Review of Higurashi: When They Cry – Kai
Disheartening Sunset Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai [Kai] is the sequel to the popular original [Higurashi] that aired the year before, based off the 07th Expansion's sound novels of the same name. The first season covered the four arcs of the original game and the first two arcs of the sequel. Kai covers the last two arcs of the second game and give closure to mysteries presented in Higurashi. Kai's story is satisfying at the very most. The riddles that hung like loose threads are woven together nicely giving us most of the big picture. A few questions are left unanswered, which hopefully Rei, thesecond sequel, will answer.
With this in mind, it's still hard to say that Kai at any way lives up to the drama of the first. The characters become paper actors, two dimensional, lacking their psychological depth. I commend the series for giving Furude Rika personality, being the main protagonist between both halves of the show. It could be debated she was the shallowest of the Hinamizawa crew in the first outing, but I feel that rest of the club was sacrificed and should have maintained their complexity.
The atmosphere as well is very upbeat, at each turn of the plot, glass balls of sunshine and hope illuminate the way for our protagonists. It's disappointing considering the most engaging element of the original was the dances of blood and gore and the gritty realization that their is no light at the end of tunnel.
Production
We come across similar fare in Kai. There is no noticeable improvement in animation or art which is unfortunate. In the first the super deformed character model served a foil to the violence committed by the characters. In Kai, they serve as symbols for Higurashi's new found optimism, which I found to be more ineffective as a device.
The music and voice acting were similar to the first. I must say I appreciated Yukari Tamura's work behind Rika. The Violet haired priestess moved between bouts of depression and when she wore a mask of delight, which Tamura handled expertly. The line "Nippa" was endlessly endearing, feeling an 'Aww' form at my lips every time she uttered the word.
Watchability and Enjoyment
Kai requires you to watch the original, making it even less accessible than Higurashi, which required you to have a strong stomach. Kai isn't as addictive as the first either, I found myself trudging from episode to episode just to learn more about the skeletons in Hinamizawa's closet. Though, sometimes at the end of each twenty-one minute session I was left wondering, "How come no one is being hacked to fucking pieces! This is HINAMIZAWA! Why ain't the bodies hitting the floor?!" Maybe I'm just a Sadist.
Themes
Kai looks up, where as Higurashi looked down. The glass ceiling of fate is meant to be shattered by will power. Ignore the glass shards that will come raining down on those around us, we must always move forward. In Higurashi fate acted as an iron maiden, not a question of if, but when it's spikes would make swiss cheese out of your soul. In Kai, fate is tub of play-doh, ours to mold and create.
Closing Thoughts
Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai is easy to recommend to those that have seen the first for one reason alone: the antagonist is finally revealed. The show fails to deliver a product as engrossing as the first but that is the nature of sequels I suppose. Unless it's Godfather II of course.