(Part of a 12-day series fondly remembering some of the best moments in anime this year. Participants include: lolikitsune, lelangir, FuyuMaiden, Zeroblade, Nazarielle, ghostlightning, TheBigN, ETERNAL, Mike, A Day Without Me, digitalboy, Josh, otou-san, Culchann and Pontifus, IcyStorm, Cokematic,
koneko-chan, and miz, and you’re welcome to join too!)

Why did it take so long for someone to make Higurashi … and why did it take me so long to finally watch it?

I mean, I really fail to see why anyone would not be interested in Higurashi. It has:
1) cute girls
2) cute girls dying
3) cute girls dying to the hands of other cute girls
4) cute girls dying to the hands of other cute girls multiple times in a freaky Groundhog-Day-like-scenario that will leave you on the edge of your seat time and time again, ripping your fingernails out

Although, to be honest, those who are allergic to one piece or the other, may find less to like in Higurashi, as well as those who particularly care about a show’s art budget.

Still, for the rest of us, Higurashi is a particularly compelling watch, as I learned this year, if only because it takes a genre which is particularly one-track – the genre of things adopted from visual novels – and turns it on its head.

12 Moments of Anime 2008
#03: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai 13

For Higurashi, isn’t really a visual novel anime in the same way Kanon or Shuffle is; there’s only the slightest hint of romance in any way, and scoring a girl isn’t the main objective.

In a sense, it’s almost more novel than visual novel; a novel visual novel, in both senses of the word ‘novel’, which I am whoring out far too much. Like Konata’s father, it is more true to say it is “ALSO a visual novel” rather than a visual novel.

That is, it has that familiarity of the moe-moe visual novel that will draw the usual crowd of fans to it, but the twisted, bloody story that lays within may be a shock to them. It’s a psychological thriller with a candy-coating of moe layered over it.

So although I imagine that the violence and insanity present in Higurashi are not even close to the levels of that in more action-packed, one might say more manly genres of anime, the fact that it lies within a more ‘innocuous’ container makes it a brutal, rollercoaster thrill ride.

And perhaps such rollercoaster thrillrides are common in the drama-heavy genre of visual novels … but I can say that for most people – or at least me – there has never been a ride like this.

Part of this is due to the fact that Higurashi takes great fun in dismembering its cast of characters over and over.

I’ve found that the Anyone Can Die trope is woefully underused in works of fiction, and painfully misapplied in many works that it does appear in (hello, dark angsty fanfiction).

This is because character death is a quick way to increase interest in a show, one way or another. It evokes emotion, it changes character dynamics, and it lends quite a bit to a show’s mood.

So a good work in which many good people are cut down in good time – say, Battle Royale – can leave you on the edge of your sesimultaneously fearing and hoping for the wellbeing of your favorite characters.

Higurashi takes this concept, and twists it delightfully.For in Hinamizawa, death is almost hilariously cheap. The reaper is holding a two-for-one sale and the citizens are snapping it up as quick as he can dish it out. You can hardly take a walk without coming across someone with their throat clawed out.

I mean, in the first season there are world-ending deaths every 4 episodes.

So you would think the value of a life (or a death) in Higurashi would be less than that of the quickly-falling U.S. dollar, especially since everyone has this tendency to come back to life next arc.

But somehow, Higurashi is still curiously compelling in its madness.

And while part of this can be attributed to raw, morbid glee in watching everything fall apart and watching the bodycount pile up, there’s more than that.

Rather, it’s the Groundhog-Day esque scenario that Rika and Hanyuu lead us through that keeps people on the edge of their seats.

While seeing the same scenario repeat over and over seems dull, the way in which it is played out, and the way the pieces unfold, is captivating.

Maybe my intellectual side likes the challenge of a mindbender like Higurashi; while not on the same level of a Kaiji or an ef, Higurashi at the least will send you reeling as you search for order in the madness.

Although I cannot speak from experience just yes, I imagine Higurashi to be a quite rewatchable show, if only to see all the subtle hints you missed the first time around.

Such a rewatch may almost be a natural extension of the show, given the dynamic nature of the characters; for unraveling the motives behind each character (and frequently, their periods of insanity) is a great source of enjoyment.

Maybe it was just me that was switching alliegances and sympathies like Makoto Itou does women; but the way the story repaints and recolors its characters is quite intriguing.

For in Higurashi, there is very little black and white; it’s hard to find a truly evil character, as opposed to the many driven mad by particularly unfortunate circumstances.

As such there’s a lot of sympathy for and a strong bond formed with each character, which just makes the constant descents into murder and madness that much more powerful (although in what way, I can’t tell) to the viewer.

And so Higurashi drove me through the spectrum of emotion. For two months of lights-out 1 AM watchings, I was captivated.

I melted over Rika’s demeanor and gaped at her maturity and determination. Satoko’s plight made my stomach churn. The multiple faces of the Sonozaki twins made me contemplative. Rena won me over with her memetic powers. And just sometimes, Keiichi’s idiotic, hotblooded speeches would fill me with manliness.

And Miss 34 (insert obvious joke), oh, Takano! How am I to begin to make judgment of you?

Today’s moment, the thrilling conclusion to one of the more drawn-out arcs of Higurashi, exemplifies one of the more gripping climaxes of the series.

Although the 13th episode of Kai may be more shock value than anything – featuring 4 headshots in a row among others – it still was an episode memorable for going beyond insanity. The type that leaves me curled up in a bed 15 minutes later, unable to sleep. (akin to the fingernail-ripping scene)

It was not just the perfect storm of the episode itself, but that culmination of momentum from the slow buildup of previous episodes, that climactic feeling of “it all comes down to this”.

And how quickly that momentum was reversed as well, as the insanity-induced rampage begins… you can’t help but laugh at it all.

Ahaha. Ahahaha. Ahahahahahaha!

Higurashi drove me insane every night, and I loved it every step of the way.

Isn’t that what love is, after all … a local insanity of the mind, in the best way possible?

-CCY