Review of Higurashi: When They Cry – Kai

Alright, M2's second ever review! I'll assume that most of you are familiar with Higurashi already, for convenience's (and spoiler's) sake. Being a long-time Higurashi fan, I'll be an authority to encounter if you want to know about the story. We'll begin with the characters. For those of you who've watched the series, don't worry, the characters you all know and love are still here. And you get to watch them show more and more of their talents. In Higurashi no naku koro ni, you're introduced to the major characters: Keiichi, Mion, Shion, Rika, Satoko, and Rena(She scares me sometimes( ._.)). You should go in actuallyknowing the characters, because you notice just how much they change. You would never have guessed how each character reacts to their new situations, or what they act around normally.
But, you don't just experience the old characters develop, you also meet a new friend with a unique past, Hanyuu. She eventually becomes one of the most important characters throughout the series regardless of being a new face (with leeches attached to it...).
Finally, some of the minor characters, such as Irie and Takano, gain extremely big roles, monumentally important roles, far beyond what anyone would expect.

For those of you familiar with Higurashi no naku koro ni's art, you'll find that the artwork is almost exactly the same. You would find that the artists haven't failed at depicting the righteous and fatal insanity we've grown to love in their eyes and features, and you won't be disappointed by the new characters' designs.

As for the sounds, Kai's OP, "Naraku no Hana", by Eiko Shimamiya, the same vocalist who did the first season's opening, does not fail to provide a similar, but even more beautiful with it's dramatic changes and symbolic, with it's lack of the mysterious chants in the background, and instead a cry out to "run away" from the fate which we've all grown accustomed to Higurashi presenting us. The sad calls and violent lyrics of "Taishou A", the ED call out to us to bring forth call forth to share the sadness we once felt for our beloved characters' deaths, regardless of their insanity, and the tears we're sure to have fall down our face while watching.

Ah, the story. It can be summed up simply as the answers to almost all of our questions from season one. I won't go into too much detail, but we find out what's really going on. Questions such as "Didn't everybody just die?", "Why the hell is this happening?", and "What's going on here?!" are answered. We also discover the series' true antagonist, as well as the beautiful will to struggle against the endless cycles of death that we've watched over and over again. We finally can leave this experience with a sense of closure, a sense that this was fitting, overall, given the series of Higurashi.
The story consists of multiple arcs, which, if I went into any detail with, would end up being spoilers, considering I can't keep my mouth shut when it comes to Kai.

Overall, this was a tear-jerking finale to the blood-ridden episodes I spent my freshman days relishing, a kind of resolution and answer to all of my questions within the series, and finally, something that appeals to deep moral and philosophical issues, such as "good" and "evil", as well as inducing a kind of an understanding of why people perform things that would be considered morally wrong.

My Grade for Higurashi Kai: 99.9999999....%
This is definitely worth watching, even if you have to sit through so much bloodshed first in order to watch it.