First of all, in classical When They Cry-fashion, and as it was already known, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Sotsu contains the answer arcs to Gou, there to solve or give insight into the mysteries given there. And it does exactly that.
I've read it a-plenty in other reviews, but that's mainly what the answer arcs are, while "recapping" from another perspective, usually the one of the culprit, or someone in control of them, it gives you the final pieces to the questions "who did it?" and "how did they do it?".
The main problem with Sotsu is, we already know since the ending of Gou who """most likely""" is the culprit of things, and that makes the entire thing feel really repetitive, and with the superweapon H173 that already crosses out both of these questions, Gou pretty much ends with that being straight shown to us.
I had a pretty hard time going through this, I must say, and up until the ending of Tatariakashi-hen I was up to just outright slander this sequel, but the final chapter turned my opinion by 180 degrees (or something in-between, as I still will rate this for the whole experience, not just the ending).
Sotsu isn't about answering Gou, in fact I think even less that Sotsugou is a continuation of Higurashi in the classical sense. It's way more a tie-in of the series into the rest of the When They Cry-franchise than anything else. Especially what we learn about everyone present in the Sea of Fragments makes even more sense if you know the other series, Umineko, and its characters.
All of that makes it incredibly hard to be judged, especially for fans only of Higurashi, or people that are entirely new, because...on it's own, up until Episode 12, which answers things, Sotsu isn't good, it is...as others said before, repetitive.
If you know the franchise however, then the final episodes actually give a lot of answers, not even to Higurashi, but to things that people will have theorized for for quite some time, and even if they are not served up on a fancy platter, plainly obvious to the eye of the beholder, it helps the entire picture being drawn. Ryukishi surely is a clever one.
But, would have turnining Sotsu into a 4-episode OVA helped, only giving us what we want? Probably not. In the end, someone would have been disappointed by it, no matter what. Higurashi fans that are confused on why a solid ending like Kai needs a character being trampled on, and WTC-lovers that want on-the-nose certainty on the identity of our characters.
An impossible task to be solved just right. And for what was given here, it ended up being okay, nothing perfect and not horrifyingly bad.
~~I really just hope we won't get anything related to Umineko in anime form ever again.~~
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