Higurashi: When They Cry - GOU

I haven't seen the original Higurashi, so I honestly came into this one blind. I was not ready. This anime has so many twists and turns, I don't even know what's gonna happen next! The adventures of Keiichi, Rena, Rika, Satoko, Mion, and Shion are so well fleshed out! This anime is fantastic!

I didn't know anything about Higurashi before watching GOU, but I do see now why the series has so many loyal fans.

The series is set in the rural village of Hinamizawa in 1983, following a group of school children as their idyllic day-to-day lives slowly descend into madness. The show is divided into five arcs, each of which follow different turns in the events that lead up to the local village festival. For the first three arcs, the story follows the protagonist Keiichi as he becomes closer friends with either of the girls in his group of friends; the last two arcs are told from the perspective of one of the girls.

The high points of the series certainly are the lovable characters and the intricate storyline, which often gives rise to fantastic cliffhangers. This, unfortunately, also is the biggest downside in my opinion: act four ends with a magnificent cliffhanger that honestly is one of the best I've ever seen. However, act five does not resolve it; it's instead left to the sequel series to tell how the story concludes (and, if the ratings are any indication, it does an absolutely terrible job of it).

While the fifth arc is a terrific story in its own right, it does not work as a conclusion to the series. Similarly, the final episodes of arcs one to three often feature a scene where one of the characters tells the then-protagonist what else happened off screen; this honestly feels rushed and comes out of nowhere.

It feels to me as if it would've made more sense of combining GOU and its sequel, SETSU, into one (longer?) series. This way, I certainly don't plan to watch the sequel and am left disappointed. Oh, well.

Apart from that, the series does a genuinely good job. The animations are nice but not stellar, the (English) dub even works pretty well, and the series itself is highly entertaining.

There's certainly a content warning for gore, though. I don't really mind if anime turns violent, but the graphic disembowelling was perhaps a bit much.

Starting off I'm quite a big fan of the higurashi series ever since I was a child, so seeing this type of execution of the show was like taking a child's candy, I am not talking about the plot, it's the same. I barely managed to watch the first episode and have this to say: please just watch the original series, I do not know who the hell thought this remake was any good of an idea. Starting with the most glaring issue: over the top visuals (comparable to that of h-word quality) not saying it's bad but in my opinion it really doesn't fit with anything in this show. The dialogue at times seems, well..... quite off (watch the og show and then this and you'll understand), and the scene where mion and Rena just sit there like npcs in the beginning before kiechi comes to them (also a moment of off dialogue) Oh and the voice acting, I personally may be very biased however the original sounded in my opinion much better.

TLDR: watch the original and never this of this again.

What people forget about Higurashi besides the "horror" aspect, is the feeling of confusion because what makes Higurashi so memorable is the aspect of "mystery" I mean a whole alooooot of mystery, which they give you time to make your own theory as to what do you think is going on, and until they will show you answers later on as the show progresses. and this is what I love about Higurashi.

I haven't watched the original so my opinion is solely regarding this series by itself without comparing it to the 2005 version. Overall I have really enjoyed this series so far; it has good character development, suspense, and does everything it tries to do really well. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys horror anime.