Higurashi no naku koro ni

For those who have not watched this show yet, this anime is based on popular digital novel created by and amateur (refered as 'Doujin' in Japan)writer.

Unlike other anime series, this one splits itself into several stories(arcs). Each arc consists of about 2-5 episodes. All episodes tells the story of main characters(some side characters) encountering different/same/similar events in small countryside village called 'Hinamizawa' (This feels like parallel universe setting, after each story ends, good or bad they go back in time and start again but this time something else happens with new characters, and more mysteries are created or answered).

First few episode of each arc are done average to near horrible (Personal Experience: I almost decided to stop watching the series after half way through the first episode,,,thank god I didn't!). It's probably due to the way they made it very 'comedial' and some of the ways characters talk, and also how they look.

However, real excitement usually starts from around mid-second episode. Everything will change dramatically! There are plenty of mystery you can try solve in each story (Later episodes reveals the answers to the mystery, so I recommend watching them in order, it is also hard to solve the mystery with anime version due to lack of details in the story compared to the original novel).

Voice acting is very well done, Mion/Shion Sonozaki are personal favorite characters, but everyone else does good job of making the overall warm/dark feel of the atmosphere!

I highly recommend this animation for people who likes mystery, suspense, violence with interesting plots and twists.

*Added - The same author of this series has released new digital novel called 'Umineko no naku koroni (Umineko - Japanese Gull/Black tailed gull)'. 'Umineko' is not a direct sequel to 'higurashi', but has similarity to higurashi. It has better character settings in term of 'realism' (People are a lot more believable), more serious (less jokes that was less appearing to 'serious story' seekers, and still contains a lot of gore. If you understand Japanese, I highly recommend all mystery loving people to read the novel!

For those who doesn't know about Higurashi. Three points:

(1) Higurashi has 50 episodes in total. Second half (24 episodes) are called "Higurashi no nakukoroni Kai". "Kai" means "Answer to mystery". You won't get answer and you won't understand the whole story until you watch "Kai" part.

(2) Style is somewhat similar to US drama "Lost". You will keep wondering if bizarre phenomenon will be explained by science and logic, or by pure fantasy.

(3) If you don't know about Anime, you may think some part are very childish, silly or weird. There are many "Moe" elements in this anime, which are prevalent in current anime. Maid dress, multiple very young female characters with one central male character, are typical "Moe" elements, and you should just ignore them and they shouldn't distract you from concentrating on the main story. What's new about Higurashi is the combination of "Moe" and horror, not unlike "Elfen Lied" which combined "Moe" and Science fiction. But "Moe" part may be just annoying for those who like serious drama.

Nothing makes sense, so everything makes sense. Weird stuff all time. Some things were creepy and others made me laugh

This a series of many different arcs all taking place in Hinamizawa of 1983. With the first episode it kinda make you think this is gonna be your typical cute funny anime. But it's not. It is truly a horror and a thriller anime. Even if you don't like violence I believe most people would still appreciate this anime. In a way it could also fit into the mystery genre.

Surprisingly, the arcs do not get old nor repetitive. Which before watching this anime I was afraid of. After each episode you want to watch more. Overall this is an amazing anime and I would recommend it to anyone. (not children though of course since it is quite violent}.

People who thinks it's trash, most likely is because that only watched the first season, which this page shows. You have to watch the complete series in order to understand the plot. EVERY THING WILL MAKES SENSE!!! PLEASE WATCH IT!!! -It's call Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Kai.- I won't write any specific about the plot because you can really understands its beauty after watching it. At least, I think its epic. One of the best wrotten, comparable with Steins;Gate. The music and other aspects are also good. IT SHOULDN'T FAIL YOU.