When They Cry

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}.

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!

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

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.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni starts off in a quiet, peaceful little village that looks quite ordinary and amiable to anyone.

But, of course, there's always something horribly wrong.

Higurashi was first brought into the world in the form several PC games, with the covers designed to look quite disarming so any person would think that this series was harmless. But once you get into the meat of it, things aren't looking so rosy. You'll be pulled, dragged, and unwillingly shoved into a head-spinning mystery that you wished never surfaced in the first place, fighting for your life against people you trusted, and digging through graves and lies in order to survive.

There are four "question" arcs, consisting of four different viewpoints of the fateful Hinamizawa festival and two "answer" arcs (in the anime), which will reveal what went wrong in two of the question arcs.

What's best of all is the horror, both physical and psychological. If the blood won't get to you, the emotional tension will. With a cast of memorable and lively characters, you won't be able to watch this anime only once.

There are FOUR of them now. Yes, you'll have to deal with four creepy girls instead of one like a normal horror film would. They'll be cute and bouncy for one moment, then murderous and psychotic the next. Full of twists, turns, and unpleasant surprises, after watching this, you won't be able to close an eyelid for some time.

Welcome to Hinamizawa. Enjoy your stay.