Review of Higurashi: When They Cry - Outbreak

Throughout Higurashi Outbreak's lean 50 minute runtime, one thought kept coming to mind. This... this is stupid, right? It's stupid. I'm pretty sure it's stupid. So like, this gets praise because it's an edgy and dark OVA unlike the other Higu spinoffs which leaned more towards comedic sexy moe shenanigans. I say no, this is neither dark nor edgy. If anything it's the most sanitized and dull Higurashi has ever been. It's all haha violence go brrrr with none of the suspense and intrigue the series is known for. Putting aside random developments like the idea of humanity's different cultures being a product of different strains of abrain parasite (????? this is brought up out of nowhere and is never elaborated on) none of the characters seem to know what story they're in. This is supposedly like an apocalypse scenario AU but everyone is acting like it's Monday at a boring desk job. For example, early on one of the main teenage characters very flatly states that their family was just moments ago lynched by a crazed mob. No one reacts to it and it's never brought up again. It's not even treated as a mild inconvenience, it's more like "well that happened, anyway let's move on". For a series so prone to high melodrama as Higurashi it's very jarring to see characters shrug off what should be major traumatic events.

Keiichi and Rena are reimagined here as hypercompetent action heroes who fire off quips and talk about the virtues of friendship while gleefully murdering several armed men like it's nothing. An actual CHILD is kidnapped and is about to be offered as a human sacrifice to appease the gods and she's just like cool with it. No biggie, happens all the time. Even Keiichi's parents barely blink an eye at a bloodsoaked Rena hacking away at a bunch of dudes right outside their door while Keiichi seems to be real casual about murder in this timeline. Everyone kind of is.

This tone of bizarre emotional disconnect continues onto the ending, which ends not on a dark nor hopeful note but one of total indifference. I just can't understand this approach. It's baffling. I felt gaslit by this OVA.