Name: Definitely not for newcomers to the franchise, still enjoyable regardless!
Item: Higurashi: When They Cry - GOU
Rating: 65
Author: pixeldesu

Waifra

Definitely not for newcomers to the franchise, still enjoyable regardless! · Waifora

Higurashi Gou...where to start with this one, it's tough.

First and foremost, also already detailed in the summary: Gou is NOT a remake of the Studio DEEN series. While trailers and initial details seeped through, a lot of people assumed this, and it held on until the second episode released, but Gou is a completely new entry to the Higurashi-line of the When They Cry franchise.

And that's also where the most problems stem from, in terms of properly rating this. The studio themselves said it'd be newcomer-friendly, but it isn't. This stems from the first half of the series basically being a narrow "re-telling" of the main arcs, and from the second half on parts of the series finale are shown. This is also made pretty obvious with some characters talking about (in relative time) past events that the viewer never witnessed, which due to those statements end up being more or less important details. So, for someone new into the series, you basically end with a half-assed "what really happened in Hinamizawa" by the end of Gou.

If newcomers who watched through all of this read this review here: While it gave a look into it, there is waaaay more than shown, and it's definitely worth knowing about it. Read the Visual Novel or the Manga until the next season gets released, there's plenty of time!

If we talk about the presentation, this adaption is really solid. Good character voice-acting, the art style is modern and audio-wise there is nothing to complain with new and old tracks present throughout. Not out of the ordinary but also nothing bad. In terms of good old gore-ish displays of murder and death, of course people are served as well, and with the built-up relationships from previously having read Higurashi, some parts really hit hard here.

I'll hide the next paragraph behind spoilers because it concerns a set of points that are not specific to Higurashi, but span the whole WTC franchise. Tread on, but be careful!

Spoiler, click to view

Now this was something that vastly improved Gou, and that is that it starts to draw interconnecting lines between the different series of When They Cry, in ways people probably didn't even imagine happening at all. There always have been speculations, but the latter half of this series made some details painfully obvious, so much so that the community is now craving the answers even harder and new theories are made as episodes came out.

Due to the fact that it really is not newcomer-friendly and through that the story-telling can be quite confusing to people not versed in the franchise I'm rating it a bit lower. Regardless of that, it was a enjoyable experience and it definitely put a flame into the community again.