Autumn 2020 First Impressions: Higurashi: When They Cry – New

A totally normal story set in a totally normal town… or is it?

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: TBA (at least 14)

Source: Visual Novel (re-make of 2006 TV anime)

Summary: Keiichi Maebara returns to his home in the tiny town of Hinamizawa following a family funeral. There he reconnects with Rena, Mion, Satoko, and Rika, four girls who form a very informal (but in their minds, extremely structured) after school activity club. Keiichi enjoys his afternoons with the girls, despite the fact that they often make him into the butt monkey of the group.

As he and Rena are walking home one evening, they stop at a garbage dump where Rena goes digging for “treasure.” While he’s waiting, Keiichi meets a photographer who implies that the town may be hiding a few unsettling secrets. However, when Keiichi asks Rena for more information about this, her demeanor changes abruptly and he drops the subject. Over the next couple of days, Keiichi learns a few details about the town’s fight to prevent some developers from building a dam which would have flooded the town upon its completion. Mion insists that there was no violence involved in the town’s eventual victory, but Keiichi’s chance discovery of an old magazine article tells a very different story. It also appears that his friends may have a vested interest in keeping this all a secret.

Impressions: This review may contain mild spoilers for the original anime adaptation of this story. Screen captures are taken using the official legal stream of the series, when available

The original Higurashi no Naku Koro ni TV anime came out at a time when so-called “moé” anime (a term maybe incorrectly used for any show with cute girls in it) was newly ubiquitous. As someone whose tastes as an anime fan at the time ran contrary to that trend, I had a pretty big bone to pick with any anime series that seemed to rely too heavily on those kinds of character tropes. I watched the original Higurashi partly out of spite; my impression was that its popularity was based solely on the fact that it was “edgy.” The dichotomy of sickeningly cute girls getting involved in heinous, disgusting, murderous acts was really the pinnacle of edgelord anime fandom at the time, or so I thought. I watched it and became willing to argue its faults in detail with anyone who thought otherwise. Rude? Possibly. But hearing time and time again that you should like something when you’re almost positive you don’t can sometimes put a chip on your shoulder.

In the years since, I’ve had time to think more about those kinds of gut reactions and how they’re often very unfair to the actual media product. I’ve seen plenty of moé anime that excels in storytelling (and sometimes even characterization), as well as many anime series that utilize violence in a way that doesn’t feel empty of meaning. I’ve even talked to many people who enjoy shows like Higurashi and I’ve made an effort to see their point of view. The only thing I haven’t done is re-watch the series, because it’s really difficult to find the time to do that when I’ve got so much other stuff on my plate. The anime gods work in mysterious ways, though, and I recently got the opportunity to not only revisit the original series, but to watch this new incarnation. I’m happy to get the chance to see both with fresh eyes.

Those who are familiar with the original anime adaptation will feel a lot of familiarity with this opening episode. It begins with a glimpse into the bloody conclusion of the first story arc before almost immediately working to make the viewer forget all about that in favor of the somewhat vapid and inconsequential antics the characters experience in their daily lives. It’s only as the episode flows into its second half that moments of uncertainty begin to creep back in – Keiichi’s encounter with the photographer and his allusion to the town’s violence, Rena’s all-too-insistent reply to Keiichi’s questioning that she doesn’t know about anything bad that might have happened, and Mion’s rather forceful denial of any violence (and the associated suggestion that Keiichi keep his nose out of their business). These moments start to punctuate the idyllic nature of the first episode, until it’s made clear that this is no typical slice-of-life anime.

However, it’s these moments that feel somewhat less successful that the previous take on the story. There’s a phenomenon that I mentally think of as the “Silent Hill effect;” characteristics of that particular game series that occasionally spill over into other media. The first few Silent Hill video games (survival-horror games that appeared on the earlier Playstation consoles) were known for being disorienting and terrifying, while the later games in the series never managed to recapture the magic that made the originals so spooky. Part of the reason why, in my opinion, is that the first three or so games featured very uncomfortable controls that weren’t as responsive as one might expect from a modern game. It was difficult to control your character and they sometimes didn’t do what you wanted them to do – they ran out of stamina at inopportune times and occasionally missed their target when shooting or bludgeoning baddies. There was an element of chance that in many cases could become infuriating, yet in my opinion often added to the overall atmosphere of helplessness and horror. The later games tended to control too well, to the standards that most gamers expected from their modern video games, and their more polished graphics removed a lot of the grit that gave the earlier games their particular look. It was as if some of their fundamental charm had been stripped away in the inexorable march toward modernity.

There are many opinions about how the original Higurashi anime series looked and felt, but most people seem to agree that the character art was often pretty jankey and the animation was not often that great either. The character animation could be extremely distorted in certain scenes, especially when characters began to appear consumed with their own madness. Yet, having watched a bit of it a few days ago, one thing I can say with some certainty is that these visual metamorphoses were masterful at capturing the story’s iconic mood shifts, imbuing the characters with a fundamental creepiness that I haven’t seen much of here as of yet. I was looking forward to this series if only for its improvements in character art and now I’m wondering if I may have been mistaken, as the more polished look cleans up a lot of the weirdness that the original art style provided (whether intentional or not). Still, this is only the first episode, so it’s difficult to say whether this will carry through or whether the production will settle in and find its bearings once the really upsetting material commences.

This series slips in a few a few Easter Eggs for fans, including an excellent use of the original anime’s theme song (an unexpected surprise), as well as the original voice cast for the main characters. I also thought the background artwork was really well-done, and portrayed the rural town of Hinamizawa in a way that emphasized the beauty of the area in addition to its isolation from the outside world. Don’t let my criticisms seem overwhelming, because there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the series, too; it’s just a matter of how the story unfolds, and whether the pretty artwork ends up competing with the darkness of the story itself.

As it stands, this certainly wasn’t a bad way to start off the Autumn season. While the shrieking of the cicadas that so defines the sound design of this series implies the sultry heat of late Summer, in my mind this is really an Autumnal, Halloween-ish horror series that fits right in this time of year. Whether this incarnation ends up being successful or not, at the very least it may introduce the franchise to newer fans.

Pros: The updated character artwork is pleasant to look at. The background art does a good job of portraying the small town setting.

Cons: The series might be “too pretty” to the detriment of its atmosphere.

Content Warnings: Violence/gore (brief but extreme). Slapstick violence.

Grade: B-

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