Higurashi: When They Cry, also known by its full Japanese title Higurashi no Naku Koro ni / ひぐらしのなく頃に was one of my first true loves when it came to anime. Adapting the sound novel works of Ryukishi07, it was an intriguing murder mystery that balanced solid school life / slice-of-life elements with some macabre narrative events. Complemented by a time-looping plot that offered something new – whether posing more questions or answering them – with each reset, it was one of the first series to keep me truly invested in what was taking place. With the original two anime seasons crafted by Studio Deen covering the events and murder mystery satisfactorily, there should have been no real need for a sequel… right? More than a decade later, Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou and its sequel Higurashi: When They Cry – Sotsu were released in 2020 and 2021. This came as a surprise, with one of the initial mysteries behind what exactly the series entailed. Would it be a remake as many expected… or would it be something else? Turns out, it was a sequel.
Higurashi: When They Cry, given its time-loop nature, is not a tightly-weaved franchise. While mostly confined to the console, manga and other releases in the past couple of decades, there are many chapters featuring the same core cast or those with a link to Hinamizawa taking place before, during and after the events of June 1983 – from an alternate ending, to providing further insight into the series’ world, to even some dabbling in the supernatural forces influencing it. Rather than draw from that, we get a unique scenario where, after years of being free from the loop of murder and becoming a high school student, Rika Furude is once again trapped as her younger self, thrust into a new spate of insanity and murder, with cases that are twists on what we as viewers might expect. Ultimately, these felt like fanfiction chapters that begin as one of the three base chapters fans are most familiar with (Onikakushi-hen, Watanagashi-hen or Tatarigoroshi-hen), before subverting expectations. By themselves, each arc is enjoyable enough, although it isn’t until the second half of Season 1 (Gou) that we begin learning about the culprit and the motives behind them forcing Rika into the time loop again.
The true culprit and the whole arc surrounding the incident is the weakest component of these new seasons of Higurashi. Without spoiling too much, there is little in the preceding seasons to justify this ever happening, and I feel there is much better-written source material that could have been pulled across to justify a new season existing. There is the occasional great idea, especially one episode where we dive into some arguably darker realms that leaves Rika at breaking point after starting out on a positive note, but other than that, there is not much to rave about. The GOU season is the typical ‘Answer Arc’, and while you are required to have watched Season 1, shines brighter. Although the conclusion feels like they had greater aspirations but had to cram everything into a couple of episodes. None of the chapters are bad per ce, but rather don’t have the staying power of the original arcs.
I can’t help but shake the feeling that this anime existed to test the waters for a much-needed second attempt at doing an Umineko: When They Cry anime adaptation. This is supported by the appearance of characters who at least look like familiar characters from Ryukishi07’s other popular murder-mystery sound novel. While the very spoilerish character has been confirmed as not being their Umineko counterpart, their appearance feels that they were a) as mentioned above, testing the waters for an Umineko reboot or b) just wanted to add some Umineko flair to the series. With no reboot on the horizon, I do hope this hasn’t squandered our chances of one in the future.
Both Higurashi Sotsu and Higurashi Gou feature character designs by Akio Watanabe, often known for cuter more colourful works such as Popotan, The World God Only Knows, Bakemonogatari and so forth. This translated into the overall design and animation style, which sets a cuter tone compared to Studio DEEN’s arguably more fitting subdued style. I like both for different reasons, and wouldn’t fault either for their distinct directions. While Higurashi: When They Cry – Kai is still lacking an English dub, with the rights to this series behind held by Funimation rather than Sentai, the company opted to do an English dub for both Sotsu and Gou. While the Japanese audio version retains a majority of its core cast, every character in the English dub has been recast from the original season’s Geneon dub. The cast fit their characters well and made each character their own. However, it did take a little while to warm up to, after listening to the Japanese voice cast and their particular mannerisms for so long. Ultimately this has to do with the inconsistency with casting or lack of dub over the years.
Higurashi: When They Cry Gou and Sotsu are not entry points into the series as one might initially expect, and are in my opinion heavily dependent on watching Studio DEENs anime adaptations, or at least the sound novel to not get lost in everything taking place. As a sequel, it is alright, with some interesting twists on iconic arcs, high production values, and I would never say no to anything new in the When they Cry franchise. Ultimately though, it’s an underwhelming narrative reason for the seasons to exist, and with a potential Umineko reboot not on the horizon, I wouldn’t call it a must-watch for fans.
This review was conducted on Australian Blu-ray copies of both seasons, published by Madman Entertainment in 2022.
