first season is also keeping its viewers in the dark on many plot details, which at times can feel like you are missing something. After finishing up the first season, there quite many questions left unanswered and it can all feel a bit confusing.
But don’t worry, it’s all dealt with deeper and subsequently explained in the second season “Higurashi no naku koro ni kai” (2007). Even though there was some confusion here and there, I must say that as a viewer my curiosity was still always on a constant high. When you get into it, you’ll find that the story is masterfully crafted and a prime example of great pacing.
It’s meticulously designed to initially make you feel comfortable and relaxed to get you squirming with unease at the exact right moments. And when “Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni” switches gears it’s unexpected, shocking, heavy hitting and quite emotional to say the least. What makes it so terrifying is how suddenly and unpredictably it goes from being as innocent as a show for children, playful and quirky, to full on psychotic horror and then back – making you as a viewer think “Ok…what the hell just happened!?”.
While the series is intensely exciting and even funny at some points it’s also very emotionally heavy and can sometimes be quite hard to watch, as the many likable characters are tormented and put through unimaginable horrors over and over, without being able to escape their tragic fates.
The characters are colorful, to say the least, and all of them are carefully written with depth, very unique personalities and intriguing backstories that we get to explore within each arc. What connects them is that they all seem to have/or are experiencing some sort of personal trauma that they are hiding. Things like losing someone close to them, being a victim of abuse at home or struggling with severe mental issues. In each arc something happens that triggers their repressed trauma – which has dire consequences to put it mildly.
As each character is given their own arc (told from their perspective), we get plenty of time to really get to know them and understand them. This really brings us close to each and one of them and gives us the pieces we need to later puzzle everything together.
The music is composed by the great Kawai Kenji who composed the chilling tunes for Hideo Nakata’s “Ringu” (1999) and really sets the tone for the series' style and atmosphere. Everything from playful and quirky melodies to dark, frightening as well as heavy hitting symphonic pieces to accompany and give extra strength to the suspenseful story.
“Higurashi no naku koro ni” is one of those anime shows that you just have to experience and one of the most infamous within the anime horror genre. It can be a bit hard to get used to its style of storytelling and you may have to invest some time and maybe a few rewatches to really get in to it – but trust me it’s worth it. This is without a doubt one of the best anime series I’ve seen and remains among my favorites.
Title: Higurashi no naku koro ni
Release date: April 5, 2006
Runtime: 24 min per episode
Number of episodes: 24
Genre: Thriller, drama, horror, mystery
Country: Japan
Director: Chiaki Kon
Writers: Toshifumi Kawase, Ryukishi07, Rika Nakase
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