My Thoughts on Higurashi, and Kai
Kicking off from season 1 we basically get to see Maebera Keichi, and the interactions with some of his friends. Not completely surprising, considering most people who come watch the show have heard of its rather dark reputation, things go south really quickly.
What will completely take first time viewers, like myself, by surprise is that this is only the start of the series, and I was wondering where the hell the series would go now. Almost immediately after it seems as if all is fine again...or so it seems.
It also helps(?) alot that almost every bad happening in the show is some form of tragedy which shouldn't have happened due to common sense, but happened anyways, because of "that something"
This format of arcs is a very interesting way to present the anime. I'll admit at first that I felt that doing this pulled back progression of the story, and made the entire thing feel dragged out. However as you watch on, and on you'll start to notice bits, and pieces that seemingly tie all the arcs together. This isn't the only reason the arcs in the end out to be a very effective way of displaying things.
One of the hugest, hugest things that I felt was able to make this sort of storytelling work was that after a while you'll get genre savvy enough about the series and KNOW it'll probably end badly for everyone. That's likely where the "kiddish anime" moments of the series comes in. They aren't just there for show, contrast, and lightening the mood before slaughter begins. I truly think that silly moments like these are an ESSENTIAL part to making the story telling so compelling.
Whenever a new arc starts, particularly the first one when thinking about it in retrospective, the main cast will usually be having a great time. Problem is you know everything will start turning out badly for them. For me anyways, knowing this, and after laughing a lot at the silliness that usually ensues, when the scene cams down a bit I'll feel incredibly sorry for them, because I just saw their display of care-freeness in world, and all that will come crashing down around them soon enough. When it actually does happen, and you give it some thought, you'll realize that these were the same people who were having a blast with their friends not so long ago, and all of it is gone now. The ridiculous moments never go beyond the line in my opinion, and displays how the characters are "enjoying themselves" rather than being a joke to the viewer (Kira, and Rei sometimes, if not often, fail in this respective)
Arguably the largest draw that you'll hear from anyone who's watched this show is the mystery, and horror aspects, at least in the first season. You will seemingly NEVER know for sure if the true cause for all the bizarre incidents is something completely super-natural, or 100% percent man. There are often hints, and allusion which pull the feel towards both sides which keeps you guessing. The themes, and atmosphere are often repeated for each arc, but it's done so SO well that I don't mind hearing about Oyashiro-sama's curse every single time at all, or stuff like that.
Another thing that I feel makes this so effective as well is something that I mentioned a bit ago as well which is the subtlety of it all. The show does an excellent job at "show, not tell", and trusts the audience to pick up bits, and pieces from the plot. The allusions are never extremely difficult to pick up, and add a lot of feel to make the story feel all the more mysterious, and satisfying...even if we don't have even half of a definite answer at some points.
The show's story is also one of the biggest "earn your happy endings" I'd ever seen from a show. Mainly, because they don't just get set back from earning their happy ending, THEY OUTRIGHT GET A BAD ENDING. But even so they have a chance to "still" get a good one even though it's already over for them. I can't go into too much detail into this for fear of spoiling the entire frame of the story.
This is also why I feel the ending of the first season was exceptionally great. These kids have been through so much already, and basically the ending of the first season while you'll later learn is implied to still be a "failure", the brief shimmer of hope at truly understanding what happens in this world, and what seems like finally a redemption from all the bad things...it is very much worth because these kids deserve just as much.
The first season of Higurashi is an absolutely outstanding piece of work from its subtlety, to its horror/mystery, and eventual caring of the characters who you desperately want to have a happy ending so much. There are very few problems, and it is almost near perfect.
One of the biggest problems I have is a bit of an isolated nitpick to one of the characters: Shion. In the series you'll later discover that she's very/madly in love with someone, however I have never seen any indication that the love was anything more than one sided coming from her. As such it makes it incredibly difficult for me to take their relationship seriously whenever she brings it up (Only when she's "normal") as something that she lives for.
That brings me to the second season which is also known as Kai.
In Kai the series forgoes the horror, and mystery feel of the first season, because it's time for some answers. In this series you'll discover the more intimate details, and truth behind everything that happened in season one.
Believe it, or not...I actually am totally fine with the horror, and mystery feel going away in Kai. Why you may ask? I'll explain down below
Here's how I see it basically: The entire first season is basically one GIGANTIC TEASE, and introduction of premise. It is basically a cluster-ball of people running around, and having almost no idea why they keep getting screwed over, and over (The best part is they don't even realize it most of the time). Still that being said...it's still a super awesome cluster-ball of people getting screwed over.
Kai is basically everyone finally having got their bearings a little, and actually started to try, and move forward to do something about it.
The story premise of Higurashi once you find out everything about isn't that much of a horror story at all. It was simply that the way it was executed so well in the first season when no one knew anything about it that made it seem so horrific.
A fitting example would be that you'll realize after playing a couple of the games is that the Assassin Order from the Assassin's Creed games is NOT about 100% assassinating people at all. It is more akin to an underground political group which strives for freedom in various ways with assassinating being only one of the many, but still somehow ending up a super-staple mark of the first game.
It's execution.
Kai mostly does this very well for the most part without employing horror, and Massacre is likely one of my favorite arcs even if it is dragged out a bit sometimes. It is a great display of hope, and the character interaction between all the characters. Seeing the arc still end so badly after they came so close with their hope drove me to tears at the end.
That's something I applaud greatly for the series having done. Kai greatly employs the element of "friendship" like many other series, but in Higurashi it doesn't feel like a farce. In many moments you can actually feel the friendship THERE. it's not just a plot item. The friendship is there, and you can feel it.
The second half of Kai however stumbles quite greatly, and again it wasn't because it lacked horror, or mystery. I'm actually fine with those not being there.
What I'm NOT fine with is that the final arc of kai...since they pretty much know everything they have to do now turns basically into a gigantic tower defense game. Just prepare against the bad things that'll come since you know what it is already.
Playing out the arc in this tower defense style greatly hurts it because in my opinion it diminishes the deeper character interactions that you would find in all earlier arcs. It's still there, but falls off a bit in favor to the characters now mainly just "doing stuff to prevent bad things they know are going to happen from happening".
That's the main problem I have with Kai's second half. If it was more personal I would've loved the hell out of it even without all the horror elements.
Still despite these issues I still enjoyed Kai for what it was, and that it did have amazing moments which fully used the characters for great emotional moments.
All in all as a closing phrase to this article/review I will say this: Attack On Titan is still probably my favorite anime/manga of all time, but the phrase from there which goes:
"This world is a cruel place yet it is also very beautiful" actually applies better to Higurashi than it does Attack on Titan.
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