When They Cry

Name: One of the few gory Anime that managed to be unsettling.
Item: When They Cry
Rating: 85
Author: R2R

a review by R2R

R2R

3 years ago·Jul 12, 2022

/ 100

The Depressing Questions

This Anime has 4 question arcs covered in 15 episodes, and 2 answer arcs covered in 11 episodes (the remaining are probably in sequels). The question arcs are where all the horror aspect really shines. These arcs are shown through the MC perspective who's as oblivious to the village's unknown truths as the viewer. In each question arc, Keiichi will experience a different story surrounding a different girl in his ~~harem~~ friend circle.

"Spirited Away by Demon chapter" following Rena, who looks (& sounds) as sweet as Nagisa but is actually crazy.

"Cotton Drifting chapter" following the Sonozaki twins, the seductive twin Shion & the energetic twin Mion. And of course, they are crazy too.

"Curse Killing chapter" following Satoko, your usual "need to be protected" little sister but alas...

"Time Wasting Chapter" following Rika. This 2 episode arc is a bit different from others, as we see this arc not from Keiichi, but from an entirely different character's POV.

Most of the horror aspects exist in these arcs. It gives a small peak into the characters twisted personalities while posing with many unanswered questions. While this horror heavily relies on gore, there's something more that makes this horror very unsettling.
#

Fear in the familiar
Mild Spoiler Alert
Not for the story but for your experience.

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

There's a 10 second scene in between a 10 min conversation in Episode 2, where the Anime shows a peak through the room door into our MC's room while our MC was having a conversation with another important character on the phone. Normally, this scene isn't all special. It's the same type of scene you see in many Anime where they expose plot details while showing our character from different angles & shots. But what really sells this scene as brilliant, is what happens next. Our MC's dad bangs his room door and brings TWO cups of drinks. When the MC confronts his dad about it, his dad said that a certain someone came to his room upstairs but our MC is oblivious to that fact. It's more unsettling when you realize the lack of footsteps sound in that scene & the very fact that we're shown peaking into his room. That 10 second clip really foreshadowed this unnerving moment.

While your brain focuses on the mystery, you've already fallen into the show's trap and when the reveal happens, it hits you like a bat onto the head. Higurashi's horror largely depends on gore & shock but there are some really well foreshadowed scenes that set up for the moments, and when that moment comes, it goes all out with its unsettling and distributing gore, which brings the chills. Those Zoom! Zoom! screen effects, the piano notes dramatically going Baam! during a few reveals and so much more of the audio-visual storytelling really maintains the horror & mystery really well (I swear it's not as cliched as it might sound).The Horrifying Answers By the end of question arcs, the horror aspect pretty much grows on you and at this point, the Anime starts giving you answers by retelling the same story, but from a perspective of one of the main girls instead of our MC. Not saying the horror disappears, there is definitely much unnerving shit which will happen in the 2nd half, but it's the reveals that really surprises you and how well these answers fit with the unanswered questions. This season alone hasn't given all the answers btw, but I'm hoping to see more in further seasons.

For me, Gore in Anime feels like a really cheap way to induce horror. Many "psychological" Anime try to do this but they fail because they carry no weight. Higurashi might've been an exception in this that it properly maintained horror with gore but outside horror, there are moments where it didn't work when it tried to be emotional.

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

While I liked how they made Keichi as some selfish asshole in the first half, his sudden realization of trust in his "Nakama" at later arc didn't work. Again, I'm not saying it's bad, it just wasn't emotional enough that he suddenly did a 180 with his character. It's a bit too cliched for such a solidly written story. And unsurprisingly, the art style. There was this one time where the head looked a bit more huge than it was supposed to be but that's understandable considering this is 16 years ago.

#Conclusion Higurashi: When They Cry is one horror mystery that you should give a try. I know that saying "for 15 episodes you won't understand many things" might look daunting or uninteresting, but it's superb story-telling and genuine horror will make it interesting. I was never bored during the beginning as I believed. Go watch Higurashi.

And lastly, to the cute person reading this. Rena has something to say for you;

Do~~n't~~ Click it.

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

TN: I'll take you Home!!! Note: Don't be fooled.