Review of Higurashi: When They Cry - Outbreak

Warning possible Spoilers The final piece of the When They Cry is a nice throwback to the usual situations we knew and loved or terrified of from the first two series and what I really liked about this 1 hour OVA is that it could make way for a new story in the future. The story is set in another one of Rika's worlds where she is trying to break the cycle except this time the village has been quarantined and our group of characters must find a way to escape the village. I really liked the way this OVA went because it felt like the usual situationsthat happened in the first two series probably more season 1 than 2 and it definitely went back to being more of a horror thriller than a mystery thriller because you definitely see our main characters killing people again luckily it was all in self defence this time.
It was fairly action heavy and despite the main characters killing the village occupants it still showed the teamwork they could pull of together and it was pretty tense with some moments that happened like Keiichi almost getting shot by someone with a rifle so if you're looking for some intense action then you've come to the right place.
What I also like about this OVA is the way it ended as our main characters do survive yet Rika had to stay behind because of her connection to the village and along with the fact that the whole country has pretty much turned into hell like a new apocalypse has begun which makes me think this could lead to a new story for the franchise and it would be pretty cool seeing our main characters trying to survive in a destroyed world.

Now at this point we pretty much know what the characters are like, but this OVA does continue to show the teamwork they pull off together, but the difference is that in season 2 during the final battle they weren't killing the soldiers whereas in this they are which is kinda surprising since they don't go crazy or at least don't go crazy on each other, plus it was strange how Shion was nowhere to be seen in this OVA which begs the question what is she doing during all this?

The artstyle was definitely good at making this look pretty gorey since some of the attacks Rena on the village occupants looked nasty as hell I'm pretty sure she almost sliced a dude's head in half at some point which was pretty sick, but that seems to be the only that stands out with something different in the artstyle which is just new ways for When They Cry to look even more gorey than usual.

This OVA definitely concentrates on action because we get to see Keiichi and Rena kick some ass during the second half, but it still has that mystery element like why the Government has arrived to quarantine the village which gives the impression that they have discovered the virus that inhabits the village so they have cut if off from the rest of the world, it also continues to show the psychological aspect to great effect because when the situation gets pretty drastic in the village we see everyone going insane and picking sides as they lose trust in each other whereas the main characters continue to trust each other much like they do in the final battle from season 2.

Overall I thought this was a very tense, action packed and interesting OVA because from the way things end it feels like there'll be a sequel to this someday though that may never happen I still hope they might make a series for an aftermath of this which could be very interesting seeing how the characters adapt to a dead world.