In the town of Hinamizawa, a group of young friends violently die shortly after the annual Wataganashi festival. For four episodes, these kids have been your eyes and ears into a World where paranoia and murder lurk just below the surface of a cute and loving exterior. And so the cycle begins again and again. Each time with different results. The story of Hinamizawa begins quite confusingly. As the chapters of each cycle develop, more hints as to what is really going on are dropped and it becomes more of a puzzle in which the audience has to put things into perspective. In almost a David Lynch manner, people are not who they appear to be, bizarre goings on are never fully revealed or solved (perhaps they never even happened) and a seemingly innocent act can descend into a massacre. I found the story to be a bit too kitsch for me in the beginning but it quickly finds its momentum and continues to build strength. When you first encounter the show it's all very scary and hard to understand. However, as it progresses, the edge of the show moves from violent horror to psychological terror. Knowing the fates of each of the young people from the beginning and seeing them struggle to survive or overcome their mistakes becomes increasingly depressing and tough to watch so even though the camera begins to look away when they're being murdered, it hurts even more.Truly disturbing at times and a testament to the strength of storytelling, I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good story or just unfiltered gore. Because there is a lot of it. Season One is by far the more violent of the two seasons so viewer discretion is advised. I'd also recommend that you source the second season for it explains fully the mystery of Hinamizawa. Also, watch it with subtitles, the dubbing is really rather poor.

Higurashi is amazing. Wow. I don't even know what to say about it. But whoever is comparing Elfen Lied and Higurashi, don't. You can't even do that. I don't even consider Elfen Lied horror. Elfen Lied is my favorite manga, because of the wonderful characters and beautiful love story. I think Lucy's and Kouta's love for each other was just beautiful. But the gore is not the reason I watched it. The gore in Elfen Lied didn't even bother me, and that's before I even started getting into bloody and gory things. (At that time, I was into Sailormoon and stuff like that xD) But don't even compare Elfen Lied and Higurashi..that's just sad. Now HIGURASHI, I watched for the horror. This anime was just simply amazing for that. So guys, don't compare. Elfen Lied and Higurashi are both amazing. (Well, the ending to Elfen Lied's anime was a bit...different. Much different from the ending to the manga. After reading the manga, I don't even think watching the anime is worth it. But I still loved the theme song and soundtracks.) And Higurashi's soundtracks are amazing, also. Both mean a lot to me. It somehow offended me when I see you guys comparing Elfen Lied and Higurashi, I don't even know how, but it did. xD

--Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, or When They Cry is a mystery anime with some cute characters, a few morbid scenes and several stories that are shown in sequence.--It revolves around the standard Japanese anime trick of not giving you enough information. The lack of information lets your imagination run wild, contemplating the reasons and motives of the events that take place, which can sometimes be a really good thing. When the story reveals one of those ideas to be right on the money, or when it's so inconceivable it sweeps you of your feet! However, this is not the case with When They Cry. The initial mystification caused by the apparently cute characters with dark secrets falls short when the characters' motives are reveled to be underdeveloped, oversimplified even. Grievous topics such as insanity and family abuse are touched, but shown with the depth of perspective you would get from reading about it in a news paper. Even when love is mentioned, it's used so trivially to motivate characters that all immersion is lost.--The animation aspect of the anime is also lacking. The colors of the characters will hurt your eyes due to distasteful and unappealing choices, while the backgrounds are pretty standard. The characters sometimes go into "spooky mode" which is overemphasized, like emotions in most anime. In this case however, the overreactions in "spooky mode" cross the line necessary to communicate the characters emotions to the viewer and wind up being outright grotesque.--The end of the anime is inconclusive and looks pretty much like a commercial for the video game from which this anime was adapted.--In short, When They Cry doesn't deserve it's misleading current score of 8,3 on a site like IMDb. This score is held by famous movies such as Rashomon, Snatch and Some Like it Hot. The more appropriate number, in my opinion is around 5, maybe even lower. Cheap thrills in a visually unstimulating package. Cheers!

Now this show, has got to be one of the best cartoons that Japan had to offer. To think of the plot, think of Happy Tree Friends meeting Pokemon. In the show, a boy named Keiichi, moves to the town of Hiniwazama. There he meets these girls, and they start acting rather strange. On a day that is called the Day of Cotton (I presume), one person is brutally murdered, and one is spirited away by "demons." They believe that their local god was responsible for this, and believed that he was judging them. Now the plot, is kind of a mind screw, but somehow, a loop occurs over and over, and the characters enter another world after they had failed in one. In season two, it was explained that the villain was a nurse named Takano Miyo (whom I despise) who was trying to kill Rika, to see if the village would fall with her, and become God (OF COURSE!). And it was also revealed that there was a disease called the Hiniwazama Syndrome, that made all the characters crazy, and Miyo used the disease to kill off her villagers. Despite it being dark, it was rather enjoyable. I wouldn't recommend it to children though, unless they watch it with their parents.