Movie Square

I gave up after watching the 4th of 6 discs. I kept hoping it would get better but

it didn’t. There is only limited violence and not that graphic by anime standards.

Sexual tension? Zero. Paranoid Agent was better and thankfully shorter. I guess I

was looking for a mix between Elfen Lied and Read Or Die and got neither.
Rating: 2 / 5

Keiichi Maebara’s life has just gotten a whole lot better after his move to the small town of Hinamizawa. He’s made friends with four of the local girls, Rena, the girl who LOVES anything adorable, Rika, the kind kid who always cheers her friends up, Satoko, the trickster, and Mion, the tomboyish leader of the group. They all enjoy spending time during their summer with the new transfer student from the big city, and it seems like a dream come true for Keiichi. If this sounds like the premise for a harem comedy series, you wouldn’t be too wrong. When They Cry, or Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni(When the Cicadas Cry), works by setting the stage for what seems to be a gentle slice-of-life with traditional anime tropes and going on to reveal what it really is: a horror-mystery series.

Of course, the change is gradual. The first episode might have a disturbing first few minutes and a creepy opening song, but then it shifts focus to the daily lives of Keiichi and his friends. As Keiichi starts to find out, however, life in his new town might not be as idyllic as he once thought; as the upcoming Cotton Drifting Festival draws nearer, he starts to hear some disturbing rumors about Hinamizawa, some of which might even involve his new-found friends. Every year on the night of the Cotton Drifting Festival, one person is killed while another goes missing as a part of Oyashiro, the local deity’s, curse. While no one officially knows what happened to the victims, the Hinamizawans are suspected to be the conspirators, as all the deaths are linked in some way to a conflict that would have meant the end for the village. As Keiichi finds out more, his friends begin acting more and more suspiciously, and what once seemed like a paradise to him has now become a nightmare.

Higurashi’s strength lies in the transformation of these kids from cute, normal teenagers to ruthless killers. One changes from a sweet girl to a cleaver-wielding, maniacally laughing madwoman with a troubled past within a couple of episodes, while Keiichi himself cannot avoid becoming increasingly paranoid as he watches his life fall apart and his friends go crazy. Odd camera angles and creepy facial distortions courtesy of the animation Studio Deen also help to make the kids turn into ones possessed by demons, as the show claims.

The story is divided into six arcs (four “question arcs” and two “answer arcs”): the Spirited Away by Demons Chapter, the Cotton Drifting Chapter, the Curse Killing Chapter, the Time Wasting Chapter, the Eye Opening Chapter, and the Atonement Chapter. Each presents a specific scenario that focuses on different characters, with some following the main time-line and others either set in the past or as companion arcs to earlier chapters. Each completes its storyline within four or so episodes and resets itself for the next arc, similarly to Groundhog Day. While the arcs don’t seem to cross over with one another (for the most part), the information you receive in one arc gets carried on to the next.

This set-up lends itself to the mystery aspect of the show. While seeing kids go crazy multiple times might be what the show is about, it shares a focus with several core mysteries. The reasons behind the killings in each arc, Oyashiro’s Curse, and one other bigger problem that reveals itself a few arcs in are all gradually revealed within the storyline. Each arc gives you some pieces to these puzzles, and while not all of them might be used in the end (After all, what is a mystery without red-herrings?), some carry over and some seemingly minor details from one arc might present a solution in another.

This brings me to this series’ one major flaw: it’s incomplete. It was based off of a series of eight visual novels (video games without any major gameplay features), and the first season of When They Cry only covers six of them. Given that each individual visual novel contains from eight to ten hours worth of content, it would have been impossible to compress all of that into a thirteen hour anime (and even then, the anime lost some of its focus on the central mysteries and character development, and even got rid of a key character to make up time constraints). Season 1 doesn’t suffer much because of the speedy pacing, but the lack of the final two arcs means that the answers to the series won’t be found/ confirmed until Higurashi Kai (When They Cry: The Answer) is licensed and released. Fortunately, having covered two of the series’ “Answer Arcs”, Higurashi still leaves you with answers for some of the questions that had plagued the series, and careful viewing makes it possible to figure out even more of the truth behind the series.

One more aspect of the show that doesn’t quite meet expectations is the English dub, which is something of a mixed bag. While the character changes from cute to creepy enable some voice actors to shine (Kelli Kassidi as Mion/ Shion and Karen Strassman as Takano for example), others don’t fare as well (Grant George as Keiichi and Mela Lee as Rena), and most just wind up sounding average. Unless you can’t stand reading subtitles, you might consider listening to the Japanese audio track, which is on whole superior.

While When They Cry might seem like a standard anime series with cutesy character-designs and a harem-esque premise, it eventually becomes a solid psychological thriller complete with a bucket-load of horror. Anime fans who enjoy mysteries or horror series should give this series a try and see what Hinamizawa is all about. Just be sure to watch out for Keiichi and company; those cleavers hurt.
Rating: 4 / 5