Review of Higurashi: When They Cry – Kai
For years I thought that Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and it's sequel, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai were among the best Anime I had ever seen. This is in fact the general consensus, that Higurashi is an amazing Anime and it has garnered much praise over the last few years. I'm here to tell everyone that I, and everyone else, could not have been more wrong about the Higurashi series. When you look at it on it's own, you may see a wonderful story full of drama, comedy, suspense and mystery, but in actuality, you are only seeing a small portion of thestory.
You see, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is adapted from a Visual Novel, and for years the English speaking Anime community didn't have any way to read it, since it wasn't translated, so they knew of the Anime (and perhaps the Manga), but had never read the VN. But now the VN is completely translated and can be read by anyone, and it should be read, because after I completed the VN, I realized just how bad the Anime adaptation really is.
To put it simply, the Anime adaptations of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and it's sequel, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, are a travesty. Roughly 1/4 of the entire story from EACH arc are cut completely, and there are numerous other changes and cuts from what they DID manage to include in the Anime adaptation.
This adaptation is virtually devoid of the superb character development and storytelling present in the VN, not to mention cutting vital clues that prevent the mystery from being solved. In fact, some people don't even realize that Higurashi is a mystery at all, most people think that it's a suspense or horror series, a series about "lolis killing people", when in fact it is a mystery meant to be solved, as well as an emotional drama that the Anime completely fails to capture.
In fact, I would almost say that the Anime of Higurashi isn't an adaptation at all, but a joke that DEEN created to make fun of the original material and showcase their own inability to create a proper adaptation. Some parts of the series don't even feel like the same story because so much is changed and cut, and though you may not notice these issues when watching the Anime by itself, by reading the VN it is made clear just how little DEEN actually cared about this series.
Putting the hackjob of a story adaptation aside for a moment, let's talk about the other aspects of the series. The original VNs had a spectacular soundtrack, especially Kai's, but DEEN decided to just remove ALL of the VN music and replace it with much worse music, often opting to just keep things silent half the time anyway. In fact, the ONLY good part about the Anime, and by association, the only bad part about the VN, is the character design and animation.
If you have watched the Higurashi Anime, you have never experienced Higurashi. You essentially wasted your time watching it because you missed huge chunks of story and character development, and if for some reason that doesn't bother you, then you are an idiot and should go back to watching your Naruto crap where you can turn off your brain and not care or notice that the story is shit.
If it bothers you that you've never truly experienced Higurashi, or you've never actually watched the Anime in the first place, I strongly urge you to read the Visual Novel, and forget that the Anime even exists.
Oh and by the way, the Umineko no Naku Koro ni Anime is shit too, that doesn't exist either, read the VN.