~Anime Candy: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni~

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is a psychological horror dojin game that evolved into a successful TV series and manga series, created by 07th Expansion (who also made the dojin game Umineko no Naku Koro ni)

The story follows a young boy named Keiichi Maebara, who is a new arrival to the rural town of Hinamizawa. There he meets Mion Sonozaki, the resident tombody, Rena Ryugu, the girl who thinks everything is adorable, Rika Furude, the preistess girl, and Satoko Hojo, the local prankster. He becomes fast friends with all four of them, and soon joins their after school game club.
But after hearing about a dismemberment murder that happened four years prior to his arrival, things around Hinamizawa become much more sinsiter, especially after the unveiling of Oyashiro-sama's curse. For the last four years, one person has died and one person has gone missing on the night of the Watanagashi Festival. As Keiichi's suspicions grow, he learns that maybe...he can't even trust his friends...

The Higurashi no Naku Koro ni anime series contain the following arcs: Onikakushi-hen, Watanagashi-hen, Tatarigoroshi-hen, Himatsubushi-hen, Meakashi-hen, and Tsumihorobishi-hen. In each chapter, there's a new set of victims and a new set of bad guys. Meakashi-hen and Tsumihorobish-hen are considred "answer arcs," as they show what happened in Onikakushi-hen and Watanagashi-hen in new light. The "answer acrs" for Tatarigoroshi-hen and Himatsubushi-hen won't be revealed until the second season of the anime, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is a very violent, gory, graphic anime series. If you're squeamish, then you should avoid this series, or at least watch the censored versions. But if you watch uncensored, be prepared to see people stabbed, bashed to death with lead pipes/baseball bats, disemboweled corpses, fingernails getting ripped off, people getting tasered, people getting their heads split open...and I think that's it. So either way, this series is definitely rated R on TV airplay, and if you're watching uncensored, it's probably NC-17 for series of extreme violence.

The opening theme song for this season is "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" by Eiko Shimamiya.
The closing theme song for this season is "why, or why not" by Katakiri Reika? (I don't know her name, so yeah.)

Series Rating:

4/5

Recommdended Episodes/Arcs:

The entire Meakashi and Tsumihorobishi arcs. They're just pure win.

~Nipaaaaaaaaaaah!