Higurashi no naku koro ni: Kai

The first series of this show showed us a village in a time loop. Various things changed in each cycle, but paranoia and violence were consistent across all of them.

The show provided little in the way of explanations, answers or resolutions. It instead focussed on the violence and creepiness.

This series dials down the violence and the creepiness and focusses on providing answers and actually moving the plot forward.

I personally like this because it makes the whole thing a lot more coherent. I obtained both the first series and this series together and was able to watch them one after the other as a result. If I had watched the first series when it initially aired, I probably would not have cared enough about the show to keep track of a second season. But I am definitely glad that I watched this. Watching the first series without watching this just leaves you confused and wondering what the hell is going on. But as a combo they work surprisingly well.

I'm amazed by this anime, my mind is blown away!

In my bad days this anime had really suited me, I was drawn in the story and characters, the mystery and violent scenes. During the episodes I felt excited, intrigued, empathic, then moment later I was feeling worried, horrified, shaken. It was a real emotional roller coaster!

In the first season I was trying so hard to make sense of the story, but the next episode always managed to prove my assumptions wrong. So, the whole first season didn't make sense. I had to close my eyes or at least lower the volume through the scenes of bloodshed, violence and madness. That was hard core.

Second season had exceeded my expectations, everything made perfect sense, I was like "Oooh!". It turned out to be a complicated story that gives important message about friendship, trust, unity, hope and how you can take actions and change your fate.

In series one we saw the same few weeks in 1983 in the village of Hinamizawa playing out like a twisted 'Groundhog Day'... each time ending in paranoia, insanity and murder. We are told that there is a curse that caused the deaths but we don't know why time is repeating or the cause of the curse... that was the 'questions arc'; now in series two we get the 'solutions arc'.

Over the course of this season we learn that one of our school-aged protagonists is fully aware that this time is repeating and has endured the weeks leading up to their murder over and over for about a hundred years... different actions may change how things come to pass but the end result is the same. The something happens; others have ideas of what happened before leading to the hope that the events may finally end. Intertwined with this we learn that another character has far more to do with events than anybody could have suspected.

Season one of 'When They Cry' earnt a reputation as a particularly disturbing horror anime with scenes at least as disturbing as many mainstream horror movies... this series sees a change of direction. The gore is almost all gone but there is a decent amount of action instead; particularly towards the end of the series. We also get some really good character development; not just for the main cast but also for the person revealed as the main antagonist. I liked the fact that this character was given a good back story that made it possible to have some sympathy for them even when their behaviour is clearly wrong. The animation is good; certainly better than the first season and while the character designs haven't changed they look better drawn. Overall I certainly enjoyed this and was pleased to see the questions raised in season one answered; I'd certainly recommend watching this if you enjoyed the first season; just don't expect the disturbing scares.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.